Julz Tools/Toolz List

The bit.ly short url for this page is - http://bit.ly/julztoolz

Note: I will continue to edit this document over time so please don’t be surprised if you see changes in formatting, content, etc. This document is created for my EDLT students but is shared with colleagues. You are welcome to copy it as needed. Attribution is always appreciated but not required.

Many Web 2.0, social media, and emerging technology tools exist for multimedia, authoring, communications, social networking etc. Many of the these tools start with free versions. We will focus mostly on these types of tools and many of my recommendations are below. However, please note that this list is not comprehensive and does not include desktop technologies and you are welcome to explore other tools of your choosing. Examples would be iMovie for the Mac, MovieMaker for PC, Final Cut Pro, etc. For many, many more great tools, check out Top 100 Tools for Learning and my colleague - http://thebooksupplier.com/resources/.

Some resources to check out to put some of these tools in context are:

Robert Scoble’s Social Media Starfish
Brian Solis Conversation Prism
Mashable Article - 2013's Complex Social Media Landscape in One Chart
Allan Carrington’s Padagogy Wheel V2.0

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy - make sure to use http://scholar.google.com and http://google.com to find further great resources

Other great EdTech resources

Julia’s resources

Hashtags

#edtech
#adedu -apple distinguished educator
#GAFE
#ipaded
More Popular Education Hashtags
Educational Twitter Chat Calendar
Participate Chat ™ for Twitter

AND NOW SOME OF MY FAVORITES!

Tools for Collaboration & Productivity

Create a Google account at https://accounts.google.com/SignUp

Gmail - http://gmail.com
Gchat & Hangout
Google Drive (docs, presentation, spreadsheet, etc.)
TitanPad
Blogging (Blogger, Wordpress/Buddypress, Tumbler)
Wiki (PBworks, Wikispaces, Wetpaint)
Presentation (PowerPoint, Prezi, Brainshark, Slideshare, etc.)

Surveys & Forms

Google Forms & Spreadsheets
Adobe Forms https://formscentral.acrobat.com/

Web conference

Adobe Connect & Blackboard Collaborate (not free)
Skype
Zoom
Google+ Hangouts
VSee

Brainstorming & Interactive Walls

Tacck - see example at https://tackk.com/jsnmtie
Wallwisher is now http://padlet.com/
Wiffiti
GroupZap - http://groupzap.com/
Stormboard

Concept Mapping

Popplet
Bubbl.us
DebateGraph
MindMeister
Mindjet
Google Docs has a draw tool for this

Me-Publishing, Site Building, Social Network Building

Google Docs/Sites/etc. LCPS is using this...
Glogster http://www.glogster.com/
Stixy - http://www.stixy.com/
Wix - http://www.wix.com/
Weebly - http://www.weebly.com/ - this is the most popular with my students
Yola - https://www.yola.com/
Webs.com - http://www.webs.com/
Mixxt - http://mixxt.com/
ThatsToday - http://thatstoday.com/
Shutterfly - http://www.shutterfly.com/
Drupal - http://drupal.org
Joomla - http://www.joomla.org/
Nationbuilder - http://nationbuilder.com/ (starts at $19, site builder for candidates, non-profits, and other types of communities)
Website Builder in GoDaddy https://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder-new.aspx
About.me - https://about.me/
Populr.me - https://app.populr.me/
Jimdo - http://www.jimdo.com/ (for online stores)
Blogging tools that can be websites (Blogger, Wordpress/Buddypress, Tumbler)
Wikis that can be websites (PBworks, Wikispaces, Wetpaint) - I have a PBworks website

Social Networks

Facebook - http://facebook.com
Twitter - http://twitter.com
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com
Instagram
Snapchat
Musical.ly

LMS - Note that these are not necessarily free, there may be free versions or trials, or you may need to go through a process, or maintaining is costly, etc. But it’s good to investigate and be in the know :)

Canvas
Blackboard Course Sites
Edmodo
Coursera
Udemy
P2PU
Schoology - https://www.schoology.com/home.php
3D Game Lab - http://3dgamelab.com/
Google Classroom - https://www.google.com/edu/training/tools/
Moodle - https://moodle.org/
Edmodo
Remember that a “free” LMS, that you have to download and maintain, is “free” like kittens, puppies, and babies!

Curation aka Social Bookmarking/Sharing

http://thehubedu.com/
Pinterest
learni.st

Diigo
Delicious
Zotero - http://www.zotero.org/
Scoop.it - http://www.scoop.it/
Storify - http://storify.com (gather social media created resources)
Edcanvas

URL Shorteners & New Type of Social Bookmarking/Sharing
(NEW category added Jan25, 2010)

Bit.ly
Tiny URL
Goo.gl - includes QR code creation
http://is.gd/ - an ethical URL shortener

More about URL Shorteners at http://www.friedbeef.com/top-5-url-shorteners-and-how-they-help-you/

Make sure to read some of the comments

Microblogging and Backchannel Tools

Twitter - Fun, global, microblogging. Notice it’s #1 on the list for the Top 100 Tools for Learning from 2009-2015, it has dropped to #3 in 2016
Edmodo - Edmodo is more than microblogging, it’s a bit of an LMS, but we like to discuss it here as an option for an educationally specific tool that can be used for microblogging. Also, in 2014, Edmodo is touted as the #1 social media network that you can find K12 educators in.
Backchannel Chat - A backchannel option built for schools. It even has Edmodo integration.
Quora - Question-based microblogging, amazing coolness…
Yammer - organizational microblogging

Image Editing

Canva (social media images)
Adobe Spark

5 ways to use Adobe Spark

Word Cloud

Tagxedo
Wordle (wordle used to be the IT tool, but Tagxedo may be pulling ahead)
Many Eyes (sophisticated text data analysis including word clouds)

Audio

Soundcloud - create and share music and audio
Aviary’s Myna tool - create music and audio
Audacity w/ Lame - create music and audio
Garage Band (Mac tool) - create music and audio

Video Capture

YouTube - record/upload, publish/share video
Screencast-o-Matic - create screencasts
Jing - http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
TouchCast looks very cool, just sayin… http://www.touchcast.com/

Animation/Comic Strip/Avatar

Comic Life - http://comiclife.com/
Pixton - http://www.pixton.com/uk/
Strip Generator - http://www.pixton.com/uk/
Toon Doo - http://www.toondoo.com/
Story Me app - https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id688810927?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Biteable - animated videos
Tellagami - fun, fast, and easy animation app
Voki - create animated characters that speak, BREAKING NEWS Feb 2, Voki for Education is live - http://www.voki.com/Voki_for_education.php
Go Animate - create cool animations - no longer free :(
PowToon - animation tool
Moovly
Storybird
Hero Machine
Marvel Create Your Own Superhero

Multimedia

Viddix - create interactive video presentations (you need to have a video file to upload)
Produle - create interactive flash modules
Spresent - create multimedia flash presentations
VoiceThread - create/share multimedia presentations (free is limited)
Animoto and/or Animoto for Teachers - create high quality videos
Masher - mix video, music, and images for fun times
Sokratik - create visual narratives
So many video tools - http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Video+Tools