Literacy Tools for Desktop Users

Essential and Recommended:
And more - also highly recommended - not a comprehensive list, but a list of tools I currently feel are the best

Create
  • Animoto lite - 30 seconds of free video from your image set (a short advertisement) - supplies music too - great create tool 
  • dafont.com - open source fonts that can be freely downloaded and used 
  • Glogster - interactive digital "poster" can embed most media formats - Glogster EDU expands the toolkit and makes it safe for classroom use - see this idea for using Glogster as the central tool for class presentations
  • Joost - source for media video - shows, film shorts, etc.
  • Make Beliefs Comix! - story starters, online comic maker, posters, more
  • Motivational Poster Maker
  • Online Convert  - upload an audio, video, document, image or ebook file - quickly convert it to a better format for sharing - QR code is automatically generated (where file limit is not exceeded), but this only good for 24 hours (then the files are deleted from the Online Convert servers) - it is necessary to upload the file to the web and then create new QR code at a site like Kerem Erkan (more options) or Kaywa
  • Prezi - now that there is a mobile viewer, students and teachers should make more, and better, use of the create and communicate tool 
  • TeacherTube - create an account and share your instructional videos - view others - alternative to YouTube for Teachers or Vimeo
  • Thinglink - create sound and text interactive images - sort of an interactive collage that can be easily embedded in blog and wiki spaces - an alternative to Glogster
  • TwHistory - a create tool that creates a virtual Twitter stream as a research product - or view archived streams
  • Vimeo - free video upload - HD too
  • Visual Persuasion - tools and tips from a master - includes good sample made in Animoto 
  • WeVideo - free online hosting of video (1 G) - upload from mobile devices! - editing

Communicate - Write - Share
  • bitly - a browser extention that is extremely useful for shortening URL's - as a registered user,  you can also store and organize URL's and rename shortened URL's so they are more familiar to students
  • dafont.com - open source fonts that can be freely downloaded and used 
  • Dropbox - a non-mobile client for the teacher and an account with student folders is essential if mobile devices are going to be used with students
  • ed.VoiceThread - for education - free student blogging platform with excellent administration - an alternative to Google accounts
  • Edmodo - microblogging for schools - free & has an mobile app - can be the central communication tool for a classroom
  • Evernote - a free tool for cross-platform file sharing, many find this to be the essential tool for collaboration and organization of information - begin reading about it here
  • Google URL shortener - this tool will also generate QR code for the URL
  • G-Snap - this is a free "live blogging" tool - during a lesson, students can interact in a blogging environment (ask and answer questions, comment) - read here about how an ELA teacher used it to focus a Wizard of Oz lesson
  • Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers
  • Little Bird Tales - similar to screencast apps, this web-based story building platform enables the creation and sharing (via discrete URL) original student work that includes visuals and narration - multiple uses in any class
  • TeacherTube - create an account and share your instructional videos - view others - alternative to YouTube for Teachers or Vimeo
  • TitanPad - no account needed for collaborative writing - alternative to Google Docs
  • Videodropper - send / download YouTube videos to your Dropbox - avoid all of those download to email steps!
  • WeVideo - free online hosting of video (1 G) - upload from mobile devices! - editing
Access - Locate
  • A Cleaner Internet - add-on for browser - view YouTube videos without ads or the distraction of the sidebar 
  • Creative Commons Search - essential tool for creative projects - points students to open source and copyright free materials (images, videos, sounds)
  • TeacherTube - create an account and share your instructional videos - view others - alternative to YouTube for Teachers or Vimeo 
  • Vimeo - free video upload - HD too - alternative to YouTube and TeacherTube
  • YouTube for Teachers
Read - Analyze - View - Listen
  • 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - download the free version of the spreadsheet, v.4 (2011 list), or purchase the more extensive spreadsheets, or just browse through the site - the updates on books read, added, deleted make for excellent and thoughtful reading - there is an RSS feed - the description of the Rating system is also interesting, something that students can take on with an fiction text - HS students might start with the Hall of Fame
  • Book Drum - reader-created resources for novel study - HS - includes maps, visuals, summaries - student readers can contribute 
  • Bookspace - great place to look for "book like..." - includes "like an author" as well as links to excellent current booklists 
  • Cool Infographics - daily infographic, most accessible to middle and high school students - searchable - subscribe - for uses of this site and others like it, read Teaching Infographics - Teaching Reading
  • eReading Worksheets - free flipped mini-lessons, worksheets on most ELA topics -  don't waste your time reinventing the wheel!
  • Exploratree Thinking Guides - Mapping templates for classroom use - teachers can share their own templates as well
  • HELPS Program - free tools for early fluency assessment and development 
  • Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers
  • The Lexile Framework for Reading - most (by no means all) k-12 fiction and key NF texts are lexiled here - import formatted text to lexile it - locate books within a lexile range
  • Lit2Go - download .mp3 texts
  • Literature Map - find a similar author - fabulous resource for lit circles or free reading
  • Mindmeister - collaborative mapping
  • National Science Foundation Award-winning Science Visualizations - photography, video, interactive sites - great tools for learning to "read" media
  • Readability - like TidyRead (below), an essential tool for making web pages accessible
  • TagCrowd - like Wordle - visual word frequency
  • Tagul - like Wordle but more creative choices
  • TED talks - 10 minute talks perfect for use in the classroom (even for elementary) 
  • TidyRead - see Readability (above)
  • What Should I Read Next?  - great way to get ideas for novel units and it circles - includes wide range of recent titles 
  • Wordle
Assess
  • HELPS Program - free tools for early fluency assessment and development  
  • Poll Everywhere - in conjunction with cell phones (for texting), iPads, or laptops, and a projector, create almost instant 1-question poll assessments - read about a use of it here
  • Socrative - use laptops and mobile devices to create a student-response system
  • Trails - information literacy online assessment tools - essential for evaluation of student understanding of information literacy

Collaborate
  • Crocadoc: Collaborative Document Annotator - .pdf, Word, many others annotated collaboratively, in real time - WOW! for the ELA classroom 
  • Edmodo - microblogging for schools - free & has an mobile app - can be the central communication tool for a classroom
  • Mindmeister - collaborative mapping
  • Poll Everywhere - instant texting polls - free 1-question polls
  • TitanPad - no account needed for collaborative writing - alternative to Google Docs
Think / Problem-Solve
  • RoboZZle is a new programming website - yes, this set of thinking skills will improve both reading and writing - collaborate and share programs
  • Scratch is a programming website that has been around for quite a while - it is a lot more visual than RoboZZle - collaborate and share programs
  • Mindmeister - collaborative mapping
Basic Skills - Core Knowledge

Check these out on your own:
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