Links: Software: www.sociology.org.uk

Brainstorming	Whether you're interested in discovering how to run a brainstorming session with your class, want software to help you brainstorm problems or are merely curious about creativity techniques, this is the web site for you. The site contains a shed load of information covering a variety of creativity techniques to download or study on-line...
CourseLab	CourseLab is an absolutely tremendous free e-learning authoring tool that enables anyone to create fully-featured, web-based, interactive web pages (such as this one - Concepts of Culture - I created earlier) with the minimum of fuss or indeed programming knowledge (although the program does have it's own relatively-simple scripting language that you will need to master if you want to really exploit the software's capabilities). Some of the features include the ability to display and move text and graphics as well as to show video clips, generate sounds and a great deal more. All for free because it's open source.
Freemind	If you want your Mind Mapping software to cost absolutely nothing, this is the program for you. It's a perfectly serviceable piece of software that does just about everything you'd expect (or possibly need) with the added bonus of being able to export your Maps in html format. If you've never used Mind Mapping software before, this is as good a place to start as any.
Game Show Presenter	This professionally-presented (Flash) quiz creator uses the "game show" format to create and present a series of multiple-choice tests. The program mixes predefined sounds, graphics and music to create an interesting test environment that could add a bit of spice to things like end-of-course revision sessions. It's not free and you'll also need to purchase a separate program for creating your own quizzes. A trial version is, however, available for free download.
Hot Potatoes	This is a free suite of programs (for Windows or Macintosh users) designed to create interactive quizzes (multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises) that can be published as Web pages (or, alternatively, as pages on an Intranet). The suite is easy to use (with tutorial and help files to get you started) and requires no knowledge of HTML or JavaScript - although the resulting files can be easily customised by anyone who has a passing acquaintance with HTML. For examples of what can be achieved with the program, have a look at the "Sociology Learning Support" site.
Inspiration	This is a visual learning tool designed to help students improve the planning, organisation and writing of their work, using concept maps as the basis of this process (a concept map requires students to identify key concepts and show their relationship diagrammatically). In other words, it's very much like a Mind Map or Spider Diagram, although there are key differences (concept maps tend to be more hierarchical, for example). Surprisingly, the software's relatively cheap (about £50) and you can download a trial version before parting with your hard-earned...
InspireData	The companion software to Inspiration (with which it can be fully-integrated) is essentially a database program - albeit one that's both easier to use than all-singing, all-dancing behemoths (such as Access) and a little more-tailored to student use. The basic idea is that various types data can be represented dynamically in order to explore different types of relationship (representations can take traditional forms, such as bar and Venn charts, or more-dynamic forms in terms of time lines and slide shows) and, in this respect, it works well. The program has the basic features of a traditional database without all the bell-and-whistle distractions you - or your students - are never going to use. Although it's aimed at a range of subjects (from natural the natural sciences, through maths to the humanities) it's a program that makes any kind of data analysis and presentation easier - although the ability to create, integrate and analyse questionnaire data from within the program is a feature that might well be an interesting selling-point for psychology and sociology teachers. Although the program comes with a stack of example databases for possible classroom use these have a strong American bias and probably won't do much more than help familiarise you with the data-handling process.
Mantex	"Mantex" styles itself as an "Information Design" site and, while it's probably worth a visit in it's own right for anyone interested in Study Skills, the "Downloads" section offers a couple of program demos on Essay-Writing and general Study Skills. The demos are in HTML format and are, as you might expect, incomplete. They do, however, give you an idea about the general value / quality of the products on offer.
Mind Manager	This program really is "the business" when it comes to producing computerised Mind Maps. It's not free (in fact, it's rather expensive) but you can download a variety of evaluation versions. The full program allows you to produce full-colour, text and graphic, Mind Maps quickly and easily - and if that's what you want then this program's what you need.
PEST	The Professional Exam Self-Tester, to give it its full (and somewhat convoluted) title, presents the user with a fairly basic (quite literally) interface that's not particularly attractive; on the plus side it's easy to create different types of quiz (multiple choice, fill in the blank, flash cards, drag-and-drop and essay questions) using a standard text editor. The site also has a vast range of user-submitted question banks available for download.
Puzzlemaker	If you've ever found yourself wanting to create word search and crossword puzzles (and let's face it, what modern sociology teacher hasn't?) then this handy little site is the one for you. You can create a variety of different puzzle types on-line which can then be printed for classroom use (or saved to your favourite word processor). There's also an off-line version of the program available; although this isn't free you do get a range of extras to facilitate your Puzzletastic Doodlings.
Quandary	This program allows you to create "web-based Action Mazes" (or "Adventure games" to those of us old enough to remember the genre). These involve a mix of text, graphics, multiple-choice selections and, most-impressively, actions (using objects, keeping score and the like) to create a problem-solving environment for your students. This, as you might expect, is not necessarily something you're going to cook-up in a couple of minutes - but if you've got the time and energy it can create an interesting, rewarding and slightly-different way to get ideas and information across.
QuizFaber	A flexible quiz making program (multiple choice, true / false, word matching and so forth) that's designed to be used in a web-based context. The big advantage of the program - the ability to save student results - is also its biggest disadvantage since, in order to do so you've got to know something about client-server configurations, Perl scripts and the like. However, if you're on a school / college network this shouldn't be too much of a problem for your IT department (although, as we all probably secretly know, it may be too much trouble for them...).
Quiz Machine	A nice, if limited in scope, multiple choice quiz maker that adopts the "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" presentational format (right down to the "eerily similar but not quite" copyright-avoiding sound effects). The basic game engine can be customised but in order to create quizzes you'll need to download a separate program (Quiz Studio). This is very easy to use and allows you to incorporate both text and graphics into a question.
Rationale	A more-powerful version of Reason!Able - the program seems to have evolved in new and interesting ways (although, as you will see, it's basically the same "argument mapping" concept). Probably worth checking out both sites if you think this type of software might be useful for your students...
Reason!Able	This is a deceptively-simple - yet decidedly powerful - piece of software. At root, it's designed to help students develop, interpret and evaluate arguments by asking them to specify reasons and objections to a central proposition. If this sounds complicated, it's actually very straightforward - you'll be able to use this software effectively within a few minutes of loading it up. The program costs £20-odd but educational institutions are allowed one free copy.
Teaching Goals	When setting-up or reassessing any course, one of the things you'll probably want to do is identify the teaching and learning goals of that course - something this web site makes particularly easy through a serious of questions designed to establish both what these goals may be and, more importantly perhaps, the kinds of assessment techniques that can be used to meet such goals.
testCommander	Although the presentation of multiple-choice tests is basic and unattractive the program offers some interesting features (the ability to skip questions and on-line marking, grading and storage, for example) that make it more flexible than many similar programs. Whether these features outweigh the ugly presentation is a moot point but since the program's shareware you can download a trial copy to see for yourself...
The Literary Machine	Creativity software - "...a revolutionary relational database and composition tool that manages any kind of information, even the random thoughts and bits of information you get, and forget, throughout the day...It manages ideas, not just information, as a brainstorming and mind-mapping application". In other words, an application that helps you "assemble your materials into a coherent and elegantly organized composition" - and while I don't know about you (obviously) that's something I think we need more of (or should that be "something of which we need more"?).
Thinking Worlds	This free authoring software allows you to create 3-dimensional educational games - the basic idea being that you create a "world", populated with various characters and objects, that can be explored and interacted-with in a range of ways. At its most expansive you can set educational tasks (or quests if you prefer the role-playing jargon) while at its least demanding you can simply create a set of multiple-choice questions to be explored and answered. Be aware this is a complete 3-D authoring engine that's not going to be mastered in a couple of minutes (to create even a simple world takes a lot of pre-planning, organisation and effort) but it does offer interesting possibilities for teaching and learning...
B iggerplate	A site is devoted to all things Mind Mapping - and very good it is too. It contains a huge range of searchable Maps on a wide range of subjects, including, of course, sociology. At the moment the sociology maps are generally aimed at University students, but this will no-doubt change as the site expands (and since you're encouraged to upload your own Maps why not give it a go and share your masterpieces with other teachers and students?). Alternatively, if you're interested in the basics of "how to create Mind Maps" you could do worse than study some of the examples (including video tutorials) on offer - or maybe just use them as inspiration for your own efforts? Either way this is a site that's worth visiting for both resources and inspiration...
Free Educational Software	There's an awful lot of free (or "open source") software "out there" - much of it very polished, highly professional and well capable of giving its corporate counterparts a good run for their money - if you only know where to look. Well, here's a place to start - the "Essential Guide to Educational Software" that categorises, lists and outlines some of the best free software around...