classtools

I’ve been publishing a series of posts sharing sites and student examples of the Web 2.0 Tools For Beginning English Language Learners, and the latest one I shared was Dustbin.

Dustbin is part of an extraordinary site created by Russel Tarr called ClassTools.

Last night, after I posted about Dusbin, I took some time to look around ClassTools, and was absolutely blown away with the number, variety and quality of the features Russel has developed. I knew he had periodically added new tools, but I had no idea how many new ones he had created.

You can see them all here. None appear to require registration, and student creations from all them also appear to be able to have their own url address and be embedded. I say “appear” because I haven’t had enough time to try them all out yet.

In addition to Dustbin, here are three that particularly stand-out:

Post it is very similar to Szoter. You can upload an image from your computer or from a url address (you can put the url address of a photo in the “File Name” box and it will work, too). Then, you can easily annotate/label different parts of the image. I’m adding it to The Best Online Tools For Using Photos In Lessons.

Qwikslides is a super-easy tool for creating slideshows. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows.

ClassTools’ Venn Diagram tool is the easiest and best tool I’ve seen anywhere on the Web to create two or three circle diagrams. I’m adding it to The Best Tools To Make Simple Graphs Online.

These three, and Dustbin, are just the tip of the iceberg. You can make arcade game quizzes , a fake “Facebook” page and a whole lot more.

Russel has all these sites in one place, they’re free, no registration is required,and it’s unlikely that ClassTools is blocked by school district content filters — combine all these features and, in my humble opinion, you’ve got the best Web 2.0 education site out there.

I’m adding this post to The Best Three Sites On The Web For ESL/EFL/ELL/ELT Teachers. I guess I’m going to have to change the title on that post to the best “Four.”