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We all know the Web is
full of resources, many of them free. But it can still be
hard to effectively use the Internet to help with teaching.
Information overload is part of the problem, so EFL Magic
has designed a set of top ten lists to help you go straight
to the good stuff.
Of course, these lists
are subjective, and you may feel free to email me your suggestions
on how they should be altered.
Bonus: How to really use
the most popular Web tool of all.
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Read these notes on how to really use
Google. Bookmark this link now and thank me later. |
Top ten sources of free
photos
These links are to sources
of copyright-free photos, which may be legally used in private
schools, or for any other purposes, such as Web pages or
publishing.
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This is an amazing storehouse
of royalty-free photos. Most have no restrictions at
all. The quality is so high that hacks just don't dare
post here, although all are free to create accounts
and start uploading. This site is also great just for
surfing. |
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Top ten sources of school
craft ideas
Top ten sources of songs
Top ten free online language
tools
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This site not only has an
especially good online dictionary, but also a verb-conjugator,
a grammar reference, and a tool to write out numbers
in longhand. |
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Here is a good working animation with
sound to demonstrate English pronunciation. From the
University of Iowa. |
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Top ten free Web services
These are in addition
to those found on the Launchpad. These links lead to free
Web services which may help you in your job as a teacher
or administrator.
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This free online service
will convert just about any document into a PDF file
for you. There are no options to encrypt, add signatures
or passwords, and hyperlinks are not converted, but
you will get a nice, small pdf file suitable for high-resolution
printing. |
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TinyURL.com lets you turn a big, long,
ugly URL into a nice small one so you can email it or
post it on a discussion board. Very cool. And, you can
do it from right here:
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Knowledge News |
Get smart! The straight dope on all the
latest discoveries and scientific issues. This is so
good we include it, even though it's technically only
a free trial. Just try it anyway. (hint, hint) It's
run by some really good people who are really great
writers. The writing is a stellar example of the KISS
principle (keep it simple, stupid). And they all write
encyclopedia articles for their real jobs. You can use
this for superb content when teaching upper-intermediate
English. |
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This is actually just a list of links
to cool free Web services, but it is a really, really
good list. Check it out. |
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One GB of free storage, and nicely organized
too! It's meant to be used as a scrapbook, allowing
you to clip and save things as you surf. |
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Upload and share files up to 1200 MB,
completely free. You don't even need to register. Just
upload the file, and you are given a link for the download.
Great for sharing files too big to email! |
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Top ten research tools
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This site bills itself as
the world's most advanced search engine. It does do
a good job of categorizing your search results, and
displaying them in a categorical file tree next to the
usual "top ten relevance" results. Try it
out. You just might like it more than Google. |
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Top ten time-wasting tools
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Just type in your favorite
band or singer, and voila - a "map" of other
groups you will probably like.
Or, type in your favorite author at the literature
map. |
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This amazing surfing tool uses collaborative
filtering to read your taste in Web sites. Before long,
it will be sending you to the most delicious sites imaginable.
And if you discover a page you especially like, you
can submit it to the pool, and it will be recommended
to others who tend to share your tastes. Super-duper!
Five stars! |
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Googlism - This is so Zen. Type in some
keyword you want the true essence of. Be amazed at the
profound results. Runs on Google, of course. |
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Culled from home videos uploaded on Google.
This site is actually just a blog not affiliated with
Google at all, except in that is is hosted on Blogger. |
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