Great technology tools for English language teachers

A virtual filing cabinet. Evernote has revolutionized my life.  It's similar to Microsoft's program OneNote, but is cloud-based and FREE!  It allows you to tag web pages you find helpful or interesting.  You can also create your own notes.  I use it for lesson planning and keep all of my class agendas on Evernote.  Because it's accesible online as well, I feel a little safer knowing I can access it from another computer, not just my hard drive or thumb drive.  There's also a "missing manual" for Evernote that you can download here.  Here's a screenshot of my categories.

Jing is a screen capture site which allows you take a 'picture' of any screen or portion of screen that you want.  I find this incredibly useful when I make handouts for my students because it lets me incorporate graphics or webpages in a quick and convenient way.  It can also be used to create videos.  I've seen other instructors using it to record feedback to students on their work.

If you haven't yet heard of Pinterest, it might be a good idea to climb out from underneath the rock over your head.  However, even if you are on Pinterest, you may not be aware of the vast array of educational resources.  Larry Ferlazzo has some great boards, and you can check out my education board and my writing board as well.  

I found Prezi because my new computer doesn't have Microsoft Office and I was looking for free presentation software.  The bonus was how cool Prezi is - the idea is like powerpoint, but the presentations have the feel of a graphic organizer (which, of courses, I LOVE!)  I'm so excited to jazz up presentations a bit in my classes.  Its presentations have the feel of a Mac, and its also free!  See a presentation that I made to introduce myself to my students.

I've come across VoiceThread frequently at conferences I attend.  While I haven't used it in class yet, I'm definitely waiting to.  It would be a great site for ESL students to practice speaking.  It's a great way to create a centralized, interactive discussion on-line around a specific topic.

Wiggio is a tool which facilitates groupwork.  It offers conference calls, calendars, to-do lists and other tools to help groups work together online.

Here are links to other technological resources educators use as well:

• 20 New Tools for Digital Classrooms