Writely is a web based word processing application that allows for multiple collaborators. It has a nice WYSISYG interface that allows you to add images. It also allows you to save your document in a number of formats including Microsoft Word and PDF formats. You can also send email messages to Writely for further editing, and you can also post directly from Writely to your weblog… Am thinking I’ll have my staff use this for taking meeting notes rather than our Wiki…

Technorati Tags: Writely

The MAKEbot is an AIM/iChat client you can add to your buddy list to get the latest news from MAKE magazine. By typing certain commands, you can see the latest posts, and photos from MAKE. You can also search MAKE via your AIM client. For example type “search ipod” and receive back links to the 5 latest posts/stories that deal with the iPod.

Kind of a fun little tool for the times you’re wondering what you can do with an empty Pringles can…

Technorati Tags: AIM, chatbot, MAKE

Teacher Man - Practical Theory:

“Quick show of hands… did every teacher out there get a copy of Teacher Man for Kwanzmaskah?”

Chris Lehmann asks the question…

Yeah, I got it too…

Technorati Tags: Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

Steve Burt points to SynchroEdit, a collaborative a browser-based multiuser text editor. It allows multiple users to edit a single web-based document at the same time, and synchronizes all changes so that users always have the same version. This is similar to Subethaedit, except that it is browser based. Suggested uses include collaborative note taking during a class, or back channel writing during a conference or phone/tele conference. I would like to install it at Lewis for use by teachers and students as a note taking tool. It is currently in Alpha mode, but they plan to release it under an Open Source license.

Technorati Tags: SynchroEdit, steveburt

Diigo is a new social annotation/bookmarking tool. In one respect it is similar to del.icio.us. It even takes advantage of the del.icio.us API so that items that you tag or bookmark with Diigo, are also tagged to your del.icio.us account. Where it is quite different from del.icio.us, is that you can also more fully annotate your bookmarked pages, and bookmarks can also be saved locally. You can highlight and tag specific images and paragraphs from web pages, and also add sticky notes. These sticky notes can be public or private. For example if I tag and add a sticky note to a page, I can also see other sticky notes left by others or I can send a notification to a colleague so that she can read my annotation and respond. I can also use Diigo to save my selections and annotations and review them later. I can also forward them on via email. The Diigo toolbar puts all of these tools at your disposal.

The Flash Tutorial gives a very good overview. The more I play with Diigo the more it looks like an interesting alternative/compliment to del.icio.us.

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, Diigo, social software

I was visiting the November Learning site tonight and learned that they are no longer offering free hosting for teachers…

November Learning is no longer offering free blogs. For those who currently have accounts on our system, please be advised that our free blogging service will only be available up until August 1, 2006. After that time, you will have the opportunity to purchase an individual account in our software. If you choose not to pay the subscription fee your blog will no longer be available.

The site does mention that they have moved to a new weblog platform, but it doesn’t indicate what that platform is… It looks like James Farmer’s Edublogs.org is the best bet for no cost sites for educators. I set up an edublog site for my last class at Pacific University and plan to use it again this spring. James is also an active blogger and his Blogsavvy site is one that I visit daily.

Technorati Tags: edublogs.org, November Learning, James Farmer

BubbleShare is a social networking photo sharing tool that has a number of interesting features. One is that it does not require registration. You can immediately add photographs via a web interface, or an iPhoto plugin, without registration. Once you have uploaded your photographs you receive two email messages from BubbleShare. One email contains the public link to your gallery. You can send this link to friends so they can view your pictures. Another email is sent with a link to an adminstrative interface where you can access a number of features including text captioning and audio captioning. Right from the web page you can record 30 second audio captions for each photograph (click the speaker icon for each image and you can hear me drone on…) You can also add the gallery to your weblog by copying a bit of code and pasting it into your blog editor. Each gallery also has an RSS feed, and a separate RSS feed for comments. You can choose to keep your gallery private, or add it to the Bubbleshare community. A pretty impressive tool… Am thinking that this might be a nice way for teachers to share images from a classroom without posting them to a school web site. Lots of interesting possibilities.

Note: I was having trouble recording audio in Safari, but everything worked well in Firefox…

Via Eportfolio Journeys and Om Malik

Technorati Tags: BubbleShare