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File-sharing is a complicated beast. Some files are too big to send in emails; some need to be seen by a lot of people; some need to be private; some should be public. There are a ton of different applications that want to be the host for all of your files, but drop.io stands ahead of the pack.

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") is a complete Web Authoring System that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editing. Nvu is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

Twitter has become one of the most useful social applications for bloggers. Many bloggers choose to feature their latest updates in a widget visible in their blogs." I see this as an opportunity to 'microblog' short thoughts and have them posted to a blog or e-portfolio. Later, they might be developed into full posts when the author has time to reflect. Twitter is great for sharing short bursts of ideas (140 characters or less). I think it helps make expression of ideas more concise with that limitation.

ProProfs has upgraded Quiz School, a free online resource that allows educators generate custom assessments. The new version, launched this week, adds integration with popular social media services and includes new analytics and reporting features. Quiz School is designed to let educators create online quizzes and practice tests for their students. In addition to custom quizzes, the service provides a library of pre-designed quizzes, which range from K-12 education to technology certification, SAT and GRE prep, and general trivia. Students can take tests without logging onto the system and receive instant scores and personalized feedback, including tips for improving performance, according to the company. Users can also assign keywords to specific quizzes for easy retrieval.

The emergence of the networked information economy is unleashing two powerful forces. On one hand, easy access to high-speed networks is empowering individuals. People can now discover and consume information resources and services globally from their homes. Further, new social computing approaches are inviting people to share in the creation and edification of information on the Internet. Empowerment of the individual-or consumerization-is reducing the individual's reliance on traditional brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of new and emerging virtual ones. Second, ubiquitous access to high-speed networks along with network standards, open standards and content, and techniques for virtualizing hardware, software, and services is making it possible to leverage scale economies in unprecedented ways. What appears to be emerging is industrial-scale computing-a standardized infrastructure for delivering computing power, network bandwidth, data storage and protection, and services. Consumerization and industrialization beg the question "Is this the end of the middle?"; that is, what will be the role of "enterprise" IT in the future? Indeed, the bigger question is what will become of all of our intermediating institutions? This volume examines the impact of IT on higher education and on the IT organization in higher education.

More and more internet users are getting familiar with the concept of RSS feeds and its uses. This has resulted in number of online and offline services to help in better RSS Management. Feedburner and Feeblitz lead the way in RSS Management services. Many a times you want to read content from different sources. While there are tools to filter RSS feed content, tools to mix, blend and Mash-up multiple RSS feeds are more important. They help you grab multiple RSS feeds and create a single customized RSS feed. Here are 10 tools worth checking out…

Quest Atlantis (QA) is a learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-12, in educational tasks. Building on strategies from online role-playing games, QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities (known as Quests), talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. A Quest is an engaging curricular task designed to be entertaining yet educational.

Beautiful site and looks like the software is super easy to use to virtually look at anything in space. Big wow factor. Only drawback is that it takes some hefty computing power to run the software. For example, while the minimum RAM is 1 GB, they recommend 2 GB AND while 1 GB minimum hard drive is okay, they suggest 10GB. Now for most people, only the RAM will be the issue. However, it is so cool, I'd love to run out and get a PC with the power to run this application.

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users. Under the hood, SeaMonkey uses much of the same Mozilla source code which powers such successful siblings as Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, Sunbird and Miro. Legal backing is provided by the Mozilla Foundation.

This Google Site has been set up by Dr. Helen Barrett to focus on the use of Google Apps to create ePortfolios. On this site, there are instructions on how to use the different elements of Google Apps to maintain e-portfolios.\n\nThere is also a Google Group on developing electronic portfolios in K-12 using Google Apps:\n* Group name: Using Google Apps for ePortfolios in K-12 Education\n* Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/k12eportfolios\n* Group email address k12eportfolios@googlegroups.com\nI am hoping that other K-12 educators can join the group, and share their experiences developing ePortfolios with these free online tools. I recommend that if schools decide to use GoogleApps, they establish their own Google Apps for Education site, with their own domain name, as a quasi "walled garden" where student work can only be viewed by someone with an account within that domain.

Stykz is the first multi-platform stick figure animation program in the world (as far as we know!), and it is COMPLETELY FREE! If you've ever used Pivot StickFigure Animator, you'll feel right at home and will appreciate the extra features that Stykz has to offer! And even if you haven't used Pivot, you'll find Stykz to be a powerful, easy to learn tool for creating great looking stick figure animations quickly and efficiently. Take a look at the "Intro to Stykz" video to get a feel for the program and how it works...

Gabcast.com is a podcasting and audioblogging platform that offers an easy way to create and distribute audio content. Most people will use a touch-tone telephone to make their recordings but we also provide worldwide access to the service through VoIP. Once you have made a recording and have published it, a newsfeed is immediately and automatically updated to alert subscribers to your channel.

"What this tool can do for you: * Help you better understand how to determine the "fairness" of a use under the U.S. Copyright Code. * Collect, organize & archive the information you might need to support a fair use evaluation. * Provide you with a time-stamped, PDF document for your records [example], which could prove valuable, should you ever be asked by a copyright holder to provide your fair use evaluation and the data you used to support it. [why is this important?] * Provide access to educational materials, external copyright resources, and contact information for copyright help at local & national levels."

SAFE-Net, a Cyber Safety Awareness program of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, focuses on raising the awareness of students, parents, and educators about cyber threats, measures of protection, and cyber ethics. Through this website, it provides materials to teach teachers, parents and students about cyber security issues. All materials can be downloaded free of charge. However, you will need to create a SAFE-Net account in order to access them. When you are logged in and agree to the Terms of Use, you will be given access to the materials.

"As a hardworking student, you've got a lot to organize, including essays, exams, deadlines, and class schedules, not to mention your social and personal life-plus any part-time jobs you may have taken on. In an effort to keep you more organized, we've generated this list of 50 useful mind-mapping tools that are designed to help you see your ideas more clearly, analyze and outline research papers, become more efficient when you study, and get inspired to be more creative in your work."

In ten years, modern education will have fully integrated new classroom media: video, online collaboration, and other web tools. We hope to pioneer a web tool that is a platform for this new media, bringing the power of the web to students, teachers, and parents in a secure, innovative environment. Our idea is a response to problems in schools that we have identified through primary research and user involvement. The way students, parents and teachers interact and learn in middle schools has many opportunities for growth and improvement. Here is one example:Research shows that in the last ten years the way people obtain and digest information has changed, incorporating tools like the web. Unfortunately, the classroom environment has not kept pace with this aggressive expansion of technology as a social, educational and communication tool. We hope to provide the tools to solve this and other problems in the middle school context. Read more at AlightLearning.com

It looks like students can be open-minded after all: When provided with the option to view lectures online, rather than just in person, a full 82 percent of undergraduates kindly offered that they'd be willing to entertain an alternative to showing up to class and paying attention in real time. A new study released today suggests not only a willingness but a "clear preference" among undergraduates for "lecture capture," the technology that records, streams and stores what happens in the classroom for concurrent or later viewing.

Everyone wants to have a unique design for their blogs or websites, but all of us won't have skills necessary to make a unique design. Thankfully there are many resources on the web to help you in tweaking your design. In this post i will list tools available for generating background images for your blog design.

Step 1: Assuming that your already have a Gmail account, go to your Google Contacts and create a new Group (let's say "Media"). Add all the contacts to this group who you want to send a personalized email. Step 2: Create a copy of this spreadsheet into your own Google Docs account. Step 3: You'll see a new "Mail Merge" menu in Google Docs near "Help." Click "Import Gmail Contacts" and authorize Google Docs to access your Google Contacts. Step 4: Click Mail Merge -> Import Gmail Contacts again and type the name of the Gmail group ("Media") that you created in Step 1. Google Docs will now automatically import the relevant Gmail contacts into the spreadsheet.