What are you doing this summer?

June 3, 2011June 3, 2011 Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

…try adoption

Taking some time off this summer? Take a week or two to relax and get recoup some of your energy, be sure to reflect and then adopt. Not a child (but if that’s what you plan to do IT Babble wishes you the best of luck), but adopt a little technology to bring into your classroom for the fall. The summer is a perfect time to check out some of those cool programs we’ve been writing about and it gives you a chance to try it out. Read past the break to check out the game plan for the next school year.

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Online presentations – REDEMPTION!

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011 Patrick Cauley1 Comment

On the right track!

Back in January I explained my woes I had with Google Presentations (apart of Google Docs) and how horrible it went due to all the technical difficulties. Read the post and the comments here. At that time, I swore I would leave Google Docs and give Zoho a try, which is what I did, but I didn’t just stop there-oh no! I went further and threw Prezi in the mix since they added a collaborative component. Now everything didn’t go super smoothly, but it went well enough. Read on pas the break to see how my love of online collaboration was rekindled.

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Tiki-Toki – The review

May 4, 2011May 5, 2011 Patrick Cauley7 Comments

For all of our devoted readers out there, you may notice that Tiki-Toki was not originally part of our timeline review extravaganza, but they reached out to us through Twitter and asked if we could review them. I am glad that we did. Tiki-Toki is a new service that makes beautiful timelines. By far their timelines set a new standard of what a timeline can and should look like. Go ahead and check out the video of mine here:

Tiki-Toki also works a bit differently than its competition, and while not everything is silky smooth like Dipity, I still think it is worth your time. So read on past the break to see all Tiki-Toki details.

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Posterous.com – A quick how to

May 2, 2011May 2, 2011 Patrick Cauley2 Comments

I’m going to take a tiny break in my timeline extravaganza to quickly add a how to guide for Posterous.com. This blogging platform is pretty sweet and perfect for the casual blogger who cares not for widgets and the like. You can very easily add people to the blog, and it is especially easy to add your own video and multimedia files. Me likes posterous.com very much. Check out the guide below.

View this document on Scribd

Dipity – The review

April 28, 2011May 19, 2011 Patrick Cauley7 Comments

In the words of Gru “Now that’s what I’m talkin a-bout.” This is easily one of the best timeline creators out there. While there are a few areas I’m iffy on, I can fully recommend this website to create timelines for your class. It is well thought out, very easy to use and gives you options on top of options that most others do not, or if they do, it is not done as well. I implore you to eagerly read on past the break to get all the Dipity goodness.

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timetoast – The review!

April 27, 2011May 19, 2011 Patrick Cauley4 Comments

Our reviews of timelines continue with timetoast! timetoast .com is nice. Not great, but nice. After working with xTimeline.com timetoast was a nice change of pace to see a timeline that actually looks like a timeline. It’s easy to use, like xTimeline, and the final product looks pretty good. There were things I liked and things I did not like (how about that for being vague). Read on past the break to see why timetoast earns a solid 2 DTs. There is also a quick video to see it in action and a link to my timetoast timeline

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A changing of the guard

April 19, 2011April 21, 2011 Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

Way back in October I wrote a post about OpenOffice.org and how it is pretty awesome. Well bitter sweet news has befallen us. Oracle bought Sun in 2010 and took over the OpenOffice.org project. This week they have decided to stop supporting the project. Don’t reach for those hankies just yet people. When Oracle took over, a number of OpenOffice.org people jumped shipped and started their own project called LibreOffice.

Like OpenOffice, it is totally free and contains a word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, drawing, and more software. It is built off of OpenOffice.org (so it’s familiar to those who use it) and is supported, which means there were be updates to fix bugs, adding new features, and new releases. Get it today by following the link below. Oh yeah, it is wicked powerful and nearly as good as that paid version known as Microsoft Office.

UPDATE: This post is suggesting the OOo is dead but that is not the case. Oracle is opening it back up to the community as opposed to supporting it themselves. In the meantime, I still recommend switching to LibreOffice.
http://www.libreoffice.org/download

HootCourse – YES

March 29, 2011March 29, 2011 Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

Hopefully you’ve read my post on what HootCourse is, if not click here. My colleague and I Omar have discussed HootCourse and are torn on the matter. Omar doesn’t feel that HootCourse has any functional place in the classroom. You can read his well written and supported points here. This post is not to argue his points, I can see where he’s coming from. I am just going to layout how I think it can HELP teachers in the classrooms. Read on past the break to get all the Hootness you can handle.

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HootCourse – Twitter for the classroom – THE VIDEO!

March 28, 2011March 28, 2011 Patrick CauleyLeave a comment

What can I say, Omar and I are on a HootCourse kick. This is a quick video about how to get started with HootCourse. Later this week Omar and I are going to duke it out over what we think about HootCourse. If you’re curious, play the video and see what it’s all about.

Hootcourse – Twitter educationalized

March 28, 2011March 28, 2011 Patrick Cauley2 Comments

That is definitely not a real word. Anyway, in this post I am going to share with you the online service HootCourse.com. This uses Twitter as a means to create a back channel chat, but it has some nice features that expand it beyond just the normal chat room experience. Basically you use your Twitter or Facebook account to log into HootCourse and it will create a Twitter feed specifically for you. Not sure what that is? Then click on past the break to get all the educationalized information.

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