Tweetdeck

I honestly can't believe I haven't posted about Tweetdeck before. I absolutely LOVE this application for Twitter. Ok, I'm highly addicted to Twitter. Sometimes I'm asked, "How can you possibly follow so many people and find value?" My answer is Tweetdeck!

It's a free download that runs on Adobe Air.

It takes a while to learn all that you can do on Tweetdeck. I recommend you do a google search and read some guides or watch a video on YouTube about all the features it has.

Sorry, time to fire up Tweetdeck and find some tweeps!

Need to Teach (or Learn) Touch Typing?

I recently found a FREE online application to help teach touch typing on either the Qwerty or Dvorak keyboard. It's not fancy, but great fun for students.
PowerTyping

LibraryThing

I love LibraryThing! As a frequent shopper at used book sales, I have frequently purchased duplicate copies of books. With LibraryThing, I can enter all my books (even using a cue cat to scan the ISBN numbers) and have access to this list from my cell phone, etc.

There are free accounts for up to 200 books (hey, there's more than that under my bed!) yearly accounts for $10 or lifetime (This was my choice) for $25.

There is also a social aspect to LibraryThing. You can view lists, reviews, friend people, etc.

Lesson Prepping

I spend a lot of time prepping lessons. I'm not really sure why, since I rarely follow my notes. Teaching for me is quite organic. What comes to mind in the next moment often is better than what resides in my notes. I guess that's why I love teaching.

But I do need notes. I guess one of the main reasons is that I teach the same subjects each year and want to be sure I cover the same material. Especially since I create my own tests.

I like outlines. Yeah, call me old school, but an outline is concise, organized and VERY visual. I usually make my outlines in pages (mac) or WORD (windows) depending on which machine on which I'm working.

I keep trying out new outlining software. My latest app I'm trying is Process.

Audible

Ok, so most of you already know what Audible is, but are you using it?  

Believe me, I love BOOKS!  I love the feel of a book in my hands, turning the pages, seeing it on the shelf, using unique book marks, etc.

I didn't think I would use something like audiobooks much, but I was WRONG!  It is so great to download that baby to your iPod and listen to it while doing mundane tasks that use your eyes, but not your full attention.  Fold laundry and listen to that history book you've been meaning to re-read.  Do dishes while listening to some escapist fiction.

I'm addicted already.  Give Audible a try!

Open Office

Recently I had a student who needed a word processing application, but needed something free.  I recommended the full productivity suite available at OpenOffice.org 

It's FREE and open source.  The products I've used have been able to download and upload windows files without a hitch.  I've liked having it on old machines that I'm unwilling to pay for new software.

The applications include 

     Writer (text document)

     Calc (spreadsheet)

     Draw (drawing - vector graphics)

     Impress (slideshow presentation)

     Base (database)

     Math (formula editor)

Jing

Looking to make a screencast? Try Jing.

A free and paid service that allows you to create screencasts is a major productivity tool, at least for me!  They have great tutorials on how to use the service.