Update: Program extended through the end of December 2007.Â
Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home.
More information about the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program can be found here:Â http://www.laptop.org/vision/index.shtml
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 Besides being able to create wordprocessing documents and spreadsheet documents, now you can also create presentations. Google Docs is able to open and save in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel formats. This makes it an excellent tool for students to finish an assignment at home that they may have started in class with Microsoft Office.
* In order to sign up for the free Google Docs tools, the user needs to have an email account.
A neat tool that allows for the sharing of images and then recording a narration about that image. Visitors to your “story” have the ability to contribute their own recordings that are then associated with your image and  available to all visitors. Very easy interface to use, can you think of a way you could use this with students?
http://maps.yahoo.com/mapmixer
It’s easy to mix your own map. Upload an image of your map, use our layering tool to align it with Yahoo! Maps and we’ll do the rest! Your map will have all the features of Yahoo! Maps (zooming, panning). You can also syndicate it on your own site or blog.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/news/cyber.asp?keycode=64062
The AdCouncil and Sony have teamed up for a contents where students are PSA videos against Cyberbullying. Sony Creative Software, the National Crime Prevention Council and the Ad Council are seeking entries from independent producers and academic institutions (K – 12). The top submissions may be eligible for national broadcast, and their producer or sponsoring academic institution will receive a complete multimedia editing suite for their facility or school valued at over $18,000. Prize sponsors include Sony Creative Software, Sony Electronics, and Sony VAIO.
http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
 So what is The Levelator? It’s software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/zoomit.mspx
ZoomIt is a free utility that you can download from Microsoft. It enables you to zoom in on specific locations of your screen. Why might you want to do this you ask? If you were demonstrating something to the students with your LCD projector, ZoomIt would allow you to zoom into the particular section of the screen to share. Also, when creating screencast video tutorials, you may occasionally want to zoom in on a section of your screen so that it can be read easlily, for example, the web address in the location field of your web browser.
Rollyo is a service that lets you roll (create) your own search engine for just the sites you specify. This appears to be a great tool to use with students because the web resources it searches are only those that the teacher has identified.
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/
This site traces the efforts of students and teachers in the development of a video/animation production on the topic of cells. If you’re teaching students about the science of cells, check this resource out!
Similuar to the VisualThesaurus.com, but free.Â
(NOTE:Â This is a full dictionary. It has not been edited for students.)
This is a free, web based tool that allows for the creation of mind maps, webs, flow charts, etc. It is similar to Inspiration software, but not quite as full featured. Documents can be shared, and multiple people can collaborate in the development of the document.