Animoto is a Web 2.0 tool which is free for educators. It allows the user to import pictures from his or her computer, from other sources such as Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, or from Animoto's own library of pictures and videos. Once the pictures and videos are imported, a movie is created. Not only can you add pictures, but captions can be added as well. Animoto has its own library of music, and other songs can be uploaded (be careful with copyright). Education accounts are free, but the movie is limited to 30 seconds. Below is a sample I created - a very short poem. The pictures I used were all taken from morgueFile free photos.

Now anyone can create a logo with Google font using the Google Logo Maker. Just enter the text in the text box, click create, and Voila! The logo can be downloaded (right-click on the logo to save it) and used in any document or presentation since it is saved as a picture file.

Wordle is a word-cloud creating tool. A word cloud is a visual representation of a set of text or tags. The more frequent a word appears in a text, the larger it will appear in the word cloud. This is a great tool for students to observe the importance of certain words in a speech, paragraph, website, etc. They can also decide on the weight each word has by using the Advanced Wordle Usage. This can be done by entering the word followed by a colon and a number. For example, apple:50, orange:20 would indicate that the word "apple" has a weight of 50 compared to the word "orange" with a weight of 20. The word "apple" would appear larger than the word "orange." See the sample below.

Glogster is a tool that can be used in a variety of ways. It is a place where students and teachers can "blog" their ideas visually. Teachers can assign projects in which students post images, text, videos, and audio to express their viewpoints on a particular topic. The sample below was used for a technology tool training. It does require the Adobe Flash Player. Teachers can create glogs with the free version, but some features will be disabled. Students who are 13 and older can create their own student accounts and link to a teacher's account with an assigned teacher code (teacher will have to give students the code). A fee is only required if the teacher wants to set up a class in order to assign projects and comment on student work. See screenshot of student registration.

Vocaroo is an audio tool that can be used to create mini recordings which can be downloaded to a computer as an audio file or embeded into web pages, wikis, blogs, etc. No registration is required which means that elementary students can use it without the concern that an account needs to be created. This is a great tool for targeting the proficiency level descriptors of the English Language Profiency Standards (ELPS) or simply for practicing speaking and listening. Of course, teachers should still be cautious about keeping their students' information confidential and should provide guidelines for their students when posting text, graphics, and audio (e.g. not to post personal information such as full name, school, address, etc.) in order to comply with CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act).

Some ways students can use Vocaroo in the classroom are
1) present 30-60-second summary of a story
2) present an audio infomercial of a country or some other topic
3) practice reading sentences to improve fluency
4) practice speaking sentences/phrases in a foreign language

Try using the widget below. You can save your recording if you wish.