Web tools for Caribbean students and instructors

This is the online version of Inspiration (free for now). This application is used for creating visual representations of essay outlines and structures. It can also be used for creating visual presentations like creating food webs for science classes.

You must login to access.

CMap is the open source equivalent of Inspiration.

It is not web based however, you must download the application and install it on your computer to use it. It is a very versatile concept mapping program which allows you to import images, change backgrounds and create hyperlinks. You can save your maps so that they can be viewed on machines without the program.

This program is free to download. I love CMap. *****(five stars)

This is another open source concept mapping program which provides a range of functions for creating visual representations of ideas.

It is free and must be downloaded and installed to your computer.

This concept mapping application is web based. It is an online concept mapping program that you can use to create visual idea maps.

This is an online interactive whiteboard that can be used to write on, develop ideas etc.

What I particularly like about scriblink is that you can invite other users into your session. You can collaborate online or even use phone or voice over IP (VOIP) onthe computer to talk while you work together.

At the end of the session you can save, print or send the collaborative product on the screen. It is simple to use and has a clean interface. It can also produce math symbols for math collaborations. I like it **** (four stars).

This is a text to movie site where you can select an avatar and a setting for your movie. Once you type in your text, your avatar speaks your words in your own movie. You can even select the accent that you want.

You can share your movies with anyone. I played with it a bit and liked it. Can't say that I have found an educational use for it yet. It was just fun.

This is an audio recording and audio editing open source software program. It can be used for creating podcasts which can be uploaded to mobile phones or websites.(you will need a LAME editorto turn your .wav file into an mp3 file.

Or you can always upload your file to zamzar, have them do the conversion for you and e-mail you the file in the format you want.

This is an online productivity suite which does all the same things that Microsoft Office does and a whole lot more! Word processing, e-mail, databases,spreadsheets, presentation and web conferencing...you can work online and save your docs etc online. It's fantastic and free! ***** (five stars)

This is the free alternative to Microsoft Office suite.

In addition to having

word processing (MS Word),

presentation(MS PowerPoint),

spreadsheet (MS Excel) and

database (MS Access) capabilities,

LibreOffice and MS files are compatible, meaning that files for each program can be opened in the other.

I give LibreOffice *****(five stars) - and I would give them more if I could!

LibreOffice is free to download and install. It can be downloaded from the offical website and installed on your local computer.