Cometdocs - Conversion, Storage, and Sharing

Recently, I learned about a website called Cometdocs.  It is an online document management system that allows you store, convert, and share documents.  You get 1 GB of free storage for documents and files.  You can create an account or you can just use the site to share or convert files.  With an account, you can create folders, edit the metadata, convert to PDF or from PDF as well as other formats, and share with others.

My first attempt was with a PDF that I uploaded to the site.  I wondered if I could convert from PDF to Word and if it would really be easy and useable.  I clicked the convert button and the file easily converted to word.  I was amazed at how easily the conversion occurred.  I was able to edit the text and move pictures around.  It supports the change to Excel, Word, Powerpoint, as well as many other formats.

Sharing of a file can easily be completed by sharing the link to email addresses.  The file can also be hosted so that the link can be shared through social media using Facebook, Twitter, or Google links.

I was very pleased with the ease of use and the flexibility of the site.  Upload some files, share some files, convert some files and see how it works for you.  I think it's great.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2013

Wow.  Today I am fortunate to be able to share Web 2.0 Tools for Literacy with teachers at the Dublin Literacy Conference.  I love showing some of the free resources that are out there.  Here is the slideshare that guides the presentation.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2013 from Scott Sibberson

Tagul - A Word Cloud

A lot of people have made word clouds to help illustrate important words in a group of words, whether it's from a story or "brainstorm."  I have looked at Wordle.net and Tagxedo.com to create in the past, but recently came across Tagul.com.  I liked the fact that you could embed the cloud on your webpage with words being interactive links.  Here is a quick cloud I made using text from this blog, and a little bit of tweaking.



I don't know which you like the most, but Tagul does do some neat stuff.  Give it a try.

Just Beam It

Have you ever been in a meeting with a group of people and needed to get a file to all of them?  What are your solutions??  E-mail them??  Pass around a USB device??  Well, I have found a great solution for that quick sharing of a file.  I stumbled upon this website that creates a link to your file.

Just Beam It allows you to drag a file onto the open window of your browser.  It creates a link to the file and displays it right in the browser so that others can access through their browser and download the file.  Easy and simple.  When they have all received the file, you can do another.

This would be awesome in a meeting, at a conference, in a computer lab, or anywhere you need to get a file to many people quickly and easily.  Give it a try.

WeVideo

WeVideo is an online video editing program. It allows users to do their editing online, without having to own a video editing software. It also allows multiple users to edit the same file. It is used in a browser, so it is not necessary for all editors to have the same type of computer or software.

WeVideo allows for many different types of videos to be uploaded for editing. It also works well with wireless uploads. Google Drive integrates well with storage. You can bring in music and effects, or use what is there. When you are finished, you can share your project to many social media sites.

So, if you have a few people working on a video project, create it in WeVideo and invite your co-workers to help. It seems like a great option for creating, editing, and sharing video projects.

Dublin Leadership Academy

Today starts two days of Dublin teachers getting together to learn and prepare for the new school year. What an exciting couple of days. I am looking forward to the opportunity to share a presentation with them. Here is the presentation containing the Web 2.0 Tools that I recommend for teachers to use, professionaly and with their students.

Dublin Leadership Conference 2012 from Scott Sibberson

Hilliard OILE Conference

I have the opportunity to present at the Ohio Innovative Learning Environments Conference in Hilliard this week.  I get to share Web 2.0 Tools with teachers from the area.  This is my slideshare for the conference.

Hilliard OILE Conference 2012 from Scott Sibberson

Online Storage

It's the end of the year, and you need to back up your files.  You don't want to burn CDs or DVDs.  You want to have easy access to the files at home or on your iPad or phone.  You don't have a USB Flash drive handy.  What do you do?

I would suggest getting an account on one of these 5 services.  They provide easy access and secure storage of your files.  They have applications to allow you to easily move files from your desktop computer to online storage to your laptop or mobile device.  Most of these services will give you around 5 GB of free storage, which is enough for the average user.  People run into storage size issues if they save a lot of videos and pictures, but for word processing files, and spreadsheets, and databases, this seems to be plenty.

These services also allow you to purchase more storage, if needed, but usually their free amount is enough. Here are the ones that I have used and found easy.


 Google Drive

 Sky Drive

 Dropbox

 Box

4 Sync

Presentation at Dublin Literacy Conference 2012

Another Dublin Literacy Conference has come and gone.  It was an outstanding day of learning and sharing.  Check out the twitter conversations at #dublit12.  The day couldn't have gone better.  Here is the presentation that I was fortunate enough to share with teachers at the conference.

Dublin Literacy Conference 2012

View more presentations from Scott Sibberson

ETech 2012 Wrapup

Over the last 3 days, I've been fortunate enough to be able to attend Ohio's ETech Conference in Columbus. I was able to attend many wonderful sessions and spend time with my technology colleagues. I was also able connect with a few of my Twitter tech friends that were in attendance. Now it's time to analyze what I saw and see what we can use/share with our teachers. Here is some of what I saw.

Teaching Writing in the 21st Century Classroom
Presented by Matt Gillispie. He and a couple of his colleagues shared different tools and websites that helped with the teaching of writing. Key tools shared-
Neatchat.com
Puppet Pals for the iPad
Socrative.com
Screenr.com
Voicethread
Edmodo.com
Schoology.com

A Keynote Address given by Dr. Michio Kaku
speech similar to this one on YouTube

Students Leaving a Legacy: A Student Created Digital Wiki-textbook
Garth Holman and Mike Pennington talk about their digital textbook and collaborating on the project with their students. Here is the link to their digital text.

Google Forms for Everything!
Eric Curts of North Canton City Schools talked about the uses of Google Forms - presentation link here

It Takes a Village: Innovative Ways to Collaborate
Holly Harwood shared many ways teachers can collaborate to help learn and share techniques and materials for class. Her presentation was shared on their wiki.

Jump into the Cloud, Google Apps for Eudcation Edition for your SchoolAnthony Luscre, Mogadore Local Schools
Link to his presentation.
He also has presentation and tech materials available at http://searchfindknow.com
Also attended his session entitled
Creating District, Building, Classroom and/or Student Websites using WeeblyLink to the presentation.

A Keynote Address given by Brene Brown, entitled Teachable Moments: Bringing Courage, Compassion and Connection to the Classroom. The Keynote was outstanding. She has given multiple Ted Talks. You might like to see them. Try this one.
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html


As you can see, there was a variety of information to absorb and process. That's my goal over the next few weeks. Check out these resources and see if any are right for you.

Online Graphing Calculator

I recently ran across a graphing calculator online.  It is very easy to navigate and allows the user to share the graphs they create.  It is a product of Desmos.  Within a couple of days, they had upgraded to a product that allows the user to create an account to save and share the graphs that they create, abettercalculator.  This is awesome.  Here is what the website looks like.

Along the left side, you get to enter equations, points, etc.  It has a keypad, so you can choose numbers, letters, functions, etc.  These are all browser based, which makes it very easy to navigate on an Interactive White Board.  I think teachers will love this.

As I mentioned before, a logged-in user can save graphs into a folder, share the link to the graph, or save an image of the graph in .png format.  It even allows the user to tweet out the result of the graph.

Another great feature is the customizable settings of the graph.  You have control over the x-axis, y-axis, scales, etc.  You can even use pi as a label.  Nice for trigonometry.  Give the page a try.  It is probably a page you'll come back to frequently.

Glogster Instead of Posters!

If you are like me, you are tired of those "same old posters."  Students print pictures, cut them out, and paste them on poster board.  Or they make the "tri-fold presentation board" with printed material and pictures from the web.  Why not make something interactive and colorful?

Glogster allows the user to add pictures, video, audio, links, etc.  It is colorful, interactive, and fun.  A teacher can collect these online posters from students and share them with the class and parents.  Wow!  And we didn't have to buy paper, glue, toner, etc.  With these glogs, students can link to the websites where the material is found, making it easy for the reader to obtain more information, if interested.  These glogs are shareable and embeddable.  They've made it very easy.

Glogster also has a teacher friendly account.  Glogster.edu makes it easy for teachers to share their online posters.  It allows for simple creation of collaborative class projects.

Check out my first glogster.  Literally done in less than one hour.  It contains links, video, and audio.

Dublin Literacy Conference

Last Saturday was the Dublin Literacy Conference.  Around 600 teachers from Ohio and the neighboring states came to Dublin, Ohio to learn about literacy and hear speakers cover different topics related to literacy.  I have been involved in the conference for many years, providing technology support for the presenters.  It has been a very rewarding experience, allowing me to meet many wonderful people and hear many moving speeches.  This year was no different.  Actually, this may be one of the best conferences in many years.

One thing that was different this year, for me, was that I was one of the presenters.  I was given the opportunity to share information about Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers.  My presentation focused on tools that teachers could use personally to build their professional learning network.  I shared information about Twitter, Google Applications, Flickr, Diigo, Shelfari, and Blogspot - or at least that was my plan.  I was able to share quite a bit about Twitter and Google, but found myself time-restricted in the introduction of the other topics.  I figured that was what would happen.

I have arranged my blog to include pages that would allow the attendees to go back to my blog and see my presentation, a slide share, as well as other Web 2.0 Resources, which contain Diigo bookmarks that update whenever I add new bookmarks.  Teachers seemed to be receptive to the information, even if they were not current users.  I tried to give examples of how they could use these tools, both personally and with students.  Check out the slideshow and links.