Collaborative Visual Outlining (Comapping)

Mind mapping or concept mapping tools have been around for awhile and many have suggested that they can improve learning by up to 15% (over conventional note taking). Comapping is a tool that I have recently discovered and it was love at first site. This is a really easy tool for creating outlines. Rearrange nodes (items) in your outline is a simple as drag and drop. You can expand or collapse the children of a node. Part of the tool's cool factor is the ability to attach files (images, .doc, videos) to any node. You can also format nodes with traditional formatting tools (bold, italic, color) and turn a node into a link.

click to view screenshot

For a great resource for using tools like Comapping, check out the book


Visual Tools for Transforming Information Into Knowledge by David Hyerle

Update ... I came across a post "50 Useful Mind-Mapping Tools for College Students" which shows that there are lots of choices in the Mind-Mapping/Visual Outlining space.

Imagination Cubed

Imagination Cubed is a chance to explore your collaborative creativity or use sketches to further illustrate a point. I've used the site to both have fun with students in creating strange pictures and scenes and to show the steps in solving an equation during an online review session.

The sight allows you to combine text, predesigned shapes and stamps, and freestyle drawings, with multiple users (up to 3 at once) contributing to the finished project. Once you've completed your drawing, you can save the image online and send the link via email to yourself or others.

Have fun!

Yack With Your Students

YackPack is "voice email" or an asynchronous conference call where all conversations are recorded for reviewing later. A demo is far better for getting to know YackPack.

YackPack has great potential for education. In fact, one of the founders has a day job as a research at Stanford who also teaches (occasionally) in the School of Education. You learn more about using YackPack in education.

This is my second look at YackPack. I was really excited back in 2007 when I learned of YackPack, but never incorporated it into my life. I think this is going change as I can already see multiple ways of using this technology. I will give you an update in six months from now.

PS - if you want to read more about YackPack check out this overview.

Jigzone.com

Sometimes getting to the answer is half the fun. With jigzone.com, you have the choice of solving one of their wide variety of jigsaw puzzles or creating one with your own image. You can choose from a wide level of difficulty from 6 pieces all the way up to 247!

The puzzles can be solved on their website (click on the image below) or embedded on your own website or blog.

The images require a specific set of dimensions (400 x 300 pixels) and file size (less than 20K.

I've imagined using the idea as part of an internet quest - solve the puzzle to get a clue for the next location in the quest. Or alternatively, use the puzzle as a stand alone question: Identify the graph/equation(s) once the image is pieced together. Any other ideas?

Wolfram Alpha

"All the world's knowledge made computable."

Wolfram Alpha is a project that is attempting to collect all of the data and make it available in for computations. For example, did you know there is an estimated 166758 girls alive today with the name "Ruby". The average age of those Rubys is 83 and 2979 Rubys are born each year.

We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything. Our goal is to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.

The site offers tons of examples in topics ranging from x to y. But check out their video introduction. It really gives you an idea how wonderful the site is and gets you excited for its potential.

Or, maybe you would like to give it a try right now. Just type a query into the box below. Try 456/23 or population of california or population of california vs canada

Wikipedia Goes Multimedia

Yes - Wikipedia does generate a wonderful debate with regard to its use in education. But few would argue that it is a remarkable resource and at least a good starting point for research.

In this world of media-rich websites, is Wikipedia's primarily text-based content becoming "passé"? A new site - Navify - has taken Wikipedia and attached pictures, videos, and even user comments to selected articles.

BTW - Navify is in beta testing and I is offline today. It was written up in TechCrunch which might explain why it has gone offline - too many requests to handle.

Not Another Search Engine

If you are like me, Google is my search engine. Everything goes through Google. I know folks who, when given a URL (like sightsites.blogspot.com) will enter the URL into Google and then click on the link, instead of typing the URL directly into the browser's address box. Google rules!

So, what is this about a new search engine? Topsy looks as search from a different perspective. Instead of seeing the web as a collection of documents (web pages), it sees the web as a collection of conversations. They say it better here, but give it a try and explore. I really find the way the results are presented to be cool (or at least novel).

The result above was generated from a search for NECC. Notice that below the title and link is a quote - what someone was saying about NECC. The number to the left is the number of conversations in this thread. Click on the number and see all ten. It is all about the conversations.

I am not ready to toss out Google, but Topsy is an interesting idea.

What Did She Say?

Have you ever see a text message that is truly incomprehensible - full of jargon. Wait - of course you have. Well, now you have a solution - DTXTR (dee-text-er) - a site that lets you get a translation for all that OMG and LOL stuff. Just type in the jargon and get a translation.

You can even enter an "English" phrase and get the corresponding "teen text". Did you know (DYK) that there is teen text for "If It's Too Loud You're Too Old" (IITLYTO)?

The site also has a glossary - fun reading - and a TXT Tips for Parents section. If you think you are a pro TXTer, then try out the "Do U Know TXT Quiz"

ICYC

A Box for all Your Files

There are lots of options for sharing files with colleagues. Probably the most common is sending the file via email. I often send myself files I may need when I am away from my office computer. That way, I can login to my email account and download the document.

But there is a better way! What I love about Box.net is its simplicity. It really is just a box for your stuff. You can create folders, upload files, and access them anywhere. The free version gives you 1GB of space - more than enough to store all your handouts, tests, and other documents.

Your box is more than just a storage bin. You can share folders with others - either for viewing or for collaboration. You (and collaborators) can add comments on any file. You can send the file to anyone or you can create a link to the file making the file accessible to anyone with the url. At anytime, you can "unshare" the file.

The more you explore Box.net, the more features you discover. Today, I found that you can add "openbox services" to your box. For example, I added eFax service which allows me to fax any document to anyone --- FREE.

There is a paid version of the service which extends the file space (15GB), provides faster uploads, and offers access to your files from your phone.