IT 5130: Week 5 Tools

This week's toys...

Picnik
http://www.picnik.com/

I found it incredibly hard to find out exactly *what* Picnik was, as the website was not user-friendly in that aspect. What I got is that Picnik is a photo editor that seems to be pretty easy to use. It mostly uses tabs for options and slide controls to allow the user to manipulate the photo options.

I can see where this would be very valuable for people (especially younger folks) to use, seeing how it is free and the learning curve to use the tool is not difficult. However, I’m spoiled by a more advanced graphics program, so this program doesn’t perform to my standards.
;-)


Mogulus
http://www.mogulus.com/

Another software toy that doesn’t have the most user-friendly website, but it’s a pretty cool concept. I can see where Mogulus would have a great potential for instructors to “broadcast” information to their students. It seems relatively simple to use, if you have the right computer tools.

Mogulus could perhaps augment the standard “here’s what we’re doing this week” thread. It might help some students to better assimilate the required information…as we all know by now that people learn better when text, voice and video are combined. ;-)


Skrbl
http://www.skrbl.com/

Skrbl is an interactive whiteboard that lets you collaborate with others. You can draw, write text, share files and upload pictures in a common shared space. Skrbl is very similar to the GE Whiteboard but I found Skrbl’s tools to be much like Microsoft tools, so it was more familiar to use.

When you want to draw, the cursor looks like an “I beam” rather than a pencil. I also found that when drawing a curved line, my drawing would “jump” a bit after I had finished. Drawing a straight line worked just fine. The program also “stutters” with a “working” message at the bottom of the page as it catches up with your drawing.

It’s a good tool but I was hoping that you could invite people into the whiteboard to interact live. If Skrbl has that capability, I couldn’t find it.


GE Whiteboard
http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

GE’s Whiteboard application, Imagination Cubed, is a whiteboard drawing application like Skrbl. Unlike Skrbl, it has an obvious pen-type cursor when the program is launched and doesn’t have as easy a time changing the writing options as does Skrbl.

One thing I really didn’t like was the fact that anything I wrote past ¾ of the way down the page was lost. I don’t know if this was my screen resolution or what…I just know that I didn’t have that problem with Skrbl.

Again, there seemed to be no option to “invite” people into my whiteboard for collaboration, but I could send my whiteboard to others.