Free! Metryx is a formative assessment tool that allows teachers to "track, analyze, and differentiate" students across any number of customizable skill sets. Teachers can import class rosters and skill sets, and individually track students across each skill set as they perform various classroom activities. Metryx appears especially useful for project-based learning, skills demonstration, and other activities where multiple-choice assessment data can't fully convey student progress.

Poll Everywhere creates stylish real-time experiences for events using mobile devices It's the easiest way to gather live responses in any venue: conferences, presentations, classrooms, radio, tv, print — anywhere. And because it works internationally with texting, web, or Twitter, its simplicity and flexibility are earning rave reviews.

Free! Eyewitness to History s a collection of primary resources and thoughtful commentary covering historical events from ancient history to WWII. The primary resources are largely composed of eyewitness accounts excerpted from diaries, manuscripts, and other historical documents. The 18th century collection, for example, includes nearly 30 events largely centered around the American Revolution. The wealth of resources is free, but banner ads for blockbuster movies and Xbox may prove a distraction for some students.

Free! Google Treks is a comprehensive set of web 2.0 lessons built primarily on top of Google Maps. Created by Dr. Alice Christie and a core team of collaborators, Google Treks offers lessons in science, mathematics, social studies, language arts, art, music, and health-- all in the context of geographic locations. Curious about the history of famous earthquakes? There's a map for that. Need to convey the scope and complexity of the Underground Railroad? There's a map for that, too. Looking to demonstrate good accounting practices by planning a vacation? Yup, in fact… well, you get the picture.

Free! One of the most frequent requests these days is for "leveled texts," or content written to the level appropriate for a specific reader. East coast-based startup Newsela is doing exactly that: creating texts that have five different levels of reading complexity. All the text is build around the news. Newspaper writers take a story from a McClatchy paper and rewrite it four times, corresponding to a total of five Lexile levels of difficulty.

Free! ExitTicket is a classroom and feedback system designed to work on any smartphone or tablet that enables students and teachers to get real-time feedback any time during class. Teachers can select questions from a database or choose their own as the basis for quizzes, polls, and other "rich media questions". ExitTicket really shines as a pulse-test of whether most students understood the core of a lesson--before they walk out the door. The tool now offers a Lite version to teachers free of charge. The accompanying student module is available via web or through the iTunes App Store.

Free! Voxy is a language learning tool steered by user interest and location to create language lessons that stick. The system consists of a web interface with targeted learning activities and a mobile app for on-the-go lessons and reminders. The system is meant to "follow" the user and create an immersion-like experience that incentivizes learning with interesting content. Voxy works hard to make it fun; users translate popular songs, learn vocabulary based on location, and read real news stories curated by their own interests. Synopsis by: Laura Costello

Free! DuoLingo hopes to harness the energy of language learning in order to translate the Internet. Luis von Ahn, creator of reCAPTCHA, worked to produce the tool which, like reCAPTCHA, crowdsources humans to do what computers cannot. One of the few language learning startups aimed at intermediate and advanced language learners, DuoLingo lures language learners to the program with the potential rewards of contributing to the greater good. After a brief lesson that introduces grammar and vocabulary points through a variety of rapid- fire challenges, users are able to put their new skills to work translating snippets from Wikipedia and around the web. Synopsis by: Laura Costello

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