Map of the World 2.0

Yes, it's been awhile since I've made time to post. I have enjoyed some wonderful professional development this summer - Leadership Training at The Discovery Channel; A Leadership Collaborative for Teacher the Teachers; and this week I'm in a Trainer of Trainers class for Digital Storytelling (from the Center for Digital Storytelling). What wonderful keynotes, classes, teachers, and trainers I have experienced this summer. One colleague referred to me as a "techy junkie" this summer. Hey, life-time learning is in my blood!

I thought I'd offer a quick post about an amazing site. Take a look at this incredible map comprised of links to 1001 Web 2.0 applications. I'm thinking whoever created this interactive map had a whole-lotta-time on his/her hands!

While I recognize a great many of these logos, there are so many more that I have never seen. Clicking any logo takes you to the application's page where you can investigate and explore at your leisure. Who knows what you might discover?! Enjoy!

Map of the World 2.0

Web 2.0 and morale at work

Do you remember the joy and excitement of starting a new job? Fresh and alive with possibilities of what you can accomplish as you prove your value to yourself and your company? You're new and feel the isolation of your newness. What to do?

Sasha Chua created a slideshow on slideshare that offers the tools of Web 2.0 as a way to avoid that lost morale. Not a panacea, just a practical application of gen Y knowledge and common sense.

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Voki your voice!

Thanks to a "tweet" from Madame Krause (@diannekrause) I discovered a very cool tool at voki.com. Voki is a cool tool that allows you to create an avatar and add your own audio file. You can embed the resulting project in your web page, blog, myspace, and many others. Here's my initial "voki" created as an introduction of me and, I admit, a pretty good first attempt.

Now I need to figure out how to eliminate the commercial that's below my Voki the way Madame Krause did. Moving on to lesson #2!

Blogging Blackmail

Okay, I have to share this. Got this as a tweat from @TeachaKidd who posted it on her site. It's just too cute. I have teenage nephews/niece and my granddaughter just turned 10. Feel sure I might hear this from one of them sometime soon.

JibJab

JibJab Sendables are lots of fun to make. You get enough credits for a free card when you register (you get 50 and this one was 30). I found this card at jibjab.com and, just for fun, I made it for his (BIG) birthday on May 18th. Amazingly, we went swing dancing last weekend! He won't see this post until his birthday weekend, so ...

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Password Bird

"Watch the birdie" used to mean look at the photographer who was waving at you to get your attention. Creating a new password meant adding 01, 02, etc., to the only one you ever had, or running through your family and pet names. Giggling was my response when the random lottery number generator first appeared.

Combining those thoughts, today's ever evolving Internet and creators Kevin Sheurs and Andrés Galante provide passwordbird, a random password generator so easy to use. Insert a name + a word + a date that are meaningful to you and this cute little avian creates an 8 or 10 digit password significant only to you! Don't like the first choice? "Click here and I'll make a new one!" offers a different configuration. Still not satisfied? "Click here and tell me different information!" brings even more options. It's a simple flight to http://passwordbird.com/ for your newest password.

iShowU and Stomp

I've been Twitter-ing (see previously post) and received a responding 'tweet', as did all of his followers, from the (infamous?) Podpiper of Education suggesting I look into iShowU for taking screen shots and creating videos on my computer.

The ability to take screen shots or create "how-to" videos is especially helpful for those of us creating handouts for professional development in technology. Checking out the demo on iShowU demonstrates that tools such as this one are not limited to educational use as many online gamers place videos on youtube.com demonstrating their prowess in a particular online game.

So, off I went to iShowU and it is easy to use, compatible with both 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard); and $20. While it used to be freeware the price is still GREAT when compared to other products. It works seamlessly with Stomp, another product by shinywhitebox.com. Buy them both and it's a package price of $42 rather than $49.95 purchased separately.

No, I don't get a commission nor do any of the other ed tech bloggers who share their finds - darn it! As teachers we just love to share what works for us and maybe for you, too.