The view from here

Presenter: Dr. Yvonne Marie Andrés

Dr. Andrés is the founder of the Global Schoolnet, a home to many learning resources on the web.Dr. Andrés began by touring her site, the Global Schoolnet, showcasing a Project Registry for PBL.

She worked her way through a “speed-dating” version of several online collaborative tools.

• Dropshots.com allows teachers/students to upload videos to a public space using a drag and drop interface.
• YackPack.com is an online audio collaborative space (still in Beta) that uses a neat visual Flash interface.
• Google for Educators – An educationally-oriented version of Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets applications.
• PhotoShow.com is a way for teachers/students to create animated musical slideshows through e-mail, the web or from other media.
• Simplestar.com – adds functionality and special effects to Photoshow (above)

In general this was a very useful workshop. If there was a downside, it was that it wasn’t quite as engaging as it could’ve been. The Internet connection was spotty throughout the workshop, and so it was difficult for us to experience some of the sites that Dr. Andrés was showing us. Three hours is also a VERY long time to spend at a computer in one shot. Nonetheless, the tools that were demonstrated were interesting, and I look forward to investigating them further.

UPDATE! Additional resources from the workshop

• Backflip.com is a social bookmarking site, somewhat similar to del.icio.us.
• Bravenet.com is a hosting service for web sites as well as a variety of online tools such as maps, polls, calendars, etc.
• Digitaldivide.net – an online community with collaborative tools with a goal to bridging the digital divide.
• Elluminate – One of the main synchronous platforms.
• MyWay – Free e-mail with no add, similar in look and feel to MyYahoo!
• Skype – The ubiquitous VOIP tool.
• Think.com – Collaboration tools for students and schools developed and sponsored by Oracle.
• Twitter – This is an online brainstorming, information sharing site. Entries can be posted on the web or through text messaging. Dr. Andrés has written an article about Twitter at http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/