FREE educator accounts for web 2.0 resources

I mentioned in an earlier post on 6 word memoirs that Animoto has educator accounts available.  What other great web 2.0 resources have accounts specifically for educators?  This is my first attempt to compile a list and any help you wish to throw my way would be greatly appreciated.  Know of any educator friendly sites?  Let me know!

Animoto is for making videos, Kerpoof for creating stories/cartoons/etc., PBWorks is for making wikis, Weebly for making websites, and Prezi if for making presentations.  A FANTASTIC start to building an educator toolbox for your classroom!

Animoto for Education
TIPS:

• Leave time to acquire your account - I applied and waited a couple of weeks before receiving mine.  Upon contacting support I was told that they take the applications in the order received.
• Use the gmail trick to set up an account for each student.  Have student accounts funnel into a teacher gmail account - you will see any projects they complete this way.
  

From the Animoto online brochure:

Your classroom will never be the same.

Your students are using the Internet to learn already, so engage them on their own turf with Web 2.0 tools like Animoto. Animoto is a web application that turns pictures and text into beautiful video clips with the click of a button.

Use it to create content for your lesson plans, assignments, or course materials - or even have your students create their own educational pieces.

Free All-Access Passes

Teachers and students get free All-Access Passes, giving them unlimited full-length video creations. Post your videos to YouTube, put them on your class's blog, download them for
in-class presentations, email them out to parents, use them to recap a semester or year, and so much more!

Welcome to the cutting edge of online educational tools.

Kerpoof
Teacher accounts
TIPS:

•  Take a look at the lesson plans - I really like the fairy tale one!
  

From the Kerpoof FAQs:

Kerpoof's free teacher accounts give you access to a range of classroom administration tools.

You'll be able to register all your students, manage their accounts according to class, and control access to collaboration features (group galleries, message boards, chat and Buddy Draw). The collaboration features are generally members-only, but your students will enjoy free access if you register them with your teacher account.

Teacher accounts come with several practical benefits, such as the ability to reset forgotten passwords, monitor activity and delete inappropriate messages. Once your account has been created, you can access these tools at the following url: http://www.kerpoof.com/teacher_tools.

To apply for a teacher account, please fill out the form below (you'll need a Kerpoof nickname). If possible, include an email address that is clearly associated with your school district. We will contact you via e-mail to further verify your identity.

Kerpoof respects your privacy. The information you enter on this form will not be shared, sold, or used for any purpose other than creating and servicing your Teacher Account.

Thank you for your interest in Kerpoof!

PBWorks for Education

From the PBWorks for Education page:

PBworks lets you create a secure online workspace in about 60 seconds. Encourage classroom participation with interactive wiki pages that students can view and edit from any computer.
Share class resources and completed student work with parents. You can even collaborate with fellow educators on courses and curriculum, and manage the work of running your school or district.

Weebly for Education
drag & drop editing
no ads


From the online information at Weebly:

Weebly for Education is Perfect for You and Your Students

Weebly is perfect for creating classroom websites, student e-portfolios, and websites for assigned projects. Our drag & drop website editor is stunningly simple to use, and appropriate for use with students of all ages. Weebly enables your students to express themselves creatively using a variety of multimedia features, all within a protected environment that you control. Weebly was named one of TIME's 50 Best Websites of the year

Prezi

TIPS:
 Click on GET under the EduEnjoy license - enter in your teaching email & school website.
From the Prezi blog:

Educational License

In response to a growing demand, (read the open letter to the Prezi CEO, demanding a school license) we developed an educational license pack. Students and teachers can now create private prezis for free. They can have Prezi Desktop at a special price. Upon verification of student/teacher identity, Prezi EDUEnjoy is free and Prezi EDUPro comes with a special educational discount.

Snippets can be deep too you know...

I have given myself permission to ease into blogging.  Started off strong with a couple of interesting posts, but then just couldn't find the time, energy, whatever, to keep going.  This may be because I try to put together large ideas and elaborate thoughts out each time.  For me, that isn't sustainable right now.  However, I do not wish to give up blogging.  Plus, I really wish to have a spot to put ideas and thoughts.  I'm going for snippets instead.

This way there is still a record of my ideas and thoughts that I can refer back to.  Hopefully there will be time and motivation to expand on some of them.

Hey, at least I've been keeping up with my 365 project!

Tackling 2010 - One Pixel at a Time

Photography has always been of interest to me, although I am very much a novice.  Along with my 2010 resolution to begin a blog, I decided to start a 365 project.  From the 365 Project website:

What is the 365 Project?

The 365 project aims to collect photos documenting 1 year of your life. We want to build a picture of the little day to day things that make your life so special and unique. Everyone can take part and join in! All you need is a camera.

I have a camera.  Am I ready to take on the challenge of one photo a day for the next year?  I think so. I am willing to take some pictures with my cell phone camera when nothing else is available.  I am willing to submit pictures that are just that... pictures, not every day will produce a masterpiece.  I am ready to look at the world through the lens of a camera each and every day for the next year.

Let's begin with some research first.  Photojojo has a nice article, Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way.  My favorite piece of advice here is "Don't Stop, No Matter What".  Wonder how many days into this project I will need to revisit THAT sage wisdom?  Day 72?  134?  This is a big commitment.  But it's time to push past the comfort zone (brave the deep, right?) and try the project even though I could possibly fail at it.  It's OK to make the jump.

Before I jump, I usually start researching and one of the best methods I have to do this is to take my questions to my Twitter PLN.  One great find (from PLN friend @hadleyjf) is the article The Top 10 Tips for Surviving the 365 Project Thread!  I also found several other Tweeters beginning the project for the first time.  We have now begun to connect through Flickr groups.  I am trying:
     Project 365,
     2010/365photos
     Twitter PLN 365/2010 Group 

One more group, EduImages, also has a corresponding wiki (Thinking About Words Through Images) that I will try to contribute to on a monthly basis.  This is a group started by @paulawhite, she writes:

Many of us join a 365 project only to feel bad when we cannot keep it going for every day of the year. Some of us DO keep it going and find new ways to look at our lives as we look through the lens of a camera. Thinking of taking a picture every day often makes us look at our world differently.

Many of us, as educators, rarely go for long without thinking of our kids, our classroom, a lesson, a plan, or something to do with school. SInce we do that, and since everyone seems to enjoy looking for pictures for a 'photo a day' project, it might be fun to combine the two. What if we took a conceptual look at our world, through our eyes as parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and colleagues, yet keeping in mind our calling--our profession--our jobs as educators?

The idea is for each of us to take pictures throughout the month where all the photos share visual representations of our understanding of the word we have chosen or the word we choose for that month. At the end of the month, we write a synopsis of our process on the wiki page, include a link to our set of pictures and perhaps post the one we like best on the wiki as well. Thus, each page of the wiki becomes a compilation of our collective understanding of the word of the month. (You can take a picture a day, one a week, or just when the mood strikes or you see something that resonates with you.) The options are open, so you can fit this into YOUR schedule.

There are many groups to choose from and I may have overdone it by choosing more than just one, but this is also an opportunity for me to expand my PLN and learn more about Flickr as well.  Thanks to @DoremiGirl and @lhiltbr for introducing me to these great groups!

So, I began taking pictures on Dec 28, 2009 (my anniversary).  I find it interesting that so many people feel the need to start on Jan 1.  If you missed that date, jump in on the 3rd!  Try starting in March!  It doesn't have to be the first day of the calendar year - make this work for YOU.

At the top of my blog I added a slideshow from my Flickr 365 set to show off my pictures.  Taking this further, @McTeach has a fantastic new blog to showcase the daily pictures.  I may try that next year!

Another thing I will try is to load my pictures to my Shuttercal account.  It's a nice way to organize my pictures visually.  I am hoping that Shuttercal boosts their embed capabilities as I would love to see my entire calendar embedded but don't see that as an option yet.  Monthly, I will post the pictures from that month as a mosaic.  This can be made through Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker.

When I first tried to make a mosaic for my December pics, I was frustrated because no matter what I entered (email address, screen name, etc.) the pictures that returned were not mine.  Under FAQs, information to link to Flickr account.  I clicked on the relink your account choice for the screen to authorize access to my Flickr account.  Once linked, I could make a mosaic with my pictures.  Nice to see that there is an "opt-out" option too.  I'm still finding this to be a little dicey, but will keep at it.  I did download my mosaic jpg earlier today fortunately.

Mosaic for December 2009 pictures

Finally, I may make a photo book for myself at the end of the project.  One suggestion is to use Blurb.  I'll keep this in mind towards the end of the year.

So, who's with me?  Any takers to tackle 2010 one pixel at a time?  Let's go!