What are Web 2.0 Tools?
Web 2.0 tools are software and web-based applications that promote and support creating, collaborating, editing, and sharing of user generated content. Many of the best web 2.0 applications are completely free and are designed specifically for educational purposes.
The free web 2.0 tools listed below represent the tools that are officially being supported by the district's instructional technology department. They represent but a fraction of the web 2.0 tools that are available. We encourage you to explore and discover your own tools, and to share those discoveries with us, and those who you work with; however, please keep in mind that if you are seeking support for a tool we are not familiar with, that support may require more time.
The free web 2.0 tools listed below represent the tools that are officially being supported by the district's instructional technology department. They represent but a fraction of the web 2.0 tools that are available. We encourage you to explore and discover your own tools, and to share those discoveries with us, and those who you work with; however, please keep in mind that if you are seeking support for a tool we are not familiar with, that support may require more time.
District Supported Web 2.0 Tools
Forget clickers. Socrative offers an easy to use and free student response system for iPads and/or laptops.
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Tagxedo is an awesome word cloud creation tool. You can turn customized text, websites, blogs, twitter accounts and more into stunning designs based on the frequency of words found in the medium. There are numerous designs and color schemes to choose from that can be saved to your computer or shared
Create free historical timelines for projects or to embed in your website.
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Wallwisher is basically an online message board where you post “Sticky Notes.” You can make one for yourself to help you remember important events and dates, or create one for your class. You can even choose to approve each sticky note before it is created so that you can monitor what’s being said.
Create beautiful word clouds from text that you provide. Like Tagxedo, it gives prominence to words that appear most frequently. You can save, print and share your creation.
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Stixy features are similar to those of Wallwisher in that you can post virtual sticky notes either for yourself or for others that you invite to see. Like Wallwisher, these sticky notes can contain links and photos. Stixy, however, goes ones step farther and allows a person to also post documents that they have uploaded from their computer.
Edublogs is a great free service for teachers and secondary students wanting to start a blog. Create a class blog, or have your students create blogs and/or academic journals.
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Capzles is an amazing tool that lets you create interactive, media-rich time lines. Time lines are customized with music, text, backgrounds, descriptive text, etc.
Have students create their own avatars for a variety of creative projects. Teachers can also create avatars to embed in class websites.
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Weebly is a free and easy to use service for creating nice websites. Use it to create your own class website, or create a teacher account (free) and manage student website and blogs. A great way to have student create digital portfolios to showcase their hard word. This website was created free with Weebly.
Kidblog is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Kidblog's simple, yet powerful tools allow students to publish posts and participate in discussions within a secure classroom blogging community. Teachers maintain complete control over student blogs.
What better way to encourage creativity, build enthusiasm, and promote writing than to offer students the chance to create their own storybooks.
A great free service for creating class wikis or for encouraging collaboration by creating a project wiki. Teachers create an account that automatically generates student username and passwords. You see everything your students post and have full control of students' accounts.
A safe and secure educational social network great for classrooms, professional development, and personal learning. It looks like, feels like and smells like Facebook; however, it employs many safety precautions that keep students on task. Students cannot have private chats with each other, invite anyone to the class group or make private posts. It’s great because you can use it as a resource to answer questions and stay connected with your students outside of school.
WordPress is a blogging platform that allows you a lot of versatility in the kind of content you can offer. Create a class blog where you post links to helpful readings and give updates on assignments. It’s free to sign up and start a blog.
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Diigo is a powerful online research tool and collaborative research platform that integrates several key technologies, including social bookmarking, web annotation, tagging, and group-based collaboration, to enable a whole new process of online knowledge management and participatory learning in the 21st century.
This dynamic media creation suite enables everyone to easily turn their photos, videos, text and audio clips into interactive stories.
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