This via WhatIsNew (thank goodness for RSS and Bloglines):

"Agilix is now selling a product called GoBinder which is designed for students and teachers as a repository of personal knowledge. In a classic viral marketing move, every educator in the world is being offered a free copy of GoBinder. For the average person, the GoBinder software is far easier to use as a repository than Folio VIEWS. Anything you read online, any materials your teachers provide you with, any handouts you get from class, any web page or PDF file that you view, you can easily and permanently save into your GoBinder. You can add personal notes (if you own a Tablet PC) (no, you don't need a Tablet PC-you can use a Wacom Tablet and Stylus-under $80.00) to any document. And then you can search and find everything instantly when you need it." (Source: Paul Allen of Infobase Ventures)

You MUST go IMMEDIATELY and download GoBinder. I did and I LOVE IT!!! You don't need a Tablet PC--it works with XP! Since I have a Wacom Tablet, I can type or ink with GoBinder. I am not kidding--it is fabulous!!! First view the demo, then download it and be amazed! 

I created a tab for my school, calendar with notes, and have downloaded information from websites that I will need for professional development on Monday. I can even draw, circle, and annotate over the website information I downloaded. Best of all, it's all in one place! No more opening separate documents and files just to get through one lesson! (BTW, it even syncs with Blackboard!) There's so much more it can do--just go there NOW!!!

Thank you Curt Allen. Thank you Lora. I think I've died and gone to Heaven!

If you've never seen a tablet pc in use, you MUST view this 3 minute video! It's Bert Keely, an architect on the MS Tablet PC Team, demonstrating how he uses his tablet. With the new release of XP Service Pack2, writing and editing on tablets is even faster!!!

View here: Channel9: Souping up the Tablet PC

HULK like blog. You read HULK blog. HULK blog good! HULK blog make me smile. Here read HULK.

I usually like to introduce teachers to blogging using Tabulas because it is very powerful. With tabulas you can have your main blog page, endless shared journals, endless content pages, a picture gallery (free accounts can post 80 pics while paid accounts-about $2 a month-can post 300 pics and 3 video files --I hate to brag, but I did get a Beta account so I can post 500 pics, but...who's bragging?) But on the day of my blog workshop at the Teach the Teachers Collaborative at Thacher, tabulas was down, so, I had to use this blog's host, tblog. It turned out great--teachers were sooooo very excited and the word spread quickly about blogging so I ended up doing two afternoon workshops (8-10 people each) and have received several emails from teachers wanting to know when I'm going to teach the 16 hour blog class I developed for the district. As I wrote in my last post, two teachers even wrote a grant after the first workshop, and are more than willing to come out to my school at the end of the day to learn more!

Here's what I think happened--tblog is very user friendly so teachers got pretty far right away, and that created enthusiasm! Within 90 minutes teachers had created their blogs, posted an entry, commented on each other's blogs, and and started using bloglines! There were alot of ooooohs and aaaaahs--and lots of ideas about how to use the blogs. This just didn't happen with tabulas. Don't get me wrong--tabulas is still my favorite blog host because you just can't beat the features, but tblog is superior for a quick, down and dirty, get that blog up and running workshop! I realize now that perhaps I was the impediment to teachers blogging because I wanted to give background, informat ion, resources, examples, blahblahblah... and I wanted to start teachers off with a blog host that had all the bells and whistles--which bogged them down with too much to learn. In effect, I told teachers, "wow, blogging is so cool because you can quickly and easily post and receive feedback," then proceeded to make their first experience long and difficult! Sheesh!!!

So, if I want teachers to blog I need to get out of the way by letting them just create a blog quickly and easily! That in itself builds excitement and the desire to seek out the background, information, resources, examples, blahblahblah... and then I can help them begin to use a more powerful blog host! Which, as a matter of fact is how I got started. Um... duh...