Best of The Free Technology Tools For Teachers

Best of the Free Technology Tools for Teachers Steve C. Yuen, Ph.D. Professor The University of Southern Mississippi and Patrivan K. Yuen, M.A., M.Ed., M.L.S. Technical Services/Systems Librarian William Carey University MBEA Conference East Central Community College, Decatur, MS September 14, 2007

The Yuens’ Top Picks Selection Criteria Free – no trials Public domain or open source Desktop or online Easy to learn and use Useful for teaching and learning

Categories of Technology Tools Productivity Tools Publishing Tools Communications Web Mail Image Editing Software Multimedia and Web Development Tools Search Security Utilities Web Tools

Best Productivity Tool OpenOffice

OpenOffice Open source, multiplatform, and multilingual office suite. Desktop and portable versions. A full-featured office suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, Lotus and other office applications. Include a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing package & database. Download at [www.openoffice.org]

OpenOffice - Writer

OpenOffice - Calc

OpenOffice - Impress

OpenOffice - Draw

OpenOffice - Base

OpenOffice - Math

Honorable Mention Google Docs & Spreadsheets Services docs.google.com

Honorable Mention ThinkFree thinkfree.com

Best Publishing Tool PDF Creator

PDF Creator Open source, Windows application. A printer driver that creates Adobe Acrobat files from any applications. Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS. Offer a multitude of options for controlling the output, including the ability to password- protect PDF files to limit users’ ability to print, copy, or modify the documents. Download at [www.pdfforge.org]

PDF Creator

Best Communication Tools Meebo & Skype

Meebo Let you log in simultaneously to 7 IMs (AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN Live Messenger, and Meebe’s own network). See all your contact in a single list, and you can correspond with them all from a single interface. Allow you to do instant messaging from anywhere. Access at [www.meebo.com]

Skype Work on most kinds of computers — Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Pocket PCs. Calls, chats and file transfers work between computers. Automatically encrypt calls, chats and file transfers before sending it through the Internet. Download at [www.skype.com]

Best Web Mail Gmail

Gmail Come with built-in Google search technology and over 2.6 GB of storage. Also available on mobile devices. Integrate instant messaging right into the email Provide spam protection using Google technology. Messages can be sent and read in most languages. Gmail interface is available in 40 languages. Free automatic forwarding and POP3 access Access at [www.gmail.com]

Best Search Tool Google & Google Desktop

Google www.google.com Search billions of Web pages. Search Web, images, news, groups, and directory. Offer advanced search and language tools. Offer free SiteSearch and WebSearch to educational institutions worldwide. Google toolbar, Google Viewer, Google Webquotes, Google wireless.

Google

Google Desktop Index nearly every document on your hard drive and then includes those files in your Google searches. Quickly search your computer for emails, web history, and files. View news, photos and more anywhere on your desktop. Add Google Gadgets (News, Maps, Weather, Web Clips ...) to customize your desktop and Sidebar. Download at [desktop.google.com]

Google Desktop

Best Web Development Tool Nvu

Nvu Open source, multiplatform application. A complete Web Authoring System that combines file management and WYSIWYG Web page editing. Integrated file management via FTP. Can jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs. Tabbed editing to make working on multiple pages. Support for forms, tables, and templates. Download at [www.nvu.com]

Best Calendar Yahoo Calendar

Yahoo Calendar calendar.yahoo.com Access dates and meetings from anywhere, anytime. Share your calendar with specific friends and colleagues. Remember important dates, set up automatic reminders. Let you easily insert holidays, local weather reports, and events from Yahoo Groups into your calendar. Optional software syncs your calendar with Outlook, Outlook Express, and Palm PDAs.

Yahoo Calendar

Best Maps Google Earth & Google Maps

Google Earth Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you’ll zoom right in. Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions. With Google Earth 4, you can tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. Save and share your searches and favorites. Download at [earth.google.com]

Google Earth

Google Maps Offer powerful, user-friendly mapping technology and local business information- including business locations, contact information, and driving directions. Provide satellite imagery. Can search for some locations using latitude and longitude coordinates on Google Map. Offer driving directions. Can use Google Maps on mobile devices. Access at [maps.google.com]

Google Maps

Best Image Editing Software GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

GIMP Open source, multiplatform, and multilingual image editing software. Can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. Expandable and extensible. Designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions for additional functions. Download at [www.gimp.org]

Honorable Mention Irfanview www.irfanview.com

Honorable Mention Picasa picasa.google.com

Best Photo Hosting Flickr

Flickr www.flickr.com Photo-sharing service makes uploading pictures, sharing them with others, or posting them to your Weblog. Visitors can leave comments on every photo. Set privacy levels on each photo and decide. who can see them and comment on them. Upload photos by email or from your cameraphone. Using Flickr Organizer to sort all your photos into Sets, which are sort of like albums.

Flickr

Best Audio Editing Tool Audacity

Audacity Open source software for recording and editing sounds. Available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Record live audio. Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together. Change the speed or pitch of a recording. Download at [audacity.sourceforge.net]

Audacity

Best Video Editor Movie Maker

Movie Maker For Windows XP only. Create, edit, and share home movies. Add special effects, music, and narration. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. Save in WMV format only. Download at: [www.microsoft.com/moviemaker]

Movie Maker

Best Video Converter Super

Super A Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player. Play and convert full length movies to any other format. Require NO additional external codec to be installed. Supported input source file formats: Video format: 3gp/3g2(Nokia,Siemens,Sony,Ericsson) asf, avi (DivX,H263,H264,XviD,MPEG4, etc..), dat, fli, flc, flv, mkv, mpg (Mpeg I,Mpeg II), mov, mp4, ogg, qt, rm, ram, rmvb, str (Play Station), swf, ts (HDTV), viv, vob, wmv. Audio format: aac, ac3, amr, mmf, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpc, ogg, ra, wav, wma. Supports the conversion (encoding both ways, to & from ) of the listed formats Download at: [www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.htm]

Best Screencasting CamStudio

CamStudio Desktop Screen Recorder Similar to Camtasia. Record activity from your screen and audio from a microphone into AVI video files. Can convert the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) using its built-in SWF Producer. Download at [www.camstudio.org]

CamStudio

Best Anti-Virus Software Avast Home Edition

Avast Home Edition For home users and non-commercial use. Include more than 7 different varieties of shields, safe-surfing tools, and real-time virus protection for your system as well as for Outlook. Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. Work with Windows and Linux Download at [www.avast.com]

Avast Home Edition

Best Anti-Spam Tool Spybot Search and Destroy

Spybot Search and Destroy Find and delete spyware. Continuously monitor your system for changes. Has on-demand scanning, real-time prevention, and detailed settings. Give you an opportunity to permit or disallow critical Registry modifications before they happen. Download at [www.safer-networking.org]

Spybot Search and Destroy

Best Backup Services Mozy

Mozy Online backup and file synchronization. Allow you browse through 30 days’ worth of backups to locate pervious versions of files. Can halt backups if the CPU usage exceeds a certain percentage. Get 2GB for free. Work with Mac and Windows. Download at [www.mozy.com]

Best Test Maker Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes Include six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled- sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the Web. Not a freeware, but it is free for teachers. Create Web-based tests which can stand alone or be linked to other tests to form a sequence of tasks. Students can correct their own work based on the clues and feedback set up in advance by the teacher. Allow the teacher to specify an email address to which scores are sent. Download at [hotpot.uvic.ca]

Hot Potatoes

THE END Questions or Comments? Thank You for Attending Our session! This presentation is available on the Web at: dragon.ep.usm.edu/~yuen/present/mbea/mbea07a.pdf

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Best of The Free Technology Tools For Teachers

by Steve Yuen on Oct 14, 2007

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