Cool+Tools

=//__Cool Tools to Use in the Classroom__//=

[[image:schaeferdms/edmodo.jpg width="214" height="101" align="right"]]
==A private microblogging platform that teachers and students can use to send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other. Teachers sign up for accounts, and then create groups. Students then sign up (no email address required) and join the group using the unique code. It is like facebook for school while focusing on school topics.==

==This tool allows you to combine images, unique graphics, video, music, photos and audio to create mulitmedia pages. Glogs can be great for book or research projects. It can be compared to an online poster that can be embedded into any webpage. Teachers can sign up and have up to 50 students in their account for free.==

[[image:schaeferdms/wordle.jpg width="268" height="111" align="right"]]
=="Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."==

Tagxedo is another tool that is similar to Wordle.

[[image:schaeferdms/animoto.jpg align="right"]]
==Animoto is a video making tool that helps you combine picture, video, and music to make a short film. There are many available images and songs to use on the site, but you can upload your own too. It is very user friendly and high quality. You can create student group accounts so students do not have to have an email address.==

[[image:schaeferdms/prez.jpg align="right"]]
==This tool allows you to create maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, drawings and present in a nonlinear way. The zooming qualities of Prezi are impressive. It is like PowerPoint on steroids. Click here for the tutorial.==