I registered and within minutes had created my online classroom.  I was able to add documents from my desktop and annotate these.  Web-cams and microphones and chat were all present.

To add students to my classroom, I could invite students through email addresses.  They would be sent an invite and would need to register to access the lesson.  Once registered any scheduled ‘lessons’ appear in ‘My Session’.  Selecting a session and launching the session was all that was needed to get to the lesson – no software downloads, it was quick and simple.

I guess as with all these tools it really needs a thorough testing before I understand its potential - I need to try it out with half -a-dozen colleagues and see how it works.  My initial thoughts are that it is quick and easy to set-up, and no software to download makes it easy to use at home, in school or anywhere with wireless access.

The new blog creation tool would be useful for creating a class set of blogs, let’s say 30, but I can’t see a teacher creating one for each student in the 8 classes they teach.  I’m guessing that in these instances you’ll be looking to use a class blog.  It could be a good detention punishment though.

It allows you to create dynamic timelines easily, adding details, images,video and flash for each event you add.

The example below sums up what a great tool it is.

Xtimeline – History World War 1 example

As a teacher I could create these timelines to accompany topics, however, I think the true value of this website is getting students to create their own timelines.

Xtimeline is an intuitive to use, and I think most students would find it easy to use. It would be an excellent tool to support revision of chronology for a topic.

One tool that could be useful is the ability to create a timeline using an RSS feed – this might be useful when creating a timeline for something like a school trip, and presenting a diary of the vents in a slightly different way.

As a web2.0 site, xtimeline does offer potential e-safety issues, and you cannot be certain the information presented is accurate and unbiased. Encouraging students to use this to create timelines can expose them to slightly inappropriate material. It is obviously worth tackling this issue when using xtimeline, and hopefully students won’t spend too much time exploring the Heroes timeline.

It’s a pity there is not an educational version of this that removes the e-safety issues.

Having posted last using Microsoft Word 2007, I discover that Microsoft has a free blogging tool, Microsoft Live Writer.  I’m using Live Writer for this post.

I have to admit to being rather impressed with Writer.  There are dozens of plug-ins for Writer, allowing me to add html, video, maps and links effortlessly.  I find this software, at first use, preferable to Word.  That it has been designed for blogging probably makes it easier to use for this purpose.

It can handle more than one blog, allowing me to open Writer and blog to a number of different online presences.  Being familiar with Office products helps, as the layout, tools and menus all have that Microsoft feel.

I guess I’ll use Writer to post for the time being – although at present I haven’t worked out how to add categories to my posts through Writer, something I will explore.

Add I’ll review how this looks. If this works the main benefits would be to input Smart Art and Shapes to blog posts.

Mediamaster worked first time – always a bonus. What I liked was the simple way I could upload mp3s and embed a widget. I was using Studywiz a lot last week and found this to be very simple in a multi-content resource. It also worked in RM’s Portal+ and PBWiki. In fact this page is the only place I’ve found it difficult to embed the widget – hence it’s not here.

Mediamaster saves the need for students to download mp3s and then play them – simply clicking on track in the widget will play it. This could be a useful tool for adding MFL content to learning platforms or portal pages. I could record myself or students talking in the target language. I could pose questions relating to the files. My iPod or memory stick with a mic could record students or myself. It becomes easy to share these files.

It would also be an effective way of sharing student performances in school.

Below is a quick tutorial on using Mediamaster with Studywiz.

<embed src=”http://www.teachertube.com/flvplayer.swf” FlashVars=”config=http://www.teachertube.com/flvplayer.php?viewkey=f47269ed5cea9f625f7a&vimg=http://www.teachertube.com/thumb/1_1778.jpg” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#000000″ wmode=”transparent” width=”400″ height=”350″ loop=”false” align=”middle” allowScriptAccess=”sameDomain” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”> </embed>

Came across this on a blog and thought I’d see if I could embed my google map in my blog.

It promised to be simple to use, and I have to agree – it took very little effort to become familiar with the set up.

Click on the image below to link to the pages I created while exploring PBWiki.

First impressions, without having yet used it with students, is that it has a lot of potential in its use.

One of the key considerations before using a Wiki with students is introducing the culture of collaboration and the purposes behind using the Wiki. Simply providing the tools for students to collaborate doesn’t ensure that the collaboration is fruitful.

In class exercises on collaborative writing could be supportive in using an online collaboration tool. As with all of the tools and ideas with Web 2.0 they need to be introduced in a way that support realising their benefits. Lack of planning and support will quickly highlight that simply using web 2.0 tools does not in itself produce exciting learning activities.

Tecahers in using wikis need to emphasis the product and outcomes of using the technology, not the technology in itself. Wikis are not used to collaborate, they are used to collaborate to produce something – and it is the something that is of value, not that it is a wiki.

I had a quick play with Wufoo.  I prefer this to polldaddy on first play.  Both are easy to use – but wufoo has more options and the possibility of asking more than one question.

It was quick to register, construct the question and responses and then embed in the blog.

I’ll have a play again with this at a later date.