Rants of Jeff: Solutions

Ultimate Pen

Draw on top of any software application - great for making screencasts of training videos.

Ultimate Pen

Interactive Online Whiteboard

Pretty smooth web 2.0 board...check out the video and if you like, sign up...

DabbleBoard Video

Seashore

Macintosh port of GIMP type image editing program that doesn't require X11.

Seashore

uStream

Live and Broadcast TV coming your way - can anyone say "Convergence"...

uStreamTV

Scribd is a great online storage solution for pdf, doc, ppt, jpg, etc., type files. Upload them to your free account, which includes unlimited storage, the file is converted to flash and you can directly link to the file URL or embed in your web page/blog.

http://www.scribd.com

Got to be getting and using this tool, and RSS feeds in general - like the kids say, email is only used by adults.....;-)

Google Reader

Picasa

Great online photo organizer and integrated with Google Apps....

Picasa

Blogspot and Blogger

My favorite blooging tools...;-) This site is built on it.

Blogspot or Blogger

Firefox

The best overall web browser going - although, for some reason, I still think Safari is sleeker....;-)

Firefox

Skype

Great on the web and beyond - A/V across differing computers, countries and the like, all through the internet and free.....

Skype

Voice Thread

Might want to keep your eyes and ears on this new Web 2.0'ish type of application. Very interesting with audio, pictures, text, drawing, etc., in a collaborative and shared environment.

Voice Thread

NVu - Web Publishing

A very robust web publishing tool.

NVu

Poll Everywhere

You got to love this puppy - let students vote or take tests with cell phones - just like texting your vote to American Idol.....;-)

Poll Everywhere

Audacity

Free, nice sound editor and recorder.

Audacity

Free Mind

Very powerful mind mapping, open source program.

Free Mind

Jott

Start bringing the cell phone into the classroom with this application. Great voice to text conversion - send via email, post live to a blog - imagine the possibilities.

Jott

Google Earth

Good solution for multiple uses - good educator following and support.

Google Earth

Sketch Up

Sketch Up from Google is powerful and engaging. Visually gifted and certain types of autistic children are really grabbing hold of this program. I'm hopeful that someday our CTE architectural programs will evolve to Sketch Up and SketchUp Pro.