Tech Review – Page 4

Diigo Buys Furl

Looks like things are continuing to go well for Diigo. I’ve marked the most interesting bit in bold.

Social bookmarking and annotation service provider Diigo has acquired web page clipping and archiving service Furl from publicly listed search advertising network company LookSmart in exchange for equity. The deal is being pitched as a partnership but looks more like…Diigo jumping on a relevant opportunity without having to spend any cash….Diigo doesn’t refer to its service as social bookmarking but rather as a research and knowledge-sharing tool…You might as well say Diigo bought a rival as it is readying the launch of the upcoming Diigo 4.0 platform, which is said to be taking social bookmarking and annotation ‘to new heights’. (Source)

That’s right. Upgrade 4.0 is in the works and aims to raise the bar. I’m curious to see how many of the features that we’ve all requested/suggested and our feedback about the interface, etc. will be addressed in the new version.

Diigo

New Diigo Group

I’m a big, big fan of Diigo. I appreciate that I can save and share bookmarks, highlight and leave comments on webpages, annotate resources, host and participate in groups and forums on particular topics, message and interact with friends and colleagues, and much more. It’s a very big component of my personal learning network (PLN). I’m also impressed and pleased that the Diigo founders and employees listened to its community of teacher-users and developed Diigo for Educators (More fondly referred to as EduDiigo). Here are some thoughts about about why teachers and learners might use Diigo.

I started a new group dedicated to the topic of design and development. I invite everyone with an interest/expertise in the topic to become an active member.

FYI, consider joining these other groups that started, too.

I encourage everyone to take a look at Diigo’s services and consider taking advantage of it. Please feel free to friend me because, as I frequently say, “Together we learn more.”

The Human Clock

If you’ve been reading this blog or getting my bookmark notifications the last few months then you’ve realized that I’ve been looking for good resources for teachers. I was recently looking for a widget to embed to help us countdown to an upcoming event when I realized that I’ve never shared one of my favorite websites with y’all.

Humanclock.com shows a photograph of the current time, with the photo changing every minute of the day (all 1,440 occuring minutes on Earth!) Thus you end up with a rotating picture clock sorta deal.

How the time is actually displayed is a whole different matter. A lot of photos have the time written on a crummy cardboard sign, while other photos might have the current time in a more edible format, such as olives. There are photos below sea level and ones over two miles above sea level. There are even clock pictures with people who played at Woodstock.

Many people viewing this website end up sending in their own clock pictures, be they in an airplane, installing brakes, or on a playground in Missouri. There are clock pictures from all over the world ranging from Outback Australia to Canada to Pakistan to Antarctica to Italy to Brazil. (Source)

Educational Uses

Encourage creativity by encouraging students to submit their own photos.
A light-hearted way to practice time-related concepts and skills: telling time, AM and PM, 24-hour clock (aka Army time), etc.

Siftables: Cutting Edge Technology

“…my passion is for making new human computer interfaces that are a better match to the ways our brains and bodies work.” — David Merrill

Netbooks for the Classroom

I received the following email inquiry from an elementary teacher.

I keep hearing about these affordable computers that are pretty small. I know that they typically are not loaded with software. I am looking for a way to allow the students access to the internet. Will these allow me to do that?

Netbooks run roughly anywhere from $300 – $700 and they work well for what you probably need. Here’s a recent review of the best netbooks according to CNET.

Here are some of the most popular classroom options.

ASUS Eee
XO from OLPC – A couple of times a year you can buy these for personal use.
HP Mini

What advice would you offer for educators that considering purchasing and using netbooks in the classroom?

Goog-411

Google’s new 411 service, better known as Goog-411, is free, fast and easy to use.

iTables in the Classroom

Educational Uses
Tom Barrett has shared ideas about the use of similar technology in their classroom (Post 1 and 2). What ways might you use this kind of interactive hands-on technology in your classroom?

Prezi

I discovered Prezi today via a bookmark from Dean Mantz. I spent about 10 minutes looking through the site, the tutorial and the three examples on the homepage.

Here’s what some are saying.

When it comes to presentations, Microsoft Powerpoint is the desktop tool that most of us use. Apple Keynote delivers better visuals and is preferred by creatives. Google & Zoho presentations bring a subset of the functionality to the web and allow collaboration. Slideshare introduces community – following the strategies of Youtube (video) and Scribd (documents). But Prezi flips the paradigm of presentation inside out to bring you simple interactive presentations like you’ve never seen before. (Source)

Prezi allows anyone who can sketch an idea on a napkin to create and perform stunning non-linear presentations with relations, zooming into details, and adjusting to the time left without the need to skip slides. (Source)

With the help of Prezi you can create maps of texts, images, videos, PDFs, drawings and present in a nonlinear way. (Source)

Josh Lowensohn of CNET stated that Prezi is a presentation creator that ditches the idea of individual slides in place of a giant expanse that can be navigated with a mouse, keyboard, and eventually touch screens. The end result is pretty incredible and feels a lot like Google Maps. (Source).

Educational Uses

I must admit that while browsing through the site I almost gave up and left twice, but I’m very glad that I didn’t! It’s an interesting tool and holds untold educational potential. Here are a few thoughts that came to mind.

Presentations could become more dynamic, interactive and hopefully engaging. Prezi IS the message.
The ability to easily incorporate most any digital file or media allows teachers/designers to account for a variety of learning styles (audio, video, visual, etc.).
Prezi could be used as one of the (if not the) most robust concept mapping/semantic mapping tools that I’ve seen.
Teachers and students could find it useful for organization, collaboration and project management.
I like the idea of using Prezi to help during the design and development phases of lesson planning, unit development, team planning, cross-curriculum mapping, etc. In some instances (such as a typical presentation) your design and development work actually becomes part of the final product or learning artifact.