PC World unfurled their “101 Undiscovered Freebies: The List” last week. Some of the offerings are old standbys, like OpenOffice.org, but there are a number of new things on the list that I want to check out. A number of the tools are useful only if you have an iPhone or another tool. Since it’s a PC World list, the tools are Windows primarily, though some of the sites offer Mac options as well.

Consider these ten I found interesting:

1. 5min, which promotes itself as “Your one-stop shop for instructional videos and DIY projects.” If you’re teaching the how-to genre right now, there’s bound to be something there you can use.
2. drop.io lets you collaboratively edit whatever you’re working on, “by web, email, phone, mobile, and more.” Might be a fun tool for small-group collaboration!
   
3. Tatango might be a useful tool for class communications or for writing groups. Once it’s set up, you can send text and voice messages to everyone in a group easily.
4. PrintWhatYouLike takes a Web page and through a cool interface lets you select and remove the parts that you don’t want to print out. A great way to get rid of all the junk on a page. Mark Crane recently shared the similar tool Readability on TechRhet. Mark explained that “It’s nice for formatting readings to send to students and colleagues.” PrintWhatYouLike gives you more control of what prints, but less control of formatting.
5. Qipit converts digital photos from your cell phone into PDFs, useful for capturing a whiteboard full of notes that you want to send out to the class or colleagues.
6. Primo Online creates a PDF from any file or Web page. Handy, for instance, in a public computer lab or classroom that doesn’t have a PDF writer available.
7. Embedr lets you make playlists from multiple sites. Think YouTube + MySpace + Blip. Need students to view video from more than one site? This is the tool to use. The result is a video mashup that collects all the videos in one place.
8. KickYouTube is a godsend for those times you need to show a YouTube video in a place that has no Internet access. Use the instructions on the About page to download a copy in whatever format you need, and you’ve got a portable video you can use anywhere.
9. Deferred Sender has one of those completely explanatory names—it defers sending an e-mail message until some future date and time. Sounds like a perfect tool for setting up reminders for students (or even those colleagues who owe you a manuscript). Simple instructions explain the process.
10. ScreenToaster records video from your browser, allowing you to “create and share tutorials, demos, training, lectures and more.” There are more sophisticated tools to make screencasts, like Camtasia and Adobe Captivate. This one is free and simple enough for students to use with little instruction.

There are ten to get you started, and if none of those strike you, remember there are 91 more on the PC World site. You’ll find some are best for personal use only. Some have limitations that may make them difficult to use in your classroom. PimpMyNews, for instance, looks like an interesting tool to create audio feeds of sites, but with that name, it’s not going to be a match for every classroom.

Let me offer my standard warnings: Think carefully about what the tools do and how they are presented before you mention them to students. Check them out thoroughly yourself first. Make sure that they will not violate any computer use, and warn students to make backups and use any new piece of software with caution.

Now go explore that list. Out of 101 tools, you’re bound to find something fun to try!

Tags: classroom tools, freeware, software, teaching, Twitter, writing

Categories: Collaboration, Teaching with Technology
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Read All Traci Gardner