1. Make a video of a field trip or in-class activity using a digital camcorder to capture text and video. Post on TeacherTube or Vimeo as a way for students who missed the event, parents and other teachers to experience the event/lesson. You may want to include student interviews as part of the video, asking them to reflect on the activity and on what they learned.
2. Have students view a free podcast/video (such as a video-based lesson from iTunes U) at iTunes or other website for homework. The video should be tied directly or indirectly to what you are currently studying or are about to study. Create a worksheet of viewing questions for students to complete before discussion in class. Also, challenge students to find and share additional video resources online that supplement the video you choose. You may even set up a free wiki site from PB Wiki, Wikispaces (see below), etc., for students to add their resources to a growing list.
3. Create a class blog at Edublogs, Wordpress.com, or other free blogging site you prefer. Have students use it to recap lessons, ask questions/add comments and discussion points, and post additional resources (including graphics, photos and embedded video).
4. Create a simple text-based website using free wiki software, such as Wikispaces or PB Wiki. Students can create pages and build a great resource for test review. And in the best cases, the test review wiki can actually become part of the assessment for your class. Who contributed? What was the quality of his/her contribution?
5. Bring in a guest speaker via Skype, a free videophone service for your computer. The guest can appear in your classroom for free and can speak with your students from practically anywhere in the world! As a next step, encourage students to research and seek out their own guest speakers. In fact, you could use Skype to create a school or class-based speakers series for your students or for larger groups of participants.
6. Have students create their project work presentations and products (such as a group lab report) using collaborative creation software such as Google Docs. Google Docs allows for multiple, simultaneous edits/additions and can help group projects (especially those on a tight deadline – not that students every procrastinate!) come together quickly, efficiently and effectively.
7. Analyze any text passage using Wordle. *Check out this presentation on 45 Interesting Ways to Use Wordle in the Classroom: http://edudemic.com/2010/07/45-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-classroom/
8. Have students analyze paintings and comment using VoiceThread. *For lesson context, see the following link where students were prompted to use this tool to build a presentation about their thoughts on the import of sugar: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/access-analyze-act-economy/curriculum/sugar-supply/imports. Many other examples can be found here: http://ed.voicethread.com/library/
9. Use Twitter in the classroom to have students react to a video clip while watching it as a group. Or, students (and the teacher!) can use twitter as an ongoing conversation spot during the study of an entire unit. Students can use a hashtag (#) to group all comments into a single stream of conversation that can be archived. Or, here’s a different path: for language arts classes – take short story writing to the extreme! Challenge students to write their autobiographies in 140 characters or less. *Check out this presentation on 30 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom: http://edudemic.com/2010/07/the-30-newest-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom/
10. Set up a photo-sharing group on Flickr. Science students can take pictures of environmental problems the area with their mobile phones and post them to the group page. Social studies student can similarly group photos relevant to a current local event. Art students can look for “real world” examples of the forms/color uses they are studying in class. Students can comment on and discuss images also.
11. Use cell phones for polling devices (via text) or for answering a quiz with free software at Poll Everywhere. More confident teachers can use this polling tool to solicit anonymous feedback during a typical lecture session (e.g., Does everyone understand the lecture? Are there new areas we should be exploring as well? What are they? Am I boring you with this lecture? What’s missing?)
12. Use Google Earth for a geography, history, cultural and/or biology scavenger hunt. See lessons at: http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/Home/google-earth-lesson-plans
13. Have your students build a presentation on a topic of their choice using Prezi: http://prezi.com/
14. Or, how about creating a video using Masher (http://www.masher.com/), where your students can combine video clips, audio tracks, and photos into a multimedia montage?!

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