Picks of the Week 2009

A complete listing of the Picks of the Week from 2009 WELSTech episodes

The Best and Worst Picks of 2009 (Episode 112)

Audio/Video

• Distraction-free YouTube videos – www.quietube.com
  • Sample – Susan Boyle on Quietube vs. YouTube
• Free Animoto for Educators – Create animated videos of your photos
  • Check out their FAQ for a great Gmail method of creating "dummy" student e-mail accounts
• Free audio – www.FreeSound.org
• Myna from Aviary – online audio editing
• OneLicense.net for Podcasting
  • Pricing
  • How it Works
• Screenr.com – Web based screencasting with a tie to Twitter
  • Watch the WELSTech site tour created with Screenr
• Stupeflix.com – Beta video generator
• Vimeo video hosting – www.vimeo.com
  • WELS on Vimeo – www.vimeo.com/wels
  • Faith Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg, GA in HD on Vimeo

Bible Study

• Glo Bible
  • Purchase online at amazon.com

Education

• 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students About Social Media from the Teaching Degree.org Blog
• 180TechTips.com
• Cloud Computing in Plain English from CommonCraft
• Create online Jeopardy games – www.JeopardyLabs.com
• Geocaching – World-wide treasure hunt
  • Geocaching iPhone app
  • MN State Park Geocaching Wildlife Safari
• Free Technology For Teachers blog – www.freetech4teachers.com
• GoodReads groups – a solution for classroom book discussions
• Ideas to Inspire
• Jane Hart's Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009
• Kerpoof.com – Student creativity site
• LearningInHand.com – Education resources for handheld devices
• Parent resources for wise use of media – www.MediaFamily.org
• Presentation Mind Map by Maria Anderson – There's more to the Web than Facebook!
• Safari Books Online
• SMART Board resources
  • SMART Board Games from PBS Kids
  • Teacher Utilities from Harvey's Homepage
• Social tool for multi-media projects – VoiceThread.com
• Spark creative writing – www.PicLits.com
  • Sallie's sample PicLit & St. John's student creations
• SparkleBox – A teacher's treasure chest of free printables
• Talking SMARTBoards & Much More! blog
  • Follow annemarie80 on Twitter
• Teach programming with Scratch
  • Scratch Ed
  • Scratch Workshop and linked Scratch Lesson Plans
  • LearnScratch.org
  • Sample Scratch projects from St. John's, Sleepy Eye
• Web-based Activities & Resources for Elementary School Students from the Langwitches blog
• World Wide Web in Plain English from CommonCraft with subtitles from dotSub.com

Graphics & Images

• Create a LEGO avatar
• Create panoramic images
  • AutoStitch for the iPhone – Check out an iPhone photo of Martin's desk
  • Autopano for Windows
• Online color schemes – www.colorschemer.com/online.html
• Picasa
• Resize your images easily
  • FotoSizer – Batch resizing so you can change many images at once
  • Image Resizer Powertoy Clone – Add a resizing option to the Windows Explorer right-click menu

Hardware

• Acer K-12 Seed Netbook Program
• Build a $100 Document Reader – a Do-It-Yourself dream!
• CNN picks from the International Consumer Electronics Show
• Digital pen and audio recorder – www.LiveScribe.com
• Eco-friendly portable device charger – POWERSTICK from Ecosol
• Epson Workforce 600 All-In-One Printer
• FreeAgent Go external hard drive from Seagate
• Leaving PCs on overnight costs companies $2.8B a year
• LinkSys WMB54G Wireless-G Music Bridge

Office Tools

• Upload and share PowerPoint and Keynote presentations – www.SlideShare.net
• Create online presentations – www.SlideRocket.com
• FoxitPDF
• Foxit Phantom – a PDF Swiss Army Knife
• Google Docs Templates
• Microsoft Office 2010 free beta
• Open Office 4 Kids

Productivity

• Black out your screen for distraction-free writing
  • Focused (Cross-platform) – spreadingfunkyness.com/focused
  • Darkroom (Windows) – they.misled.us/dark-room
  • WriteRoom (Mac) – www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
• GTDInbox for GMail – www.gtdgmail.com
• Joe's Goals, a free online habit tracker – www.joesgoals.com
• Windows Live Writer blogging client – writer.live.com

RSS

• Create your own RSS reminders – www.ReminderFeed.com
• Tabbloid turns your favorite RSS feeds into a personal magazine – www.tabbloid.com
  • Sample Tabbloid
  • Found via TipLine – Gates' Computer Tips, a 2007 Edublog winner
  • Check out the 2008 Edublog winners

Search

• Earn money for your organization with GoodSearch.com
  • Donate your GoodSearch dollars to WELS
• Google image search – images.google.com
  • Search Google like an expert from HubSpot

Social Networking

• Desktop app for Twitter – www.twhirl.org
• Exercise and nutrition with a social twist – www.gyminee.com
• Follow Google on Twitter
• GroupTweet
• Micro-blogging mashup – www.Tumblr.com
  • Martin's Tumblr site – spriggs.tumblr.com
  • Wikipedia on tumblelogs
• Posterous – Easily post to multiple social network accounts
• Social reading list – www.GoodReads.com
• TweetDeck app for iPhone & iPod Touch – in iTunes
• Twellow – Twitter directory
• TwInbox – Twitter plugin for Outlook
• Update status in multiple social networks – www.ping.fm
• Web-based instant messaging – www.meebo.com

Utilities

• BackBlaze.com – Online file backup
• Build a custom iTunes RSS Feed
• Collide Magazine
• DropBox for iPhone/iPod Touch
• Essential Free Windows Downloads from Lifehacker
• Fences – Organize your Windows desktop
• Free temporary file storage and sharing – s4ve.as
• Free virtualization software – Sun VirtualBox
• FTP client software – www.filezilla-project.org
• Google Chrome – speedy browser
• Google Chrome Extensions
  • Facebook
  • IE Tab
  • Chromed Bird
  • Feedly
  • Google Wave Notifier
• Google Voice
• Mobile Google Sync – Sync Google calendar and contacts to your mobile device
• ShareThis – Sharing made easy
• SkyDrive Explorer – Windows Explorer drive mapping for Windows Live SkyDrive
• Sync bookmarks and passwords – www.FoxMarks.com
• Text substitution with Texter from Lifehacker
• Ultimate list of free software from Microsoft
  • XP
  • Vista
  • Office
• Windows 7 BitLocker for data encryption
  • Martin's blog post
  • BitLocker review from 4sysops.com

Web 2.0

• Account-free, simple form creation – SignAppNow.com
• Diigo – Social bookmarking meets the writable web
• Google Sidewiki
• iGoogle – Gadget driven home page
• Martin's favorite Firefox add-ons in a bundle – Firefox Collection
• Mashup and narrate web sites, photos, PowerPoint and more – www.FlowGram.com
  • Watch a demo video
• Online diagrams and charts – www.LovelyCharts.com

Web Development

• DreamHost.com
• Google Sites Templates
• IRC Chat for your site
  • Mibbit – www.mibbit.com
  • WELSTech Chat
• MinistryCSS.com – Design to inspire
• Novel Games – Embed Flash games in your web site
• Write Effective Headlines from Digital Evangelism Issues