Four Apps

Yesterday was definitely new app day as far as I was concerned. Four new apps, each of which could easily be applied into a learning and teaching context.

• TextTheMob – “The easiest and most entertaining way to collect feedback from your audience: Project polls or message boards on a large screen, have everyone send their input via their cell phones and see results instantly!” Unfortunately, the service is currently only available in the United States, and looks to have limited functionality as it’s still in beta.
• twhirl – Ok, so this app has been around a little while but I only got around to installing it yesterday. Using Adobe’s AIR platform, it allows for users to interact with Twitter from their desktops, rather than the website. Usefully, it allows for users to be logged into multiple Twitter accounts concurrently – functionality that the website doesn’t currently offer.
• Evernote – Allows for capture of information [text and photos] in a variety of environments – web, desktop and phone. This information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Unfortunately though, there’s no client for Symbian Series 60-based phones.
• bubblecomment – Allows users to attach a video comment to any website, and then share this with users via a URL. Comments are limited to 90 seconds, 200 playbacks and expire in 30 days. No “Pro account” is available yet, but I can see the potential. Really useful for colleagues who want to highlight websites for their students, particularly in a distance learning context.

For those wanting a heads up on a variety of other Web 2.0 applications that I’ve come across and often recommend to colleagues, a previous blog post might be of interest.