List of favourite web tools

List of favourite free web tools

Writing tools

Google Docs – good for online document storage, collaborative writing, off-site backup


Evernote - note-taking facility available via mobile, online and offline with synchronization available between any installation / version

Scribd -
share documents which are automatically converted so they can be
downloaded as Word, Adobe pdf or .txt files / can be embedded in HTML
pages

Wordle – useful for analysis of a topic or issue

Zoho - full suite of tools from Office-type word processors to note-taking and project management tools. Free option available on most tools.

Blogging / RSS / Collaboration

Blogger - good, free blogging service from Google

DimDim - free web conferencing / web-hosted online, open-source meeting tool

Drop.io - instantly create collaborative working spaces, private, no account necessary, shareable outputs, easy to use.

Google Reader - full-featured RSS aggregator with good integration into other Google services

WordPress
- another blog service, but is slightly more 'professional' looking and
the ability to view stats on blog postings is also useful

WetPaint - free wiki with plenty of templates and features

Video / audio

Jing - web-based screencasting tool, create screen captures, narrated video etc.

quietube - view or share YouTube videos without distracting comments and other YouTube branding

ScreenToaster – create and record video to create screencasts or tutorials

SlideShare - useful for hosting PowerPoint slides to share / embed, also good for linking in MP3 files to easily create a slidecast

Xtranormal - create 3D videos by selecting characters and inputting the script. Sharable video output.

YouTube - video sharing site with lots of creative commons licenced resources / facility for comment / closed captioning

Social Networking

Facebook - major social networking site, useful for both personal and business networks / use of groups for students etc

LinkedIn - similar to Facebook, but with a more professional feel

Twitter – microblogging tool, useful for concise communication, resource-sharing, networking, discussion, current affairs / breaking news

Diagramming

Exploratree
- from Futurelab this is an online ideas tool, a little like
mindmapping but with other types of 'thinking' diagram templates
available

Gliffy - creates flow charts, organisational charts, plans etc in the style of Microsoft Visio and can support collaborative working

MindMeister - mindmapping tool, allows users to create up to 6 mindmaps for free and export in various formats including jpg, rtf etc

ProjectDraw - CAD-like online drawing tool

Skrbl - free, shareable online collaborative whiteboard. 

Image editing

Flickr - online photo sharing (plus tagging, commenting and annotating) and photography-related discussion forums / community

Picnik - online image editing with links to popular image-hosting sites such as Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook etc

Miscellaneous / Utilities

Box.net - online file storage service

Doodle - meeting scheduling tool

DownForEveryoneOrJustMe - does what it says! Put in a URL to check whether or not a site is down or it's just you having problems.

How Do I? - search Google for tutorials on any subject

Media Convert - convert files from one format to another using this free tool

Read The Words - create MP3 audio files from text input with a variety of voices and speeds to select

Overuse of metrics to judge research criticised

The president of the British Academy has warned against the government's plans to judge research using statistical analysis alone saying it risks producing "unintelligent forms of accountability".Much greater use of "metrics", such as research income, student numbers, publications and how much research is cited by other researchers, to judge the quality of research in UK universities is due to be introduced after this year's research assessment exercise.

Overuse of metrics to judge research criticised | higher news | EducationGuardian.co.uk

Interesting article poss relevant to qualitative vs. quantitative validity debate

Blogged with the Flock Browser

What's del.icio.us today...

Links for 2008-02-27 [del.icio.us] Posted: 28 Feb 2008 12:00 AM CST Fearful schools banning staff from touching children | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk "Researchers found current practice regarding touching to be confused, contradictory, based on staff rather than child protection, contrary to known best practice regarding child development, increasingly contested and not required by legislation"

Litigation in the nursery?

Kinda Learning Stuff: "Why do people do this? When did they forget they were dealing with children and prioritise hyper-protective practices above meeting their needs? Education, education, education = litigation, litigation, litigation?!"

Blog entry made on my Kinda Learning site which is E891 relevant because it touches on the dissemination of research and also the misappropriation of guidelines in education. Worth remembering

What's del.icio.us today...

Links for 2008-02-25 [del.icio.us] Posted: 26 Feb 2008 12:00 AM CST "Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism * News * Technology * Intellectual property Series: Digital rights, digital wrongs Who Is This Person? :: Firefox Add-ons Could be so useful for helping to critically evaluate web sources during web research Smaller class sizes 'less effective' Interesting article which touches on the way in which research is disseminated to and by teachers

What's del.icio.us today...

Links for 2008-02-22 [del.icio.us] Posted: 23 Feb 2008 12:00 AM CST Wealthy 'thrive at poor schools' So... family background is more important than selection of school... who knew...

Trust no-one... well, do... but trust yourself more!

The web is your hard drive -- but it's an unreliable hard drive | Technology | Guardian Unlimited: "Bear this in mind when the next snake-oil salesman does a pitch for 'cloud computing'. Sure, you can let somebody else take responsibility for the safety and security of your data, but only if you don't mind losing it."

Useful reminder about why it's good to use the web 2.0 services that are out there... but relying on them for 100% uptime and for complete reliability of data storage is a mistake. Just as with learning out to manage our digital identity is a skill modification we need to get to grips with, so are issues of data storage, ownership and management. If you want it doing right... don't necessarily do it yourself because there are some fantastic online tools out there. But if you want it doing reliably... make sure you take backups and take responsibility for those backups yourself.

Nothing ever really changes, huh? A slight tweak with the way you do things to take account of differing contexts, and you'll be right.