There are a number of resources that can make it easier for you to get information across to the students and help them share what they have learned. These Web 2.0 tools will help you save your time and stay organized throughout the school year. Here is a list of the top 40 best tools to make life easier once class is in session:
Classroom Tools
Engrade is a platform that allows you to access your curriculum, grade book, seating chart, and connect with parents from your desktop or mobile device.
Animoto is a simple tool that is used to create, customize and share video.
Would you like to be able to make a worksheet or a class page and publish it online? Web Poster Wizard is a free tool with all of these capabilities.
Check out Teacher Planet for lesson plans, rubics, worksheets, teacher tools, and custom certificates.
If you’re not sure how to pronounce something correctly, Forvo can provide the correct way to say words in several languages.
Online Stopwatch is a web-based tool you can use to time tests and assignments.
Crocodoc allows you to convert PDF and Microsoft Office documents to HTML5. You can display students’ work in your browser and edit as required.
Aggregators
FeedReader lets you search, subscribe and view all of your feeds in one convenient place online.
Download RSSReader and display any Atom or RSS news feed. You also have the option of downloading RSS Publisher to create your own podcasts, blogcasts, vblogs, or photoblogs.
. Awasu is a feed reader that is packed full of features for personal and professional information management.
Get your news on your desktop with Aggie, a desktop application that downloads and displays it in a webpage.
WikiNews allows readers to contribute stories for a global audience. Consider incorporating it into a class for your students.
Bookmark Managers
Pinterest is like an online bulletin board. Use it for anything from lesson plans to crafts. You can also use it to network with fellow geeky educators.
Don’t discount Twitter as a tool for managing bookmarks. Not only can it be used as a way to connect with a variety of people, but it can help you and your students keep track of bookmarks when conducting research.
Diigo allows users to collect bookmarks, notes, screenshots and pictures and access them from a desktop computer, iPod, iPad, or Android.
del.icio.us is a free online tool to save and organize bookmarks. Share it with your students so that they can keep their bookmarks organized, too.
Course Management
Use Bubbl.us for class discussions. Students can see the ideas their classmates have mentioned and use them to fuel more interesting concepts.
StudySync is marketed as “the ultimate reading and writing solution.” It helps students read at progressively higher levels using multimedia assignments.
Use RCampus to build a personal or group website, build a virtual community, and manage your courses.
If you want to create, collaborate, and present your ideas with your colleagues, Prezi is just the tool to help you do it.
Foreign language teachers will find dotsub to be a very useful tool. It will help you caption and translate a 10-minute video.
Productivity
If you need to manage multiple tasks, Remember the Milk can help you keep track of it all. Access it from your phone and manage your tasks offline.
TiddlyWiki is a reusable, personal web notebook. Create documents and send them by e-mail, store them in Dropbox or store them on a USB thumb drive.
Convert files without having to download software with Zamzar.
Add 30 Boxes to Google’s Blogger or your Facebook page. You can share it with your friends, family members or students who need to keep track of project due dates.
While you can’t get away from deadlines, HiTask’s drag and drop feature makes it easy to keep on top of the stuff you need to get done. Set meetings or reminders onto a calendar based on your schedule. You can also assign tasks to a certain person by name.
Content Management
Do you have something to say? Start a free blog on the EduBlog platform. Add videos, photos, or podcasts quickly and easily.
SchoolNotes allows you to create notes for class information or homework and post them online in just a few seconds. Parents and students can look for your notes by entering the school zip code into this free resource.
Would you like to be able to share only a specific portion of a YouTube video with your students? TubeChop allow you to make a snippet for a lecture or classroom use.
TeacherTube is your source for video, photo, and audio content. You can search for just the right item by subject, grade level, or how recently it was added.
Storage
Your favorite three-ring binder lives online at LiveBinders.com. Use this resource to organize your resources and store them in one place.
Streamline your lesson plans and collaborate with others using Planboard. It’s a free resource that allows you to select the days of the week and number of periods you will be teaching.
Geeky educators can get up to 15 GB of storage at 4Shared. Use if for files, video, photos, books, or games.
Upload and share photos, flash, audio files, video, and software with HyperFileShare. Anything up to 500 Mbytes can be uploaded, and you also have the option of sharing your files with the HFS community if you wish.
Collaboration
Edmodo is a lot like Twitter, but it was developed for students and teachers. Share content among classmates or another school district.
Skype in the Classroom is available as a free resource to teachers, and it can be used to connect one group of students with learners in another city, state, or country. It can also be used to connect with guest speakers for a project.
Web surfing can now be a team sport with Twiddla. Browse through websites on a shared whiteboard in real time. Try it for 30 days for free.
LiveText is a paid service that offers a solution for lesson planning and student assessment.
Suggest that your students share their notes with each other by posting them with NoteMesh. This free service works by creating a wiki for each class that users are free to contribute to and edit.
Consider Vyew for meetings or student projects. The free version is unlimited for up to 10 people. Continuous rooms are saved and always available. This service is compatible with Mac, PC, powerpoints, images, documents, videos, flash files and mp3s. The best part is that no installation is required.
There are even more kinds of Web 2.0 tools to help you on the job. With the variety available to choose from, you won’t have any difficulty in finding help to stay on track during the school year.