Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff!

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners.

Larry Ferlazzo finds and shares more Web 2.0 applications with practical classroom value than anyone else I know. Quite often, when I read one of Larry’s blog posts, I immediately try out something that he has written about. I did that just now, and I want to supplement what he wrote with an illustration of one way the application may be used. As an itinerant consultant, I’m “on the road” and away from home this evening , so I used the application to create and send a card home to my wife. I can envisage countless ways of using this app in the classroom.

Postalz is a service that enables you to create and “send” postcards online. This is a typical Web 2.0 application in that you can share your work in a gallery, send it to friends via email, or embed the creation elsewhere on the web. You also have the option of keeping your work private, and available only to designated friends. Comments and “friends” are facilitated within the Postalz network. Also typical of this sort of application, you need to register and sign up for a free account.

As you create your “postcard”, you can choose from backgrounds, themes, and banners. You can add text, and even include “handwriting”. Or, you can link your Postalz account to your Flickr account to import digital photos as backgrounds for your cards. That’s what I chose to do for the card I just made, and which I’ve embedded below. I used a picture I took from here, on the BC mainland, of the sun setting over Vancouver Island, where my wife is.

This is the sort of application that engages me. It may just engage some of your students who are otherwise less engaged than you’d like.