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50 Web Applications for Teachers
By Allison Gray - Rasmussen College
50 Web Applications for Teachers – 50 web tools to help teachers with lesson planning, research and productivity! 
Teachers have one of the most difficult jobs out there. As an educator, you have to manage a classroom of boisterous students, organize heaps of data, stay up-to-date with current events and plan lessons day in and day out. In today’s technologically linked world, the ability to use web applications is at your advantage as an educator, and we are here to tell you the best tools to use. Here is a collection of 50 web applications that make the grade for tech-savvy teachers:
1) 37 Signals: (http://37signals.com/) More than three million people use this application for a reason—it’s extremely effective for businesses and educators. 37 Signals makes it easier to collaborate, share, discuss and get work done through its programs—Basecamp
(http://basecamphq.com) (a project management system), Highrise
(http://www.highrisehq.com) (where you can track your contact with parents and students), Backpack (http://www.backpackhq.com) (where you can organize your life) and Campfire (http://www.campfirehq.com) (an instant messaging system).
2) AVG: (http://free.avg.com/us-en/get-basic-protection) Education in today’s world has become mostly web-based, so it’s important that teacher’s computers are virus-free. AVG is a downloadable application that protects your personal computer against security threats like spam and malware.
3) Book Glutton: (http://www.bookglutton.com/portal/about.html) Book Glutton is a great application for lit-hungry English teachers. It allows users to read books over the web as well as annotate and discuss books in an online community forum.
5) BrainHoney: (http://brainhoney.com/about.html) BrainHoney is a free web application that educators can use to author online curriculum, map course standards, personalize lesson plans, access online grade books and interact with parents and students.
6) Broken-Notebook (http://www.brokennotebook.com/spell_checker/) If there is one faux pas as a teacher, it’s bad spelling. The online application, Broken-Notebook corrects the spelling of online content…similar to a word processor…but online.
7) Chalksite: (http://create.chalksite.com/signup) Chalksite is an uncomplicated web-based application where teachers can streamline grade and assignment tracking. The app can also host a class website and facilitate two-way communication between students and teachers through a chat function.
ClassMarker: (http://www.classmarker.com) ClassMarker is an online-based test generator that allows teachers to create quizzes with a blend of multiple choice, true or false, short-answer, fill-in-the-blank or essay questions. Classmarker is the quintessential example of a successful Web 2.0 application, as results are instantly dispersed to students and emailed to professors.
9) Comapping: (http://www.comapping.com/education.html) This tech-savvy web application allows students and teachers to engage in real-time collaboration online. This application requires a minimal learning curve and teachers can easily implement this program into their coursework.
10) CreateDebate.com: (http://www.createdebate.com/index.php/teachers) CreateDebate is a dynamic virtual learning environment created to help students discuss and debate their thoughts online.
11) Curriki: (http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome) This wiki-based online application is used by teachers to share educational ideas and coursework. Great for teachers stumped on ideas for activities, this application has a stock of lesson plans, handouts and study guides.
12) Edmodo: (http://www.edmodo.com/) Edmodo is a secure social platform for teachers and students to micro-blog and share files, events, documents, assignments and grades. The app is formatted to emulate Twitter and is crafted with the classroom in mind…But unlike Twitter, this site blocks the general public from seeing the content—providing a safe haven for students and teachers.
13) Edublogs: (http://edublogs.org/) Edublogs is an academic micro-blogging platform created with WordPress-powered blogs. With Edublogs, teachers can include class publications and newsletters, online discussions, allowing student blogs and adding multimedia. This free application also suggests tips on how educators can integrate blogs into their coursework.
15) DOC Cop: (http://www.doccop.com/index.html?nc=41078331) This tech-savvy web app allows teachers to catch plagiarizing students through software that cross-checks online and offline sources. DOC Cop emails a report indicating how much of the document may have been copied and where the copied lines may have originated.
16) Footnote: (http://www.footnote.com/) Footnote is a history teacher’s dream app, with more than 60 million original historical documents to peruse through. Users of Footnote can use the site to view never-before-seen historic documents from renowned institutions like The National Archives and The Library of Congress.
17) Flickr: The Commons: (http://www.flickr.com/commons/) This application is great for presentations with its vast collection of public photography. Images from The Library of Congress, National Media Museum, Oregon State University, Brooklyn Art Museum and many credible institutions are showcased on this colorful application.
18) GlogsterEDU: (edu.glogster.com) Glogster EDU is a unique academic resource for interactive and visual learning. It allows teachers and their students to make online multimedia documents with text, photos, videos, graphics, music and other multimedia in a secure virtual classroom.
19) Gmail: (http://mail.google.com/mail/) Google is the ruler of email—with the ever-so-popular Gmail application. With 2.5GB, label creators, email search, multi-language support, rick text formatting, contact importing and automatic custom signatures—this app is a teacher’s dream.
20) Google Voice: (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html) Google Voice is a fantastic app used to help web users manage their voice communications. Educators can use this system to transcribe important conversations with parents of students.
21) Google Base (http://googlebase.blogspot.com/) For prospective teachers, Google Base can serve as an untapped resource for job postings.
22) Jalenack’s AJAX Periodic Table of the Elements (http://code.jalenack.com/periodic/)This online periodic table of elements is great for science teachers. When you toggle through the elements, users can essential facts such as atomic number, symbol and weight—plus links to Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com and ChemiCool (http://www.chemicool.com/).
23) Lesson Planner Advanced: (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/lessonplanneradvanced.html) Created by educators, Lesson Planner Advanced helps teachers deliver great lectures with digital resources. Throw away the pencil and paper…This online lesson plan grid serves as an amazing tool for teachers to create lesson plans in one place.
24) Mindomo: (http://www.mindomo.com/) One of the most effective ways to organize information and critically think is to visually draw out your thoughts. Mindmaps does just that—with its web-based mind mapping software.
25) Moodle: (http://moodle.org/) Moodle is a virtual learning environment that is a free for educators—great for creating class websites. In addition, this application offers a haven for education-related events, forums, books, manuals and downloads.
26) MindMeister: (http://www.mindmeister.com/) Another online mind-mapping tool, MindMeister promotes free-flowing thought processes with its interactive map-making.
27) My Studiyo: (http://mystudiyo.com) MyStudiyo is a web app that serves as a portal online tests and quizzes. Users simply have to add content to quiz templates and create a customized quiz for your audience.
28) Nibipedia: (http://www.nibipedia.com/index.html) Nibipedia is a mashup of YouTube’s (http://www.youtube.com) educational videos. The app that relies heavily on community contribution and is built using a wiki-like construct where the web community can comment and share video clips.
29) ObjectGraph Dictionary (http://www.objectgraph.com/dictionary/) ObjectGraph is a web-based dictionary application. This efficient app can save teachers time while prepping for a lesson or grading papers.
30) Pandora: (http://www.pandora.com) Though this app doesn’t directly correlate to academia—it allows teachers to relax with a fully customizable internet radio.
32) Plagiarism Detect: (http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/) Plagiarism Detect is another high-tech plagiarism program crafted for educators. The program has a small monthly fee but the cost is worth it, as it can save teachers tons of time by eliminating endless Google phrase searches.
33) Remember The Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/) Organizing your personal and professional life can be a daily struggle—but applications like “Remember the Milk” can ease your pain. This online list management application allows users to create many different lists, schedule tasks, sync lists to email and instant messaging and generate time estimates on projects.
34) SchoolTool: (http://schooltool.org/) SchoolTool is a free online bookkeeping source for school administrators. The application delivers organization tools for grading, scheduling, attendance, learning assessment and report card generation.
35) SchoolRack: (http://www.schoolrack.com/) SchoolRack is a free website where teacher can design their classroom’s website. The app allows teachers to build colorful, customizable websites, while storing mailing lists and moderating private discussions with students and/or parents.
36) Scribd (http://www.scribd.com/) Scribd is the largest social publishing company in the world, where tens of millions of people each month can publish and discover documents online. On Scribd, teachers can utilize the web publishing function for PDFs, Word, PowerPoint presentations and Excel documents.
37) ScribLink: (http://www.scriblink.com/) Scriblink is a free digital whiteboard where users can share online copy and design in real-time on a digital whiteboard. Whether you’re using the site for fun or tutoring a student in Algebra, Scriblink brings the power of free hand expression in a digital setting.
38) Schoopy (http://www.schoopy.com/): Powered by Amazon (http://www.amazon.com), Schoopy creates a weekly list of hot Amazon books using skillful algorithms.
39) Shmoop: (http://www.shmoop.com/teachers/) Despite this application’s silly name, Schmoop is actually an incredibly useful tool for liberal art educators. This application has amassed hundreds of study guides, essay labs and “Best of the Web” sections for arts and humanities written by Masters and Ph.D.-level graduates.
40) Symbaloo: (http://www.symbaloo.com/us/) Symbaloo, an ancient Greek verb that means ‘gathering’ does just that on this website. Educators from around the globe use our platform to create a collection of specific links for their students. Teachers are encouraged to create an aggregation of URLs related to subjects in homework assignments to aid with research or take-home projects.
41) Sparknotes: (http://www.sparknotes.com) Known by former generations as the “little yellow handbook” of abbreviated text, Sparknotes has since evolved to serve students and teachers on the World Wide Web. SparkNotes.com helps students learn and practice basic skills, write a paper, study for a test and achieve their academic goals. From summaries of classics like The Scarlet Letter and To Kill A Mockingbird, to Science guides—teachers can utilize this app for supplementary learning.
42) TaDa List: (http://tadalist.com/) It is no surprise that educators are burdened with a heavy workload. List making is a great solution for organizing the hectic lives of teachers—and TaDa is a great resource for that. The application allows users to create, share and utilize more than four million lists.
43) TeacherTube: (http://www.teachertube.com/) TeacherTube was conceived in 2007 by a veteran educator—and is used to augment lessons through an online community. The application’s goal of “teachers teaching teachers” has proven to be successful as in the past few years, it has evolved to include document, photo, video and audio sharing.
44) The Phone Company (http://www.tpc.int/) The Phone Company serves as a free online fax service used to send text-based faxes via email or a web browser. It is a great tool for teachers to use to connect with co-teachers, parents and administrators.
45) ThinkFree Office Online http://online.thinkfree.com/ ThinkFree is a Microsoft® Office compatible application suite comprised of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics software – all usable online and offline. ThinkFree Office can automatically install and upgrade over the internet with features such as Internet-based file sharing and storage.
46) Wikipedia: (http://www.wikipedia.org/) Wikipedia is a vast online encyclopedia that covers just about any subject under the moon. Though submissions are user-generated, the content is accurate and detailed and the site can serve as a great resource for teachers and students.
47) WriteCheck: (http://writecheck.turnitin.com/static/home.html) WriteCheck (powered by Turnitin) is the ultimate plagiarism detector… The solution allows teachers to check originality by serving as the “third check” for any paper – first: spelling check; second: grammar check; and, third: originality check.
48) Yahoo Bookmarks: (http://bookmarks.yahoo.com) Bookmarks is great for teachers who want to store and organize personal bookmarks. If you use a Yahoo-powered search browser, this application allows you to use a practical built-in bookmark manager and integrate a myriad of web services.
49) Yola: (http://www.yola.com/) Yola is an application that channels the average Joe’s web developing skills by offering simple tools to design a website. Though this application can be used outside the academic world, it is useful for teachers who want to create online materials to augment their coursework.
50) Zoho: (http://www.zoho.com/) A 2008 WebWare winner for “Best Online Application,” Zoho serves as a suite of web-based office applications in which word processing documents, spreadsheets and databases can be created and saved online. Teachers can save their notes or create assignments all in one place with this clever application.
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