Directory of Learning Tools

Dave at academhack just posted a link to a really helpful resource. It is a directory of over 2,300 learning tools. You can find it here. This index covers everything from blogs, wikis, and RSS readers to content management systems and learning management systems.

Phun: Physics simulator

From Kevin Purdy at Lifehacker:

Phun, a free open-source, cross-platform 2D physics simulator, makes you want to pick up blocks, or maybe crayons, and learn more about the way things fall and move under pressure. Written by a Swedish graduate student, the program teaches concepts of restitution and friction, so it's great to load up with the kids, but you'll probably find yourself sneaking a few turns by yourself at creating, and knocking over, shapes and lines. Phun is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems; hit the link for instructions on using and having, well, fun in Phun.

I've been playing with Phun for a few days and have enjoyed it. If you're into physics here at the university, try it out and let me know if it's at all useful to you.

Academhack

Academhack is a really decent instructional technology blog. It is biased towards the humanities and many of the applications highlighted are Mac only, however, there are plenty of resources for non-humanities disciplines and non-Mac users. I often find great new technologies here, but the blog also lays out some best practices for the less high-tech stuff (e.g., Handling E-mail for Professors).

10 Free Web-based Alternatives to Photoshop

If you can't afford the hefty price tag for Adobe's Photoshop software, and aren't interested in using GIMP (open-source imaging software), check out these free, web-based alternatives at Life Clever ;).

Omnisio: Online video editing

Omnisio is an easy way to edit videos online. For example, you can take a few Youtube videos and splice them together. Academhack found another interesting use for Omnisio:

Omnisio solves one of the problems with making your presentation available online. Before you had to either sink your audio to the slides, and not show yourself talking, or show the video of your presentation at the expense of not always being able to see the slides. No longer. Omnisio allows you to synchronize the video with the slides and show both.