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."

TED: Ideas worth spreading

"Our mission: Spreading ideas." Just discovered this (free subscription) site, and wow!

"TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader....The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted."

Check out TED's theme site for How We Learn:

"Teachers of all kinds can find fresh resources--and inspiration--in this batch of TEDTalks. Some talks may shake your worldview...others celebrate the extraordinary power of teachers and schools--and share ways you can help them. Look here for pointers to amazing classroom tools and techniques."

24 Killer Portable Apps For Your USB Flash Drive

These aren't necessarily teaching resources (the theme of my links here), but I have to link to this anyway because it's a great idea, and what teacher can't use one more great idea!

Web 2.0 is about giving up some control

An article by Gerry McGovern. "Web 2.0 and social media mean that for teachers a declining part of their job involves telling. An increasing part is listening to the class and facilitating them in having conversations."

Quiz Hub ~ K-12 Interactive Learning Center

"If you join the Quiz Hub, you will get access to hundreds of educational quiz games for English language arts, math, geography, history, earth science, biology, and chemistry." Headings are Educational Quiz Games/Samples, Favorite Educational Websites, Practice Tests for State Exams.

Teaching and Technology

The site author, Michael Hall, says, "Here are some additional World Wide Web sites related to teaching and technology. Many of these were suggested to me by visitors to TwET, my Teaching with Electronic Technology page." The page is full to links to Instructional Technology sites, Higher Ed sites and courses, K-12 Teaching & Tech sites, Conferences & Workshops, and Directories. Also check out that other site he refers to, Teaching with Electronic Technology.

iSpring: Free PPT to Flash Converter

"Free PowerPoint to Flash 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. ...creates high quality Flash movies with vector representation of standard PowerPoint objects and keeps most of advanced PowerPoint features. ...you can generate .html code ready to place an .swf file on your web page or blog. ...wraps Flash slideshows in the attractive Player for effective navigation. ...supports automatic and mouse click animation step advance and looped playback. ...All iSpring Free functions are accessible in your PowerPoint through the standard toolbar."

Mathematics Glossary

"...a glossary of terms selected to support the learning outcomes identified in the Mathematics Program of Studies. The glossary is designed for teachers to use with their students. A term that appears in multiple grade groupings will have grade appropriate information to illustrate the term. Many of the terms in the earlier grades will have real world examples, and many of the terms at all grades will have applets and/or animations to support student learning."

Note: At this point, there are a lot of "under construction" entries in the glossary. I hope they fill this out soon!

eLearning on a Shoestring

As Stephen Downes said, "This doesn't look like much at first glance but if you keep following the links you'll find a wealth of practical information." I like their Tools, Uses & Software page--their graphic maps of tools and other elearning resources.

You can find a 'big picture' view of a broad range of e-learning tools and their uses, in "Tools, uses and software". "Which tools to use and why" offers some ideas and recommendations for a set of particular tools for e-learning and software examples that work well.