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Another of the really great ACMA pages, this one deals with spam in all its permutations. From the Nigerian email through to telemarketers who are acting outside the do not call register the site has advice on how to avoid, report, protect yourself and complain about spam. There is also a listing of the latest current scams. On the page you can also download SpamMATTERS which works with Outlook. Then when you delete spam from your email it will also lodge a report with ACMA automatically. Neat.

Presently is another Twitter like microblogging environment built with enterprise in mind. Just like Yammer, presently works within a closed community based on shared email addresses, that is to be able to access or post to the community you have to have a common email designation eg yourname@thecompany.com. Presently has a couple of interesting features such as the ability to share media and also form groups on a formal or ad hoc basis. The basic service is free though you can purchase an Enterprise Edition which has more controls etc.

WordSift is another visualisation tool that was created primarily for teachers. It works just like Wordle but just a bit better. All you need do is paste in the text and then sit back. The sifted words then show up in orange or green and the fun really begins. This tool would be lots of fun on an IWB as well as on your own computer. Don't miss checking out the About section for more thoughts on using it.

A chat tool that is simple, clear, and doesn't require any Java. It works across browsers and allows a reasonable amount of admin control and management.

"California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 consists of the full texts and illustrations of 190 works documenting the formative era of California's history through eyewitness accounts. The collection covers the dramatic decades between the Gold Rush and the turn of the twentieth century.

Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ?), usually pronounced in three syllables like "pe-chak-cha") is a presentation format in which content can be easily, efficiently and informally shown, usually at a public event designed for that purpose. Under the format, a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds. It was devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo's Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa), who sought to give young designers a venue to meet, network, and show their work and to attract people to their experimental event space in Roppongi.[1] They devised a format that kept presentations very concise in order to encourage audience attention and increase the number of presenters within the course of one night. They took the name Pecha Kucha from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation ("chit-chat"). Klein and Dytham's event, called Pecha Kucha Night, has spread virally around the world. More than 170 cities now host such events.[2][3]

Are you thinking about using web2tools for research, administration or teaching? If so, make a quick start with the web2practice user guides. The web2practice guides explain how emergent web technologies like RSS, microblogging, podcasting and social media can enhance your working practice. Each guide consists of a short animated video explaining the key concepts (such as microblogging in the example below), supported by a more in-depth guide covering potential uses, risks and how to get started.

Using the Download PDF button on this page you can download a really interesting pdf guide for parents about talking with children about working online. The guide looks at children of different ages and stages and offers sensible and commonsense advice. Though it is written for the American context the underlying advice is relevant to all.

This website has huge potential but I CAN'T work out how to add my own audio files. Does anyone know? If so, please contact me!!!!

Mr Picassohead is a fun website. It allows users to create their own 'Picasso' by selecting different types of faces and facial features, colours and so on and dragging them onto a canvas. It is a great way to begin a unit of work on Picasso, Cubism or abstract art with students.

How can we live lightly on the Earth and save money at the same time? Staff members at the Worldwatch Institute, a global environmental organization, share ideas on how to GO GREEN and SAVE GREEN at home and at work.

"Collaborative schooling is a model where the school collaborates with, and provides direction and support for its homes and community. It recognizes the profound impact the home has upon education and that in most of the students' homes and communities there is a vast, largely untapped 'teaching' capacity. It therefore seeks to integrate the efforts of the home and the school. The school has already recognized the opportunities the network and digital technologies provide for the school to network and work collaboratively with their homes and desired parts of their school community. This is seen in the following:"

Employers are expressing increasing dissatisfaction with the ability of college graduates to access, evaluate, and communicate information; to use information technology (IT) tools effectively; and to work well within groups across cultural lines. A change of instructional paradigms--from passive to active (authentic) learning strategies, such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, or inquiry-based learning--is clearly needed.

"I remixed this awesome scavenger hunt originally created by Joyce Valenza and added a QR Code Twist! I re-worked some of the questions for a lesson with my adorable ESOL kids (we have 35 right now in our ESOL program & one cute be-freckled girl just came yesterday & speaks no English at all but she LOVED scanning the codes when I handed her my Droid Fascinate!) The rest of the kids have varying degrees of English proficiency but still will benefit from a few visual clues. So the scavenger hunt questions are intentionally simply & clearly worded combined with pics I created as QR Code Hints. You can also use this lesson for special needs classes, Library Media orientation, or even re-mix the questions, QR Codes, & hints for just about ANY subject area! To create the hints I used a combination of Photoshop, Flickr, bit.ly and my favourite QR Code generator, Kaywa."

If your boss is seen as a librarian, she becomes a resource, not a limit. If you view the people you work with as coaches, and your job as a platform, it can transform what you do each day, starting right now

"It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything. The apparent reason for the discrepancy is misconceptions. Students have existing ideas about scientific phenomena before viewing a video. If the video presents scientific concepts in a clear, well illustrated way, students believe they are learning but they do not engage with the media on a deep enough level to realize that what was is presented differs from their prior knowledge. There is hope, however. Presenting students' common misconceptions in a video alongside the scientific concepts has been shown to increase learning by increasing the amount of mental effort students expend while watching it."

Tiki-Toki is a multimedia timeline creator. The results can be works of art-no joke! It is very easy to use, after registering for an account, students are guided step-by-step through creating an interactive timeline. Students can add text, images (Flickr) and video (YouTube or Vimeo) to a timeline. Images can be uploaded from a student computer or found through a search on Flickr.

"While attending this particular workshop I was, at first, contemplating how I could utilize this tool as an administrator. As those thoughts wandered, the instructor repeatedly said the words "expand the walls of the classroom". That caught my attention and then I had no problem envisioning how the teachers I worked with could utilize a wiki to do just that."

An easy and convenient way of sharing a browsing session with friends without using IMs, Skype, or similar tools is the Channel.me service. This online service lets you and your friends (or a work group) explore a webpage together. It also has a Chrome extension, which when launched, opens the page for you in a separate browsing session and provides you a link to share with anyone you want to collaborate with.

An article by Andrea Kuszewski in Scientific American. It's a research based look at why traditional teaching methods suck the creativity out of us and the hard work each of us needs to do to escape the effects as we grow into adulthood.