Must See Monday #8 - Hodge-Podge

Normally my Must See Monday posts are for a specific website or software.  Today I received an email with a lot of useful links that I thought I would share.

Landmarks Class Blogmeister - This is a Blogging engine that has been developed specifically for classroom use.  It includes both student and teacher blogs.  You can search by country and by state, as well as grade level.  When you search by state you get a list of names, and they are listed by most active.  I wish it would allow you to search alphabetically, but it does not.  When you click on their name, it will take you to their blog.  So if you are looking for someone in particular, this might be a good way to find them.  The major improvement would be to provide what the blog is about (subject, student, class, etc).  It is a great list, but it definitely needs some tweeking.  I guess it would be worth seeing if you could find yourself.

Crocodoc - Share and review documents online.  It would be a great way for students to peer review assignments, or for teachers to post a sample assignment and have students review it from home, or even in class.  You can upload a PDF, Word Document, Power Point, , or even a URL address.  When you visit the site, click on the demo link to see some of the features.  Some of those features include the ability to add Post-it Notes, Highlight, and Strike-through words.  You can also type text within the margins.  You can easily skip from page to page, search, and zoom in and out.  If you want more security features you can pay for a Pro Account and add passwords (probably best options for education) Below is a screen shot of the demo page.

Ipadio - Allows you to boradcast from any phone live to the Internet.  You can audio blog, or use your phone as a voice recorder that saves to the Internet.  Ipadio is available on both the iPhone and the Android.  They refer to blogging with your phone as a "Phlog."  They do have a page dedicated explaining how they feel Ipadio can be used in Education.  I have to say that the list of ideas is pretty interesting.  If you are a school that allows the use of mobile devices, than this website definitely is worth looking at.  There is a case study about using the site to learn Spanish.  I think as mobile technology takes off, the concept of this site will grow.  Check the site out for yourself and see how you might use it.

For something outside education, GrowShow is a great website that allows you to create a time lapse of your child/grandchild as they grow older.  They also have some neat magnetic frames that you can purchase for the pictures that is worth checking out.  I would watch the video on the front page to get a better idea of how it works.  Definitely a site worth checking out if you just had a child/grandchild, or have your photos saved and archived on your computer.  It will automatically organize the photos based on the time stamp if I understood the site correctly.  You can set music up to the show, as well as set a GrowMinder to capture growth so you don't forget.  Account setup is really simple as well.