edte.ch Monthly Roundup (February 2008)

Welcome back!
#uppingyourgame: an educator's guide to productivity is now up to v0.4!
(I'm looking for people to translate it into other languages when finished - if you're interested get in touch!)

Here’s the first in a new series of monthly roundups giving an overview of significant happenings in the world of educational technology. Without further ado, here’s what you shouldn’t have missed in February 2008…

First off, the announcement for which I’ve been waiting for 16 months: Google Sites (i.e. wikis) launched! A visual explanation is below and I blogged about it over at dougbelshaw.com.

And everything else:

Sir Ken Robinson was interviewed by the teenage Radiowaves crew about his views on creativity and using technology in education.
Microsoft announced Windows Live Skydrive. As announced on the Microsoft UK Schools blog, this gives anyone, for free, a place to store up to 5GB worth of files which can be up to 50MB each in size. Folders can be private, shared with collaborators, or public. There’s even a widget to embed in blogs/wikis/web pages!
Lifehack.org produced a list entitled The Ultimate Student Resource List. It is, well… comprehensive.
academHacK posted some ways in which the micro social networking tool Twitter can be used in education.
An amazing real-time 2D physics modeller called Phun came to my attention. It really has got potential for use in the classroom. Head over to dougbelshaw.com for a post entitled THIS is how technology can enhance learning (includes video).
Liz Kolb of the excellent From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Schools blog showed us how to use VoiceThread with mobile phones for free. This has real possibilities, especially as VoiceThread phones you – so no charge for students!
The Horizon Report 2008 has been released and is summarised over at e-learning Now. The Horizon Report is the annual result of investigations by a consortium of over 250 learning-focused organizations worldwide.