Bloglines

· What is it?

o Bloglines is a free online service that helps you subscribe to and manage lots of web information, such as news feeds, weblogs and audio- such as podcastings.

· What does it do?

o Bloglines tracks the information you’re interested in, retrieves new stuff as it happens, and organizes everything for you on your own personal web news page. I believe it reads all the blogs out there on the web through a blog’s RSS feed and organizes and manages it all for you. Once you have logged in (subscribed for free)- you can complete a preference list of what you are interested in like cooking, health, sport, etc. Along with your general preferences, you can select from the top 10 blogs such as CNN, iTunes Top 25 songs, Librarians’ Internet Index- Websites you can trust, Quotes of the Day, etc. Plus you can import your own blog subscriptions (blogs you already visit).

o After you join Bloglines you simply search for the content you are interested in and identify the feeds you want to track. Once you “subscribe” to those feeds (a single-click maneuver in most cases), Bloglines will constantly check those feeds for changes or additions and direct new information onto your Bloglines personal page.

o Currently Bloglines searches and indexes more than 80 million live web articles.

o Bloglines allows you to be very choosy and only track the things you are interested in — then they do all the legwork for you. They find the latest news, collect it for you, and keep it on your Bloglines page until you’re ready to read it. You log in when you can, from any computer with a web browser.

o All-in-one Blog and news feed search, online subscriptions, news reader, blog publishing and social sharing tools

o Available in 10 languages

o Mobile version optimized for handheld computers and cell phones

o Email subscriptions help manage your e-newsletter traffic

o Package Tracking (UPS, USPS & FedEx)

o Custom weather forecasts

o Quick Pick Subscriptions get new users started quickly and easily

o Personalized recommendations to find new subscriptions

o Bookmarklet for single-click subscriptions to any source

o Notifiers for all browser types to remind you when new articles have arrived

o Bloglines Saved Searches deliver future articles matching your key words and phrases

o Most Popular lists show the days hot topics and which blogs are getting the most noticed

o Handy add-on tools for bloggers such as automated blogrolls, subscription buttons

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· What are the infrastructure and technical requirements for this tool?

o Must have access to the internet with a web browser

o Obtain an username password with an existing email account

· How can you use it effectively in instruction?

o Teacher could subscribe to Bloglines in order to avoid informa6tion overload. Bloglines will find the latest news, collect it for instructors, and keep it on their Bloglines page until they are ready to read it. I see Bloglines being used for a class who needs current information on a specific topic.

· What are other education applications for this tool?

o Educators can subscribe to educational blogs such as TechLearningBlog or podcasts in order to keep current of technology.

o Weather can be tracked for lessons using temperature, rainfall, etc.

o Locate trustworthy websites from the Librarians’ Internet Index

o Uses 10 languages, so could help ESOL teachers gather pertinent information for their students especially using foreign language podcasts

· What are the limitations and cautions related to use of this tool? And what are the management considerations for this tool?

o The teacher will need to subscribe since an existing email address is required to join.

o Not all information is appropriate for students, so the teacher still needs to “weed” through information gathered and organized by Bloglines.

Gcast

Gcast is a podcasting website that clearly states that it provides “completely free” podcasting services; recording, editing, and hosting. It seems to be related to, if not owned by the folks that make Garage Band, an audio editing program that is available free of charge on line. Users of the podcast can subscribe via e-mail alerts, automatic downloads to I pods, click and play on the web and various other services (My Yahoo and My MSN). According to the site, you will either need a computer with Mic capabilities or just a cell phone to record the audio. The service also offers podcast safe music, ways to embed your podcast into a webpage and, free hosting, and ways to subscribe to podcast. No technical requirements are mentioned except that you can use a computer or your phone to record the audio. I can think of many, many, ways to effectively use podcasting in instruction. All grade levels could progress in language arts including speaking, by doing several podcasts per year. We could use podcasting with our Communication Club, GT units, our book club meetings, the instructional possibilities are endless. Teachers could use podcast to communicate with students, reviewing important items from a lesson or unit or just to communicate information. This would also be a wonderful PR tool to use with parents; we could podcast our morning announcements, school performances, important information, again, unlimited ideas. This tool would have to be very closely monitored by adults. Although I do see it as something that all students, teachers, and parents could use, I do not envision large group projects in the beginning. Host space and cost of hosting could be an issue, even though this site advertises it as free. If you were going to use this daily, you would have to have someone that available to edit the audio and publish it; so as with everything else, time is an issue. Also, the website is currently blocked by Websense. I put in a request for it be unblocked b/c my use was educations (in this case to review the site for a graduate course). Their response was that this site is a “portal” site and that it could not be unblocked. So obviously, even if podcasting is approved, the likely hood of this site being unblocked seems unlikely. I am also skeptical about it all being totally free? Since it is a .com site, someone is making money off of this somehow. Could be pop ups or spamming, I am not sure, but there must be some sort of catch. Most likely once you sign up, that you will be solicited by those that “sponsor” or advertise on the site. This would have to be closely and tightly managed by adults. I do not see this as something that could easily be used in classes of 24 until we have been using it with kids individually or in small groups. Managing what kids are recording is tough, and publishing to the world adds many more layers. Overall, I love the idea of podcasting, and have though of several ways that I could use podcasting with whatever software and publishing tools. I am skeptical though, about this particular site. I think though that I will start with joining through my personal account and see if it works well to communicate information and then see if my spam or if solicitations increase, if that is the case, I will know not to use this site with staff or children. I hope that I will be able to though.

Zoho Creator

• What is it? What does it do?

  Zoho Creator http://creator.zoho.com/is a free on-demand data management software to create online database applications easily and quickly. It offers an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface to create customized web based database applications and share them with others. Zoho creator makes it possible and super easy to create your own online forms(i.e., surveys, inventories, data collection, etc.) and databases without having your own server. You can also easily share your database application with your friends, colleagues or parents by specifying their email addresses. You can invite them to collaborate while maintaining control of what information each individuals can see. You can also set privileges for your users to add, edit or simply view it.

• What are the infrastructure and technical requirements for this tool?

Zoho Creator only requires internet access and a mouse in working condition.

• How can you use it effectively in instruction?

Zoho Creator with its form-building capacities can be used to collected data from surveys, inventories, etc. Thus, it can display the collected data in a variety of forms(i.e, list view, spreadsheet, graph, charts, summary). Zoho Creator is an instructional tool that can help facilitate lessons aligned with the VSC as demonstrated by the following link: http://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/mathematics/math_guidelines.html

• What can I do with Zoho Creator?

Zoho Creator can be used for personal or business database applications. In addition to instructional purposes, teachers can use Zoho Creator to conduct parent evaluations as seen in an evaluation created by Mr. Dojahn, classroom teacher. http://creator.zoho.com/sdojahn/evaluation/

Moreover, as a means of providing students with an opportunity to share feedback regarding instructional strategies or assessment tools, Zoho Creator can be utilized to collect student data.

http://creator.zoho.com/livepage.do?deploy=true&appname=your-opinions-on-the-ks3-test&sharedBy=dfjones&include=false

Some additional ways in which Zoho Creator could be used in the school setting might be:

-To document MSA, benchmarks, short cycle, and formative assessment data.

-To look at the trends in student attendance and tardiness.

-To document parent feedback on surveys conducted during American Education Week.

-To document teacher feedback regarding curriculum implementation, instructional strategies, or professional development.

-To track school funding in each expense account.

-To design a ticket for teachers to complete if they are having computer problems; consequently, the technology teacher would receive the email and an email would be forwarded to the teacher sharing the acknowledgment of the ticket.

Zoho Creator might also be used in the following ways:

-Create customized applications for your specific needs

-Import excel spreadsheets and convert them into collaborative database applications

-Access applications anywhere, anytime online

-Share applications easily within groups or with the general public and collaborate

-See the collected data in different formats – List, Chart, Spreadsheet, Calendar and as Summary View

-Comprehensive data drill-down capabilities- Search, Filter and Set Custom Criteria

-Embed Form and View in your website to make your website more dynamic

Additional uses for Zoho Creator:

http://creator.zoho.com/samples/

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=843c4100437816f6ce41

• What are other education applications for this tool?

Microsoft Excel and similar spreadsheets are good choices when your data is primarily numbers that requires only on- screen calculations. But if your data contains a lot of text, numbers and grows in complexity, then Zoho Creator might be the right choice. Educators can additionally use Zoho Creator for online registration for PD classes, collection of staff and student data, etc.

• What are the limitations and cautions related to use of this tool?

  The main concern with Zoho Creator is that there is not an easy way to get data back out of the system: although you can import existing spreadsheets, there does not appear to be any obvious way to export the contents of your Zoho Creator database to another format, or to get it on too your own computer. For data that you trust keeping it looks like a solid choice.

• What are the management considerations for this tool?

  The site is extremely easy to navigate. Nevertheless, during my research I called the toll free phone number to gain additional information. I was then told that due to the high volume of calls, I needed to email Zoho Creator support. I am still waiting for a response. Therefore, if questions arise, time may become a factor in proceeding with your task.

Additional Information:

Zoho Creator Facts:http://creator.zoho.com/faq.html#share_application

Page Flakes

Hello! I have been checking out Page Flakes. My first impression is that it would make a great homepage. You can select categories that you would like on your main web start page such as local weather, news, gossip, games, etc. The idea is that these are the places you would visit regularly so they are all in one location. You can also select the sources of your news, games, and tools that you want to use. For example, if you often visit YouTube it can be added to your main page so that the latest video is shown and you can click that box to take you right to YouTube. You are able to personalize it by adding photos, videos, a calendar, and email.

It is easy to navigate for any user but the advanced user can truly personalize it to their liking and extend their uniqueness to others. You are able to develop your own “flakes”. As far as I can tell the “flakes” are pages or portions of pages that you are able to post. You need to know html in order to make a “flake”. The flake you make can be added to others’ pages.

It offers options such as linking with “friends” as you would in MySpace or Facebook. It has a google search option. It offers “pagecasting” which as far as I could tell was sharing your page with others. I saw many that focused on one topic such as “going green” or “fitness”. One great feature that I saw is no matter where I traveled within the site I could also find a button to click that said “Take me back to my page”.

Overall, I would recommend everyone visiting PageFlakes. It offers a wide variety of options for the newest user and the advanced user. It is a great source to find the latest news, weather, blog, have some fun!