Try it!

Claire Brooks

14 January, 2004

Try it!

This is a great service from ASTD- lots of new and interesting products to play with.I was alerted to this service by Stephen Downes email update. ASTD has an excellent site where you can try out new products and developments. I've had a bit of fun finding new and interesting products to play with- some serious, some not so. One fun, and seriously needed tool, that ALL VET practitioners could use is the *Bullfighter* - an anti- jargon checker. The *Workrave* gives a reminder to take regular breaks from the keyboard, and also log the stats of computer usage in key strokes and mouseclicks (potentially a bit horrifying- I'd done my days quota of computer use by 10.30 am!)Anyone got any comments on the other products? Has anyone used Sculptoris?

Comments:

15 January, 2004

Malcolm Jolly

There goes an hour. What an impressive collection of utilities.

16 January, 2004

Steve Fisher

I think this is an excellent example of the range of "tools" available. In large organisations and tertiary institutions, practitioners tend to get bound to the "corporate" system for all good reasons, but miss out on new, innovative and versatile alternatives.

16 January, 2004

Claire Brooks

good point about getting bound bythe 'system' Steve. I used this site to see what some different things were like, whatfeatures didthey have what bits did I like and what did I hate, so that I can then specifiy what I think are the best...it is easy otget bogged down in what is 'available' and this site makes it a little easier to see and try new things....as Malcolm says- there goes an hour or three . Steve have you used Sculptoris at all? do you have a content authoring/management/project management system?

28 January, 2004

Carole McCulloch

Great resources here Claire. This is where I found the 'Smiling Tiger' FREE TRIAL: WEB PRESENTATION SOFTWARE. This one worked extremely well without any firewall or network problems. Very easy to use and they offer a range of hiring opportunities for their virtual rooms.