FreeTools

toc Educators are always interested in free tools that will engage students in authentic learning. There is an overwhelming abundance of free tools on the internet that educators can use. It seems that quality tools are increasingly easy to use and accessible.

[|Google Tools for Educators]
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Word Processing

 * [|Google Docs] - Allows real time collaboration on documents. Revisions are easily viewable.
 * [|WikiSpaces] - Students can collaborate on the same document. Teachers and students can comment in the discussion tab. History tells not only who made revisions, but is also time stamped. A revision can easily be reverted.
 * Classroom Example: The Flat Classroom Project - A project created collaboratively between students in Georgia, USA and Bangladesh, India.

Spreadsheets

 * [|Google Spreadsheets] - Part of Google Docs - Students can collaborate in real time to gather and interact with data.

Office Suites
Offline > Online >
 * Open Source alternative to Microsoft Office
 * [|OpenOffice] for Windows
 * [|NeoOffice] for Apple Macintosh
 * [|ThinkFree]

Research
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 * Social Bookmarks - [|Del.icio.us] - Allows users to store and share bookmarks online, using tags to make those bookmarks easily searchable.
 * [|Google Notebook] - Store, annotate, and share web resources in one collection for easy citing for a research project. Uses a [|Firefox] browser plugin.

Presentation and Digital Storytelling
Online Offline >
 * [|SlideShare] - Upload presentations slides and share online.
 * [|BubbleShare] - Upload photos and record audio to share online
 * Sample Dean Shareski's [|Geocaching Presentation]
 * [|PhotoStory3] - Windows
 * [|Great tutorials on how to use Photostory 3] for a Digital Storytelling project by David Jakes
 * [|iMovie] and [|iPhoto] - Apple - Come free with every new Apple computer
 * [|MovieMaker2] - a free application on the Windows platform

Maps
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 * [|Google Earth] and [|Google Sketchup] - Powerful free downloads that allow students to explore and interact with the globe in new and exciting ways. Read some descriptions of classroom applications at the [|Google Tools for Educators] page.
 * [|Social Explorer Maps] - Uses census data for exploring trends.
 * [|Google Maps]

Web Pages

 * [|Google Page Creator] - an easy, quick Web Page creator
 * [|ProtoPage] - has the ability to store news feeds, lists, web resources and more.

Calendars

 * [|Google Calendars] - Create more than one calendar - Keep private or share publicly, and embed in other applications.

Media Sharing
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 * Photos - [|Flickr] - Share and interact with photos. Use tags to search and categorize. Annotate photos. Use comments for discussion. Embed in other applications.
 * Video - [|Google Video] - Upload, tag, and share videos online. Embed in other applications.

Audio/Music Tools

 * [|Audacity] - Cross platform audio recorder
 * [|Garageband3] - Free audio recording program that comes free with the iLife 06 suite on new computers

Communication
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 * [|Skype] - downloadable, cross-platform application that allows free phone calls between internet connected computers. An upgrade for a small fee provides unlimited calling to land lines anywhere in the United States and Canada.
 * Blogs - Free, online blogging software for students is located at [|ClassBlogmeister], and [|LearnerBlogs]. Even Google has a free blogging tool, [|Blogger], that is adequate for teacher use.

Groups

 * [|Google Groups] - allows the user to set up a web page and email listserv for a group. This would be great for a group of educators who want to collaborate.