My Web Daily

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Skype in the Classroom

Something slightly different in my teacher resources week today - Skype in the Classroom. I met the guy who heads up this division of Skype at an event recently, and also spoke to an explorer who Skypes into classrooms from wierd & wonderful places, like the Everest base camp station with his beard full of ice, to help engage children when it comes to learning about the world. It's a great initiative & definitely worth looking into if you want to bring outside experts into your classroom via Skype, or even if you want to volunteer to speak to children in schools all over the world about your particular area of expertise.

 

 

 

 

 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Endomondo

It can be hard working up the enthusiasm for a healthy jog, but if you have a GPS enabled smartphone you can turn it into personal trainer & motivator with a free download from endomondo.com. Log in with Facebook and download the app from a more than impressive list of supported handsets, and you’re off and running… quite literally if that is your fitness activity of choice.

This is a kind of fitness social network rather than just an application. The app tracks & records your activity using GPS – and if you have a supported GPS watch you can use that too – but what’s really nice is the way it hooks you into a community so you can share & compare results, getting that much needed boost from a little friendly competition & support. As well as being able to challenge friends or participate in site-wide open challenges, there are analysis tools to help you find better ways to work out.

 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Join.me

Collaborating just got a whole to lot simpler, thanks to Join.me – a browser based screen-sharing tool from the development team who made LogMeIn. There’s no sign up required for the simple free sharing service, which involves downloading a tiny temporary application & then giving the 9 digit code it generates to anyone who you want to be able to see your screen up to a maximum of 250 viewers.

The free service even allows you to hand over control of your desktop, or have a text conversation and send files to anyone logged in as a viewer. This could be a great way to work on a creative project with distant colleagues, or get tech support from your nephew who’s an absolute whizz with computers. And if all that isn’t enough, there are free viewer apps for iPhone, iPad & Android – so now no-one has an excuse not to join in.

 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Google Translate

Google translate works in real time on 57 different languages and will speak the translation back to you – or the person you’re trying to communicate with. The free mobile apps for android & iphone use voice recognition so you can use them anywhere as long as it’s quiet. As an essential travel tool & in this world of cross-border social relationships, this free service should be on everyone's essential kit list.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Doodle

If scheduling a meeting with your colleagues is like swimming through treacle wearing snowshoes why don't you just sit down and Doodle? This helpful website lets you easily select a range of suitable dates and times and then share your suggestion with your contacts in the form of an online poll. You can do this by getting the site to email invited participants, or just post a link and they can make their way there independently.

The free account should be ample for most users, but you can upgrade to premium if you want more personalisation features and the ability to track and remind participants. There's an iPhone app too, but again you'll need to pay for this. One really fun feature is the Make a Choice section, where you can run public polls about anything you want.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Echo Echo

 

When it comes to hooking up around town, location based check-in apps are all very well if your friends are active users, but it can be a lonely life for the geo-traveller if they aren’t. Echoecho is a free smartphone app available on all the popular platforms with Windows Phone 7 iminent too, that turns the foursquare model on its head, allowing you to send your contacts a request when you want to know where they are – and you can use it right out of the box… no sign up or building yet another social network required. Once you’ve connected the app will help you find a good local venue close by – and if your contact doesn’t want to download the app you can reach them through the browser version too. This really is a breath of fresh air is a world gone crazy with location based complexity. 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Onavo

If you use a smartphone then data can get expensive, especially if you’re travelling abroad. Onavo have made free apps for Android & iPhone that can save you up to 80% of your data. It does this by monitoring & controlling app traffic, allowing you to block heavy data consumption when not on WiFi, and set a cap depending on your contract and whether you’re travelling abroad. When you download a new app, Onavo will tell you whether it’s a known data hog. The iPhone version even compresses the data heading to your handset on its servers, so you’ll be using less data allowance doing exactly what you’ve always done before. Word of warning; these apps do funnel your data traffic through Onavo’s servers, so if you have privacy concerns definitely read the Ts & Cs on their website – and don’t use your handset for anything sensitive like Internet banking.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Labels.io

If you’re bored of filling out endless, wordy internet text boxes in your quest to find the perfect job, check out labels.io, which applies the process of tagging to generate a quick & effective summary of your skills to catch the eye of potential employers. Filling out your profile takes minutes, and you can link it to your social media accounts, website & blog for employers who want more detailed information. And it’s creating these links that is another important part of the way this website works.

The creators have made a clever algorithm that determines your online professional authority by measuring the impact of your relevant contributions to the social web – they call it your “labels weight” and there is a detailed explanation on the site if you’re interested. This weight allows you to bubble to the top of the crowd when an employer comes looking for people in your skillset… and there's the rub; as much as I love the idea here, it relies on employers to come looking for you. In todays over saturated online recruitment market I really hope these guys have a solid marketing strategy worked out, as I would love to see a site like this succeed.

.@MyWebDaily reviews: Hashable

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

If like me, one of your resolutions this year is to make better use of the networking contacts you make, with hashable.com you can keep track of your meaningful Twitter connections using a simple hashtag. For those not familiar with the term, a hashtag is just a key word definition with a hash symbol on the front… so if you’re meeting one of your contacts you can add #with to a tweet and hashable will add it to your records. The site then aggregates all the hashtags used by you and your inner circle – in other words the people you connect with on the site – so you can see who’s doing what, where and with whom. It might seem a bit trivial to some, or even perhaps a little invasive. But you opt in with the relevant hashtag, and having the history available through the site could come in handy if your business is all about connections. 

.@MyWebDaily reviews: About.me

With all the ways you can have a presence on the world-wide-web, it’s getting so that swapping contact details with someone can be an all-day event! Enter about.me – a smart & simple online business card that is now the only URL you need to give out. Think of this as your landing page on the world wide web, where all your personal spaces are just a click away. Not only does this site do exactly what it needs to and nothing more, if you put a little thought into layout you can make your page look really stylish & original. Check out the directory for inspiration. Adding services is super easy – and they even have instagram integration. And if the service you want isn’t listed, just add it as a custom URL. Job done – and now everyone will know where to find you.