Three Tools Students Can Use To Collaboratively Organize Online Research

One of the challenges that I always give to students when they work on collaborative research projects is to "go deeper than you would if you were working alone." The idea that I try to convey to them that the purpose of working together is not to make the assignment easier it is to make it possible for them to discover more information than they would if they were working alone. If the students are researching a topic online, often a series of emails with links to useful materials gets bounced between them. To alleviate the inbox flood, here are three tools that students can use to collaboratively organize their online research.

Diigo is my number one choice for collaborative bookmarking. Students can create groups or you can create groups for them to which they contribute bookmarks. Bookmarks can be annotated with notes about what makes that bookmark useful for the project that the students are working on. My friend Mary Beth Hertz wrote a nice overview of Diigo a couple of years ago, you can read that post here. The video below provides an overview of Diigo's features. 

Diigo V5: Collect and Highlight, Then Remember! from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

Think Binder is a website that gives students a place to create online study groups. In each group students can share files, share links, chat, and draw on a collaborative whiteboard. Students can create and join multiple groups. As you will see in the video below, getting started with Think Binder takes just a minute.
Embedded below is my brief video overview of Think Binder.


Searcheeze is a relatively new and neat service for curating the web with your friends. Searcheeze is basically a social bookmarking service with an extra publishing feature added to it. Here's how it works. Searcheeze provides a bookmarklet for bookmarking the things you find online. When you click the bookmarklet it opens up a sidebar to which you can drag as much highlighted text as you like from the webpage you're viewing. From that sidebar you can specify which of your collections of bookmarks you want send your highlighted content and bookmarks to. Then back in your Searcheeze account you can arrange your content and publish it for others to see. If you want to curate content with other Searcheeze users you can do so by sharing a collection and working together to add to it.

The video below offers a short overview of Searcheeze.

Searcheeze - Search collaboration made easy! from Searcheeze on Vimeo.

Project 365 App Helps You Organize Your Photos Throughout the Year

On Sunday I shared that thanks to Ken Shelton, I finally "get" the purpose of participating in Project 365. In short, committing to a 365 project is a good way to build up a private media library that you and your students can access when you media for your presentations.

Last night I was somewhat aimlessly browsing the App Store when I discovered the Project 365 app for iPhone and iPad. The app provides a place to organize your images in a calendar format and share you images via Facebook, Twitter, and email. The "pro" version of the app ($0.99) removes advertising, includes image cropping tools, and offers immediate upload to your Flickr account.

Applications for Education
If your school is using iPads, the Project 365 apps could be handy for creating image galleries that your students can use whenever they need images for slideshows, videos, or other digital stories. By using their own images, all concerns about Copyright are removed from their projects.

Hackpad - A Simple Wiki Platform

Hackpad is a new, simple wiki service that I learned about from one of Jackie Gerstein's Tweets earlier this week. People who have used services like TitanPad or PrimaryPad will notice a lot of similarities in the user interface between those services and Hackpad.

At the simplest level Hackpad can be used for collaborative note-taking and writing outlines. Beyond that Hackpad allows you to include video and images by simply copying and pasting links into the document that you're working on. If you have Dropbox files that you want to link to, you can do that on Hackpad too. The layout options on Hackpad are very limited, but you can create a table of contents with links in the margins of your Hackpad page. To organize all of the Hackpads that you participate in, you can create a Hackpad collection in your account.

There are two sharing options for your Hackpad pages. You can make the pages public and open to everyone with the link or the pages can be private and viewable only to the people you invite. Joining Hackpad can be accomplished by using your Google account, your Facebook account, or by creating a Hackpad-specific account.

Applications for Education
Hackpad's tag line is "the best wiki ever." I'm not sure that it's the best wiki ever, I'm still partial to Wikispaces, but Hackpad is quite nice. If you're looking for a clean, simple platform for your students to use to create outlines together, share notes, or build reference pages, Hackpad is definitely worth giving a good look.

Use NetSpeed Monitor to Monitor Your PC's Network Activity

If you have ever suspected something was running on your PC that shouldn't be, try NetSpeed Monitor to get to the bottom of the mystery. NetSpeed Monitor is a free program that you can use to monitor the network activity of your computer. Learn more about it in the episode of TekZilla Daily embedded below.

Get Ready for the 2012 WordGirl Definition Competition

On May 1, 2012 Scholastic is hosting a live WordGirl Definition Competition. During the live webcast classrooms can play along by submitting their responses to the questions. Some participating classrooms will be called in to participate live over the web. The competition will feature three rounds of questions about word usage and definitions. You can register for the event and get a pre-competition preparation kit here.

What's Your Goal? Thinking About Tech Choices

I am often asked by educators (classroom teachers, school administrators, librarians) to help them “use technology.” My response to their requests is always, “yes, I will help you.” The next thing out of my mouth is, “what is your goal for using technology?” Through these simple exchanges I’ve discovered that there are three basic goals that most of us have for using technology in our schools. The first is discovering new information, the second is discussion, and the third is demonstrating what we know. It is with these three goals in mind that I evaluate any new website or mobile app. 

How do you evaluate new technology apps and websites that you find?

Two Years Later This Pattern Still Exists

I spent today at the NCTIES conference working with educators and talking with educators. One pattern that I heard throughout many of my conversations, and this happens everywhere I go, is "our school bought product X, but I'm the only one using it." As I wrote two years ago, buying stuff doesn't fix problems. Without instruction for teachers on the classroom of technology, putting a laptops, iPads, or SMARTBoards in every classroom won't improve students' learning experiences.

Splash - Create Event Pages and Collect RSVPs

Splash is a free service that you can use to create great-looking event announcements and collect RSVPs.

Using Splash you can create a one page announcement of your event. To your Splash page you can add all of the important information that attendees need to know about your event. You can customize your page with your images or use the Splash stock images for your page. Attendees can RSVP through your Splash page. If you choose, you can create an auto-responder and send information directly to an attendees's email address after they RSVP. Take a look at  the Splash page I made for an event at my house in March.

Applications for Education
Splash could be a good way to advertise an event at your school. The RSVP option makes it easy to keep track of how many attendees to expect at your next school event.

H/T to Make Use Of.

Two Tools for Reading ePub Files in Your Browser

ePub documents are everywhere now. But if you don't have an ereader, you might feel like you're missing out on something. Fortunately, there are some tools that you can use to read ePub documents on your laptop or desktop. Here are two tools that I have used to read ePub documents on my laptop.

EPUBReader is a Firefox add-on that will allow you to read ePub documents within your browser. EPUBReader downloads ePub files and displays them directly in your browser. The video below offers a short demonstration.



Magic Scroll is a Chrome web app that you can use to read ePub files on your desktop or laptop even if you do not have an internet connection.

If you want to convert webpages into ePub documents, dotEPUB is a good Chrome web app for that. I previously wrote about dotEPUB in October. Here is a video overview of dotEPUB.



Applications for Education
Both of these browser add-ons could be good to have installed on your school's library computers or computer lab computers. If students are conducting research and encounter an ePub document, they will be able to access it without the need to send it to an ereader.

LearnBoost Adds Unlimited Media to Lesson Plans

Disclosure: LearnBoost helps pay the rent at the Free Technology for Teachers world headquarters. 


LearnBoost, the free online gradebook and lesson management service, just added another useful option for teachers. Now in the lesson planner teachers can include images, videos, charts, maps, and text clippings in their lesson plans. And if you're working with other teachers who use LearnBoost when you share a lesson plan that has media embedded in it the person with who you share will also be able to access the media you included. You can read more about this new feature and get directions on the LearnBoost blog.

Embedded below is a short video overview of adding media to your LearnBoost lesson plan.

How to embed media files in lesson plans from LearnBoost on Vimeo.

And another good feature of LearnBoost is the option to sync it with your Google Calendar settings. The video below shows you how to do that.

How to sync Google Calendars with LearnBoost from LearnBoost on Vimeo.

If you're not currently using LearnBoost, click here to get started and tell them I sent you.

Check This - Quickly Build and Publish Webpages

Check This is a new service for quickly building and publishing webpages. As Robin Wauters wrote this week, Check This falls somewhere between nothing and a blog. Check This isn't designed to replace your favorite blog or website creation platform, rather it is designed to fill the niche for people who desire to publish a simple announcement page. Without registering you can add text, images, and videos to your Check This page in a matter of seconds. And after you have published your page you can go back and edit it by using the unique edit link sent to the email address you provide in the step between creation and publishing.

In the video below I provide a short walk-through on creating a webpage with Check This.


Applications for Education
Check This could be a good tool for club advisers, PTAs, and other school-related organizations to publish a simple webpage that announces and provides details about a school activity. I'm thinking that Check This could be used by a PTA to provide details about upcoming fundraiser activities.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use tool for your students to use to publish their essays, images, or videos without using a full-fledged blogging platform, Check This might be the tool for you. If you don't need video and image support, you might also consider one of these five tools for students to publish their writings in under a minute.