Technology Tools for English Language Arts Teachers and Students

Caveat Emptor! I give no guarantee with any of these websites/products. Some are completely free (and good!), whereas others may offer only free trial periods, or free use for a limited number of users. I still list them, because you may end up in a district with funds for such things, and can make use of them. For those of us without funds, I recommend looking at Donors Choose, where you can post proposals for people to fund. (It's a cool site. Definitely check it out!).
Update as of 27 December 2011: I originally compiled this list of resources as part of a class project in ENGL 4790: The Teaching of Writing at Western Michigan University. Technology moves at an amazingly blinding pace, and some of these links may go dead at any time. If you find a dead link, or find a better tool than those listed here, please contact me to let me know about it.

Prezi This is the alternative to Microsoft's Powerpoint. You can create highly dynamic presentations that are more exciting than PowerPoint (although you may not win a Nobel Prize as a result). Want a good reason to use Prezi?

Publishing Tools

Issuu Allows your kids to make an online magazine that looks just like a magazine. (Internet publishing only.)
Wikispaces You can create a wiki for your class, and restrict access only to registered users. They are currently offering free accounts for teachers, so be sure to get yours today.
Pixton The coolest site I have seen for creating graphic novels. The first time I saw student-produced work from this site, I thought it was the "real thing"actual graphic novels. (Caveat: the graphics are somewhat limited, so students have to focus on content.)
Bitstrips Yet another graphic novel production site.
Make Belief Comix Yet another graphic novel production site.
PDF Creator On a Mac, you can save any document you can print as a .pdf file: web pages, MS Word docs, Excel sheets, etc. (Another good reason to go Mac. To get that same functionality on a Windoze system, you can use this free open-source program.

Microsoft MovieMaker This is supposedly bundled with the latest versions of Windows, but if you don't have it, you can get it here.
Microsoft Photo Story 3 This is a less advanced program for younger learners. It doesn't have all the features that MovieMaker has, but the learning curve is less steep.
Mixbook Haven't explored this one yet, but if you get a chance, look around and then let me know what you think.
Memory Miner Haven't explored this one yet, but if you get a chance, look around and then let me know what you think.
Apple iLife This is bundled with Apple software. What you will need is iMovie, which allows you to actually create a movie. (And of course, iPhoto allows you to sort and edit photos, and GarageBand allows you to create a soundtrack. If this isn't enough to convince you to go Mac, I don't know what is.)
Mac WareSeeker Free digital storytelling tools for Macs.
Xtranormal &mdash This site allows you to create movies just by typing.
And check here for a digital storytelling rubric from the University of Massachusetts.

5gigs.net For the more advanced website maker.
DreamHost I have used this hosting service for a number of websites, and have always been impressed with their service and value. They also have a number of free apps that you can add to your website, such as a gallery and a blog. Most important, you get unlimited disk storage and bandwidth, so if you're interested in posting HUGE media files, this is the place to go.
DreamHost Guestbook Even if you don't host with DreamHost, you can still get a free guestbook from them to add to your site.
Webs.com Free webpage hosting, but with an annoying banner ad at the top.

Nicenet You can host many different classes on this site. The upside is that you can include links, but you can't upload files. (I know, there is a section called "files," but you have to type it in—not handy for .pdf files.)
FreeForums This is similar to NiceNet, but you have a lot more control.

Media Converter Got a cool YouTube video you want to show, but not sure if you'll have internet access? With Media Converter, you can download it as whatever file type you want (WMV, MPG, MOV, etc.) and have it forever and ever, even if the original file is removed. You are limited to five downloads at a time from your IP address.