1. The first site I looked at was 1000 Words, a site where users can post pictures along with 1000 word essay about the significance of the picture.  There are some interesting photos there and some of the essays are quite moving.  I read one about the death of a son that was quite poignant.  Nothing has been posted to the site since December of 2008 so I think it’s safe to say it’s essentially defunct, but the idea behind the site is really interesting.  I could definitely imagine an assignment where students are required to take a photograph (or use an older photo) and then write a corresponding essay, create a story around that.  If the site is still around over the years, it would certainly serve as a good model.
2. Next up is 12 Seconds, a video sharing site for videos that are, you guessed it, 12 seconds long.  A perusal of some of the videos, however, leads me to the idea that this is where most of the bad stuff on the Internet goes to die.  12 seconds isn’t a lot of time and unfortunately, most people don’t quite know what to do with that constraint.  Again, constraining students to 12 seconds of video might make an interesting assignment, but please have them do some editing first.
3. Finally, there’s 14 Days, a time-tracking/project management site.  This site looks quite useful for tracking the amount of time spent on a project and by multiple individuals.  There’s even a real-time timer so that as you start working on something, say a section of programming, you can see automatically how much time you’ve spent.  No more guess work!  The project manager can see all time spent on a project by several different people and doesn’t have to manually calculate anything.  The site offers both free and paid versions of the product, depending on the number of projects you need to manage.  It looks like a really slick application, but except at the administrative level, it has very little use in education.

Three down, 1997 to go!

This week, I tried out a new presentation tool, Prezi, taken from Alan Levine’s 50 Ways to Tell a Story wiki.  It’s a really nifty looking tool and subverts, as George Siemens noted, the linear nature of most presentations.  But, because I was using it for an actual presentation with an actual deadline, I got frustrated with it.  I will come back to it, I think, when I can just play.

What tools have you tried recently?  How did it work out?