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Teaching Tools

activities • assessment • communication • images • editing • multimedia • browsers • server software

Activities ↑

picture of assorted tools

Blogging

Blogger
Blogger is a Google site where free blog sites can be set up.
Vox
Vox is a new free blogging site run by Six Apart.
WordPress
WordPress is a free blogging site run by the makers of WordPress blogging software
LiveJournal
Another site where free blogs can be set up. In addition to blogs or journals, LiveJournal is a community with some social networking features. It is owned by Six Apart.

Surveys

Survey Monkey
Basic subscribers can use SurveyMonkey free for up to 10 questions and 100 responses.

Wikis

PBworks
Set up a free wiki or pay extra for premium services.
Scratchpad Wiki Labs
A place where anyone can create a free mini wiki
Wetpaint
Free wiki with ads or pay extra for ad-free
Wikispaces
Free or premium level wikis available.

Assessment ↑

Tests & Quizzes

Hot Potatoes
Hot Potatoes is a tool to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is free for use by public nonprofit educational institutions, whose pages are available on the web.

Communication ↑

Voice over Internet

Skype
Free VoIP software enables voice communication anywhere in the world. Both parties must have Skype software installed.

Whiteboards

The following are virtual whiteboards that allow Web based collaboration without the need for server installation.

Editing Software ↑

Graphics

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
This is a sophisticated photo and image manipulation program with many capabilities similar to Adobe Photoshop.®
Seashore (Mac)
Image editor based on GIMP technology built in Mac Cocoa to eliminate the need to run the program in X11. Also available as a universal binary for Intel Macs.

Alternative Office Suite

The office suite below is a no-cost alternatives to commercial products.

OpenOffice
OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. The suite includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing components.

Multimedia Software ↑

Screen Capture

Adobe Captivate
This is a product designed specifically for creating Flash based tutorials. It can record screen activity, which can be integrated with interactive text areas. Adobe products have special educational pricing that all educators should use.
Camtasia Studio
This popular software application is especially useful for creating tutorials. Like Adobe® Captivate, it can record screen activity that can be enhanced and shared. It is now available for both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Screenflow
Mac only screen capture software. Screenflow can be integrated with Apple Keynote as well as with PowerPoint to combine presentation software with screen-recorded video.

Photo Albums

Flickr
Free web-based photo sharing site. Can create more than one album in an account and add commentary.
Snapfish
Free web-based photo sharing site.
Picasa
Windows XP-only software from Google. Enables organization of photos on PC plus ability to share them on the Web.

PDF Documents

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
This major upgrade of Acrobat Pro was just release Novemeber 2006. It allows creation of documents that can be reviewed and marked up using the free Acrobat Reader software. It also enables much easier creation of forms that can be completed and saved in Acrobat Reader. Acrobat Pro supports such things as insertion of multimedia and slide transitions. It is expensive, but the educational discount is substantial.
Pdf995
This is a free application that can be used to convert documents to PDF format. Although Pdf995 is offered by a commercial organization, it is a no-cost product, worthwhile for those who cannot afford Adobe Acrobat Professional—or do not need all its capabilities . It is available only for Windows operating systems.

Virtual Reality

OpenSim Grids
Scroll down for a list of and links to the websites of public Open Simulator grids.
Second Life
Second Life (SL) is a 3-D virtual world built and owned by its residents. Basic account is free. Land ownership requires Premium membership, which costs $9.95 per month. Some educational uses of SL are streaming audio or video to listen to guest lectures, using gestures to give order to group real time meetings, and visiting educational sites.

Web Browsers ↑

Internet Explorer (IE)

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser, IE 5.0 or higher (except for some problems with IE 8), works best Blackboard if you want to use the WYSIWYG editor. Other browser will display only a stripped-down version of the text box. Users who want special formatting must click the HTML option below the text box and either cut and paste the source code from a WYSIWYG browser such as Netscape Composer or hand code. For those who know HTML, this can be an advantage, since the results can be made more precise, and the IE editor will not alter them as it would otherwise.

Alternate Web Browsers

There are several reasons Web designers use alternatives to Internet Explorer (IE). Most newer browsers have tabs, allowing users to keep multiple sites open in tabs instead of separate windows. Many alternate browsers are also more secure than IE. One important advantage for Web designers is that most browsers are better than IE at rendering stylesheets. The disadvantage of using alternate browsers is that there are some websites specifically designed for IE that do not work properly on anything else; but as IE market share continues to fall, that is becoming less of a problem.

Camino (Mac)
Camino is an Open Source browser based on Mozilla. It is only a browser with no email or messaging components.
Google Chrome (Windows)
Google browser is still in beta and only available for Windows. Mac version is in development.
Firefox
The most popular alternative to IE. Firefox is Open Source, based on Mozilla. It is only a browser with no email or messaging components.
iCab (Mac)
This is an independently created German browser. It has a built-in checker for W3C-compliant code.
Opera
This is an independently created Norwegian browser with unique layout and features.
Safari
Apple’s Safari is available for both Mac and Windows platforms.
SeaMonkey
This is the latest version of Mozilla. In Windows, SeaMonkey can be kept active in the background for quick activation.

Server Software ↑

Network administrators who want to compare php/mysql based free and open source software systems can “test run” any of them that are loaded on the opensourceCMS.com server.

Blogging Software

Course Management Systems

Forum & Discussion Systems

Whiteboards