A couple of weeks ago I blogged about some useful tech tools that were presented at New Horizons 2012. I could only remember 3 of the 7 off the top of my head (mind like a rusty trap) but luckily, the presenters posted the list so I can share the rest with you.
Puretext: http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/
Ever copy content from Microsoft Word into Blackboard and gotten back a big mess? Blackboard doesn’t play nicely with Word’s formatting. But this tool will allow you to strip out all of that formatting and paste nice clean text into Blackboard (or your blog, or anywhere else). You can set it up to work with a shortcut, so it feels the same as a regular cut and paste, only without creating nasty formatting issues.
Freemake Video Downloader and Converter: http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader/, http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/
If you want to show a YouTube video but you don’t have an internet connection where you’re lecturing, this is a useful tool. You can download the Youtube video as your own video file, carry it around on a flash drive, and play it on any computer. The converter will take your video and make it into another video format, so if your computer doesn’t like the file you have, you can try another type. And it all happens online, so you don’t need to download any software.
iSpring: http://www.ispringfree.com/
Convert your Powerpoints to flash videos. This could be handy if you end up presenting on a computer that doesn’t have Powerpoint. Also, you can embed flash videos in Blackboard pretty easily, so if your students don’t have Powerpoint, they can still watch your presentation.
CopyPasteCharacter: http://copypastecharacter.com/
It always takes me ages to find special characters in Word or Dreamweaver or other software programs. This site just lets you copy and paste any special characters you might need. Works with many text editors, but not, alas, the NOVA Annandale marquee. But it’s not likely you’ll ever need it for that.
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See, it works with WordPress too!