Another Cool Site – Fliggo.com!

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http://www.fliggo.com

This is one that MANY teachers have been waiting for – no more need to use YouTube or TeacherTube for your (or your students’) videos! Fliggo allows you to essentially create your own “YouTube” to use however you wish. You can create a community site to allow multiple people (or students) to upload videos or a video blog site to upload your own videos. You also have options to keep it public, moderated, or private, perfect for our educational and privacy needs.

In order to experience Fliggo myself, I created a video blog site for the videos I’ve created. Check it out at http://diannekrause.fliggo.com.

OR, watch this 2 minute introduction to how to get started in creating your own video sharing site!

This video can also be viewed more clearly from the Fliggo site. Click “View Demo” once you are there.


Another Cool Site – Evernote

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Although I am thoroughly disappointed in Google’s decision to discontinue development of Google Notebook, I know that life must go on, without one of the tools I used frequently and taught extensively.  After a few weeks of exploring all the other alternatives, I finally settled on Evernote for my web clipping/note taking needs.

I have been using Evernote for a few months personally but never really explored all of its options until forced to find a replacement for Google Notebook.  After spending several hours with it today and installing the Firefox add-on as well as the Bookmarklet tool, I now feel confident in my choice.  Although it doesn’t do EVERYTHING Google Notebook does (can’t re-order notes within a notebook at will, published notebook doesn’t look as nice as Google Notebook), I still feel that it is an awesome tool.  Just the fact that it is available in 3 places – my computer, the web, and my iPhone – speaks volumes for its capabilities.

Want to know more?  As I always try to use the tool to teach the tool, check out my Evernote Notebook about Evernote.  Click the link or explore the embedded widget below to learn about Evernote and how to get started.



Another Cool Site: Stixy

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http://www.stixy.com

This morning as I was enjoying my snowy morning with coffee, email, blogs, and other Internet browsing fun, this tweet came through from @TeachaKidd aka Lee Kolbert:

I like to join in when I have time, and I had time this morning, so I navigated over to the site.  Wow – what an awesome collaborative tool!

From their website:

Stixy helps users organize their world on flexible, shareable Web-based bulletin boards called Stixyboards. Unlike most personal productivity or project management software, Stixy doesn’t dictate how users should organize their information. Users can create tasks, appointments, files, photos, notes, and bookmarks on their Stixyboards, organized in whatever way makes sense to them. Then they can share Stixyboards with friends, family, and colleagues.

In a nutshell, Stixy is a collabortive work space where you can add sticky notes, documents, photos, and calendar todo items.  However, there is much more to it than that.  Some great things I just discovered in a few minutes of exploration:

  • It’s free.
  • There are no account sign-ups required.  You can register for free but accounts are not needed to leave notes or collaborate on “Stixyboards”.
  • All you need to do is provide the URL to your friends, family, colleagues, and students to have them begin collaboration.
  • Adding elements is very easy and intuitive.
  • There is an integrated calendar system that you can use to join all your events together from all your different stixyboards. Their calendar can also be synced with your favorite calendar program.  This feature is in beta-testing and is not accepting any new users, but the site says it will be open in just a few weeks.

Here are a few screenshots from their “About Stixy” section to give you an idea of what you can see and experience with Stixy.


As you can see, this is quite a powerful resource. I have created a Stixyboard for feedback on this tool. What are educational uses for this collaborative space? Visit my Stixyboard and leave ideas and comments!! (http://www.stixy.com/guest/36457)


Another Cool Site – Animoto

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http://www.animoto.com
http://education.animoto.com

Animoto is one of the coolest slideshow/video creation sites out there. You upload your images, add text, choose or upload music and Animoto mixes your images to the music in one very cool video. What’s even better is that Animoto has teamed up with the education world and is offering its full-access pass to teachers and students. This allows you to create full-length videos (past the 30 second limit of the regular free site). Think of using it as an alternative to Power Point presentations or use them as a part of a larger project. Students seem to like the ease of use and fast-paced nature of the final product.

Check out the one I just made. It took about 5-10 minutes to put together and another 10 or so for Animoto to mix it.


Another Cool Site – Voki.com

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http://www.voki.com

Voki allows you to create your own online speaking persona (avatars). You can customize everything about your avatar – from eye shape to background scene, and everything inbetween. Then, you can record your voice or type in text and have it read to you in different accents and languages. Have students create their own avatars for many different projects and assignments. Have them take on the persona of a historic or fictional character, use vokis as a personal introduction for a project, have them retell stories through vokis.. the possibilities are endless! Once the voki is created it can be emailed, saved, and posted on any website that allows HTML code – Moodle, wikis, blogs, etc.

Check out the voki I made below for the purposes of this post. It took me less than 5 minutes to make!

**Cross-posted to wissahickon.ning.com**