Dropbox

I know you are sick of me pushing this but it is a wonderful tool! Dropbox  If you download Dropbox onto each computer and share one area, students can put in their link to their project for you to view if it is online or upload it to your Dropbox and all the projects are in one place!  If you need to grade at the Dr.'s office - pull it up and grade! Please try this one.  You will wonder how you ever got along without it!  I promise!
The tutorial is the first thing that pops up!

Weebly

Weebly is a free website that seems to build itself.  It is a drag and drop adventure.  Rearranging the page is just as easy.  This would be a great tool for inquiry.  Presenting information is half the project and this is a fun way to do it.  I would put it as a group project.  This will teach the class why we need things organized.  Weebly  As soon as you open up the link, there is a very easy tutorial that pops up.  It is very short.

Research

This isn't exactly a creative set of tools but it will send you to some safe places for research. This site hosts seven good sites for information that is kid friendly.  Learning tools for Elementary  Sometimes having some good places to go saves headaches later!

Animoto and Smilebox

Both of these tools would be perfect for inquiry projects.  Look at Animoto and watch one of the already created projects and you can see how many ways your kids could use this.  Animoto  Smilebox is the same kind of program.  I did however see a teacher use the intro to the Christmas card and then when it came time for the pictures to flash - she inserted sight words to practice! You could also use these as background building for a unit. Now how could a kid's attention be kept anymore than that?  Smilebox  Smilebox does have an educator account that is free. You have access to more tools than the freebie.

Voki

Using avatars to tell their story would be a fascinating journey.  It was one of the craziest projects that I did for my blog!  It is so easy too!  Just go to Voki and join up! Here is a tutorial How to Create a Voki  This would be a great idea for open house or just introducing yourself to each other.  It really doesn't take too long.  I think if you would show how to do it just once on the smart board, your kids wouldn't need too much assistance.

Survey Monkey

What a fun way to collect information between classes.  Our district uses it and there is a "limited" free edition. If the kids are gathering data for a graph or voting on a project, Survey Monkey could be a fit.  Survey Monkey
Here is a tutorial for creating a survey in three easy steps.  Easy Steps to Survey Monkey This will be a good collaborative group activity just coming up with the questions!

FreeMind

I like the concept of working backwards.  FreeMind gives you the adult version of Kidspiration.  It is a download but it is open source thus free.  I think all lesson plans should be done this way but not everyone would understand it.  If you are doing an inquiry project you could use this as your organizer.  You can put your big ideas in the map and what you will do for each leg of the journey.  Maybe this one is a little "out there" for some people but it has potential!

FreeMind