dabbleBOARD

Thanks to Zohair (www.dabbleboard.com) for introducing to me his excellent online application, the dabbleBOARD. While on the search for a useful online collaborative shared space, dabbleBOARD will go into my arsenal of useful tools. 

dabbleBOARD is already packed with useful collaborative features even in BETA. For example, you can create shapes easily using your tablet's stylus, draw free hand and sharing is as simple as copying an unique web adress and pasting this into your friend's browser. 

Check out the side bar on the left, this area allows your SAVE your sketches and if you have diligently named your work, you can SEARCH them easily by typing in the search box. I like this type of search filter where the search engine starts to filter after you type individual characters. 

Check this out, the teacher can prepare multiple worksheets and save them to the side bar. During lesson, double click to call out the slide, copy and send the share link to a selected group of students for instant group work. 

Zohair mentioned VoIP for his dabbleBOARD soon, so we will be watching this space. 

COTF welcomes our new teaching staff!

We had a group of new professors to NIE today. They paid a visit to COTF as part of their orientation tour in NIE. Welcome!

Online Collaborative Whiteboards

A lot of collaboration can be on done the internet today. The internet was intended to diversify the risk involved in keeping data in one place, but we have since realised that the net itself is a wonderful collaboration tool.

This simple tool called ScribLINK is available free for anyone who need a scratch pad to doodle a few ideas while on your phone/VoIP (built in to the app by the way) / IM etc. Simply launch the application online and send your buddies the unique link to your session, no registeration required.

Where or where is everyone else?

Ok, I am really getting carried away with this where oh where issue. Anyway, the web is great for learning about where we are. I came across this tool called VoiceThread, and it's a great tool for learning as well.

You can use pictures and videos as the base content, talk about it by recording your voice, and even invite people around the world to comment on your post! It's pretty much like leaving comments on blogs, but using recorded voices brings about a more personal touch to the messages. 

In the above example, you add a voice comment, telling the author which part of the world you're from. The the best things is, show everyone where your country is by drawing an arrow right on the map. Have fun!

Where oh where is Microsoft Redmond?

As much as I would like to visit Microsoft Home & Center for Information Worker, the nearest I will get to Redmond is perhaps virtually online. And its not even going into the showcase, but I am just going to find out where IS Redmond.

Lets fire up my Microsoft Live Maps.

Type in my search criteria.

Here I am, lets zoom in, and look, each building is neatly labelled. I wonder which building Bill Gates used to be in.

I am now going to fire up the 3D view, and tilt the map while zooming in. Look there is a huge paying field, parade square of some sort.

To find out what it really is, I am going to use the Bird's eye feature. The Bird's eye feature uses Microsoft's Photosync technology to map camera taken pictures geographically on to the map. This allows you to search a database of picture that are related by location.

So now I have a few choices to learn about a certain location.

1. Locate it on the map, look at it from the satellite

2. Check out the shape and size of the buildings, using 3D models

3. Get a clear view of the location, not from satellites, but from anyone who have taken a picture in the vicinity.

And look, you can even tell that the traffic is smooth around Redmond! (hint, look at the green coloured overlay on the road)

Studying Tablet PC use in Singapore Schools

During the course of the BackPack.NET Initiative, Stanford Research Institute was commissioned to conduct a research on the use of Tablet PCs in Singapore schools. For those of you looking for this paper, here is the link http://ctl.sri.com/projects/displayProject.jsp?Nick=tabletpc.

How to Mo-Blog?

Peter asked me recently, How to Mo-Blog? So here is my attempt at Mo-Blogging.

I'll like to find a simple and sure way of blogging from my PDA (Windows Mobile Phone Edition), and able to capture and blog any pictures as well.

Send via MMS
Perhaps the most straight forward method would be to send an MMS to the blogging service.
On Blogger, this would be MMS to go@blogger.com, but I don't have any idea how do you send an MMS to something that looks like an email account. And I don't think you would want to send an MMS overseas to an US based number.
For a local service, take a look at MoBlog. Create a mo-blogging account and you can MMS to a local number.

Send via Email
Another easy way is to compose an email from your PDA and send to your blog service's special email address. For Blogger, look under your Settings > Email > Mail-to-Blogger Address and key in a 'secret word'. You can then simply send any formatted email to username.secretword@blogger.com.

Use a helper tool
Or, you can use a helper tool installed on your PDA. For example:
1. PocketBlog
2. The Diarist

Of course, there are still many ways of blogging from your PDAs or mobile phones. This guide is not comprehensive but provides a quick and easy start for your Mo-Blogging experience.