Quick Start Page for your links

Looking for a quick "Table of contents" page for your staff or students? Start.io gives you an easy to set up, no fuss start page. Customize the colours and background design.



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QR Voice - have your say!

A QR code can be used for all kinds of things. Now, you can use them to share a machine-read message with QR Voice. It's a great way to add a little "spice" to a worksheet, book review or even a birthday card.

I think with a little brainstorming, you could come up with all kinds of uses. The best part? It even will read in a whole bunch of languages. (Maybe a fun way to do vocab lists, or instructions?)

Scan it! How's your French?

Miniature Faking with TiltShift

Stop motion animation has become a popular way to represent the world, and a "fresh" approach to film-making. Now, photographers are talking about "tilt shifting" as a way of flipping this on its head. Rather than trying to make clay look like the real world, tilt shifting seeks to make the real world look like claymation. Called "miniature faking", you can transform a real-life scene into a miniature world with a great iPhone app. This new application called TiltShift simulates the effect of a tilt-shift lens, tricking your mind into viewing a photo as a miniature scene.

StoryJumper - create picture books

Quick Picture Book Publishing

Create your own account and start writing using StoryJumper. Write a story to illustrate a concept you are trying to teach. Share it "publicly" and use it in your class. Teachers can create a class account and manage student work. 

"StoryJumper is a website that allows kids to build their own books. You can easily create cover pages, add text, upload drawings or photos to illustrate your story, and you can use the StoryJumper clipart gallery, too. When you re done, you can order your own professionally published hardback book."

Step-by-step instructions: HERE

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You're the publisher!

I've mentioned this site before, but I'm still amazed at how simple and slick it is.

Within minutes, Youblisher will turn your magazines, catalogs, business reports, presentations and all other pdf documents into publications with flippable pages!

Your book/magazine gets a URL that shows only your document, with no other ads or content on the side. Perfect for publishing a classbook or project. Finished work can even be embedded in a site or blog.

Write an eBook - PDF or ePub

Digital Publishing is back with the spread of eReaders and iPads in schools and homes. Cheryl Davis from Acalanes Union High School District has created 3 mini-tutorials for teachers and students to use, depending on the app they select: Google Mobile, Pages or Google Docs. The first 2 options generate PDFs which don't allow for resizing the text, but the Google Docs (+ ePub Bud) let you create true ePubs.

More about ePubBud:
https://sites.google.com/site/ebookcooltools/epubbud-site

SafeShare

Share Youtube videos in class without all the extras.

Youtube has many great clips that can enhance a class discussion or serve as a springboard to a lesson. Sometimes the "related content" is just not appropriate. SafeShare allows you to view just the clip without the "extras".

"Our service provides a unique combination of the ability to view the video with minimum distraction as well as the ability to crop distracting scenes within the video !"

Example: http://www.safeshare.tv/w/kPQWdwTOIB

picoDoodler - quick draw artist!

What can you do with just 10K? The site "10K Apart" sponsors a competition to see who can create the most interesting webapps, with the smallest footprint. These apps run in your browser window and let you play games, doodle, look up stuff, calculate, run animations, etc. One I like is quick draw app called PicoDoodler. This basic draw program lets you select pen size and colour, erase mistakes and save the image to your desktop, and it's only 4.97K - wow!  Perfect for a quick little sketch to show off an idea or illustrate a concept. Launch it is a sec, draw your image, and move on.

Spiderscribe

Spiderscribe is an easy-to-use mindmapping application that allows you to upload pictures and documents to enhance your "web". From the site: "It lets you organize your ideas by connecting notes, files, calendar events, etc. in free-form maps. You can collaborate and share those maps online!" Maps can be private or public, and can be a way to marshall resources needed for a presentation. Students simply login to their account and all their material is in one place.

Intervue - get video feedback on topics you post

One of the key features of the Web 2.0 world is the ability to give feedback to posts and webpages. In most cases, the feedback takes the form of a text comment. "Intervue" by particleteam allows you to create a video response wall where people can be invited to leave an AV comment to a question or issue you post. As the owner of the intervue, you can choose to set the video responses to Hidden. (When you do, only you will be able to see the videos.) Or you can allow them to be visible to the world.  Compose a set of questions, post them for your class, gather the responses publicly or privately, download the responses as mp4s or embed them. Use Intervue to get student responses to a test question, practice public speaking or as a placeholder for your own video clips.

A fast, handy way to take minutes

So, you're in a meeting with your iPad and you want to take some brief notes. But there is no wifi. Why not take advantage of this "web app for ipad" creation? Minutes.io is an elegant easy-to-use tool. Browse to minutes.io with your ipad or laptop  Create an account. If you've visited the site once previously, then you will be able to take notes and sync with your account, or even take notes off-line for synching later. (Here's a quick write-up on the desktop interface from MacLife.) You can take notes without an account, but having an ID makes it even handier.

MagCloud - Magazine Printing for fun and profit

Publish Student Work - Share it with Parents!

MagCloud (an HP affiliated site) allows you to upload your student work and create glossy, professionally printed magazines. They can make a wonderful addition to a class or school library. The bonus is that parents and far-away relatives can order their own copy (or copies) printed and delivered to their door. A modest mark-up can even turn it into a fundraiser for classroom supplies. (Jim Vanides has a good overview of the site.)

There is no up-front cost to upload and publish your PDF. Printing costs 20 cents per page for Standard size and 16 cents per page for Digest size, plus $1.00 per copy for perfect binding. There is no additional cost for saddle-stitch binding. (As the publisher, you can add a markup to your MagCloud publication beyond the cost of printing and binding, and MagCloud will pay the full markup back to you for all print sales of your publication.) All orders of 20 or more print copies receive a discount of 25% off the printing costs. 


Take a look.

Twiddla - collaboration tool

Twiddla means collaboration 

Twiddla is a "web-based meeting playground." It allows you to use the great features of Titanpad, and more! Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. "Browser-agnostic, and user-friendly." Create a Twiddla session, invite users and begin. You can save the results of your collaboration to revisit another time.  (Unfortunately, like the other Etherpad-based sites, it doesn't work with the iPad.)

Web Clipping - the easy way

I just saw this interesting app/site/service called Memonic. It lets you capture parts of websites, make notes, share your findings with others: in short, a great study-research-clipping tool. (See their Youtube tutorial here.) The free version is good for 100 notes, and 3 sharing with friends. To get more, you have to go with the paid, pro version. I'm presuming you can delete notes to makes space for new ones, especially if you are collecting info for a project. It might be fun to play with, but I can't see students paying for this service. Maybe a free "edu" version might get students hooked and eager to subscribe after graduation - just a thought.

• Clip web content
• Save webpages to read later
• Write a note
• Organize content directly from the Clipper
• Use the Gathering Mode for lengthy research sessions
• Take screenshots and save content from Word, PDF etc. with our Clipper for Windows
• Forward e-mails and attachments to your Collection

Another Flashcard site

Use This Powerful Study Tool 
http://quizlet.com/

Want to help your students retain vocabulary and concepts? Sometimes good-old-fashioned flashcards are the solution. Now you can use some tech to leverage this tried and true technique. Enter: Quizlet. Create flashcard sets with your own data or choose from sets created by others. Quizlet offers you the option of creating a group to share flashcards with classmates. (In addition, there are apps that integrate with Quizlet for on-the-go studying.) Another plus, data can be exported and pasted into Word or Excel.

• Flashcard Mode for quick review.
• Speller Mode uses audio as a prompt.
• Learn Mode keeps track of scores, and retests incorrect answers.
• Test Mode: with short-answer, matching, multiple choice or true/false options.