In these short video tutorials from KQED learn the basics for how to use free online tools for teaching and learning. The following tools can be incorporated into the classroom to convey information visually, make persuasive arguments and allow for a variety of collaborative opportunities.
How to Create an Interactive Image with Thinglink
In this short video learn how to create annotated images with Thinglink. Thinglink is an online tool that lets you annotate images with text and media. It’s a simple, easy to use tool that can help you transform a single still image into a rich source of information. There’s a million different ways you could use this, but this video will overview the basic authoring techniques and then leave it up to you to find great ways of putting it to use for your own needs and goals!
Collaborative Website Building With Tumblr
Tumblr is a hugely popular, highly social blogging platform with an emphasis on images. It is a great tool because it’s free, easy to use and a lot of fun. Many Tumblr sites are dedicated to gathering and sharing images on a particular theme. Lots of individual users use them for social networking, and it is also common for groups and businesses to use them as part of their online identity and for social marketing outreach. With a little bit of extra know-how, Tumblr can be a powerful tool for collaborative website building.
To get started, head over to www.tumblr.com, click the ‘sign up’ button and then follow along with this video tutorial.
How to Make an Infographic with Easel.ly
Infographics can be useful tools whenever you are trying to convey information with a strong visual approach. Infographics are especially good at making numerical data easy to see and understand. By creating an infographic, your information can take on a life, tell a story, and make a more persuasive argument, which is why you encounter infographics in all kinds of situations from advertising and marketing to educational presentations and publications. Learn how to create an infographic with this video.
Using Google Forms and Spreadsheets
Google has a whole host of online document creation tools that are browser based and free to use. You may already be familiar with Google docs for word processing, and if so, you probably know that it can be a powerful tool for collaboration and cloud-based document creation. This video explores the less well known, but equally powerful set of Google tools – Google forms and spreadsheets let you setup powerful tools for collecting, organizing and visualizing data.