Ever see those neat motivational posters at a doctors office? and then get bummed out when you realize that they are really expensive?  Well here’s your chance to design your own!  Motivator allows you to insert your own picture, keyword, and motivational phrase.  I can see educators also using this tool to add a visual representation to a vocabulary word or definition.  Check out Troy in action!

Skype is an outstanding collaboration tool that allows you to communicate to any other skype user on the planet.  The best feature is the ability to make a video call with the use of a web cam.   If you have a web cam on hand, you’ll be collaborating with other classes or bringing in guest speakers from anywhere in the world!

Create a rubric for any project or assingment in a matter of seconds or search amoung the thousands that have already been created.  RubiStar is a completely free  tool, and you do not need to create an account to create or browse the rubrics.  If you wish to create your own, you can use the pre-generated categories, create your own categories, or use a combination of both.  You can also leave the point settings alone or adjust them as you see fit.  Once you are at RubiStar, click on create a rubric, choose a customizable rubric you wish to work with, the topics you wish to asses, and you are all set.  You’ll probably notice the account login, but that is only if you want to save or share your rubic from the site.  I normally just copy and paste the rubrics into Microsoft Word and save them to my computer.  Enjoy!

TimeToast is an outstanding site for creating neat timelines with pictures and descriptions.  This is a must see, and one of the easiest sites I have ever seen.  To get started, create an account (all you need is an email address) and follow the prompts for creating your interactive timeline.  You will be asked to give your timeline a title and add as many events as you wish.  Each event has a place you you to enter the name, date, and description.  If you wish, you can upload an image (up to 3mb in size) to go along with each event.  TimeToast even provides you with the ability to share and embed your timeline.  Due to the format of this site, below is a condensed version of a timeline.  Timelines are typically twice as long.  Be sure to click on the “+” signs to see the descriptions.  Check out TimeToast for more examples.

Google reader constantly checks your favorite websites for new content so you don’t have to! No more surfing all over the web in an attempt to keep up to date. This time saving tool is basically a personal inbox for the internet that provides short overviews of the updates to your favorite websites. Once you read the synopsis that google reader generates, you can click on that entry to visit the entire site or simply disregard if it isn’t something catches your interest. To set up your own google reader you will need an email address. 1. Go to reader.google.com and create a google account if you don’t already have one (you can use any email you do not need to have a google email account) 2. Sign in. 3. Click the add a subscription button and enter the feed address of the site you wish to receive updates from. If you don’t know the feed address of a website, just look for the orange RSS logo like the ones that are located to the right of this entry (Entries RSS and Comments RSS). Depending on the site, right click on the logo or link and select copy shortcut. Now you can just paste it when you click add a subscription from your google reader.

I have set up a demo account if you wish to see how this works before you create your own. Please feel free to add a feed or organize the feeds using folders.  You can’t mess up anything so don’t worry!
Demo Login: TechToolsDemo@gmail.com
Password: Password1

Blabberize is a neat, user-friendly site that allows you to upload images and make them talk using audio that you record.  You will need an email address to create a login and password.  Once you have created an account simply click on “make a blabber.”  You will be prompted to (1)upload a picture from your computer, (2)select the mouth or part of the image that you wish to move, (3)record your audio, and (4) preview/save.  To upload just browse your computer and select the picture you want to use.  Once the picture is uploaded, you must select the mouth region using your mouse to move eight reference points to create a highlighted area that will move.  There is also a 9th point that allows you too determine how far you would like the mouth to open.  The final creation stage is inserting the audio.  For this step you are simply prompted to hit the record button and speak into your microphone for up to two minutes.  If you don’t have a microphone, you can call in the audio using your phone!  Once you have recorded your voice, you can re-record until you are happy with it.  Be sure to save your work and set it as public for the world to see or private for your personal viewing.  You can now share your image using a hyperlink or embedding it into your own website or blog.  Check out the example I created to introduce the Cartesian Coordinate System!

Example:
Rene Descartes and the Coordinate Plane

MacTutor History of Mathematics.  (2008, November).  Rene Descartes.  Retrieved November 15 from http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/PictDisplay/Descartes.html.