Capzles

Capzles is another timeline tool that has a lot of great multimedia functionality. You can incorporate videos, music, photos and text into a timeline to tell a story, represent a series of events or any number of other things you might want to do with a timeline. The end result feels a bit more like a photo sharing tool in that you are able to view a timeline either from beginning to end or by just scrolling through and clicking on the image or event you want to jump to. At this point there doesn't appear to be more than one viewing option so you can't see the dates and event details until you actually select the event or scroll over it. They are still in Beta with this so more functionality may be added later. For now, it is an easy tool to use and provides a nice looking slideshow type of timeline.

Only2Clicks

Only2Clicks is yet another social bookmarking tool that lets you to create a web archive of your favorite websites. The unique feature of this tool is that it allows you to create a snapshot display of the different sites you bookmark. You can then create tabs around different topics so that you can flip through your bookmarks by topic and see the various snapshots of those sites. The way the sites are displayed reminds me of PageFlakes and other similar personalized start page tools. I think this tool could work well for someone who is really visually oriented and would benefit from seeing websites represented as snapshots. The downside, of course, is that far fewer sites can be represented on a single screen because each individual snapshot takes up so much screen real estate. This may not be an issue for you if you make good use of the tab features and divide up your sites into logical topics so that they can be spread out across a larger array of tabs.

Free File Sharing

There are a variety of different tools out there that allow you to share files that are too large to send as e-mail attachments. One in particular that I have found to be handy is SendSpace. The free account allows you to upload individual files as big as 300 MB in size! The way it works is that you upload the file you want to share and include the e-mail address of the person you want to share it with. The file gets uploaded and your friend gets an e-mail message letting him/her know that there is a file waiting for them to download. They go to SendSpace, download the file and presto, big honking file is shared. They even have a desktop wizard you can download that will allow you to upload multiple files, add descriptions to the files and much more. It isn't clear if this tool allows you to send the files to multiple recipients but that sure would be nice.

Dancing With Matt

Many of you have probably already seen this video since there are nearly 8 million views of it on YouTube but I just had to include it here on the blog because I think it is pure genius on so many levels. First of all, what a great way to represent the world and demonstrate that music and dance can translate across so many cultures. Also, this video is a perfect example of how technology can represent emotions and communicate a message that is hard to replicate in any other medium. The great thing is that the message is communicated in the absence of words. Sure, there are titles showing the locations but the main character speaks only through his fancy footwork. I envy this globe-trekking Fred Astaire and look forward to discovering the next new phenomenon that gets uploaded to the vast collection of online multimedia.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Google Sky

First off let me apologize for being such an absent blogger. I have been on the road for the past week and a half visiting family and while I brought my computer along with me I didn't find much time to post to the blog. Now that I'm back I wanted to share Google Sky with everyone. Yes, the Google geniuses are back at it again and have created yet another cool tool. Google Sky is a lot like Google Earth except that instead of punching in a location on Earth you can explore the sky and various parts of the galaxy. Another thing that differentiates Google Sky from Google Earth is that it is web-based and doesn't require any kind of download to use. Of course, the images you see on Google Sky are going to reflect the limits of our current technology so don't be surprised if you punch in "Jupiter" in the locator window and don't end up with a crystal clear close-up of the gas giant. If you are really into astronomy, and teach it with your students, you may also want to check out Google Moon and Google Mars.