Prezi.com

The first time I watched a presentation created on Prezi, I was very impressed. It was not boring, and it kept me interested. I would recommend this website to my students to create 'WOW' presentations. You can join the website for free, and start creating amazing presentations. You are also to able to purchase licensing so that you can have more space, secure your presentations, and use your own logo (I suppose this would be good for businesses). Prezi.com will take you through a step by step tutorial to start creating your presentation and to share it. Personally, the only downfall I have with using Prezi, is that I get motion sickness very easily. I wouldn't recommend this site for those who get motion sickness. I have yet to create a presentation on Prezi, but I look forward to the next opportunity I will get. Prezi.com gets 3 books out of 5. 

PressDisplay.com

Keeping my students on top of current events would be a goal for me in my social studies class. PressDisplay would be a good way to allow my students to view newspapers from the United States, as well as different parts of the world. Choosing a specific news article to supplement a lesson would be easy. There are many ways to choose a newspaper. You can choose by alphabetical, country, or language. Of course, I probably would stick to English. The articles are rated by its readers and updated every ten minutes. So finding the most viewed article, which probably would be the most interesting in facts, would be simple. The website categorizes major topics such as business, sports, entertainment, and news. Instead of subscribing to certain newspapers, this website allows you to view the actual newspaper for free. You can choose certain newspapers that interest you, put it on 'My Newspapers' for easy reference. Viewing is simple, you can view the newspaper as a double page, or single page. It has a magnifier if you need to enlarge the text you are reading. The website has thousands of news papers to browse from. I would definitely use this website in my class. PressDisplay.com gets 4 books out of 5 :)

Google Earth

I want to teach social studies to high school students. Google Earth would make it very interesting for me to teach my class. I would be able to take my class on a virtual field trip to anywhere in the world. Google Earth provides the opportunity to have students view places around the world in 3D, and not just two dimensional pictures. It does not limit you to Earth, you are able to navigate through the sky, the moon, and Mars. You can visit the oceans too! You can view buildings in 3D, and go back in time through the Historical Imagery. Using Google Earth in my class is definitely something I would love to do. I think this would get my students engaged in social studies, as well as using technology in my class. I've attached a YouTube video on a tour of the Titanic on Google Earth. It's pretty amazing! Google Earth gets a big 5 books!

LiveBinders.com

The first time I used LiveBinders.com was in my ED271 class. I was amazed at how it was able to help organize your work. This website was easy to navigate, and very user friendly. LiveBinders allows the user to have more than one binder, and in that binder you could have different tabs. Organization is key when you are teaching. Not only is this website good for teachers, it is great for students. It allows you to upload documents, videos, pictures, and text. You are able to personalize your binder. This would make a great tool for students as well as teachers for organizational purposes. This website gets 5 out of 5 books! 

Scriblink.com

Scriblink is not a website I would use in my class. For one thing, I'm a lefty so writing with my mouse with my right hand makes my penmanship look very elementary.  Having to move my mouse to the left side of my computer or stretching over to write on the whiteboard makes it very difficult for me. However, if a wireless mouse is available, I suppose it may make things a bit easier.  I'm not too sure what I could use this for. The memory is not great, not being able to revisit the whiteboard at a later time is pointless. Only six people are able to be on a whiteboard at any given time. I probably would have to hold separate sessions with my students. I am not very creative with drawings, so this would not be a website I would use.  It would be pretty neat though to use with friends just for social use. The video below shows a little about how you could use Scriblink. You would have to be very creative to get this to work the way you'd like. I would give this website 1 book out of 5.

WolframAlpha.com

All I can say about this website is WOW!  WolframAlpha makes obtaining information really quick and easy. The fact that it is able to calculate information is great for scientific projects. I would definitely use this website in my class. The only downfall is that you aren't able to ask certain questions.  For example, I asked for winners of the 1993 Grammy Awards. It couldn't give me that answer. It narrowed it down to just 1993. But perhaps this is not the kind of question a class would really need to know. Demographics and calculations is more of what you'll find on WolframAlpha. It sure beats searching for specific information on Google. Out of 5 books, I'd definitely give this site 4 books! It's super useful!

Diigo.com

I really like Diigo. It makes research a lot easier, easier to retrieve information.  I love how the user is able to highlight directly on the website. Sometimes I view a website and like a certain piece of information on that website, well highlighting will allow me to find that information quickly.  The sticky note feature was also a plus! This website has an educator account option. Using the educator account, you will be able to use this website in the classroom. Not only is it a good research tool, it also seems as if it's a social account. You are able to follow users who share the same interest as you. You can build groups with people who share the same interest, and share and/or collaborate information with them. This website gets 4 books out of 5!