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My Top 10 Tools for 2010

Posted on October 25, 2010 by barrydahl

I have contributed to Jane Hart’s Lists of Top Tools for Learning for several years now. Her 2010 list was finalizedJane Hart on October 17 with contributions from me and 544 other people.  Listed below is my newest Top 10 list of tools, with short descriptions of why they made the list.

  1. Twitter. Simply the most valuable online tool I’ve ever used. But it’s not about the tool, it’s about the network of educators that I was able to build with the tool. Connect that same network into a different tool, then that tool will be #1 on my list.
  2. Flickr. I get so much value out of storing and sharing my photos here. 4,131, items as of Oct. 2010. This is one of the few tools that I pay for the pro version ($25 a year) because it is so valuable to me.
  3. WordPress. I use WordPress.com for my main blog at http://barrydahl.com and we also run the open source WPMU at my campus for all students and employees to use.
  4. YouTube. Not only do I post more and more of my own videos here, but I continue to find an amazingly rich resource for all kinds of content, including educational videos.  I also use a few other video tools, but YouTube stays on the list.
  5. Zoho Notebook. There still is no rival for this tool when it comes to easily mashing together all kinds of multimedia content into a website of pages, all custom designed by you.
  6. DimDim. After using the free version for a couple of years, we licensed the Enterprise version for use at the college. It works very well and allows for starting webcasts on the fly without downloads or installs.
  7. Toondoo. I make comic strips fairly often and encourage educators to include more of them in their teaching and learning. Jaws usually drop when people see the creation interface for the first time, and Toonbooks are very cool.
  8. Facebook. My main value here is reconnecting with old friends and college buddies. Find the events tools and similar apps to be very useful. Right now it’s less of a tool for learning than the others, but it still has potential to become more of a learning tool if I was to decide to use it in that manner.
  9. Picnik. I keep coming back to this super easy-to-use photo editor that integrates so nicely with my Flickr account. Another one of the few tools that I pay to get the premium service.
  10. Android OS & Apps. This could have been higher on my list. I love my Droid, but mainly for all the things that Android and the plethora of useful (& mostly free) apps can do for me. First time I’ve felt like I have a computer in my pocket.

    Without giving the descriptions, here’s the rest of the top 25:
  11. TweetDeck
  12. SlideShare
  13. Mindomo
  14. Delicious
  15. Google Reader
  16. Zoho Creator
  17. Skype
  18. Poll Everywhere
  19. Meebo instant messenger
  20. Google Voice
  21. Zoho Writer
  22. Netvibes
  23. PBworks
  24. Prezi
  25. Livestream

Check out my PLE page for more of the tools that I have used often enough to at least have formed an opinion about them. To finish this off for another year, below is Jane’s SlideShare embed of the Top 100 tools.

In analyzing how the Top 100 has changed over the past four years, Jane came up with this summary of four key trends:

  1. The increasing consumerization of IT
  2. Learning, working and personal tools are merging
  3. Social tools predominate
  4. Personal (informal) learning is under the control of the learner

She describes these trends in a recent post. Read that post here.

Filed under: Read/WriteWeb, Twitter, Web2.0 | 1 Comment »

Who the hell is Brian Lamb?

Posted on October 26, 2009 by barrydahl

This video helps answer two burning questions:

  1. Who the hell is Brian Lamb?
  2. Why is he saying all these terrible things about Learning Objects?

Brian is one of my favorite EdTech speakers and thought leaders. He was the closing keynote speaker at the recently concluded WCET conference in Denver. My flight was scheduled to leave at about the same time that Brian’s address was scheduled to begin. I even tried to pay extra to get a seat on a later flight, but alas, none were available so I was destined to miss this event.

As luck (and good planning) would have it, Brian agreed to spend an hour with the Catalyst CAMP attendees on the day prior to his keynote. I was one of the CAMP Rangers (my cabin group was known as the Tweetarondaks) and so was able to be part of the group that spent an hour with Brian in a more informal session. He agreed to let me shoot some video during the chat and this is the first one that I’d like to share.

In this 10 minute video you’ll learn about how Brian got started working in education, and how his first job at UBC was essentially to help them build a closed-system Learning Object Repository with all the SCORM and IMS guidelines and requirements, and all that jazz. Not surprisingly, Brian tells the tale of how open-ness and simple technologies can be used much more effectively for those who truly want to share.

BTW, Brian started this session by asking the question in the title of this post, and wondered why we should care what he had to say. We cared.

(Post edited 3/20/13)

http://www.wcet.info/2.0/

Filed under: Conference, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

Happy Holidays from all the Dahls

Posted on December 10, 2008 by barrydahl

Here’s a quick little Animoto slideshow to wish you a Merry Christmas, or any other happy holiday that you choose to celebrate.

Click image and video will play in new window.

Filed under: Computing, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: | Comments Off on Happy Holidays from all the Dahls

Twitter instead of Blogging?

Posted on October 6, 2008 by barrydahl

One reason that I haven’t been posting much to my blog lately is that I spend most of my time on Twitter. Microblogging really does take the place of “real blogging,” at least most of the time. So, I’ve posted my last 80 tweets below just so you can get a sense about what I’m tweeting about. Clearly, most of these things would never make it into a regular blog post, but taken as a whole, they probably equal the content of a normal blog post.

I’ve got 6 people ready to eat this tonight. Corn dog w/fries.http://tinyurl.com/3fycrv about 9 hours ago from web
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 Two hours to kill in Seoul before going to the Fulbright office for overview of Korean Ed System and Korean Agents for recruitment. about 9 hours ago from web
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Bought unique eel skin wallets in Itaewon shopping district of Seoul. Now off 2 bed. Visiting US Embassy, then Fulbright office on Monday. 07:02 AM October 05, 2008 from web
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The little 250ML can of Dew is about 8.5 ounces. Hell, I usually buy the 1 liter bottle back home. Of course that one is diet, this one isnt 12:52 AM October 05, 2008 from web
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Finally a Dew in Asia. Vietnam has none, but Seoul does. No need to update my avatar pic from last year – me and Korean Dew still works 12:50 AM October 05, 2008 from web
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Frustrating. None of the TinyURLs that I click on will open, but regular links in Twitter do open. What’s up with that? 10:35 PM October 04, 2008 from web
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Allergic to something here in Korea. Major sneeze fest since getting off the plane. Did I bring drugs? 06:42 PM October 04, 2008 from web
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Just checked into hotel in Seoul. Heading to sportsline.com to check out college football and MLB scores, then need a power nap. Itaewon l8r 06:41 PM October 04, 2008 from web
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Wish I was going home instead of Seoul. I’m tired and want to sleep in my own bed. Did buy some funky shoes today tho, they’re cool. 09:35 AM October 04, 2008 from web
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Waiting at airport for flight from Hanoi to Seoul. How much did I save with this overnight flight? Will it be worth all the bother? 09:32 AM October 04, 2008 from web
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Taxi drivers in Hanoi try to rip you off for 4-5 times more than taxis in Saigon. We took 4 rides today, and was taken for a ride each time. 05:08 AM October 04, 2008 from web
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Will spend Saturday touring around Hanoi. Then fly 2 Seoul, but not until late night. Hanoi Horison Hotel is sort of nice, but service sucks 08:58 PM October 03, 2008 from web
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Just finished the first ever AACC fair in Hanoi. Only about 200 students today, but that was HCMC two years ago. This year HCMC had over 700 09:25 AM October 03, 2008 from web
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@john_st_clair I compare hybrid to F2F, not to online, since hybrid is an alternative to F2F but it is NOT an alternative to online for most 09:24 AM October 03, 2008 from web in reply to john_st_clair
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@ajwms Only 5% use proctored exams. Seems to be a stable number, or slightly decreasing. 09:22 AM October 03, 2008 from web in reply to ajwms
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I must be following like-minded people. Tweets from twits I follow were running about 5 to 1 against Palin. Yea. Do I need more diversity? 10:55 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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Missed the last half of the debate to attend a scheduled visit to a high school in Hanoi. Four pages of Tweets helped me catch up. Thanks. 10:53 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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This isn’t a debate! This is where she takes her time to talk about what she wants to – regardless of the question being asked. 08:32 PM October 02, 2008from web
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We have John McCain to thank. Usually when you say “thanks for the warning,” it is said in jest. So thanks John. Thanks for the warning. 08:28 PM October 02, 2008 from web
JF. Won’t the hair spray going into her left eye cause her to go blind? 08:20 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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Wow, millions of small business make over $250,000? Really Sarah? Do you know the difference between revenues and profits? 08:19 PM October 02, 2008from web
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soccer game reference by Palin in first two sentences of debate 08:05 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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@cburell Clay, do you still want to get together when I’m in Seoul? I arrive this Sunday. Sun&Mon nights open, booked Tue PM. Leave Wed morn 08:02 PM October 02, 2008 from web in reply to cburell
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Has anyone read the book titled Now is Gone? I was expecting great things, but not so much so far. Primer on New Media for Execs & Entrepren 07:59 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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Seems to be a fair amount of buzz about the VP debate here in Vietnam. I find that odd, but U.S. news gets a great deal of attention here. 07:57 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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Finally a blog post. What I was reading today. http://tinyurl.com/43fnpj 07:08 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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@BryanAlexander For presentation content – Michael Wesch. For presentation style – tough call, most of them need more panache (incl.me)06:14 PM October 02, 2008 from web in reply to BryanAlexander
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Let me clarify. If you were facilitating the meeting that you were calling, wouldn’t you be able to attend on ALL of your proposed dates? 04:31 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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I like MeetingWizard, but if you were calling a meeting, wouldn’t you be able to attend more than 3 out of the 7 dates you proposed? WTF? 04:29 PM October 02, 2008 from web
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Still get a bit disturbed when my food is looking at me. That’s why I didn’t order this at a Saigon restaurant. http://blog.lsc.edu/signs/ 09:15 AM October 02, 2008 from web
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Visited the US Embassy in Hanoi this afternoon for the first time. Not nearly as locked down as the one in Beijing. That surprised me 08:55 AM October 02, 2008 from web
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While flying from Saigon to Hanoi I finished reading Presentation Zen. Finally the motivation to push me over to a new presentation approach 08:51 AM October 02, 2008 from web
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Baseball playoffs!! Finally something other than soccer on ESPN here in Vietnam. Not even one rugby game this year, which I love to watch. 06:09 PM October 01, 2008 from web
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@doolittlen Hi Nancy. Are you jumping back in the Twitterverse? 05:49 PM October 01, 2008 from web in reply to doolittlen
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Can’t find my entry/exit card for Vietnam. That could make leaving the country a huge problem. Today I’m off to Hanoi,so I don’t need it yet 05:41 PM October 01, 2008 from web
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Community College recruitment fair concluded in Saigon. Acceptance (awareness) of online learning is better this time. Enrollments?We’ll see 07:09 AM October 01, 2008 from web
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65-yr-old Chinese lady sentenced to death in Vietnam court for a counterfeit banknote scam she ran in several southern provinces. Severe. 12:36 AM October 01, 2008 from web
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@javabeanboy Kids definitely aren’t coddled over here as in the U.S. But still, a little bit of safety precaution can go a long way. 12:27 AM October 01, 2008from web in reply to javabeanboy
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New helmet law in Saigon. Only applies to adults on scooters or motorbikes. Kids can ride w/out helmet (an do). Does that seem backwards? 12:07 AM October 01, 2008 from web
1/2 page ad in Saigon Times Daily. Fly to Manila for $19 US. Subtract $5 if traveling w/out check-in baggage. Dinner in Manila sounds good. 12:05 AM October 01, 2008 from web
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Wondering why the staff at the Majestic Hotel think that my Do Not Disturb sign does not apply to them. Who else could I be talking to? 11:46 PM September 30, 2008 from web
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Should have used UStream for my session with 5th graders today. Skype is too flaky. Everything worked well when tested 10 min ago on UStream 06:24 PM September 30, 2008 from web
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@wcgaskins click PBwiki settings, users: then you’ll see “If your students don’t have email addresses, create accounts for your students.” 06:18 PM September 30, 2008 from web in reply to wcgaskins
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WebCamMax and Skype kept crashing my computer – blue screen of death while trying to have conversation with my son’s classroom from Saigon. 10:07 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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In 30 min. Skype call from Saigon into my son’s fifth grade classroom in Superior, WI. I’m ready with photos, video, and Vietnam fun facts. 09:03 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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About 70% of Vietnamese student visas to study in the U.S. were for students headed for community colleges in the states. Big change from B4 12:40 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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28% current inflation rate – yet my beer, dinner, hotel room and knock-off watches (same-same) cost the same as they did two years ago. 12:39 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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Other Vietnam data. Only 10-15% of the population who are college eligible can attend in country. Not enough supply (seats) for the demand. 12:37 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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Fun Facts from Education USA meeting in Saigon today. 70% of population is under 35. Per capita income = $835 US, but many are nouveau rich 12:36 AM September 30, 2008 from web
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Off to Education USA and IIE office in Saigon for morning meeting with the higher education ground forces here in the country. 08:19 PM September 29, 2008 from web
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Just finished welcome dinner for the American Assoc of Community Colleges hosted by the Vietnamese Assoc of CC. Good people, good fun & food 10:32 AM September 29, 2008 from web
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A few hours left before we meet up with AACC group for the rest of the Asia tour for recruiting int’l students. Dinner tonight with VACC. 02:32 AM September 29, 2008 from web
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Left comment on Tim Stahmer’s post about teaching keyboarding in grade school. Feel blog post comin on. http://www.assortedstuff.co… 02:30 AM September 29, 2008 from web
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Wow -live game updates on NFL.com only available in North America. Oh well.all my teams lost today. 09:42 PM September 28, 2008 from web
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Beautiful Monday morning here in Saigon. Looks like a nice day after a major 3-hour deluge yesterday afternoon. Rainy season is no joke. 08:01 PM September 28, 2008 from web
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My hotel in Saigon must have fast connection. No time lag on Skype calls home. Audio sucks, but that is coming from USA. Fine here to there. 03:47 PM September 28, 2008 from web
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Having much better luck with Google Chrome these days. Much more quick now and hasn’t crashed in days. This is what others were talkin ’bout 03:28 PM September 28, 2008 from web
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Guessing that all my friends in Tennessee are pretty happy about the big 4-0 start by the Titans. Surprisingly impressive w/K.Collins at QB? 03:27 PM September 28, 2008 from web
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Up in the middle of the night in Saigon to follow the NFL. My two teams (Broncs and Vikes, in that order) are losing. Second half comebacks? 02:24 PM September 28, 2008 from web
Sunday is not nearly as busy here in Saigon. Hustle and bustle is only 75% of a normal day. Off to the market. 09:33 PM September 27, 2008 from web
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@jth and Puck’s girlfriend(s) 06:40 PM September 27, 2008 from web in reply to jth
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Have verbal agreement with three agents in Vietnam to send students our way for e-learning. Now the hard part – contract approval by legal. 04:46 PM September 27, 2008 from web
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Checking American college football scores online – nothing on tube here in Vietnam. All you can eat of other football (soccer). No thanks. 04:45 PM September 27, 2008 from web
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Another big rainstorm 2nite in Saigon. Will be even more humid tomorrow, if that’s possible. Very hot-it will suck when I wear a suit Monday 09:36 AM September 27, 2008 from web
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@austindeb2003 Hi Deb, and welcome to Twitter. Did you go to Gruene Hall for a singer? JJW is my all-time fav, although REK is now my #1. 🙂 09:27 AM September 27, 2008 from web in reply to austindeb2003
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Today in Saigon I can get to all the sites that wouldn’t load yesterday. Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Ning, for example. Very odd. 03:08 AM September 27, 2008 from web
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Twins are losing their mojo. Glad that Sox are also losing. Since my Padres stunk this year, I gotta pull for my #2 team – GO TWINS!! 09:31 PM September 26, 2008 from web
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Just finished breakfast on the roof of the Saigon Majestic Hotel. Return to room to see McCain-Obama on CNN. Did I miss McCain’s war story? 09:18 PM September 26, 2008 from web
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Will McCain continue to bitch about Obama not joining him for town hall meetings? Did anybody really think that was an issue? 09:17 PM September 26, 2008 from web
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Uninstalled TOR after last China trip. Looks like I might need to get it back. If they block websites here, wouldn’t they block TOR, too? 03:21 PM September 26, 2008 from web
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Wow, can’t get to Flickr, Facebook, Ning, or YouTube here in Vietnam. Never happened to me previously. Great Firewall of Vietnam? Huh? What? 03:15 PM September 26, 2008 from web
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Watched Iron Man on the long flight to Asia. Enjoyed it much more than I expected (yes, low expectations) and now want to own it. Thumbs up 06:42 AM September 26, 2008 from web
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I haven’t seen blocked sites before in Vietnam, but I can’t get to YouTube even though other sites are working fine. Are they blocking? 05:59 AM September 26, 2008 from web
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Meeting with an agent (study abroad headhunter) in a couple of hours to see if we can do business together. First of several such meetings 01:58 AM September 26, 2008 from web
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31 hours in travel status. Now checked in and unpacked at Hotel Majestic Saigon. This was my least fun travel day to Asia. LAX really sucked 01:51 PM September 25, 2008 from web
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@Goamick That STARlink wireless network is available now, they just won’t any of us access it yet. They keep saying … soon, soon! Sure. 03:43 PM September 23, 2008 from web in reply to Goamick
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Last day in the states for a while. Crazy busy tying up loose ends. I need to get to the bank. They won’t accept tattered bills in Asia. 12:49 PM September 23, 2008 from web
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@bwatwood PPT slides (using clicker q’s again) will be up sometime soon, but the wiki link is already here: https://barrydahl.com/resour… 10:51 AM September 22, 2008 from web in reply to bwatwood
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@maryn OMG! That eSchoolNews article is crap. Here is the real story:http://tinyurl.com/6kkbyw Their lack of research is appalling. 10:27 AM September 22, 2008 from web in reply to maryn

Filed under: Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: | 7 Comments »

Web 2.0 Inside D2L – Videos Page Added

Posted on August 28, 2008 by barrydahl

At the top of the blog page you’ll see a new tab with a link to some of my Web 2.0 materials where I will be adding my content (from old blog) about my Web 2.0 Hall of Fame and other things about the web-based tools that I use every day both professionally and personally. On that page is also a link to another page that contains embedded screencast videos that illustrate some of the things I demonstrate in workshops about using Web 2.0 tools within Desire2Learn. This is mainly an effort to make my stuff more find-able.

Point #1: all of the things illustrated in those videos can also be done outside of Desire2Learn. They are shown inside D2L as way of directing the students to the tools in an easy manner.

Point #2: all of the things that are shown inside D2L should also work in other VLEs if you so desire. I have personanly tested most of these items in both Angel and Moodle without any problems. The same should hold true for other platforms.

Filed under: Desire2Learn, Read/WriteWeb, Web2.0 | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Dissecting the Backchannel

Posted on August 5, 2008 by barrydahl

I participated in a panel discussion during the Desire2Learn FUSION Conference during July in Memphis (FUSION08D2L). The other panelists were Robbie Melton, Stephen Downes, and Michael Feldstein. Our topic was “What would you like to see happen in the future of e-Learning?” Each panelist took approx 5 minutes to share some thoughts with the lunch-time audience about one topic that was near and dear to them regarding the future of e-Learning. After those opening comments, the floor was opened to the audience to either ask questions of the panelists or make comments about the opening remarks.

Pie chart of backchannel usage

Pie chart of backchannel usage

We used Stephen’s chat function from his website to create a backchannel that was displayed on two large screens, one on each side of the front of the hall where the panelists were seated. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at the chat archives and analyze the types of entries that were made. Although there were a couple of premature postings, I started counting at 12:27:21 PM which is when posts started coming in for the panelists even though the opening comments were still being completed. For my analysis, the first posting was by Hiro Sheridan of Oral Roberts University. The last posting was at 13:16:21 by the ever-popular Anymouse (Stephen’s default username for those who don’t enter one). Altogether, I counted 167 posts from point A to point B.

This presentation was also being streamed live on the Internet using UStream.tv (archive here). There were only a few questions that were asked by audience members using the two microphones that were available in the room, and of course there is no archive of those questions except for what you can hear on the UStream recording. Of the 167 posts in the backchannel, it is impossible to know how many of them came from people in the room with us and how many came from the 50+ people who were viewing the Ustream feed (which could have also included people in the room who opened the streaming video page on their laptops). In other words, questions and comments probably did come from anyone and anywhere.

I arbitrarily categorized the backchannel posts into one of the following six categories:

  1. Panel questions: these were specific questions that were asked of the panel members that appeared to be serious in nature. There were a total of 32 of these questions. Examples:
    • How will MUVEs like Second Life impact education in the next five years?
    • Do you know of any study where K-12 online students were surveyed to see if they would be interested in an online degree environment?
  2. On-topic comment: here an audience member was making a comment about something that had been discussed by the panelists, or related to one of the questions asked by other audience members. It was deemed to be on-topic if it related to the future of e-Learning. There were 20 of these comments. Examples:
    • I would like to see truly adaptive eLearning systems — different paths for different learning styles … and a system that supports this well.
    • Laggards have just started to waste epic amounts of time and money on my campus and they do not care and not interested in learning…UGH
  3. Off-topic comment: this was the largest category and included many comments about the nature of the panel discussion and the use of the backchannel, as well as where to get the best BBQ in Memphis, and other idle chatter. There were 55 of these comments. Examples:
    • Wow, this is why we don’t want students having laptops in classrooms I guess
    • To really wreck a panel put up a backchannel
    • The Net gen student works this way ALLLLL the time…three windows and listening…the speaker has to “join in”
  4. Humor attempt: there were 40 posts that I categorized as (mostly) lame attempts at humor. Keep in mind that this was a room full of education professionals, not high school kids trying to impress their friends. Examples:
    • Play Freebird
    • I am going to get a patent on “Anymouse” tomorrow! And sue Stephen the next day.
    • Can someone please bring toilet paper to stall 3 in the men’s room?
  5. Shots @ D2L: a few people decided that it was an opportune time to direct some sort of put-down at D2L. Most of these could have easily fallen into category 4 (humorous), and overall I think D2L was very much NOT bothered by the shots across the bow, but I felt that given the nature of a D2L-hosted event that these comments needed to have a category of their own. There were 9 such comments. Examples:
    • Did D2L open their API yet?
    • API, what’s an API? –signed, John Baker
    • john baker, who’s john baker?
  6. The last category is sort of an Other for those empty posts or those that were clearly just testing to see how the backchannel system worked. There were 11 of these posts. Examples:
    • does html work in this thing
    • I guess HTML does work in this thing

According to my (admittedly subjective) analysis, only about 31% of the backchannel entries were productive. In my opinion, only the first two categories listed above can be considered productive. I was not at all bothered by the use of the backchannel, in fact I was rather intrigued by the whole thing. So much so that I probably spoke a whole lot less than I am usually inclined to do since I was rather busy watching everything else that was going on. I was also able to see the chat postings on Stephen’s site as they were coming in, which was often a bit prior to the ten seconds that each message was displayed on the screen. In other words, I was oftentimes reading ahead and not paying attention to the task at hand.

One additional observation has to do with the progression of the posts during the approx. 50 minutes that posts were being made to the backchannel. During the first 20 minutes, there were only 6 posts, 5 of which were productive (related to the presentation topic). During the third ten minute period, there were 26 productive posts and 22 non-productive posts. During the fourth ten minute period, there were 12 productive posts and 44 non-productive posts. During the last ten minute segment there were 9 productive posts and 47 non-productive posts. As my six-year-old might say, “I see a patteren” (sic) there.

I hope you weren’t expecting a brilliant conclusion to this piece, because there isn’t one. I’m not going to make suggestions about how a backchannel could be used more productively, although I would appreciate some comments that might give other perspectives on this use of a backchannel or others that you are familiar with. Was this a train wreck, or more like a game of bumper cars?

Filed under: Conference, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

Toondoo, Zoho, Jambav, Adventnet – it’s all good

Posted on July 17, 2008 by barrydahl
Another toondoo by Barry

Another toondoo by Barry

At the risk of sounding too much like a fanboy – I just have to say it one more time – love Toondoo and Zoho. This is nothing new for me since I’ve been sort of an evangelist for the past couple of years now. However, they continue to surprise me with how much they pay attention to their users and how responsive they are to suggestions or comments. With regard to Toondoo, back in Dec. 2007, I included them in my end of year list of the Top 12 Web 2.0 Tools. In that post I lamented the fact that I had wanted to use Toondoo with the elementary schools kids where I run the after-school Tech Club, but that I wouldn’t do it because there was too much inappropriate content on the site – mostly lame attempts at adult humor in cartoon format. Within a day or two of that post I received an email from Toondoo telling me that they had added a safe search button at the top of each page and a personal setting that can be turned on to not show any content that has been flagged as inappropriate. I was impressed with their responsiveness, but not terribly impressed with the solutions. I would still have very little control over whether the students turned on the safe search button, except when they were right in the classroom with me. Alas, I had them complete their comic strip projects using a far inferior, but safe, comic creation tool at MakeBeliefsComix.

Then, earlier this month I included Toondoo in my post of the free web tools that I would be willing to pay for. My caveat here was that I would be willing to pay for the tool in order to use it with the youngsters if they could give me a protected environment – think of something like a Ning site which can be password protected, but where the group members could create, share, comment upon, and otherwise do everything that you can do on the regular site, but only with your fellow group members. Sort of a fully-featured gated community for young toondudes.

Lo and behold, I received an e-mail from Rajendran D. of Jambav within just a few days of making that post. TPTB at Jambav thought that was a good idea and were especially intrigued that I had even offered to pay for it. They are proposing that I be a beta tester for their new branded sites opportunity. They will provide a unique URL such as LakeSuperior.toondoo.com and allow me to host the members of my choosing. They are thinking that this service will probably sell for about $50 US per year, but they are offering it for free to me as a beta tester to use it with the students and to report back to them with suggestions and comments. This isn’t yet a totally done deal, but I’m confident that I will be able to try this out with the Tech Club when school starts up again in the fall.

Jambav is owned by Adventnet, which is a profitable software development company. Zoho is also owned by Adventnet, which gives them a potent 1-2 punch in my book. The most recent moment of Zen for me regarding Zoho tools was when I was presenting at the Tennessee Board of Regents Summer Institute last month (TBR08). I did two sessions on Zoho tools that were well attended and well received. There were many times that jaws dropped during those sessions as people saw some of the functionality that they didn’t know existed, or hadn’t taken the time to investigate. I always say that I think the Zoho suite is far advanced over Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and a few Google users confirmed what I was thinking about the power that is Zoho. I also did a session there about Toondoo, and there were so many great ideas about how to use comic strips for both student projects and for other purposes related to online courses and programs. For example, (1) make a Toonbook of frequently asked questions, (2) have students prepare a comic strip to introduce themselves at the beginning of the class, (3) instructor-created comic strip or toonbook as a topic teaser (introducing a new topic before more in-depth study), and several others.

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Paying for Free Stuff

Posted on July 4, 2008 by barrydahl
Flick photographer badge

Flick photographer badge

Until recently, the only Web 2.0 tool/service that I’ve ever paid for was Flickr. Two years ago I paid about $48 for a two-year Pro membership to Flickr. I had been using the free version and liked it so much, and found that it was so valuable to me, and found that the free version didn’t quite meet all my needs (I now have 2,550 items uploaded there), so I broke down and spent a little money. I haven’t regretted that choice at all. I paid that fee prior to Flickr becoming a Yahoo property. The other part of my decision was a sincere desire to lend modest financial support to make sure that Flickr could survive. With Yahoo now in the driver’s seat, they really don’t need my cash any more (or do they?), but I’m going to renew my membership within the next couple of days for another two years.

The second time I paid for something was just recently when I started this new blog here at wordpress.com. It’s totally free to have any number of blogs at WordPress, but I wanted to use my own URL (barrydahl.com). To do that I had to pay $10 per year for domain mapping which is what makes this blog appear at my URL instead of the standard wordpress.com URL. I’m also going to pay another $15 (per year) to be able to customize the look and feel of the blog through the style sheets (CSS) for this particular theme. Therefore, my WordPress blog is going to cost me another $25 per year.

Apparently I’ve found my sweet spot for what I’m willing to pay for a really useful service – $25 per year. Now the question is, which services are worthy of my financial contributions, and why? I’m seriously thinking about paying for more of these services in an effort to help make sure that they are still around in the future and to help insure that I have a higher quality experience with those services. Before I even begin to make the rest of the list, I have already decided that I would be perfectly happy to spend about $200 per year (yes, I know that’s still almost nothing – I guess I’m cheap). Therefore, I’m looking for about 8 applications that I would spend about $25 each for. That would leave the other 75-80 tools that I currently use (some very little, some very much) in the unpaid status.

3) I love the photo editing tools at Picnik.com. They have a premium plan that fits right in at my $25 per year guideline. The free tools are probably good enough for me, but occasionally a premium tools might come in handy. The other thing you get with the premium service is that they take away the on-screen ads. The ads are a bit annoying, but something that I’m generally willing to put up with as long as something is free. The premium tools and no-ads are probably not enough reason for me to pull the trigger on the payment – but keeping them in business so that they can continue to fluff the clouds and kill the ants (or whatever other references to a picnic that they make) is probably a pretty good reason.

Picnik screen shot

4) The Zoho Suite of web office (and other) tools has become indispensable to me. I use the online word processing often, I love Zoho Creator and Zoho Notebook, and sometimes use at least four of the other tools there (Polls, Sheet, Wiki, and Show). However, most of their tools are free and I’m not really interested in the few tools that have a premium (for-pay) service. Those premium tools are directed at a Business audience and for the most part aren’t very useful to me. So, although I would be willing to pay a little sumtin-sumtin, I guess I won’t. Creator is the one premium tool that I do use, but their $25 per month fee (for business accounts) sounds about 12 times more expensive that what I’m willing to pay, so I’ll stick with free.

5) Although I’ve been playing with several different online music services, I still like iMeem the best. I’ve been using the free service but they do have a $25 per year premium service. I could see paying the fee but there are two reasons that I haven’t yet. a) their premium service doesn’t include any really compelling services that I feel I must have, and b) I keep feeling that the next best music service is right around the corner. Still, I would (and just might) pay iMeem sincwe it is one of my favorite Web-based services and it fits within my price range.

6) gMail (and all the other Google services) is free. There is no doubt that I get enough value from their various services that I would be willing to pay my agreed-upon pittance, but I’m not compelled to do so until they really need the money – and besides, they’ve never asked (any of us).

7) Skype is a tool that I’ve used a lot over the past few years. However, I’ve found the quality of service toSkype screen shot be rather shaky over the past several months. This is a tool that I would have been willing to pay $25 for in the past, but now that the calls aren’t very clear and that the video is more unreliable, I’m not so sure that I still would be willing to pay. Still, it’s great for when I’m traveling (especially out of country) to be able to talk to and see the family on the computer. There are now plenty of alternatives to Skype, so maybe now it’s time to pick one and go with it.

8 ) I love Toondoo for making comic strips and ToonBooks. I would be willing to pay $25 per year in order to have a separate site where kids could create and share their cartoons away from the temptations to view some of the less appropriate materials that are often found on the main site. They added a safe search button, but that only goes so far. What I’m thinking about is sort of a Ning site where only the people you want to let in will be there but where you still have access to all the Toondoo creation tools. That would work well with my elementary school afternoon tech club.

9) I really like the quality of video delivery from Blip.tv, quite a bit better IMO than YouTube. For hosting and delivering my videos I would be willing to pay something, but there $96 per year Pro Account is a bit out of my comfort zone. They have several features available only to Pro account holders, but none of them are compelling enough for me to plunk down $96.

10) I haven’t decided for sure yet, but maybe I would pay $25 per year for either a social bookmarking tool like del.icio.us or Diigo, and maybe I’d also pay for a good wiki site such as PBwiki or WetPaint. But for right now, free feels like the best price point for all of these tools.

So, to recap, I’ve only spent $50 so far out of my $200 allocation for “free” tools. I’ll report back after a few months to let you know whether I pulled the trigger on any other payments. After writing this post, I’m less inclined to do so than I was when I started down this path.

Filed under: Computing, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

TBR Keynote – Clicker Responses

Posted on July 3, 2008 by barrydahl

Here is a SlideShare deck from the opening section of my keynote address at the e-Learning summer Institute on Web 2.0 held at the University of Memphis by the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR08). There is a 10-min audio file attached – click the green triangular Play button at the bottom of the slides.

I used clickers to get a sense for how Web 2.0 immersed the participants were prior to embarking on a 2.5 day adventure into learning about Web 2.0 and what they can do with those tools in their classes. Yes, I realize that clickers are not Web two-point-oh-ish, but they were useful in gathering info about the crowd. Here are a few things that I found interesting. 1) At the beginning of the conference (when the slides were captured), 56% of the group did not have an account at any of the following: Skype, SlideShare, Twitter, UStream, or Zoho. By the end of the coference I’m sure that everyone had accounts with at least some of those services. Ditto for several other tools. 2) Only 22% feel well-versed in web accessibility issues. 3) No one (except me) in the group had read the Cluetrain Manifesto (they need to).

One slide (#5) got messed up when uploading the PPT slides to SlideShare. This happens occasionally when text wraps to a second line in SlideShare even thought it didn’t do that in PPT. It’s always a good idea to not run your text too close to the edge of the slide if you are going to upload into SlideShare. Maybe I’ll get that fixed, and maybe I won’t.

Filed under: Conference, Read/WriteWeb | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Cover it Live – Clarence Maise

Posted on June 26, 2008 by barrydahl

Clarence is the keynote speaker for Day Two of the TBR e-Learning Summer Institute on Web 2.0 hosted at the University of Memphis. WordPress won’t allow embedded windows as I would normally do with Cover it Live – so click the link below to open a new window. You can follow along as I comment on his presentation and you can add your own comments as well.

Open Cover it Live Window

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