I'd like to offer a few suggestions for making life easier when it comes to working online. The first is Mindscape. This tool really makes our meetings easier because now we can edit together and keep track of how everyone is thinking visually about the organization. Another tool is Wikimedia. This has simply helped us write. It is a better way of thinking about the text that we generate because it's on 24/7 and our group is spread throughout the world. A third tool is Google Translator. This tool helps keep our multilingual group in touch. Sometimes is it not good enough to translate for someone since everyone in the group is bilingual or multilingual and a human translator is always available. When the moment strikes and you don't want to stop the flow of an idea, Google Translator can keep the flow going but allow one person to look for clarification without taking the group on a translation conversation, thus taking away from the ideas that we should be focused on. A fourth tool or app that is simply great for our group has been ANGEL. We substituted WebCT/Blackboard for ANGEL just recently and the flexibility in course casting has been outstanding. Finally, my fifth tool/application for the month is to recommend that TeacherTube is very helpful in keeping us safe from the wild world of the Internet. We avoid some of the huge traffic generated through YouTube when we have newcomers logging on. Plus, our younger students can engage in our video production without us worrying about them seeing unfavorable sites on the sidebar when we want them to focus on the learning at hand. That's it for today. Hope you enjoy these ideas.
PS: You might find some exciting new ideas for digital storytelling or video poetry at one of my other blogs http://efolklore.blogspot.com/
