Twubs - Moderated Display of Twitter Hashtag

We've been looking for a way to display a twitter feed at a conference.  We would like to moderate it so that the feed doesn't get spammed.  Twubs.com is a site that allows you to register your hashtag and register your event.  You can then control how fast your feed displays - so people can read it - and you can alter the screen - so that your hashtag is displayed for people to participate.  We are getting ready for our conference this weekend, so this will be our first live event.  All of our tests have worked great.

Twubs.com will help us display our hashtag for the Dublin Literacy Conference - #dublit13.  I hope by displaying the pre-conference tweets, it will generate some excitement and lead into some continued backchannel discussions.  Check it out on Saturday.

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.

Doug Unplugged

I was recently shown a picture book, and told I should read it.  It was about "technology."  So I read, Doug Unplugged, by Dan Yaccarino.  It was a cute little story about a robot that got plugged in to the network to learn all about what he needed to know.  One day, he "unplugged" and learned a lot about being a friend, having fun, and being part of a family.   He reminds us that sometimes we have to just "unplug" from what we do and have fun with our family and friends.  Spend a few minutes with Doug Unplugged.

Skitch for Science

In an earlier post, I mentioned a free App for the iPad called Skitch.  I thought I might share a way that Skitch can be used in the classroom.  Students can use a picture of an item, and label it's parts.  I will use a picture of a frog that I obtained from Flickr.  The picture will be loaded into the photo library on the iPad.  Students will open the image in Skitch and label the known parts of the frog.

The picture below will be the Skitch markup with parts of the frog labeled.

So, very quickly, you can have a picture labeled by the students to illustrate the parts they know, or show the parts they don't.  Skitch allows for easy annotation of a picture or document, as well as easy saving of the new and marked up diagram.

Another way Skitch could be used is by having your students take pictures of an experiment to document the process.  They could open the pictures in Skitch to label and document the what the picture is showing.  Once all of the pictures are marked up and completed, the students could use them in some other program to report out their findings - like a word processor or presentation software.  Skitch would allow the student to explain the picture in detail, right on the picture.

Online Stopwatch and Timer

Teachers are frequently looking for a way to keep track of time.  Online stopwatch is a free and easy online tool that can be projected onto a screen or just utilized on your computer.  Whether you want a stopwatch, or a countdown clock, this is an outstanding site to visit.  It can be used in many ways,, provides multiple different formats, and because it is web-based, can be accessed on many different devices.  I know teachers that have used it for timing standardized assessments, timing speeches, and for many other activities.  If you want to keep track of time, this is for you.  Give it a try, it is one bookmark you'll want to save.  Check out the chart below for other ways this free tool can be used.

Skitch

Skitch is an awesome iPad annotation application. It allows you to mark up and save pictures, add text, take pictures, and add voice. It is so easy to use, and so flexible, you'll absolutely love it. You can bring your picture in from just about anywhere - your photos, the camera, the web, a map, etc.

One of the other features that I just love, is that Skitch was purchased by Evernote. Evernote is one of my favorite applications and Skitch will save directly into your Evernote account. Skitch also sends to Twitter, an email, or into your photos folder. Take a picture, mark it up, and send it to a friend or your students.

In the photo collage below, you will see many different features right at your fingertips.