Wednesday, March 23, 2011

GroupTweet

I am a big fan of Twitter.  It connects me with educators from all over the globe.  At the same time, several teachers in my district have created Twitter accounts so that they can interact with their students by sharing homework assignments, extra credit, and reminders to name a few.  They were also able to connect with parents who joined Twitter as well. 


Sometimes, the lack of privacy that comes with Twitter can be an issue for teachers, students and parents.  "GroupTweet turns a standard Twitter account into a group communication hub where members can post updates to everyone in the group using direct messages.  When the group account receives a direct message from a group member, GroupTweet converts it into a tweet that all followers can see."  There is a free account with basic options and then a premium account that has some more options to get the most out of the application. 

Woices


Woices is a website and Smartphone (Android and iPhone) Application that allows users to record audio for locations on a map.  When you create an account you locate the area on the map and then you can upload an image of the area on the map and then record audio where you tell about that place.  Woices would be a valuable tool to use for students going on a field trip or for geography teachers to have students tell about landmarks in foreign countries.  You could also have students create Woices for their hometowns where they talk about landmarks and history. 

For more information about Woices, see the video below.

Tadagraph

Tadagraph is a distributed collaboration website through the use of micro-messaging.  The interface looks similar to a Wall on Facebook.  The idea is that groups of people can collaborate on project using the website and assign task to different people.  Tadagraph is more geared towards business in education, but if students are working on a project over a long period of time, this might be a good way for them to stay in contact with each other and share the status of the task that they are working on.  There is a calendar view that allows you to see each task as well as mark them complete.  Tadagraph is currently in beta so you can currently sign up for free, although some premium features will be added later on.

For more information, watch the short video below to see it in action and see several of the features. 

Zendo


Zen.do is a website designed to take your notes and from them directly create flashcards.  From the flashcards you will be able to mark how well you know the information.  What a great concept.  So often it was a pain in college to take notes and then re-write/transfer those notes to index cards.  It was a lot of extra work.  It is a fact for a lot of people that flashcards are a powerful method of studying.

To use Zen.do you must create an account using an email address and then confirm your email address.  You can also login using Facebook or Google.  After that you can create folders related to the lecture notes.  Within the folders will be various notes based on the topic.  Zen.do makes organizing notes a lot easier as well.  Hopefully an App for Smartphones will be coming in the future.  To learn more, watch the video below.