So, I have been looking at this topic. I actually have learned a fair amount about media tools in the last year for some projects at school. I have become good at modifying photos, using a green screen approach to add things into a photo. I noticed that the free editor Paint.net was not included. It was the best way that the IT guy and I could come up with to get me up and running fast and cheap. Although it is not as intuitive as some of the commercial products, there is a big community using it, so it is fairly easy to get help. I love that some of the functions, like cropping are SO simple to do. Just select and hit the crop to selection! I think that ClippingMagic is a good addition to my repertoire. I had done the same thing the old-fashioned and fairly tedious way, so this is definitely a good tool to know! I used it with Pixlr to create this photo.
I still think that Paint.net is easier to use than Pixlr, though.
Many of the media tools mentioned directly in the resources or in the resource links are browser add-ons. This is very problematic at school. Add-ons really slow down your browser for one. We also cannot download without the IT guy's help because the computers are so tightly frozen. Frankly, something has to be pretty important to go ahead and ask him to come so I can download it. (The ability to "green-screen" images into Paint.net was that important, but I don't think Quozio, for example, is.
We have looked at Word Clouds at our school. Wordle is fun and easy though not as visually appealing as Tagxedo. Unfortunately, Tagxedo is blocked for our kids. It is not blocked for teachers, so if the teacher is willing and the kids are trustworthy, they can use it on the teacher's account. The problem is that Tagxedo is linked to Facebook, etc. Our firewall blocks any site like that. It is a good idea to ask your IT guy for the test account for your grade(s) to see if a specific website will work with the settings that your students' accounts have.
Under video, I was surprised that YouTube for Schools was not mentioned. Our IT guy got the school into that so that teachers can easily use the "safe" content. Of course, that does not mean that all of the adds that pop up are safe. I found this out while looking for intro videos for a fifth grade project. That is why I have done some work with Windows MovieMaker of late. I downloaded the videos that I could with KeepVid and linked them together. It really worked pretty well. I understand the problems with downloading, but I don't intend to pass the work off as my own or to post it. I just have it to show the class, so I am pretty sure that I am totally kosher with fair use.
While exploring this subject further, I went to the "12 Great Way to Download and Convert YouTube Videos for your Classroom" link. I did explore one of the products mentioned, Clip Converter. It was exciting to see that it has both audio and video converting ability. From a comment at the bottom of the page, I linked to an Edutopia article on the subject which showed me some more video sources. I was excited to learn about WatchKnowLearn which seems to have great kid-friendly videos for learning content. You can spend an awful amount of time on You Tube or Google-searching for useful videos to introduce or reinforce a topic. WatchKnowLearn organizes videos from the web into categories and age levels. I saw some great videos there! The Teaching Channel was interesting, too, but it seems, like EngageNY, to be more of a how-to teach it, than really a content source.
It seems like this whole topic is a mine field with regard to copyright. I know that there are Creative Commons photos, etc. out there which do not violate copyright, but it is so hard to find what you want the kids to see in Creative Commons. I went looking for good photos of different habitats around the world and didn't find good photos in Creative Commons. I know that I can use other photos in my lessons (so long as I give credit where it us due), but that means that I can't put the lessons on my website, which is a bummer! I wish there was a WatchKnowLearn for Creative Commons photos!
I was glad to see the Screenshots resource list as this is such an important skill! I couldn't believe it when I found out how few people in my school know about and use this feature. I constantly use printscreen when I am making new presentations. I paste the printscreens into Paint or Paint.net and crop or add text, etc. Screen shots are absolutely essential for my SMARTboard presentations.
I have also used Picasaweb recently to add photo slideshows to my library website, https://sites.google.com/a/schoharie.k12.ny.us/schoharie-elementary-school-library/.
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