Scoop.It

Scoop.It is a great way to organize any content that you or your students could ever possibly want to organize. The idea is simple. Scoop.It creates a fairly cookie-cutter, magazine-style layout for any relevant items that you may uncover whilst scouring the vastness of the internet so that you may keep them altogether in a single location for sharing, viewing, or just fun.

It's totally free, so all you need to do is register and follow a few simple instructions to add your "Scoop.It" bookmark button to your browser, and you're ready to go.

How does it work in the classroom?

If your students are trying to find a way just to organize countless resources regarding a particular subject, have them create a Scoop.It "topic" for that subject to serve as a cache for any online locations that relate to the unit, lesson, class, or topic.

Math: Have your students create a topic for trigonometry or the Pythagorean Theorem or solving two-step equations or whatever. Every time they come across a relevant or useful web page that would make the process of solving those problems a little bit easier, Scoop It. If they find an instance where those principles come into play in the real world, Scoop.It too.

Science: There is a mountain of information about topics like the Periodic Table, binomial nomenclature, food chains, physics, etc. that students could see to better understand the real world implications of what they learn in science classes. Have a Physical Science Scoop.It or a Biology Scoop.It.

English: Any time a student encounters a cool critique of Hamlet or The Lord of the Flies, then Scoop.It.

History: You think that maybe there are a few online resources about World War II out there?

The usefulness of Scoop.It doesn't end there. Theoretically, any teacher in any discipline could create a Scoop.It just for the sole purpose of promoting what he or she has done in class all year. It's also a cool way for a coach to show off his team's accomplishments using online newspaper articles and photos. This site is just a tremendous way to create a chronicle.

Click here to see an example Scoop.It that I created for my baseball team's 2012 season.

enThread

If you're looking for a quick and easy image editor that requires little to no knowledge about anything other than the internet, then enThread may be just what you need. There is no software to install or anything. Just visit the site and start editing. It's all in your browser. In order to use the service, you simply drag your photo that you wish to edit into the interface which is a simple script embedded into the webpage. Using the provided tools for color, hue, saturation, etc., you can improve your photos and give them semi-professional quality.

In order to save your edited images, registration is required, but never fear. Users aren't even required to enter any information at all beyond an email address, and it's totally free. This is definitely a cool little web app that is worth a look. It takes hardly any time at all figure out and master.

Below is a look at the clean design of the interface. Controls for editing are categorized on the right.

ThatQuiz

ThatQuiz is a really cool assessment resource for teachers to use as an online testing center. Teachers and students simply take nine seconds to register and they will instantly have access to very effective, albeit basic and not very flashy, study tool.

There are quite a few tests and quick little activities that anyone can complete when they visit the site, but to unlock the site's full capabilities, teachers can design their own tests for registered students to complete, which will instantly provide testing results and valuable data in a tidy format.

How does it work in the classroom?

Spend a day (preferably at the beginning of the year during all your procedural shenanigans) to get your kids registered and show them the ins and outs of ThatQuiz. It may take some time to get yourself acquainted with the features of the site and designing tests, but if you'll just hang in there and give it some time, you'll have a great online formative assessment tool at your disposal.

SmileBox

If you're looking for a fun alternative to MixBook or a simple, straightforward digital scrapbooking program that yields eye-popping results, you should definitely check out SmileBox, a free downloadable program for Mac or PC that will turn your photos and even videos into a sleek digital keepsake.

You start by downloading and installing the program, and don't worry because it's not a RAM hog and runs fairly quickly and smoothly even on an older machine. Right when you start up the program the first time, the interface feels very familiar and easy to operate. Just upload your photos and even your videos into the project and simply begin inserting and arranging all your stuff until you're ready to finalize it. When you're finished, you can export your SmileBox to DVD or email it as a video file (my personal favorite), or even send SmileBox a little money and get an actual professionally printed copy of your scrapbook sent to you.

How does it work in the classroom?

SmileBox provides students and teachers alike with a great way to chronicle everything that happened throughout the course of a project, a class, a school year, a sports season, or even something as simple as an assembly or any special event. Students will have no difficulty at all picking up the fine nuances of getting the most out of the program, and their creations will be sure to raise some eyebrows. And remember if a student's work is truly worthy of high praise and lasting admiration, you can even cough up a little cash to get it printed and mailed to you.

Click here for a sample of what you can do.

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is an iPhone/iPad app that is an alternative to Instagram or any other photo capturing/doctoring tools that you may use. You can, of course, take photos, store and organize them, and apply filters that are provided in the app. One of the coolest benefits of the app is that you can shoot layered images with ease from within the app. The cost is a mere $0.99, which is worth it for the tools you get, and plus, it's not Instagram, which is a good thing.

The app was optimized for compatibility with the iPhone 5, and has exclusive features that work with iOS 6, but there are several reports of bugs within the app when it runs on those platforms.

Quizlet

Quizlet is yet another extremely useful website and study tool with tons of great uses. There's even a free Quizlet app in the App Store if you're into having your students going the mobile route when studying their content. To get started, all you really need to do is register. It's free, but like everything else on the internet these days, there is a "premium" service that you can opt to purchase for $15 a year that basically includes access to a few features that probably aren't worth $15 a year. Then again, with what you can access at the start, why even bother.

The mobile version.

Quizlet allows users log in and create, track, and organize a complete online study guide of vocabulary words or relevant terms and phrases which can then be manipulated into flashcards, spelling tests, definition tests, etc. Students can revisit their "flashcard sets" to study, and they can create an unlimited amount of sets even with the free service. Downloading the app to an iPad or iPod allows  students to take their studying to any quiet place they can find. Teachers can even create classes to monitor student progress and share vocabulary sets.

How does it work in the classroom?

Honestly, whenever my students use Quizlet to learn a lot of key terms for a project or a unit, it always seems like they begin to pick up on the terminology noticeably quicker and more accurately than if they don't use it. Not only that, but spelling of the terms is also better just because of the nature of Quizlet and the way the "Space Race" game works. The bottom line is that using my ever-informal research techniques, I feel as though I can ascertain that using Quizlet will yield more positive results than not using it.

Try it. You have nothing to lose.