Throughout the Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology (OMET) program I have used and been exposed to a large variety of web-based tools, mostly free, supporting learning and communication via the Internet. Below is a list of some of my personal favorites and a link to a robust design library of web-based tools that was created by Cadre 11 as part of the Cadre Gifts project for EDC 641: Introduction to Distributed Learning Environment.
My Favorite Web-based Tools: (To be updated as new ones are discovered.)
- Bitstrips – Comic strip generator that offers the ability to create custom characters and scenes and includes online hosting and sharing of comic strips.
- Etherpad – Free and paid solution for quickly creating, simple collaborative document spaces to rapidly build shared content. No software downloads or registration is necessary to create and share a document space with others. The page refreshes every 15 seconds making collaborative writing and editing relatively easy.
- Evernote – Online, desktop, and mobile application for writing, storing, accessing, and editing basic word-processing documents. Includes free and paid options, the ability to share notes with others, and continuous synchronization of notes between the desktop application, server space, and mobile devices for security and ease of access from any location.
- Google Analytics – Free website analysis tool for tracking and reporting website usage data.
- Google Docs – Free online document generator for creating, hosting, and selectively sharing word-processing, spreadsheet, presentations, and other documents. Documents may be collaboratively built with others via the internet during synchronous, or asynchronous sessions.
- Google Sites – Free template based websites with easily editable parts and access to a variety of highly-flexible plug-ins. Includes wiki, calendaring, and commenting functionality among many other features.
- Oovoo – Synchronous and asynchronous audio, video, and/or text-based communication tool with ability to record and share messages via email.
- Photoshop.com – Online photo editing and image gallery.
- Skype – Synchronous audio, video, and/or text-based communication tool.
- SurveyMonkey – Online survey creation, hosting, and analyzing tool.
- WordPress – Template-based tool for creating blogs that includes options for hosting content on a private server or selecting to have a free blog hosted through WordPress.