Web 2.0 Links

Brainflips - Brainflips claim they are the most user-friendly and effective flashcards anywhere--for students and self-motivated learners of all ages and academic levels. BrainFlips is a free one-stop source for flashcards on any subject.  Features include:   full multimedia flashcards--text, images, audio, and video; fun, easy to use interface; outstanding community features like study groups and wiki flashcard decks; multiple modes of study; and artificial intelligence that targets learning and makes study time more efficient

irubric - iRubric is a comprehensive rubric development, assessment, and sharing tool. iRubric supports a variety of applications in an easy-to-use package and is  free to individual faculty and students.

goanimate -  This is an entertainment website that enables the simple creation of unique computer animated stories, satires and sentiments that can be shared. The site offers simple to more advanced innovative features that provide users with a wide array of possibilities for customizing their animations. Historically, the creation of animation required specific skills, limiting those who can express their creativity. This site was designed  to allow users to create animations without drawing talent or a technical understanding of advanced software such as Flash. The site provides users with a library of interesting characters, backgrounds, props, sound effects and music for use in creating their own unique animations.

jeopardylabs.com - Jeopardy Labs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you make can be played online from anywhere in the world. Building your own jeopardy template is easy with their simple editor.  Not interested in building your own jeopardy templates?  You can browse other jeopardy templates created by other people.

ReadTheWords is a free, web based service that assists people with written material. This is done by using TTS Technology, or Text To Speech Technology. You can generate a clear sounding audio file from almost any written material. They generate a voice that reads the words out loud.  You input the words by typing, copying and pasting, or uploading a file.   They have 15 voices and they can read Spanish and French also.  The file can be saved in various formats.

mywebspiration  - combines the power of visual thinking and outlining to enhance thinking, learning and collaboration. Use Webspiration to map out ideas, organize with outlines, and collaborate online with teams or colleagues. Create concept maps, graphic organizers, mind maps, idea webs in Webspiration's Diagram View. Build organized outlines, plans and reports with Webspiration's Outline View.

flickr is a free online photo management and sharing application with two main goals:  1) to help people make their photos available to others; and 2) to enable new ways of organizing photos.  Flickr wants to get photos into and out of the system in as many ways as possible:  from the web, mobile devices, home computers to RSS feeds, email, posting to blogs, etc.  Flickr also makes the process of organizing photos collaborative.  Others can add comments, notes, and tags which go into metadata which can be searched.

pageflakes – easily customize the Internet and make it yours using "flakes" - small, movable versions of all of your Web favorites that you can arrange on your personal homepage. Flakes are available for thousands of uses and interests:   news, sports, e-mail, local events, search, photos, music, videos, interactive tools like a calendar and a to-do list, and just about anything else you do on the Web at school, work and at home.   This site is free.

wikispaces -  Wikispaces is an attempt to build a wiki that's easy to use and easy to adopt for all kinds of audiences.   The majority of tools that exist to publish content on the Internet are either one-to-many (e.g. personal websites, blogs, news sites) or short-lived (forums / message boards, FAQs, etc.). Wikispaces gives groups the freedom to publish pages that are long-lived, regularly updated, and built by many contributors. It gives you the space to both publish and discuss content, without tangling the two together.  Wikispaces wants to give away 100,000 free K-12 Plus wikis. That includes all the features and benefits that normally cost $50/year - for free. No fine print, no usage limits, no advertising, no catches.  Sign up for your free wiki at http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K

del.icio.us - free social bookmarking – keeps all your bookmarks in one place; you can bookmark things for yourself and friends and you can check out what other people are bookmarking.  Access your bookmarks from any computer. 

twitter - Twitter is a free service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?   It allows users to send “updates” to the Twitter website and these are displayed on the user’s profile page and instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

animoto - Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to create a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.  30-second videos are free.  You can also create longer videos for a fee.

Zamar - File Conversion.  Did you ever get a file you couldn't open because you didn't have the right software?  Zamar is a free online file conversion program.  You can convert a 100 MB file for free (or up to 5 files at a time).  They convert text files, PowerPoint, videos, etc.   I recently received a MS Publisher file and I couldn't open it.  Wish I would have known about this website then.  They have a list of the different types of files that they convert.  It is extensive.  If you have a constant need for file conversion, they have various monthly plans that you can purchase that start at $7 a month.

Keepvid - This site enables you to download a copy of videos from such sites as YouTube.com.  It is free.  I saw a Photoshop tutorial on YouTube.  Of course we are blocked from that site at school.  I downloaded the tutorial using KeepVid and was able to show it to my students at school.  

Freeplay Music - Music and sound effects with user-friendly copyright. You can use this music for personal, non-commercial use.  Use this music to add to your home videos or content that you produce for friends or family.  Great for adding music to students PowerPoint or web page presentations if they are only to be shown within the classroom.  Website may not be published.  See Terms of Use Agreement. . 

JING Project - they have a free as well as a paid application that allows you to capture whatever is happening on your computer as a video with voiceover.  I haven't tried this yet, but I would like to try and  make some brief tutorials for my classroom on things like making a transparency in Photoshop.

Shambles. - a one-stop portal for accessing a variety of Web 2.0 applications and services. You will see the sites listed above as well as many, many more.