The Future of Learning

Type With Me = Etherpad, frozen in time

In a couple of previous postings in December 2009, I mentioned that the real-time collaborative authoring tool, Etherpad, had been acquired by Google to become part of Wave, and then that Etherpad had been opensourced.

Chris Pirillo and Jake Warner have now "frozen the Etherpad code in time" and released it as Type With Me. 

TypeWith.Me

[180+ Document and Presentation Tools in Learning Directory 2010]

Surf Canyon wins best search engine

A TheNextWeb posting yesterday announced ...

"The About.com Web Search Reader’s Choice Award Winners for 2010 have just been announced and Surf Canyon won in the category of “Best Search Engine.” Surf Canyon prevailed over search engine powerhouses Google, Bing and Yahoo!."

Surf Canyon has actually been around for some years, but I have to admit it's one I hadn't heard of.  So why is Surf Canyon so special - what made it the winner?  Charles Knight at The Next Web thinks that ...

"Surf Canyon is Google on steroids (but it also works on Yahoo!, Bing, and Craigslist).  It turbo charges your web searches."

Surf Canyon'sblog posting Discovering Discovery provides a "quick 1, 2, 3 to help you get the most out of Surf Canyon’s Discovery Engine for Search™", and/or you can talk a look at this video

Surf Canyon

[More Search tools in the Personal Productivity section of the Learning Tools Directory 2010]

Clipper - create, tag, mix, annotate, share and manage clips

Thanks to Chris Jack at Derby University for sending me this one.

Clipper is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) that  gives users more control over their use of online video. They have produced a working cross-platform desktop prototype and plan to create mobile and web versions.

Simply put, Clipper lets teachers and others clip and annotate video for free, using Adobe Air.

The Clipper Project is a collaborative software application development project between Carnegie College and Digitalinsite, supported by JISC.

Clipper

Some Google Buzz bits and pieces

Have you got going with Google Buzz yet?

If not, here are some ideas to get started

• My Google Buzz is here, and I'm using it mainly to share items from Google Reader.  Although I've currently connected to my Twitter account too, I'm reviewing that as I'm trying not to duplicate my activities on Twitter and Facebook as much as possible.
• I've set up a 140 University Buzz - more visually interesting than Twitter
• How to get started with Buzz
• How to keep things private
• Some ideas on how to use it for learning

If yes, here are some other bits and pieces I've come across

• Buzz2feed - Create an RSS feed for your Google Buzz account
• Buzz2Twitter - sync your Google Buzz to Twitter (but watch you don't put your items in a loop!)
• Buzzrr - a Google Buzz counter
• Buzzzy - a search engine or Google Buzz.  Find out what's buzzin'

February 2010 Update

Here is this month's round up of tools and articles added to my website:

Tools added to the Learning Tools Directory in February 2010

• Tools added to the Learning Tools Directory in February 2010

My Top 3 favourite tools this month

• Google Buzz - Google's new way to share resources and conversations
• Buzzzy - a search engine for Buzz
• Twitlk.com - a background for your Twitter profile of those you follow

Articles/postings added to Reading Lists in February 2010

Here's a text cloud that shows what the key trends this month were - if you couldn't have guessed!

• Articles/postings/reports added to my Reading Lists in  February 2010

My Top 3 favourite articles this month:

1. A framework for social learning in the enterprise, Harold Jarche, 24 February 2010 (in Social Learning)
2. Where social learning thrives, Marcia Conner, Fast Company, February 2010 in Social Learning)
3. Google Buzz Has Completely Changed the Game: Here’s How, Ben Parr, Mashable, 14 February 2010 (in Google Buzz)

If you want to keep up with news as it happens, here's how

• Follow me on Twitter - @c4lpt
• Follow me on Google Buzz - c4lpt.JaneHart
• Become a fan of the C4LPT Facebook Fan page - C4LPT

[Image: Desktop wallpaper calendar, February 2010 by Eli Burford, via Smashing Magazine]

UPDATE: Wordle is currently offline, so I have removed the link to the text cloud image

Synchronising networks (Twitter, Facebook & Buzz) #fb

In my previous posting about how I was using Twitter, Facebook and Buzz, I mentioned that I initially synchonised postings across the 3 different networks -  to see how that worked for me. 

I've had a few enquiries asking me how I was doing that, so I thought I would point you to the relevant pages of my Guide to 140 Learning where I list the tools I have found to do this:

• On the Synchronising networks page I list some tools that link networks together, so that the same tweet/message appears automatically on different networks.  These tools are useful where one of these networks is your primary network and you wish to sync with another.   What you have to watch out for, though, is putting your content in a loop, where it constantly moves around the networks as it is re-synched!
• On the Managing accounts page I list some tools that let you send the same message to multiple accounts/networks at once, and additionally, tools that let you schedule messages to networks.

Does anyone have any more to add, or want to share their experiences of using them?

Backchatter - a game about Twitter trendspotting

See my Social Media in Learning blog posting

iPlayer broadcasts with Twitter subtitles

Martin Hawksey, e-Learning Advisor (Higher Education) for JISC RSC Scotland North & East, has an interesting idea which he emailed me:

"Building on the work of Tony Hirst I’ve come up with a tool which allows users to view BBC iPlayer broadcasts with subtitles pulled from twitter. The concept being many users are engaging in online discussion during live broadcasts (for example during The Virtual Revolution series), if the viewer wants to replay the episode and follow the online discussion the two assets are disaggregated, you can’t see the real-time comments as they were originally made. The tool allows the user to use twitter search results to create a subtitle file which is used when replaying the episode in iPlayer. This video demonstrates the twitter iPlayer mash-up in action."

Record your screencast online

Whilst the tool was designed with the iPlayer in mind the file created is in in W3C Timed Text Authoring Format so it may be used in other applications.

There's more about how this was achieved on Martin's blog posting at MASHe.

Adding Twitter to PowerPoint, Keynote and now - Sliderocket

See my posting on my Social Media in Learning blog

Pixorial

Pixorial is an online video service where home movies and people interconnect. Customers can collaborate with others by adding and sharing full resolution home movies in the secure Pixorial service. Customers can edit and remix this online content to create unique, customized video products. The final products retain the full quality and resolution of the master movies regardless of origin.

Pixorial

[275 Image, audio and video tools appear in the Learning Tools Directory 2010]