Thursday, January 10, 2008

Tools and Sites I Use List

Following Will Richardson's lead (and therefore TechCrunch's) I thought I would make a list of the Tools and Sites I currently use on a regular basis. Like Will, I'm just going to include those I use at least once a week, and I'll star the ones I use on a daily basis.

  • Google Search* (just discovered the 'define' feature--it's wonderful. In your search type "define:"and then a word and you'll get definitions from multiple websites)

  • Google Video* (less porn/questionable material than YouTube)

  • Google Notebook*

  • Google Calendar*

  • Edublogs*

  • Moodle*

  • Firefox* (I just love the tabs and that it is open source and not a Microsoft product :-p It blows Safari out of the water too.)

  • YouTube*

  • Google Reader*

  • Elluminate Live! (I teach in a DL program, so I end up tutoring over the phone quite a bit. Now, if a student has a math problem we usually just go into Elluminate and use the whiteboard--it's great. Better yet, it is available to all public school teachers in BC through a provincial license.)

  • Wikipedia

  • iGoogle* (I have Gsearch, Gmail, Gcalender, Greader, plus news and weather all in one handy place)

  • WebCT/Blackboard


List

It will be interesting to see how much this list changes in a year from now. Nine of the items on my list I was not using at all as of five months ago. Five of the items are from Google. Forgot YouTube, that's six. I sure hope that Google uses its awesome power for good and not evil, as they sure must know a lot about me!

Now here's my list of tools/sites that I would either like to start using or use more frequently. The ones I haven't tried sound really good, but I just haven't found the time to check them out. OK, I'll admit it; I'm actually scared of trying Twitter.

  • Twitter (not sure I get it, worried that it will suck me into the abyss)

  • Ustream (all this time I thought folks were talking about 'United Streaming' which I have found to be pretty ho-hum. Ustream--whole different thing.)

  • Del.icio.us

  • Flickr (I have an account, just haven't put the time into seeing how to make optimal use of it.)


Site that went from 'Cool' to 'Ho-Hum'; Facebook. When I first signed up it lived up to its 'Crackbook' nick name. But now I hardly ever check it out. Maybe I'm too old for Facebook?

Any tools/site you couldn't live without? I'd love to hear about them!

*List photo by nocos

12 comments:

  1. Your post made me smile because I to am too scared to use twitter but I really think I'll have to take the plunge.

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  2. Definitely stopped for a second when I thought where is twitter.

    So not sure what made me chuckle the most - you being scared of getting into Twitter or yet again Sarah beating me to write a comment. Honestly there is nothing to be scared of with twitter -- okay maybe I am not a good example because I am a twitter-a-holic. However if you really love reading blogs think of it as this incredible blog conversation but on speed that happens really fast. The key with twitter is to build a good network i.e. choose good people to have in your network and use it how you want to use it. If you only want to tap into every now and then that is okay. If you want to stay connected - that is also okay. The only rule is there are no rules barr your own (stole that from Alan Levine).

    Regarding Flickr I have a post on my site that may help you with getting more out of Flickr - definitely worth the effort. Facebook - I am with you! Take it, flush it down the toilet with my mobile phone.

    Tools I can't live without... mmm like Sarah I have been using my wireless Mac and wireless network so please don't take it away. But had not thought of sitting outside in the sun to use it (mmm sounds like fun). My other daily tools are: Twitter, iGoogle, Google Reader, Gmail, Co-mment, SnagIT, Firefox and off course my blog. Followed by Flickr. Del.icio.us is still there but not ranking as highly cause been lazy and locate most using my Google Reader.

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  3. Sarah, thanks for letting me know I'm not alone! Sue, I will definitely check out your Flickr post. I've just started using it to get images for my blog posts, but would like to learn more. It looks like I'll have to check out SnagIT too. As for Twitter... maybe I'll feel brave this weekend ;-)

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  4. I have done it - I have joined!!

    How about you joining as well and we can virtually hold hands as we learn about twitter - I'm sure Sue would help out if we ask her.

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  5. Way to go Sarah! Well, I'll have to join now!

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  6. Hi Clare, just loving twitter,but as you said in one of my posts, I wont have so much time to play with it when I go back to work.

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  7. Well, if any of you figure out twitter let me know! Yes, I know Sue Waters lives and breathes it. Have you tried following her? Yikes. You get half of the conversation she is having with tons of people all the time. I'm always so grateful when she writes a blog post to summarize it all!

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  8. ROFL Christine. I'm not that bad on twitter :). Nowadays most of my conversations use @ so are directed at specific people - so you won't see these conversations unless you follow both of us or you are crazy and have your replies set to show all replies. Which means you see absolutely every conversation - which is definitely overwhelming.

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  9. [...] and decide that it’s high time that I tried out tool X, Y, or Z too. It was after I wrote this post that Sarah and I both took the Twitter plunge (after being kindly mocked by Sue Waters). - Clay [...]

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  10. [...] January I decided to write a post on the tools and sites that I was using on a regular basis.  I thought it would be interesting to [...]

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  11. [...] time for my annual “Tools and Sites I Use List’!  Here’s my first list from January 2008 and my second one from January 2009.  I was originally inspired by a Will [...]

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