NOTE: I wrote this way back in 2010 and naturally a good number of these freebie sites have since disappeared. Feel free to browse, but my apologies for any broken links. For more up to date free resources, try the Free Tools and Resource Category. Thanks! – KW
This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone.
We've made an effort to provide a worthy set of resources in each of these categories (and to avoid resources that seem of lesser quality or functionality). All of these applications are free (some have both free and paid versions). Some sites may require registration. If you know of any similar quality tools that you think deserve consideration, please drop a comment below.
This listing benefits greatly from reader input, so don't hesitate to share! Thanks.
RESOURCES DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR EDUCATORS
Activity & Materials Creators
- Awards Certificates: www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#awardCertificates
- Bookmarks and Book Plates: www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#book
- Calendars & Classroom Organizers: www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#book
- Flash Cards – Create Your Own at StudyStack (have to register): www.studystack.com/CreateStack.jsp
- Flash Card Exchange (register for adv. functions): www.flashcardexchange.com
- Form filler (have to register): www.fillanypdf.com
- Holiday & Seasonal Worksheets: www.abcteach.com/directory/seasonal/
- Puzzle Maker (lots of types – word search, math squares, mazes, much more!): puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com
- Word Search Puzzles (lots of them): www.thepotters.com/puzzles.html
- Worksheets (lots of preformatted worksheets): www.superteacherworksheets.com
Communications Tools (Print & Electronic)
- EducationWorld Newsletters & Parent Communications: www.educationworld.com/tools_templates/index.shtml#newsletters
- TeacherFiles: www.teacherfiles.com/resources_newsletters.htm
Course Management Systems & LMS alternatives
(You have to register to use these tools, so you can save your own personalized content. Note that these tools are generally more involved than many of the other resources on this page. Some of them offer both paid and free functionality)
- Blackboard's “CourseSites”: coursesites.blackboard.com (this is a secure site and you may get notification of this as you attempt to access it)
- EctoLearning: www.ectolearning.com
- MyiCourse: www.myicourse.com
- rCampus: www.rcampus.com/help/about/course_and_learning_management_system.cfm
- Schoology: www.schoology.com
- SchoolRack: www.schoolrack.com
Clipart
- DiscoveryEducation: school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart
- School-Clipart: www.school-clipart.com
- TeacherFiles: www.teacherfiles.com/clip_art.htm
Educational Videos
- Seven Online Classrooms Teachers Can Use to Augment Their Own
- A Dozen Free Online Video Lecture Sites: www.emergingedtech.com/2010/02/a-dozen-great-free-online-video-lecture-sites
- Seven Online Classrooms Teachers Can Use to Augment Their Own: www.emergingedtech.com/2012/01/seven-online-classrooms-teachers-can-use-to-augment-their-own (some overlap here with some of the listings in above article)
- Watchknow: www.watchknow.org
Interactives (for White Boards, or Powerpoint)
- 4 Free Digital Whiteboard Apps for the iPad
- ABCTeach: www.abcteach.com/directory/interactive
- Promethean Plant (have to register): www.prometheanplanet.com
- SMART Exchange: exchange.smarttech.com
- TopMarks: www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx
iPhone, iPad, and Android Apps
- 15 Favorite iPad Apps As Selected By Teachers
- 100 free iPhone Apps for Educators
- Free iPad Apps for Educators (and Parents)
- Attendance (for Android)
- Grade Book (for Android)
- Grade Rubric (for Android)
- Grade Ticker (for Android)
Lesson Plans
- AtoZ Teacher Stuff: atozteacherstuff.com/Lesson_Plans/index.shtml
- Discovery Education: school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans
- LessonPlansPage: www.lessonplanspage.com
- Scholastic: www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplans.jsp
- Teacher.net: teachers.net/lessons
Open Educational Resources
- Curriki's Resources and Curricula page: http://welcome.curriki.org/resources-curricula/
- OER Consortium: oerconsortium.org
- OER Commons: www.oercommons.org
Presentation Tools
- Teacher's recommendations for academic uses of 5 fun free presentation tools: www.emergingedtech.com/2012/01/teachers-recommendations-for-academic-uses-of-5-fun-free-presentation-tools/
Quizzes & Tests
(These types of sites require sign up)
- Easy Test Maker: www.easytestmaker.com
- Quizstar: quizstar.4teachers.org/indexi.jsp
- Huge free sets of practice SATs, ACTs, AP exams, and more: http://www.varsitytutors.com/practice-tests
Rubrics
- 4Teachers: rubistar.4teachers.org
- Rubrics4Teachers: www.rubrics4teachers.com
- iRubrics: www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm
Social Learning & Collaboration
- Edmodo: www.edmodo.com
- Edutopia: www.edutopia.org
- Room21: room21online.com
- TakingITGlobal: www.tigweb.org
OTHER/Miscellaneous
- Do You Know About The Many Free Resources For Education Available from Apple?
- FlippedTextBook.com (create your own ‘flipped' text book – in beta)
- FreeTech4Teachers (Richard Byrne's excellent blog, with lots of free resources that featured daily).
- Google Apps for Education
- Microsoft Live@EDU
GENERAL RESOURCES (not intended just for educators)
Animation
Blogging
Document Management
File Management
Group Projects
iPad Apps
Literature Summary/Analysis
Mind Mapping
Note Taking
Online Interactive White Boards
- 4 Free Digital Whiteboard Apps for the iPad
- Dabbleboard (link wasn't working as of 1/27/12 – not sure if this is temporary or permanent)
- Scribblar
Picture, Photo, & Image Editing & Organizing
- Aviary (https://www.anysoftwaretools.com/what-happened-to-aviary/)
- FotoFlexer
- Photofunia
- Picasa
- Pixenate
PowerPoint
- Watch this video to learn about creating your own Custom Animations, and learn about many other free resources.
- This tutorial from Online Tech Tips explains how to create slide transition automations using easy pre-configured tools in PowerPoint.
- Click here to access a preconfigured search of Microsoft's Office Site, set up to return dozens of articles with hundreds of free templates for PowerPoint.
- PresentationMagazine.com provides tons of tips, articles, PowerPoint templates, and more
Screencasting & Presentations
- Fotobabble
- Glogster
- Jing
- OneTrueMedia
- Prezi
- Screenpresso
- Screenr
- Screencast-O-matic
- Slideshare
- ZohoShow
- Voki
- 4 Great Twitter Applications for Teachers Using Twitter In The Classroom (these each have some free functionality, and some higher end paid functionality): www.emergingedtech.com/2011/10/4-great-twitter-applications-for-teachers-using-twitter-in-the-classroom/
Other/Miscellaneous
- Google Image Search
- Random.org (a true random number generator that some teachers have said they find useful).
- Read it Later
If you have a resource you would like to see added to this list, please comment and tell us about it.
Thank you for the information.
Playfully learn any table of multiplication on this website. The site is filled with the best exercises. https://www.multiplicationgames.com
This free productivity resources for teachers was very informative. Your blog is so informative. keep up the good work!!!!
Just read your post and would like to thank you for maintaining such a cool blog.
Nice Blog Post!
Pretty much all screen capture plugins can take screenshots of a whole page. I am using Nimbus but they can pretty much all do it. With Nimbus, you can select between capturing the whole page, only the visible part or a selected area … then you can edit it if you need (crop it, blur some parts, add arrows to point something, add texts, circle things, etc…). I really recommend it instead of the one you talked about in the article.
I’d add to this list actiTIME Blog. It covers the following topics: productivity, time management, procrastination and modern technology.
Here’s the link to the blog:
https://www.actitime.com/blog
I would like to add a couple of resources:
http://www.planbook.com online planning
Review activities (create your own, steal other teachers and download results for data collection).
http://www.kahoot.com
http://www.quizziz.com
http://www.quizlet.live.com (team and individual real time review competitions)
http://www.problem-attic.com (practice and exam creatircreation in pretty much and subject under the sun… Or at least taught in the state NY and a a few other ones).
http://www.rockalingua.com Spanish lessons and activities for ES age kids-lots of them even in the free version!)
http://www.conjugemos.com Verbs, vocabulary, alligned to a couple of curricula (The free version has same resources just no classes and student can be created).
http://www.profe-ELE.com Spanish on and off line activities, games, flash cards (free and paid option).
Facebook Groups specific to the content one teaches.
And I bet I’ll remember some more as soon as I submit!
These are really nice websites and will be very useful for my kids. One resource which is not part of the list and should be added to the list because they have a comprehensive collection of resources for all math topics in the form of worksheets, board games and apps which help my son to practice math in a fun way. These worksheets https://logicroots.com/math-worksheets/ are free to download, colorful and user-friendly. These are for grade K to 5 and perfect for teachers, homeschooling mothers, parents who want kids to practice math in a fun way in both classroom and homework activities.
Very wonderful information can be found on this web site.
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Please consider adding my site, http://www.scattervox.com, to your list of resources. Scattervox is a new twist on free online polling tools: voters rate different people/places/things by plotting them onto a 2-D scatter graph.
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone.We’ve made an effort to provide a worthy set of resources in each of these categories (and to avoid resources that seem of lesser quality or functionality). All of these applications are free (some have both free and paid versions). Some sites may require registration. If you know of any similar quality tools that you think deserve consideration, please drop a comment below. […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
Hi! This is a great list, I’ve already passed it on to two of my teachers from high school. I’d like to suggest MindMeister (http://www.mindmeister.com) as another free mind mapping tool (I work here). It enables online collaboration between teachers and students and also lets you turn your maps into slide shows.
Cheers!
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[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
This is great list I will definitely be passing on to students, teachers and other educators I am in touch with as a useful free education resources library.
I see you have a lot of suggestions in your comments so I would like to let you know about the online learning platform we are developing called ExamTime.
This free resource incorporates proven learning techniques and uses online study tools such as Mind Maps, Flashcards, Quizzes, Study Notes & a Goal Setting tool to improve your memory, aid recall and ultimately improve your learning.
It would be great if you could add our site to your list on this page: http://www.examtime.com
Thanks for letting your followers know about us!
Thanks for this great resource! Here’s a card I made for you
http://www.buncee.com/buncee/32641
May I suggest a webapp, called buncee.com (i work here)
It lets you make interactive lesson plans and also fun and personal cards/invitations.
Thanks,
A
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[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] Resources Designed Specifically for Educators: This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We’ve made an effort to provide a worthy set of resources in each of these categories (and to avoid resources that seem of lesser quality or functionality). All of these applications are free (some have both free and paid versions). […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]
[…] This listing is divided into two key groups – tools intended specifically for educators, and general applications intended for everyone. We've made an […]