Tool+Shed+Project+EDET+603


 * Tool Shed Project **

Collaborative Tools
//Wiggio// I //Dabbleboard// I //Writeboard// I //Oovoo//

Reference Tools
//Visuwords //

Presentation Tools
//Animoto// I //CAST UDL Bookbuilder// I Wordle I //Gliffy//

Conversion Tools
//Zamzar//

Category 1: Collaboration

// Wiggio // (wiki) ** Author: ** The “About Wiggio” page on the website states that this wiki was created by two Cornell graduates in January of 2008 who were frustrated with how hard it had become for them to work in groups. They set out to create a space that was user-friendly for your least “tech-savvy” friends.
 * URL: ** [|www.wiggio.com]
 * Category: ** Wiggio is a wiki space for group collaboration and organization.
 * Technical Information: ** As long as you have access to the Internet, you should be able to use Wiggio. From what I have discovered this week by playing around, it works better if you use Mozilla Firefox rather than Explorer. The best thing is that it is FREE and very little information is required if you want to set up an account. The site is also private, so none of the members of one group can see what the other group is doing, and no one from the outside can get into one of your groups without an email invitation from the wiki administrator.
 * Description: ** This is a wiki space that encourages group organization and collaboration. Most of the wikis I have used in the past open to a page that presents static information; //Wiggio// opens to a thread that shows the actions of group members and the focus of the site seems to be more about sharing and editing information in folders and hosting group meetings. According to the “FAQ” page, the “W-I-G” part of the name stands for “working in groups” and the rest is to make the name “sticky.” The nice thing about Wiggio is that you can organize your life into several “groups.” When you login, the groups show up on your opening page. Just this past month, I decided to join (frustrated with another service), and I got my department to try it out. I set up a page for each of my freshmen English classes. Once I log in, I come to a page that shows each of my groups, represented by different colored circles, so now, my professional life is one-stop management, which is nice. By clicking one of the circles, I go to the “home page” for that group. This page tracks the actions of each member and lists them there in the middle. The next feature across the top is a calendar that enables group members to add deadlines to a shared calendar. In the messages section, you can enable the wiki to text, email, or send a voice message reminder of calendar dates. The folder section is nice for organization. Group members can upload files and either store them for the group’s use or edit them together there. Members can also edit the document using the site’s document editor, but this is one of those features that definitely **works better using Firefox**. The meeting tab lets you set up virtual meetings with up to ten people at a time. These meetings can be “web meetings, conference calls, or online chat rooms.” You can use the poll feature to elicit information from group about best meeting times and places, etc. The message feature allows each member to send messages to one or more of the members of the group via text, voice message, email, or sticky note. The “sticky note” feature is literally a yellow square that pops up on the account of the person(s) you choose that can carry up to 125 characters. The to-do list helps keep track of group goals and steps.
 * Use: ** (My personal rating: ««««« ) Wiggio has helped me simplify things tremendously. I only have to log in to one place to keep an eye on each area of my professional life. I had used PBWorks wiki last year, but found that its interface was intimidating and not very intuitive for my students. My students so far have only had positive things to say about it. Right now, they are only using it as a place to store and “turn in” assignments digitally, but I would like to use it more this year as a group collaboration tool. Additionally, I can create subgroups within a group for group projects and such. If I break a class into groups, they will have their own digital planning space where they can message each other, meet, and set group deadlines, all of which I can see.
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// Dabbleboard // – Online whiteboard ** Author: ** Zohair Hyder, a computer engineer with an undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Texas-Austin and California-Berkley, respectively ([|www.dabbleboard.com/about]). ** Use: ** (My personal rating: «««¶¶ ) When I told a few people at work that I had to do this tool shed project, they pretty much ordered me to learn how to use an online whiteboard and then teach them. So, following orders…I think this is a great tool if you are charged with conceptualizing something with a group of people, but I don’t think I’ll be using it in English class a great deal. I see this more as a business tool that people in different locations could use to save on meeting time and expense. Again, I think it has merit for things like engineering classes, where kids would have to design or comment on the design of something together. Most of my colleagues wanted to know if you could use this as a SmartBoard. My answer is no. I don’t think it compares. It really seems to be something that you would use to meet and comment on diagrams or charts or plan diagrams or charts together, but you definitely don’t have as many presentation options here.
 * URL: ** [|www.dabbleboard.com]
 * Category: ** Collaboration
 * Technical information: ** This is open source, so you do not need an account to draw or to invite others to your shared drawing.
 * Description: ** First, it is easier to tell you what this is not. It is not really good for document sharing and editing. I would suggest a wiki for that. While you have the option to add a “page” to your white board, I found that you can’t upload more than one document at a time. I was able to upload a pdf file to page one and draw on it with a friend, but when we scrolled to page two, we could not add a new document. Additionally, when you save the image to your computer, it saves as a png file (which I found out is a working file image file for fireworks). So this isn’t that practical if you want to save an edited copy of a file you already have as a pdf or doc. Since not all software opens png files, I don’t know why //Dabbleboard// doesn’t let you save it as a jpeg instead. Png files don’t seem very practical. What this **IS** good for is conceptualizing an idea or plan with a group. Group members could create a drawing or chart together and discuss it here in real time. More than one person can draw and edit (and you can meet with up to ten people). Features that //Dabbleboard// offers include:
 * an online drawing space that is very intuitive. If you draw two sides of a rectangle with your mouse, the program recognizes and finishes your shape. You can resize, move, and replicate your drawings pretty easily and save portions of things into your history if you want to use that portion again later in a different white space.
 * real time editing/sharing: More than one person can work on it at the same time.
 * an option to save your drawing and planning online. The downside to this is that it looks like your work becomes public, unless you pay for an account to make it private. That’s how they are making money – pay for your privacy.
 * a share and chat feature that enables you to invite others to your whiteboard. You can chat in the box and both users can make changes. You can also video chat with Tokbox. I think you can invite up to ten people at a time.
 * a library of drawings you can access and use for free.
 * easy access – You don’t have to have an account to draw, nor do you need an account to be an invited guest. My friend who agreed to play with the program with me was able to draw as a “guest”. We were also able to use the Tokbox video connection without having to have a Tokbox account.
 * Another note – ** I found a beta version of a program that is a spin-off of //Dabbleboard// called //Almost Meet//, that allows you not only to use an online white board, but also to share desktops and video conference as well. It seems like it was like the Adobe Breeze Connect with the addition of a white board, but since it is a beta program, I didn’t want to risk using it.
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// Writeboard // – collaborative online text editing tool ** Author: ** Writeboard is a product of 37signals, a web-based software company. According to their website, “[in 1998] 37signals is founded as a Web design firm by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim in Chicago” ([]). Features of this tool include:
 * URL: ** [|www.writeboard.com]
 * Category: ** Collaboration
 * Technical Information: ** All you need to do to get started is name your writeboard, give it a password, and then enter your email address. A modern web browser is enough to get started.
 * Description: ** I chose to research //Writeboard// so that I could compare its features to //Dabbleboard//. I wanted to look at a tool that claimed it made it easy to collaborate with text, since I had some trouble with that in //Dabbleboard//. According to their website, “writeboards are shareable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes” ([|www.writeboard.com]).
 * a white space that one person starts (you can type directly there, paste text from another source)
 * an invite feature – send an email to anyone you want to invite to collaborate. The email contains a password that you established when you first open your writeboard.
 * a “version field” as a side bar to the right of the writeboard itself that catalogs every change that has been made to the writeboard. There is also a dot by each person’s name. The smaller the dot, the smaller the change; the bigger the dot, the bigger the change. You have the ability to revisit a former version, so nothing gets lost. This version field acts like a thread of the changes. You can also check two of the versions and the program with do a comparison of them by using green and gray highlights to show you what is different.
 * an RSS feed subscription option, so you are notified of changes.
 * a way to save your writeboards to the Internet “cloud” and then get an email of all your saved writeboards. All you have to do to revisit them is follow the link from the email or by following an assigned URL.

Possible drawbacks to this tool include:
 * You have to write in basic html code in order to use bold or italicized text, bullet or number a list, indent, and change font size. Therefore, this may be intimidating to some people. You can get around that by simply using it as a tool to talk about content, and then having someone else who’s willing to format the document in its final form later in a word processing program.
 * You can’t save or upload what you do on //Writeboard//. You CAN copy and paste the text into a word processing program, but again, one person would definitely have to format the pasted version.
 * Two users cannot edit it at the same time. If that happens one person will get a message that the other is in the process of editing and he/she should “come back later” or edit and risk losing those changes.

** Use: ** (My personal rating: ««¶¶¶ for me as the teacher, but ««««¶ for students to collaborate) For English class, I think this could be a great tool for a group paper; however, refer to the possible drawbacks above. This really is to take the place of a classroom whiteboard – for example, a math teacher could use this to post a problem and have students follow the steps to solve it. As an English teacher, I could post a poem or prose passage and have students post comments below it about the literary elements the work. Like I said before though, I think it would be a better tool for students to use if they were collaborating on a written document. Once they complete it, they would have to paste it into Word and format it. The nice thing for me as the teacher would be that I could be invited and be able to see exactly which people in the group participated and how much (the size of the dots).
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//ooVoo – video conferencing tool // **Author: ** //ooVoo// was founded in 2006 by Clayton L. Mathile. The co-founder and current CEO, Philippe Schwartz, claims that “the name //ooVoo// represents two pairs of eyes on either side of a video screen” (www.voipplanet.com) . **URL: ** [|www.oovoo.com] **Category: ** Collaboration - Communication/Video Conferencing **Technical Information: ** As long as you have access to the Internet, a webcam, and a microphone, there is an option to use //ooVoo// without having to pay for service, download, or have an account. Of course, there are options which you can pay to upgrade your service and receive more perks.

**Description: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> //ooVoo// is a video conferencing web tool that allows for both voice and video chats on the Internet. There is a free, download-free version that you can use to video chat. All you do is enter your name and click on the box that says “start call.” A video screen appears with a link field below it. You can copy or email the link to anyone you wish to chat with. Once you send the link, the other person is able to join you on the call as soon as he/she clicks on the web video call link. I tried this with a classmate and was very satisfied with the overall experience. The video quality was good. My only complaint is that the sound sometimes decreased in quality when we said something at the same time. Overall though, for a free call, it was very satisfactory. The screen set-up is very sleek and user-friendly. The chat box is a dark gray with slanted video boxes for each person on the call. **The nicest feature is that neither you, nor the person you call has to download the program in order to use it**.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">If you wanted to download the basic plan, which is free, you get the following: 2-way video chat, the ability to record and send video messages (1 minute), create one video chat room that you can embed on a website, 6-way text chat, and the ability to send up to 5 MB files. People you call do not have to have //ooVoo// in order to join you on a call. The 1-minute video recording produces files that are saved as AVI, FLV, or HTML embedded video. In order to record, you simply press “record” and all participants will see a message that informs them that they are being recorded. When the video stops, ooVoo saves the file as a flash video to the computer. In order to view the files, select the recorded files window. Click view or file and then right-click and rename the file. Save as and decide on the format you want to save it as.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The video chat room (one chat room is on the free plan) allows you to send a video chat room link to friends, family, or colleagues. At a set time, participants can enter the room by clicking on the room link and see each other on a browser web page. You can also embed a widget with the video chat room on your blog, social-networking page, or website. Participants can then enter the chat room right through the widget.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The best features are that all participants do not have to have the software downloaded on their computers in order to participate, all sessions can be recorded (and notify the participants of this), and that video messages can be sent and accessed at any time.

**<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Use: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> (My personal rating: ««««« <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">) Any program that can offer live video and voice communication between people in different locations has exciting implications for teaching! How would I use this in my classroom? I could host guest readings, lectures, or demonstrations. My kids could take visual tours. I could discuss material or ideas with schools in other states and countries. Right now, my school teaches English and history in a humanities style, meaning that I share two groups of students with a history teacher. While I teach a group of students one day, he teaches another group during that same block. The next day, I have the group that was with him, and he has the group that was with me. We flip-flop students back and forth every other day. One of the challenges of this system is that we are in a school that is quickly becoming over-crowded. There are simply not enough spaces to meet in order to have joint humanities conversations, presentations, etc. This tool will enable us the freedom to “meet” without having to find the space to do so. We simply call each other from our computers, show the call on the Smart Board, and the kids are able to see/hear whoever is speaking in the other room. If I have a guest speaker in my room, all I have to do is aim a webcam in his/her direction, and the kids in the other room can see/hear the speaker.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Additionally, I think this tool will be useful in helping me meet with other teachers in my district without having to leave my classroom to do so. We can more easily collaborate on lessons, curriculum, and other programs. (A note here: the 2-way call is free. You can add up to six people for different prices per month ranging from $9.95 to $19.95, or you can pay $0.10/minute for each additional person you add to a call if you do not want to sign up for a plan.) That said, I think that the best feature is that you can use the 2-way video call without having to sign-up, download, or pay any kind of fee.
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Category 2: Reference

// Visuwords // – a visual dictionary (This is so COOL!) ** Author: ** According to the website, this “online graphical dictionary” was created using “Princeton University’s //WordNet,// an open source database built by University students and language researchers” ([|www.visuwords.com]). “//WordNet// is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller,” Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Princeton University” ([]).
 * URL: ** [|www.visuwords.com]
 * Category: ** Reference (Dictionaries)
 * Technical Information: ** As long as you have the Internet, visuwords is freely available without requiring any kind of account or registration. It seems to work fine regardless of the web browser you use. To use it, you merely type a word into the search field and press “enter.”
 * Description: ** This “online graphical dictionary” offers a web-like definition of words using synonyms (called “synsets”). “Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. The resulting network of meaningfully related words and concepts can be navigated with the browser” ([]). Users can zoom in and out on the web for easier reading. If you hover over a part of the web, a definition will appear in a yellow box for that part of the web. You can also “grab” any one of the “nodes” by clicking with the mouse to pull it away “to clarify connections” ([|www.visuwords.com]). By double-clicking any one of the nodes, you can also expand a web for that word or group of words as well.
 * Use: ** (My personal rating: ««««« ) As an English teacher, this is a great tool to teach and discuss the connotations and denotations of words, as well as the “cognitive synonyms” of them. I had never thought of that as a term to use in the classroom, but I ask for that all the time when I ask for students to describe the tone of a piece of literature. What do you think of when I say “X”? Now, I can show them the associations of certain words as well. I think this would also be a great springboard to constructing our own “synsets” for characters that we study. I also found that you can search certain famous people and draw connections with some of their contemporaries and/or influences. I searched “Dizzy Gillespie” and found “Louis Armstrong” as a connection. It would be a great way to begin research.


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Category 3: Presentations

// Animoto – // visual presentation tool ** Author: ** According to their “About” page, “Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out… Based in New York City with an office in San Francisco, the founders of Animoto include veterans of the entertainment industry and have produced shows for MTV, Comedy Central, & ABC, studied music in London, and played in indie rock bands in Seattle” ([]). ** Use: ** (My personal rating: ««««« ) This was fun and super-easy! It is definitely something that I plan to use in the classroom. I think it would take about 20-30 minutes to teach my kids how to use it, and then I could let them run wild with it! My idea right now is to have them produce movie trailers for the literature we read – pair the literature with images and teaser text slides that we could use in place of the traditional book report. Because it’s free and doesn’t require anything other than an account to be created, it’s ideal for the classroom. Also, the 30-second product would not take much time for me to view and grade! I also plan on using this personally. In addition to making fun family videos, you can also make and send greeting cards. For example, one background has a wrapped present that explodes with pictures of you with your friends. Overall, the whole experience of learning about this tool and taking it for a “test drive” was really fun.
 * URL: ** [|www.animoto.com]
 * Category: ** Presentation tool
 * Technical Information: ** You can create a free account that allows you to produce 30 second videos, an “All Access” account for $5/month ($30/year) to create unlimited full-length videos, or a “Pro Account” for $39/month ($249/year) to create full length videos of DVD quality that do not have the Animoto branding and can be commercially redistributed. Additionally the Pro account give you access to a library of over a thousand pre-licensed songs (website).
 * Description: ** This presentation tool helps you create presentations that look like movie trailers. Here’s how you do it:
 * First you choose a background. There are several to choose from, but of course, they tease you with some really cool options that you have to have the Pro account to use.
 * Upload your images. For the free account (30 second video), they suggest 8-15 images. You can also add text here. Each image or text plays as a slide. You can choose certain slides to “highlight” by giving them more play time and prominence in the final video.
 * Select your music. You can select clips from their library, or upload your own. I think this is why the free videos are clipped at thirty seconds – to prevent copyright infringement for songs. You can usually use 30 seconds of a song without breaking copyright.
 * Finalize your video, and //Animoto// then “mixes” it and emails it to you. You then can view the video and share it by copying the link (Here’s my test video I made to figure all this out: @http://animoto.com/play/vcRyLH4ClDLTdLtBA1utOQ ), or you can email it or upload it to another site.
 * If you don’t like the mix, you can have //Animoto// remix it.
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[[image:CAST_UDL_Logo.jpg link="@http://bookbuilder.cast.org/"]]
==== ** Author: **“CAST is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through Universal Design for Learning [UDL]. Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its innovative contributions to educational products, classroom practices, and policies. Its staff includes specialists in education research and policy, neuropsychology, clinical/school psychology, technology, engineering, curriculum development, K-12 professional development, and more” (http://www.cast.org/about/index.html). ====

** Technical Information: **This tool requires the Internet and an account; however, creating a book is free.
==== ** Description: **The philosophy of CAST UDL Bookbuilder is based on UDL design in architecture – designing buildings that from the beginning phases are meant to accommodate as many needs as possible of the “users” of the building. Therefore, the Bookbuilder tool utilizes many coaches and tools to help convey a story or concept to an audience of children with varying needs. According to the //About UDL// website, UDL operates on three primary principals: curriculum should “provide multiple means of representation” (visual, auditory, etc.); curriculum should “provide multiple means of expression” (written, oral, etc.), and; curriculum should “provide multiple means of engagement” (visual, auditory, written, etc.). ==== ==== I would compare //Bookbuilder// to an online version of //Publisher//, but with options to make the products accessible to students with different and/or special needs. You create a book by first naming it, listing the author, illustrator, content area, grade level, and choosing “coaches.” These coaches serve to offer more in-depth information to what is presented on each page, or they can simply read the text of each page aloud. There are nine options for the coaches: six are already created for you, but there are three that you can upload a specific image and use. You then begin to create the book. ==== ==== The book is divided into three main sections: the title page, the table of contents, and then the content pages. The table of contents allows you to set links to the pages in the book. For each page that you create, you choose the layout (layouts look like the options you would choose for //PowerPoint// slides) – there are eight options for displaying text and images. Each page has a space to add audio clips (must be mp3 and may not exceed 1MB), have the coaches “speak” the material or offer extra information, and a place for students to respond to the material presented (a form of engagement). Once the book is completed, you save the final project to the web. There is not an option to mark the book as private. Anyone can see, read, and download your book. Obviously, the purpose is to create an online library of books on topics that can help as many people learn as many different topics as possible using the UDL philosophy. There are tons of model books to search already on the site. ==== ==== ** Use: **(My personal rating: ««««« ) What a great tool (based on a sound philosophy) for both teachers and students. Though most of the books are for a younger audience, this would be a great way for my high school students to present their knowledge by creating a book on a particular topic. The highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to create based on one’s knowledge of a subject. The book that students would create would require a thorough understanding of the topic and the willingness to do further research in order to present the information according to the UDL philosophy. A little confession – I am enrolled in EDET 722 with Dr. Wissick, and we have to use Bookbuilder for our group project. I decided to research it for my Tool Shed project in order to understand the concept before we begin next week. This is definitely something that I think I could incorporate into my curriculum for both my students and me to use. ====

//<span style="background: yellow; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Wordle – //<span style="background: yellow; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">visual presentation tool ==== <span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">**Author:** //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Wordle.net //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">was created by Jonathan Feinberg, a developer employed by IBM research. ** URL ****:** [|www.wordle.net] ** Category ** ** : **<span style="background: aqua; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Presentation tool  ====
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** Technical Information: **This presentation tool is open source – no account or information is required to use it. It runs on Java.
==== ** Description: **This presentation tool is quite simple, really. According to its website, it generates “word clouds” from text. The words that appear most frequently in the text will have greater prominence in the word cloud graphic. As long as you can paste the text into the wordle “create” box, you can create a word cloud. Once the wordle is created, you can play with the font, color, and background. You can modify the shape slightly, but you cannot specify a certain shape and have the wordle “fill it.” Once the word cloud is created, you can print the image or save it as a pdf file. As long as you have the URL to the wordle you created, you can revisit it, but once it is saved, you cannot edit the wordle. The site also provides you with a code in order to embed the wordle into another website. Advantages to this are that you can create without having to sign up or create an account; however, what you create becomes completely public to anyone on the Internet. The author suggests that if you want your wordle to remain private that you save it as a pdf or print it, but that you do not save it to the site. He even states that you can take a screen shot of the word and save that file to your computer, which is what I did. Using my new found knowledge of GIMP, I took a screen shot of the wordle, pasted it into GIMP, and saved it as a jpeg file. I guess that means I was just using GIMP as a conversion tool. The author also states that you can use the wordle any way you like, even to make money from it. He warns though that if you save it to the Internet, other people can use it the same way as well. There is no need to fear that people could see your wordle and recreate the original text. The author states that “only the word frequencies for the words that appear in the Wordle are sent. There's no way to reconstruct the source text from that information. You have to exercise your own judgement as to whether the Wordle you've created exposes private information” (//Wordle FAQ page//). ==== ==== ** Use: **(My personal rating: ««««« ) As far as creating a nice, interesting, and EASY graphic goes, this is the way to go. The wordle I created as my example took me about 2 minutes. I pasted in the text of my AP Literature syllabus as the basis for the wordle. This would be a great way to visually represent text in the classroom. I imagine I could have a lot of fun with poems, essays, speeches, etc. Since the wordle is driven by word frequencies, it would be an interesting study of how words contribute to the themes or main ideas of text. On a personal note for this wordle, I’m glad to see that the most frequent word on my syllabus is “students”. Here's a smaller jpeg of my wordle. ====

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//<span style="background: yellow; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Gliffy – //<span style="background: yellow; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">visual presentation tool/diagram and graphic organizer creator **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Author: **//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Gliffy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">was founded by Chris Kohlhardt and Clint Dickson. **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">URL: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> [|www.gliffy.com] **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Category: **<span style="background: aqua; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Presentation tool <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;"> (“Diagram software for the rest of us!”) **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Technical Information: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">As long as you have an Internet connection, you can use //Gliffy// without an account and without having to download any software or application. **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Description: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Basically, this web tool is a place that can help you make charts, diagrams, and graphic organizers. I decided to investigate it when I was assigned a graphic organizer for my other class. It was incredibly easy to use. To get started, you click “start drawing.” The interface may take a few seconds to load, but you will come to a screen that prompts you to choose a category and template for your document. You have the option to choose “blank,” and insert your own shapes and sections. The other categories include: Website/Software UI design, Venn Diagrams, Org Charts, SWOT Analysis, Flowchart, Network Diagrams, Software Design/UML, Floor Plan, and Business Process. Once you choose a category, several templates appear to the right. You can double click one to choose it and then click “create document” in the lower right corner. The templates are very sleek looking – everything is very professional. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Once you choose the style of your project, you are then taken to an editing screen where you make the chart or organizer suited to your purposes. It is simply a matter of editing, formatting, and moving textboxes in most cases. There is an editing sidebar to the right of your document that allows you to manipulate shape and text properties. Once you are finished editing, you have the option to print your document or save as a pdf, png, jpeg, svg, or gliffy xml document. There is also an option to publish the image to a website or blog. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">The basic service, which is free, allows you to create up to five documents, but they are public; however, only people you invite to collaborate can make changes to the document. You must pay to be able to create private documents. The image upload limit for a basic account is 2 MB; the image upload for the premium service is unlimited. There is a 30-day trial to use the premium service, but it reverts to the basic if you don’t sign up and pay the premium fee. A premium commercial account is $5/month for one user. If you want to use this service in order to collaborate, the price increases depending on how many users are allowed to collaborate. **<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">Use: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">(My personal rating: ««««« <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">) This is a great site to use as both an educator and a student. Obviously, instructors and trainers can use this to make the creation process of an idea much easier. As long as you know the concept you want to teach or train people for, all you have to do is type the information in to the appropriate graphic layout. The program really does take the drawing burden out of the process. It is merely an issue of dragging shapes into the field and typing the right information into them. Students could also use this to demonstrate knowledge of a concept. I immediately thought about having my literature students use it to map out character motivations in a story and map out potential effects of characters’ decisions. For a film project, it could be used to storyboard. For a multistep project, it could be used as an outline to explain each step and ensure completeness. The fact that it can be saved as a jpeg file also makes it easy to post to a webpage so that students can see a chart without having to download a doc or pdf file to do so. I definitely plan on using it again to create documents and as a possible assignment for students. I mentioned earlier that I investigated the site because I was assigned a graphic organizer. Here is my jpeg file of that organizer. I had to explain the steps of the research process.

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= Category 4: File Conversion =

** URL: **[|www.zamzar.com]
====** Category: **<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Their tag question on the website is: “Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software?” ==== ==== Technical Information: As long as you have access to the Internet, you should be able to use //Zamzar//. You can use it without having to create an account; however, there are more “perks” if you register an account, including the ability to store files, convert bigger files, etc.==== ====** Description: **According to their website, “The name "Zamzar" is based on a character from the Bohemian author Franz Kafka's book "The Metamorphosis". In the novel Kafka describes the extraordinary story of a young man who is transformed whilst sleeping into a gigantic insect. The man's name - Gregor Samsa - was used as the basis for our company name because of its' powerful association with change and transformation’” ([]).==== ====This is a very simple, yet useful tool. The mission is “to provide high quality file conversion for as many file formats as possible” ([]). The process is simple: First, browse for the original file that you wish to convert. Second, choose the conversion format. Third, enter a valid email address that will be used to send a link to where the converted file can be downloaded. (This file is stored for 24 hours after conversion, unless you pay for a higher membership). Last, you click “Convert.” It may take some time for the original file to upload. I tried a pdf file, which took about a minute. I also tried to convert a //YouTube// video to a wmv file – the original //YouTube// video took about 20 minutes to upload. The next step is to watch your inbox for the file link and then save a copy of it to your computer.==== ====While you can do a lot with the free conversion offer, there are three plans you can pay to use: Basic ($7/year), Pro ($16/year), and Business ($49/year). Basically, paying for a plan means that you can convert bigger files, store files in their online file storage, and get faster file conversions and email responses from the staff.==== ====** Use: **(My personal rating: ««««« ) Several times this year, //YouTube// has been blocked even for teachers at my school. There are some really relevant videos there that I will occasionally use for instruction. Knowing that //Zamzar// exists gives me a backup plan to show videos through //Windows Media Player//. That way, I am not beholden to //YouTube// or even Internet access at school. I also do projects with my kids occasionally that require file conversion. In the past, I have used file converters that require you to download them. This is much easier since you do not have to download anything.====