ICAC introduces teachers to a variety of free programs and applications to help them integrate computing in their curriculum. Our goal is to provide teachers with the technological tools to facilitate student engagement and learning in novel ways by extending the use of technology to the classroom.

Check out our list of programs and ICAC how-to-guides to integrate in your classroom.

TypingWeb
Prezi
Padlet
Make Beliefs Comix
Bitstrips
Socrative
TED-Ed
Kidblog
Wordle
Tagxedo
Scratch
CS Unplugged
Google Drive
Microsoft Excel
British Council Comic Strip Maker

Prezi is an online presentation tool that allows users to create visually dynamic, zoomable presentations. Similar to a concept map, a prezi is created on an infinite canvas instead of using a series of linear slides. Use Prezi to spatially present concepts and their relationships.

Create a Prezi at www.prezi.com.
Download the ICAC Prezi How-to Guide.

Formerly Wallwisher, Padlet is like an online piece of paper where users can post content, including text, images, videos, and document. Create Padlet walls to share information, collect feedback, and more!

Build a Padlet wall at www.padlet.com.
Download the ICAC Padlet How-to Guide.

Create your own comics online with MakeBeliefsComix! Choose from a diverse cast of characters, scenes, and objects to express your imagination and creativity. Completed comic strips can be printed and emailed. No registration required.

Make a comic with Make Belifs Comix at www.makebeliefscomix.com.
Download the ICAC Make Beliefs Comix How-to Guide.

With Bitstrips, you can design your own avatar and star in your own comic adventures. Use Bistrips to explain the main point of a story or recreate historical events.

Visit the Bistrips website at www.bitstrips.com/pageone.
Download the ICAC Bistrips How-to Guide.

How To - Create Quiz/Activity from Socrative Inc. on Vimeo.

Socrative is a student response system that easily empowers teachers by allowing them to engage students in the learning experience through the use of any computer, smart phone, or tablet. Teacher can administer tests, quizzes, or exit-tickets and get immediate feedback without the hassle of taking papers home to grade.

Get started with Socrative at www.socrative.com.
Download the ICAC Socrative How-to Guide.
Download the Socrative User Guide.
Check out the Socrative Shared Quiz List to find and import quizzes created by other teachers around the country to use with your students. Search for quizzes based on subject and grade, and use the SOC number to add the quiz to your account. Edit the content to suit your own needs. Add to the knowledge base by uploading your own quizzes to the list.

An extension of TED (technology, entertainment, and design), TED-Ed allows users to spread ideas to generate learning. Search for a video to "flip" into a customized lesson to encourage your students to think, dig deeper, and discuss what they have learned.

Find and flip a video at ed.ted.com.
Download the ICAC TED-Ed How-to Guide.

Kidblog provides a secure classroom blogging community, where you have complete control over individual student blogs. Students do not need an email address to register as you have the option to create individual accounts for each student, including user name and password.

Start your own classroom blog at www.kidblog.org.
Download the ICAC Kidblog How-to Guide.

Wordle is an online tool that allows you to make beautiful "word clouds" out of a body of text. Change the layout, font, and color schemes of created word clouds before saving as an image file to use however you like.

Create your own word cloud at www.wordle.net.
Download the ICAC Wordle How-to Guide.

Tagxedo turns text - letters, lessons, and projects - into shaped word clouds. Save or print the word cloud as a great engage or extend portion of a lesson.

Make even more word clouds at www.tagxedo.com.
Download the ICAC Tagxedo How-to Guide.

Intro to Scratch 2.0 from ScratchEd on Vimeo.

Scratch is a programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations - and share your creation with others around the world. In the process of designing and programming Scratch projects, young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. It is available for free at scratch.mit.edu.

Get started with the step-by-step intro here.
Download the Scratch Getting Started Guide.
Download and print the Scratch Cards.
Watch these video tutorials to help you create something new in Scratch.
Check out our list of ICAC Scratch Lesson and After-school Club Guides.

CS Unplugged activities introduce students to the underlying concepts of Computer Science without the use of a computer! This collection of activities use games and puzzles to teach students Computer Science. Most CS Unplugged activities reinforce and extend Alabama Content Standards.

Find the all of the CS Unplugged Activities at www.csunplugged.org.

Download:

ICAC Activity Summary - Error Detection & Correction

ICAC Activity Summary - Information Hiding

 

Download the CS Unplugged Activities introduced in the ICAC Advanced Teacher Institute:

Binary Numbers

Error Detection & Correction

Finite State Automata

Image Representation

Information Hiding

Programming Languages

 

Google Drive gives you the freedom to create, share, and collaborate on documents over the web. You can store and access files from any Internet-connected device.

Sign up for Google Drive at drive.google.com.
Download the ICAC Google Drive How-to Guide.

Use Microsoft Excel to represent data in tables and create line, bar, and pie charts.

Download the ICAC Microsoft Excel How-to Guide.
Check out the prezi, Poppin' Graphs, from our Summer Teacher Institute on creating graphs in Microsoft Excel.

The British Council Comic Strip Maker allow teachers and students to create their own comic strips online, which can be downloaded or shared through email.

Visit the British Council Comic Strip Maker.
Download the ICAC British Council Comic Strip Maker How-to Guide.
Download 10 Ways to Use the British Council Comic Strip Maker in the Classroom.