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   Photoshop from Adobe now has an free online version at http://www.photoshop.com/express/. They provide a basic editor and two gigs of storage online. It has a good menu and can be useful in the Web 2.0 world. However, with no software on the HD, the first shortcoming the leapt out at me was not being able to scan images with the software.Sign-up is a snap. 

 ”Timelines Online are available at http://www.xtimeline.com. Self-described: ”When we developed the timeline tool, our friends thought of many ways to creatively use the timeline. Some of them thought the timeline could become a great public service, a resource for history education and for debate over current issues. The ability of these timelines to entertain and educate convinced us that other people would enjoy our timeline as much as we do. And that’s how xtimeline came to have a home of its own. “

I got a real kick out of PocketMod this weekend. Check it out at http://www.pocketmod.com/ I made a scad of these little booklets out of single 8.5×11 sheets of paper. As craft-challenged as I am, I whipped them right out. The developers explain: The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner.

The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card. It is hard to describe just how incredibly useful the PocketMod is. It’s best that you just dive in and create one.”

 Skip   

I am very concerned about turning students loose in social networks. Since I teach high school, I can discuss my concern in more dimensions than with elementary students or middle schoolers. I have been visiting and evaluating a few options. ePals at http://www.epals.com seems to have passed the tipping point in membership to make an interesting, but a safe experience. It has an academic focus. Imbee - http://www.imbee.com - does not yet have the numbers to make it really go….yet. It is more of a social network. Finally there’s ED2.0 - http://www.edu20.org/. It sits between the two in focus, but it has just over 7,000 member (as of 3/23/08). I might be using this instead of Moodle for my online component for my f2f classes.

For those who have been keeping up here - I FINALLY RECEIVED MY XO-1 COMPUTER FROM MIT!!!!! It is an amazing piece of engineering. In one gigabyte of storage, it has twenty  wonderful  programs and utilities. It needs maintenance and update utilities and a printer utility. It has a good camera - for video and stills - and mics. The students in my classroom jumped right on it.

Here is a really fine site: http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.cfm - Ron at ISTE wrote:

“TeachersFirst is a website designed to meet the needs of  K-12 ‘teachers in the trenches’ by focusing on  resources that teachers need and can actually use in the classroom.  Each resource is selected and reviewed by one of TeachersFirst’s reviewers, all of whom have classroom teaching experience.”

The Network For Instructional TV are the owners and it is very slick - full of flash scripts. I joined, and it looks useful after a cursory look.

Are you sick of it - you North Americans in the Northern Tier? Winter? Ice? Snow? I need to write just to say - I AM SICK OF IT!! I have stopped using full spectrum bulbs - too expensive. I have stopped ‘going tanning’ for the Winter blues - I’m too busy, too busy, too busy, too busy - but, am I really?

-Skip