A complete listing of the Picks of the Week from 2009 WELSTech episodes
The Best and Worst Picks of 2009 (Episode 112)
Picks of the Week Archive
2018 | 2019 | 2020| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017
Audio/Video
- Distraction-free YouTube videos – www.quietube.com
- Free Animoto for Educators– Create animated videos of your photos
- Check out their FAQ for a great Gmail method of creating “dummy” student e-mail accounts
- Free audio – www.FreeSound.org
- Myna from Aviary – online audio editing
- OneLicense.netfor Podcasting
- Screenr.com– Web based screencasting with a tie to Twitter
- Watch the WELSTech site tour created with Screenr
- Stupeflix.com – Beta video generator
- Vimeo video hosting – www.vimeo.com
- WELS on Vimeo – www.vimeo.com/wels
- Faith Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg, GA in HD on Vimeo
Bible Study
Education
- 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students About Social Media from the Teaching Degree.org Blog
- 180TechTips.com
- Cloud Computing in Plain English from CommonCraft
- Create online Jeopardy games – www.JeopardyLabs.com
- Geocaching– World-wide treasure hunt
- Free Technology For Teachers blog – www.freetech4teachers.com
- GoodReads groups – a solution for classroom book discussions
- Ideas to Inspire
- Jane Hart’s Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009
- Kerpoof.com – Student creativity site
- LearningInHand.com – Education resources for handheld devices
- Parent resources for wise use of media – www.MediaFamily.org
- Presentation Mind Map by Maria Anderson – There’s more to the Web than Facebook!
- Safari Books Online
- SMART Board resources
- SMART Board Games from PBS Kids
- Teacher Utilities from Harvey’s Homepage
- Social tool for multi-media projects – VoiceThread.com
- Spark creative writing – www.PicLits.com
- Sallie’s sample PicLit & St. John’s student creations
- SparkleBox – A teacher’s treasure chest of free printables
- Talking SMARTBoards & Much More!blog
- Follow annemarie80 on Twitter
- Teach programming with Scratch
- Scratch Ed
- Scratch Workshop and linked Scratch Lesson Plans
- LearnScratch.org
- Sample Scratch projects from St. John’s, Sleepy Eye
- Web-based Activities & Resources for Elementary School Students from the Langwitches blog
- World Wide Web in Plain English from CommonCraft with subtitles from dotSub.com
Graphics & Images
- Create a LEGO avatar
- Create panoramic images
- AutoStitch for the iPhone – Check out an iPhone photo of Martin’s desk
- Autopano for Windows
- Online color schemes – www.colorschemer.com/online.html
- Picasa
- Resize your images easily
- FotoSizer – Batch resizing so you can change many images at once
- Image Resizer Powertoy Clone – Add a resizing option to the Windows Explorer right-click menu
Hardware
- Acer K-12 Seed Netbook Program
- Build a $100 Document Reader – a Do-It-Yourself dream!
- CNN picks from the International Consumer Electronics Show
- Digital pen and audio recorder – www.LiveScribe.com
- Eco-friendly portable device charger – POWERSTICK from Ecosol
- Epson Workforce 600 All-In-One Printer
- FreeAgent Go external hard drive from Seagate
- Leaving PCs on overnight costs companies $2.8B a year
- LinkSys WMB54G Wireless-G Music Bridge
Office Tools
- Upload and share PowerPoint and Keynote presentations – www.SlideShare.net
- Create online presentations – www.SlideRocket.com
- FoxitPDF
- Foxit Phantom – a PDF Swiss Army Knife
- Google Docs Templates
- Microsoft Office 2010 free beta
- Open Office 4 Kids
Productivity
- Black out your screen for distraction-free writing
- Focused (Cross-platform) – spreadingfunkyness.com/focused
- Darkroom (Windows) – they.misled.us/dark-room
- WriteRoom (Mac) – www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
- GTDInbox for GMail – www.gtdgmail.com
- Joe’s Goals, a free online habit tracker – www.joesgoals.com
- Windows Live Writer blogging client – writer.live.com
RSS
- Create your own RSS reminders – www.ReminderFeed.com
- Tabbloid turns your favorite RSS feeds into a personal magazine – www.tabbloid.com
- Sample Tabbloid
- Found via TipLine – Gates’ Computer Tips, a 2007 Edublog winner
- Check out the 2008 Edublog winners
Search
- Earn money for your organization with GoodSearch.com
- Google image search – images.google.com
- Search Google like an expert from HubSpot
Social Networking
- Desktop app for Twitter – www.twhirl.org
- Exercise and nutrition with a social twist – www.gyminee.com
- Follow Google on Twitter
- GroupTweet
- Micro-blogging mashup – www.Tumblr.com
- Martin’s Tumblr site – spriggs.tumblr.com
- Wikipedia on tumblelogs
- Posterous – Easily post to multiple social network accounts
- Social reading list – www.GoodReads.com
- TweetDeck app for iPhone & iPod Touch – in iTunes
- Twellow – Twitter directory
- TwInbox – Twitter plugin for Outlook
- Update status in multiple social networks – www.ping.fm
- Web-based instant messaging – www.meebo.com
Utilities
- BackBlaze.com – Online file backup
- Build a custom iTunes RSS Feed
- Collide Magazine
- DropBox for iPhone/iPod Touch
- Essential Free Windows Downloads from Lifehacker – Organize your Windows desktop
- Fences
- Free temporary file storage and sharing – s4ve.as
- Free virtualization software – Sun VirtualBox
- FTP client software – www.filezilla-project.org
- Google Chrome – speedy browser
- Google Chrome Extensions
- IE Tab
- Chromed Bird
- Feedly
- Google Wave Notifier
- Google Voice
- Mobile Google Sync – Sync Google calendar and contacts to your mobile device
- ShareThis – Sharing made easy
- SkyDrive Explorer – Windows Explorer drive mapping for Windows Live SkyDrive
- Sync bookmarks and passwords – www.FoxMarks.com
- Text substitution with Texter from Lifehacker
- Ultimate list of free software from Microsoft
- Windows 7 BitLocker for data encryption
Web 2.0
- Account-free, simple form creation – SignAppNow.com
- Diigo – Social bookmarking meets the writable web
- Google Sidewiki
- iGoogle – Gadget driven home page
- Martin’s favorite Firefox add-ons in a bundle – Firefox Collection
- Mashup and narrate web sites, photos, PowerPoint and more- www.FlowGram.com
- Online diagrams and charts – www.LovelyCharts.com
Web Development
- DreamHost.com
- Google Sites Templates
- IRC Chat for your site
- Mibbit – www.mibbit.com
- WELSTech Chat
- MinistryCSS.com – Design to inspire
- Novel Games – Embed Flash games in your web site
- Write Effective Headlines from Digital Evangelism Issues