This week was a technologically challenging week for me. My computer has been in the shop, and its future is looking bleak. Although I haven’t been singing songs of good cheer with this news, I haven’t fallen apart either despite the fact that it has become evident that a large part of my life centers around my computer.
Why you ask am I able to maintain reasonable composure during this time of "crisis"? Simple. I'm in the cloud and have been using some lifesaving web 2.0 tools. Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Picasa, here's a big hug from me to you.
Diigo is a social bookmarking tool. It is where I keep track of all of my favorite websites, easily highlight and store select info of importance, join communities with similar interests, etc. This video explains more.
Diigo for educators is also available. Although I used to be a Delicious fan, Diigo has won me over. Delicious accounts can be migrated over into Diigo.
See Kacey’s post about the fine qualities of Dropbox. Since she made her post, DropitTOme made a debut. It makes receiving files from others to Dropbox possible. (For example, students could submit assignments to my Dropbox using DropiTOme.)
Evernote is also a useful way of organizing, storing, and sharing images, documents, links, etc. You can watch a video explaining it here. I am still debating it, but I think that Diigo alone meets most of my needs.
There are a lot of ways to store pictures online. I like Picasa because of its integration with blogger amongst other reasons. Thank you Picasa for keeping those fun fall pictures safe during time of uncertainty!
Not only did these sites help me under a time of duress, but they consistently aid me on a daily basis when I move from my PC to various computers on campus. There is also an iphone/ipad app for Diigo, Dropbox, and Evernote which makes info accessible from virtually anywhere 24/7.
With all of this said, please don’t test my “good nature” with a crazy practical joke like hiding my iphone. I can only hold so long under such pressure.
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