Lingro - Turn digital text into a clickable dictionary

Lingro is an amazing online tool that turns any website or digital text file into an interactive dictionary where users can click on a word to view it's definition and hear it's pronunciation. Support by 12 languages, Lingro is also a very useful tool for translating text.

Lingro is easy to use. Just copy and paste any web address into Lingro's web browser and click on a word, or use the file viewer to upload a document and translate it in the same way. One of the most impressive features of Lingro is that it stores and remembers all the words you click on and allows you to easily create and store words lists. Then, with the click of a button, Lingro turns your word lists into an online flash card game.

This tool does not require a login to use the most basic features so it can be a handy tool for students without an email address, but teachers should create a free account to take advantage of additional features, such as storage, history and word lists.

.Try Lingro for yourself

Pulse for iPad: A Gorgeous News Feed Reader

Pulse is an iPad app that collects multiple sources of your favorite news feeds and displays them in a convenient and attractive way to create a highly enjoyable reading experience. 

News sources you select are arranged as a stream. Just drag the screen vertically to scan all your sources, then drag it horizontally to view particular articles within each source. Tap the screen to read an article in text view or  view it as a full webpage. Pulse will even collect and display your Twitter stream.  Sharing is as easy as a couple of taps.
 
To get a glimpse of what Pulse can do, please watch the video below and try Pulse for yourself, available from the iTunes store.

VocabGrabber: Generate Vocabulary Lists from Digital Text

VocabGrabber is a Cool Tool that makes it easy to generate vocabulary lists from digital text. Just copy and paste text into a box and watch the tool generate a word cloud in which the most frequently used words appear larger in size. Those words are sorted into categories so users can extract specific content-related words from the cloud, or generate a general vocabulary list. Clicking on a word displays a definition, examples from context and a visual word map generated through the company's Visual Thesaurus Tool.

Be sure to use the handy toolbar add-on for maximum efficiency when you try VocabGrabber for yourself.

Twurdy: Search by Appropriate Readibility Levels

 

Twurdy is a Google powered search tool that displays results at appropriate readability levels. Just enter a search term to get color-coded results which determine how easy the page will be to understand. This is certainly a useful tool to help all learners succeed and also a good tool to add to any teacher's toolkit of resources.

If you think the name of this search engine will be difficult to remember, perhaps knowing that it was derived from a play on words, "Too Wordy?", will help you remember it.

Try Twurdy

Online Bulletin Board of EdTech Blogs

As a tech facilitator much of my success can be attributed to what I learn through the contacts I've made via my Personal Learning Network. Summer is a great time for educators to begin to build a personal learning network and so I've decided to simultaneously introduce a new tool for collaboration and try an experiment to demonstrate the power of a PLN.

If you have received a personal invitation to view this blog through Twitter, that means your blog has been published on the online bulletin board of Good EdTech Blogs I created using a user-friendly post-it note tool called Lino It. I am asking you to give the tool a try and add your favorite edtech blog to the bulletin board, then send a Tweet to the author with an invitation to contribute and continue the process. If successful, I think this bulletin board will grow rapidly and demonstrate the power of a PLN in addition to creating a great list of resources for those who are just starting to build a PLN. If you just happen to be reading this blog, please join us. You can post your own edtech blog, or your favorite, then do spread the word.

About the tool:
Lino It is a tool for creating a bulletin board of online sticky notes and a good tool for teachers to try this summer for collaborating with team members as you reflect and think about ideas for the upcoming school year. Working on a project? Collecting resources for a unit of study? Why not start with this simple and easy-to-use bulletin board. You can set up an account for free and share your bulletin board with a target group or make it public and share it with the world.


View or contribute to the EdTech Blogs Resources Board:
http://bit.ly/lts4rj

Try Lino It for yourself:
http://linoit.com

Stay tuned to this blog this summer as I continue to focus on ways to help educators develop a personal learning network.