Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Use this free tool to create an online whiteboard with as many columns you create and sticky notecards you place on the board. No sign up or membership needed! Just start right in. You can type information on a each new card you make and drag it into place. Start by entering a title for your board. This becomes part of its url. Add sticky notecards with messages to your board using the plus sign at lower left. Draw attention to specific sticky notecards -- or color code them into groups-- by dragging one of the colored dots (lower right) to each notecard. Anyone who has the link will be able to add to the whiteboard. Add or remove column dividers on the whiteboard by using the + or - icon to the side. Label pro/con columns or other categories for as many columns as you wish. Don't forget to copy the url for your board before you close it! Paste it somewhere you won't lose it or mark it in your favorites.

tag(s): bulletin boards (13), organizational skills (88)

Flockdraw, an online based painting and drawing tool, makes it easy to draw with multiple people. Unlimited people can be in a room, and the drawing updates in real time. Different colors, shapes and text are available. Navigate the right panel to choose color, brush size, line tool, fill tool, text, brush tool, and eraser. Arrows change tools, colors etc. Finished products can be embedded onto your website or blog or saved as a png file on your computer. CAUTION: This tool can be used by 10 users at the same time. Be warned that inappropriate words or drawing could appear while using this site. You may want to avoid the "open rooms." Click Create Your Session" to start your own session (non-public).
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): collaboration (87), colors (61), drawing (61), painting (57)

Teach, learn and collaborate easily with this multi-user whiteboard. Everything that is drawn or written on the whiteboard is visible to all participants in real-time. IDroo supports an unlimited number of meeting participants, the only limitations are computer power and internet connection speed. There is a professional math typing tool built-in making it easy to teach or work through math problems collaboratively. IDroo is integrated with Skype to enhance the online collaboration experience. Currently it only works on Windows systems and requires a software download.

tag(s): iwb (31), virtual field trips (70)

Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving mysteries, thinking creatively, and solving problems. Start by selecting an episode, then begin the adventure, you draw a simple stick figure and then bring him or her to life. Your figure is faced with several challenges; you must follow directions and draw several props for your stick figure to use. You will love the hero of the story (the character you created) and the villain (a dragon). Finished stories can be replayed or shared on Facebook, Twitter, or email. There is also an online gallery for students to explore and view others' creations.

tag(s): creative writing (122), digital storytelling (138), directions (12), drawing (61), interactive stories (19)

Sumo Paint is a free, web-based painting and photo editing application. Without even having to create an account, you can edit images from a URL or personal desktop file. Simply go directly to the site and begin editing images or creating work directly from a web browser, or download the app to your desktop. The painting tools included are layering, cloning, blur effects, a magic wand, shape tools, paint bucket, lasso selecting, filters, and the ability to add text. The photo editing tools allow for the adjusting contrast, hue saturation, and color balance. The application works with JPGs, GIFs and PNGs and saves work as a JPG and PNG format. The support tutorials provide tips on how to use these various features. Sumo Paint also serves as a global network of artists and is available in over fifty different languages. Without an account, you can view work but cannot share or post comments. Signing up for a free account will provide artists an opportunity to share their work, comment, view, and rate the work others artists. A free account also grants access to features such as the ability save the layer data incomplete artwork, back up files, and participate in collaborative image creation.

tag(s): design (83), editing (89), painting (57), photography (129)

With SketchUp, users can create 3D models of homes, shacks, sheds, decks, design wood work projects, and even imagine and visualize space ships. Once a user has navigated this tool, it becomes fast to use, flexible, and fun! The pile of possibilities is sky high (and higher in the spaceship case!). Your creations can be shared online and/or added to Google Earth to get a picture of what your creation would look like in real life from the sky! For more information about Google Earth click here. Beyond a doubt, this is a very cool tool to use for learners, amateur architects, and professionals alike!

tag(s): architecture (62), design (83), drawing (61)

Create graphic murals on the computer. DeviantART muro's drawing tool runs in a web browser. It will introduce students to a slightly more complex art making process. DeviantART muro has six free drawing tools, color wheels, erasers, fill bucket, eyedropper, and cropping features. This drawing site also provides various tool sizes, allows for opacity adjustments, and color gradation. There are also wonderful online tutorials that range from how to use Photoshop to advanced 3D modeling.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): design (83), drawing (61), graphic design (50), painting (57), photography (129)

Homestyler is a free online interior design planner. Users choose a layout plan, add details such as doors, windows, and furnishings, and then decide on color schemes for interior decorating. Designs are viewable in both a 2D and 3D format. This is a free online program that requires no downloading. Registration does require an email address. This site may or may not be fully accessible inside your school filtering. Check to make sure all portions of this site are available when using your school's network. Homestyler does have a retail component that suggests certain name brands for appliances, and building supplies but the 3D designing capability outshines this form of advertising.

tag(s): architecture (62), area (50), design (83), volume (32)

Find easy to use tools to create sketches and drawings. Easily share your creation. No need to register. Easy to use tools make this drawing program fun. Completed drawings can be shared instantaneously by URL or through various social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and more. The instant sharing feature makes this tool especially useful.

tag(s): drawing (61)

Are school budget cuts cramping your style? Then look at this award winning, FREE drawing application! Tux Paint is an "open source" drawing software for young students (preK - grade 6) and is available to the public at no cost. If you are familiar with Kid Pix, you will feel right at home with Tux Paint. The design is straightforward, and easy to navigate. The center of the screen serves as a large canvas with drawing tools on either side. Beneath the screen is a color palette. A cute penguin cartoon character directs students through the program and provides helpful tips. Some of the features include a large, kid friendly mouse pointer, brushes, stamps, sounds, erasers, letters, numbers, "magic effects," and an undo/redo option. Save artwork directly onto a slide finder page without having to create a file name. The installation is quick and easy even for older computers. First, download the application itself, and then the stamp collection. The number of stamps and the variety of images is amazing! Feel free to install Tux Paint on as many computers as you wish. Tux Paint will work on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows, OS X 10.3, and Linux. The "Tux Paint Configuration" tool is a separate file found on the "Tux Paint" download page. Having the controls in a different location makes it difficult for students to adjust the settings. Simply open the Tux Paint Configuration file and a main control panel will come up. From here, the supervising adult can control the screen size, sound, mouse, print settings, and save functions. Adjust the settings and simplify the program for younger children. Choose from approximately 80 different languages to run Tux Paint.

tag(s): creativity (92), drawing (61), painting (57), preK (246)

Use a variety of tools and colors to create unique and original digital art. Choose one of 20 patterns, and use the cursor to move across the screen. The buttons are found at the bottom of the drawing box. Save as a JPG or PNG file on your computer with one click. Our editors found this site to be very addicting!

tag(s): artists (75), design (83), graphic design (50)

Queeky offers two feature-rich, online draw/paint programs: Queeky Paint (also available as a downloadable, offline paint program for Mac or Windows) and Multidraw. Queeky Paint provides sophisticated draw and paint tools. QueekyPaint supports upload of your own image to then draw, paint, or alter. Multidraw allows multiple people to collaborate on a drawing board while text chatting in near-real time. Multidraw offers more than tools and options the simple paint programs and also adds a playback feature so you can watch the drawing process played back over and over. Chat as you draw together with other in Multidraw. Multidraw also uses HTML5 computer language so it works on mobile devices that do not support Flash! You have complete control of transparency, line thickness, colors (within a web palette), and much, much more. Queeky also hosts a community of very accomplished digital artists to learn from, even if you never lift an electronic pencil. Watch featured artists' works played back to see they were done, and even start from one drawing to create a new version ("variate"). If you are fortunate enough to have a mobile tablet, use the Multidraw tools with your finger! There is a full screen option to use while drawing or playing back, as well. Begin a multidraw drawing without any membership. You can password protect it to limit those who have access to make changes. Be sure to mark the url in Favorites or copy/paste it somewhere it will not get lost! Share it with others to join the drawing simply by giving them the url (and password). Drawings without passwords are open for the public to join in -- probably not a good idea! Save completed (NOT playable) drawings by clicking Save.It will open in a new window for you to RIGHT click and SAVE As a png file on your local computer. Note that the files are designed for use on computers and are not high resolution print-quality images for brochures, etc.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): collaboration (87), creativity (92), design (83), drawing (61), graphic design (50)

Web Whiteboard is a free, collaborative, online whiteboard that doesn't require registration. All collaboration takes place in real-time, so there is no need to save work as you use the whiteboard. Just click the link to begin using the whiteboard tools. Share the URL with collaborators. Web Whiteboard also includes a direct link to create a whiteboard using Google Hangouts. Boards remain available for 21 days when using the free account. For more information, be sure to watch the one-minute demo for an overview of how to use this tool.

tag(s): collaboration (87), iwb (31)