Web 2.0 Tools

The following resources are all available as free applications online. They provide a great way to access great tools for class work and home learning without the need to buy expensive software. Teachers and parents should give consideration to the issue of log in details and passwords since most of these sites require user accounts to be created before they can be used.
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This interactive mindmap is a great resource for anyone interested in exploring the world of Web 2.0 tools for education. Each category of tools (e.g. blogging) expands to reveal a hyperlinked set of potential resources. It's not an exhaustive list but there are some great recommendations.
Here are some of our favourite tools...

Etherpad

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This is an online word processing programme that allows people to collaborate on the same document in real time. It's so good that Google have recently bought the company!

 

Xtranormal

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This is a great online application for creating text to speech generated animated movies. There is also a desktop version for PCs called State which can be downloaded free.

Tonematrix

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Tonematrix is a simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16 step sequencer. Each square corresponds to a single tone. Quickly build complex sequences of sounds by simply highlighting squares on the grid. 

 

Go! Animate

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Straightforward but reasonably sophisticated online animation studio. Choose from a range of characters, backgrounds , actions and emotions. Create a series of frames to construct your story. Upload your own photos and sounds or choose from others online. Very clever!

Wordle

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Copy a chunk of text into Wordle and instantly create a word cloud based on the frequency with which words appear. This is a great way to analyse use of language, especially in long documents or create a word cloud using key vocabulary.

 

Magnetic Poetry

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An online version of the famous fridge magnet game. Great for assembling poems really quickly, learning new vocabulary and thinking about syntax.

Scrapblog

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Create virtual scrap books with this easy to use, drag and drop design application. Use a combination of stickers, backgrounds and photographs to quickly produce attractive publications that can be embedded into websites and shared with others.

 

Glogster

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A very useful, free web application that allows you to create drag and drop interactive, multimedia posters. Great if you need to collect a lot of visual and multimedia information in one place and make it look exciting.