Linda's+Web+2.0+Personal+Plan

 Linda's Web 2.0 Personal Plan

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A lot of the tools I already use are among some that we've learned about in class. However, I have learned of many other useful tools that I will definitely incorporate in my everyday uses. I understand its potential and I hope to be able to use it to enhance how I collaborate with others.



 **Wikis/Collaboration Sites **  Google Sites   As with Google Docs, I am in love with Google sites. I have taken a few classes in HTML and CSS coding but I never really got to the point where I could create the kind of website I would really like. I felt that it would just take too much to code. So I was always looking for something I could use to host the myriad of information I wanted to share with the world. Low and behold, Google Sites was created. It came at just about the right time. I was in need of ** creating a site ** that would organize information about a student organization I am involved in. I created this [|site]. It was EXTREMELY user friendly and best of all it was CODE-FREE!!! Although it is currently under someone else's supervision, it hasn't stopped me from creating many more. It serves as a great place for ** sharing/hosting resources **. I used Google Sites for my COGS 160 course. We did an ethnographic study on some professional dancers and organized our information/findings here. I highly recommend this for those who don't mind the limited design template.

Wetpaint Wetpaint is a free online community that allows people to create public or private websites. It is great for ** hosting information, sharing resources, creating a blog space **, and many more. It serves a great space for people to "create, collect, and organize content on your own social website." It has a very easy to use editing toolbar and is very similar to wikispaces. It is great for any topic, whether it be academic or social.

WiZiQ This site is free mainly for teachers who wish to teach online. It allows for people to become virtual teachers by providing a space for people upload and create online classes. It is a "a web-based platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach and learn live, online. Teachers and students use WiZiQ for its state-of-the-art virtual classroom, to ** create and share online educational content and tests **, and to connect with persons having similar subject interests."

**Web Presenting**

Scriblink  <span style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scriblink is an online whiteboard that allows for people to access from different areas and be able to view information in real time. This form of collaboration is great for brainstorming concepts, tutoring people, and many more. Not only does it allow online collaboration, it have many features including: **<span style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">privacy, dynamic tools, file options, image uploader, in-screen chat, VOIP conferencing, and file transfer, which are all great of collaboration. ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Slideshare <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">This site is a great way to upload files in extensions .doc, .pdf, .ppt and so forth, and share it with the online community. It is a great way to upload PowerPoint Presentations and host it online, without having to use methods such as carrying a usb drive or emailing the document to yourself. Slideshare makes it easy by **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">hosting it online and allowing an easy way to share **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> that with the rest of the world by creating a unique url specific to that file. It is a great alternative to storing files as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Voicethread <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This is tool allows for people to **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">create conversation about specific information that is shared **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">in the form of images, documents, and/or videos. People can provide comments and generate conversation via text or a voice recording. It is entirely web-based and requires to extra software download, making it entirely free! It contains very useful add ons such as doodle and the ability to export the file in the form of mp3s or videos.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 32px;">**Social Bookmarking** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Delicious <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Delicious is an online social bookmarking site that allows users to **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">create online bookmarks **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> and use tags to organize their bookmarks. Delicious profiles can be made public and can be shared with others through a simple copy, paste, and share (email, text, etc.) of the url. It eliminates the use of browser bookmarks and can be accessed virtually anywhere with internet access.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Photo Chat/Instant Messaging/Video or Web Conferencing** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Skype Skype is great for **FREE** online ** video and voice chatting/conferencing **. If you need to make an international call, that can also be done through skype at a low cost. My mom was able to skype with her sisters from Cambodia. My brother was visiting Cambodia and was able to connect to us via the internet. It was the first time my mom and aunts had seen each other in over twenty years. media type="skype" key="clumsyxmeeh" ARG0="call_green_white_153x63.png" height="63" width="153"

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Meebo This site conveniently provides a space for online chatters. It allows for access to one or more ** instant messaging ** platforms and social networking sites such as yahoo messenger, gchat, etc. It conveniently allows its users to communicate in real time without having to open up multiple platforms by logging on through one username and password. media type="meebo" key="jjXXZcSHZn" width="190" height="275"

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Social Event Scheduling** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Doodle Doodle is great for <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**scheduling events**, <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> whether it be a study group session or a dinner date. It has great features that allow users to input their availability and then decide on the best time and date for the event to occur. I use this frequently to do group gatherings, especially when it gets really difficult to figure out everyone's schedule. It is also very easy in that it is entirely web based and like many of the tools I have included in my Web 2.0 list, it follows the trend of providing a self-generated url that can be easily shared with others.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Facebook Events This feature is different from doodle, but it is great for people who are constantly on their Facebook profiles. It is essentially an event page that contains all of the pertinent information regarding the event. It can be shared with other people in your network with the simple click of the share button. Facebook <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**events** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> also show up on the side tool bar, making it very visible and accessible for its users. The only downside is the user needs to have a Facebook account to use this feature, but with its overwhelming popularity, it's uncommon for people to not be a part of this **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">social network **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.

Google Calendars <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Google calendars as well as many other ** online calendars ** that are linked to emails (such as Outlook and Yahoo) are also great for ** creating events **. It has a nice sharing feature as well and is not exclusive to just gmail users. Events can be created on the calendar and shared to specific people. An invitation email is then sent out, asking for their attendance. The event can be accessed on Google calendars and will show the invitations and tally those who is/is not attending.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> **Collaborative Writing/Sharing** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Google Docs I am in love with Google Docs. The first time I heard about it, I began using it right away for all of my lecture note-taking. Before that, I carried my USB drive that I would frequently use to save and share my documents. With its inception, I quickly learned its valuable uses for my collaborative work. Google Docs is great for document sharing. It also contains a Power Point type feature where** presentations ** can be created. I use this often if I know I will be presenting on campus. I don't like bringing my heavy laptop and so I would just borrow someone's, log online and bam, there it is, no USB drive needed. It was one of the first I've used for ** file sharing/storage ** and ** collaborative writing ** as well. I have also found it useful in ** creating Surveys/Evaluations/and Forms **. I used to use surveymonkey.com for this but because I find it easier to manage just one account, so I switched over to Google Forms. It also conveniently creates an excel sheet of the responses. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Etherpad <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">Etherpad is a ** collaborative online writing tool ** that has ** real time changes and a chat feature **. It does a very good job in showing who has contributed what and it manages the history of a groups' collaborative writing. Unlike Google Docs, it does not require a user registration to access the tool. A url is generated and can be shared to whomever. The user, in order to collaborate, needs only type in a moniker, choose a highlighter color, and begin collaborating.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">AwesomeHighlighter This is a great site that allows users to** highlight via the web **, specific texts and leave comments on the url. The site eliminates unnecessary steps such as emailing or printing out the document. This virtually completes the job in fewer steps, saving time and paper in the process, allowing for quick online sharing and collaboration. Sample Link: [].

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 32px;">**File Sharing/Storage**

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Box.net Box.net is an ** online storage site **. Not only does it offer 2gb of storage space for FREE, but it has tools that allows for easy file sharing as well. No extra software is required. All that is needed is to create a user name and password.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 32px;">**Media Conversion**

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Media Convert This is a great place to **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">convert files ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">. I use this site often when I need to convert .doc to .pdf or vice versa. It not only converts documents but video and sound files as well. This tool is completely free and requires no software download. The converted file is done online and then can be accessed through one easy click of the new file.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Zamzar Zamzar has the same concept as Media Convert, providing users the ability to ** convert files. ** Its interface is a lot easier to use because it does a better job at highlighting important features. For instance, the directions and steps needed to do the file conversion is organized and very simple, listed in a 1, 2, 3, and 4 steps process.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 32px;">** Photo Credits

** 1. Photo: ChrisL_AK (2006, Apr 26). ChrisL_AK's photostream. Retrieved Nov. 29, 2009, from []