Omnivorous Surfer

New-year-resolution time is fast approaching, and while I do not really make resolutions...no sense in making resolutions you won't keep...I do try to make some improvements. I ran across this Zen Habits post somehow today, and though it doesn't deliver anything earth shattering or even new, it does present an interesting short list of 10 quick and easy changes to make along with suggested ways to accomplish them. Why read it? Well, I hope I'm not the only one who could do with a little simplification these days!

To give you an idea what's there so you can decide if you want to go read it (in case you already do all these things!), here are the 10 "things"...

1. Make a short list.
2. Drop 1 commitment.
3. Purge a drawer.
4. Set limits.
5. Simplify your to-do list.
6. Free up time.
7. Clear your desk.
8. Clear out your email inbox.
9. Move slower.
10. Single task.

I also enjoyed reading another post, Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential referenced in #4, which describes putting limits on everything. I like this one, as this is something that causes me difficulty. I like to do too many things and I'm not always good at prioritizing. Perhaps thinking about the content of this post might encourage me to make some moves in the right direction. But I'm NOT making any resolutions to do this!

I keep learning more about some of Google's features and wonder why I never found them before. Some of them would have made my  searches more efficient.

Perhaps you, like me, already knew about define:. In case this one is new to you, entering define:abstruse will list definitions of "abstruse" from a number of web sources.

Here are some more (notice that there is no space between the colon and the web page URL or term) :

link:  will give you a listing of the web pages with links to the website you specified, for example, link:www.lumosity.com. This was also an advanced operator we used years ago in AltaVista and is one way to check the validity of the information provided on a website.

allintitle: will give you a list of all the websites with all of the specified query words in their title. For example, allintitle:brain games will give you a list of all websites with both "brain" and "game" in their titles.

intitle: will list documents that contain the first word in their title. Including a second word will limit the listing to those sites which also contain that word anywhere in the document. For example, intitle:prezi teach will result in a listing of all sites with "prezi" in the title and the word "teach" or "teacher" or "teaching" in the page text or title.

allinurl: and inurl: work exactly like allintitle: and intitle:, except that they look in the URL (Internet address) for the search term. For example, try inurl:washington rainforest to find websites that have "washington" in the URL and "rainforest" or "rain forest" either in the title or on the page.

related: will show a list of websites similar to the specified site. Entering related:mindomo.com will give you a listing of other websites which also create mind maps. I think this one in particular will really be useful!

There's much more power in Google than I've been taking advantage of. I'll have to see what else I've been missing.

If you ever need or want to edit, comment on, or fill in a PDF document...or for that matter, Word document, PowerPoint document, PNG or JPG image, or web page...then you might want to check out crocodoc. You simply upload the file, or enter the URL of a website to create a snapshot. Then you can insert comments or text, strike through or highlight text, or draw on the image. Your document will be stored by crocodoc and can be downloaded as a PDF. Additionally, you can choose to share the document for collaboration. You can view and try out crocodoc's features on the website.

crocodoc could be used by a student to highlight and annotate any text or pdf document or annotate an image or website and then email it to the teacher. Evaluating the design or content of any of the supported formats could be done by an individual or multiple individuals. I'm sure there are many other specific educational applications that others will see.

This post is a twofer. You get a new tool for organizing links and an impressive resource for finding web 2.0 tools for specific purposes.

First the FREE tool. LiveBinders lets you organize your links and web-based media in a digital three-ring-binder. It has a compact interface that's easy to use and understand. You can place web pages, videos, PDFs, or images on a tab; or your tab can identify a category and include links to related information. There are several examples on the site's homepage, but I want to share another one with you.

If you're looking for a site to let you do animations or or comics or any of a number of tasks, see if you can't find something using the Digital Media Club LiveBinder, shown above.

LiveBinder would be a great way to provide links for students or for students to organize their research data since an individual user can have multiple binders.

Did you know that you can actually "generate" multiple email addresses using one Gmail address? While some sites won't recognize them, Gmail will ignore when delivering messages to you anything following periods or a plus sign. This means that anything addressed to you as  youraddress...1@gmail.com, youraddress..ab@gmail.com, or youraddress+mile38@gmail.com will be delivered to your youraddress@gmail.com inbox.

I had seen this recommended as a possibility for creating multiple student accounts on application sites and this morning looked it up for someone who requested my assistance. Rather than plagiarize the information from blog posts I read this morning, here are the links to them:
Use Gmail Generate Unlimited Email Addresses includes several other uses for this feature.
2 hidden ways to get more from your gmail address

Can you read the image at right? If you could scan it, it would bring you here, as it contains the URL for the Omnivorous Surfer blog.

This is a QR (for Quick Response) code, a two-dimensional barcode that can store a larger quantity of data than a traditional barcode and can be decoded at high speed. This image was created using the QR-code generator at KAWYA, which also has a QR reader you can download.

While the initial application of QR codes was tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, the technology now may be seen in such places as magazines, signs, and business cards with contents including addresses, URLs--any information that can be conveyed textually.

I had read about QR codes previously, but was led to look again this morning after reading about snapmyinfo, a site that lets you "share your contact information in a snap." To use it, you simply use your iPhone to take a photo of the QR code containing your information, email it to the address they give you, and you will receive a return email with an attachment containing the contact information in a Vcard format, ready to be added to your contact manager. Perhaps you already have an app on your phone that reads QR codes.

Think you won't see these? Above left is a photo of a QR code displayed in a GAP store with promotional information. You can read about and view a photo of a QR-code Calvin Klein billboard at mashable.com. Below is a whitepaper discussing a community's use of QR codes as an economical way to communicate information to residents and tourists. For more examples, you can do your own search or see the additional links included at the end of this post.
It would be interesting to have students brainstorm uses of the QR codes even before having them research or giving them current uses. I wonder how visionary they are. I would suspec1t they would be much better at it than many of us adults. Of course, it's possible they are already aware of and using them!

If you want to read more, you might check
QR Code on Wikipedia
The use of QR signs in real estate
+"QR code" +app Google timeline search (2010)
+"QR code" +art Google search

I know I've posted before...twice...about sites that let you download videos from YouTube and other sites, but this is my new favorite. And I found it just in time for my next workshop!

Download Tube lets you "download online videos direct to PC, iPod, PSP, Mobile." You can convert to .mpg, .mov, .3gp (Mobile), .flv (Flash), .mp3 (audio only), .mp4 (iPod/PSP/iPhone). What more could you ask?

All you have to do is to get the URL of the video, paste it in the box, and the video will be converted and downloaded, ready for you to view offline or add to a presentation.

Related posts:
Saving YouTube Videos
Saving YouTube Videos (Post #2)

Have your students...or you...ever had difficulty narrowing down searches to get the right results? Sometimes they simply can't get the right combination of words, perhaps because their vocabularies are limited and they don't know them or because they aren't using the "right" synonym for one or more of the terms.  Google has a search tool that lets you begin with a general term and then narrow it down step-by-step. It's the Wonder Wheel. You'll find it in the left pane of a Google search window under "More Search Tools."

Rather than try to describe it, I'll use images to demonstrate. Below are the results of a Google search for "elephant." You can see the wheel at the left with the search results at the right. (The image is small, but it will open full size if you click on it.)

We've visited and revisited Tagul and Wordle, and now here's Tagzedo, the "tag cloud with styles." Tagzedo works much like the other two, analyzing text you enter or copy and paste or text from a website to create a word cloud. You can choose color schemes, fonts, and a shape for your cloud.

I have inserted below a static image of the Tagzedo image created using the text from this blog, tree shape selected in honor of the season. When viewing it on the Tagzedo site or embeded on a webpage and viewed using Microsoft's Silverlight, the words will rotate to horizontal and expand when the mouse is placed over them. Try creating your own to see what that looks like.

I haven't posted on Prezi yet, apparently, but I will be at some point in the fairly near future. In the meantime, here's a good presentation about using Web 2.0 applications in the classroom which also provides a good example of the effective use of Prezi's features. So many tools are available for students to create and demonstrate which have the potential, with good teachers, to increase student engagement and learning. It's such a shame that there are so many barriers in so many places.

Click the arrowheads to move through the Prezi frame by frame.

I have always been on the lookout for places to find royalty-free, preferably Creative Commons licensed, video/audio/photo resources for my own and students' use, so I was excited to run across this sitepoint blog post with descriptions of and links to over 30 sites to explore. Some additional ones are mentioned in the comments, so you might want to check those out, too.

If I were still in the classroom, this one would get lots of use!