Friday, May 21, 2010

Google wave - now available for everyone!


After hearing the news that Google Wave is now available for everyone, I thought it would be good to revisit google wave in my blog. Visit the google blog from the link as there are links to specific uses of wave in education, an article on how to use wave, etc.

Hopefully, you will join the wave and find some waves that are of particular interest to you. Wave is a tool that allows real-time (chat like) and asynchronous collaboration to exist among members of a wave. It is similar to a wiki, but more of an ongoing conversation with links, images, resources, and built in widgets. It really is revolutionary in terms of Web 2.0 (perhaps 3.0) and will hopefully continue to evolve.

Join the wave!

You can search and add me as a contact (stevei2071@googlewave.com)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

People are always asking me if you can convert a PDF file back into Word or convert it so that you could edit the document. Well, thanks to Linda in my Best Practices: Web 2.0 class, I have seen the light! PDFtoWORD converter is a VERY easy to use web based conversion tool. Visit the site and it will prompt you through three simple steps:
  1. browse for the file you wish to convert
  2. choose to convert it into .doc (Microsoft Word) or .rtf (rich text format)
  3. enter your email address so the converted file can be sent to you
There is a desktop version, but that costs $99. The free web-based tool was very easy to use, and despite a short wait for the file to arrive in my in box it worked GREAT!

Thanks again, Linda!
Enjoy!