Tools for Teachers

We all love them! collect them! Yes those tools that we think will solve all our problems with time management. I mean how many times have you stumbled on a gadget that you thought will make your preparation time easier and quicker. Problem is: you either stored it somewhere but cannot remember where or got on with the task without even a bother to think about that time-saving tool. Organising your online tools in appropriateley named folders in your "favourites" will help.

Today I'd like to share with you links to some useful tools and gadgets that hopefully will be useful in your teaching and to your students, (and stored somewhere where you can always pin-point).

1. The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers - As the intro. announces "adopting a new communication tool is not easy. Figuring out the best way YOU can use Twitter is even harder." This updated resource lists a range of blogs, posts, web sites, etc. grouped separately for the novice, Twitter for Educators, Resources for Making the Most of Twitter, Suggestions on how to use them in class with students, Applications to Make Twitter Work for Teachers, Applications , Tweets to follow as well as Fun Twitter Experiments.

2. 15 Little-Known Ways to Google - This is an extensive reference to how Google and its many free tools can help both teachers and students. Google's Search now includes a Books Search which allows you to look for the full text in popular titles, old and out-of-print books. The powerful Geo Education site has helpful hints on using Google Earth, Maps, Sky, and Sketch Up in the K-12 classroom, empowering teachers to bring the world's geographic information to students in a compelling, fresh and fun way. Covered too in this collection of Google tools are: Google News, iGoogle - a personalised collection of content, widgets, etc. . The blog discusses in detail and extensively good search practices, Google Notebook, Blogger, Calendar, and of course Google Docs an array of of easy-to-use online tools to create word processed documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Covered too in this report are: Goggle Groups, Google Page Creator, Picasa and Google SketchUp. Finally there is a short write up about Google Apps Education Edition, which is a broad IT solution for schools.

For those interested in Moodle, Google can now be integrated with Moodle too. Back in 2008, Google sponsored twelve new Moodle developers. The end result: Google Apps and Docs are being integrated successfully in Moodle.

3. The Best Presentation Sites on the Web This collection presents some of the best online presenetation web sites around, including such popular ones as: prezi, and presentation zen.

4. Online Tools and Software to Create Charts, Graphs, Flowcharts, etc.