As regular readers know, for the past fourteen years I’ve been publishing about twenty-five different bi-annual lists highlighting the best educational resources around (along with tons of other “Best” lists). You can see them all here.

I’m starting off by focusing on Web 2.0 tools. It’s possible that a few of these sites began earlier than this year, but, if so, I’m including them in this list because they were “new to me” in 2022 (or in late 2021 after I published that year’s list).

As usual, in order to make this list, a site had to be:

* accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech savvy users.

* free-of-charge (or have decent “freemium” features.

* appropriate for classroom use.

* completely browser-based with no download required (however, I’ve begun to make exceptions for special mobile apps).

You can see previous editions of these lists, along with all my Web 2.0-related lists, here.

Here are my choices for The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2022 – Part One. They are divided into three categories – Useful, Good, Excellent:

 

USEFUL

Knowt will automatically create flashcards quizzes from a document you upload. You can learn more about it from Richard Byrne. I’m adding it to THE “BEST” TOOLS FOR AUTOMATICALLY TURNING TEXTS & VIDEOS INTO INTERACTIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING TOOLS.

Gamma looks interesting – it lets you create documents that are turned into more accessible slidedecks.

This one might not fit into the definition of Web 2.0, but it’s still interesting: Talk To Books is both fun and interesting. It’s from Google, and lets you use natural language to ask a question.  It then uses Artificial Intelligence to “answer” it.

There have been a lot of tools released this year related to Artificial Intelligence creating art. You can learn more about them at Teaching English Through Using AI For Art Creation.

Pie Chart Maker lets you easily create…pie charts. I’m adding it to The Best Tools To Make Simple Graphs Online.

Canva has made lots of changes and upgrades, including adding the ability to create a website. Learn all about them here. I’m adding this info to THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING HOW TO USE CANVA and to The Best Ways For Students Or Teachers To Create A Website.

Story Map lets you tell stories with maps. I’m adding it to The Best Map-Making Sites On The Web.

Antimatter lets you create virtual classrooms where students can create memes. You can read more about it at TechCrunch. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Making Internet ” Memes”

Iorad is a Chrome Extension that lets you easily create tutorials.  I’m adding it to THE BEST TOOLS FOR STUDENTS TO CREATE TUTORIALS ONLINE.

Daftpage looks like an easy tool for creating websites. I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students Or Teachers To Create A Website.

Vidboard.ai is a new tool that lets you choose a face and a voice, then type a short script, and then uses artificial intelligence to create a video. It was a bit glitchy when I tried it out, but it might be a fun activity for ELLs to try out.

Web Highlights is a Chrome extension that lets you highlight webpages.  I’m adding it to The Best Applications For Annotating Websites.

Digital Curator lets you search a zillion pieces of part by theme, subject or object, and then create a collection of them. For example, search “dog” and you’ll get a bunch of paintings with a dog in them. I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students To Create Their Own Online Art Collections.

VocabBoost lets you easily create clozes.  I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Creating Clozes (Gap-Fills).

Felt looks like an interesting new tool for online mapmaking.  I’m adding it to The Best Map-Making Sites On The Web.

Carrd is an easy way to make a simple website. I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students Or Teachers To Create A Website.

Text Chat Animator lets you create a video of an ongoing text chat that you, or students, can use in a video. I’m adding it to The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning.

I learned about Org.Pad from Jindřich Zdráhal. It’s like Padlet. I’m adding it to The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”) .

Google unveiled a new Google Arts and Culture site called Manga Out Of The Box. Not only does it have a zillion multimedia features where you can learn about manga, but it also has a feature that allows you to create manga figures with the help of Artificial Intelligence. As any teacher knows, Manga is hugely popular among many students, so we teachers should be able to use this site for a variety of potential lessons and activities.

Facebook has created an online tool called Sketch Canvas that lets you upload of a simple drawing, and then it will animated it.  I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations.

“Listikle is a web application that is designed to quickly create visually attractive list-based pages.”

Grafico is a new tool for creating infographics. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Creating Infographics.

 

GOOD 

Phideo lets you easily create slideshows with music, and it’s free. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog. Adobe Creative Express, previously called Adobe Spark, will still be my “go-to” tool for this kind of project, but I’m still adding Phideo it to The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows.

I, like many grandparents, made up stories to tell my grandchildren. At the time, I didn’t think of turning them into books for them to read. Now, though, I have younger grandkids again, and decided it would be nice to turn my stories into paper books for them to read (as well as reading them aloud to them). I figured there had to be some super-easy online tools out there that enable people to quickly turn their stories into children’s books. And, I was right! BookBildr lets you do it with their collection of ready-made illustrations, and you can get a 24 page physical book for under $18.  It also has a section for educators.  There are probably better tools, however, if you just want your students to create online books.

 

EXCELLENT

Google unveiled a new tool called Aloud. If you create a video in one language, you just upload the text narration and Aloud will “dub” your video in one of several languages (and they plan on adding more). So, according to Google, it would be simple for a teacher who creates their own videos in English to make others dubbed in the home language of ELL students. Just as many content teachers, including me, use tools at The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science to use a version of the Preview/View/Review bilingual education model (Introduce the lesson in the home language, do the lesson in English, review it in the home language), it would be possible for content teachers to ask ELLs to watch the dubbed version, then the English version, and then do other follow-up activities in English. For example, that’s what I do with Brainpop now – students watch the Spanish-language version, then the English one, and then do the assessments and interactive exercises in English. Providing students with that kind of prior knowledge enhances their ability to understand the content, and to learn and understand English.  It can also be useful for creating videos for parents.  Unfortunately, it’s still available to everybody – you have to request early access.