Google Apps Just Keeps Getting Better

I just love the way Google Apps keeps getting better and better.

Just recently, there was the inclusion of 'upload and store any file' from Google and then came the addition of Aviary integrated directly into Google Apps.

Now, Google Apps very nearly provides the complete one stop solution for covering the FETAC Level 4 requirements in Information Technology Skills and Computer Applications.

It makes it so much easier for the students when they only have to sign in to one account and everything is in one place.

Information Technology Skills Module
Docs takes care of the typing speed test, wordprocessing and file management sections. Sites takes care of the theory section, while Gmail covers the Email section.

Computer Applications
Docs takes care of the spreadsheet section and Aviary takes care of the graphics section. The only thing missing, now, is the integration of a suitable free database application.

Here's hoping it won't be too long....

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Drawing Added to Google Docs

Google Docs just keeps getting better and better. The latest new feature, drawing, allows you to "create and insert rich, colorful drawings into documents, presentations and spreadsheets".

The drawing feature is quite comprehensive letting you draw

using lines, free hand scribbles, text labels and a large choice of shapes that you can move, resize, rotate and adjust. Group, order, align and distribute and other features are available when you select objects you've drawn. You can also customize a range of shape properties, from line widths to fill color, and from arrowheads to font size, and much more. If you change your mind, there is undo and redo.

You can, also, collaborate with a friend or colleague on the drawing. Drawing even works in Google Apps. Happy Days!!

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Technorati Tags: google apps, google docs

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View Flickr Photos in a 3D World

Tag Galaxy provides a lovely visual interface to search for and view photos from Flickr. In this example, I initially searched for 'badminton' and then added 'sports'. This found 1,846 photos!

When you select your initial tag you will be presented with a 'tag galaxy' (see figure 1). You can then refine your search by selecting one of the 'planets'. This produces the 'world', which you can rotate and zoom in/out (see figure 2).



Finally, you can select an image of interest and view it in crisp, clear detail (see figure 3).  The link for the originating Flickr page is also given. Would be perfect if Creative Commons search was added!

Simply beautiful!


Figure 3 - source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianlagonera/84323154/

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Technorati Tags: flickr, tag galaxy

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The Photoshop Anthology - Free Download

Sitepoint are offering a time limited free PDF download of 'The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques.

The book, written by Corrie Haffly, is very comprehensive offering 9 complete chapters covering everything from the basics to advanced techniques. I particularly like the chapter that is devoted to designing a website.

Don't miss out. The offer ends in 25 days from now.........

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Technorati Tags: pdf, photoshop, the photoshop anthology

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View your Flickr Images in 3D Space

TiltViewer is another creation from AIRTIGHT Interactive who also produced SimpleViewer, reviewed in an earlier post.

TiltViewer allows you to "browse Flickr's most interesting images in a 3D space. It's designed to provide a fun, intuitive user experience". By default, the images are taken from Flickr's 'Interestingness' list.

However, TiltViewer now also has the option to display any set of Flickr images based on user id, group id, tags, etc. This is achieved by simply adding a query string on the end of the TiltViewer url .

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Technorati Tags: 3D, flickr, tilt viewer

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Image Editing and Slideshow Creation

flauntR is a one stop shop for online image editing and slideshow creation.

With flauntR you can create custom slideshows choosing from over "20 high end transition effects". Although, as far as I could tell, you can only use one transition per slide show - not different transitions for different slides.

Through stylR you can edit your images by adding effects, frames, filters and overlays. There does not seem to be an easy 'undo button' to use if you apply an effect and don't like it! There is a reset button but this clears all the changes even if you only want to clear the last one.

textR allows you to add text using all sorts of fancy fonts, sizes, colours and alignments. editR lets you re-size, rotate or crop the image as well as adding effects such as sepia.

flauntR allows you to save your images to your online account or to your own computer.

Found this site from Paul Reid's blog. On first impressions, I still prefer Picnik, featured in an earlier post, but I guess I will give flauntR another go!

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Technorati Tags: flauntr, image editing, picnik, slideshow

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The Open Clip Art Library

The Open Clip Art Library is a continually growing archive of user contributed clip art that can be freely used. There is over 7000 items of clip art archived. The Open Clip Art objects are available for download in svg and sometimes png format.

Unfortunately, OpenOffice does not support the svg format but there are a couple of solutions available. Use a batch processing utility called svg2office to convert the svg files to odg files in bulk or open the svg file in Inkscape and re-save it in the odg format.

OpenOffice does, however, support the png format.

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Technorati Tags: graphics, inkscape, open clip art, openoffice

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Neat Image Viewing Application

SimpleViewer is a lovely, flash based, image viewing application. SimpleViewer has a customizable interface where the text color, frame color and width plus navigation position can all be changed.

SimpleViewer also boasts an interface that scales to fit the browser window. Beware though, SimpleViewer is designed for showing, at most, around 50 images per gallery. Anything more than this will be too slow and the program may freeze!

Flash7 or higher is also required.

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Technorati Tags: flash, graphics, simpleviewer

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A Picture Paints a 1000 words....

And, I think, this one paints even more. If this picture doesn't get the words flowing then nothing will! It's truly amazing.

Adam, shown above, is just one of many superb mosaics that can be found at Mural Mosaic.

A feast for the eyes!

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Technorati Tags: graphics, murial mosaic

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Irish Photo Library Website Launched

Imagebank is a photo library website where people can search for and share high-quality photos for educational use.

The site was launched recently by NCTE and Scoilnet and has been developed in response to teachers’ needs and requests.

Imagebank is intended to be a support resource for students and teachers in Irish education by providing Irish related photos (places and spaces, animals, sport and flowers, etc).

The images in Imagebank are made available under Creative Commons licensing and everyone, with an interest in education, is encouraged to add high-quality photographs to the site.

Although geared towards an Irish setting, many of the photographs in Imagebank could easily be used for any educational setting.

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Technorati Tags: creative commons, imagebank, ncte, photographs, scoilnet

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Download Camtasia and Snagit for Free

Camtasia Studio (version 5) is an excellent piece of screencasting software from Techsmith costing $299.

However, Camtasia Studio (version 3) is currently available for download for free! Having downloaded this demo version, register your copy here to receive the registration key. This converts the demo into the fully functioning version.

Snagit (version 7) is the companion screen capture program from Techsmith and is also available for download for free! Once downloaded, register your copy here to receive the registration key. Snagit (version 8) is the current version going for $39.95.

This info is 'hot off the press' from the blogs of Tims Gates and Amit Agarwal!

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Technorati Tags: camtasia, screen capture, screencasting, snagit

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Visually Presented Timelines

xtimeline is a useful social tool that enables you to built timelines about any subject. Many historical events and 'celebrity' personal profiles are available to view at xtimeline. The timelines are visual and include relevant images and concise information.

First came across xtimeline thanks to Mike Qaissaunee's post.

Here's an interesting one about the Nobel Peace Prize Winners (comprising 115 events!).

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Technorati Tags: social tool, timeline, xtimeline

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Having Fun with Your Photos

Dumpr describes itself as the "digital camera photographers hobbyists' toyshop".  Dumpr provides several online programs which allow you to use your photos in different fun ways.

Museumr lets you portray your favourite photo in a Museum setting as shown here.

The Jigsaw Puzzle option divides the photo into jigsaw pieces - which if you were really dedicated, you could print and cut up to produce a 'real' jigsaw puzzle. The Sketch Tool produces a realistic drawn representation of your photo.

Depending on your photo, the Easter Egg creator can produce some lovely effects:


Another interesting site is Photojojo which provides a twice weekly newsletter on photo tips, project ideas and news about interesting photo websites.

There are also many more fun tools at Fd's Flicker Toys including badge, calendar, CD cover and poster makers.

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Technorati Tags: dumpr, flickr toys, photo, photojojo

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Create your own Wall Posters

Block Posters lets you upload an image and create variable sized posters for your wall. The Block Posters are made up from joining together A4 sized printed pages. A PDF file of the enlarged image is created. This can then be saved to your computer and printed. The file upload size is restricted to a maximum of 1MB.

The example shown below is made up of 8 x A4 pages and measures approximately 2.8feet wide x 1.9feet high. A Block Poster made up of 50 x A4 pages (maximum size available) would measure approximately 7.0feet wide x 4.7feet high.



The site's gallery shows many varied examples and should provide ideas for interesting projects - if you can't think of any!

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Technorati Tags: block poster, image, pdf

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Multimedia Masterpiece

Visiting Ashes and Snow is a captivating experience. This site demonstrates all that is good about multimedia.

Ashes and Snow combines compelling text, pictures, music, narration, video and flexible navigation to provide a truly memorable and individual experience. When visiting the site make sure you choose the "Enhanced Experience" option.

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Technorati Tags: ashes and snow, multimedia

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Photo Editing in your Browser

Picnik lets you upload your photos and edit them online. Photos can also be transferred from photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots and social networking site Facebook.

As well as tweaking and fixing your photos, Picnik also lets you "get creative" by adding special effects, text, shapes and frames. You can crop, rotate, resize, sharpen and adjust colours. There is also an option to fix any red eyes! The effects include changing the photo to black/white, sepia or matte.

As well as this, you can add speech bubbles and basic geometric shapes. The free account provides a good range of effects with the premium account offering many more.

An added bonus is that seasonal shapes are added for special occasions, hence the 'Halloween' edited photo shown here.

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Technorati Tags: facebook, flickr, image, picnik, photobucket, webshots

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Online Goodies(10) - Voicethread

Voicethread is essentially an online collaboration tool.  Simply upload your image, presentation or video and get the conversation going!! With the free account you can create a maximum of three different Voicethreads.

Voicethreads can be private or public.  You decide who to share them with - either 1 person, several people or the whole world.  When the voicethread is public, you can allow or restrict new comments. You can also choose to turn on comment moderation, which means that you can decide whether to show added comments or not.

The example below shows how the Voicethread can also be used as an instruction tool. This one covers posting a podcast on the Ning social network.



Educators can now apply for the PRO account for free!

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Technorati Tags: collaboration, image, ning, podcast, video, voicethread

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Which Avatar would you Choose?

There are several sites offering avatar creation ranging from cartoons to photo-based representations.

For the audio enthusiast, speaking avatars can be created at Voki. Political, VIP or classical characters can be selected and detailed changes made to the hair, skin and eyes. You can also select different clothes and backgrounds. Speech or other audio is easily added. A simple 'text to speech' converter is included and was used in the example above. The Voki also displays some animation as it follows the movement of the mouse when moved inside the player.

With Yahoo Avatars you can create and save up to twelve different avatars. For each one, you can change their appearance, clothes and backgrounds. You could create different avatars for different occasions such as holidays, start of term, exam time etc.

Your avatar can be exported or downloaded to use where you wish - from website to mobile phone.

The Befunky site allows you to create Uvatars or Cartoons. Befunky is currently invite only and after submitting your email address you must wait for a confirmed invitation. I am still waiting for mine!!

The SimpsonizeMe site creates your simpson character based on a photo that you upload to the site.

Yes this is me!

You are allowed to fine tune your avatar by making several changes before downloading the final image.

Thanks to Mike Qaissaunee for the heads up on Befunky and SimpsonizeMe.

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Technorati Tags: audio, avatar, befunky, cartoon, image, simpsonizeme, voki

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Resize your Photos with one Click

Picture Resizer enables you to easily resize a batch of JPG photos in one step. Simply download the software and place it on your desktop. Then drag and drop the JPG images/folders on to the desktop icon. Picture Resizer changes the dimensions and places a copy next to the original.

The size of the converted pictures is determined by the application name. By default Picture Resizer is named to produce 400 pixel size (aspect ratio preserved). To change the output to 100 pixels, simply change the desktop icon to read photoresizer100.

Picture Resizer is very useful for changing lots of photos at the same time and for preparing photos for computer use rather than for printing. Reducing the size from camera dimensions of 2272 x 1704 or 1280 x 960 to a more computer friendly 800 x 600 or smaller is a snap!

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Technorati Tags: image, jpg, photo, photoresizer

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Creating Cartoons and Comics

For all those Simpsons (et al) inspired fans, the ToonDoo site should prove a great hit! ToonDoo is a comic-creating tool enabling a "new way of expression for those who do not have the talent to draw."

As well as creating simple ToonDoos consisting of 1 to 3 screens, you can also create ToonBooks by combining unlimited ToonDoos.

I think this one is very funny, succinct and highlights what education is all about!

By ChrisMarshall | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Similarly, Witty is a comic creation site which enables you to create a three-strip comic. Here's an example on podcasting. Based on Witty comics, the ComicCreator is a Widged inspired flash production enabling you to create your own 3-strip comic.

Also came across Kerpoof thanks to Alan Levine. This is a fun tool for creating cartoons. Makebeliefscomix is another comic strip creating site (discovered thanks to Lucy Gray).

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Technorati Tags: draw, education, flash, kerpoof, podcast, toondoo, witty

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