Wish List for Desire2Learn, Part 2

In addition to the items I listed a couple of weeks ago, I’d like to be able to do the following in D2L:

• see attachments when I’m grading discussions
• collapse discussion topics in the Forums & Topics List, so that only the title is visible (not the description), and I can scroll through them faster to find the ones with unread messages

Links for 2010-04-23 [delicious.com]

• Web 2.0 List Of Web 2.0 Application Links
  Web 2.0′s Top 1,000 List!
  (tags: web2.0 tools directory resources)
• Book of Odds
  Book of Odds is the world’s first reference on the odds of everyday life. It is a destination where people come to learn about the things that worry or excite them, to read engaging and thoughtful articles, and to participate in a community of users that share their interests and ambitions.
  (tags: statistics reference data research)
• Wolfram|Alpha
  Today’s Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.
  (tags: searchengine tools reference science math research)
• Rock the Quote
  Currently indexing 1,563 famous quotes and speeches
  (tags: reference speeches quotations resources)
• Timmp!
  (tags: searchengine research)
• Tagul
  Tagul is a web service that enables you to create gorgeous tag clouds.
  (tags: tagcloud wordcloud web2.0 tools free)
• Newspapers 24.com
  12,000 Online Newspapers
  (tags: news newspapers online world)
• ThePaperboy.com
  Click Here for 6371 Online Newspapers
  (tags: newspapers news world online)
• OnlineNewspapers.com
  Thousands of newspapers on the Net
  (tags: newspapers news online research directory)
• Newspapers.com
  Search over 10,000 Newspapers Online!
  (tags: news online research directory newspapers)
• FreeBookSpot
  The online source of free ebooks download
  (tags: ebooks books free)
• E-Books Directory
  E-Books Directory is a daily growing list of freely downloadable ebooks, documents and lecture notes found all over the internet. You can submit and promote your own ebooks, add comments on already posted books or just browse through the directory below and download anything you need.
  (tags: ebooks books free directory)
• ConlineComputerBooks.com
  OnlineComputerBooks.com contains details about free computer books, free ebooks, free programming books, free online books and sample chapters related to Information and Communication Technology, Computer Science, Internet, Engineering, Business, Marketing, Maths, Electronics, Physics and Science which are provided by publishers or authors on their websites legally and free of charge.
  (tags: ebooks books free computer computerscience computerprogramming)
• FreeBookCentre.Net
  Freebookcentre.net contains links to thousands of free online technical books. Which Include core computer science, networking, programming languages, Systems Programming books, Linux books and many more.
  (tags: ebooks books free computerscience computerprogramming)
• Fictionwise eBooks
  Fictionwise.com is committed to providing the Internet’s most comprehensive collection of fiction (and yes nonfiction too!) in the most popular eBook formats. At Fictionwise, you’ll find award-winning and high quality eBooks by top authors in all the major genres. We are also working hard to make Fictionwise.com the most technically advanced eBook website (ranging from sophisticated search or sorting options to a complete coupon and promotions system to artificial intelligence systems to help members buy eBooks they will enjoy).
  (tags: ebooks books library free fiction)
• Bookyards.com
  Our goal is to be “The Library To The World”, a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be freely to anyone who has an internet connection.
  (tags: ebooks books library free)
• Planet PDF
  Free PDF eBooks
  (tags: ebooks books free pdf)

Video: “Bayeux Tapestry”

Video:  “Bayeux Tapestry“

Alternatives to Ning

As I wrote the other day, Ning will be phasing out their free service.  Today I ran across a few lists of alternatives:

• “Ning… where to go when the public square charges an entrance fee?“
• “LEARNING TOOLS DIRECTORY 2010: Social Networking & Collaboration Spaces” (mentioned in “115 Social networking and collaboration spaces” by Jane Hart, who also links to her “Comparison of Twitter, Facebook, Ning and Elgg“)
• “Ning Ends Free Networks – Try These Alternatives“
• “Alternative Solutions from JP of Skins4Ning – Freemium Social Network Alternatives“
• “No Free Lunch for Ning Users; Still Plenty of Bargains Elsewhere“
• “Grou.ps And Grouply Welcome Ning Refugees“
• “5 Places To Take Your Ning Network“
• “Alternatives to Ning” (Google doc)
• “Alternatives to Ning” (blog post by Phil Bradley)

Links for 2010-04-16 [delicious.com]

• Cpedia
  Current search results are more analogous to receiving a bibliography than a sourced report. For each query, Cpedia algorithmically summarizes and clusters the ideas on the web and uses this to generate a report. We do the heavy lifting of removing all the repetition, so that unique and novel content surfaces. Just as Wikipedia uses the effort of a large number of people to edit a topic, we combine all the documents written about an idea on the web to generate one article.
  (tags: searchengine encyclopedia research reference web2.0)
• linkli.st
  Welcome to Linklist—a new way to collect, organize, and share lists with links.
  (tags: tools bookmarking web2.0 socialbookmarking)
• DidDone
  DidDone is a search engine with access to millions of information from different websites and with results giving the user more options to searches on the Internet. With DidDone Search you can search for images and news too. Initially, the search will be available with the DidDone version in English and Portuguese and later in other languages for different countries around the world.
  (tags: searchengine research)
• Cadmus
  Cadmus is a real-time service that manages your stream (Twitter, FriendFeed and RSS) by displaying the most relevant content since the last time you checked in. It helps you get caught up on what you have missed.
  (tags: Twitter aggregator tools rss socialmedia realtime microblogging)
• Search Manual Online
  You can search, or download manual online for free, it is a downloadable user manuals, instruction and owners guide pdf book
  (tags: manuals searchengine technicalwriting)
• crocodoc
  Mark up, fill out, and collaborate on PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and web pages… for free!
  (tags: collaboration documents web2.0 tools free pdf)
• Yebol
  Yebol’s mission is to build human-like world’s knowledge base and provide knowledge based search (semantics) and services.
  (tags: searchengine semantic research web3.0)

No More Ning for Educators

Yesterday, Ning‘s new CEO made the following announcement in the creator‘s forum:

We will phase out our free service. Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning. We will judge ourselves by our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale. And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making paying Network Creators extremely happy.

I know I’m not the only educator who will have to start looking for a new application to use for classes and professional development.

(Thanks to Laura Nicosia for pointing out the announcement in Facebook.)

Links for 2010-04-15 [delicious.com]

• Web Gallery of Art
  image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1000-1850)
  (tags: art images museum humanities MiddleAges Renaissance)
• Paris, a Roman city
  (tags: history architecture art humanities AncientRome)
• Tagxedo
  tag cloud with styles
  (tags: wordcloud tools web2.0 art graphics tagcloud)

Wish List for Desire2Learn, Part 1

Colorado’s community colleges switched from Blackboard to Desire2Learn (D2L) this semester, so I’ve been using it since January.  There are a lot of things I like better about D2L, particularly how much easier it is to reorder items and how it’s possible to give individual students “special access” to turn in assignments late.

However, I’d like to be able to

• make more than one topic in Content or another feature invisible or visible at the same time
• stay where I posted a reply in a discussion topic rather than ending up back at the top of the page
• make comments when grading discussions
• automatically send news items as email messages
• put text in a module
• create a link to a module rather than just a topic
• find restrictions for visibility and availabity and the Save buttons in the same place in all functions

Video: “Forward D2L email to external email account”

Video:  “Forward D2L email to external email account“

Links for 2010-04-01 [delicious.com]

• PyramidCam
  Live view of pyramids at Giza
  (tags: history architecture ancientegypt humanities)
• Hieroglyphic Directory
  The ancient Egyptian picture language
  (tags: hieroglyphics humanities ancientegypt)
• Hieroglyphs Translator
  Want to see your name or compose a message in hieroglyphs? Write it out in Middle Egyptian (beginning around 2100 B.C.) phonetic symbols using the keyboard. Place your cursor over each letter and click. Then print it out as a certificate or send it as an e-greeting.
  (tags: tools ancientegypt hieroglyphics humanities)
• How to “Read” an Artwork
  The “reading” process is divided into four steps: 1. Description 2. Analysis 3. Interpretation and 4. Judgment
  (tags: arts humanities visualarts analysis)
• Qrobe
  Google Bing Ask
  (tags: metacrawler research)