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Online Tools: Curricular Cool Tools

COOL TOOLS

The online tools below were designed with providing solutions for content creation and a variety of other tasks, such as communicating and collaborating.

For the most part, all of the online tools below are free, or at least, free during this time of school closure. 

If there are any questions regarding the tools below, please don't hesitate to contact AskALibrarian via Office 365 email. 

Also, please send your suggestions or recommendations to be added. This libguide is constantly evolving so check in often!

Generating Ideas

Ideament

Ideament lets you draw a diagram - mind map, concept map or flow chart - and convert it to a text outline and vice versa

Mindmeister

Online mind mapping

Mindmup 2.0

Mindmapping that is integrated with Google Apps

Miro

Mindmap software built with teams in mind

Popplet

Simple, mind map organizing tool that help students think and learn visually.

Writing & Documents

Book Creator

Simple tool for creating digital books.

Canva

Create pamphlets - FREE 30 day trial

Evernote

Note taking app - can be used in conjunction with Penultimate

Ideament

Ideament lets you draw a diagram - mind map, concept map or flow chart - and convert it to a text outline and vice versa

Padlet

Make beautiful boards, documents, and webpages that are easy to read and fun to contribute to. *This is a licensed product, but teachers can get 3-4 with initial sign in

Pages

Apple product that helps to create documents

Penultimate

The digital handwriting tool that combines with Evernote

Writing A-Z

Writing A-Z delivers online writing lessons, resources, and tools to meet the needs of every student, at every learning level. Free Trial

 

Collaboration Tools

Edmodo

* New toolkit available for learning at home

Explain Everything

The online interactive whiteboard app where people share and learn without boundaries. Teach, present, sketchnote, create videos and collaborate.

Mural

Multifaceted interactive whiteboard for brainstorming and collaboration.

NowComment

A versatile discussion platform for teaching, peer reviewing, and fostering active reading.

Slack

A free collaboration hub.

 

 

Image Editing Tools

Canva

Use Canva's drag-and-drop feature and layouts to design, share and print business cards, logos, presentations and more.

Fotor

Fotor is a free online picture editor and graphic designer, allowing you to use online photo editing tools, such as add filters, frames, text, stickers and more.

GIMP

GIMP is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks.

Pixlr Photo Editor

Advanced photo editing capabilities right in your browser, Pixlr E is a free image-editing. photo-shop. online-image-editor. 

Creating Presentations

Explain Everything

Teach, present, sketchnote, create videos and collaborate.

Haiku Deck

Presentation and slide show creation.

Prezi

Engaging templates allow for engaging and dynamic presentations.

Show Me

Create lessons and tutorials to share.

Online Learning

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Creating Videos

Adobe Voice

FREE app for iPad that produces short videos based on voice recordings, motion graphics, and images.

Animoto

Create videos using drag and drop. No video editing skills necessary.

Every Frame a Painting

Explain Everything

Teach, present, sketchnote, create videos and collaborate.

Screen Capture

Camtasia

Free screen recorder - capture and record webinars, tutorials and lessons

Flashback Recorder

Free screen recorder and editing tool

Screencast-O-Matic

Simple and intuitive tool for video recording and editing

 

Creating Podcasts

Anchor FM

The easiest way to make a podcast. Note: for ages 13 and up, parental permission required.

Audacity

Free, open-source, cross platform audio software.

National Public Radio (NPR) Podcast Guide for Students

An excellent student guide for planning and producing high quality podcasts.

Soundtrap

Free month trial for audio record tool.

Voice Recorder

A convenient and simple online tool that can be used right in your browse.

Blogs & Wikis

Blogs vs. Websites? While both are excellent tools for sharing information, a blog generally requires more upkeep (sometimes daily) while a website can remain more static with less frequent maintenance.

Edublogs

Free, easy blogs for education.

Glogster

Multimedia platform for posting online: express ideas with ease by combining images, graphics, audio, video and text on one digital canvas.

Kidblog

Safe blog publishing for students.

Weebly

Create your own website.

 

Creating Surveys & Polls

Google Forms

Collect and organize information for personal use.

SurveyMonkey

Free global leader in creating surveys with new resources available during COVID19.

SurveyMonkey Polls

 

Creating Code & Coding Games

Amazon Future Engineer

Blockly

Educational games that teach programming

Codecademy

Learn the technical skills you need for the job you want

Code.org

Learn code. Change the world. For FREE!

Scratch

Free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations

Tynker 

Free access to premium coding courses during school closures

Tinkercad

Free and easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics and coding.

Creating FUN

Learn How to Fold an Origami Pelican

Practice the art of Japanese paper folding with step-by-step instructions and instructional videos.

Learn How to Juggle

Juggling is not only a skill that can impress your friends, but studies shown that people who learn to juggle increase their brain power!

Tellagami

Create a fun character and live a virtual life (for Android)
Virtual Expeditions

Virtual 360 degree learning experience with Google Expeditions.

 

* Be sure to check out the Makerspace Guide for more ideas for getting creative and expanding your skill set.

Creating Music

Garage Band

GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio right inside your Mac. Also available for PC.

Soundtrap

Music making, audio editing, loops, autotune, beat maker, all you need to create music free.

Virtual Musical Instruments

Learn to play the guitar, pan flute, piano, drums, and  bango with virtual instruments.

Language Learning

7000.org

A free online language-learning courses in partnership with Indigenous, minority, and refugee communities so they can keep their languages alive.

Duolingo

Free mobile app or web tool to learn 30+ languages online with bite-size lessons based on science.

Memrise

Watch and learn real conversational language from native speakers. Get a personalised learning experience that gives you just the right level of challenge to keep you motivated.

Rosetta Stone FREE for students

During school closures, K-12 students have free access to Rosetta Stone for Students.

Ask an SD44 Librarian

 

Need help?  Reach out to a North Vancouver School District Librarian! We are here to help. Send your enquires by email to askalibrarian@sd44.ca