Free+online+resources

=**free to try or free to use online resources**=

Before becoming a lecturer in Technology and Education, in the many years that I have been a language teacher I have learned to find and utilize free resources since the budget I had for my subject was always quite small. What started off being a disadvantage become a real advantage as I ended up having a greater choice of resources than my colleagues who had lot more money to spend. Over time I have accumulated a really well stocked "teacher toolbox" that did not cost me anything. So here are a few of my best and trusted tools that have become part of my everyday teaching. Now that I work as an Education Technology Advisor the ability to find great tools that are free has become even more more important.

Acapela - Text to speach Audacity - Free, open source software for recording and editing sounds  Bubbl.us - Free mind mapping tool  Download helper - Firefox extension to down load videos for Youtube like webpages  Edmodo - Private micro-blogging platform built for use by teachers and students [|eXe]- easy to use authoring application for Mac and PC [|GoAnimate]Great site to create animations  Glogster - Interactive poster creator  Hotpotatoes - Free application to create language learning activities (used this for years)  KeepVid - Download and save videos from Youtube (with Zamzar one of my treasured finds!) [|LunaPic] Free online photo editor  MindMeister - online mind mapping tool [|Miro Converter] -the easy way to convert video for Mac  Open Educational Resources - Selection of free resources for teaching <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Open Culture - Some of the best educational media <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Public Domain Images - copyright free images <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;"> Quandary - Free application to create web-based action mazes <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;"> Quizlet - Create Flash cards online for free <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;"> Shutterfly -Free online photo album <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">[|Socrative] - Free student response system that works on any devices connected to the internet <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;"> TonDoo - Create cartoons for free <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">[|Voki]- Speaking Avatars for you webpage in many different languages (great tool for language learning)

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Things that make my life easier:

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Zamzar- Free online conversion tool (one of my staple sites to help me deal with problem files) upload a file, choose how you would like to have it converted, pop in an email address and the converted file is made available to you. <span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">A personal note about Zamzar - I have used, use and recommend this site on just about anytime I do a presentation or workshop for technology in education and every time I get people amazed that they had no idea there was something so easy to use!!!

[|Send to Dropbox] - creates a unique email address for your Dropbox that you can use to send files directly to your Dropbox, zipped folders can be automatically unzipped.

[|Thinglink] Discovered this lately and I am finding interesting ways to use it, like showing people where to plug things in for the MacMini we use with some of our Smart Boards

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<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Although the next few resources are not part of my staple tool box, have nevertheless good educational potential so keep them in mind

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">Virtual keyboard - English, French, Italian. German and Spanish virtual keyboard


 * Testing at the moment:**

The following are not yet made it to my top list as I am still testing them but you are welcome to explore their potential in the mean time:

[|30hands app] [|Make Belief Comic Strip Creator App] [|Edpuzzle]

<span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sand;">and the search continues......