Salty Solutions - Recently Updated Pages

Google Docs

mrpbps — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:04:43 CDT

Whilst Google Docs,doesn’t have all of the options that Zoho has, it presently offers a word processing, spreadsheet and presentation modules, in many ways the ones that it does have are more appealing. Among the neat features of Google Spreadsheets is the ability to embed a survey in your blog so you can use the spreadsheet to create and collate surveys. For more ideas and tips check out the Google Docs for educators page.

Salty Solutions Home

mrpbps — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:13:40 CDT

Welcome to the Salty Solutions Wiki.

This wiki is designed to support presentations by John Pearce related to educational uses of Web 2.0 apps.

One of the biggest issues that should concern schools surrounds the kind of software that is used throughout the school. Paradoxically though too often this isn’t the case. Because most schools are provided with education licensed versions of Microsoft Office one can understand why these applications are still the most commonly used in schools. Even today experience suggests that the four main components of this suite are the focus of many school programs. Indeed they are also the primary basis for support programs such as the Intel program.

Often the Office suite is supported by other applications such as concept mapping and drawing and other presentation software. Managing the use of these programs however can be problem especially with the on-going costs associated with site licences and software maintenance. The advent of Office 2008 has also bought with it the problem of versioning and opening work sent from school to home.

Fortunately a range of alternatives to these applications are becoming increasingly available. Perhaps more importantly many of these alternatives are free and/or web based. In some cases the costs of providing the service are covered by website advertising. In other cases the free version of the software is an inducement to lead you into purchasing enhanced versions or options.

So What Can You Expect To See Out There?

The two standout online alternatives to Microsoft Office are

Other Tools

Survey Tool:
- SurveyMonkey
Concept Mapping Tools:
- Gliffy
- Bubbl.us
Online Albums:
Cartoons
- ToonDoo

Avatars
- Voki

These are just a few of the options that are out available at present, if you want to attempt to keep up with the ever expanding range of options the you should look in atthe Readwrite siteor Go2Web. Another great spot to go to check out lists and reviews of Web 2.0 apps is Mashable. Be warned though, Mashable post numerous posts each day and serves the general Web2.0 audience. As such a visit may be a bit daunting for novices though it is a great spot to visit to get a feeling for the scope of all of things Web2.0. You could also look in at Alan Levine’s CoDogRoo StoryToolswiki.

Contact And More Information

mrpbps — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:26:47 CDT

The author of this presentation is John Pearce who blogs at My Other Blog

John has a Support Blog that has been utlised for his student's Passion Projects and other classroom activities.

He is also co-author of Technology Toolkit: Introducing You To Web 2.0

Further details about the book can be found at http://secondary.cengage.com.au/title/0170136655/633 or you can download this order form tech toolkit order.pdf

John now conducts his own consultancy business in the ICT and primary science area called Salty Solutions as well as maintaining the Simply Science website devoted to primary science.

Toondoo

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:45:47 CDT

If you want to spice up your blog with cartoons, then ToonDoo is a great tool. You can select from a range of characters, backgrounds and other offerings to add to your cartoon. With Toondoo you can also create cartoon books.

Flickr Toys

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:44:32 CDT

Flickr Toys are a great set of Flickr tools that enable you to create cartoons, slideshows and puzzles from images stored in Flickr.

And here's a quick one.......

Zoho Sheets

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:16:59 CDT

Here is an example of a Zoho Sheet. You can update the data in the spreadsheet directly from this window which will then also update the graph.
Note you can also Save the Zoho spreadsheet directly on to your computer as an Excel document also.

Voki

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:23:24 CDT

One of the most appealing add-ons to a student’s blog is the animated avatar Voki. Once you have signed up you can create any number of Vokis using a basic character that can be manipulated in a range of ways. Best of all you can use a microphone to record up to sixty seconds of your own voice or key in some text and have the computer generated voice ‘speak’ your personal message.

Spashcast

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:44:02 CDT

SplashCast enables you to mix, slice and dice images, audio, movies and PowerPoint presentations to create your own production that you can save into your personal channel. Click on the image to start the Splashcast presentation

Slideshare

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:35:38 CDT

Slideshare is an on-line repository for Microsoft PowerPoint or Mac-based Keynote presentations. A presentation created in either of these off-line applications can be easily uploaded to SlideShare, after which it can be embedded directly into your blog.

Concept Mapping

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:29:19 CDT

If you can’t afford licences for concept mapping software, then you could consider introducing your students to Gliffy, or Bubbl.us. Both are on-line concept mapping applications. As with all the better Web 2.0 applications, you can use Gliffy and Bubbl.us to collaborate in constructing concept diagrams and other visual organisers. You can only only draw 5 free maps with Gliffy before you have to pay though you can continue to modify the original five. The Gliffy diagrams are also not "live" in many blogs or wikis, you have to make do with an image capture as below.

The bubbl.us maps by comparison can be moved around within the blog or wiki as below.

Zoho Suite

mrpbps — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:12:57 CDT

Zoho, provides an online suite of applications including Zoho Writer, (word-processing), Zoho Sheet, (spreadsheet), database and Zoho Show, (slideshow presentation) options. These applications have a look and feel a lot like their off-line equivalents. One of the key advantages of using such on-line applications is that students can work on their documents anywhere and any time as long as they are on-line. The applications are not platform or operating system dependent. One drawback is that they can be a bit slow toreactto your direction and editing choices especiallydepending on your internet connectivity. One of the really nice things about using the Zoho suite is that you can easily switch between the various components by using the Switch to link at the top of each Zoho screen.

VoiceThread

mrpbps — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:27:15 CDT

VoiceThread is a great site for creating “talking” photo albums. You and if you wish, your viewers can also add text to your VoiceThread. Alternatively, you can choose to keep your VoiceThread private and to turn comment moderation on or off.

Survey Monkey

mrpbps — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:58:01 CDT

Another option for collecting data is to open a free SurveyMonkey account. The surveys range from multiple-choice to essay-type format though with the basic free service there are some restrictions on the range of surveys you can create, and you can view the results only on screen. Here is a digital image of part of a survey.

Zoho Show

mrpbps — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:53:50 CDT

Here is an example of an embedded Zoho Show presentation taken from a PowerPoint show.