Digital Bookends

I realized yesterday that I have less than a month before school starts (at least for the teachers), so I am “on a mission” to locate resources that might be useful during the next school year.  Among some of the really cool things that I’ve found are:

 Gliffy: A free online program that allows you to create diagrams, flowcharts, and floorplans online.  This is a great alternative to Inspiration software.

Bubbl.us :  A free online tool to allow you to “brainstorm” with others by creating “bubbles” (that represent ideas).  The brainstorming session can then be emailed to others, posted on a webpage or printed.  Imagine how you can use this with students as you instruct ways to determine what keywords might be used with a database.

Interactive Periodic Table of Elements: What a way to get your science teachers (and their students) excited about using the Periodic Table of Elements.  This interactive table allows users to click on each element square which opens another webpage to Wikipedia’s definition of the element and examples.  Another, more artistically appealing version is the Visual Elements Periodic Table which includes photos, as well as interactive components.

ThinkFree : A completely free “online alternative to Microsoft Office”, ThinkFree lets you create, collaborate on and store documents and files.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets:  A combination of Google’s great features such as Gmail, Talk, Docs & Spreadsheets and Google Calendar in one place for immediate access from any computer. The service comes complete with a “custom domain” on which your documents, mail and conversations are stored.

Zoho: Includes Writer, Spreadsheet, Show, Wiki, Virtual Office, Project management, planner and chat feature. This program offers several options for teachers and librarians —working together??

Backpack: Backpack is loaded with useful organizational tools. Keep your pages private or share them, schedule text message and email alerts and enjoy regular online-office services such as a calendar and to-do lists. 

These are only a few of the long list of new resources that I’ve discovered.  I’m looking for additional links of how others are using these tools in educational settings.  There are SO many interesting things to use—-now, can librarians have access to them or will they be blocked in most districts?  How can we teach students ways to work in a 2.0 world when we are only given access to early 20th century resources (printed books, magazines, films, audio recordings, etc.)? 

More to come….