Top 20 Free Web Applications
for Teachers and Librarians
Patrivan K. Yuen, M.A., M.Ed., M.L.S.
Technical Services/Systems Librarian
William Carey University
and
Steve C. Yuen, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Southern Mississippi
MECA Conference, Jackson, Mississippi, January 30, 2008

The Yuens’ Top 20 Web Applications
Selection Criteria
Free
Web Application (Web 2.0)
Easy to learn and use
Useful for teaching and learning

Categories of Web Applications
Productivity
Publishing
Communications
Virtual Community
Media
Blog
Wiki
Teaching and Learning

Our 20th Pick
FootNote
www.footnote.com

FootNote
Access thousands of primary source
documents and photos
Add annotations and comments to things you
find on Footnote
Create your own online history reports
Maintain a gallery of your favorite Footnote
images
Upload your own images to your gallery
Annotate and print any Free Titles or
documents

Our 19th Pick
circaVie
www.circavie.com

circaVie
Create timelines
Incorporate images and videos
Tell your life story or the story of your latest
road trip, a day to remember, or a trip around
the world

Our 18th Pick
Remember the Milk
www.rememberthemilk.com

Remember The Milk
A handy online list-making application
Manage tasks from anywhere
Share your tasks
Send reminders through e-mail, IM, or SMS
Access from your phone
Use with Google Calendar
Add tasks from iGoogle
Can upload tasks via e-mail
Manage tasks offline with Google Gear (a
browser plug-in)

Our 17th Pick
ClassMarker
www.classmarker.com

ClassMarker
Online quiz maker that grades your tests and quizzes
for you
Can be used for pop quizzes, homework quizzes,
tests, and exams
Link directly to quizzes from your website or emails
Randomize quiz questions
Have quiz results emailed to you and saved in
ClassMarker
Create multiple choice, true false, free text, short
answer, fill in the blank and punctuation quizzes
Allow teachers and students to view the test results
that can be saved or exported to Microsoft Excel for
print and view offline.

Our 16th Pick
Picnik
www.picnik.com

Picnik
Upload a photo or import online photos from
Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Webshots, and
others
Offer real-time online editing tools to crop,
resize, sharpen, adjust exposure, color, apply
effects, and then share them with your friends.
Provide many special effects, from artsy to fun
Has many fonts and top-quality type tool
Get creative with a collection of effects, fonts,
shapes, and frames

Our 15th Pick
Zamzar
www.zamzar.com

Zamzar
Free online file conversion
Support 5 different file format conversions
Document
Image
Music
Video
Other Formats
100MB maximum file size for the free account
Receive converted files via email
Larger file conversions and online storage for
Basic and Pro accounts

Our 14th Pick
Bubbl.us
www.bubbl.us

Bubbl.us
A simple and free Web application that lets
you brainstorm online
Create colorful mind maps online
Share and work with friends
Embed your mind map in your blog or
Website
Email and print your mind map
Save your mind map as an image

Our 13th Pick
Pageflakes
www.pageflakes.com

Pageflakes
Organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected
modules called Flakes containing information such as
RSS/Atom feeds, Calendar, Notes, Web search,
weather forecast, del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos
and user-created modules.
Enable you to easily personalize the Web.
Allow you to add bookmarks, photos, videos, games,
music, even your email and calendar.
There are Flakes for thousands of uses and interests,
including news, sports, e-mail, local events, search,
photos, music, and videos.
Drag and drop your \"Flakes\" around the screen and
add pages.
Set up a page for your class. Share calendars, to-do-
lists, news, and more.

Our 12th Pick
Flickr
www.flickr.com

Flickr
A free photo sharing site
Upload, organize, and share your photos with
anyone or selected individuals
Get photos into and out of the system in as
many ways: from the web, from mobile
devices, and from the users' home computers
Can tag your photos, create albums, view
slideshows, and post pictures to external blogs
Allow RSS feed
Allow annotations

Our 11th Pick
YouTube
www.youtube.com

YouTube
Online video streaming service that allows
anyone to view and share videos
Videos are limited to 100MB each
Each clip must have at least 3 tags
Allow linking and embedding clips to your
blogs or Websites
Students can create projects with video and
share them on the Web
Offer a new service called YouTube College
UC Berkeley launches YouTube Channel

Our 10th Pick
Meebo
www.meebo.com

Meebo
Web-based instant messaging services
Access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN,
Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) simultaneously and
chat with them
No downloads or installs required
Can store log-ins and passwords of all subscribed IM
services and log in to all the services automatically
Let you run multiple chats inside a single browser
window
A widget version is available for putting on your Web
site

Our 9th Pick
del.icio.us
http://del.icio.us

del.icio.us
A social bookmarking site
Allow you to store bookmarks on the Web,
instead of inside your browser
Share bookmarks with friends, family,
coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
Use tags to organize your bookmarks
Can import and export bookmarks
Keep tabs on other users’ links, and mark
certain links as private

Our 8th Pick
MediaFire
www.mediafire.com

MediaFire
Free file hosting service
Share files and images with others
Link to files from your MySpace page, your blog, or
forums
Upload unlimited number of files to share with
colleagues and students or storage
Use folders to easily share groups of files or create
galleries for all your images
No registration necessary and no software to install
Unlimited disk space
Up to 100 MB per file

Our 7th Pick
Tumblr
www.tumblr.com

Tumblr
A tumblelog, a variation of a blog that favors
short-form and mixed-media posts
A great place for students to easily post their
work
Make it easier, faster, and fun to post and
share stuff you find or create.
Allow mobile uploads and audio posts
Import feeds
Post via Instant Messenger

Our 6th Pick
Wordpress
wordpress.com

Wordpress
Free blogging platform
Hosted by Wordpress
Provide variety of attractive themes, plug-ins,
and widgets
Categorize and tag your posts
Provide many features: Spell-check,
Previews, Autosave, Words, Photos, and
Videos
Can import from Blogger, TypePad,
LiveJournal, and More

Our 5th Pick
VoiceThread
voicethread.com

VoiceThread
Web-based digital-storytelling application
Share your stories through audio, images, videos, or
text
Allow visitors to make comments on their stories in:
voice with a microphone
voice with telephone
Text
audio file
video with a webcam
Can be shared with anyone or can be kept private for
selected individuals
Offer a free Pro account for K-12 teachers

Our 4th Pick
Wetpaint
www.wetpaint.com

Wetpaint
Free wiki websites
Allow anyone to create an entirely new
website and invite others to help them build it.
Combine the best aspects of wikis, blogs,
forums and social networks so anyone can
click and type on the web
Can be a private or public site
Wetpaint Education Wikis are Ad-free

Our 3rd Pick
SlideShare
www.shareshare.net

SlideShare
Let users upload their presentations and share them
online through a YouTube-like interface
Accept PowerPoint (ppt & pps), PDF, & OpenOffice
(odp) files with a maximum file size of 30 MB for each
presentation file
Presentations can be tagged, and comments left by
viewers
Slide transcripts are automatically generated from
text elements of your individual slides
Each slide has its own URL for reference
Has a Slidecasting capability that allows authors to
synchronize slides with an audio file

Our 2nd Pick
Ning
www.ning.com

Ning
An online service where you can create, customize,
and share your own Social Network like MySpace
and Facebook
Has customizable themes and templates
Offer a public or private option
Your network can be customized by selecting a
combination of features (music, videos, blogs,
photos, forums, groups, RSS, etc.) from a list of
options
Members who join your network will automatically
have a customizable profile page and will be able to
message and friend each other

Our Top Pick
Google Apps
Education Edition
www.google.com/educators/p_apps.html

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

Gmail

Google Talk
Instant messaging and group chat
Free PC-to-PC voice calls (VOIP)
Real-time file transfers
Send and receive voicemails
Integrated contact list
Integrated into Gmail
Mobile access
Available of Windows version and Web version
Multi-Languages Support

Google Talk

Google Talk

Google Calendar
Calendar Sharing
Invitations
Gmail Integration
Search
Send Reminders
Mobile Access
Event Publishing

Google Calendar

Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Consist of Web-based word processing,
spreadsheet, and presentation
Online document creation
Real-time collaboration
Revision history
Search tools
Mobile access
Supported multiple languages

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Google Page Creator
Create web pages right in your browser
A WYSIWYG Web authoring program
Pages are hosted on Google servers at
http://yoursitename.googlepages.com

Google Page Creator

Google Page Creator

iGoogle
The Start Page
Central access point
Custom look and layout
Custom content
Create your own gadgets

Additional Resources
http://blog.yuen.us

THE END
Questions or Comments?
Thank You for Attending Our session!
This presentation is available on the Web at:
http://www.slideshare.net/scyuen/