Brainstorming in the Clouds - Edistorm

Here is a gem I just found and I am eager to use in class and a workshop on Tuesday.  It is called Edistorm.   It is a brainstorming tool that using the metaphor of using different coloured sticky notes on a wall to collect, share, sort and rank ideas.  What I like about it is:

Dropbox.com

I just recently discovered this gem. Dropbox.com is a free (has a free level of use) cloud based file backup and retrieval tool. But it does a lot more:

• You get 2 GB (or 2,000 MB) of storage space to start with.  I only have 10 MB on this Blog site.
  
  

Presentations with Prezi.com

Prezi is a new kind of presentation tool. It is quite different from PowerPoint and slideshow based presentations tools. It allows you to approach preparing and giving presentations in very different way.

What I like about Prezi:

• It is free.

Cloud Computing for Your Classroom

There are many useful cloud computing applications that are emergingthat you can easily use in your classroom to engage your students and supportcollaborative learning. Cloud computing applications are tools that reside totallyon the Web and you can access through any computer with a Web browser andInternet connection. Many of these tools can be used with very little investmentof time to learn and set up -- and, most of them are free. In this session, we willreview several of these resources and how you can employ them to enhance your teaching.

Resources:

• Prezi including links to my three top ten lists.
• Shared Typewith.me document.
• Go2Web20.net- Cloud Computing Applications Index
• Growing list of Free Cloud Computing Teaching Tools that I and others are compiling.
• Click here to sign up for a free Dropbox.com account and get a 250MB Bonus.

If you are using a free cloud computing app in your teaching, share it with us. Post a comment.

Rod Corbett

Beginner's Guide to Mahara

I have reviewed a brand new book from Packt Publishing that is a very good beginner's guide to how t use Mahara 1.2. Mahara is an open source e-portfolio system coming out of New Zealand. Go to Mahara.org to learn more about it.

We are just finishing a pilot project at Mount Royal University using Mahara 1.2 as an e-portfolio and e-journalling system. I have been the lead on this project, which means I had to learn how to use the software fast. I found this book to be a great resource for an faculty and students that need to get up to speed on using Mahara quickly.

I like the book for the following reasons:

• It is an easy read. I have used several Packt books before to learn software and this one works very well.
• It has several examples, hints and tips that will help anyone get comfortable with Mahara.
• The book is also organized in a very logical way so it can be used a reference book for looking up how to use features when you need it.
• I really liked how it explained how to set up your views. This is probably the most challenging feature of Mahara to grasp, but the screen shots in the book are view useful.
• You can acquire the book electronically as a lower cost. E-books have the advantages that you can carry it around on your computer or USB drive and you can search the text electronically with the search function on your PDF viewer.
• There is also a demo site that you can use with the practice activities in the book if you don't have access to a Mahara site.
• For the techy people there are also appendices about how to plan to install and install Mahara.

If you are at all interested in learning more about Mahara, I highly recommend you acquire this book. Go to https://www.packtpub.com/mahara-1-2-e-portfolios-beginners-guide for more information about it.

If you would like to download a preview a sample chapter click here.

Rod Corbett