Prezi

Death by PowerPoint is a sad and unnecessary thing. A wise person once said to me 'never use PowerPoint to deliver text to an audience'. I often wish I had heeded the advice.

If we must insist on still using these presentational tools they should at least have some visual interest and be an aid to free thinking.

This is where prezi comes in. It is like a cross between a mind mapping tool and PowerPoint. Have a look at my first brief attempt to get a feel of it;

http://prezi.com/39733/

Impressed?

I am , and so is everybody I present to using it. Perhaps it is just a tool to disguise a bad presentation. Noone will be interested in the message if the medium is so good looking. Or perhaps the message really IS the medium?

possibly the single most useful website ever for a teacher

Timed tasks - in a lesson - no argument - visible to all - free on the web.

Need I say more?

Check this out.

http://e.ggtimer.com/

Picture Editing

Its always a bit of a drag. Having the picture in the right file format for the job at hand. Just needing to make a shape or a button for a project. And you never have the right software, or if you do you can't be bothered to use it (Photoshop anyone?).

So the online image editor came along and seems to have come of age with SUMOpaint, which as far as I can see is excellent. Main criteria for things like this with me are;

1. How fast does it load?
2. How easy is it to load and save files?
3. How familiar is the UI?

SUMOpaint seems to tick the boxes for me. It also has the easiest registration mechanism for any website I have ever seen. Which is a good thing!

Have a go!