Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools

With a wealth of free education resources available online, you may find it difficult to know where to start. Here is a list of my 10 favourite Web 2.0 tools to get you started:

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1. Animoto - Animoto.com - If you have never used Animoto in the classroom to create online slideshows, then now is the time to start. With just a few clicks you can quickly turn your photos and videos into an animated, show stopping, musical masterpiece for free! There are numerous ways in which Animoto can be used in the classroom. Biographies, field trips, digital storytelling, science projects and more can all be captured with this quick and easy slideshow tool. 
   
2. Prezi - www.prezi.com - is a Flash-based online app that lets you break away from the slide-by-slide approach of most presentation software. Instead, it allows you to create non-linear presentations where you can zoom in and out of a visual map containing words, links, images, videos, and more. 
   
3. Xtranormal - xtranormal.com - is a text-to-movie website which allows you and your students to create short films with your own scripts using very clever text-to- speech technology. This means your students write scripts and then feed them into Xtranormal to produce films with characters enacting them. 
   
4. Voki - voki.com - A Voki is a free service that allows you to create personalised speaking avatars and use them on your blog, website, and in email messages. 
   
5. Weebly - weebly.com - Websites and Blogs are increasingly being used in education by teachers and students. Having a classroom website or blog can benefit everyone involved including the students, the teacher, and the parents. Free online tools such as Weebly allow teachers to create secure student blogs, or classroom websites, with little or no prior technical knowledge! 
6. Glogster EDU - edu.glogster.com - is a fantastic, free, education website for teachers to use with their students. It allows you to create interactive posters that include text, video, hyperlinks, and im-ages. Glogster is a great technology tool to use in the classroom because it is so flexible. You can use it for biographies, time lines, math formulas, instructional writing and experiment results. You can also use Glogster to create resources to support your teaching e.g. Starter or plenary activities. 
   
7. Wikispaces Classroom - wikispaces.com - Wikis are a great places for students to collaborate on projects. Wikispaces Classroom builds on the collaborative editing features of a wiki but includes some additional functionality to support classroom use, features such as social interaction and formative assessment.
8. Edmodo - edmodo.com - Edmodo is a FREE 'Social Networking' environment for students, partents and teachers. It provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. In fact, many schools are ditching their VLE's in preference to edmodo. Teachers and students can post messages, discuss topics, assign and grade work. Edmodo also allows you to share digital content such as links, pictures, videos, documents etc. Edmodo is accessible online and from any mobile device via free smart phone applications. 
9. Infogr.am - Infogr.am - is an online tool which enables you to easily create and share infographics. Infogr.am allows you to choose from a set of pre-defined templates which you are able to edit online. Once you have created your infographic, Infogr.am allows you to share it with others or embed it into your own website or VLE. Infogr.am also offer a PRO version which allows you to download your infographic as a high quality .PDF or .PNG file. Infogr.am also allows you to import your data directly from MS Excel or via .CSV file.
   
10. Zondle - zondle.com - enables teachers and students to create games to support their learning. Teachers create and set topics on the zondle website for their students to play in games of their choosing. Students can also use the zondle website to create their own topics to match exactly what they want to learn, or to view their personal progress. Teachers can also use the zondle website to manage their zondle classes and view progress (with the zondle Gradebook).

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