Podcast resources

Hello, all. Here are the resources you located about podcasts.

Ashley
The Educational Podcast Network. This site has podcasts addressing all subjects in just about all grades. Some of the links are broken, but there are great podcasts on there. I particularly enjoyed one called "The Bobby Bucket Show," though it is for young readers.

LibriVox. The podcasts include audio versons of novels, short stories, and poetry.

NASA. This is a great resource for teaching about the solar system. The casts are interesting, and descriptive. I would definitely use this site in the classroom. All you need to do is visit the site, find the podcast you want, and download it. I found the site very easy to use!

Reference shelf. This site has podcasts on a number of different topics. Although they are on a pretty high level, some of the podcasts relating to history and science can definitely be integrated into the classroom. The site is organized pretty well, and easy to navigate.

Audible books. This site has many audio books available for download. Although there is a monthly fee, the site is a great resource for any teacher. It is easy to navigate, and well organized. You can search for a specific title or author as well. You add the title to your cart, and then download the audiobook!. I would definitely use this site in the classroom.

Recap. I also loved this site. It is well organized, and you can narrow the podcasts down into age groups. I am definately going to listen to more of the casts this weekend!

iTunes. There is always iTunes, you can search for a podcast about the subject of your choice.

Brian
Studio lighting. Maybe for advanced students looking for information on the career side. I'm not sure photography is a subject that is very well suited for audio only podcasts.

PhotoshopuserTV.com. This looks like a great advice of almost 200 episodes filled with photo shop tricks. However, you can only access the most recent episode free. Boo! I would pay, perhaps, for some of them but it limits it's use for students.

Inmotion.magnumphotos.com. Some great inspirational short interviews with some of Magnum's famous photographers. Looks like a good source of ideas and motivation.

Nyipodcast. A series from the New York institute of Photography. A mix of practical basics and interview with professional photographers.Looks to be perhaps the most suitable for students because some of it is at a beginner level.

Ted. Some amazing people talking about all aspects of art, technology and creativity.

Mastermaze. A good variety of subjects and easy to navigate.

Weaknesses. I don't feel that it it takes full advantage of the visual opportunities that video allows. A lot of the history lessons amount to basically someone reading a textbook with a powerpoint playing that just displays the main points bulleted form. While this may be better than a purely audio podcast, I think it could have used a variety of visuals, (artwork, photos, timelines, maps,etc) to make the presentation more engaging and dynamic. However, it's free and useful so I can't really complain too much. I could see this as an optional replacement for textbook reading in some cases.

Global Sound. What a great source of music from around the globe. I think it could be very useful as a supplement to a social studies/geography class. I think introducing music from different parts of the world as you study them allows the teacher to provide a little more variety and richness to a social studies classroom. I just think it helps the student create a picture in their mind of what those places and people may be like and gets their brains tuned into the fact that they are not just studying places on a map, but dynamic cultures of real people.

How stuff works. This seems like a great source of interesting videos on a variety of subjects. I mostly explored the history section and was quite impressed. I kind of see these videos as the opposite of the history videos on Masterymaze.com.

Chenelle
Mastery Maze. This resource website helps both teachers and students improve success in the classroom. It features podcasts and videos on a variety of subject areas. Functionally, the site works well and even has a great resource section. I was disappointed, however, to see that the podcasts were sparse and almost entirely geared toward upper high school. Educationally, I may be able to use the site for personal reference, but it is too advanced for elementary.

The Education Podcast Network. This site hosts many educational podcasts that are separated into categories based on grade level and subject area. It is a site for teachers to share their podcasts with others as well as a resource for those looking for new information. I thought the site was well organized but there were many broken links and most of the podcasts were not named in a way that one could immediately know the content. Educationally, yes, I believe I could use this site to share podcasts I’ve created as well as get some new ideas for podcasting in the classroom.

Wikia Education. A fantastic resource for those who are new to podcasting. It not only explains what a podcast is, but also how to create one, tips and tricks, examples, and a variety of other useful tidbits. The site is well organized and easy to navigate. I found it very helpful and being that I am a novice when it comes to podcasting, I will definitely be using this site as a resource.

Cindy
CNN News Podcasts. There are many podcasts to choose from: top news stories, politics, finance, etc. My favorites are Anderson Cooper and CNN Student News.

PBS Podcasts. They offers several options. My favorites are: Nature, Nova and Frontline.

Mastery Maze. A resource website that helps both teachers and students improve success in the classroom. It features podcasts and videos on a variety of subject areas. Functionally, the site works well and even has a great resource section. I was disappointed, however, to see that the podcasts were sparse and almost entirely geared toward upper high school. Educationally, I may be able to use the site for personal reference, but it is too advanced for elementary.

The Education Podcast Network. This hosts many educational podcasts that are separated into categories based on grade level and subject area. It is a site for teachers to share their podcasts with others as well as a resource for those looking for new information. I thought the site was well organized but there were many broken links and most of the podcasts were not named in a way that one could immediately know the content. Educationally, yes, I believe I could use this site to share podcasts I’ve created as well as get some new ideas for podcasting in the classroom.

Wikia Education. This is a fantastic resource for those who are new to podcasting. It not only explains what a podcast is, but also how to create one, tips and tricks, examples, and a variety of other useful tidbits.

Librivox. Librivox is a site that has audio podcasts of books, short stories, and poetry. It can be used for individual listening or for a classroom. It loaded quickly and the quality of the readers was quite good for those that I tested. Educationally, I would use this to play the reading of the book, story, or poem for the class and have students follow along with their own copy of the text. The amount of entries is fairly limited at this point, but there is a nice selection of different genres and many classics.

Global Sounds. Global Sounds is a site from the Smithsonian that has podcasts and vodcasts of music from around the world. There is a wide selection of musical genres and a wide array of countries to choose from. You can search by country, culture group, genre, instrument, and others. There is a nice descriptive paragraph about each song. I had trouble with the vodcasts being jerky while streaming. I did not have trouble with any other vodcasts that I had tried during the same evening, so I'm not sure if it was my computer or the site. I downloaded a few and there were no problems. I can see using these as a way to introduce a unit or play as background music when students are working on classwork. Also, I can see playing this while I collect homework.

Dallas
The following list includes some of the podcasts and other audio resources that would be suitable for my 6th grade students:

Alaskool. Online materials about Alaska Native history, education, languages, and cultures.

Primary Source Materials: Moving Images and Sound Recordings from Berkely library.

Library of Congress. This link has many suggestions for using primary resources, and it has many links for audio resources.

The Red Planet is Not a Dead Planet. This title is one example of the amazing space exploration resource available at NASA. This site has podcasts, in English and in Spanish, for NASA’s news releases.

US History, current event podcasts. This site has an incredible wealth of current event and historical podcasts. The topics are comprehensive. An example description includes: “A place where tears are dried.” Interview: Adapting an Israeli model for helping orphans, Anne Heyman is leading efforts to create a youth village for Rwandan orphans. She discusses the inspiration for the project and how she has managed to make it a reality.

Dave
Learning in Hand. A good site for podcasting tips.

Alaskool.org. It is a database with resources related to Native Alaskans and their cultures. I was disappointed to find that many of the resources were not actually there or working properly.
After searching the audio/visual resources, I found that many of those listed were not there. They were waiting for permission from the authors.I also discovered that they needed RealPlayer to be viewed, and after downloading and installing it, I still had problems with the videos. Educationally, there is a good amount of information on the Alaskool website. It would take some time to ensure that the information you want is there. It could be used in the classroom to supplement current Alaska/Alaskan Native Studies curriculum.

How Stuff Works. How Stuff Works has a wide variety of videos in many different areas. The videos were collected from different authors such as The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, History Channel, NASA, and many others. The website was easy to navigate and the content was current. All the links worked and the only complaint I have is the advertisements before the videos. Educationally, I found it to be quite useful. This is a resource I can use throughout my classes to help explain concepts I am teaching. It is also usable by the students for research.

MasteryMaze. After reading some of my peers description of MasteryMaze, I felt it would be worth looking at. It is a collection of media files for teachers and students. It also allows teachers to submit their own Podcasts for easy availability for students. This site worked well, but was a little difficult to navigate and find what you are searching for. It does have a good amount of educational functionality. I believe MasteryMaze can be used to upload Podcasts and make them available to students as well as use the resources that are already there.

Jason
Allanah. A teacher from Australia who has been podcasting for at least 3 years, so has it down cold. I have even heard that she has Skyped with teachers about podcasting. She has a wiki that explains how to get started in the classroom.

Podomatic. The podcasting resource to go with Allanah is Podomatic.com. They have been around a while and seem to be pretty solid.

Jason's class blog.

Mastermaze. I can see myself using this site as the "go to" source for all of my background information needs for:

# Ancient World History
# US History
# Math
# Science
# English/Language Arts
# Modern World History
# Languages

and more. I was particularly interested in the middle ages of man. I can't believe we used to live in a feudalistic fashion. The site worked well and I didn't have any dead links or any problems navigating.

How Stuff Works. This site has a vast array of images, articles, and videos to explain everything from gyroscopes to the world's largest machine. I think it would be fun to ask my students to find one article or video that interested them and report on it. I would also use this site as a teaching resource for background information on curricular topics. The uses for these sites are as limitless as their content.

Podcast.com. This site has an easy to remember URL and is as easy to search and navigate as its name suggests. The beginning of their slogan reads "Education podcasts from universities, colleges, students, teachers -- everyone who uses podcasting to learn and to teach others." The site is appealing to the eye and has a fairly large database of podcasts available for listening. I even found a Bering Straight School District vodcast put on by the students. They do a very nice job of school news. This is a great example of what can be done as a podcast project in schools.

Jen
Radio WillowWeb. The students create the podcasts for other students.

iTunes help. I found great information and help tips as well as.

MasteryMaze. It took me a little bit of time to find what I was looking for, but I did find some things that I would be able to use. I also liked the videocasts. These would be great to add to a flipchart as an addition.

Edutopia. I think that this is one of my favorites. The negative is that it took me a lot of time to navigate through this; however I think that this was due to the fact that I was new to the site and did not have a clear idea of what to look for. I have used this to get ideas for creating project based units. I did not find podcasts that I would show to my students, mainly this is used for me to get ideas.

iTunes. This is another one of my favorite. Some of the casts are free and my personal podcasts have ranged from personal finances, grammar help, music and fitness help, etc… As for educational use it is severely lacking. The main categories are learning languages; this was a bit frustrating, as a teacher who is in need of support in the classroom. But, on a personal note I liked the finance and the fitness help. After teachers are people too!

Jenn
Jamestown 3rd grade. Jamestown 3rd Grade Podcast Team explains how to podcast (3rd graders).

Wauwatosa School District Third Grade Podcasts. Good examples for kids.

Pine Lane Elementary podcasts. 24 examples by students.

Tools for the TEKS. This site has two links to podcasts that have good reading about them. As a side note, I also noticed that there is reading on Skype in the classroom for those of you who might be interested.

The Education Podcast Network. I found this useful to search on basics of podcasts a directory of podcasts. You subscribe and download needed software to use the resource. I hope to be able to spend some more time exploring this site. The address is:

School computing. This has interesting reading and good information. It includes software ideas for podcasting and does link to a couple of the sites I already described here.

Podomatic. (OK-good) Podomatic is a library of podcasts you can search to find topics of interest. The podcasts play easily and quickly on the podomatic player when you click on the podcast link. The ones I liked, I was able to download to my itunes in a reasonable timeframe. I felt the site worked very well however, was still “searching” too much. I felt random, much like when I was trying to navigate The Education Podcast Network. I didn’t find much for my classroom on this site yet, but did enjoy some of the podcasts for personal interest. I think the site has great potential and will be one to bookmark and watch as it develops.

Librivox. (OK-good) I love the idea of this site to provide books to listen to. Again, like Podomatic, I found several personal interests and a few reads that I could use in the classroom. Having an ipod listening center is a great idea someone mentioned. Using this site and others like it to load listening center podcasts would be a very purposeful activity. I am especially intrigued by the option to become a volunteer to read and record chapters of books. Is this something that students can do? What a wonderful, authentic, real-life activity!

Podcast.com. (good-great). I found this site most recently as I was continuing my search for podcasts to use with younger students. This site has been the best one that I have found in terms of a “library” of podcasts, next to itunes. I like the layout (it is set up in podcast channels) and searching was quick and easy. I watched a Sesame Street podcast within seconds of clicking onto play and had the option to download that podcast right next to the option to play it. The podcast topic organization seemed more relevant to how I would organize information. All in all, the site worked well for me. I will be visiting it frequently to start building my own library of usable podcasts for the classroom.

Marilyn
The Education Podcast Network. I have also found this to have some good podcasts.

Recap. The first site I looked at, besides some of the ones everyone else has mentioned, was a site from the UK. I used a podcast once in my class from England the kids loved listening to someone else's English that this was a good find for me. This site has all kinds of podcasts from different schools in the UK, from elementary to college level. There are also links to resources and to how-tos on creating podcasts.

Global sound. One of my interests is exposing my students to music from around the world. The Smithsonian has a collection of podcasts or rather vodcasts as they include video and a short interview. I might use this as a start to our morning to get the kids focused and ready for the day as something different than the regular morning work.

NASA. The third place I went to was a site recommended last week on the NASA Website, My next science unit will be on astronomy so it was a good place for me to look for some new things to add to the curriculum. There are a variety of topics and I'd link it on our class Wiki for the students to use.

Naomi
How stuff works. “How Stuff Works” is a Website that has short video clips on many of the major content subjects. The title describes perfectly what the goal of the site is, to give knowledge and information to its viewers about how things in life, nature and the surrounding environment work. This site would be a great source to help reinforce ideas, almost like
Cliff Notes back in my early education. Yes, I do believe that this site could be used educationally. It would be easy to give students the videos to view from home to help supplement their classroom learning and content subject understanding. I really enjoyed this
resource because I was able to find some videos to show ECE students (on animals) as well as Videos for Intermediate, Middle, and High School students (on science). This site will definitely be added to my delicious site.

Learning in hand. I really enjoyed this Web site, it had many wonderful tools. This site allows the user to find, subscribe, listen, and create Podcasts. When trying to find Podcasts, they direct the user to a glossary, of sorts, of other sites that carry many types of Podcasts, such as
iTunes, The Educational Podcast Network, and Learn out Loud.

Learn out loud. The Learn out Loud site didn’t have a ton of teaching resources, but I did find one that I thought would be interesting to subscribe to, The Tech Teachers Podcast. Both contributors are teachers, Spanish and Physics, and their Podcasts could be beneficial to the classroom teacher in staying up with technology today.

One could use this site and it’s “How to Create a Podcast” section in their classroom with older students. The directions are clear and fairly easy to follow. Also they gave suggestions to free software that can be used to create Podcasts, and add both sound effects and music. The wonderful thing about the sound effect and music links listed, like PodSafe Audio, is the copyright free material, which could alleviate many copyright fears.

PBS. Lastly, there is little that needs to be said about PBS. This is an all time favorite and has wonderful Podcasts for each with any age group. Resources include but are not limited to video, music, children’s games and activities, and our topic of choice right now, Podcasts. Examples of shows that might be used in a classroom are Nova, Nature, PBS Kids Super Why and Dragon Fly. The last two PBS productions I thought would be great in ECE classrooms, while the other, Nova and Nature are much more beneficial to middle and high school students. I down loaded both a Vodcast and Podcast to iTunes, and had no problems using either. Because of their size, it did take longer then I had expected. So this is something that should be considered before beginning a lesson in class. Again this site has Podcasts that I would consider using as supplementary information that students could do at home to reinforce concepts and ideas.

Sarah
Mystermaze.

How Stuff Works.

Audible.com. I found audible.com when looking for some audio books. I have an iPod station set up for one of my literacy centers, as I am trying to encourage my students to read more. They love having iPods and listening to books. Funny, most of the students after listening to the story on the iPod ask if they can bring the book home, not the iPod. Audible.com doesn’t provide free audiobooks. The podcasts and audiobooks are not free, but if you are looking for audiobooks, audible.com seems to have more than the iTunes store.

Masterymaze. I really enjoyed this site, as there is a lot of information covering a variety of subjects/topics. The theme of this site is to master your subject in minutes which is nice for me as an educator bringing mini lessons in my class, but for my own personal knowledge as well. You can subscribe to mastery cast through iTunes, too. (it’s free!) On the downside, there aren’t as many Podcasts as I would like on a variety of subjects, but there were plenty on Ancient Civilizations which is a social studies topic we discuss at my grade level. I do anticipate more and more being added as Podcasting increases in popularity.

ASTE (Alaska Society for Technology Education) has a new contest that began in 2008 called iDidaPodcast. Follow the link to listen to last year’s winners, and then consider submitting one of your own!

Mashable. Wow, what a resource. I like the variety on this one, and I have been asked by the edTech department at our district to team teach a half day course on Podcasting. I plan to recommend this resource as it is loaded with links such as: beginning podcasting, free hosting and publishing, forums, and online creation software. Cool!

iPod Educators Ning.

Education podcast.

Trevor
Mashable. A website with loads of useful tips and free media links.

iTunes Store. Go there to explore podcasts of all varieties and genres, downloading podcast/ iMovie, and Garageband tutorial podcasts.

Masterymaze. The first resource I reviewed was MasteryMaze. I was very excited about the concept of podcasts that could be used to review for or even introduce content to students. After signing up for membership and reviewing the selections in the Language Arts area of the site, I was disappointed at the number of casts that would aid my low performing ESL students. These casts are geared to the higher grade levels, and to some extent, the higher performing students in the upper high school grades. I will definitely keep this resource in mind for the few students and classes I have that actually address classic literature and complex grammar. I will also keep it in mind as a place to post podcasts that my students create. Overall though, the site doesn't meet the educational needs of my younger and lower- performing students.

Podomatic. The second resource I evaluated was Podomatic. The first thing I noticed was how much easier it is to navigate this site as opposed to EPN. The layout of the site is much friendlier, and though it's still a bit too busy for my taste, it is far more streamlined than the extremely clustered EPN site. I also admire the social network aspect of the site, but am wary of the same type of abuse one could find on Facebook or MySpace. Overall though, I think this site has far more potential for use with my students because we can have a safe place to post our podcasts, and we can search for similar podcasts, and then develop a relationship with the producers of those podcasts! That alone is the greatest draw for me: giving my students the chance to connect with and collaborate on podcasts with students from different parts of the country and world. It's pen-pals gone 21st century!

LibriVox. The last site I evaluated was Librivox. I am willing to overlook their strict adherence to copyright law :) because they offer an amazing opportunity to address a wide variety of reading skills. After just a few minutes at this site, several project ideas popped into my mind. One of my favorite units is studying the Dark Romantics, and one of my favorite short-story writers from this genre is Hawthorne. I began thinking about how powerful it would be to combine reading of the story with the audio rendition provided on this website with an original recording of the work by my class! The potential is vast, and I will definitely be using this sight for the lesson mentioned above or one very, very similar!

Google Calendar Screencast

About a month ago, I began using Google Calendar for my lesson plans. I've used several different electronic calendars, including iCal and Entourage, and so far, Google Calendar has been the easiest and most portable planning/productivity tool that I've used. This screencast, created using Jing software, shows some of the features that have been very useful to me as a 6th grade teacher.

Warning: This screencast a minute to load on my computer. I should have saved a smaller file, but as it is now, I'm unable to change the formatting. Thanks for your patience.

Jing Screencast of Voicethread.com

Voicethread.com is a great site for educational purposes. As you view this screencast, think of ways you could use this Web tool in your classroom. The teacher featured in this voicethread had used it in her Isreali classroom to communicate to a sixth grader in the U.S.

http://screencast.com/t/br1EbDGZY2

Voicethreads

I might as well add Voicethread.com in the picture for collaboration tools. See Week 4 post and my Techie Teacher Report blog

Well, nobody decided to talk about VoiceThread so guess I'll go for it. Voicethread, if you haven't heard of it, is a web-based collaboration and sharing tool on the Web. It's free for a limited license. Users can sign up and immediately begin uploading video or photos to share. The unique thing about it is that you can "narrate" your project with a webcam or simply your built in mic on your computer. You may submit a single photo or video, or submit a whole class project in one voicethread. You may keep the voicethread private, or you may open it up to the world. Visit my blog for an example of a Kindergarten project. http://jdaniels-tc.blogspot.com/

One way I would use this is to post a photo of a topic, and insert my narration asking students to comment on the photo using vocabulary on the topic. The sky is the limit on the versatility of this site. Once you log on, you won't want to stop looking at other people's projects. Another cool thing is that you already have project your kids are doing that you could take a picture of and post as a voicethread topic. Give it a try at http://voicethread.com/#home

Your Web 2.0 resources

As promised, here is a list of what you posted this last week in terms of the tools you use. I have grouped these by student name so that you can find what you added and edit it more easily. This list is far from perfect, as many of you talked about the same resources. However, the point is to edit this list and add any annotations you want to that better explain the resources you identified.

An exception to the "group by student" presentation approach is photo organization software, because it was discussed by a number of you.

Photo management software

• Photo Bucket.
  
• Picasa.
• Flickr.
  

Cindy

• Discovery Streaming
  
• National Geographic’s video site
  
• Hulu’s Movie and TV clips
  
• Imovie and IPhoto
• Google Maps & Street View
• Wallpapers & Screensavers from National Geographic photography

Chenelle

• PBS Kids - For media literacy, specifically teaching the secrets
  behind marketing ads and campaigns.
• Edublogs. A blogging site for teachers.
• A to Z Teacher Stuff. An excellent teacher/talk/information forums and lesson plans.
• Jonathan Bird's Blue World. Jonathan Bird’s Blue World TV episodes, exploring the ocean with award-winning underwater cinematographer and naturalist Jonathan Bird!
• Dictionary.com.
  
• Big Brainz. Excellent 3-D multiplication game.
• Brain Pop. A free trial version but excellent resource.
  
• Promethean Planet Resources. Download Promethean flipcharts and resource packs.
• Multiplication.com. Excellent resources for teaching multiplication.
• Voicethread. Slideshow where students can leave audio comments.
• Google Earth. Used for mapping unit.
  

Sarah

• iWeb - I have created a class website. Through my phone service, I have free web hosting that is free of advertisements and pop-ups. I have a page of links on this website that are arranged by subject. My students access my website in class and at home. They often share their favorite academic websites with me, and after I investigate them, I add them. When I add a website they have recommended, I let them demonstrate it to the class.
• Zamzar - Because Youtube is blocked in our district, I find movies to that relate to our curriculum. I use zamzar to convert them to a movie that is saved to my computer. I once found a Youtube video that was a story from our basal reader
• Everyday Math curriculum - Our school has just adopted the Everyday Math curriculum. Because we are in our first year of implementation, we free access to the everydaymathonline web resources. I use website in a variety of ways including online games, video tutorials, and online references. My favorite feature to this site is the ability to download all pages from the students’ workbook as a pdf. I have saved every page from the workbook, and I use this document for my SMART Board. My students love it because rather than just talking about problem three on page 123, I can show them the problem and solve it with them.
• Engineering Interact, Edheads. I use these two science resources as supplemental tools for some of our science investigations or as enrichment. One of my students introduced me to edheads because I recently had knee surgery, and he was curious about it. After he had the chance to showcase it to my class, all of my students thought I was tough (wow, have I fooled them… smiles).

Here are just a few of some other resources that I use (a few of these aren’t free, but they have free demos and trials that are available without purchase)

• Julie ThompsonSmartboard Resources. SMART Board resources.
• Brain Pop. Movies and quizzes for a variety of topics.
• BBC school resources. Resources from the BBC.
• Discovery education.
  
• Who Dunnit? Crime fighting, critical thinking.
  
• Mac VCR. Allows you to record what happens on your computer screen to a Quicktime movie which you can then replay later at your leisure.

Dallas

• "Grammar Girl" podcast, "Does Grammar Really Matter."
• Tumble Books. This is an online audio book library collection for public libraries and schools. A subscription to TumbleTalkingBooks gives your patrons/students UNLIMITED remote access to your audio book collection.

Marilyn Doore

• Google Lits trips. Combines geography, literature by tracing routes important in literature.
  
• Make Way for Ducklings. A Google lit trip.
• Spelling City. SpellingCity is an online spelling program that makes practicing for spelling tests fun.
• Gaggle Net. Safe e-mail for students.
  
• Edmodo. A piece of software that allows us to make announcements to everyone in the class, for them to do assignments and turn them in and more. Edmodo is a private microblogging platform that teachers and students can use to send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other"
  
• Net trekker. A searchable subject database of Webpages.
• Discovery Education Network. Even if you don't have a paid account there are some free resources too.

David Little

• Google Earth.
• SketchUp. You can use Google SketchUp to create, modify and share 3D models.
• West Point Bridge Designer. The purpose of the contest is to provide middle school and high school students with a realistic, engaging introduction to engineering.
• Car Builder. Creating your dream car.
  
• Personal WebKit. I used these as the Webmaster for Wasilla Middle School.

Trevor

• Punctuation Paintball. From IKnowThat.com.
  
• Lego link.
  
• NeoOffice. A freeware Office program for the Mac (Jason's note: I tried (on 2/2/09) going back and forth between the word processor portion of NeoOffice and Word 2007 and it seemed to work fine.
• Google Notebook, Mac Stickies.
  

Jenn

• Renaissance Learning.
• Accelerated Reader and Accelerated Math
• STAR Math, STAR Reading, and STAR Early Literacy.
• Math Facts in a Flash and UltraKey
• Enchanted Learning.
  
• EdHelper.
  
• BrainPop.
  
• BrainPop Jr.
• EdHeads.

Ashley

• Sellarium. A downloadable program that we use to explore our Solar System. It is somewhat confusing at first, but once you know the keystrokes, is pretty amazing. You can search for stars or planets, look at constellations, and so on. It also gives real time movement, showing how far the planet or star is from Earth at that time.
• Google Earth. We use Google Earth not only for many different things. For instance, if we are reading a story set in a real city or town, we can look at it. It leads into a discussion on setting, and also gives students a connection to the story. I think it makes the story more real to them.
  
• Brain Pop. We watch the animated videos to reinforce skills. My students loved the characters, and were always eager to participate in the interactive quizzes. (costs)
  
• United Streaming. There is wealth of information valuable to teachers on this site. There are videos, audio clips, pictures, and other resources pertaining to all subjects. (costs)
• Solpass. Although it does have much test prep material, this site also has a wealth of interactive games students love. One is “Fling the teacher.” When they get many questions right, the teacher is catapulted through the air.

Naomi

Mashups: a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source. Examples:

• Typeracer.
  
• Kids Quintura.

Gadgets: computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets. Examples:

• Google calendar.
  
• Die net. Watch the sun rise and set all over the world on this real-time, computer-generated illustration of the earth's patterns of sunlight and darkness. The clouds are updated every 3 hours with current weather satellite imagery.

Widgets: Widgets are self-contained pieces of code. These code instructions, widgets, are free to use, so anyone can copy the code and move it into, out of and around their blog, profile or Web site. Examples:

• Widget Box.
  
• Widget box today in history.

Misc.

• Edmodo. A microblogging service, a cross between a wiki and facebook.
• Nexio

Jen

• Scholastic. You probably already know, but just in case.
• Promethean Planet. For those who have a Promethean board.
• NCTE Read-Write-Think. Lesson plans and tools that are research based.
• American Library Association. Great place to get reading lists.
• Fountas and Pinnell Books. Offers some great ideas for free, but for some a fee is involved.
• NASA. A great website with photos and video.
• CIA Kids. Provides statistics from around the world and has a special kid’s page. The kid’s page is weak, but there is also a parents and teacher page.
• PBS. You need Facebook or Myspace for some of the activity books.
• Yahoo Kids Learn. Stick with the “learn” header, if not it is easy to become another time killer w/out sustenance.

Lindsey

• i-respond. called i- respond. Students have remotes in their hands and as a quiz or game is projected on the screen, students can key in their answer and send it to my laptop
  which stores it automatically.
• Moodle. Course management software; we can post homework and lesson plans, set up class calendars, teachers have electronic drop boxes where assignments can be turned in and graded electronically, and we can put copies of worksheets online that students can access when they are traveling for activities or on extended vacations.
• Babylon.com. As a Spanish teacher I struggle with allowing students to use online translators to do work. It is just do easy for them to type in something and have the computer do the work for them. Very often the translation is done too literal and is incorrect. However, online translators are good tools to check grammar and vocabulary.
• Audacity. A full feature audio editing program. I used it with Microsoft moviemaker when I made a digital story last semester and am going to use it to record students talking in Spanish. I think it is important for students to hear themselves speaking. I know that when I have heard my voice after I have recorded it I can critique myself better listen for pronunciation and accent correctness.
  
• YouTube. This has been helpful to show movies that other Spanish students have
  made. Also with my government class we watched a lot of the
  inauguration and public service announcements that President Obama has
  made.
• Lomas TV. Online Spanish Video Immersion. LoMásTv is an online video magazine for Spanish learners who wish to improve their Spanish skills. This is a new resource that a college of mine introduced me to. It has songs and videos from current Spanish pop culture. With the songs there are games, vocabulary quizzes, and other activities that
  students really get into.

Brian

• YouTube. I think it gives access to otherwise unavailable material and, perhaps more importantly, provides a compelling medium for students to present their work. It could
  also serve as a valuable log-distance cooperative learning tool, with students all over the the globe exchanging their videos.
• Google earth. I think it is always important for students to be able to tie what they are studying to a location. What better way to dramatically show EXACTLY where something is happening than Google Earth. Because it shows the physical geography so vividly, you would be able to to ask the students how they think the geography of a region affects what is going on there. It's much easier to understand the Sahara desert when looking at Google Earth than an ordinary political map with "Sahara Desert" typed across a few multi colored national borders.
• National Geographic sites.
  
• Skype.
  
• Google Sketch Up. It's basically just a simple to learn 3-d program that comes preloaded with lots of common building material textures that is especially suited to doing architectural mock-ups. I can think of a few uses of the top of my head. First it could be used by students to try to solve real problems in the town they live in. Town needs a new library? Have the studens design what they think would be the ideal building for it. High school overcrowded? Have the students model an expansion and remodel. How about using Google sketch up to recreate the City of Troy, the Alamo etc.