Tools

There are so many great free online tools for students and teachers! Here is a list of the tools that I used to build this website - you can visit my How-To Technology Tips blog for more information.

Ning.com: A Ning provides you with an integrated discussion board and blogging system. I use Ning for all my online classes at the University of Oklahoma - and of course you are looking at a Ning right now!

Blogger.com: Although the Ning gives you one blog, you might want to have multiple blogs for different purposes (I've got about a half-dozen blogs that I update regularly). At Google's Blogger.com service, you can keep as many blogs as you want - all for free!

PBWiki.com: If you have LOTS of text you want to publish online quickly, a wiki is the best way to go! (The word "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian.) You can also use a wiki for collaborative editing, or you can be the sole editor, treating the wiki space as your own personal website. I keep thousands of Latin fables at my Aesopus PBWiki.

RotateContent.com: If you are wondering where the cool widgets come from, they were built with the RotateContent tool - a free online javascript-generator built by Randy Hoyt. You can use the tool to create random widgets (like the random fables widget), or date-based widgets (like the Latin and Greek proverbs of the day). It's a fantastic tool - the easiest way that I know to generate a dynamic javascript without having to do any programming at all!

TypeGreek.com: Do you want to add Greek to your webpages or blog posts? This little online utility allows you to type using a regular keyboard in order to create fully accented Greek text that you can cut-and-paste into any webpage or digital document. I used this to create the text for the Greek proverb of the day widget, for example. Another essential tool from Randy Hoyt!

Please feel free to add comments with ideas about other free online tools to add to this list!