Brothersoft

A clean download site you can depend on. Lots of really good software sits here before going commercial.

Flowgram

Create interactive guided presentations by combining web pages, photos, PowerPoints slides, and more with voice, notes and highlights.

Viewers can control the pages, scroll, click on links, view videos and more.

It is worth a look.

Bill

Zotero

Zotero is another plug-in for Firefox. Where Clippings allows the user to have multiple clipboards unlike the single one in MS - Zotero allows the user to keep a reference card file of web sites and information.

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.

Works with Windows, Mac, or Linux. A part of Open Source. Works in over 30 languages.

Take a look.

Bill

Flat World Knowledge

Online textbooks - developed by teachers / educators / professors /students currently involved in the subject at hand. Their philosophy is: "We preserve the best of the old - books by leading experts that are rigorously reviewed and developed to the highest standards. Then we flip it all on its head. Our books are free online. We offer convenient, low-cost choices for students – print, audio, by-the-chapter, and more. Our books are open for instructors to mix, mash, and make their own. Our books are the hub of a social learning network where students learn from the book and each other."

Interesting concept. I think this is worth watching. Univeristy of West Florida is doing a lot with many forms of Emerging Technologies and this is one.

Bill

Horizon Report on Emerging Technologies

The Horizon Report is an ongoing look at what is on the horizon in Emerging Technologies.

"The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth annual report in the series. The report is produced again in 2009 as a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program."

It should be required reading for anyone that is working in or thinking about working in emerging technologies which is all of us.

Bill

Adobe Presenter

OK, This is not free but you can give it a try for 30 days. I use this fairly often to hold meetings with learners. The Adobe Presenter room, formerly known as Breeze, can support several people having an online audio or video meeting. Attendees can be appointed as presenters, allowing them to show their desktop or share a file such as a PowerPoint presentation.

It works quite well. I have had the opportunity to use a number of competing products that just did not offer the speed nor quality of Presenter.

We at Capella have used this for years but rarely used the full audio / video capabilities. Firewalls can slow down the action. However, using it remotely has opened my eyes to what it truly is capable of. In the summer of 2008, I attended a meeting held entirely within Presenter. The main office in Minneapolis as well as Bill in Florida met together with me in far far away Li Jiang, near the Himalayas in South China. I talked with Bill for at least an hour before the actual meeting and the audio was better than a local phone call on a land line. :-)

ooVoo Free Video Chat

ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication — a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video chat with friends, family or colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.
ooVoo Video Chat is remarkably easy to use: easy to download, easy to install, and best of all:it's FREE!

Joe and I installed and ran a trial session. Very easy on the install. Very easy to setup and run. Once you have your contacts in place it is a matter of selecting one and clicking the green phone.

Clarity of video signal is dependent on your system and cam. We were able to hold a simple conversation (little lag). Joe even gave me a look at his kitchen and living room. He also showed me the snow outside his door.

Overall a good experience. The free version allows up to 3 sessions at once - For $10 a month you can upgrade to 6 sessions at once. The software also allows for recording sessions - taking still photos - higher resolution video.

DVDVideoSoft

DVDVideoSoft Free Studio Manager. Want to up or down load video and/or audio content from YouTube? DVDVideoSoft Studio Manager allows you to download and convert YouTube content for use on your iPod or iTunes. It is also a DVD/CD Burner - Converter and Audio and/Or Video Dub System.

I have been running it for over a year with no problems. Pull the audio from a YouTube to a temp location - drag it to iTunes and the next time I plug in it is on the iPod. AVS has a plethora of free utilities incorporating most every audio/video format. This is one I highly recommend.