Free Programs to Use in a Technology Classroom

I started teaching technology with nothing more that Microsoft Office. I was in a middle school with little funding and some great restraints on what I was allowed to do with the technology I had by an outsourced tech department that knew nothing about education. I had to use a little tech know how and some research to find some programs that would allow my students to learn how to use technology.

Gimp

http://www.gimp.org/

Gimp is an image manipulation program that you can download for free.Think Paint but slightly better. This program was great for manipulating and creating different images.

PhotoStory or Photo Gallery

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-photo-gallery-get-started

This one isn't for mac users, sorry. This Windows based program is free to windows users. This programs helps you organize and edit your photos.

Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

This is a free audio editor and recording devices. My students would create voice overs for story boards and various other projects. This also allowed the students to also manipulate music. My poms girls loved using this program to make mixes for their dance routines.

Photoshop Online

http://www.photoshop.com/

This isn't everything that elements is and is probably less than what you are expecting. It is basic but it is better than nothing if you have nothing. I got Elements the second year I taught which greatly improved my teaching, but that was a cost I didn't have the luxury of the first year.

Typing Games & Tests

http://speedtest.10fastfingers.com/

http://www.freetypinggame.net/

Every student needs to practice typing and become proficient at typing skills. This was an essential part of my non existent curriculum. My students each had typing goals based on their needs and were expected to make costive progress in their typing throughout the course.

Blabberize

http://blabberize.com/

This is just fun and if you don't believe me try it for yourself. My students used this to make animals have conversations and various other peoples say things. It was a blast until the tech department got weary and blocked the site from us.

These are just a few of the resources I was able to discover when creating a curriculum from nothing. I created a great deal of the projects from scratch and developed a project based classroom that was interactive and engaging by using these programs along with Microsoft Office.