The good news is that, with the technology available today, there is a plethora of tools available to provide numerous options for every learner. Because most of the emerging tools are free of monetary cost, because they are readily available to anyone with a computer and an internet connection, and because they are easy to use, there is no excuse for teachers who do not use these tools or make them available to the learners they support.

Flypaper is a versatile presentation tool with an infinite range of potential uses by learners and teachers–to engage, represent, and express. Flypaper is easy to learn and use. It is a downloadable program for the PC, so it can be used off line when an internet connection is unavailable. Still, you can easily share your work online in the Flypaper “community”, or embed it wherever else you want to. Flypaper has made it easy to turn your presentation into a flash file, and you can even upload it directly to Youtube from within the application.

In a Flypaper presentation, you can include virtually anything you choose–text, graphics, audio, video, action buttons, hyperlinks, etc. I particularly like the fact that it is convenient for the presenter to add voice narration. A presentation may be a single page, or it may contain multiple “chapters” with as many pages as you want.

Flypaper encourages you to download “models” created by other users, and to use these models as templates for your own work. Flypaper offers tutorials for new users, as well as user forums. There is also a well organized 114 page user manual in pdf format.

I’ve embedded an example of a Flypaper presentation here that merely hints at the potential of the application.

Jamendo is a collection that currently contains 6855 albums of music by independent artists from many parts of the world. A wide range of musical genres is represented, and the music can be searched by tags such as acoustic, chanson, classical, electro, guitar, piano, pop, rock, soundtrack, etc. On the whole, I have found the quality of the musical offerings on Jamendo to be excellent.

All of the music housed on Jamendo is licensed under the Creative Commons. It may be downloaded, either by individual “song” or by album, and may then be used free of charge under the terms of its Creative Commons license. Convenient options for supporting the artist are also available on the website.

Jamendo also provides the option of creating multiple playlists for online listening. Titles may be included in more than one playlist. As I listen online, I create playlists of music that I think I may wish to consider for use later with a digital story.

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Here’s another terrific “find” shared by Kevin Jarrett of NCS-Tech! If you haven’t been to Kevin’s site, I highly recommend a visit. Kevin puts up a new post almost every day, and if you are interested in using technology in education, those posts are well worth reading. I’ve learned a great deal and found numerous priceless treasures on Kevin’s site.

School Time Games (online resource) This site is a veritable vault of quality online games and activities that re-enforce curriculum content while providing a great deal of engaging fun. There are currently nearly 100 flash and shockwave activities housed on the site, as well as an impressive library of online videos. The site has targeted students aged 8 and older.

School Time Games has been created by a teacher named Jason Miller. All activities are chosen by his students. The students also test each one to ensure that it is completely appropriate in a school setting, that it is easy to learn, that it provides a reasonable degree of challenge, and that it is fun to play.

The games are helpfully organized by subject area: Social Studies (not unduly focused on the US); Language Arts; Science; Math; Sports; Logic; Art & Music; Arcade. The games require Shockwave and Flash players that can be easily downloaded and installed. The site is ad-supported, but exclusively with text-only Google adsense. Some of the games can be downloaded and played offline. In a few instances, the developoers of the games want you to purchase an offline version.

As a significant bonus, School Time Games also offers a collection of links to short online videos. The videos, too, are categorized by subject area: science; math; language arts; social studies; music & art; entertainment. I checked out several of the videos and found all to be of goood quality and from three to five minutes in length. The video content was invariably well worthwhile.

The screenshots below demonstrate the manner in which activities are organized and presented on School Time Games.

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PowerPoint has become ubiquitous in schools, but in my experience it remains under utilized by teachers. One of the biggest factors is that most teachers lack the time to create PowerPoint resources for use with their classes. Today’s featured resource offers some helpful shortcuts. Kudos to Jefferson County Schools for sharing this tremendous resource. This one’s filed on my Content & Curriculum page.

Jefferson County Schools–PowerPoint Collection This is an extensive repository of PowerPoint presentations that have been prepared by teachers, and made available for download by other educators. Quality varies, but almost all that I have looked at are quite good.

Presentations are organized by subject (The Arts, Language Arts, Library Science, Math, Science, Social Studies). Each subject area is divided into the two broad categories of K-5 and 6-12.

A disclaimer on the site states, “The content of these presentations are provided by teachers and are presumed to be in the public domain.” This means that the presentations may be used as they are or modified as required to suit specific circumstances.

Since free PowerPoint viewers are available from Microsoft, it isn’t even necessary to have a full version of PowerPoint in order to make use of the presentations. There is great potential for making use of these presentations with students who have only single-switch access to a computer.

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Here’s an online library of helpful resources for educators and for students of any age. I’ve listed this on Content & Curriculum.

Utah Education Network (online resource) This is a well organized repository of resource links for educators and students–from Kindergarten to post-secondary. The site is comprehensive in its scope. The main categories: K-12 Educators; K-12 students; Higher Ed. Faculty; College Students; Adult Education. Resources are searchable, and the content is organized intuitively. Material can be searched by both grade level and subject area.

Most helpful of all, from my perspective, is the collection of free online interactive student activities (“Student Interactives” under “K-12 Students” ). There is much here to enrich and re-enforce virtually every area of the curriculum. Most linked online activities are created in either Flash or Shockwave. The activities have been chosen carefully and they are all of high quality. Take a look at the following screen shots to get a better idea of some of the content and how it is organized and presented. (Click on thumbnail to enlarge.)

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Here’s an online resource with much to offer for teens as well as for anyone involved in working with them both in and out of school. This one’s on my Content & Curriculum page, but it is a resource that can also enhance productivity.

TeenSpace – Internet Public Library for Teens (online resource) The part of the Internet Public Library that is geared toward teens is a truly amazing free resource for teens and those who support them. This website offers a large and well organized collection of valuable links that point teens to sources of relevant information–both academic and otherwise. The site is uncluttered and ad-free.

To give some idea of the range of material that is catalogued, the home page features the following “Hot Topics”: School and Homework Help; A+ Writing; Graphic Novels Guide; Poetry Wiki; FAEQs (Frequently Asked Embarrassing Questions); Procrastinator. The home page’s “Directory” consists of the following headings: Clubs and Organizations; Reading and Writing; Health and Sexuality; School and Homework Help; Money and Work; Sports, Entertainment and Arts; Technology. This site and many of its component pages deserve to be bookmarked.

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Here’s a very practical resource for anyone putting together multi-media projects. This one is listed on the Productivity page.

Partners in Rhyme (online resource) describes itself as, “Your Audio Resource for Multimedia Projects”. This is a commercial venture, but it also offers a substantial collection of very useful free audio resources–sound effects, drum loops, midi files, even some audio software. There are also some helpful tutorials for using audio effectively in multimedia projects.

The free resources offered by Partners in Rhyme are clearly identified, but they are not to be confused with the “royalty free” products that PIP creates and markets. In my experience, this site is a significant cut above virtually every other website that claims to offer “free” sound effects. Apart from a few unobtrusive Google ads, the only advertising on this site is for PIP products, and tastefully done at that.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.If you haven’t yet checked out the Internet Public Library, it is a marvellous resource for individuals of all ages. I am highlighting here the part of the Internet Public Library that has been created specifically for kids. This one is listed on my Content & Curriculum page.

Kidspace @ The Internet Public Library (online resource) is a huge repository of information and resources for children. Essentially, this site is a very well organized collection of links to other web sites. The main headings are: Reference; Our World; Computers & Internet; Health & Nutrition; Reading Zone; Math & Science; Art & Music; Sports & Recreation; Fun Stuff. Kidspace itself is ad-free and the site is clean and uncluttered. The sites that are linked are generally of very high quality, but they are not all ad-free. Kidspace provides links to both content and skill-building sources.

In addition to its “Subject Collections”, Kidspace offers what it calls “Features”. These include: Science Fair, Stately Knowledge, Learning HTML, Orca Search, Poison Prevention, Culture Quest, Story Hour, US Presidents. The site is searchable, and for children under 13, there is an “Ask a question” feature. The site says it requires 3 days to answer questions that are submitted.

The Internet Public Library is sponsored by The Regents of the University of Michigan.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.If you are a parent of young children or involved in early childhood education, you will want to have a look at this online resource from the Content & Curriculum page.

Poisson Rouge (online resource) is a delightful website with a variety of activities to help develop basic literacy (French and English), numeracy, and other basic skills. There are also simple art and music activities. All activities here provide excellent mouse practice. There are absolutely no ads at this site. Nor are there any onscreen instructions to follow. This is a quality site for young children.

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I think everyone needs a reliable media player on their PC’s as an alternative to Windows Media Player. When I associate online content with the free program I’m highlighting today from the productivity page, I often find that I get superior results.

Winamp (downloadable program) Winamp has been around for a long time as a popular free MP3 player, and it continues to be one of the best media players available. It now steams video as well as audio, and the latest version supports synchronization with portable devices such as iPod. With Winamp, you have convenient and flexible access to online media. You can customize the interface from a huge selection of skins. Winamp, of course, offers its own music download service. As a bonus, you now get free access to some XM satellite radio channels through Winamp as well.To find out more and to download the program, go to http://www.winamp.com/ You can purchase a “Pro” version of Winamp, but the free program has always worked fine for my needs.

[Winamp was first released as shareware in 1997, when its author, Justin Frankel, was still a teenager. At the age of 20, he sold the program to AOL for $86 million! Fortunately, AOL has continued to support the development of Winamp By the end of 2005, Winamp boasted 55 million monthly users. I have a soft spot in my heart for Winamp because I've used the program almost from its inception in 1997, and it remains my favourite player.]

Winamp runs in Windows only.