The 30 Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers (2012 Edition)

 A cross-post from edudemic.com

Looking for the best cloud computing software for your school? What about a way to remotely store homework and other assignments? It’s time to figure out which web 2.0 tool is right for you!
The following presentation contains dozens of the most popular tools being used in classrooms right now. In fact, I’ve personally used more than 90% of these tools in higher education. They’re useful, most are free (some are freemium), and true time-savers. You’ve probably heard of some but I can almost guarantee there’s something new here for you.
See Also: The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You
Each slide in the below presentation by Rafael Scapin contains the name, description, link, and screenshot of what each tool looks like and does. What else could you need? Enjoy!

Edudemic’s Recommendations

If you’re looking to try out some of these tools, here are the top 5 tools we recommend you try out (if you haven’t already).
Slideshare - Get the credit and audience you deserve for your presentations! They may be embedded in a website just like this one or even on a fancier site like the NYTimes, etc.
Scoop.it - A stellar social bookmarking service that is being used by a ton of teachers right now. We try our best to keep the Edudemic Scoop.it feed updated!
PlanBoard - It’s an online lesson planner made for teachers. Create, share, and manage lesson plans with simple and easy to use lesson plan templates.
Evernote - Featured in Edudemic Magazine numerous times, we love all things Evernote. It’s insanely popular in education and useful for teachers, students, parents, and just about anyone who wants to remember what they’ve done.
Dropbox - I use Dropbox every day. I had to up to the 100GB size and feel like I’ll never fill it up. Great for backing up everything, accessing files remotely (even from your smartphone and tablet) and sharing things. I’ve seen it used for handing in homework on a regular basis. Also, you can get an extra 3GB free if you have a .edu address!

The Best Web 2.0 Tools For Teachers

1. Google Drive
2. Dropbox
3. CloudMagic
4. Jumpshare
5. Weebly
6. Issuu
7. ePubBud
8. Infogr.am
9. Text2MindMap
10. EdCanvas
11. KeepVid
12. TubeChop
13. GoAnimate
14. TodaysMeet
15. Slideshare
16. Voki
17. Prezi
18. Record MP3
19. Delicious
20. Jing
21. Pixlr
22. Loopster
23. Evernote
24. Scoop.it
25. Paper.li
26. LiveBinders
27. Join.me
28. Zamzar
29. Poll Everywhere
30. VoiceThread
31. PlanBoard
32. TeachersPayTeachers (TPT)
33. Gnowledge

50 Web 2.0 Tools Every Teacher Should Know About

50 More Tools from Jane Hart

10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics

People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics? What would you make it of? It’s actually easier than you think… even if you have zero design skills whatsoever.
Below are my two favorite infographic-making web 2.0 tools that I highly recommend. They both have pros and cons but in general are great for any beginner or novice designer. If Photoshop is a 4-letter word to you, then these sites are your friend. If you’re a tech-savvy designer and illustrator, it can’t hurt to check out some of the work on these two sites for inspiration.
Click the name of each tool to learn more!

Visual.ly

One of the more popular ways to discover infographics, Visual.ly actually just launched a design overhaul of their website. It’s much more social and easier to share infographics. But since most of us don’t make infographics (yet), let’s focus on the killer tool that Visual.ly does offer: infographic creation.

Dipity

Want to get a beautifully simply visualization of data over time? It’s easy to use Dipity to create certain types of web content in a highly visual format. Consider using Dipity as a tool to map out the history of just about anything by creating multimedia timelines.

Easel.ly

I absolutely love Easel.ly. It was one of the first tools I found that helped me create a few infographics for the Edudemic Magazine. It’s also grown quite substantially over the past few months, yet is still in beta. Therefore, be on the lookout for some more improvements to the web-based software. For now though, easel.ly lets you easily (get it?) create various charts by just clicking and moving the mouse. No data skills required.

Venngage

Venngage (likely named for Venn diagrams) is a double threat. It lets you easily create infographics and other data visualizations but, more importantly, it lets you track the analytics of who is viewing your infographic. Could be great for a classroom of students who want to see who can make the most popular infographic!

Infogr.am

One of the most simple tools, Infogr.am lets you actually import data right into the site and then translate it all into useful visualizations. What could be better than that? I could see this being useful for making large posters showing off attendance, performance on certain metrics, and other classroom-based data streams.

Tableau Public

Made for Windows, Tableau Public lets you (like Infogr.am) bring your actual data into the world of visualzation. I like their maps feature but can see the value of using the tool on a regular basis thanks to the ‘live dashboard’ that lets you monitor all aspects of your design. Great for teachers without a lot of time or for a project-based learning environment that wants to track metrics. Best of all, you can make the infographics into interactive web-based visualizations with ease.

Photo Stats

This one’s an iPhone app that’s worth trying out. It simply analyzes the photos on your iPhone and then turns them into nifty infographics. Pretty simple and could be fun for trying out every once in awhile. Costs $0.99 but would be fun to use for a 1:1 or PBL classroom that takes photos on a regular basis. Good for tracking usage of the iPhone’s camera etc.

What About Me?

Want to show off your social media skills? Intel whipped up a nifty tool that I haven’t seen mentioned in many education blogs so I figured it’d be helpful to share. The tool is called What About Me? and it lets you create an infographic based on your social media accounts. Visual.ly also does this but this tool ties in a few more social networks. YouTube, for example. Great for a classroom of avid social media users!

Gliffy

Want to spice up your next faculty or staff meeting? Gliffy (love the name, btw) lets you whip up flowcharts, floor plans, and pretty technical renderings with ease. It reminds me of Prezi but generates static images. Useful for presentations by both teachers and students.

Piktochart

Saving the best (imho) for last! A favorite of the Edudemic audience, Piktochart is a great way to visualize just about anything. You can drag and drop your way to visual success by using Piktochart’s themes and other ready-made tools. Piktochart lets anyone (even those without design skills) become a graphic designer in no time!

The Teacher’s Quick Guide To Education Technology

Technology has become an integral part of our daily lives: we use it to learn, to shop, to pay bills, and to entertain ourselves. Not surprisingly, younger generations are heavily influenced by computers in a way that changes the way they retain information and the ways they develop opinions about culture.
Today 70% of children between the ages of 2-5 can operate a computer mouse, but only 11% of them can tie their own shoes. At the start of the 21st century only half of all school classrooms had Internet access, compared to 98% today.
The proliferation and sheer breadth of accessibility that the Internet offers has in many ways redefined the process of “growing up” — this graphic explores this redefinition and provides insight into not just how we learn stuff, but also what we learn from a young age now that we have computers.
Check out this incredibly long but extremely useful infographic from Learn Stuff to ‘learn’ even more!

The Must-Have EdTech Cheat Sheet

There’s a whole galaxy of terminology that you should know about when it comes to education technology. From PLNs to Blended Learning to Synchronous Online Learning… it can get overwhelming.
Lucky for all of us, the co-founder of Boundless clued me into a fabulous new infographic they just launched. Dubbed the EdTech Cheat Sheet, I think it’s one of the most useful infographics out there today. You should consider printing this out and keeping it handy should you ever come across some crazy term that doesn’t make sense to you.
Check out Boundless as well, they’re a startup that lets students rely less on textbooks and spend more time actively learning. Very cool.

Click here to download the picture.
Copied from http://edudemic.com/2012/07/edtech-cheat-sheet/