The other day, I visited some educators at a local elementary school to share with them a few of the collaborative, powerful tools available for free on the web. They had just begun to use the Google Apps for Education suite of applications that come with LAUSD’s student email system, so I started with those. I then showed them some other free tools. I told them they didn’t have to write anything down because I would send them an email. More than a week has passed and I haven’t written that email yet, so I decided that I’d post it here so I could share it with more educators, if needed. Here goes…
Google Apps for Education through LAUSD’s Student MyMail
Google Apps includes Email, Google Docs which include documents (word processor), spreadsheet, presentation (like PowerPoint), and forms. In addition, users have access to a shared calendar and sites (a website builder). To add to that, Google has now added the ability to store any file within documents. This can now become a portable locker room/server for students, with 1 GB of free storage and a 250 MB at-a-time maximum upload. The advantage of working with all of these tools is that students do not require special software, only internet access and a modern browser and they can work from anywhere. Additionally, these tools are collaborative, which means that more than one person can work on the same document, even at the same time!
Here are some resources to get you started with Google Docs.
Google Sites allows students to build websites where they can showcase their work – which could be an e-portfolio that they could continue to build as they progress through school. Lucy Gray, an Google Certified teacher, has made a list of many different examples of how Google Sites could be used in the classroom.
Google Apps vs Google Account vs Gmail – What does it mean?
I especially like the first few slides on the presentation below, by Kern Kelly, because it compares Google Apps for Education (LAUSD’s student MyMail system), a Google account (that you create using your lausd.net email, and a Gmail account – where you get Google Mail and the whole package – which can’t be created within LAUSD’s firewall- but can be created at home).
Other Apps I Mentioned
As I look at the amazing tools just contained within Google, I should have just stuck to talking about Google. However, I just couldn’t leave without showing some other tools that are fantastic. Here are a few:
Kerpoof – Create drawings, movies, cards – very creative and a fun way for younger students to create digital stories.
VoiceThread – an amazing tool that allows users to add video, text, audio, and drawings in many different ways. More resources on Voicethread can be found here.
EtherPad – a quick, easy way to create a collaborative work space where students and work together in real time to brainstorm, create, collaborate. Note: Etherpad has been bought by Google, so it might go away soon. There are others out there like PrimaryPad and PiratePad.net that use the same code as Etherpad, since it became public when Google bought it.
Wordle – a tool that arranges a set of words in visually appealing designs, making more frequently used words larger. It can be used to analyze text in many ways. Below is a Wordle I created by copying and pasting what I’ve written so far. You can easily see what tool has the most emphasis. 
These are just a few of the applications available for our students to use in their learning experiences. These kinds of tools can help students in the digital world.