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Cloud Computing, Web 2.0, Social Networking

Technology Tidbits: Blog Companion V. II

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21st Century Technologies

- Alice Stoytelling ................................................................................ - *Bee Docs Timeline ………………………………………………. - *Big Huge Labs …………………………………………………....

- BookRix (digital books) ....................................................................

- Capzles (time lines) ...........................................................................

- Debategraph (graphs) ........................................................................

- Differentiator .....................................................................................

- Europeana ..........................................................................................

- Fotopedia ...........................................................................................

- *Imagination Cubed …………………………………………………

- *Kubbu ……………………………………………………………..

- Lexipedia ...........................................................................................

- Lovey Charts .....................................................................................

- *Museum Box ………………………………………………………

- MyPicsMap ........................................................................................

- Navify ................................................................................................

- *Notebook Express ………………………………………………..

- Obsurvey (surveys) ............................................................................

- *Panraven …………………………………………………………..

- *Picture Book Maker ………………………………………………

- Primary Access ..................................................................................

- Rich Chart Live .................................................................................

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- Roohit ................................................................................................

- School Noodle (social bookmarking) ................................................

- Slate Box (mind mapping) ................................................................

- *Slick Plan …………………………………………………………..

- *StoryBird …………………………………………………………..

- *Story Cove ………………………………………………………….

- *Tagul ………………………………………………………………..

- *Thinkature ………………………………………………………….

- Tikatok ……………………………………………………………...

- ToonDoo Spaces ……………………………………………………

- Visualizing Cultures ..........................................................................

- VisuWords .........................................................................................

- *Vorbeo …………………………………………………………….

- *Weebly …………………………………………………………….

- Word Sift ............................................................................................

- Wordnik ..............................................................................................

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Alice Storytell ing

Summary: Alice Storytelling is a spin-off of Alice.org. Alice is a user- friendly application for Mac/Linux/Windows used to create 3D-animations/games. Think of it as a more advanced version of Scratch. Alice Storytelling is a bit different. It is for creating a digital-3D story. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/02/alice-storytelling.html Student Examples: http://www.greendale.k12.wi.us/Teachers/Wood_G/Wood_G.html (click on Student Work) Site: http://www.alice.org/kelleher/storytelling/

See Also: Scratch, Alice Media Tags: Video

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Bee Docs Timeline

Summary: Bee Docs Timeline is an application that has been around for awhile. It is designed to create stunning looking 2D/3D timelines for Mac OS 10.5. This happens to be one of my favorite Leopard apps out there.

Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/bee-docs-t imeline.html Site: http://www.beedocs.com/index.php

See Also: Timerime, Capzles Media Tags: Video

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Big Huge Labs

Summary: Big Huge Labs is a site that's been around for a while and very popular w/ the kids. It is where you can take picture templates w/ a piece cut out and add your very own. Now, they have incorporated an "educational" portal so students can start using this great site. All a teacher has to do is create a free account and "proof" of their profession (via upload) and they can start creating/uploading student accounts. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/09/big-huge-labs.html Site: http://bighugelabs.com/education.php

See Also: Glogster Media Tags: Photos

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BookRix

Summary: BookRix is a new site that allows a user to create a "digital" book. Not only can you upload your book, you can create one from scratch right on their site. Also, there is a nice feature that allows you to create a cover w/ their stock photos or upload your own. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/08/bookrix.html Site: http://www.bookrix.com

See Also: Tikatok Media Tags: Photos

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Capzles

Summary: Capzles is an online resource for creating Time Lines. TL has a very nice cover flow type feel to it when you are browsing your lines. Also, it is totally "Web 2.0", meaning you can collaborate w/ others on time lines, share, email, embed, etc. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/04/capzles.html Site: http://www.capzles.com/

See Also: TimeRime Media Tags: Photos, Interactive

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Debategraph

Summary: Debategraph is a great new site for creating visual graphs on debatable topics. For example, if there were a debate if 1 to 1 was a benefit to the school environment, it would be here. Not only can you create your own debates but you can view their abundant library to see what they have going on. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/debategraph.html Site: http://debategraph.org/

Media Tags: Interactive

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Differentiator

Summary: Differentiator is a site that is really gaining in popularity over the eduverse/online world. While it is a simple site to use, it really is neat in how it uses Bloom's Taxonomy to generate "meaningful" sentences. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/08/differentiator.html Site: http://www.byrdseed.com/differentiator/

See Also: Telescopic Text Media Tags: Photos

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Europeana

Summary: Europeana is a new and exciting site (beta) which is kind of hard to explain in words (I'll do my best). It's a place to harvest/garner ideas about Europe and it's culture. I think of it as the ultimate resource for European History. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/04/europeana.html Site: http://europeana.eu/portal/ See Also: Culture Crossing Media Tags: Photos, Video

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Fotopedia

Summary: Fotopedia is one of the coolest most visually exciting sites to come around in a long time. It is a place where the user/community members create a visually dynamic encyclopedia. Think of this site as one giant Wiki w/ visually stunning content. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/fotopedia.html Site: http://www.fotopedia.com/ Media Tags: Photos

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Imagination Cubed

Summary: Imagination Cubed is an excellent drawing site. It is a definite "web 2.0" site that has to be seen due to the ability to collaborate and draw w/ others (via an email invite). Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2010/01/imagination-cubed.html Site: http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

Media Tags: Photos

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Kubbu

Summary: Kubbu reminds me an educational CMS (content management system) similar to Moodle, but much more simpler. Kubbu is a site where teachers can register (for free) and sign up to 30 students. Teachers can use Kubbu to create: games, quizzes, and crosswords. They can create up to 15 activities that will be stored for 30 days. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/kubbu.html Site: http://www.kubbu.com/

Media Tags: Photos

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Lexipedia

Summary: Lexipedia is a new (beta) site that is great for visualizing words. It does this by displaying your words in a concept map w/ a "legend/key" that displays the type of words they are Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/lexipedia.html Site: http://www.lexipedia.com/ See Also: Vocab Grabber Media Tags: Photos

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Lovely Charts

Summary: There are plenty of online diagramming applications, but Lovely Charts is one of the better ones to come along in a long time. The first thing you'll notice after signing up (free, but paid to unlock everything) is the polished look/feel to it. This is one of the nicer looking online applications. Also, it is very user friendly and simple to use. Anybody who has had experience w/ Inspiration will be able to pick this up in no time. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/02/lovely-charts.html Site: http://www.lovelycharts.com/

See Also: Rich Chart Live, Widgenie Media Tags: Photos

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Museum Box

Summary: MB is a site where users can upload their digital content (audio, video, pics, etc) into a "box". Those boxes are then used to defend different perspectives throughout historical times. What does this mean? This means that this is a very good site for history teachers who like to challenge their students to defend different viewpoints throughout history. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/museum-box.html Site: http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

See Also: Digital Vaults Media Tags: Photos

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MyPicsMap

Summary: MyPicsMap is an interesting new site which is a mash-up of Google Maps and Flickr. This is really a nice tool to use if you are a Flickr user. You can track where pictures were taken and then click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/05/mypicsmap.html Site: http://www.mypicsmap.com/

See Also: Scribble Maps Media Tags: Photos

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Navify

Summary: This site is great to use when you want to search/filter Wikipedia visually. It literally grabs and displays all the multi-media results, of a given topic, inside of Wikipedia. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/05/navify.html Site: http://navify.com/

Media Tags: Photos

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Notebook Express

Summary: Notebook Express is the new "online" version of the ever popular SMART notebook software. This is great news for Smart Board users as now they can use this "web version" and collaborate/share just like they would from any other Web 2.0 resource. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/notebook-express.html Site: http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/Products/SMART+Notebook+Express/default.htm

Media Tags: Photos

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Obsuvery

Summary: Obsurvey is a new (beta) site for creating online surveys. It is one of the better ones around and I would highly recommend it if it wasn't for Google Doc's, which you can do the exact same thing in. However, that being said, Obsurvey is a really nice and easy to use site which makes creating surveys/polls fun!!! Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/obsurvey.html Site: http://www.obsurvey.com/default.aspx

See Also: Google Doc’s Media Tags: Photos

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Panraven

Summary: Panraven is a site for making digital stories that can be uploaded or printed out similar to Mixbook. What makes this a viable option is the ability to add video as well as audio/photos to your stories. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/09/panraven.html Site: http://www.panraven.com/home/homepage.html See Also: Mixbook Media Tags: Video

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Picture Book Maker

Summary: Picture Book Maker is a site for making easy/fun picture books that you can then enter into a contest (for the London Zoo) or print out for your enjoyment. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/picture-book-maker.html Site:http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/picturebookmaker/picturebookmaker.php?PHPSESSID=cba2b50a15700462b92b17052c9bf55d

See Also: My Story Maker Media Tags: Photos

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Primary Access

Summary: Primary Access is a site that lets you create digital stories using their stock footage. There are a bunch of features which make it a nice resource for education such as: ability to show your script via subtitles, time-lines, idea maps (think Inspiration brain storms) etc. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/04/primary-access.html Site: http://www.primaryaccess.org/

See Also: Digital Vaults Media Tags: Video

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Rich Chart Live

Summary: RCL is a great new site where you can create animated/flash based charts. What separates this online tool from others is its simple user interface and it's unique interactive design. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/03/rich-chart-live.html Site: http://www.richchartlive.com/RichChartLive/default.aspx

See Also: Lovely Charts, Widgenie Media Tags: Interactive

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Roohit

Summary: Roohit is an excellent site for highlight/annotating things on the web. What makes it so great? The ability to turn any site into your own highlighter/cliff notes simply by typing http://roohit.com/site before any URL that you want to take notes on. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/07/roohit.html Site: http://roohit.com/site/view1.php See Also: Diigo Media Tags: Interactive

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School Noodle

Summary: School Noodle is a new (beta) site for social bookmarking specifically designed for teachers. For example, the information online is provided and rated by teachers. While this limits them on the amount of information available to their users, it does provide service to a "specific" genre. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/07/school-noodle.html Site: http://www.schoonoodle.com/

See Also: Delicious, Diigo Media Tags: Photos

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Slate Box

Summary: SlateBox is the ultimate tool for creating "web 2.0" style mind maps and organizational charts. Another great aspect are the different templates you can choose to create your own slate. This is done by selecting one of the themes and then editing it to meet your needs. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/07/slatebox.html Site: http://www.slatebox.com/

See Also: Mind Node Media Tags: Photos, Interactive

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Slick Plan

Summary: What makes SP so great is its simplicity. It is designed to make beautiful looking site maps and flow charts, and that is exactly what it does. This is a very user friendly program that once a user gets registered can have a fully functional mind map w/in minutes. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/slick-plan.html Site: http://www.slickplan.com/

Media Tags: Photos

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StoryBird Summary: Storybird is a new site (beta) for creating digital storybooks. This reminds me of My Story Maker/Myths and Legends w/out the animation. For example, you can create a book w/ digital art (your own or other users) then add text at the bottom of each page just as Story Maker. However, in SB you just create a "still frame/scene" and have the story progress page by page. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/09/storybird.html Site: http://storybird.com/

See Also: My Story Maker, Myths & Legends Media Tags: Video

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Story Cove

Summary: This is an interactive story telling site for grades K-3rd. The stories are all told in cartoon animations similar to Brain Pop, and focus on different countries/cultures around the world. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/story-cove.html Site: http://www.storycove.com/

See Also: Brain Bop, Book Wink, Storynory Media Tags: Photos

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Tagul

Summary: Tagul is very similar to Wordle except that you pre-determine what shapes you want to use then just enter a URL of a site you want to "cloud". You do not type in your own keywords that you do in Wordle. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/09/tagul.html Site: http://tagul.com/

See Also: Wordle Media: Photos, Interactive

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Thinkature

Summary: This is a place where educators can come to collaborate in real-time. I like to think of this as one alternative to Google Wave. The way Thinkature works is by creating "virtual work-spaces". As quoted directly from their site, "Once inside your workspace, you can communicate by chatting, drawing, creating cards, and adding content from around the Internet." Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/11/thinkature.html Site: http://thinkature.com/

See Also: Google Wave Media Tags: Photos

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Tikatok

Summary: Tikatok is a site where students can create stories/books then either share them online or purchased them in hardcover for $20.00. When I first started browsing around on this site, I kept asking myself, other then the Web 2.0/collaboration tools what can you do here that you can't already do in iPhoto... then I stumbled upon the "Story Spark System". Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/03/tikatok.html Site: http://tikatok.com/

See Also: iPhoto, Mixbook Media Tags: Photos

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Visualizing Cultures

Summary: Visualizing Cultures is a site from the guys at MIT (Scratch) designed to illuminate social and cultural history. VC uses the web as a platform to: (1) examine large bodies of previously inaccessible images; (2) compose original texts with unlimited numbers of full-color, high-resolution images; and (3) use new technology to explore unprecedented ways of analyzing and presenting images that open windows on modern history. (this is straight from their site) Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/04/visualizing-cultures.html Site: http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/home/index.html

See Also: Culture Crossing, Digital Vaults, Europeana Media Tags: Video

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VisuWords

Summary: Visuwords is an exciting new site which lets users create their own type of graphical dictionary. The way this works is very wiki-esque, you browse for a term, if it is not there it puts the term on a blank page. From there you can edit your term and link them to others, similar to how you would be creating a concept map in Inspiration. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/visuwords.html Site: http://www.visuwords.com/

Media Tags: Photos

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Vorbeo

Summary: It is a neat little site that lets you create a live embeddable poll on your site. This is very easy to use since it doesn't have a lot of robust/complicated features. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/10/vorbeo.html Site: http://vorbeo.com/

See Also: Runpolls, Survey Monkey Media Tags: Photos, Interactive

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Weebly

Summary: Weebly is a site that has been around for making really nice looking web pages and easily too. Since, I use other CMS's to create pages I usually just take a peek at a web design site and then add it to my Diigo bookmarks. However, Weebly has now crossed over into a full-fledged educational solution and that ganders a more in depth look. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/12/weebly.html Site: http://education.weebly.com/

See Also: Moodle, CMS Media Tags: Photos

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Word Sift

Summary: Word Sift is a site where visualizing text takes place. WS is super easy to use. Just enter your text (copy/paste works great for long passages-up to 3 meg) and then click on sift. The words then scramble into a tag cloud emphasizing important words. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/05/word-sift.html Site: http://wordsift.com/

See Also: Wordle, Tag Cloud, Tag Galaxy, Visual Dictionary Media Tags: Photos

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Wordnik

Summary: Wordnik is a very interesting site. It's a place where one would go to learn any information on a given word. For example, if you typed in the word, "web 2.0" it would give you results in the following ways: images, used in a sentence, related words, statistics, etc. Ideally, I can see this being used w/ L.A. classes or those wanting to help learn words. Blog Reference: http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2009/06/wordnik.html Site: http://www.wordnik.com/

Media Tags: Photos