Omnivorous Surfer

Do you just not "get" Twitter? I didn't when I first signed up...didn't use it for months. Now I'm following several people and learning so much and finding so many resources and articles and websites. I've learned that people have found all kinds of uses for it in their classrooms and in their professional lives.

What is Twitter, anyway? How do you get started? What do you do? How do you find people to follow? Do you wonder about these things when you think of Twitter? Well, here's a place to start getting answers.

To get you going, why don't you check out Centre for Learning and Performance Technology's FREE How to Use Twitter for Social Learning? You'll get everything from how to get started to how to find people to follow to ways to use it productively. (While you're there, look around. This is a great site.)

If you want more ideas, check out 31 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom (well, it's 31 today, but the count will be increasing!).

Speaking of "Interesting Ways," you might be interested in my earlier post on Tom Barrett's series.

I've been playing with a web tool called embedit. It's only useful if you have a website, but if you do, I'm sure you can think of some practical uses.

Upload any file* or use a link to an existing website to embedit.in for free.You will get the code to embed the document on your blog or other website, as the Aesop's Fable document below. (Don't know what to do with the code? Many blog or wiki hosts give the option of viewing/editing the HTML of your page Do all your other editing, leave a blank line above and below where you want the document and put your cursor in that spot. Switch to the HTML page and paste the code from embedit.in.)



If you don't want to embed the document, you can get the code to create a link that opens as an overlay over the page:



. . . or a thumbnail that does the same:


You can give the viewer the right to print or download the document.

You have the option of using embedit.in's red pen tool to annotate any page.

This is easiest way I've seen to make worksheets or reading assignments available to students on your website. If I were grading it, I'd give this site an A+ for ease of use and functionality.

Another feature of the embedit.in is Sitewide, which will "automatically convert all links to document on your website to embeds."  I'll let you investigate that on your own if you're interested.

Dr. Jude Rathburn has a good post on embedit which includes some nice shots of the website and how to use it.

* I was unable to find a list of file formats that embedit.in accepts. The file I used was a Star Office document. I have seen an indication that it works with any file formats that Blackboard supports, including images, documents, and presentation slides.

I was creating a form in Excel for a friend this morning and wanted to have her take a look to see if she liked its appearance and suggest any changes. I won't be seeing her for a few days, and she is not very comfortable with computers, so sending her an attachment was not going to be the best option. In looking for a way to let her easily view a PDF version, I tried Zoho Viewer. While Zoho is a complete suite of productivity, collaboration, and business applications, I won't attempt to address those in this post. Instead the focus will be on Zoho Viewer.

It really couldn't be easier. All you have to do is browse to select your document, indicate how long you want it to be available from their server (1 day-"do not expire"), and click the view button. From the viewer you have option of saving the file, sharing it (put in an email address and a message, and off it goes), embedding it (code is generated for embedding the document itself or a link), and printing it. From the email or the link, someone who views the document has the same options.

For presentations, text documents, and spreadsheets, you have the additional option of exporting it to any of the supported formats appropriate for that type of file. For the spreadsheet, even the charts exported as editable charts.

File formats supported include MS Office, OpenDocument, and OpenOffice formats as well as pdf, rtf, html, txt, and csv. The Excel example on the site shows that it will display multiple sheets in a workbook. A PowerPoint presentation can be viewed as a slideshow (no animations or transitions) or exported to any of the above-mentioned presentation formats.

I was not successful in obtaining an acceptable view of a document with several images included, probably because of the layout specified for them within Word. This was my only failure. The solution in this case would have been to upload a pdf version of the document.

This is so quick, easy, and clean. To make it even better, there is no registration required! I think this is a great way to share a static document simply for viewing or for downloading, or to share a document via email without having to use an attachment. Nice!

YUDU is a site where you can read, publish, buy and sell content. With a FREE option, it could be useful for classrooms, teachers, or anyone who would like to publish "beautiful e-books, e-catalogues, music, audio books, photos and presentations" on the web. Pay accounts offer more capabilities. Documents published here (displayed as flash movies) can be viewed from the site or can be embedded on your own site.

If you just want to read, browse the site's offerings; you can do a tag search, or you can make selections by category (Art & Literature, Business, Comic Books, etc.) and then by type (books, newspapers, reports, photos). You'll find all kinds of public-domain books (e.g., Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Frankenstein), specialty magazines, catalogs, organizational publications and more; there are professional publications as well as those published by students and other individuals. When your chosen "book" opens, simply click on the bottom right page corner to turn the page. I searched but found only one that was clearly student-produced (written and illustrated), Scarlet's Story. Having nearly finished reading the entire Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, I then enjoyed Feline-faced Dieties of the Underworld.You'll surely find something here that matches your interests.

I was surprised not to find more student work, as I think students would really enjoy seeing their products published in this manner.

I probably won't use this site right now, because Handy Shopper, which I have been using on my PDA for many years, meets my current needs. Should I not have that available in the future for some reason (or should I get an  iPhone), this site looks like it would be a likely candidate for a  replacement, at least for grocery shopping.

ZipList lets you create grocery lists which can be accessed and shared via Internet, text, email, or instant message. Item entry is as simple as entering "2 lg cans of peaches" or "butter;olive oil;bread" or, for a high priority item, "milk!" Your list will be organized by category, and you can add prices for individual stores and enter coupon information. The site appears to be incredibly easy to use.

Now, that's the straight shopping portion, but there's more. ZipList also features a Recipe Box for storing recipes clipped from the Internet (at the present time--see post date--there is no allowance for hand-entering recipes). An "Add to List" button on each recipe lets you click to indicate items you don't have on hand from the list of ingredients and then add all those to your shopping list at once.

I learned of this from a post on one of my new favorite blogs, Coupon Cravings. This is a great place to find out about all kinds of great deals--free offerings, discounts, and coupons for anything from retail items to restaurants and other retail establishments.

I personally can find at least a couple of uses for iStockphoto, and I think many others can as well. Once you join, you can use all kinds of royalty-free files: stock photography, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks, and Flash(r) files. This could be a great source of free graphics for teachers and students. In addition you can purchase photos uploaded by approved contributors if you wish.

You can also upload your own photos and, by meeting the requirements to be a contributor, you can sell your photos. I found this site while perusing a photographer's blog and then viewing his photos. Enjoying photography--taking as well as viewing photos--I'll have to be careful not to spend too much time at iStockphoto!

I had a nice long blog entry prepared, but I think I'll go for the quick-and-easy-to-read approach--well, as nearly as I am capable of that approach!
There are many sites which allow you to upload your pictures for different purposes. I've used 3 of those (free, of course!) and have had another recommended that I haven't tried but have seen its amazing product.

flickr
I have uploaded vacation, family, and flood photos here to share with family members. Tags may be added, and you can search flickr by tag to find others' photos on whatever topic or location you wish. Some personalized start pages, like pageflakes, let you add an object that will randomly select and load a photo from flickr based on a tag that you select.

photobucket
I've used photobucket when I want to be able to put a link on a page to a photo that's already on the Internet (some blog sites, like those at schoolblogs, prefer that to uploading photos directly to their site). The presentation isn't pretty, but is very functional. Each photo has with it links for various purposes. For an example, see this photobucket prepared for the Patriots Read blog (see the May 2007 entries; for some reason we had trouble with images on the site during 2008).

shutterfly
I have just registered on this site (which gave me 50 free 4 x 6 photos and a free 11 x 14 collage poster just for registering) based on the recommendation of a friend who has been using it for several years. You can (after uploading photos) get prints (cheaper than local retail stores' photo machines), photobooks, calendars, cards, apparel, and gift items made using your photos. After each family vacation, my friend has had a photobook of the vacation made each family member on the trip. If you have a lot of photos to upload and are on dial-up (I know, I'm stuck in the dark ages!), you can even send them a CD with your .jpg photos on it and they will add them to your account...no charge. Or if you have a film camera, send them the film (small fee) and they will add the photos to your account and send you the negatives. What's not to like?

mypublisher
This site does only photobooks...professional-quality coffeetable books. I've seen one, and they are absolutely beautiful. Both hardcover and softcover are available, and you can order a dust jacket, which makes it look even more professional. See the pricing and examples on the site.

Ta-Da List is a free site which lets you create lists online which can be shared. This would work for, among other things, Christmas wish lists (it's coming!). Share with family members and they can check off purchases to avoid duplicates...and you don't have to create different lists to give to different people. Would also be useful for tasks to be completed by a number of people, with each one checking off those (s)he has taken care of.