YouTube Tools

These two tools let you show just the "good parts" of YouTube videos:

• TubeChop
• Splicd

Plagiarism Checkers

You know we prefer the "fence to the ambulance" plagiarism-proofing approach to assignments, but we know that sometimes tools can help teachers find those incidents of plagiarism. Make Use Of offers a summary of five plagiarism checker tools in this post.

The Backchannel in Church

Amy from the Chaska MILI group blogs at One Foot in Front of the Other... Shes has a great post about the backchannel and using TodaysMeet in her German class (complete with German versions of "text speech"). Even more interesting is the discussion she had with her fellow congregants about the backchannel at church. The post is here.

It is a great example of what we were discussing--the prevalence of backchannel, how it is related to the presenter's content, and more. If her minister does set up Twitter or another backchannel in church, that will really take things to a different level! Hope she keeps us posted.

Interactive Tool

This looks like it has potential for many uses in a classroom or working group. Exploratree:

Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides* print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.

The site has ready make guides to explore. Here's a good one for Information Literacy. 

You can customize a guide and fill it in online or print out a blank guide to work offline. If you register, you can share and save your guides. Exploratree comes from Enquiring Minds, a Microsoft-supported effort in the UK--which probably explains why some of the thinking guides are in Welsh.

Be sure to blog if you use this tool.

*Thinking guides support the thinking or working through of an issue, topic or question and help to shape, define and focus an idea and also support the planning required to investigate it further. 

The Networked Student

A video to use with administrators, parents, and others to explain how new tools and new connections are important to create 21st century learners. It does miss the collaboration with your media specialist, but it does mention the media center. Found via Tame the Web,

The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century.Anyone is free to use this video for educational purposes. You may download, translate, or use as part of another presentation. Please share.

New Tools

Life Magazine Photo Archive
2 million photos from Life Photo library from 1750s on. The goal is to add 10 million of Life's photos. Search from the start page or you can include source:life with any Google Image search query. Great for History Day, among other things.

EtherPad
"The perfect way to collaborate on a text document and keep everyone literally on the same page." Doesn't Google Docs already do this? Their answer:

No. Google Docs is a suite of products that do many things, from word processing to spreadsheets to document management. One thing that Google Docs does not do is real-time collaborative text editing. We think this is an important use case, so we built EtherPad with real-time collaboration as the focus.

Gmail Themes
Not exactly a productivity enhancer, but Gmail has added the ability to customize the look of your Gmail account.

Google SearchWiki
Tailor your Google search results. Learn more.



And a tool no more--Lively
Google announced that it will discontinue Lively, a Second Life-type 3-D virtual world creator in December.

Seriously, I've Been Trying To Tell You!

Here's a tool that I can recommend for its extreme accuracy. The Blog Readability Test measures the level of education required to understand your blog. Just enter your blog URL and get the results. And how do I know it is accurate? It rated my blog as:

New Tool

Refsek* is a search engine designed to make academic information available to students and researchers. My first search got no results (Truman Capote), but you have the option of searching again using Google, Yahoo, Ask, or Live. Other searches had better results. The site seems to retrieve "academic" information from .org, .edu, and .gov sites. Could be useful for new searchers unfamiliar with verifying their information. The directory (click on link in upper right) has links to reference sources and a list of teacher resource sites. 

Here is a tool to really keep an eye on. Reference Extract is a new search engine under development by OCLC (the multinational library organization that brings us NetLibrary, WorldCat and OpenCat, among many more library-focused tools and services). This search engine will be built for

maximum credibility by relying on the expertised and credibility judgements of librarians from around the globe. Users will enter a search term and get results weighted towards sites most often referred to by librarians at institutions such as the Library of Congress, the University of Washington, the State of Maryland, and over 1,400 libraries worldwide.

The Planning Reference Extract blog has more information. The blog also seeks librarian input into the development process. 

Blog Tools

Here is a handy chart that compares features of various tools that offer blog search. These tools let you search for information in blog posts, which can be useful if you are looking for opinion or recommendations.

And may I say, Ann Smarty is a better name than Ann Smalley.

Save Money@your library

Here is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools. It is convenient and saves me money! I often have materials out from more than one library and with this tool, someone else reminds me of what is due when and where. Handy.

LibraryElf is an Internet-based tool for keeping track of what's due, overdue and ready for pickup at your library. Users can keep track of one or more library accounts in one place and receive reminders. Reminders are sent when the user wants it -- before items are due (up to seven days advance notice, weekly notice, or everyday reminders). For families or anyone who'd like reminders before an item is due (user-selectable number of days notice). This is a third-party application (not developed/supported by the library or its circulation system vendor). If LibraryElf is for you, sign up for an account.

Some people are concerned about privacy with this service. In theory, you could put in someone else’s library barcode and their PIN (since in most libraries it is set as the last four digits of your phone number) and then see what they are reading. Just why I would want to do that, I am not sure. And, I can change my PIN to a different number if I want to. So, I use ELF and I love it. I did about these issues, but I decided that I was willing to accept the potential risk of privacy loss for the convenience of the service. As soon as my libraries start offering RSS and or other easy reminders on my account, I'll gladly use that rather than my Elf account. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon.

All Twin Cities area library systems are compatible with Elf.