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Fall Semester 2008...what a long, strange ride it's been.Going back to grad school brought some issues into focus for me:1. There have been *huge* changes in technology since I completed the ILT certification in 2002.2. I'm not a happy camper when, doing something totally new, there's not an example available to view.3. There are some very talented professionals in the industry...I've been fortunate to interact with some already.4. eLearning + Web 2.0 = eLearning 2.0. There's some really cool stuff on the horizon.5. Wading through the reading material is still the bane of my existence.6. A lot of my ideas are sound; the execution needs work.7. This was easier six years ago...I'll be using the break between terms to tweak my projects...they're no good if I don't take advantage of the opportunity to learn from them, eh?
Thsrs
http://www.ironicsans.com/thsrs/
Thsrs seems like a pretty good idea. You input a long word and Thsrs spits out a shorter synonym…sometimes. It is, after all, a beta version with some bugs.
Thsrs is supposed to be aimed at those who use a microblogging service like Twitter, which limits the amount of text you can input.
I suppose this will be helpful for some. I’m of the old school…I like to actually spell out what I’m saying, long words and all.
Wordle
http://www.wordle.net/
Okay…this is a tool to generate word clouds or tag clouds. Well, I’ve never understood them. I’ve looked them up on Wikipedia and I *still* don’t understand them. I won’t be using this tool.
ToonDoo
http://www.toondoo.com/
If you don’t have the talent to draw, ToonDoo allows you to create comics as a way to express your message. It seems simple enough. ToonDoo lets you drag-and-drop or click to create comic strips.
I was able to create a little cartoon relatively easily. However, I’m not sure how difficult it might be to create a cartoon for educational purposes. I couldn’t tell if you could have more than a three panel “toon”.Anyway, here's my cartoon: http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=448469
Jott
www.jott.com
You make a phone call. Jott converts your voice into text and sends it along to your destination of choice. Me? I miss the simple, handwritten “To Do” list. (See my longer rant under Week 2 Tools).
Gliffy
www.gliffy.com
Gliffy is a free web-based diagramming tool that uses the Flash application in the browser window. It lets you create and share diagrams online to enhance collaboration.
Gimp
www.gimp.org
Gimp is an open source graphics editing program. You can use it as a paint program, to retouch photos, image format converter, etc. It can also be augmented with plug-ins and extensions.
USTREAM.TV
http://www.ustream.tv
Looking for your 15 minutes of fame? Now’s your chance! Ustream.TV lets you create an interactive video broadcast that goes out live to your audience. The interactive part comes in by letting the viewers personally interact with the broadcaster, or with other viewers. All you need is a camera, a microphone and an internet connection and you can broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size.
I can see where this might be a good tool to use for education. It might have actually been helpful for the Trend Analysis project in IT 5650, if you didn’t have an aversion to appearing on-screen and could get the students to participate all at the same time. That, of course, is like herding cats...
I like the original idea for this tool…a way to let service members overseas connect with many family members at the same time. Of course, now entertainers, musicians and even politicians have jumped on the bandwagon.
Bubbl.us
http://bubbl.us
Bubbl.us ia a free mind mapping software program that lets you collaborate with others online. You can also embed your mind map into your blog or website, email or print your mind map or save the mind map as an image.
When using the mind map, each bubble of information connects to its preceding parent bubble and is appropriately color coordinated for hierarchy sake.
Bubbl.us also has a cool delete confirmation gimmick. Once you press the “X” in the corner of a bubble you want to delete, a countdown starts from three as the line connecting the bubble to its parent bubble acts as a lit fuse. When it reaches zero the bubble blows up in a cloud of fire. Cool!
esnips
http://www.esnips.com/
eSnips is a social content-sharing site. You can upload pictures, videos, music, documents and your favorite links. It also comes with five gigabytes of storage for free.
You can create a variety of different folders to put your stuff in, and then based on the privacy settings you control, you decide who gets to see what.
eSnips also has communities where like-minded people can share their common interests. Those interests are expressed by tags used to describe content in the community.
Scribd
http://www.scribd.com/
Scribd is basically a free online library where people can publish and share their original content documents on the internet. Scribd uses its own proprietary document format for the web, called iPaper. Sort of like YouTube’s proprietary player for video, iPaper standardizes all document formats into one view that can be integrated into web pages.
Scribd also have the Scribd Platform which allows any web site to use iPaper to display its documents.
Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net/
Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for Windows computers. Some of its features include an intuitive user interface supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and lots of useful and powerful tools.
The software was originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows. However, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool that has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor and The GIMP.
Paint.NET has an active online community that provides help, tutorials and plugins.
Furl
http://www.furl.net/
Furl.net is a social bookmarking web site that allows you to annotate a bookmark, find it later, refer to it and share the bookmark with others. It’s basically a personal information management system for your favorite web sites. One big benefit is that Furl.net is a free service with practically unlimited storage and is accessible from anywhere on the web.
I particularly like the Saving Archived copy (with Refresh) feature. Furl lets you save a copy of a web page and archives it for you. You’ll be able to access that page and read it any time you need to. It works even if the web site is down, the page has changed on the original web site or even if the page is no longer accessible for free. If the web page has updated content, you can refresh the archived copy at will.
Well, I just got back from paradise late last night. The 50th wedding anniversary trip to Punta Cana, DR for my parents went well. They were surprised to see the many friends and members of the family that were able to make the trip. A good time was had by all.
Trying to keep up with school work was more of a challenge than I had anticipated. My laptop network connection ability died, so I couldn't work at my leisure in the lobby. The internet "shop" hours were limited and the equipment left a lot to be desired. Not to mention the expense of purchasing the internet time!
So...I'm a bit behind with my homework and projects. I'm doing my best to catch up, but I'll be chained to the desktop computer all weekend.
