List of freeware & almost freeware for educational purposes

From day to day I often wonder about exactly how much of the freebies on offer are of any use to teachers.

Having found some pretty decent downloadable freeware programs over the years and having used them I am in a big zone of safety.

As I browse the net and look at ICT in Education blogs from about the world, I am constantly reminded fo how these once downloadable applications are now being offered as live and online without the need for any downloads! Sounds great and I really want to embrace this modus operandi, but I have a very deep unease within me about how fragile these sites might actually be. Day by day I expect them to fold even moreso now in these recessionary times. I hope I am proved wrong.

With the freeware & downloadable options like Gradeway Teacher's Suite once you have it, you have it forever with no worries about when it might disappear.

I am slowly falling in love with three online freeware applications that just have to be used by teachers who are seriousabout integrating ICT into all aspects of learning. Of course there are more applications I already use on a daily basis like the Moodle and the subject / department blog but these three newbies are entertaining me greatly.

1. Engrade - www.engrade.com

A wonderful way to record and keep track of student assessments and tests. Fully customisable and totally online it is the easiest way for teachers to have a gradebook in operation. Like Moodle, your students have to register for your class and once registered a generates access code is given to them so that they have access 24/7 to their academic history and performance. It also prints out individual student reports that can be reviewed at a parent-teacher meeting and then given to the parents to take away for their own files. This is usually greeted with significant levels of thanks and praise!! Let's face it Teacher need that stuff every now and again.

2. PlanbookEdu - www.planbookedu.com

Great for having an online lesson planner. Comes free with basic functionality but for $20 you have full functionality for a year. Now that to me is a little more secure than freeware but pricewise it is a close to freeware as you will get for something that is as good as this. You can attach files to various different lessons and use the calendar to plan ahead on the academic year. I like the fact also that you can print your plan book straight from the browser.

By the way I have paid the €14 for a years access! Cheap at half the price says me.

3. Bambuster - www.bambuser.com

A very nice way to get your videos up online as they happen! Don't know what the ICT policy has to say about live streaming recordings from your classrom but I think it is a great way to keep kids who are absent informed as to what is going on. Omagine being able to sign in to your Maths class from the sick bed and keep an eye on proceedings.

More importnatly you are building up valuable resources if there are topics like those in organic chemistry that are too time consuming or glassware intensive for general experimentation. next best thing is a recording from the lab of a demonstration of said experiment.

Need to practice on this one so will have a look at it here again later.

Online Moodle Setup

Again I have been looking for this type of solution for ages! Now that it is here, I can definitely justify spending the few quid for the schools benefit. must remember to look again at all these options in September as I am still on holidays and should not be thinking of school things a this time :)

Have a look at http://sqooltools.com/index.html

Free Flash Cards

This site looks quite good. Helps to make flash cards for revision with a few clicks. Visit http://cobocards.com/ and see for yourself.

Education 2.0 - Edmodo - Free Private Microblogging For Education

Ok! Now I am enthused. I love the idea of this portal. I have toyed about with it and can see wonderful times ahead!

As it says on the box, "Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files. Teachers have the ability to send alerts, events, and assignments to students. Edmodo also has a public component which allows teachers to post any privately shared item to a public timeline and RSS feed."

I have decided that I am going to run a project. I will now setup all of next years classes and use this as a means of communication with them. I don't know what to do about the blogs I have setup. They are all working very well. Perhaps all that will become clear when I start using this stuff in September.

Anyway go have a look, it's well worth it. It is actually something I have been searching for my whole teaching career. Its available at http://www.edmodo.com

LCA ICT Project Gets Green Light!

At last! We have just signed, sealed and are awaiting delivery of 10 new Netbooks, a wireless router, digital projector and mono laser printer for our LCA suite.

The demands of the LCA course on the existing ICT framework in our school is very heavy and is now causing a detrimental impact on the computer contact time for other students in the school. We need to free up the general computer room whilst increasing the ICT facilities for our LCA students.

It has been decided to make the LCA suite fully ICT proficient in order to meet all the day to day needs of the students and teachers involved in this course.

There is a project framework in place but it has no meat on it yet. I suppose my summer holidays will be slightly compromised by my having to take action on the plan of implementation for September 09.

More later.

Notely - A great online organisational tool

I would urge all of you who are serious about organising your last terms work and preparing for the summer exams to have a look at 'Notely' which is an online organiser.

It is free to register and easy to use. I would urge you to take a look and try it out. http://www.notely.net

Convert from anything to anything!

Another little gem I must add is this universal converter! Available at Format Factory. I hope it is as good as the universal remote when it made its debut.

For Network Administrators

Here is a jewel that one can load up for free and take some of the running around out of your daily routine. Desktop Central

The site that hosts it says "Desktop Central provides a set of free Windows tools that Windows Administrators might require on a day-to-day basis. It has a set of ten tools, viz: Remote Task Manager Tool, Wake on LAN, Software Inventory Tool, Remote Command Prompt Tool, GPO Update, Shutdown/Restart Tool, Join/Unjoin Computer Tool, , Currently Logged On User, Hard Disk Space Detector Tool, and Local Users/Groups List Tool. This is very handy as it can be performed on multiple computers simultaneously. These tools are made available from the Desktop Central family and is provided as a separate download, which is absolutely free to use."

Once again you can't beat free.

Virtual Classroom Online for Free!

I have stumbled across this, what seems to be revolutionary tool for teachers who are serious about integrating ICT into their teaching and more impressively integrating teaching into their ICT.

Have a look at this place, sign up play around and you'll be hooked. All I have to find now are some guinea pigs to test it on.

I am also wondering how long it will last in the present recession?

Virtual Online Classroom

Worksheets for ECDL students and other computer users!

The UK based teach ICT website is packed full of exercises and tutorials that are east to take both online and offline. For all those involved in the teaching of the ECDL course to thier students, this site is a must! http://www.teach-ict.com/

Teacher Training Videos

Thanks to john Heffernan at  NCTE we have a link to a site containing many video tutorials that will bring you through the basics of many applications that are designed to help you in delivering your course content. Visit http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ which will be also posted on the front page of our school website.

Welcome to the ICT Department blog!

As we begin our 'back to basics' ICT campaign which will involve a complete review and overhaul of all existing hardware and software, this blog will help me at least to keep track of all the changes, reach out for new ideas and inform you of new technlogy that we may consider implementing as time goes on.