Wallwisher - web page 'wall' for ... whatever

About Wallwisher: "Wallwisher is an Internet application that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. ... A wall is basically the 'web page' where people actually post messages. ... * Personal note taking * To-do lists * Party Invitations * Feedback Collection * Wishing people on occasions, like birthdays, anniversaries * Anything that might need input from a lot of people, eg. a Mac Vs PC wall (that'll be a war, not a wall actually). ... you can set a wall to be private. In that case only you can see or add notes to the wall. Ideal for personal stuff like things-to-do. ...You can start building a wall straight away. We will, however, need your email address. A temporary account will be created for you using your email address so that you can come back and make changes to the wall. You can use this account for all your subsequent visits to this site, or if you dislike us so much, keep using the site as a stranger."

World Digital Library - free intercultural content

About World Digital Library: "The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The principal objectives of the WDL are to: * Promote international and intercultural understanding; * Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet; * Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences; * Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries."

Sample browser:

Top 50 iPhone Apps for Educators

Image via CrunchBase

From the Online Education Database: "Although you're not likely to see schools issuing an iPhone to every faculty and staff member, the fact is that the iPhone is a great tool for education. Whether you're a teacher, librarian, or other educator, there are a number of apps that can help you do your job better. Here, we'll take a look at 50 of these apps and what they can do for you."

Note to readers, the OEDB list was published in December. Since then, there have been hundreds of new apps. Do you have a favorite iPhone/iPod Touch app you might consider "educational"?

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GoView - capture screenshots and audio, share online

About GoView: "Capture your computer screen and audio with GoView, then instantly share your recording online. ...From sales presentations to software demos, use GoView to capture your screen recording. ...Turn a good recording into a great one by adding titles and trimming it. ...Your recorded presentation is instantly ready to view and share online."

Using FREE Google Tools in the Classroom - a Google slideshow

Seesmic - an overview of Seesmic

My friend Mike Bogle explains Seesmic:

OnGuard Online - online safety and privacy information

About OnGuard Online: "OnGuardOnline.gov provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help you be on guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information."

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Bojam - music: mix, record, collaborate

About Bojam: "Bojam is an online music collaboration service connecting musicians to mix, record, and collaborate to produce original or popular music. Mass collaboration has been utilized in text (Wikipedia) and software (Firefox). Bojam does so with music, open-sourcing all aspects of the music creation process, including a wiki-style platform for adding song info, lyrics, and instrument tabs. Our goal is to revolutionize the music creation process by harnessing the skill, enthusiasm, and creativity of the music community. Will you play your part?"

Bojam on YouTube:

 

LiteBrite - an online Flash version of the 40 year-old Hasbro toy

About LiteBrite: "Create your own LITE-BRITE designs online! Then you can print your design and hang it on your wall or on your fridge!"

From Wikipedia: "Lite-Brite is an electric toy introduced in 1967 by Hasbro that allows lighted pictures to be created. Lite-Brite allows the artist to create a 'glowing' picture by placing multi-colored translucent plastic pegs through opaque black paper. The light from an illuminated light bulb is blocked by the black paper except though where the pegs conduct the light. When lit, the pegs have an appearance similar to that of LEDs. Most Lite-Brite toys come with a series of pre-prepared patterns."

Bomomo - an online computer drawing program

About bomomo: "bomomo ... created by Philipp Lenssen 2008. Internet Explorer version by Nikolai Kordulla. Feel free to share any image you create in any way you like... it's yours! We may also save and republish a copy of images you save."



OK, so I'm no Picaso ...

You'll get a much better sense of bomomo's graphical functions from the samples in this Flickr gallery of bomomo art.

Although the patterns on the each toolbar button provide some idea of the drawing action associated with it, I'd like to see descriptions (even tooltips would be nice) of each function on the toolbar.


It's fun! Give it a try.

Phone.io - conference call and voicemail line from drop.io

About Phone.io: "drop.io has rich phone functionality. simply hit the 'drop it' button to setup a free conference call line (not recorded) and a voicemail line (recorded). use them as you please. you can even have your voicemail automatically forwarded to email addresses, twitter accounts, itunes (for podcasting), or your blog."

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Playlist.io - your music in the cloud

About Playlist.io: "name a 'drop', add your audio, hit 'create drop' - get a private URL where you can play your individual tracks, or your whole playlist... the ideal solution for playing back your music at work, home, or on any internet device on the go."

Anyvite - online invitation generator

About Anyvite: "Event creation should be simple, easy, and produce a quality result. We built Anyvite because we were tired of spending a long time creating mediocre, advertisement-filled invitations, which could only be viewed on your computer. Anyvite is the next generation in event creation. It leverages today's technologies (mobile, IM, SMS) and the idea that less is more, to enable people to quickly and easily invite their friends to events."

Musipedia - a searchable wiki of tunes, melodies, and musical themes

About Musipedia: "Welcome to Musipedia! Inspired by, but not affiliated with Wikipedia, we are building a searchable, editable, and expandable collection of tunes, melodies, and musical themes. Every entry can be edited by anybody. An entry can contain a bit of sheet music, a MIDI file, textual information about the work and the composer, and last but not least the Parsons Code, a rough description of the melodic contour. Musipedia uses the 'Melodyhound' melody search engine. You can find and identify a tune even if the melody is all you know. You can play it on a piano keyboard, whistle it to the computer, simply tap the rhythm on the computer keyboard or use the Parsons code. ...You can base your search on melody (i. e., pitch and rhythm), melodic contour, or just rhythm."

I tried the Java Piano, clicking the keyboard to enter the tones in the tune I'm searching:

 

Did it work? You bet! Among the results, my tune: 

Games for the Brain - free games under a CC license

About Games for the Brain: "Thanks for playing! Unless otherwise noted all games are created by GamesfortheBrain.com, Philipp Lenssen. If you have feedback please email me at philipp.lenssen@gmail.com. ...Play neverending quiz, memory & brain games to train your thinking."

Screenshots from Games for the Brain:

 

  

  

 

Some games offer code to embed them in your own blog or web page:

Drawball - a curious online public canvas

About drawball: "Show off your skills on the enormous circle of potential art known as drawball." That's it. You figure out the rest!

At http://www.drawball.com you're presented with two Drawballs:

I clicked on Drawball One to begin my exploration:

 

Zooming in, I am immediately aware that the drawball is a collage of individual artwork:

 

Zooming in again for a better look at the detail:

 

Amazing! The drawball is a collection of hundreds of individual drawings, some obviously expertly rendered by computer graphics artists with drawing tablets or some other kind of professional kit. At this level, I can see a bit of blank 'canvas'. I can pan the area with my mouse, but there are no drawing tools available just yet. Zooming in for closer inspection:

 

Aha! At this level, my mouse cursor turns to a quill, and a color palate and ink bottle appear, but I can't draw anything yet. I see a link in the upper right-hand corner that says "Apply for Drawing Access." I click ... and wait ... My pen does nothing. Still waiting ... nothing. I assume the server is busy. Perhaps I must wait my turn. That I can't add to the drawball is only a small disappointment. Browsing the hundreds of images is fascinating --everything from crude doodles to small-scale reproductions of historical masterpieces. I could spend hours here ... and there's yet another Drawball to explore!

The White House - on YouTube

Watch addresses, interviews, events, and conferences. All are public domain videos produced by The White House.

Here's a sample, Meet U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:




"Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talks about the source of his passion for education reform -- and why he thinks it's about more than education, it's about social justice."

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Conference.io - real-time chat feed from drop.io

About Conference.io: "an 'applet' from drop.io for web-based rich media chat - choose a name, and hit the 'drop.it' button - you instantly have a real-time, rich media chat feed. simply direct participants to the URL of your chat, and you are able to chat and share any media in line. works with third party clients and on mobile..."

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Tweet.io - send any media or content via Twitter

About Tweet.io: "with drop.io you can easily send any media or content you want to all your twitter followers by just adding it to your drop. create a drop here by clicking 'drop it' - then just add your twitter account and customize your tweets... whenever you add new content to the drop via any 'input' it will be instantly tweeted out for you."

Drop.io - a private dropbox for filesharing

About Drop.io: "A drop is a 'discrete' (yes, 'ete') chunk of space you can use to store and share anything (pictures, video, audio, docs, etc) privately, without accounts, personal registration, or email addresses. Our site is not searchable and not 'networked', only people that know the URL of a drop can access it. You can create as many as you want and set things like a password, whether visitors can add to the drop, and how long you want it to exist. Once created any drop can be accessed just typing its location in any browser drop.io/[dropname] - and you can also email in files and notes by emailing or sending mms to [dropname]@drop.io, via custom phone number with extension, fax, widget, you name it... Drop.io lets you share photos, video, audio, and other media files really easily. We take most common formats and convert them to be web friendly. If you send us photos we will make thumbnails and put them in a gallery; if you send us videos we'll convert them so you can view them online; if you send us audio we'll stream it; if you send us PDFs we'll convert them too, you get the point. ...Templates allow you to pre-customize drop.io settings for specific uses. You can create and manage your own with drop.io manager."

Get the drag-and-drop Firefox extension here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8482

EarthCam - a worldwide webcam network

About EarthCam: "EarthCam is the recognized leader in providing webcam content, technology, and software. Commencing in 1996, EarthCam began developing the proprietary software, network infrastructure and technical expertise which now allows it to deliver millions of live images from thousands of cameras each day. From the wireless delivery of images to the Java image viewing applets, EarthCam possesses the unparalleled technical expertise to offer consumers the ability to view, create and share webcam content at anytime and in any location worldwide."

Twitter Follow Friday explained - #followfriday, thanks @yogitechchick!

I just learned what the Twitter "#followfriday" hashtag is all about from @yogitechchick, but rather than having me explain it, I urge you to watch the video HOW FOLLOW FRIDAY WORKS. More at the Twitter Power System Blog.

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WorldCam - Webcams from around the world

About WorldCam: "The portal WorldCam.pl collects a series of webcam addresses broadcasting live videos from all around the world. In just a few minutes You may find Yourself on a hot beach in Honolulu and then jump right to an Antarctic scientific station and observe penguins living there. Webcams will let You observe everyday life of animals both in zoos and in the wild, including among the others storks on their nests starting with the moment they lay eggs, through their adolescence and ending with their autumn migration to warm countries."

CellScope - cellphone + microscope = mobile microscopy

Technology Review: "Mobile microscopy: A cell phone incorporating a microscope (top) developed at the University of California, Berkeley, can capture and transmit pictures such as this 23x-magnification image of the freshwater crustacean Cyclops (bottom). Researchers hope that the device will allow patients in remote areas to send images of red blood cells and other diagnostic information to medical specialists. Credit: David Breslauer."

"Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a modular, high-magnification microscope attachment for cell phones. The device will enable health workers in remote, rural areas to take high-resolution images of a patient's blood cells using a cell-phone camera, and then transmit the photos to experts at medical centers."

TinyPaste - a TinyURL for text

About TinyPaste: "Have you ever wanted to send a article or long conversation over IM or post to twitter, only to have it be over the limit on size? What about a cool way to share data without the fuss? Thats what TinyPaste is! Its like TinyURL but for text! ...This extension lets you right click on any selected text, Click 'Tinypaste selected text' and it gives you the Tinypaste URL without leaving the current page."

Here's my TinyPaste demo: http://tinypaste.com/f2498

Get the Firefox extension here: 
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7882

Computer Software in Plain English - another fantastic video from Common Craft

"A short explanation of how operating systems and programs work together to make computers useful and customizable."

Book Burro - a book search extension for Firefox and Flock

About Book Burro: "Book Burro is an extension for Firefox and Flock. When it senses your are looking at a page that contains a book, it will overlay a small panel which when opened lists prices at online bookstores such as Amazon, Buy, Half (and many more) and whether the book is available at your library. ...Book Burro was originally created as a script for Greasemonkey, another extension, but has since grown to be an extension of its own (enabling a preference panel and caching). Besides adding functionality the switch makes installation easier."

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