Learn Together: Tagging Your Tiddlers

Lynda Williams from University of Northern British Columbia has treated us to 2 excellent Learn Together sessions on TiddlyWiki:
1. TiddlyWiki for Beginners (archive)
2. Building a Faculty Manual in TiddlyWiki (archive)

Now we can learn how to tag those tiddlers! Curious? Join us Wednesday, June 24, at 10:00 PDT (see your time zone) This session will be informative even if you were unable to attend previous TiddlyWiki sessions. Bonnie Johnston from British Columbia Institute of Technology will be our moderator.

Learn Together sessions are regular get-togethers facilitated by BC post-secondary educational practitioners and focused on specific topics related to teaching and learning. There is no cost to attend and everyone is welcome!

Second Life for Educators: Orientation Workshops

You're invited to participate in an upcoming series of free Second Life for Educators orientation workshops.

Have you heard of the virtual world of Second Life, perhaps even that it is being used for educational purposes, but been unsure of whether it’s worth exploring or not had time to do so? Have you gotten an account and entered the world and then dismissed it because you didn’t want to deal with the learning curve or couldn’t find anything worthwhile?

If you are an educator and answered yes to any of these questions, this series of workshops may be for you. Part of a BCIT - BCcampus [funded] project designed to mitigate some of the barriers to entering Second Life (SL), the workshops will provide educators with an introduction to the world, the knowledge and skills necessary to use it, and some of the issues relating to its use educationally.

Check the SLBC blog for full details about workshop dates, what you will learn, and how to register.

OpenEd 2009: Crossing the Chasm

If you happen to live near Vancouver, British Columbia or think you might like to visit in August (who wouldn't?) this is a conference that shouldn't be missed! Open Education Conference — OpenEd 2009: Crossing the Chasm: will be held at UBC’s Robson Square Campus. Registration is now open, the keynote speakers will be fantastic, and the program is taking great shape.

The Open Educator as DJ - Towards a Practice of Remix

Scott Leslie's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

The Urgency of Open Education

Brian Lamb's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site

4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site by ClintLalonde.net:

Adding audio to your website, blog or online course is pretty easy to do these days. Long gone are the days when we would force students to download and install proprietary players like Real Player or Quicktime. With the ubiquity of Flash and JavaScript, and mp3 we now have more options for delivering audio on the web than ever before.

Course Design Institute at UBC

The Centre for Teaching and Academic growth at UBC is extending an invitation to register for the TAG - Course Design Institute. This Institute is open to participants from all BC post-secondary institutions. There is a $50.00 registration deposit required, which will be returned to individuals who complete the entire three days of the Institute, but there are no other fees for this first offering.

Will you be teaching a course in the next academic year? When are you planning to design it? Plan your course NOW, by participating in the first TAG and Partners Course Design Institute!

The first TAG and Partners Course Design Institute will be held from June 24th - 26th, 2009, at UBC, and will help you to design or re-design a course!

What: An intensive 3 days in a supportive atmosphere, working both individually and collaboratively, to design or re-design a course that you teach or are planning to teach. You must register and attend for the entire Institute - three days of morning and afternoon participatory seminars on course design topics. To participate, you must have a course that you would like to design or re-design, regardless of the mode (face-to-face, online, or mixed-mode). You will be asked to bring any existing course documents and materials with you to the Institute.

Invitation to ETUG members

Now that Kate Britt has passed the torch to ETUG to continue to maintain this resource blog we have some work to do! Since April when I outlined some of the next steps in the transition from pink to green, I've been working alongside Kate to make some changes to the blog. For example, you may have noticed it is now green! :-) Not quite the right colour to match our ETUG logo but hey, it's all work in progress. I also added the ETUG blogroll, but we're obviously missing many. If you are a blogger please let us know about it. And look at the cool badge Kate made for us! Feel free to grab it for your own website.

Now comes the real fun. We will start using this blog to post resources we come across that we feel are of interest to ETUG members, and the many, many other followers of this blog. Kate has prepared a short tutorial on using Google toolbar to post. This makes adding resources a snap. There is also a ready-made taxonomy which has worked well over the years for categorizing resources. Of course, we can always expand on this.

How do YOU contribute to the blog? Request author access by leaving a comment or emailing me (scurrie@bccampus.ca). We can have up to 100 authors. Don't worry; it doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment. :-)

Obviously there is more work to do as we make this transition. We'll no doubt want to change the URL to something like etug.blogspot.com, or possibly move away from blogger altogether. Meanwhile, let's settle in and work together to keep the blog active!

CeLC 2009

Have you registered yet? Be sure to follow conference updates on twitter.

CeLC 2009: "Join us this year in Vancouver, BC for the 7th Annual Canadian e-Learning Conference (CeLC). The University of British Columbia (UBC), in partnership with the BC Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG) and BCcampus, will host the 7th Annual Canadian e-Learning Conference on June 17-19, 2009 at UBC's beautiful Point Grey campus."

SCoPE: Seminars: Humanizing the Online Experience: May 25-June 7, 2009

This free, online discussion begins today at SCoPE.

SCoPE: Seminars: Humanizing the Online Experience: May 25-June 7, 2009: Humanizing the Online Experience: May 25-June 7, 2009
Facilitator: Jesai Jayhmes

How do you come across in the online classroom? What are some strategies for making real-time sessions engaging and interactive? Jesai combines his background in acting, teaching, voice coaching, and video production to help us understand the changes we need to make to be effective online facilitators. This 2 week seminar will be combined with weekly live sessions.

Live Sessions: Adobe Connect
* May 26, 10:00 PDT
* June 2, 10:00 PDT

Facilitating Online | OER Commons

This new resource by Tony Carr, Shaheeda Jaffer, and Jeanne Smuts from University of Cape Town is comprehensive, and freely available for your use with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 license.

Facilitating Online | OER Commons: "The Centre for Educational Technology (CET) produced a Course Leader’s Guide as an Open Educational Resource to assist educators and trainers who wish to implement a course on online facilitation within their institution or across several institutions. The guide contains the course model, week-by-week learning activities, general guidance to the course leader on how to implement and customise the course and specific guidelines on each learning activity."

Deep Linking in YouTube

I received this tip from Grant Potter via twitter. It looks like the YouTube deep linking feature has been available for awhile, but it's new to me! This is ideal for integrating video into online discussions. 

YouTube Blog: "'deep link' to YouTube videos. This means you can now not only link to a YouTube video itself, but you can also link directly to a specific time within each video. This is something you have been asking us for and we are happy to deliver."

50 Terrific Open Courseware Classes for Innovative Educators

This is a handy list of open courses for educators.

"The following classes provide an opportunity for you to learn creative approaches to teaching various disciplines, reach special populations among students, bring technology in the classroom, and strengthen your abilities as an administrator or teacher."

Online Discourse - e-Primer series

This next e-primer focusing on online discourse is #4 in a series written by Mark Nichols, an E-learning Specialist from Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. You know how some online facilitators just really stand out? Mark is one of them. I've watched him in action at ITFORUM and SCoPE where he is a master at advancing and summarizing online discussions. I also appreciate the way he acknowledges participants' contributions and cites articles and other resources in almost every post!

Online Discourse - e-Primer series: "In this e-primer, you will discover both the promise of formal online discourse (that is, conversation mediated through internet tools) for education, and good practice. Throughout, I encourage you to apply online discourse in ways that are conducive to teaching and learning. The focus in this e-primer is more on the discourse than the technology although, inevitably, we will consider technology."

How to make a quick blog post

At Sylvia Currie's request (see the comments attached to her recent blog post, below), I've made a short slideshow tutorial on how you can QUICKLY and EASILY create a blog post here (or in any blogger.com blog).

Sorry, I couldn't get the slideshow embedded in this post. I guess blogger.com doesn't display flash (.swf) files. So...

Please click here to view the short tutorial.

If you have questions, post them to the comments box.

We're going from pink to green!

Since my last post I approached the steering committee for the British Columbia Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG) with the idea of transforming this blog into a shared space where community members can continue to build on Kate's amazing resource. The response was YES! Let's do it!

We've sketched out our next steps (and questions):

1. Brand the blog as our own with the ETUG logo / colours / URL
2. Invite ETUG members to take on an editing role for a period of time
3. In keeping with the PinkFlamingo tradition, continue to maintain this blog as a "resource site"
4. Keep PinkFlamingo's Resource Site as an archive
   
5. Decide if we should leave the blog at blogspot or move to another platform
6. Showcase the blog contributors. For example in ETUG News , in the community, through twitter / at the Learn Together Collaboratory, at the annual fall and spring workshops
   

A couple questions have come up (expect more!):

• Should we invite blog editors as a term commitment -- say for one month, or one year? Or should we simply invite anyone who wishes to contribute? (Think motivation here, and best ways to ensure the blog remains active.)
• What are some ways we can make it easy for ETUG members to contribute as part of their work flow?
  

What are your thoughts?

Meanwhile, as we work on the details I'll make this my home base for posting resources and get started on changing settings, colour scheme, and all that. Kate has been a huge help behind the scenes!

Where do I fit in?

Oh my goodness. I feel so honoured to be stepping into the world of the PinkFlamingo! I've followed Kate's work for so many years, always in awe of her energy and willingness to share OPENLY. Now look. I'm posting to her blog! In fact, I've inherited her blog! There is so much history here, and so much more to add. I barely know where to begin. So how about starting by looking back. How did I get here?

My first encounter with Kate was in November, 1999. She stepped into (what do flamingos do...tip toe? dance?) the first online seminar organized through the Global Educators' Network (GEN). The seminar was called "The Virtual Professor" facilitated by Linda Harisim. I was the community coordinator, and was nervous as hell about what to expect with this new venture. Here's an excerpt from Kate's first post:

Please ask me (The Pink Flamingo!) questions if you want to ask a
Learner who can also see things from the Educator’s perspective.

I remember thinking wow! Who is this person calling herself a Pink Flamingo? She seems so interesting!

Then the next post Kate changed to a pink font, and also changed her "pen" name to PinkFlamingo. I became event more intrigued. This person has a lot of pizazz. And so much to offer! Here is Kate's response to Linda's prompt to state reasons for participating in the online seminar:


Neat, I thought. This individual really gets it. She understands the value of communities of practice. A big story follows. but the short version is that PinkFlamingo became a regular participant to GEN seminars, and shortly after this first seminar launched her resource collection. To this day the "virtual professor" section remains. I've been following along ever since.

I haven't quite figured out the details of how I will proceed from here. I have a blog where I mostly talk about and reflect on my work in online communities. I'm also in constant contact with an amazing group of people in British Columbia called the Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG). We're looking for ways to share information about tools and resources related to our work. Perhaps a shared blog space for that purpose? We're all browsing, reading, testing, evaluating, critiquing on a daily basis... Imagine the benefits to sharing with a wider audience!

Whatever happens I'm committed to sustaining this amazing resource that Kate began 10 years ago. Thank you, Kate!

changes are a-comin' (to this blog)

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm retiring from the upkeep of this blog. Very shortly you'll see changes here, the biggest of which is a brand new site author/admin, Sylvia Currie. I'm excited to see what changes she'll make here.

Sylvia will introduce herself, I'm sure (watch for the new profile), but let me just say this. I have a deep respect for all she does and she's a wonderful person as well! Since I met Sylvia many years ago (and long before that as well), she has been extremely active in the world of post-secondary online education. I know she's going to do a great job here! For a preview of some of what Sylvia is up to, see her LinkedIn profile.

Thanks everyone for reading, especially those who have subscribed to this blog over the years. I'm off now to have a great time running WORDS, my freelance copyediting service, posting to my brand new blog, a round tuit, and enjoying my semi-retired lifestyle.

All the best,
Kate Britt

I want to retire; here's an offer for you

I'd like to retire from working on this blog and on its associated Educators' Resources website, http://ibritt.com/resources. Having left teaching over a year ago, I find that my focus has shifted away from the world of online education, so it's time.

I don't want to "sell" this site. It's been a non-profit, non-advertising site since day one. I've kept it up just as a service to my global colleagues in education.

Yet, if I just leave it sit here, it's going to get "stale" fairly soon.

I could take the whole site down and delete this blog, but I'd hate for my loyal readers (about 9,000 unique visitors each month!) to lose all this resource material.

So here's what I propose:

- If you're an online educator who doesn't yet have a blog, perhaps you'd like to take this one over? It's at blogger.com, so I could just give you the login and the transition would be simple.

- If you do already have a blog or resource site of education links, perhaps you'd be interested in having a copy of the pages in my site (ibritt.com/resources). You could then add my pages to your site, or just mine the pages for links to add to your own pages. Each of these would be easier if you had my files. That Resources site is a bit old-fashioned looking, having been designed when I first learned HTML 10 years ago. However, since then I've applied CSS to format it, so it would be fairly simple to restyle the pages for your own website if you're using CSS.

- If you don't have a website yet and would like to take over the pages in order to start one, we can talk about ways you could do that using my existing site pages.

- I could do a combination of the above -- give the blog to one person and the pages to another.

I don't want payment. I just want these resources to live on after I remove them from my personal ibritt.com website.

I won't give my materials to just anybody. To qualify:
- You must be involved in the field of online education.
- You must enjoy reading and collecting good information for other online educators.
- You must not use my materials for profit or in conjunction with advertising or marketing of any kind. I stand by my sole reason for creating these sites: being helpful to fellow educators. (So all you software and system marketers, don't even bother writing to me.)

To discuss further:
Write to me using the "comment" form at the end of this blog post. Comments are set to be moderated, meaning I'll get your comment in my email rather than it being posted online. Tell me about yourself and your involvement in online education. If you have an existing blog and/or website, include the link to it. I'll take some time to review everything I receive, and then I'll get back to each of you.


**NOTE TO MY READERS: After somebody takes over the pages from my site, I'll post a referral URL for a few months so that people can find where the resources have gone.

Professional Writing Services: Fair Play?

This site was recommended to me by a parent who found her high school son plagiarizing and found this helpful resource to share & discuss with him. Don't be put off by the name of the site or the services offered on the homepage; it seems an unlikely place for good advice on plagiarism, but the page I'm linking you to seems quite instructive and has some good links.

Covers topics like Academic Writing Services; Cheating Goes High-Tech: Online Term Paper Mills; The Web Versus the Honor Code; Paper Mills; How to Avoid Plagiarism and Cheating; Understanding Plagiarism, What it is and how to avoid it; You Wrote It, You Quote It (Interactive tutorial). It also provides links to discussions about Potential Consequences; Facing Penalties; Legal issues of cheating and what happens when students fight colleges.

The page also links to Resources for Teachers and Professors: Cheating Prevention; Anti-Plagiarism Strategies; Glatt Plagiarism Services (software that creates a test for suspected cheaters).

9 great reasons why teachers should use Twitter

I like Laura Walker's WordPress theme for her Education-based blog; almost selected that one myself for my eventual site re-design. OK, now to the article: Ms. Walker covers some excellent points, and they're not all about teaching with twitter. They instead address the theme I've been promoting -- that all of us (not just teachers) can use Twitter for our own learning experiences + communication +more!

Games for Learning and Assessment | Edutopia

Games for Learning and Assessment: "Computer simulations are natural learning tools for a generation of video game players."

"Inventive computer sims can turn dull lessons into hyperreal experiences -- if we can get educators to use them. ...This article on computer-simulation technology is about how and why yet another technology that could be enormously powerful for our kids' learning is getting short shrift in our educational system -- despite the successes we can, in fact, find and cite. Simulation is not just another in the long line of passing fads (or short-term opportunities) in educational technology. It is, rather, a real key to helping our students understand the world."

Classpress.net: Headlines for School Subjects

A list of RSS feeds that provide daily postings for subject teachers: today's view shows Art, Design & Technology, English, Geography, History, Maths, Music, Science.

Twiddla - Painless Team Collaboration for the Web

"Painless team collaboration on the web."

"A no-setup, web-based meeting playground. Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it's all here, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly."

FREE features: use for meetings, document sharing, voice chat, screen capture. Other features available by upgrading to the paid version.

Resource Links You Might Have Missed

This list of Language Arts links is the sixth installment of in the "Links You Might Have Missed" series at the Free Technology for Teachers website. This set of links features Language Arts resources. The previous installments of this series featured links to resources in the areas of

Math

Science

Geography

Digital Presentations

Google Earth.

FREE textbooks: Flat World Knowledge

"Our books are written by leading experts and are peer-reviewed, edited, and highly developed. They are supported by test banks, .ppt notes, instructor manuals, print desk copies, and knowledgeable service representatives. Instead of $100 plus, our books are FREE online. We don't even require registration! Students enter the URL they're given by their instructor and start reading. It's that easy."

I'm just sayin'

Put this report:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/5050261/Twitter-is-put-on-new-primary-school-curriculum.html

together with this quote:
"Every company needs to embrace and leverage Twitter before Twitter replaces them."
(http://thebillionairegirl.wordpress.com/twitter-for-dummies/)

Heads up, Education. And educators!

SAVE THE WORDS!

A site chock full of neglected or abandoned words. Click to see definition; sign up to adopt a word or more. This would be a great site for people studying for a spelling bee contest. For anybody who just loves to see WORDS, words, words.

Twitter for Teachers: A Collaborative Effort to Teach Teachers About Twitter

A wiki site where you can read and/or contribute your own ideas.

"This e-book is intended for use by teachers from primary, elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. The contents of the book are made available under an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons license."

Teaching with Twitter

Steve Wheeler shares:

"Ever since I first began to use Twitter I have been thinking about how to harness the potential of microblogging for the benefits of my own students, and have tried out several ideas to exploit it already. Below are my 10 top uses of Twitter for education."

Is Twitter a good tool for education?

A description and analysis of one educator's trial run at using twitter with her students. Christine Morris talks about Setup, Did They Understand, Interface Dilemma, and more.

Twitter for Academia

Dave Parry explains:

"I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. ...Although I am still beginning to wrap my head around all of its varied uses—I think for the most part Twitter users themselves are still figuring this out—I have been using it for over six months now and come up with some academic uses. ...Some of these ideas are general, and some are specifically from a Twittering assignment I did for a class last semester. When I first added it to the syllabus I had no idea what to expect. It was just sort of an experiment that I had planned for the end of the semester (all of the students signed up for twitter and followed each other). After using it I have to say it was one of the better things I did with that class, for reasons I will explain below."

Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

In short, yes! Of course! The full article is interesting, but if you're in a hurry, scroll about halfway down the article box to "Potential Educational Uses of Twitter". Excellent tips and ideas.

21 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom - Google Docs

A slideshow; each slide has an excellent, fun, educational suggestion. I'm impressed by the creativity of the educators who contributed these ideas!

I tried embedding the video here, but it was too big for my column and the right half of it disappeared.

Learning in Hand - About Handhelds in Education

A blog & website by Tony Vincent.

"...an educator's resource for using some of the coolest technologies with students. ...Tony has documented much of what he knows about handheld computing and podcasting...you'll find useful software collections, the best webs links for handhelds, complete lesson plans, and an informative blog. ...Described by Edutopia magazine as a "tireless evangelist for the power of handhelds," Tony's specialty is creatively using handhelds for engaging activities. ...Tony is a teacher who wants to make education effective, relevant, and fun. He knows handhelds are small computers that can make a big difference in classrooms! He hopes Learning in Hand inspires and motivates teachers to use technology that students crave."

Joomla! - content management system

FREE. Open Source.

"Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone."

Free Technology for Teachers

A blog that you might want to subscribe to in your feed reader. "A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration in education." Winner of the EduBlog awards in 2008. I was linked to the site for a specific article and ended up staying quite a while because there were so many interesting (and helpful) topics, esp. those in the "top rated posts" column.

18 Twitter Professors to Follow for a Real Time Education

....according to Lon S. Cohen, a writer and social media strategist. He used these criteria to select his professors:

1) Retweet really smart stuff from the people they follow;
2) Have insightful Tweets in and of themselves (not just links);
3) Inspire me to engage in conversation with them or with others;
4) Write really great articles/blog posts;
5) Expand my world experience.

19 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom

How could students NOT enjoy learning if you use twitter with them?! Part of the ideas to inspire website (which has teaching resources and ideas on many topics; see my blog entry below).

Ideas to Inspire (Teacher Resources)

Out of the UK, this is "...a collection of Google Docs presentations, which offer a large number of ideas for engaging lesson activities in a range of curriculum areas.The presentations are a collaboration between lots of fantastic teachers around the world." Resources under headings like Interactive Maths, Incredible Science, Inspired Writing, and many more.

Blackboard coming to iPhone

I haven't seen anything in the Bb site or blog, but apparently this was announced at the recent ConnectEd conference. This "unofficial apple weblog" provides a video demo and tells us about the

"upcoming Blackboard application for iPhone and iPod touch. The application will allow you to connect to your schools Blackboard server and get important information from your account....According to the representative in the video, the application will be free when it launches."

How to be a student

This site is chock full of helpful stuff for your students, all entitled "The Art Of....". Like the art of learning how to think, the art of planning, the art of using Facebook, the art of staying motivated, the art of getting out of debt, and the list goes on (for pages!). Check it out!

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education

From Carol Cooper-Taylor, this covers topics like First Steps, What to Tweet, Some Sanity For You, Negatives People Will Throw at You, Positives You Can Throw Back.

Media File conversions

If you haven't seen it, I have a page devoted to links to file converters (linked in my title above). I've just begun to include audio/video conversion tools on that page. Here are a couple examples:

PRISM Video File Converter: FREE. Windows & Mac.

"It can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp and more into avi, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Use this video converter software to convert video files into the formats you need to watch on TV, load to a cell phone, put on a website, create a presentation, watch on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful video file converter."

Debut Video Capture: FREE.

"Record video from webcam, capture devices or screen. Easy to use video recorder program to capture video files directly on a PC. Debut will record video from any of the following: Webcam (eg. to record a video camera); Capture device (eg. to transfer from video input); Computer screen (eg. screen recording)."

Please reply with a comment with you have any links to contribute to that page. (FREE applications; I don't want a bunch of retailers promoting their high-cost products here!)

Effective Use of Social Software to Support Student Learning and Engagement

A report of a study done in the UK.

"This study provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative. ...Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning. ...The educator’s role is changing from being a provider of information to a facilitator or moderator, which raises training needs, workload issues, and adjusting to a ‘new’ way of teaching."

[the bold is my emphasis]

Twitter in Education

You're going to get more posts from me about Twitter. I've started a new keyword label/tag for my blog. I'll try to focus my selection on articles that address Twitter's relevance for educators and students.

Here are a couple more today:

1. My own blog post: why I'm a fan after 1 week trial of twitter.

2. Why You Should Be on Twitter: "Don't listen to the critics. Twitter is a great forum for communication and community building." It's a long-ish article but if you're an educator concerned about the use of twitter by students both inside and out of the classroom, please read the whole thing. "...rather than engaging in forms of unneeded media panic, we need more thoughtful, more flexible accounts of how media work."

3. Scroll down to see my previous post: How to Present While People are Twittering

follow me on twitter! 

iPod touch & iPhone Apps for Education

In this example of Google Moderator*, see this page to view reader suggestions and votes for which applications work best for them. As I write, there's a list of 25, the top one being iTunes mobile.

[* What is Google Moderator? I didn't know either. It's like a survey tool. See http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-moderator-launches/]

random.org - Integer Generator

Generate a randome list of integers. Not being a math person, I can't imagine a use for this, but for some reason I thought this was rather a fun resource.

I will tell you a WORD application for this site, sent my way by an editor colleague, James Harbeck. (quoting him)

To randomize a list of words:
1. Paste them into one column in an Excel sheet.
2. Go to http://www.random.org/integers/ and have it generate as many numbers as you have words in one column. (It generates each one
randomly, so there can be duplicates, but that's not a big problem for what we're doing.)
3. Paste that into the next column.
4. Sort the data by the column with the numbers.

The same site also has a bunch of other fun tools, like (to name only a few)
Coin Flipper
Die Roller
Playing Card Shuffler
Lottery Quick Pick
Keno Quick Pick
Jazz Scale Generator
Bitmap Generator
Sound Generator
Integer Generator
Sequence Generator
String Generator
List Randomizer
Possible Lessnesses (say what?)

How to Present While People are Twittering

So, you're giving a lecture, and your students are all focussed on their handhelds, twittering back and forth or to/from the world. Read this article and you'll begin to feel differently about it all. As the article points out, at least they're not falling asleep!

The article has a very positive spin about what it calls "the backchannel". It's about people at conferences, but the positive notes and advice are something teachers ought to read and think about!

follow me on twitter! 

Object Oriented CSS!!

An open source project from Nicole Sullivan, a web developer living in California.

"My Object Oriented CSS grids and templates are open sourced on github. They have all the functionality of YUI grids plus some important features."

Over at github you can view a slideshow that describes OOCSS in visuals. They explain:

"Nicole first presented Object Oriented CSS at Web Directions North in Denver. Since then, the response has been overwhelming. OOCSS allows you to write fast, maintainable, standards-based front end code. It adds much needed predictability to CSS so that even beginners can participate in writing beautiful websites."

New on this page: Following + subscribe

I've just added a couple new things to my side panel: A Followers box and a new Subscribe link to replace the atom-feed link I had before. Both of these should make it SUPER-EASY for you to subscribe and keep track of What's New in PinkFlamingo's Resource Lists!

What's "Following"?

If you use Google Reader: After you click Follow, you'll see a folder in Reader called "Blogs I’m Following".

If you have a blogger.com site, you'll see the sites you follow in your dashboard.

More details in Blogger Help.

You can choose to follow anonymously (so your profile pic won't show up in my Followers box) or publicly. (Of course, I'd enjoy the public option, especially if I get a lot of Followers to show off here. ;)

PRISM: Free Video Converter Software

"Prism is a free video converter for Windows and Mac. It can convert video files from avi, wmv, 3gp and more into avi, asf, wmv, mp4, 3gp and others. It can also convert DVD discs to your hard drive or compress video files to reduce size. Use this video converter software to convert video files into the formats you need to watch on TV, load to a cell phone, put on a website, create a presentation, watch on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful video file converter."

Why an iPod Touch in education?

"...a list of iPod Touch apps that are appropriate for education. Some teachers have begun purchasing the devices, but really don't know what kind of apps can be put on them. [The author] may list some 'paid' apps here, but most will be the 'free' ones."

Teachers TV

| Thousands of education programmes on TV and online |

"With over 2000 videos available online, the Teachers TV website is an invaluable resource for any busy education professional. Watch videos when you want and download great resources including lesson plans, worksheets and more. ...Our programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website. We have 15-minute CPD offerings packed with useful information, exciting pupil programmes for use in class, and a daily education news summary. ...award-winning documentaries on everything from global citizenship to education practice in other countries. Regular specialist hours cater to new teachers, governors and other specialist audiences, and core curriculum hours cover primary and secondary maths, English, science and ICT."

ClassTools.net

FREE tools and templates for creating educational Flash games, interactive learning materials and activities, and more.

"Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge! ...A fantastic way of building cutting-edge technology into the curriculum! ClassTools.net is a brand new, FREE website allowing teachers and students to create interactive Flash diagrams for learning and revising material. All diagrams created can be saved as data files or web pages to host on your own school website or intranet!"

AcademicInfo.net: Online Degree Programs, Subject Guides, and Resources

For your students:

Most of their headings fall under categories of links to online schools & colleges, accreditation, degrees, and sources of financial aid. They also have links to Education blogs and other education resources (directed at students).

"An online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information. Our mission is to provide free, independent and accurate information and resources for prospective and current students (and other researchers). We currently feature over 25,000+ hand-picked resources and update the website on a daily basis."

From the height of this place

"At Google we are all technology optimists. We intrinsically believe that the wave upon which we surf, the secular shift of information, communications, and commerce to the Internet, is still in its early stages, and that its result will be a preponderance of good."
via googleblog.blogspot.com

The whole article strikes a chord within me. If you haven't read it, do. I'm impressed by its optimism. There's wisdom, too, in the author's predictions for the future of the internet. I'm blown away by Google's "observations on the future of the Internet for all of us to assess, consider, and carry as we do our work."

THIS is the kind of article that leads.

Describing Googlers, the author is surely describing all of us who live and work online:

"We are standing at a unique moment in history which will help define not just the Internet for the next few years, but the Internet that individuals and societies around the world will traverse for decades. As Googlers our responsibility is nothing less than to help support the future of information, the global transition in how it is created, shared, consumed, and used to solve big problems. Our challenge is to steer incessantly toward greatness, to never think small when we can think big, to strive on with the work Larry and Sergey began over ten years ago, and from this task we will not be moved."

A Job in Paradise

Please bear with me. My blog and resources site never have ads, just great links. And I never do self-promo here. But today is an exception......

Our video application for "The Best Job in the World" (Island Caretaker) has been accepted and now appears on the Island Reef website. Please watch (it's only 1 minute) and PLEASE VOTE! And you can vote again if you open a different browser. THANK YOU!

(If you have any friends who might get into the spirit, please send them this link and ask them to vote too.)

Here we go...woooohooooo...Watch and VOTE FOR IAN (and me)

Technotes:

You need Javascript enabled in your browser.

You need Flash plug-in version 9.0.45 or above..

Please be patient; sometimes the website is so busy that it takes minutes for the page to load.

To vote, mouse-over on the "rating" stars.

Thanks for viewing and voting!

West Coast Screenwriting - Learn to Write For The Movies

"From Blank Page to Big Screen - Learn to Write For The Movies"

Vancouver Island screenwriters Keith Digby and Brian Paisley offer regular, personalized workshops in screenwriting. Link above is to their main website. Also check out their new BLOG here. A recent post: "Ten things to do… or not to do with dialogue." I'd say they are just as applicable to storywriting as they are to screenwriting.

Top 50 Best CSS Articles & Resources

A very rich site, as its title implies. It's part of a site that's devoted to design, inspiration, and tech.

Second Life in Education

SLED - Second Life Educators Mail List: Recommended by colleagues who are already active SL Educators. I hear it's a very active discussion list. Good place to start learning and getting some ideas from those in the field who are actively using SL for various education purposes. NOTE: The signup page I'm linking to isn't just for signing up. It also has some links to more resources and sites.

SLED Blog (K-20 Education Using The Second Life World): "This blog is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are die-hards and those who are skeptics. All are welcome. We hope you’ll read, enjoy, and comment on what you see."

Graphing Calculator for the iPod

(The link opens your iTunes application, so won't work if you don't have that.)

My buddy/colleague Randy Decker teaches Math 11/12 (British Columbia schools). He says:

"There's a free download of a Graphing Calculator on iTunes Apps Store. I'm quite impressed with it. I would recommend this application for use in Math 11 in British Columbia. It can tackle almost everything in the curriculum. Its display is far better than the Ti-83 or Ti-84. One can easily compare graphs because each is a different colour. It lacks a TVM solver. However, one can use graphs to solve some financial problems such as finding the time required to double an investment. One feature I really like is the ability to take a screenshot of a graph and email it."

Wireless tools for education

The link above is to a new page on my resources site. Please post a comment if you know of any sites about wireless for education so I can add the links to my page.

Here's something my colleague/buddy Randy Decker just told me about.

iTunes is a source of FREE wireless educational applications! Yes, it's true. Here's what to do:

Open iTunes and click to the Store.

Then select App Store.

Then select Education.

Then select Top Free Applications.

There are more than 90 listed today! Here's a screenshot of the top 21 I found, just as a sampler for you. (Sorry, blogger.com seems to make it rather small; you'll just have to do the search yourself to see things clearly.)

Excellent, online learning -- tons of topics! DISCOUNT code here.

Where can you take a 6 week course for $25? [AND I have a discount deal to offer you at the end of this!]

I've been a student at LVS Online for about 20 different courses. They have a wide range of topics to choose from, like a community center kind of thing. The instructors are knowledgeable and really friendly.

The way it works is:
- On Saturday (for 6 weeks in a row) a new lesson is posted online, along with homework assignments.
- The homework is about 2 - 4 hours a week. There's no deadlines, though; if you can't get it done that week, it's OK to relax and enjoy the process.
- When you're done your homework, you "hand it in" -- various classes have different ways you'd do this. They tell you how, so don't worry about not knowing how to do things online.
- The "classroom" for each course is its own private discussion forum, where you can ask questions, chat with the instructor and/or fellow students, discuss each others' work, etc. It's fun!
- You can request to get a certificate at the end if you want, or just do it for fun and learning.

Warning! Once you start taking classes at LVS Online, you may not want to stop. I haven't stopped yet after nearly 10 years. I'm signed up for the January session to take the "Artist's Workshop" course. Returning students only pay $20 a course.

Here's the discount code to get a 20% discount if you're a new student. When you register, use this code:

JAN09

LVS says: "Registration ends January 7th. However, we have a 2 week late registration period and the coupon code expires January 21st."

At least check out their huge list of courses.

Hope you enjoy it! If you want to ask any questions by adding your comment here, I could try to answer.
..........

Oh ya, it would be great if you give them my name (Kate Britt) when you register. They have a system where you can earn certificates to take courses by referring new students to them. Thanks!

ePortfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts

Electronic Portfolios: Engaged Students Create Multimedia-Rich Artifacts: This paper discusses a required university-wide ePortfolio Program at Clemson University.

"We believe that by getting students excited about the work they are doing in their classes, and the above examples certainly demonstrate excitement and motivation, and encouraging them to "show off" this work in their ePortfolios they will become engaged in the ePortfolio process. By helping students understand why they should create an ePortfolio, and by scaffolding them through the process of how to create an ePortfolio our chance for a successful implementation is greater."

Effective Practices with e-Portfolios

"Our infoKit covers the main drivers, purposes, processes, perspectives and issues around e-portfolios."

You can select information depending on which "stakeholder" category you belong to:

"learners, practitioners, employers, professional bodies and insitutions -- we've highlighted particular areas of interest for each to form tailored 'pathways' through the infoKit."

Of particular interest to me was the PDF (or Word text) download entitled Effective Practice with ePortfolios, which "draws out key points from established and innovative examples."

txtng is gd 4 lrng

"Texting does not erode children’s ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy improves. The latest studies (from a team at Coventry University) have found strong positive links between the use of text language and the skills underlying success in standard English in pre-teenage children. The more abbreviations in their messages, the higher they scored on tests of reading and vocabulary. The children who were better at spelling and writing used the most textisms. And the younger they received their first phone, the higher their scores."

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids

New York Magazine article. A study was done on what kinds of praise to give kids, what works to encourage them, etc. I learned something....I've always thought it was a good idea to tell kids how smart they are. Not so much, apparently! Instead, the study indicates that we should "praise effort rather than intelligence" and that "giving kids the label of 'smart' does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it." Go figure!

I found a link to this article on a webpage about education and "Things that make you go Hmmmm...."

Gamers do better at math

An article that describes a study (The Effects of Modern Math Computer Games on Learners' Math Achievement and Math Course Motivation in a Public High School Setting). But math teachers already knew this, right?

Dictionarist: Online Talking Dictionary

A free online multilingual and talking dictionary service for translations with audio pronunciation in English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

YouSendIt - file transfer application

Send, receive and track large files. Unlimited 2GB files and folders. Advanced options like password protection and certified delivery.

They have many free options as well as their Pro applications.
- FREE browser interface
- FREE YouSendIt Express desktop application for Windows or Mac
- FREE add-on plug-ins for Acrobat, Corel Draw, Photoshop, Outlook, and others

Top Web-Based Online Tools

A huge selection of in-browser tools. No Download, No Install! A growing list, continually updated by author Deniz Akay.

For example, the site pointed me to SumoPaint. Check out "the fastest, most creative paint application on the 'net".
12/25/08

Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)

An excellent article containing at least one tip for each of us who do any writing at all. "...most of the time the author...is too close to the manuscript to make corrections. ...the 10 ouchies listed here crop up everywhere. They’re so pernicious that even respected Internet columnists are not immune."

Free Learning & Teaching Resources

BCcampus has launched a new service to help educators find FREE and OPEN educational resources they can reuse in their courses and customize WITHOUT CHARGE or WITHOUT SEEKING PERMISSION. Read about it here or link directly using the logo on the right. From this site, which requires no accounts or login, you can:

• find new Open Education Sites and search them
• find new Open Textbook sites and search within them
• learn about new Open content initiatives in British Columbia, BC, Canada
• easily see all the Creative Commons content currently available in the BCcampus Shareable Online Learning Resources service
• read and subscribe to the latest Open Content news

Lesson Corner: content creation tools for the K-12 teacher

Check out these:

"We are announcing a new suite of free vocabulary building tools for teachers. LessonCorner's Puzzle Makers allow teachers to find or create their own free custom word search, scramble or crossword puzzles...Teachers and Homeschoolers who want to make engaging handouts for vocabulary building exercises."

Math Worksheet Maker:"Who are these worksheets for? Math teachers whose students need practice solving math problems. Homeschooling parents also find the worksheets useful."

The Cheatability Factor

A PPT presentation on cheating in Blackboard.

"Could you be making it easy for students to cheat? What is your Cheatability factor?"

Recommended in Ask Dr.C by Kevin Reeve.

100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers

A selection made by SmartTeaching.org.

"With the increasing use of technology in classrooms, it’s no wonder that teachers have a growing interest in using YouTube and other online media sharing sites to bring information into their classrooms. Here are 100 YouTube videos that can provide supplementary information for the class, give inspiration, help you keep control of class and even provide a few laughs here and there."

Web Hosting

I hardly ever, EVER put advertising of any kind on my blog or website. It's the principle of the thing; there's enough of that out there. So consider this a hot tip instead, because it's not just any web host I'm telling you about, it's the one I've used for years and years.

Today I can't NOT tell you about the deal they're having at the moment. A 6-for-6 promotion.... for all new one-year term sign-ups, you pay for 6 months and GET 6 MONTHS FREE.(regular $7.77/mo)

Here's what I like about PowWeb:

Everything!

UNLIMITED Disk Space

UNLIMITED Data Transfer

FREE Domain

Host Unlimited Domains

Point & Click Site Builder

Tons of website add-on tools, including Blogging, Photo Galleries, etc.

E-Commerce Included

MySQL, PHP, CGI

SSL, FTP, Stats

$100 in Yahoo & Google Ads Credits

FrontPage/Dreamweaver ready

30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

They keep adding new features all the time. For example, when I signed up there was already an outrageous amount of file space included, but now it's unlimited. Think about that!

So if you just happen to be researching web hosts and plan to get one soon, please have a look-see at my host:

Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe

This FREE (Creative Commons) eBook

"contains a comprehensive collection of proven strategies and tools for effective online teaching, based on the principles of learning as a social process. It offers practical, contemporary guidance to support e-learning decision-making, instructional choices, as well as program and course planning, and development. Practical advice, real-life examples, case studies, and useful resources supply in-depth perspectives about structuring and fostering socially engaging learning in an online environment. A plethora of e-learning topics provide insights, ideas, and usable tools. Tips and evidence-based theory guide administrators, program and course developers, project teams, and teachers through the development of online learning opportunities."

The book was developed and written collaboratively in

"a unique interactive, collaborative research model based on the formation of online relationships among 50 contributors from around the world representing research, administration and business communities."

FREE Flash Helper Applications

1. SWF2mht:
a FREE tool for embedding Flash files into HTML

One of the biggest problems of Flash files is that they cannot be opened by a simple double-clicking in Windows Explorer. There are many solutions on how to workaround this problem, including converting them into another format, to self-executable files, or embedding them into HTML. swf2mht is a FREE tiny command line utility that performs embedding of SWF files into HTML. It creates just one file which is double clickable. When double-clicked it opens in MS Internet Explorer where you can see your Flash Movie as if it has been opened using File >> Open dialog.

2. SWF Compress
a FREE Flash Compression Tool

Although most modern Flash production programs provide an MX Compression feature, there are many existing Flash files that still haven't been compressed using MX Compression algorithm yet. This tool solves this problem. Just specify source and target files locations and press Compress button. Generally, most Flash files are decreased by 40%.

FireShot browser extension: screenshot, edit, annotate, save

FREE screencapture tool, lets you annotate and do many things with your screenshot image, saves in various formats. You have to go to the site I've linked above and read about it to see how useful it would be -- especially to people who are creating lessons for students and want screenshot illustrations.

Abbreviations and acronyms dictionary

"With more than 600,000 human-edited definitions, Acronym Finder is the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. New! You can also search for more than 850,000 US and Canadian postal codes."

They also have a handy button you can add to your Google searchbar so that looking up an acronym is just one click from your search box.

NinjaWords - a really fast dictionary

In a forest of online dictionaries, here's a stand-out tree.

I quote them:

Why is this called Ninjawords?
Ninjas are three things:
>They're smart
>They're accurate
>They're really fast
Ninjawords is based on these principles. Plus everyone likes ninjas.

Look at their "Find Out More" page to see what you can do with your own dictionary searches.

The Art & Science of CSS: FREE 208 page book

No strings attached. :)
Time limited offer.

I just downloaded the book and had a quick glance through it. It doesn't just tell you the "how" of things, it explores CSS in the context of good website design.

Here are a couple of snippets from their Preface and Intro:

"Each chapter of this book will teach you how to style common web site components through practical examples. Along the way, you’ll learn many handy techniques for bringing complex designs to life in all modern browsers without needing to resort to messy hacks or superfluous presentational markup."

"Who Should Read this Book? This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical skills involved in using CSS to make attractive web sites, especially if you’re not the type who likes to learn by memorizing a formal specification and then trying to work out which browsers implemented it completely (does anyone enjoy reading specifications?)."

I'm looking forward to digging right in and reading every word!

WebAIM: Resources

WebAIM = Web Accessibility In Mind

A rich list of resources under the headings Popular Resources, Tools, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Simulations. The sidepanel has a Getting Started "Introduction to Web Accessibility", plus Community links as well as links to the most recent articles on their blog.

How to use PPT presentations in your online course

November, 2008: People who regularly convert from PPT for use in online courses are currently almost-unanimously** recommending the following solutions:

1. for simple VIEWING of the presentations: convert to FLASH.
[One recommended free application that does this: iSpring See below for description.]

2. to allow for easy PRINTING: convert to PDF. Use Adobe Acrobat.

3. Best: Make BOTH versions available to students.

______
** Based on the listserves I'm reading.

iSpring: Free PowerPoint to Flash Converter

"Flash presentations from PowerPoint in one click! FREE converter creates web friendly Flash movies from your PowerPoint content keeping its visual parameters and animation effects. Generated Flash presentation will look as if it has always been a Flash movie. Keeps most of advanced PowerPoint features....With iSpring Free you can generate .html code ready to place an .swf file on your web page or blog. iSpring wraps Flash slideshows in the attractive Player for effective navigation. iSpring supports automatic and mouse click animation step advance and looped playback."

iQity Learning Suite

IQ + Acuity = iQity. Developed by Altair Learning Management Inc. of Columbus "with and for K-12 students."

"The IQity Learning Suite includes virtual replicas of the Homeroom, Classroom, Gradebook, Teachers’ Lounge, Courses, Assessment tools and Enrollment reports. Exclusive features include the IQity LiveBoard, where students interact in real-time with a teacher (Web-cast video, live chats, interactive pop quizzes, polling and more); online high-quality, standards-aligned curriculum; graduation Practice Tests and Study Guides tailored to standards and benchmarks for many states; ReactorTM, the most comprehensive learning object repository in the world."

What does it cost?

"We offer the most competitive Pricing of any LMS on the market. For many schools, IQity’s Learning Suite will be offered at no cost. For curriculum and other exclusive feature’s we offer the most competitive pricing in the nation."

Posterous

Posterous - "The place to post everything. Just email us. Dead simple blog by email."

This is so fun! Instantly post anything on the web by sending an email. Attach files (many types, including .pdf, .html, .doc, .txt, image, video, mp3s) and that content will be embedded in your post. No need for membership, login, or anything! Just send an email and voila. The resulting post page has your own instant URL and lots of common blog features: the entry is dated, comments, subscription, tags, download links for the files you attached to your email, and more.

Here's a link to my own "prePosterous" first attempt, a quick email with attachments of a few file types. (I then signed up and created my own URL, but you do NOT have to do that!)

VLC media player

Cross-platform media player and streaming server. "VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network." My partner says that VLC Media Player, a FREE open source tool, is the "best media player in the world. I use it all the time. Plays everything without plugins and fuss." VLC Media Player works on Mac, GNU/Linux and Windows.

VLC Media Tutorials: If you're going to try out VLC, these tutorials might be a good way to start: "...a series of steps on how to convert video/audio, etc."

Web 2.0 how-to (and how not to) Design Guide

The author explains: "In this tutorial, I describe various common graphic design elements in modern web ("2.0") design style. I then attempt to explain why they work (i.e. why they have become common), as well as how, when and where you might use each element in your designs.... If I had to sum up "Web 2.0" design in one word, it would have to be "simplicity", so that's where we'll start."

Tip of My Tongue: Dictionary

A unique dictionary that helps you "find that word that you've been thinking about all day but just can't seem to remember." Various ways to find the word: partial word (starts with, contains, ends with), letters (unscramble, must have, can't have), look up by synonyms you know, length of word, or sounds-like.

Converting to PDF

I have a page on my Resources site devoted to file conversion resources. Here are a couple of new/updated entries today.

CuteFTP: FREE. "Create PDF files on the fly. Save fillable PDF form using Reader. Add, delete, rotate, resize, reorder pages. Stamps, overlay, headers, footers, bates. Make compact PDF booklets. Digitally Sign PDF Documents."

PrimoPDF: FREE. Recommended to me by several professionals. PrimoPDF becomes a "printer" on your applications' printer lists--instead of printing the document on paper, it puts it into a PDF. Any application that can print can make a PDF with this. "Convert to PDF from 300+ file types...optimize for print, screen, ebook, or prepress." OR you can purchase their nitroPDF Professional: "Create, edit, view, secure, form fill, annotate and sign PDF files; and do it all on-screen." (free 14 day trial) PrimoPDF gets good ratings on CNET.
I just read that the older version 3 works better than version 4. Here's the link to version 3.

The Pros and Cons of Uusing a LMS (Learning Management System)

5 Advantages of using an LMS: An article from Microburst Learning.com

Benefits of Instructional Technology/Learning Management Systems: from Wikibooks

Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Learning Management System: from BizCovering.com

Websites for word lovers & writers

Wordsmith.org...A.Word.A.Day: "Wordsmith is a worldwide online community of some half-million readers who share a love for words, wordplay, language, and literature." Visit their Scheduled Chats page, where word lovers from all over the world meet to chat with others about words, languages, literature, and ideas.

World Wide Words: An etymologist's delight! "...a fascinating website ... All word buffs should pay the website a visit. They will be well rewarded." [Quote from University of the Third Age (March 2004)] Categories are numerous; to name a few: Articles, Q&As, Reviews, Topical Words, Turns of Phrase, Weird Words, Pronunciation Guide. Weekly newsletter by email subscription or feed.

Please visit the Writers' Resources tab on my WORDS website for a huge, categorized list of resources.

STUDENTS: A Study Community for Homework Help in Physics, Math, Science, and Engineering

CRAMSTER is an online study community "centered on providing understanding to [your] questions, whether they're related to homework, exam preparation, or general learning." Cramster "...brings together students, educators and subject enthusiasts... With around-the-clock expert help and a community of over 100,000 knowledgeable members, you can find the help you need, whenever you need it." "...find real help from students, educators, and subject enthusiasts. Ask a homework question. Try a practice problem. View step-by-step solutions to your textbook problems. Submit study resources. Find study tips on our blog." "Cramster is the first social learning network of its kind focused on quantitative subjects including physics, math and engineering. We foster a similar environment to a study group whether you are the one asking for or providing help."

Online Survey Tool at SurveyKey.com

"Create custom surveys in minutes and view tallied graphical results." They have a FREE basic version and a Pro version.

Students: find a teacher; Teachers: register so they'll find you

At this site students can search for the best rated teachers/tutors worldwide. [Note: Currently their focus is on India, but they're hoping the international community will help them expand.] It's free, but you have to register to use it. See this page for their notes to teachers..."We're building findguru to help people find great local instructors and school in their cities and neighborhoods. ...Whether we add the class or you do, students will find it if they search in your area (and we'll help you be discovered in the major search engines). ...See why teachers will love findguru. ...We want to take things one step at a time and try to make the experience great in our first few cities before moving on to our international neighbors."

Create a Wiki - Intodit.com

(My link is to their Education category.) "Free and flexible Wiki service where users can drag and drop content, including text, graphics, and video. A focus on ease of use. Share information by building pages or starting discussions on your favorite subject." For an example how the platform is being used by students and professors see http://enec350.intodit.com.

Affixes: the Building Blocks of English

The Dictionary of Affixes: "It is based on Michael Quinion’s book Ologies and Isms: Word Beginnings and Endings, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. This work is now out of print and has been edited and presented here as a free service. These pages contain examples of all four of the types of affixes that appear in English: prefixes, suffixes, combining forms and infixes."