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Technology Tools

Expand your teaching toolkit with technology tools. Find reviews of tech tools, gadgets and software that can be used in your classroom to complement and augment your curriculum.

Fabulous "Must-have" Freeware for Your Classroom

Are you a parent, teacher, or administrator and have been looking for quality free software for your computer? Perhaps your needs are great, but your budget is not, and you need better technology tools to improve your efficiency in the classroom. Check out these suggestions!

Watch TV on your PC without adding hardware.

Watch TV on your PC without adding hardware. AnyTV™ (http://www.anytvplayer.com) claims that you can watch local or satellite TV from all around the world, in many different languages, on your PC. While your experience may be a bit more clunky, when you find channels that work well for your location, you can save them in a favorites list for quick access in the future. AnyTV works on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista operating systems, and is worth a look!

Amazing photo manipulation software is available at no cost!

GIMP™ (www.gimp.org or www.gimpshop.com) stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is an amazing program for photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. Laypersons may simply enjoy the ease of changing image sizes or formats so pictures can be inserted into other applications. GIMP has loads of very cool features, without the high price tag associated with better known software. It is available for PC, MAC, or Linux operating systems.

“Now you can have a full-featured office productivity suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office…” says the maker of StarOffice™ (www.sun.com/staroffice).

StarOffice is free to teachers and students in the State of Indiana and is available through your regional educational service center. It has powerful word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database capabilities that will look and feel very similar to what you have experienced with the pricier software. StarOffice will also read, edit, and save files created in the other applications. So don’t overlook this very attractive package of software solutions if you are looking to break the cycle of expensive acquisitions and upgrades.

See what’s in files without having to open them first!

While Vista offers a similar feature, users of Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 9.x, Windows Me, and Windows XP can now download free software called Universal Viewer™ (http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,68968/description.html) to peek at the content inside folders. Just download the software, mouse over the folder you want to see, and right click on Universal Viewer. Very easy, and very cool!

Create fantastic sound files for podcasts or multimedia presentations absolutely free!

Audacity™ (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) is free software for recording and editing sounds, and is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux operating systems. It is very powerful, yet easy to use, and is perfect for creating entire podcasts, or for making sound bites to include in multimedia presentations. Audacity is also great for converting sound files from one format to another. You’ll be surprised how easy and intuitive making original sound files can be.

Disclaimer: The Corporation for Educational Technology (Buddy) has no agenda other than the interests of K-12 educators. Technology product reviews render no financial incentive to our organization.

This article appeared in the ETC...and More! volume 1, number 5 newsletter and is published by the Buddy Project (Corporation for Educational Technology), in collaboration with the Hoosier Educational Computer Coordinators (HECC), Indiana Computer Educators (ICE), the Indiana Department of Education, and Promoting Achievement through Technology and INstruction for all Students (PATINS).