myHistro

myHistro is a timeline builder and map creation tool rolled into one nice package. On myHistro you can build a personal timeline or build a timeline about a theme or event in history. Each event that you place on your timeline can be geolocated using Google Maps. myHistro timelines can be created online or you can use the free iPad app to create events on your timeline.

I gave myHistro a try this afternoon and found it rather easy to use after initially spending ten minutes fumbling around and learning the language of myHistro. When you first sign into myHistro you will be shown a screen for creating your first event. An event is a stand-alone item. If you want to create a timeline you need to click on your account dashboard then select "stories" to create a story. "Story" is myHistro's name for timelines. Create a story then add events to your story. Each event can include videos, images, text and be geolocated on a map.

Keen Talks

Keen Talks is an online catalog of videos featuring educational and thought-provoking talks from people across the academic and entertainment spectrums. While Keen Talks is very heavy on science topics, you can find talks on topics in history, economics, entertainment, and technology. You can search Keen Talks by topic, category, or speaker's name.

Spelling City

SpellingCity recently launched a free iPad and iPhone app for students. The app gives students access to the same vocabulary lists that they use on the SpellingCity website. SpellingCity's list of words for students exceeds 42,000. Students and teachers who register for accounts can create custom word lists (Note, new lists have to be made online. Through the app you can only access existing lists). If you don't register you can simply choose from the many suggested word lists created by SpellingCity.

The SpellingCity app offers six types of practice activities. The activities are Teach Me, Test Me, Match It, Word Unscramble, Hang Mouse, and Which Word. I am particularly fond of the Teach Me activity in which the words and their spellings are read to students. Again, if you are registered and logged into SpellingCity you can create custom lists that are read to your students when they use the Teach Me mode on their iPads.

You can learn more about the free SpellingCity iPad app here. Or download the app here.

Inside Jobs - Career Website

Inside Jobs is a site that offers information about careers and the training required for them. On Inside Jobs visitors can search for career information by keyword or browse through categorized collections of information. Each career in the list has a short video featuring someone in the industry explaining what they do and how they got into the field. Inside Jobs provides lists of schools that offer programs related to the careers that students are interested in. (Note that the schools do pay to be included on Inside Jobs).

Applications for Education
Inside Jobs could be a good resource for students who want to learn more about a particular career field. It might be a good site to link to from your school's guidance department webpages.

SoundCloud in a Language Course

Using SoundCloud in a Language Course

SoundCloud is a free tool for creating and sharing sound tracks. On Monday I included it in my list of alternatives to Aviary. Today, I showed it to some teachers at the Bancroft School in Massachusetts. When I showed the option for inserting text comments into the sound tracks a teacher spoke up with an idea for using Sound Cloud in a world languages course.

The suggestion the teacher made was to have students record spoken tracks on Sound Cloud and share them with her. Then she could use the comment feature to provide feedback that is tied directly to each student's recording. The comments could be tied to the exact second at which a student pronounces something incorrectly, uses the wrong verb form, or to praise a student for pronouncing a new word particularly well.

SoundCloud allows you to have up to two hours of recordings stored in your account at one time. After that you need to either delete an old recording or upgrade to a paid plan.

Szoter Demo

Szoter

Szoter - Annotate Pictures and Take Screenshots

Szoter is a free online tool for annotating images that are stored on your computer. You can also use Szoter to capture and annotate screenshots.

You can use Szoter on the web or download the Adobe Air version of it to run on your desktop. Either way you can upload images, draw on those images, and type on those images. When you're done annotating and drawing on your images you can save them to your local computer or share them online through your favorite social networks. Szoter can also be used to capture your screen and create annotated screen captures. The video below provides a demonstration of Szoter.

Mobento

Mobento - Search for Spoken Words in Videos

There are lots of places to find educational videos on the web. Mobento is one of those places. What makes Mobento different from most educational video hosts is that you can search for spoken words within a video. Mobento not only tells you which videos have specific words spoken in them, it will also show you a timeline of where in the video your specified words are spoken.

Applications for Education
Mobento's collection of videos isn't terribly large right now, but it has potential to be a great service for finding educational video clips that address the specific terms you're searching for.

WordsLike

A Simple Visual Thesaurus

Words Like is handy little website for those times when you need a thesaurus. Words Like works in your choice of two ways. You can browse the word clouds or simply enter a word in the search box. Any word that you click on in either the word cloud or in the list generated by your search will lead you to at least one word with a similar meaning. Definitions are provided for every word on Words Like.

Applications for Education
Words Like could be helpful to student writers in need of some new words to spice-up their writing.

VIDquick

VIDquik Offers Quick Video Calling

VIDquik is a new video calling system that does not require you to install any special software (you will need to make sure that Flash is up to date on your computer). To make a video call with VIDquik just click "video conf" on the homepage, enter your email address, and enter the email address of the person you wish to video call. VIDquik connect you as soon as the other person receives the email. VIDquik does give you the option to text chat while video calling.

Applications for Education
If you're looking for a free and easy-to-use alternative to Skype, give VIDquik a try. You could use the service to connect your classroom with their e-penpals in another part of the world.

Mudd Math Facts

Math Fun with Mudd Math Facts

The math department of Harvey Mudd College has a website full of fun math facts. Mudd Math Fun Facts has an easy to search database of math facts designed to stimulate thought and make students look at mathematics in a different light. Each fun fact is accompanied by a problem, diagram, and short explanation of a fun mathematics concept.

Applications for Education
Mudd Math Fun Facts is designed for use with introductory college math courses, but it could also be a great website for some high school mathematics classes. The math fun facts can be used to expose college-bound students to some higher order mathematics concepts and spark some curiosity about mathematics. If you have a class website or blog you can link to Mudd Math Fun Facts and provide students with a fun fact of the day that they can explore on their own.

Campus Bird

Interactive Map-Based College Search

Campus Bird is a website designed to help students locate a college or graduate school that is right for them. Campus Bird provides a great set of search filters for helping students narrow their list of choices. Students can filter their searches by degree type, major field of study, location, campus setting, athletics, and special program offerings. On their own, the extensive list of search filters would make Campus Bird a good college search service, but Campus Bird takes it a step further by incorporating Google Earth.

Campus Bird uses the Google Earth browser plug-in to show students the location of the colleges in which they're interested. For some colleges, Campus Bird offers the opportunity to take a virtual tour of the campus within the Google Earth browser plug-in. Students can also use the Yelp search box located at the bottom of the map to search for restaurants, businesses, and wireless hotspots around campus.

Applications for Education
I've explored dozens college search websites over the years and Campus Bird is one of the best. If your high school's guidance department has a website, Campus Bird should be one of the links on it.