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This workshop offers you access to my top web tools for today’s business educator. Participants will visit these top web tools and discuss practical uses for them in today’s classroom. This list may change as new sites are made available so check back from time to time to see what has been added or changed.
My focus is Web 2.0 tools for skill development AND the following:
Another similar tool I discovered is a twitter type site called Twiducate. Watch this video to learn more.
A great site to teach and build web pages is w3schools.com. This site offers free tutorials in all web development technologies. I also recommend Weebly which has been recently redesigned.
This workshop offers you access to my top web tools for today’s business educator. Participants will visit these top web tools and discuss practical uses for them in today’s classroom. This list may change as new sites are made available so check back from time to time to see what has been added or changed.
My focus is Web 2.0 tools for skill development AND the following:
- Active Learning
- HOTS = Higher Order Thinking Skills
- 21st Century Skills
- Information Literacy
Another similar tool I discovered is a twitter type site called Twiducate. Watch this video to learn more.
A great site to teach and build web pages is w3schools.com. This site offers free tutorials in all web development technologies. I also recommend Weebly which has been recently redesigned.
Blogs
WordPress - WordPress.com is brought to the public for free by some of the same folks who work on the open source blogging software available at WordPress.org. Open source WordPress has been incredibly successful and risen from a handful of users to the most-used blog tool in its category.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Create a WordPress blog for your classes or one for each class. Assign students to create a WordPress blog as a class project where items are added over the semester.
Cloud Office Suites
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Ideal for class projects that take several days to complete and if students may want to work on them from different computers. Activities with project management and collaboration can benefit from cloud office suites.
Google Docs
Description: Create and share documents with Google’s similar to MS Word software in the cloud for sharing. Class projects can work well in Google Docs especially if students want to work both at home and at school. No software needed.
Microsoft Live/Microsoft Office 360
Description: Open a free sky drive for storage in the cloud. Once you have the login/password, you can then use Microsoft Live Microsoft Office suite in the cloud without having the program on your computer. Create and share documents with Microsoft’s counter to Google docs software in the cloud for sharing.
Zoho
Description: The forerunner in office suites in the cloud. Has more bells and whistles than Google docs or Microsoft Live. Class projects can work well with Zoho; such as event planning or project management.
Google Docs
Description: Create and share documents with Google’s similar to MS Word software in the cloud for sharing. Class projects can work well in Google Docs especially if students want to work both at home and at school. No software needed.
Microsoft Live/Microsoft Office 360
Description: Open a free sky drive for storage in the cloud. Once you have the login/password, you can then use Microsoft Live Microsoft Office suite in the cloud without having the program on your computer. Create and share documents with Microsoft’s counter to Google docs software in the cloud for sharing.
Zoho
Description: The forerunner in office suites in the cloud. Has more bells and whistles than Google docs or Microsoft Live. Class projects can work well with Zoho; such as event planning or project management.
Personal Finance
- Money Instructor: Free lesson plans and personal finance activities
- Core Concept Cards: Free teacher resources by the Federal Reserve
- The Mint: Hands-on activities, expert advice and creative ideas for learning how to navigate the financial world.
Record and analyze financial information for student projects. Over 5 million people use Mint. Has app for handheld devices. - Hands on Banking: The Hands on Banking online financial courses include free instructor guides with classroom lessons and activities that will help you guide students through real-life scenarios, group discussions, and other activities designed to teach valuable money management skills and help them take control of their finances. All without endorsements or commercials.
- Jump $tart: Jump$tart is a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards and educational resources. Jump$tart strives to prepare youth for life-long successful financial decision-making.
- The BetterMoneyHabits.com site contains resources and videos relating the topics of using credit, home buying, and saving & budgeting.
Other Tools for Business Education
Virtual File Storage
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Productivity if working on different computers at school or at home. 21st Century Skill development when the storage is effectively used to complete a course or project.
Dropbox
Description: Virtual storage that functions like an operating system. On DropBox's home page is a short tutorial that shows the features. Save and access from mobile or computer. View and edit documents without using software. Create an online workspace and invite collaborators. You can finally stop emailing files to yourself, carrying them around on a USB drive, or worrying whether the version you have with you is the latest. Great tool for teachers and students. This is the one that I use. You get 2 GB of memory and each time to have someone signup, you gain additional space.
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Doodle
Description: Easy scheduling; free of charge and without registration. Free account gives you a quick way to schedule a meeting when people have different times available and there is a need to find common times.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Effective with event planning when various people need to figure out “best times” open for all participants. A fictitious event could be practice in the classroom.
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30boxes
Description: Free online calendar for sharing in your wiki, blog, website; and sharing with collaborators.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Ideal for adding to the online syllabus the due dates of course assignments. Especially helpful when a calendar changes often and participants need to see easily the latest version.
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TeuxDeux
Description: TeuxDeux is a simple, design to-do app. If you like making to-do lists, you will love TeuxDeux. The idea was to build a bare-bones, but visually compelling and highly usable to-do app: Use the free browser-based TeuxDeux at work/home and then take your to-dos on the road with the iPhone app.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal productivity. Students can list to do things in school or at home to stay connected with their homework and assignments due. A case study assignment could help students practice the features of TeuxDeux either at home (homework) or at school for in-class work. Effective use of TeuxDeux can help develop project management skills.
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Evernote
Description: Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your notable life using your computer, phone, and the web. Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe and it’s free.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal productivity. Students can note things in school or at home to stay connected with their homework and assignments due. A case study assignment could help students practice the features of Evernote either at home (homework) or at school for in-class work.
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CalcMoolator
Description: CalcMoolator offers over 50 free financial calculators for the web, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Some of the most popular calculators are: Tip Calculator, House Rent vs. Buy, Auto Loan Estimate, Auto Lease vs. Buy, Mortgage Payment Estimate, and Pay Off My Credit Card Debt Sooner (and much more!).
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: A perfect partner for finance, accounting, and math activities.
List of calculators
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LiveBinders
Description: LiveBinder is a three ring binder for the Web.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal presentations or organize your class with LiveBinder. Teachers place LiveBinders on desktops so students don’t have to type addresses or get lost searching on the web. And they don’t have to add a bookmark to every computer every time they have a new link to share – they can just update the livebinder.
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Penzu
Description: Free online journal. Similar to a blog and has enhanced formats and designs.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Penzu is ideal for business communications classes or any class that has a writing project.
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Online Media Services
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Communication skills, both oral and written, 21st Century Skills integrating technology to present ideas, debate, or market a program/activity. Your course/program could offer a technology showcase to inform the community, chamber of commerce, and parents how your course develops students for today’s workplaces.
Slideshare.net
Description: SlideShare is an excellent way to share presentations, documents and professional videos. Easy to get a free account to upload and share. On home page, click view all to get ideas.
WeVideo
Description: WeVideo is an online video creation platform that helps you tell compelling stories and share them with friends and family. It is one of the leading video creation platforms. Check it out!
Animoto
Description: Animoto automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips, and music.Educators can get free Animoto Pro classroom for student use and instructional purposes.
Citrify
Description: Free online photo editor that is easy and fun way to enhance your photos.
Fotoflexer
Description: Another free online photo editor that is easy and fun way to enhance your photos. They claim they are the most advanced.
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Surveymonkey
Description: Online survey creator with easy analysis features. While the fee-based version has more features, the free version has ample features to be a viable tool that advances skill development when integrated into the curriculum.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Using Surveymonkey is a natural for communications and marketing classes. The analysis portion can align with math, finance, and accounting.
Example for marketing class, sports consumers topic (www.surveymonkey.com/s/8XQZ8DR)
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Glogster
Description: Glogging is a blog, notetaking, or PowerPoint alternative. The “presentation” is created on a virtual poster; audio and video can be added.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Excellent for students and teachers. Works great for one or two minute lessons, tutorials, short stories such as debrief or prep for a job interview. Students can develop course content knowledge, sharp communication skills, and technology skills at the same time — a component of 21st Century Skills.
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Prezi
Description: Prezi is among the hottest tools to gain educator attention this past couple of years. The site is easy yet effective for creating and sharing presentations. Many call it the PowerPoint Alternative, but much better than PowerPoint.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Come on, you know your students are tired of PowerPoint – get on the Prezi bandwagon quick and easy. Place a course introduction there to show your first day of class. Prezi gives us the chance to think outside the box and help our students to also think more creatively.
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Skype
Description: Perfect for group work when participants are at different locations. Free calls, video calls, and screen sharing.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Take your speech class or business communications classes to the next level with Skype conferencing tools.
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Jing
Description: Screen capture to enhance collaboration, tutorials, and presentations — free. Offers a free online storage at screencast.com. While there is a pro version for a small charge, the free version does an excellent job for beginners and intermediate users.
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Box.net
Description: Organized online work-space for managing and sharing files. A variety of file types open in usable view and collaborators can comment or discuss or edit. Has a feel of a wiki but integrated with an operating system and blog.
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Internet Archive
Description: Institutional sponsors include Sloan, National Science Foundation, and more.
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Smart Searching, Finding, Saving Websites
Description: 15.5 million users. StumbleUpon takes you to web pages, photos, and videos handpicked by your friends and like-minded people. Instructor can create a class login/pw.
Digg
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our community.
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WolfRamAlpha
Description: Free online access to the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine: answer questions; do math; instantly get facts, calculators, unit conversions, and real-time quantitative data and statistics; create plots and visualizations; and access vast scientific, technical, chemical, medical, health, business, financial, weather, geographic, dictionary, calendar, reference, and general knowledge—and much more.
Ifixit
Description: IFixit is like Wikipedia but for technology. The site claims that it is the free repair manual that you can edit. Includes: diagnostics, tips, links, and oodles of tech information.
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CiteULike
Description: Online journal library. Instead of saving journal articles to your hard drive, keep them in CiteULike, add tags, and you can quickly find more. In addition, CiteULike provides assistance with citations.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Students in any class with a research paper will love this fantastic web tool. Online books, journals, and articles are a snap to place into CiteULike.
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Zamzar
Description: Tired of document file types that won’t open at school or at home? Zamzar to the rescue. A quick submit of the file will get you a return of the file type you want. Amazing must have for students and teachers.
KeepVid
Description: Download and save videos directly from Youtube, Google, Metadafe, Putfile and more. Simply cut and paste.
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Capzles
Description: Free Web tool allows users to create multimedia timelines using video, photos, music, blogs and documents.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Students can tell their own life stories, document a field trip or share the chronology of a project. Capzles can be linked to, commented on, shared on social networks and rated.
Join.me
Description: Instant screen sharing is the order of the day with Join.me. This tool allows users to share and review documents and designs, hold trainings, demonstrate products and conduct meetings on the fly. Used for professional development, staff meetings and online learning, the free version of Join.me includes all of the above pFree Web tool allows users to create multimedia timelines using video, photos, music, blogs and documents.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Productivity if working on different computers at school or at home. 21st Century Skill development when the storage is effectively used to complete a course or project.
Dropbox
Description: Virtual storage that functions like an operating system. On DropBox's home page is a short tutorial that shows the features. Save and access from mobile or computer. View and edit documents without using software. Create an online workspace and invite collaborators. You can finally stop emailing files to yourself, carrying them around on a USB drive, or worrying whether the version you have with you is the latest. Great tool for teachers and students. This is the one that I use. You get 2 GB of memory and each time to have someone signup, you gain additional space.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Doodle
Description: Easy scheduling; free of charge and without registration. Free account gives you a quick way to schedule a meeting when people have different times available and there is a need to find common times.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Effective with event planning when various people need to figure out “best times” open for all participants. A fictitious event could be practice in the classroom.
************************************************************************************************************************************
30boxes
Description: Free online calendar for sharing in your wiki, blog, website; and sharing with collaborators.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Ideal for adding to the online syllabus the due dates of course assignments. Especially helpful when a calendar changes often and participants need to see easily the latest version.
************************************************************************************************************************************
TeuxDeux
Description: TeuxDeux is a simple, design to-do app. If you like making to-do lists, you will love TeuxDeux. The idea was to build a bare-bones, but visually compelling and highly usable to-do app: Use the free browser-based TeuxDeux at work/home and then take your to-dos on the road with the iPhone app.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal productivity. Students can list to do things in school or at home to stay connected with their homework and assignments due. A case study assignment could help students practice the features of TeuxDeux either at home (homework) or at school for in-class work. Effective use of TeuxDeux can help develop project management skills.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Evernote
Description: Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your notable life using your computer, phone, and the web. Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe and it’s free.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal productivity. Students can note things in school or at home to stay connected with their homework and assignments due. A case study assignment could help students practice the features of Evernote either at home (homework) or at school for in-class work.
************************************************************************************************************************************
CalcMoolator
Description: CalcMoolator offers over 50 free financial calculators for the web, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Some of the most popular calculators are: Tip Calculator, House Rent vs. Buy, Auto Loan Estimate, Auto Lease vs. Buy, Mortgage Payment Estimate, and Pay Off My Credit Card Debt Sooner (and much more!).
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: A perfect partner for finance, accounting, and math activities.
List of calculators
************************************************************************************************************************************
LiveBinders
Description: LiveBinder is a three ring binder for the Web.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Personal presentations or organize your class with LiveBinder. Teachers place LiveBinders on desktops so students don’t have to type addresses or get lost searching on the web. And they don’t have to add a bookmark to every computer every time they have a new link to share – they can just update the livebinder.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Penzu
Description: Free online journal. Similar to a blog and has enhanced formats and designs.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Penzu is ideal for business communications classes or any class that has a writing project.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Online Media Services
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Communication skills, both oral and written, 21st Century Skills integrating technology to present ideas, debate, or market a program/activity. Your course/program could offer a technology showcase to inform the community, chamber of commerce, and parents how your course develops students for today’s workplaces.
Slideshare.net
Description: SlideShare is an excellent way to share presentations, documents and professional videos. Easy to get a free account to upload and share. On home page, click view all to get ideas.
WeVideo
Description: WeVideo is an online video creation platform that helps you tell compelling stories and share them with friends and family. It is one of the leading video creation platforms. Check it out!
Animoto
Description: Animoto automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips, and music.Educators can get free Animoto Pro classroom for student use and instructional purposes.
Citrify
Description: Free online photo editor that is easy and fun way to enhance your photos.
Fotoflexer
Description: Another free online photo editor that is easy and fun way to enhance your photos. They claim they are the most advanced.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Surveymonkey
Description: Online survey creator with easy analysis features. While the fee-based version has more features, the free version has ample features to be a viable tool that advances skill development when integrated into the curriculum.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Using Surveymonkey is a natural for communications and marketing classes. The analysis portion can align with math, finance, and accounting.
Example for marketing class, sports consumers topic (www.surveymonkey.com/s/8XQZ8DR)
************************************************************************************************************************************
Glogster
Description: Glogging is a blog, notetaking, or PowerPoint alternative. The “presentation” is created on a virtual poster; audio and video can be added.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Excellent for students and teachers. Works great for one or two minute lessons, tutorials, short stories such as debrief or prep for a job interview. Students can develop course content knowledge, sharp communication skills, and technology skills at the same time — a component of 21st Century Skills.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Prezi
Description: Prezi is among the hottest tools to gain educator attention this past couple of years. The site is easy yet effective for creating and sharing presentations. Many call it the PowerPoint Alternative, but much better than PowerPoint.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Come on, you know your students are tired of PowerPoint – get on the Prezi bandwagon quick and easy. Place a course introduction there to show your first day of class. Prezi gives us the chance to think outside the box and help our students to also think more creatively.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Skype
Description: Perfect for group work when participants are at different locations. Free calls, video calls, and screen sharing.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Take your speech class or business communications classes to the next level with Skype conferencing tools.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Jing
Description: Screen capture to enhance collaboration, tutorials, and presentations — free. Offers a free online storage at screencast.com. While there is a pro version for a small charge, the free version does an excellent job for beginners and intermediate users.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Box.net
Description: Organized online work-space for managing and sharing files. A variety of file types open in usable view and collaborators can comment or discuss or edit. Has a feel of a wiki but integrated with an operating system and blog.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Internet Archive
Description: Institutional sponsors include Sloan, National Science Foundation, and more.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Smart Searching, Finding, Saving Websites
Description: 15.5 million users. StumbleUpon takes you to web pages, photos, and videos handpicked by your friends and like-minded people. Instructor can create a class login/pw.
Digg
Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our community.
************************************************************************************************************************************
WolfRamAlpha
Description: Free online access to the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine: answer questions; do math; instantly get facts, calculators, unit conversions, and real-time quantitative data and statistics; create plots and visualizations; and access vast scientific, technical, chemical, medical, health, business, financial, weather, geographic, dictionary, calendar, reference, and general knowledge—and much more.
Ifixit
Description: IFixit is like Wikipedia but for technology. The site claims that it is the free repair manual that you can edit. Includes: diagnostics, tips, links, and oodles of tech information.
************************************************************************************************************************************
CiteULike
Description: Online journal library. Instead of saving journal articles to your hard drive, keep them in CiteULike, add tags, and you can quickly find more. In addition, CiteULike provides assistance with citations.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Students in any class with a research paper will love this fantastic web tool. Online books, journals, and articles are a snap to place into CiteULike.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Zamzar
Description: Tired of document file types that won’t open at school or at home? Zamzar to the rescue. A quick submit of the file will get you a return of the file type you want. Amazing must have for students and teachers.
KeepVid
Description: Download and save videos directly from Youtube, Google, Metadafe, Putfile and more. Simply cut and paste.
************************************************************************************************************************************
Capzles
Description: Free Web tool allows users to create multimedia timelines using video, photos, music, blogs and documents.
FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION: Students can tell their own life stories, document a field trip or share the chronology of a project. Capzles can be linked to, commented on, shared on social networks and rated.
Join.me
Description: Instant screen sharing is the order of the day with Join.me. This tool allows users to share and review documents and designs, hold trainings, demonstrate products and conduct meetings on the fly. Used for professional development, staff meetings and online learning, the free version of Join.me includes all of the above pFree Web tool allows users to create multimedia timelines using video, photos, music, blogs and documents.
Accounting
Online Accounting
Description: Wave is a free, online software alternative to Quickbooks. Wave helps manage invoices, credit card payments, accounting & payroll.
Forensic Accounting Career planning
Description: Wave is a free, online software alternative to Quickbooks. Wave helps manage invoices, credit card payments, accounting & payroll.
Forensic Accounting Career planning