40 applications to use in the classroom categorised by their purpose in the learning design

1. 40 Web 2.0 applications
for the classroom
@weirdisister_ann

3. Tools of the trade
• Annotation & Note taking Tools
• Writing Tools & Blogging
• Brainstorming & Mind mapping
• Collaborative Authoring
• Communication Tools
• Course managers
• Creativity Tools (to Demonstrate Student Learning)
• Curating
• Feedback from Students
• Presentation Tools
• Productivity Tools
• Questioning Tools All these tools are free
• Screencasts
• Timelines with premium (paid for)
• Additional Resources
versions also available.

4. ANNOTATION
& NOTE TAKING

5. Adobe Reader XI
• Adobe Reader comes with a full set of
commenting tools.
– Add sticky notes
– Highlight text
– Place comments anywhere on your PDF document
– Search your notes
• Free version download:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html

6. Evernote
• Capture everything
– Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear and
things you see, make notes
• Access anywhere
– Works on nearly every computer, phone and mobile
device
• Find things fast
– Search by keywords, tag or even printed and
handwritten text inside images
• Download at: http://evernote.com/

7. Microsoft OneNote
• Digital notebook
– A single place to gather your notes and
information
– Powerful search capabilities
– Shared notebooks to manage information
overload
– Collaborate with others more effectively
– Useful to take notes during class
– Available across various devices

8. BACK CHANNELING

9. Today’s Meet
• Receive feedback from everyone in your lecture
• Adjust your lecture to your students’ feedback
• Alternative to Twitter
• Discussions are private
• Use online
• Gives every student a voice
– Allows shy students to also ask questions
– Simultaneous feedback to gauge understanding
• Available at: http://todaysmeet.com/

10. Twitter
• Receive “real time” feedback using the #hashtag
• Stimulate discussion and feedback
• Available on most mobile phones
• Stream is public
• Display on a separate screen
• Microblogging
– Students need to think about being concise
• Available at: http://twitter.com/

11. BLOGGING

12. Blogger
• Easy to use Blog platform
• Forms part of Google
• Get students writing about their content
• Effective to reflect on work covered in class
• Use to develop student portfolios
• Blog can remain private or public
• Good for students beginning to Blog
• Available at: www.blogger.com

13. PageOrama
• Create one page at a time
– Choose page name
– Write your title
– Write your page content
– Edit page content
• Faster than blogging
• Page does not have to be maintained as with a blog
• Use to get students to provide feedback on a certain
topic
• Allows to students to do a short written activity on a
topic provided or discussed in class.
• Available at: http://www.pageorama.com/

14. Wordpress
• Choose between a Blog or a Website
• More advanced version
• Connected to social networks to assist in
building an online persona
– Great benefits for journalism students
• Get students to create a page of their
interest, music, politics or current affairs and
watch their writing style develop.
• Available at: http://wordpress.com

15. BRAINSTORMING
& MIND MAPPING

16. Bubbl.us
• Simple tool start mind mapping
• Uses simple mind mapping principles
• Effective for briefly summarizing content
• Available at: https://bubbl.us/

17. MAPMYself
• More organic mind mapping tool
– Effective for more visual learners
• Effective to organize ideas
• Available at: http://mapmyself.com/

18. Spiderscribe
• Mind mapping tool
• Allows for the inclusion of links, images, files, text
& calendar events
• Allows for collaboration
• Share the maps online
• More comprehensive than other mapping tools
• Allows for the demonstration of various research
elements
• Effective for students to demonstrate research
• Available at: http://www.spiderscribe.net/

19. COLLABORATION TOOLS

20. Google Docs
• Students can collaborate on
– Documents
– Presentations
– Spreadsheets
• Effective for group activities inside and outside the
classroom
• Lecturer can provide feedback and comment on
document
• Students can work together on the same document
• Documents can be shared with anyone
• Available at: https://docs.google.com/

21. VoiceThread
• Online collaboration tool
• Load resources online (to create a voicethread)
– Videos / pictures / presentations / documents
• Share the voicethread with your students
• Students are able to comment, critique, debate
and ask questions
• Effective to gauge understanding and to engage
students in a ‘non threatening’ environment
• Available at: http://voicethread.com/

22. COMMUNICATION TOOLS

23. Google talk
• Part of Google interface
• Available across devices
• Allows students to engage with classmates and
lecturers
• Connect with students without sharing your
phone number
• Students are able to see if you are online or not.
• Available at: www.google.co.za/talk/

24. Skype
• A free and easy way for teachers to open up
their classroom.
• Meet new people
• Talk to experts
• Share ideas & collaborate with others
• Open classroom to guest speakers & industry
experts
• Available at: https://education.skype.com/

25. Twitter
• Remind students of due dates and assessments
• Get students to follow specific people and to note
trends in industry
• 140 characters encourage students to be concise –
allowing students to provide feedback
• Students are able to stay current with events and
provide feedback on these
• Create your own learning space
• Live tweets of an event as it happens for real time
feedback
• Application is mobile
• Engage with students outside the classroom
• Available at: https://twitter.com/

26. COURSE MANAGERS

27. CourseSites
• All the online teaching tools you need in one place
• Effective tool for the Blended Learning environment
• Interactive, Free Online Learning Platform
• Add a web–based component to lecturing
• Create your own page “address”
• Engage students Anywhere, Anytime, Anyplace
• Post and update course material
• Interact with students
• Promote collaboration
• Assess and improve performance
• Create webinares
• Available at: https://www.coursesites.com/

28. Edmodo
• Social media platform
– Leverage social media to engage with students
• Create a digital classroom
• Share resources with students
• Students engage with their classmates
• Groups available to allow collaboration with other
educators
• Set assignments and provide feedback
– Effective for assignment drafts
• Set a variety of quizzes and polls to gauge understanding
– Useful for mock tests
• Available at: www.edmodo.com/

29. CREATIVITY TOOLS
(TO DEMONSTRATE STUDENT LEARNING)

30. Glogster
• Interactive posters
– Includes text, videos, sound & images
• Connect with your students and view their
progress on their Glogs
– Also comment on the Glogs
• Effective for visual learners to present work
– Alternative to linear PowerPoint presentations
• Effective tool to summarize learning
• Glogs can be embedded into websites or blogs
• Allows for social sharing
• Available at: http://edu.glogster.com/

31. Thinglink
• Create multimedia images
• Get students to access credible information on the
Web your module
• Students can create a thinglink to tell a story or to
demonstrate their understanding of a topic in a
creative way.
• Prepare a lesson using this tool for specific learning
objectives
– Using the wireless network
• Use an image and insert a video, text, podcast or URL
link to a specific web page.
• Embed into a website
• Available at: www.thinglink.com/

32. Windows Movie Maker
• Video editing software
• Combine voiceovers, music, video clips and images into
a movie
• Get students to use software to create their own
content do demonstrate their learning
• Can effectively be used to explain a difficult concept to
peers
• Software compatible with YouTube uploads
• Free download at: http://windows.microsoft.com/is-
IS/windows-live/movie-maker-get-started

33. CURATING

34. Paper.li
• Create an online newspaper
• Effective to encourage students (in my case journalism
students) to read
• Allows one to curate on any topic you find interesting
based on your social media network and other online
content.
• Information are presented in more bite size pieces
– Newspaper can be published daily, weekly or monthly.
• Use content from twitter or RSS feeds to publish
• Also has a bookmarket that allows one to add specific
information from the net
• Available at: http://paper.li/

35. Pinterest
• Visually stimulating curation site
• Pin information from all over the web onto one
pin board
• Effective to get students to engage with content
online and to share with others
• Linked to facebook and twitter to share
information
• Use it to get students to compile their research in
a fun and interactive way
• Available at: http://pinterest.com/

36. Scoop.it
• A Topic-Centric Curating tool
• Scoop it searches the web based on key words supplied by the
curator
• Effective to collect information relevant to formative assessments
• The curator accepts or discards information
– Or use the bookmarklet to add information directly from the web,
• Allow students to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant
information
• Research is stored in one place for future reference
• As an educator you can follow your student and suggest alternative
sources and comment on scoops
• Students can also trawl other scoop it pages to find relevant
information
• Available at: http://www.scoop.it/

37. FEEDBACK FROM STUDENTS

38. Google forms
• Use Google forms to obtain feedback from students
• Simple online form that can be mailed to students
• Results organized in a spreadsheet
• Use it for quizzes that can be mailed to students
• Effective to tool for students to use for assignments
were surveys are required
• Effective tool to demonstrate student understanding of
questioning techniques
• Available at:
http://www.google.com/drive/start/apps.html

39. Poll everywhere
• Instant audience feedback
• Easy way to gather live responses in any venue
• It works internationally with
texting, web, or Twitter
• Simple and flexible
• Wireless network recommended
• Embed the poll into a PowerPoint presentation
• Available at: http://www.polleverywhere.com/

40. Survey Monkey
• Most popular online survey tool.
• Send free surveys, polls and questionnaires
• Gives access to survey questions and
professional templates
• Allows for informal feedback from students to
reflect on one’s teaching
• Generate relevant data for teaching portfolio
• Available at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/

41. PRESENTATION TOOLS

42. Slide Rocket
• Online PowerPoint tools
– Needs to connect to the internet
• Available on mobile devices
• Allows one to embed polls, twitter feeds and data from
Google docs
• Allows for collaboration
• Share slides/presentations with ease
– No more large e-mails
• Embed presentation into a webpage
• Effective to include in a student’s online portfolio
• Alternative to PowerPoint for students not running
Microsoft Office
• Available at: http://www.sliderocket.com/

43. Prezi
• A visual journey
– More visually stimulating than an ordinary presentation
– Lecturers are more stimulating and memorable
– Embed videos, images and links
– Provides an overview of entire lecture
– Share presentation online for students to download
• Mobile – available in the cloud
• Works online and offline
• Requires flash to run
• One is able to upload current PowerPoint slides to edit into
a Prezi presentation
• Available at: http://prezi.com/

44. SlideShare
• Share presentations online
– Makes lecture slides accessible anytime, anywhere, anyplace
• Slideshare is mobile
• Load presentations online and share link to digital media:
– Manually, twitter, LinkedIn, facebook
• Download presentations on almost any topic
• Embed in blogs and websites
• Improve own presentation skills
• Create slidecasts
• Effective way to encourage students to share material
– Receive critique and to defend their content
• Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/

45. PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

46. Diigo
• Social Bookmarking site
– collaborative research tool, and a social content site
• Diigo is mobile
• Highlight text and attach sticky notes to specific parts of
web pages.
• Highlights and notes remain even when you navigate away
from the page
• Allows for privacy control: private, public, or shared with a
group
– Share you “Diigoed” page with anyone
• File annotated webpages in one place
• Effective for collective research
– Image the possibilities for group work
• Available at: http://www.diigo.com/

47. Dropbox
• Stores information online
– One can access it anywhere from mobile devices
• Mange your own material and make it more accessible
to other lecturers and students
• Sycs to other applications like Evernote
• Share information (folder) with students and visa versa
– Store additional copies of notes
– Share PowerPoint slides
– Student can submit tasks and assignment drafts
• Available at: https://www.dropbox.com/

48. Google Alerts
• Set e-mail alerts for specific topics
• Google alerts bring the information to your inbox
• Enter a query that you’re interested in
• Google Alerts checks for new results for your query:
– Searches the Web, News and Bloggs
• If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to you in
an email
• Easier to keep track of research
• Assist students in setting up a query to gather research for
tasks and assessments.
– Consider creating a task that will assist students in identifying
appropriate, accurate and relevant information
– Delete or edit alert once activity has been completed
• Available at: www.google.co.za/alerts

49. Google Drive
• Very effective for educators using Google extensively
– Alternative to dropbox
• Encourage each student to create a gmail account
• Upload and share resources with students – directly to
their drives
• Share tasks and notes with students
• Collaborate on all Google documents
• Access Google drive anywhere (mobile)
• Share different documents or folders with specific students
or groups
• Edit access to information once activity is complete
• Keep information stored for use with another group of
students
• Available at: https://accounts.google.com/

50. QUESTIONING TOOLS

51. Socrative
• Online application
• Student response application
• Best suited for mini-assessments
• Available on any device
• Short answer questions or MCQ
• Multiple choice questions are automatically graded
• Receiver a detailed report on completion of exercises
• Space rocket race
– Fun way to engage students in a competitive and fun way
• Available at: http://www.socrative.com

52. Quizlet
• Online learning tool
• Offers 6 different approaches or “tests”
– Flashcards - Flip through material to familiarize oneself with it
– Learn Mode allows a student to track their progress and review
the things they got wrong.
– Match words to their definitions
– Speller asks students to type what you hear
– Prepare for the actual test with an automatically graded quiz.
– Space Race: Earn points by typing in words before
their definitions vanish off the screen.
• Allows for collaboration
• Is effective inside and outside the classroom
• Available at: http://quizlet.com/

53. ProProfs Quizmaker
• More advanced online assessment
• Add videos, pictures and other media to tests
• Timed tests
• Tests are randomized to prevent cheating
• Tests are scored
• Provides students with feedback
• Very effective for revision exercises
• Accessible across devices
• Available at: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-
school/

54. SCREENCASTS

55. Screencast-o-matic
• Free online software to create screencasts
• Up to 15minutes for free version
– Paid for version allows for unlimited recording time
• Create tutorials for students
• Create videos of difficult content for students to view
later
• Download videos to computer and share using Google
drive or Dropbox
• Automatically converts videos for YouTube uploads
• Available at: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

56. TIME LINES

57. Dipity
• Interactive, multimedia timelines
• Allow viewers to comment on, or edit your timeline, making
collaboration so much easier.
• create a timeline that includes additional resources;
– like websites and videos, attached to each event
– share specific resources with students
• The "add source function" allows you to feed other online account
data, such as Flickr, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Twitter and other RSS feeds
into your timeline.
• Display the information as a timeline as a flipbook or a list of
events,
• Share your Twitter feed with students
– Dipity will update the timeline with every tweet
• Embed the timeline into a website or blog
• Available at: http://www.dipity.com/

58. TimeToast
• Interactive timelines
• Easy to use
• Limit to events after year 0 as BC is not supported
• Get students to create a timeline themselves in
order to remember dates and events
• Use it as an easy activity for students to show a
summary of the dates and events
• Available at: http://www.timetoast.com/

59. ADDITIONAL TOOLS

60. Additional resources
• For more applications in education please look at the
following links:
– By category:
• https://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/w/page/17801672/Fron
tPage
– Most popular web tools that every lecturer should know
about:
• http://www.slideshare.net/janehart/top-100-tools-for-learning-
2011?from=ss_embed
– Top 100 learning tools for 2012:
• http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools-2012/
– Other tools to explore:
• http://pinterest.com/esheninger/web-2-0-tools-for-educators/