(written by Deborah Rinio) The American Association of School Librarians annual conference is an opportunity to network with colleagues, explore new ideas, and learn new tools. Across 13 different sessions, I encountered over 20 new free online tools and apps that could be used in the school library. I’ve categorized them by platform, and indicated in brackets the type of resource. However, do not let my suggestions constrain you; resources are mostly limited by your imagination.NOTE: There are two ways to view this annotated list: via Symbaloo or via Google Doc. Both provide links to each site. In Symbaloo, orange icons are for Apps, Green icons are for websites, and yellow icons are for cross platform resources.
Apps
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Inkflow (Writing/Drawing)- Inkflow is a notetaking and visual thinking tool. It allows you to type notes, sketches, equations, and more and then rearrange them on the page to make sense of them.
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Aurasma (Communication/Presentation)- Aurasma is an augmented reality app that allows you to add links, videos, animations, and more to any image. When individuals point their app-enabled device at the image, the desired effect occurs. See here for examples.
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Tellagami (Presentation/Communication)- Tellagami allows you to make an animated character, type something for the character to say or record your own voice, and then share your creation. Tellagami is similar to Voki (website only) but more powerful and with more options.
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Chirp (Communication)- Chirp is similar to a QR code, except instead of scanning an image, your device listens for a sound. Any device within sound range of the originating device can hear the chirp and will go to the website it’s “linking” to. Check it out to see how awesome it is.
Websites
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Answer Garden (Collaboration)- Answer Garden, as described on it’s website, is a minimalist survey tool. It allows you to ask one question and then presents the responses in a word cloud. Post it to a blog or share it with students or colleagues for online brainstorming. You can add a password for use in the classroom so only students can access it.
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Vialogues (Collaboration)- An AASL best website from 2012, Vialogues allows you to create video-based conversations. It starts when you post a video you’ve created. You can keep it private by sharing it only with those you invite via email. The invitees can respond with their own video or post text-based comments. You can prompt people with a specific question or leave it open-ended.
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Vokle (Presentation)- Vokle is a means to broadcast live performances. Having students perform in your library, stream their performance live on Vokle. Host a weekly book talk show or more. Viewers can participate by asking live questions via text chat or video.
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InkleWriter (Writing/Collaboration)- This interactive story tool allows one person to start a story and others to add to it, branching off like a choose your own adventure story, or continuing with the main story line. Stories can be shared online or not. For $10, you can even export a finished story to Kindle ebook form. Read this for an example.
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Glossi (Writing/Presentation)- Create an online magazine with this robost tool. Pull in content from your other sites, such as Instagram and Tumblr, or use images from online. Glossi also includes a searchable image bank. Photos from online include links back to their sources. Page templates help you keep things looking nice. The final Glossi can be shared online, embedded into other sites, or kept private.
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Text is Beautiful (Writing/Presentation)- Text is Beautiful creates word clouds like tagxedo, but it works only with chunks of text that are 5,000 words or longer. In addition, it can create a correlation wheel, showing words that are highly correlated within the text.
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Knovio (Presentation)- Ever wanted to add your voice or face to your PowerPoint slides? Bring your PowerPoint slides alive with Knovio. Upload your slides to Knovio, then add your voice or video recording. You can share your slides privately or publically for whatever use you want.
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FatURL (Communication)- Copy and paste up to 36 URLs to create one page with links to all of them and a QR code.
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Thinglink (Presentation)- Upload an image. Then, add links within the image. Links can be to websites, other images, sound bites, videos, whatever you can dream up. This is a great way for students to bring historical images alive or to expound on a piece of art.
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MentorMob (Presentation/Collaboration)- MentorMob is a means for students to collaborate to create learning pathways, composed for videos, links, and information. Students can add to, edit, and comments on each other’s mentormobs. A unique and exciting way to share information.
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Smore (Communication)- Smore is a great way to create dynamic online flyers without a lot of fuss. Smore provides the design, you provide the content, then share your flyer via links, embedding it into other pages, or email. Smore uses Google Analytics to track visits to your flyers so you always know how successful you are.
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Tineye (Other)- Tineye allows you to do a reverse image search. Give it an image and it will locate it on the web.
Cross Platform
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TouchCast (Presentation)- TouchCast is an App that recently released a Desktop version. With TouchCast, you can create interactive multi-layered video. Start with a video, say a speech or a book talk, then add elements that appears during the video. Perhaps a window pops up with the book cover, or another smaller video of the author discussing his book embeds inside the first video, or a map appears showing you where something happened. The viewer can click on the embedded elements to enlarge them and shrink the main video. TouchCast includes a variety of templates as well, so feel free to explore.
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Popplet (Writing/Thinking)- In this App or online program, users can create quick and easy mindmaps with color coded boxes. Perfect for brainstorming or for making 6 word poems.
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Tagxedo (Writing/Thinking)- This website allows you to create fully customizable word clouds based on a chunk of text or a link to a website, blog, rss feed, twitter ID, and more. Use the speech of a famous individual and shape your word clouds to the shape of their face, and then ask your students to guess who they are. Or use the Word Cloud to visual the text of a report or essay.
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Poll Everywhere (Presentation/Collaboration)- Create a question using Poll Everywhere, online or on the App. Users can respond to your question in real time using their computer, smartphones, or via text message. You can view the results online or embedded in your presentation. This is great for immediate feedback to a large crowd, or you can use this to get feedback to an open-ended question and users can vote for each other’s responses.
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Symbaloo (Communication)- Create collections of bookmarks to reference and share.
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Scoop.it (Communication)- Scoop.it is an online curation platform similar to a blog. What’s unique about Scoop.it is that you can share your scoops via all the major social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more. Add a different message to each or use the same. Fully customizable and very easy to share.
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Padlet (Communication/Collaboration)- Padlet starts with a blank page and allows you to add anything to make your own private or shared online space. View their site for examples. A great way for students to collaborate via distance.
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Haiku Deck (Presentation)- An alternative to PowerPoint. Although Haiku Deck is not as powerful as PowerPoint or Keynote, for quick and easy with great ability to access material cross platform for sharing and editing, it’s the ticket.
