Doug Belshaw said it so well, I am just going to repost what he said and add my full fledged support!

You will remember that a worldwide group network of teachers, including myself, got together at the start of this year to communicate, collaborate and work together to explore the next generation of teaching and learning. This network, brought together by Chris Craft is called NextGen Teachers. The next stage has started - we’ve got a social network, and we want you to join in! Read on…

The problem that any group or network of teachers face is time. As full-time teachers or educational professionals this is one luxury we do not have. Consequently, our communications and collaborations have been somewhat sporadic. What has kept going throughout, however, and has served as a touchstone for our nascent collection of renegade educators is NextGenTeachers.com. This site pulls in posts made on a variety of member blogs to create a ‘river of news’. Anything we post on our blogs with the tag nextgenteachers shows up over there. If you haven’t subscribed to that RSS feed, I’d do so now!

Now, using the excellent ning.com, we’ve got a social network which we’d like YOU to join. Almost 500 people subscribe to this blog, and I want every single one of you to go over there, sign up and get involved!

We’d like to see useful YouTube videos uploaded, pictures of conferences, your classroom and diagrams from Flickr added, discussions on possible projects and collaborations in the forum section, and so on. So, get involved and connect with like-minded people around the world!

Here’s to the resurgence of NextGenTeachers! Thanks, Doug!

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It’s no secret I am a huge fan of Bluehost. I know some other folks are dreaming, but I have heard horror stories of late, so I will stay where I am. I happened across the bluehost site and noticed that they had upgraded their service. It now reads like this…

This is exciting news, since I was already using all my six addon domain names, remember, I have way too many domain names (hat tip to Aaron for constantly mentioning this

One note, I had to call to get the upgrade, so if you are using Bluehost (Steve, Doug, Jeff) you might need to call or online chat as well. The guy I spoke with handled the upgrade in moments and was happy to do it!

Just another example of why I love this service! If you’re looking for hosting, I do have an affiliate link that helps me cover the cost of the hosting, you can see it on the right sidebar of this blog. The links above are not affiliated, in the interest of disclosure.

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Some time ago I was given a registration for FlashMeeting. It seems like a competitor for Elluminate, but without so many bells and whistles. Quite simply, it offers meeting space where everyone has video, only one person broadcasts at one time, and it records the meeting for instant web playback. While Elluminate works in Java, Flashmeeting (wait for it) is entirely Flash based.

I was able to enter the demo room and play around with no problem. Video broadcast fine, audio came through easily. And since it’s flash based, it’s cross platform (as is Ellumiante’s Java, just thought it worth pointing out).

So, since I have a registration, I can “book” meetings. I am thinking of creating a test meeting, anyone up for a quick meeting today at 2:45 pm Eastern time? Comment if you are available and I will make sure you get the “ticket” for entry.

As I understand it, attendees do not have to register, only me, so it should be easy.

I’ve had the login for some time, but had forgotten about it. Thanks to Miguel and Silvia for sparking me to rethink this great tool!

FlashMeeting

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So sayeth lifehacker:

You don’t need a hardware switch to share one keyboard and mouse amongst several different computers. All you need is the free, cross-platform application, Synergy.

I wondered about that, so I decided to give it a shot. It works AMAZINGLY!

I have a few computers in my classroom, and am constantly getting up to go help a kid with a problem. Normal, right? Usually it’s a matter of telling them where to click or something minimal. I’m not fussing, but I am more effective when I can be centrally located on my machine helping them from a distance sometimes.

Here’s my new setup…

When I move my mouse to the extreme top of the screen, it takes control of the mouse and keyboard of the computer across the room. When I move the mouse extreme right it takes control of the computer on the right side of the room.

Amazing, right?

It’s not that I don’t want to go help, but this allows for quick fixes without my having to go over there so I can keep moving here helping others doing other things…

Lifehacker’s guide to setting this up makes it incredibly easy, totally free, and works with Macs, PC’s and the like. Not sure about linux, but it’s open source and I did see both binaries and source so I am certain you could compile it for yourself. There may be a linux version, I didn’t check, can’t run my Puppy here in school any more

Either way, you HAVE to check this out!

Hack Attack: Control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse - Lifehacker

Update: Just read the article more carefully, if you’re running Linux, grab the platform independent version. Added some more links, too.

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I love coming across fun little Greasemonkey scripts that just make my productivity skyrocket! This is one of those…

Let’s assume you’re doing a quick search using Google. Let’s assume you use the default 10 results per page.

You click the 2, and wait, uh oh, some type of hang up.

You click again.

You click 3

You click 2 again.

You reload Google.

Finally it kicks in and you’re on your way. Frustrated, but these things happen. So you decide to try the 25 results per page and realize that you’ve given up some of the speed. So you go back to 10.

The Google Autopager Greasemonkey script loads successive Google results pages as you scroll down, so it essentially feels like you’re scrolling endlessly! As you reach the end of the first ten, here come the next ten before you get to number ten.

It’s beautiful. No clicking through the different pages, just smooth sailing down the seemingly endless page.

Sweet.

Download of the Day: Google AutoPager (Greasemonkey) - Lifehacker

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If you use Gmail, you have to check out Lifehacker’s new firefox extension. This is essentially a series of greasemonkey scripts that are compiled into one extension, and it is fantastic. My favorite is the attachment icons, which uses a pdf icon if it’s a pdf attached, for example. Thanks, Gina!

Lifehacker Code: Better Gmail (Firefox extension) - Lifehacker

Update: I just noticed that now my Gmail and Google Reader accounts are integrated! Just below the inbox link in Gmail it says Feeds (100+) and when I clicked it, it loaded Google Reader in the right frame, as though it were totally integrated! Wow..

Now if only I used google reader…

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This is good news. Google announced on Tuesday that it is planning to add presentations to its suite of documents (formerly Writely) and Spreadsheets (formerly Excel - kidding)

I’ve been waiting for this for some time, and thrilled to hear about it!

I can’t wait to hear more! Thanks, Google!

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It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Slideshare. A few weeks/months ago I had a chance to chat with the folks who run the show and they picked my brain about Slideshare use in education. One concern I had was the large amount of foul language and offensive content that is causing slideshare to get blocked by districts around me.

Well, I got an email from Rashmi saying that there is a new feature called groups, so I am testing it out. I created a group called k12education and the theory goes that anyone can add a slideshow into the group pool.

Maybe, just maybe, if the group stays clean, we can use it as a central meeting spot to swap presos teacher-to-teacher.

What’s going to be funny is if someone starts up another group, and decentralizes it.

Maybe districts would consider unblocking just one group page? Who knows, worth a shot!

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Ok so I am not sure exactly what the purpose behind Twitter and Jaiku is, but I am going to give it a shot. For me, something like this has to be super easy, so I set up both accounts to work together.

crafty184 twitter page

crafty184 jaiku profile

I set up the Jaiku account to aggregate the feed from the twitter account, and then set up both IM (inside gmail) and mobile update.

So we’ll see if I actually use it or let it die. I think since it’s IM enabled via twitter I will be more likely to just IM an update since my gmail windows is always open.

So there you have it, my latest experimentation! Let me know what you think…

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Jeff Utecht was asking where I found that sweet RSS icon I use here on the blog. I wasn’t sure but told him I’d look…

Hey feed readers, at least visit the blog to check it out!

Anyway, here is the link to get that one and others (technorati, delicious, and others)

http://www.maxpower.ca/free-icons-web-20-logos-by-utom/2006/11/07/

see also http://utombox.com/2006/09/23/my-works/

Enjoy!

Chris

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