101 favourite tools

70. Gadwin Screen capture

2012-02-02T18:02:00.007+13:00

After a very long break in proceedings I am attempteing to continue with my 101 favourite tools blog.
Tool number 75 was about screen captures. On an Apple you can be selective about the area you wish to capture by using the key commands of Shift, Apple/ Command and 4. Over the last week I have learnt and used Gadwin, a selective screen capture tool for the PC, rather than a whole screen capture.
Gadwin is a free download. After downloading a small icon, looking like a camera, appears on your task bar with the other icons. A double click allows you to set the preferences. One of the really great features of Gadwin is that it creates a folder inside My Documents, called PrintScreen files, which is where it stores all the captures( And from where I have attached this pic) You can set this up in Destinations and Files.
I struggled for a while to get my computer to capture after I set my hot key. The simple answer was when you have selected your area for capture press enter. How easy is that?

71. Skype

2009-07-15T17:21:00.004+12:00

This week I'm working on an online presentation with my colleague Michelle. Michelle lives in Malta, and our presentation is to be virtual. How cool is that! So this week my tool of choice for working with Michelle is Skype. Skype is VoIP, voice over internet protocol, which allows you to communicate laptop to laptop for "free", although free is an ambiguous term. Someone has to pay for the broadband connection, speed and data costs. The software is free
Skype allows us to text chat (IM), audio chat which we do a lot of, file share and video conference. It's the video conferencing that uses up the band width. I have used the audio function and had a conference call with up to 10 of my colleagues, but the dynamics of having that many people online together and keeping everyone online, some dropped off, was hard work, and not an easily repeated exercise.
With Skype of course you can ring from your laptop a landline for a very low cost, and from a laptop to a cell phone for a relatively low cost, relatively low being an ambiguous term too.
Michelle has an iPhone with Skype downloaded, so she connects from that form time to time. As a way of keeping in touch, working collaboratively Sykpe is my tool. In an educational setting I'm sure the usage would be much the same. Interviews, collaboration, communication file sharing, video conferencing to see the world through someone else's eyes. (I once skyped a friend to show them what the ice and snow looked like.)
Skype has a blog too which has some good ideas, uesful infroamtion on it, including a couple of movies, Skype in plain English!
I'm sure there are other VoIP's out there that you use and other ways you use this technology. Share them with me.

72 a KidPix

2009-07-13T10:34:00.001+12:00

I've written about KidPix before from a learning point of view. This time KidPix deserves a mention from a creative point of view. I'm facilitating a combined presentation with my colleague in Malta. We have been looking at population statistics comparing Malta with NZ in graphical form. By taking the set of graphs obtained from Cenus papers we dropped the graphics into KidPix. Using the eydropper we were able to colour coordinate the bars, add text, remove text and generally "fix" the graphs so they looked similar and represented the data well in a comparative form, without altering the data. While this could be done in Photoshop, KidPix was quick, easy and in a small file size to send back and forth. For me KidPix has been around the block a couple of times, is an oldie and a goody and in this case was a low cost tool doing a high end job. MacKeiv have produced the new version of KidPIx, and although it doesn't have some of the older features, there are some powerful new ones. So KidPix gets the thumbs up from me again for its versility, and for allowing me to do a job outside the square.

73. QuickTime

2009-07-07T19:34:00.010+12:00

Today I presented at a conference and QuickTime was one tool that I used quite frequently, and flexibly. I upgraded to the Pro version for about $50 Aus 6 years ago and haven't looked back. Most people have QuickTime player so you can view downloaded movies but Pro takes creativity to another level.
QuickTime Pro allowed us to edit, trim, record and share clips and stitch them together easily, still keeping everything in that movie format. We created some animations and played these back at a rate much faster than 1 second per frame that some applications only allow. In fact we were up to 24 frames per second.
Today we exported our creations into QuickTime format so that we could use them, and integrate them into other applications to expand the learning and incorporate other items in the processI loved the versatility.

74. Cell phones

2009-07-02T08:53:00.002+12:00

lately I have had cause to use my phone to snap a pics of students in action and record their stories through the voice recorder. Instant data gathering of learning in action. Another day I was doing some long haul driving and planning. I used the voice recorder on my cell phone to record my reflections and ideas as I drove......From my phone I could send that data in various formats to any number of places.... email, internet, open source software and of course another cell phone. Mobile learning at it's best. Sometimes in the rush to do more and better we over look the simple but effective. My cell phone is a basic model, a small and unsophisticated piece of technology, but a very powerful piece of technology and a useful tool to support learning.

75. Screen captures

2009-06-23T11:48:00.003+12:00

In my work I've been preparing some how to's for my teachers. I frequently use screen captures to catch that moment which helps scaffold the learning. Often learners like something visual as a means of confirmation, or as part of their processing.
On a PC you press the Print Screen key which sits beside F 12. This takes a whole screen capture,copies it onto your computer clip board. You then paste the capture into a word processing document, presentation document etc. By clicking on View and toolbars and picture tool bar, you need to select the tool that looks like a noughts and crosses tool. This is the cropping tool which you place on the handles on the side of the screen capture and drag in. In doing so you are cropping off the unwanted material from the capture.
On an Apple I use the keys Shift, Apple / Command and Number 4, held down simultaneously. The cursor becomes a hatch cross and allows you to drag over the parts of the screen you which to capture. As you let go of the cursor, the computer copies the capture to your desktop. Drag the capture, viewed as a picture, into your document and resize. On the Apple you can do a whole screen capture as opposed to a small capture by using the Shift, Apple / Command and Number 3 key simultaneously. However I find being selective with Number 4 refines exactly what it is that I wish to capture.
Enjoy.

76. Wallwisher

2009-06-20T15:46:00.006+12:00

Wallwisher is another collaborative tool to come into the Web 2.0 stable. One of the best things about this tool is that it is so so easy to use. My students were collaborating within about 2 minutes of getting to my wall. Editing is easy too, for both you as a teacher and them. I've been using it a little bit with students lately and I'm beginning to realise the potential this tool has to offer. Used as a brainstorming tool, the sticky notes or wishes can be moved and manipulated which appealed to the visual learners. I've long been a fan of Inspiration as a collaborative tool, however wallwisher allows multiple computers to be logged on the same site, all collaborating together. This collaborative aspect is a good option to strengthen those home / school partnerships.
How else did I use Wallwisher with my students.....
Character study
Values programme
Thinking. What does good learning look like, feel like, sound like
Numeracy, Another name for
Strategy, problemsolving
Liz a colleague of mine shared her class's first attempt
Contribute here and tell me other ideas

77. A real old and well used tool!

2009-06-07T20:30:00.003+12:00

Greg a principal colleague of mind shared this jpg with me. What can I say, other than, so true!
So on a more serious note, why have I included this tool? We talk about using ICT as a tool. The NZ Curriculum states e-learning should be used as a tool to supplement traditional teaching. Therefore sometimes the tool used will be a computer and sometimes the tool used will be a pencil. Enjoy.

78. Voice Thread

2009-06-03T09:41:00.003+12:00

I've revisited Voice Thread again to trial this with a focus group of ESOL students. I'm involved in a project that is monitoring the growth of their thinking, questioning and language by using science as a vehicle. We've been doing a few science experiments and getting the chn to talk about what is happening and to ask questions, both in a written and oral form. A fortnight ago they embedded podcasts into their blog, which is no easy feat for younger children, although I have to say they coped really well. Voice thread gives us the option to include photos, titles and listen to the oral commentary, and was definitely much easier to use. To date this has been very successful.
One of the positives with Voice thread is that the student's families, and the students themselves can leave comments on the voice thread too. I'm hoping this aspect of voice thread may well strengthen those home / school partnerships.
Accounts. I had a basic account which only allows you to have 3 free voice threads, so I continually deleted previous threads. What message is that sending the students about valuing their work. I then went into the K-12 option and upgraded the account to an educator which allows me to have more that 3 threads.I'm sending much better signals to the students and valuing their work. :-)
Thanks here to my colleagues Allanah and Warren who tested the site and helped me out of a hole when I was trying to embed code.

79. Animations in PowerPoint on a PC

2009-05-31T19:40:00.003+12:00

This only works on a PC, even though both platforms run Powerpoint.
The secret of making animations is having lots of photos and having them run quite quickly eg 6 or 10 frames per second. NZ films/animations are shown at 24 frames per second, so I do appreciate 10 frames allows you to have a lot less photos.
Standard software on a PC only allows you to run your animation at a speed of 1 frame per second. However sometimes that's just fast enough and the students do get the animation effect.
Take stacks of photos and save to your normal place. Open up PowerPoint, go to Format and Slide layout and choose a blank layout.
Scroll down Insert, to Picture and then down to New Photo Album. Sometimes New Picture Album is hidden below the arrow, so keep scrolling down.Highlight your pictures, Ctrl A allows you to select them all. Insert your photos and click create.
Go to Slide show in the pull down menu, and scroll down to Slide transition. Click the tick off On mouse click. Click into Automatically after box and change time to 1 sec which is 00:01. Click Apply to all

Now play, Slideshow, view your slideshow and admire. The limitation is the 1 sec delay

80. Keepvid

2009-05-27T21:48:00.004+12:00

Yesterday I was working with some teachers, talking about web tools and I showed them Tubesock and Vixy.
Tony then showed me Keepvid which allows you to download video from the web, places like Youtube and keep them as stand alone files. They download as mp4's and you can choose the quality, either high or low. So I downloaded Wikis in plain English. Doing so was easy as, 3 steps, and I was impressed with the speed and the quality. I chose high quality and yes the quality was pretty good.
The good thing about KeepVid... its free.
Thanks Tony, this is a great tool.

81. Tubesock

2009-05-25T21:47:00.003+12:00

Tubesock is an interesting in that useful but not creative
Tubesock is available for both platforms at a cost of approx $10 US around $30 NZ. Tubesock allows you to download videos from sites like You Tube as an MP4 and keep them as a stand alone file on your computer. This is really useful in my job. I can show a video clip at any point in my presentation and I am not dependent on having good and reliable www access, so I'm self contained. Of course once I have the clip downloaded I'm not concerned about the links being deleting, shifted, lost or I forgot what they were called. As if I would do that!
Quick and easy to use. Copy the url of the clip, open and paste it into Tubesock window and the save in the appropriate place when downloaded. And it downloads about as quick as it tool me to write this.
Scroll to the bottom of the Tubsock site and have a play with the trial, to see how it works before investing your hard earned cash.

82. Library Thing

2009-05-19T08:57:00.003+12:00

LibraryThing.com is a free online application that allows you to catalogue your books, list your current reading, search for books around the same theme, genre, topic, search for authors, titles, dust jackets etc and share your reading interests with others in the global community through social networking. You may enter 200 titles for free. There is a $10 US a year fee to add more than 200 titles, and a life membership of $25 US to add as many titles as you like. I have a free membership, but credit cards do work well here.

Library Thing operates like a conventional library and is networked to Amazon and world-wide libraries. This application becomes a book club and a search feature rolled in to one, through the social networking, RSS feature included.When you tag your books you also contribute to a cloud. From the cloud I enjoy looking at the keywords others have used, and their thinking around the themes they have taken from the book.
Library Thing allows you to have multiple users, in the same account concurrently. This is a really useful attribute allowing you to have a group / class contributing at the same time.
So how have I used LibraryThing in my professional life.

Establishing a class reading list.
Books around an Inquiry learning topic
Class read texts / shared stories
New books added to your school library. (You can change the number of texts shown on a blog wiki etc on the left hand side under Blog widgets.
A recommended reading list for children and teachers.
Books of same genre.
Reviews
Literature circles, eg Dan Browne,
• reviews of his books
• writing styles
• genres
• themes
• malapropisms

Across school/ syndicate/ cluster collaboration
Buddy classes
And there is a widget available that updates onto your blog or wiki. I add it onto the right hand side navigation bar where you can springboard to LibraryThing. Happy reading.

83a Comic Life and literacy links

2009-05-16T15:57:00.006+12:00

I wrote way back then about the flexibility of Comic Life. Last week I had a WOW moment when a colleague shared with me some new learning.
Rather than using a template for Comiclife, stay with the blank page. Pull over a series of photos and arrange them like a montage. Use angles, over lapping etc. Save this as an image (jpg) onto your desk top. However this does make a huge file. Compress compress compress. Now upload the image to become your screen saver. Really powerful and so so much easier than using Photoshop. Now the implications for learning.......I've used images like this in Photoshop to represent a word, eg compassion, making those links and connections in literacy.
In the meantime I'm sharing my son's recent graduation as the montage.

84. Condensing url strings with Tinyurl.com

2009-03-04T13:34:00.003+13:00

This one is a wee gem, and a real example of how open source software works. Gilby Productions have developed Tinyurl and put it out there for anyone and everyone free of charge.
Have you ever received or sent a url, a web site address that was so long it got broken as it goes onto the next line and then frustratingly doesn't work. Visit Tinyurl. You take your long string of url paste it into the Tiny url box and hey presto it returns a much reduced string that you can then send to your friends, avoiding the chance of breaking the string.
And it gets better......... They offer an iconic link that you can drag to your Links toolbar, so a long url can be captured and shortened at the click of a button. How easy is that?

85. PhotoPeach

2009-02-12T15:42:00.006+13:00

I have written about PhotoStory 3 for PC No.95 as a very easy and effective way for students to tell their stories with digital still images. PhotoPeach is probably easier, as it involves 4 steps to make a slideshow with digital images and text captions. PhotoPeach is a social software, open source application held out in the ether. However the coding can be used to embed the created slideshows in wikis, blogs and web pages. I particulary like PhotoPeach because of its ease of use and it epitimises all those values that sit alomg side the curriculum especially in the vision and effective e-learning pedagogy. The students can share their learning with their global community, and we as teachers can use ICT to supplement traditional teaching. PhotoPaech takes the images contrusts the slideshow and the author is required to order the pictures and write captions. the technology is the tools supporting the students learning.How easy is that?
the downside..... you do have to add the music track and it plays and plays and plays. Turn your sound off!
Sharing a good book on PhotoPeach

86. iMovie

2008-10-27T21:56:00.001+13:00

I was talking with a Year 12 class. They had to present something less than 30 secs that depicted a social issue. In discussion with one sweetheart we talked about an animation. For this student creating a poster wasn't an option as he couldn't draw. But he could build and thought out side the square. Simple but effective. A 21 C problem solver I thought the ending was powerful. Definitely tells a story.

87. RSS Aggregators

2008-10-25T17:23:00.004+13:00

What's an aggregator, I hear you ask? An aggregator goes out and checks all the websites and other web feeds that you as the reader subscribe to for updates and then informs you of the new content. This is of course instead of you visiting each and every site that you subscribe to on the web, checking for new content. In other words the new content is bought to you rather than you going out to find the content. The RSS = real simple syndication. Ever noticed the little orange fan at the end of the url bar. That indicates that feed is able to be syndciated and fed to you.

There are a number of aggregators out there. I use Bloglines. Some of my colleagues use Netvibes, Google reader, and Technocrati. Each and every one essentially provides the same service. When I open up my aggregator I can see at a glance which of the feeds I subscribe too, have updated. oops there are a few I haven't read, as you can see by the numbers in brackets.
Why do I use them? They save me a lot of time and I can keep uptodate with new content and posts when the items are published. Real simple!

88. QuickTime

2008-10-25T17:07:00.004+13:00

Most computers have QuickTime Player which allows you to view movies. or clips from the Internet. Of course having QuickTime allows me to save lots of my creations as movies by adding the extension .mov to the end of the title. In movie format I can add the creations into movie creating software, upload and embed into blogs and wikis, and send off via email to friends and colleagues.
I have upgraded my QuickTime to the Pro version, a cost of about $50 AU. QuickTime is available for both platforms.

With pro I can really extend the uses. QuickTime allows you to make animations and seamlessly stitches the photos together at whatever frame rate you choose. I like editing movie footage to capture those small learning moments to support teaching. You know, the 2 minute sequence on asking informative questions, or the science experiment etc. Pro also allows you to add additional tracks, eg voice overs, and embed movies within movies. QuickTime Pro a flexible easy to use piece of software, that allows you to create higher end resources.
I've included a wee segment Chris did with a class of 21 boys and 7 girls after a study of the solar system. They loved sharing their learning this way, especially the boys.
Chris showed them how to make an animation and then each group had 1.5 hrs to plan, create, make, shoot and put together.... and they did. Many thanks Room 6 and Chris for sharing

89. Bubbleshare

2008-10-21T09:02:00.007+13:00

I'll come back later today / tonight and write more about Bubbleshare. Yesterday I was working at a school and I wanted to grab some pics of chn. This was a literacy session and I couldn't find one child that wasn't engaged. The wee sweeetheart with the hat on was listening to her teacher read and she was hanging on very word, although my photo may not guite relect that.
I have quickly put some photos into a bubbleshare and hung them. Capture the wee sweethearts in your class engaged in their learning and share them with your community, parent and global.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Craft Ideas

90. Paste Special in WORD

2008-10-17T17:21:00.006+13:00

Paste special must be one of the most over looked under utilised tools.

If I am writing a document in my favourite font,eg Comic Sans and I paste a piece into that document from somewhere else, eg from an email, or off the net etc, that is written in a different font eg Times New Roman. The piece I paste in keeps its formatting, Times New Roman and makes my document written in Comic Sans look silly.
A bit like this really. I am forced to highlight the offending text and change the font and size to blend in with my original document.
However if you copy your piece to insert, the Times New Roman eg from an email, click the curser into your original document, go to Edit and scroll down to Paste Special and then click on Unformated text, the piece you are pasting in appears in your document and takes on the formatting of your document eg Comic Sans.
Try it. I use this such a lot for quoting passages from the MOE site, or quotes from readings etc. Invaluable really.

91. AppleWorks for Apple only of course

2008-10-17T17:06:00.004+13:00

Over the last week I have used a number of applications that will appear in my favourite tool list, however today I'm going to talk about a special feature in AppleWorks, and that's Draw.
The picture below of the bears, was actually 3 bears, on 3 pages created in Comic Life. I took each bear, copied and pasted onto one Drawing page in AppleWorks. By going to Save As and then looking down the window to File Format, I am able to go in there, scroll down to JPEG and convert my pages into jpg format. Remember not to Save as you exit the programme.

Of course if I did a partial screen capture holding down Shift, Apple and 4, and dragging over the piece I want to capture, the computer will save the capture as a jpg (png) file and place that on my desk top.
Either way I have options for taking files and turning them into jpg's.
I use the screen captures for making "how to's" and hanouts, so your students could too. I use the Drawing jpg convert often to make one jpg of lots of jpgs. Enjoy.

92. Comic Life.

2008-10-15T14:12:00.014+13:00

The lovely people at Plasq have now made this application cross platform. You can download a free 30 day trial. Innes Kennard innesk@werc.ac.nz a colleague, is the NZ license distributor so is able to offer licenses at a reduced price.

Comic Life is one of my favourites for it's durability and it's flexibility to support learning, especially literacy. I have worked with reluctant writers who were only too keen to create cartoon captions. (The wee sweethearts told me that wasn't really writing.) It takes quite a lot of thinking to construct a caption that is going to convey your meaning in less than about 10 words. Of course there is another key competency, Using language, symbols and text, because the photos and the drawings support your caption and help tell the story.

I mentioned Comic life was flexible. You don't have to use photos, students can use their drawings, as shown by the bears. Completed comics can be inserted into other programme, inserted into movies, blogs wikis etc or just run as a stand alone web page or QuickTime. How's that for flexibility! Thanks to Charlotte and leah and chn for sharing their work.

93. Printing to PDF for Apple only

2008-10-14T13:34:00.003+13:00

lately I have mentioned my favourite applications, however today it's a tool that I use regularly. I use this when I have created wonderful documents, that I want to send to others or hang on websites, blogs or wikis that they can be downloaded as a whole document, unchanged. I print and save to PDF.

Create your wonderful document.
Go to File and scroll down to Print.
At the bottom of the Print menu is a tab with PDF on it.
Click on this
Save to PDF
I always put .pdf extension on the end eg Jocelyn.pdf so that other computers can read the document with Adobe Acrobat reader.

This works for WORD, PowerPoint, AppleWorks, Excel, Comic Life etc
Check out your application to see if it has that PDF tab.

In the meantime I'll continue to look for a PC option. Watch this space.
What difference will it make to student learning?
Lots really if they can hang, or send any of their creations in PDf format that can be downloaded or not changed by others.

94. Wikispaces

2008-10-13T14:22:00.004+13:00

Wikispaces have recently announced another 250,000 free sites for educators which is excellent news.The first time they offered 100,000 free spaces, and the uptake was relatively slow, and then the uptake grew very rapidly leaving some teachers without this option. However wikispaces have again offered educators 250,000 advertisment spaces free of charge if you are an educator. Create a couple of spaces, even if you don't use them immediately.

Although the advertisements are not pervasive, they are there and some of them perhaps a bit over the top for our younger sweethearts, hence the educators spaces with out the advertisements. Remember to tick the Private space and also Educational Use.

I have also been learning about all the extras you can add to your wiki page to create more appeal on the pages. As I work through the addtional features I continually ask... Will this make a diference to children's learning? I'm still learning so watch this space later.

The librarian at Outrum School in Dunedin has created a wiki, showcasing learning. Check it out.

Why use a wki?
They are collaborative spaces, and allow you to have mulitple pages all within easy navigation off the side menu bar. Your students can share their learning with their community from home, strengthening those home school partnerships. Possibly one of the best features is the fact that it is easy to embed podcasts, movies, images and files, all from within the wiki itself, rather than going off to find a third party application that will gtive you the code to embed. Wikispaces are free and are open source social software, so your wiki is held out there in the ether, and able to be edited from anywhere, any time. The kids love them too, isn't that an incentive to join up.

95. PhotoStory 3 PC only

2008-10-13T13:58:00.004+13:00

To date all my posts have been cross platform applications or web 2.0 tools. PhotoStory 3 is for PC only. The Apple equivalent would be iMovie and I'll talk more about iMovie as one of my favourite later.

PhotoStory 3 is a free download
This programme allows you to create digital stories using digital still photos, text , speech,( if you have a dedicated headset) and add music. PhotoStory is very easy to use, very intuitive, (just keep clicking the next button) and very powerful for children and their learning,Why? The end product, the digital story can be created so efficientlyand tell the story. Sometimes the digital photos and the captions say it all. The addage is a picture says a 1,000 words is so true.

One of my teachers has made a great Van Gough Starry Night PhotoStory which I will embed here as soon as I can get a copy. Watch this space.

96. Kidspiration

2008-10-05T13:39:00.006+13:00

You can't mention Inspiration with thinking about Kidpiration. Yes this one is on the list too. Again for the same reasons that I enjoy Inspiration, Kidspiration just allows the sorting of ideas for small people so easy. I enjoy its simplicity but the complexity within the programme that supports thinking and learning. I find Kidspiration supports boys and their learning. Their ideas can be one or two worders and again they can colour to group ideas. Super for those visual learners. Yes it's definitely on the list.
Thanks to Catherine and Karen and the children from your classes who offered me their work. Catherine's wee sweetheart gave me a blow by blow description of why, and their reasoning behind each of the pics they had placed in the inside, outside or both activities. Speaking of curriculum, this just reinforced the e-learning pedagogy, pg 36 NZC.

97. Inspiration

2008-10-05T13:13:00.004+13:00

As a thinking tool, Inspiration in my book, is the ultimate. Brainstorming, manipulation of ideas/data, organising information/ data etc, using images, sequencing, grouping, linking, graphic displays, colouring etc etc. I have picked up NZ Curriculum and opened initially to the key competencies. The first that jumps out is the thinking competency.. "developing understanding, making decisions, critical, creative and metacognitive processes". then there is the using language, symbols and texts..... Languages and symbols are systems for representing and communicating information, experiences and ideas.
I love the freedom, flexibility and opportunity Inspiration gives the user. I enjoy using my own photos, colour coding the information especially when placing 6 hat thinking over the ideas.. The options and opportunities are endless.

A rather complex Inspiration example from a secondary school student I worked with. They put down all their ideas. manipulated them into sections and related topics and then sat down and wrote 7,500 words. The organising and articulation of the ideas took some time, but at the end they had a very clear vision of the way the essay would unfold. Talk about big picture thinking, this was it.

98. Kid Pix

2008-10-04T10:23:00.003+13:00

An oldie but a goodie, still standing the test of time. There are just so many possibilities here for all ages of students, and so many options for the different aspects of Kid Pix. Drawing, using graphic images, text, audio, compilations to movies or as movies, slideshows, just one off drawings that become jpegs, animations etc. I'm excited everytime I get to use this software with children, by what they create and how they use their creations to support their learning.... There's gimmicky bits in the programme, however I talked to my students about the value to learning......

I spent time with Rachel and her new entrants. These wee sweethearts weren't phased and were in boots and all. Great day Rachel, thank you.

99. Wordle

2008-10-03T17:06:00.005+13:00

Wordle works on high word frequency.

Type in as many words as you want, and the frequent use of each word expands the size of the word. I have used this to find a generic definition for my study on Community of Practice. I also used it with students to create a generic definition for values, and for prior learning of a topic etc. Real powerful learning generating high order thinking.What do the higher frequency words tell us?
I take a screen capture of my Wordle and then insert them as jpegs into presentation software, documents or blogs etc.

100. Portaportal

2008-10-03T12:19:00.005+13:00

Portaportal is another social booking tool.
I began using Portaportal last year as an alternative for teachers to use with their students. After quite a discussion around the networking side of Delicious I felt that Portaportal takes that risk away.

Portportal works in a very similar way to Delicious when saving your book marks. The one point of difference is sharing your book marks with others. When using Portaportal they access your list as guests. As guests they cannot make changes to your book marks or network off in tangents to other sites. Its wusiwug. This I felt was a bonus for schools and the safety of their students clicking into "this was saved by 317 others" and networking through someone else's bookmarks. The downside of course is that the students are restricted to the bookmarks you have found and they can not save their own. This is not entirely true. Thinking creatively......If you have a Room 3 Portaportal site and an agreed log in then the Room 3 students can save sites from where ever, when ever. I'd be interested to hear how you find Portaportal if you are using it, and how this works for your class/ students.

101. Delicious

2008-10-03T11:55:00.004+13:00

Delicious
Social bookmarking.
I enjoy having my bookmarks online, or the ability to save bookmarks when I am away from my computer. I enjoy the grouping feature too.
The networking feature has its merits and of course a negative side too which is why I also use Portaportal with schools. Like lots of other freebies they keep changing and "improving the site". Sometimes for me anyway old was good.