Showbeyond

Showbeyond is a multimedia slidecast creator, online publishing platform, and story sharing community. It lets you create, share, search for, and embed multimedia presentations. I think Showbeyond is quite easy to use and you can create a decent multimedia slideshow with Showbeyond. To create your multimedia slideshow, you first upload your images from your computer or via URL. Also, you can import a batch of images directly from Flickr or Picasa. You can rearrange your images in any way you like. Then, you can add text captions for each image, add background music, or even a narration. When you complete your multimedia slideshow, Showbeyond gives you several options for sharing your slideshow with your colleagues, students, or anyone. You can make it public or keep it private. Also, you can embed your slideshow on your blog or social networking sites. The community on ShowBeyond is much like what you’ll find on YouTube or Slideshare. Slideshows can be tagged, commented upon, added to your favorites, and shared with others.

Here is a sample of slideshow created on Showbeyond.

http://www.showbeyond.com/show/view?sid=1058ed347f67ca6ecfdac9d3f3838127

Read Full Post »

MECA 2008 Conference Presentations

I am now attending the MECA (Mississippi Educational Computing Association ) 2008 Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. MECA celebrates the silver anniversary this year with a recorded participants over 1,100. I have been attending the MECA conference since 1995 and have made presentations each year for the past 13 years. This year is no exception. I am the lead presenter of 3 presentations. You can view my presentations in this post if you who can’t attend the conference this year.

Software for Starving Students

Developing Data Literacy with InspireData

Top 20 Free Web Applications for Teachers and Librarians

Also, an opening keynote presentation “Literacy & Learning in the 21st Century” delivered by David Warlick is embedded here as well.

Literacy & Learning in the 21st Century

Second Life A Teacher Primer by David Warlick

I will add other MECA 2008 conference presentations when become available. Stay tune!

Read Full Post »

GIMPshop

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a very popular free alternative to Photoshop. However, Photoshop users have a hard time to switch to GIMP because of the difficulty to locate Photoshop’s features in the GIMP. Fortunately, the GIMPshop developed by Scott Moschella can help these Photoshop users. GIMPshop is a fork of the free/open source GIMP, which changes the layout of the user interface to mimic Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make Photoshop users feel comfortable using GIMP. GIMPShop was originally developed for Mac OS X, but has been ported to Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

GIMPshop is a powerful Photoshop look-alike. It modifies the menu structure and adjusts the program’s terminology to closely match Photoshop’s. Though GIMPshop does not support Photoshop plugins, all GIMP’s own plugins, effects, filters, brushes, etc. are supported. If you are looking to do basic photo-retouching, or something far more sophisticated, like work in multiple layers, I think GIMPshop has the tools you need.

Besides the GIMPshop site, you can find some tips and tutorials of using GIMPshop at the GIMPshop.net and the UpState Forums.

Read Full Post »

Top 10 Tools for Learning 2008

I was recently invited by Jane Hart, Head of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies in UK, to share my Top 10 Tools for Learning with her. Jane has done an excellent job of compiling the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2007 which provides a very useful information for learning professionals. Currently, she is updating the list by inviting the learning professionals worldwide to submit their Top 10 Tools to help her compile the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008. Below are my Top 10 Tools for Learning 2008 submitted to Jane today.

1. Firefox. My favorite browser. It is customizable with a great collection of extensions, plug-ins and add-ons. It is fast and more secure way to surf the Web.

2. WordPress. A great open-source software for creating blogs. I use WordPress for my blog which is hosted by WordPress.com for free. WordPress provides a variety of attractive themes, plug-ins, and widgets.

3. Slideshare. A fantastic Web 2.0 tool that lets students and instructors to upload their presentations and share them online through a YouTube-like interface. Also, it is a good place to discover presentations and slideshows from others.

4. Ning. An excellent online service where I create and customize my own Social Network for students in my classes. Ning has customizable themes and templates. Also, it offers a public or private option.

5. Wetpaint. A great place to create a free wiki that can be a private or public site. Wetpaint Education Wikis are Ad-free for teachers and students.

6. Google Docs. A web-based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation program that makes collaboration more efficient. It is a free online creation tool which is great for teachers and students. Also, Google Docs allows mobile access.

7. del.icio.us. A social bookmarking site that allows me to store bookmarks on the Web instead of inside my Web browser. Also, I use del.icio.us to share bookmarks with students, colleagues, friends, family, and the del.icio.us community.

8. Camtasia. A powerful screencasting software that I use frequently to create instructional videos for my students. Camtasia allows screen recordings, audio, voice narration, PowerPoint, Picture-in-Picture and webcam video. Also, I can edit and enhance my video with callouts, titles, credits, zooming, panning, quizzes and additional audio tracks.

9. VoiceThread. A Web-based digital-storytelling application that enables me to share my stories or slideshows through audio, images, videos, or text with others online. VoiceThread allows visitors to make comments on my stories or slideshows in: voice with a microphone, voice with telephone, text, audio file, and video with a webcam. I have used the VoiceThread as an online discussion tool in my class and it works quite well.

10. Skype. A great telecommunication tool that lets me use my own PC to make free voice-over-Internet and video calls to my students and colleagues (who are the Skype users as well) anywhere in the world.

Read Full Post »