Despite having a difficult web address to remember (http://h30411.www3.hp.com/) Hewlett Packard have one of the most interesting sections on their web site for teachers. I follow them on Twitter (@HPTeachExchange) and they often come up with some lists of great resources for teachers.
For example, I used their list of animation resources for a project with my fifth and sixth class. The HP Teacher Exchange blog came up with 7 Web 2.0 animation tools ranging in simplicity and power, which gave the children a good choice in the tools they needed to create their animation. Some of the groups chose to use XtraNormal, which I found was brilliant for creating drama. They made a wonderful comedy scene about an angry leprechuan! Most of the others used a package called ABCya, which is a very simple stop-motion animation kit for quick animations.
This week they have blogged about 9 Web 2.0 tools that allow students to publish their work online. They include old favourites such as Scribd but also some nice tools to allow students to create interactive flip books from PDFs and Word files. Examples include: Yudu, Issuu and Flipsnack. I was surprised not to see Storybird amongst the list, which is a fantastic story book making application. However, Tikatok and Mixbook were other alternatives worth checking out.
It’s great when you find a gem of a web site and have the opportunity to share it. Now all they have to do is make their URL less cryptic!