Creaza is a fantastic suite of online multimedia tools. Audio editor, video editor, comic strip generator – they’re all really fully functioned, with options to upload your own files as a starting point or record direct into the audio editor, and then download your creations once you’ve finished playing with them!
Again, it’s a news aggregator of sorts, but Mashpedia generates a mixture of realtime info with background educational content. I think it really presents topical issues in a way that pupils can access.
Lots of resources here! A particularly interesting set of videos on how new technologies are generating new careers . .
Lots of lesson plans and resources here, particularly good for expanding pupils’ world view. I will use these as tutor time activities, to elicit discussion and questioning.
This is going to be very useful. Blipsnips lets you take any Youtube video, and cut straight to the good bits! You can specify the part of the video that interests you, or that you need and Blipsnips will give you that chunk – complete with code to embed it where you like. You can even put notes on the video clip.
I haven’t had a chance to work this out properly yet – but I think it’s going to be great. You can make your own interactives using it’s very simple online interface.
Here’s a nice app showing newspapers from all around the world, which I’m sure will be very useful for quickly pulling up information on current events from different viewpoints.
This is a new idea to me. Outloud lets you create a chatroom and then upload music, creating a playlist that the people you invite into your room can listen to and comment on collaboratively. Hurrah! (from a music teacher’s viewpoint!)
A really useful tool – Xenra converts Youtube videos to mp3s.
SlideBlender
Hmmm – interesting. I haven’t played with this one yet, but just a heads-up – SlideBlender takes your boring old powerpoint presentations and turns them into snazzy flash efforts. Lots of potential for importing weblinks, additional content and the whole thing ends up with a unique url which you can change privacy settings on. Could be handy, eh?
Cooliris
Well this is too brilliant for words. All the videos I need, all in one place, all embedded directly into my site. Genius.
Doodlebuzz
Ooh, reading the news has never been so much fun! This is a great concept. Open the Doodlebuzz window, type a search word into the middle and then doodle the shape of your responses (you’ll see what I mean!). Top tip – draw your lines from the article you are interested in away from the map to read them clearly.
Curriculum bits
This site has loads of interactives and videos for a wide range of subjects – there are even some PE ones!
Kinkast
This is an interesting one. Kinkast lets you upload video – either from your pc or direct from the camera – nifty! The real selling point -teaching-wise though, is that these posted videos are only available to view by the people you choose. The free plan only hosts those videos for 30 days, but that should give enough time to be a useful tool. Well, I can imagine that for documenting projects, pupils creating short demo videos in an AfL-friendly manner, this could be really useful.
Traileraddict
Maybe it’s just me, but there are lots of occasions when I wish I could click to the perfect movie trailer to illustrate a point I’m making. Musically, they are pretty useful, but for use of language, precis, design etc they have their place too. So traileraddict is the site to head for. A huge variety of movie trailers, music, interviews.
Lightworks
Windows users – here’s a great new open source program for you. Lightworks gives you professional standard video editing FOR FREE! It’s open source – it does need downloading, but given it’s specs I’d say it was a no-brainer, frankly.
MyFakeWall
The pupils love this one. Myfakewall lets you create a fake Facebook page. Think historical figures here – you can give them ‘friends’, and fill their wall with status updates – dates included – to describe their life! Brilliant, and totally engaging for pupils.
uWall
uWall works like a Youtube aggregator – you feed an artist or composer into it’s search engine and it gives you a continuous playlist of Youtube videos by them. Saves a lot of time!
Snag Films
Snag films is an eclectic mix of high quality, full length documentaries that you are able to ‘snag’ and put anywhere you fancy. With over 2000 films to date, there’s got to be something for everyone, hasn’t there!
UCTV
University of California TV has some brilliant videos and podcasts, all indexed by subject and embeddable – woo!
World Digital Library
World Digital Library is a resource that is so rich in interesting articles, images and videos as to be a little mindblowing. You just have to visit the site to see what I mean, really.
Documentary Heaven
There are a huge number of documentaries on offer on Documentary Heaven – great to have them all in one place and listed by subject. However, be aware that firstly, not all are playable in all countries (I came across one that could only be played in China) and as this site is not built solely with education in mind, you need to be watchful of content. One tip – most videos have a link through to Googlevideo which will allow you to then embed the videos in your own site. I see myself using this site frequently, but more as an easy way to find videos rather than a playback mechanism.
Brightstorm
Hello all you Maths and Science bods out there – this one’s for you. Brightstorm is an American site containing an enormous list of free videos relating to elements of these subjects – looks like good stuff to me.
Academic Earth
Ok, now a lot of this site is pretty highbrow and aimed squarely at university level study, but I don’t believe in dumbing education down, and there are pupils in every secondary school who would benefit from being directed to think that little bit harder! So for them, I’m adding Academic Earth, a collection of online talks and courses on a huge variety of themes – have a trawl, it’s fascinating stuff!
Big Think
Big Think is a collection of talks on all manner of subjects. It really is thought-provoking stuff (in a similar way to TED) and well worth having a root through whilst planning a lesson.
Photopeach
Now the ability to combine photos, music with a slideshow-based quiz sounds like a great thing to me, and Photopeach can handle all of it without a fuss. Bargain!
Masher
Masher is a one stop shop for combining video clips, music and photos before embedding or emailing your creations. I’m not sure how refined it is, but I’ll look into how it could be used possibly for a homework project.
Glogster
I do think that Glogster is quite a useful tool. It allows you to create ‘glogs’ – sort of online, multimedia posters which you can then embed into your site.
Xtranormal
You won’t believe how easy Xtranormal is to use until you try it yourself. Give it ten minutes and you’ll have created a short animation with characters who move, talk to each other, gesture . . . it makes a brilliant lesson starter – especially if you can personalise the dialogue with the name of the class!
Youcube
Got to love Youtube spin-offs! Youcube is an entertaining little program – it allows you to import a different Youtube video to every side of the cube. It’s really good fun on a Smartboard – especially if you have filmed pupils’ presentations and can load these on!
eLive
Brand new, eLive is a video site that rather than persuading you to upload your own creations, would have you commentate on someone else’s. I’m sure language teachers will see the benefit – and why not use it for something like sports technique?
I’m using vimeo to find short films and interesting, good quality animations to use with my year 7s. They’re writing a soundtrack for the above film!
This is an interesting one. Kinkast lets you upload video – either from your pc or direct from the camera – nifty! However, the free plan only hosts those videos for 30 days. Well, I can imagine that for documenting projects, pupils creating short demo videos in an AfL-friendly manner, this could still be pretty useful.