PGDEL/DECP02/Unit3/01

 Unit 2.3 Collaborative development Tools  Collaborative development

In the previous unit of this course, you have learn about social networking media; blog, micro blog and facebook etc. Blogs and other social media allows you to get comments or views on the posts or uploads you have been done. In this unit, you will learn about collaborative development using various software/tools. online Collaborative development is a virtual environment wherein all the contributors provide their content to build a topic collaboratively. Courselab, exelearning.org and wiki are very much used for collaborative content development. You will learn how these tools can be used to create content and work collaboratively. Instant messaging facilities is needed for any elearning environment. This helps the learner to clear hie/her concept with teacher or peer. Skype, messenger, gtalk are most popular using instant messaging providers. You learn these tools here. Also you will know about the document hosting tools like scribd, shareslides, slidebloom and authorstream. Let us discuss about what is collaboration?.

Collaboration requires individuals working together in a coordinated fashion, towards a common goal. Collaborative Development is a recursive[2] process where two or more people or organizations work together to achieve common goals. Collaborative Content Development requires to working jointly with others / in groups especially in an intellectual endeavor to put together content.

Collaborative tools are built-up in computer aided technology that helps people for collaboration. There are lots of open source collaborative tools available for E-Learning. In this unit highlights few important tools and it features are given in Table 1.0: List Open Source E-Learning tools

= Collaborative Development =

In the previous unit of this course, you have learn about social networking media; blog, micro blog and facebook etc. Blogs and other social media allows you to get comments or views on the posts or uploads you have been done. In this unit, you will learn about collaborative development using various software/tools. online Collaborative development is a virtual environment wherein all the contributors provide their content to build a topic collaboratively. Courselab, exelearning.org and wiki are very much used for collaborative content development. You will learn how these tools can be used to create content and work collaboratively. Instant messaging facilities is needed for any elearning environment. This helps the learner to clear hie/her concept with teacher or peer. Skype, messenger, gtalk are most popular using instant messaging providers. You learn these tools here. Also you will know about the document hosting tools like scribd, shareslides, slidebloom and authorstream. Let us discuss about what is collaboration?.

Collaboration requires individuals working together in a coordinated fashion, towards a common goal. Collaborative Development is a recursive[2] process where two or more people or organizations work together to achieve common goals. Collaborative Content Development requires to working jointly with others / in groups especially in an intellectual endeavor to put together content.

Collaborative tools are built-up in computer aided technology that helps people for collaboration. There are lots of open source collaborative tools available for E-Learning. In this unit highlights few important tools and it features are given in Table 1.0: List Open Source E-Learning tools

Learning outcomes

After completing this unit you will able to


 * Understand the collaborative learning environment using various tools.
 * Acquaint the knowledge of collaborative authoring tool and collaborative slideshows by using Udutu and VoiceThread tools.
 * Develop the content using content autoring tools (CourseLab and ExeLearning)
 * Create collaborative Wiki pages using WikiEducator, WikiPedia, WikiBooks, WikiSites and googleSites.
 * Use Skype, Messanger, and gtalk to send and receive the instant messing effectively.
 * Understand and work in Scribd, Slideshare, SlideBloom, Authorstream to hos and share the document.

Content Development Tools
2.3.1 Course Authoring Tool

To create a proper course for E-learning content, you need an authoring tool to facilitate this work. The definition of Authoring Tool is “a program that helps you write using hypertext or multimedia applications and enable you to create a final application merely by linking together objects, such as a paragraph of text, an illustration, Animation, Audio or Video”. By defining the objects' relationships to each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order, authors (those who use authoring tools) can produce attractive and useful graphics applications.

In this unit, you will learn a open source Course authoring tool called Udutu.

The [Udutu] site launched at since December 2005. The site was founded by Roger Mundell, Ron Hart, Chris Coldwell and Richard Mundell. Roger Mundell is currently CEO, while Richard Mundell is CEO of Udutu USA.

Udutu.com is an online service company that allows users to create and manage online e-learning courses. In May 2006 the Udutu team released their free online learning solution as a free authoring collaborative tool called as myUdutu. This authoring tool permits the author to create the courses, which are easily integrated to SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). SCORM is a standard for sharing of data by online e-learning software.

The site allows the user to write and manage courses and extract them to be hosted on the user's server for free. For a fee, the site will also host the user's courses. Courses can consist of basic screens, assessment screens, scenario scenes and advanced screens.

Getting started of Udutu Tool

It really is very easy to use, you need to set up a free account MyUdutu website and then start creating your first course. Choose one of the existing templates or create your own by uploading your own background images, logos or navigation buttons.

Every time you sign into the myUdutu tool you will start on the welcome page of myUdutu where there are 3 tab buttons at the top of the screen; Workspace, Library and Administration. These 3 tab buttons feature are explained in more detail below.

Workspace: This button will help you to your "Workspace"; the area that you will be authoring your course. This will allow you to creating a course or modifying, copying or publishing an existing course. Once course title created, you can create one or group of modules, topic and sub topic etc. The assessment templates provide the various options link Multiple choice with images, True or False, Quiz etc.

Note: There are some very nice assessment screens which you can add 11 assessment screens only in freeware version. If you need to add more, you need to pay few additional dollar payments as mentioned in their website.

Library: This section gives you the ability to manage your library objects (text, audio, animations, video, and screens). You have the power to add, edit and delete library content.

Administration: This section has all of the "behind the scenes" elements of your courses. In the Administration section you can: • Manage users (Add or remove) • Monitor activity • Modify themes • Change passwords • Add hosting capabilities, etc.

Feature of myUdutu Tool: In overall it is very good tool in views of teaching and learners perspectives. These features are explained in below.

Ease of use: Very easy to get started, a wide range of templates, simply click on the type of screen you want and fill in the fields, upload some media and preview the screen. Instructional design flexibility : Creating Assessment questions allows you to add a wide range of feedback for Correct Answer, Wrong Answer, Partial Answer and Show Me. Very easy for non-programmers to start creating e-learning. Ability to incorporate existing content: Can load in existing animations or graphics, Flash files or import existing myUdutu courses. Ability to handle variety of topics: You can easily create a basic linear course or create several different sections to your course where the user can jump from one slide or section to another very easily. Not designed for systems training though, you would have to import a SWF for this purpose. Support for all major types of graphic, sound and video formats which are automatically optimized by myUdutu for web delivery.

Ability to publish SCORM/AICC compliant courses: Very easy indeed, myUdutu allows you to run your courses free of charge (for less than 50 screens) from their own server. The pages are watermarked but it’s very useful to test your course on their LMS for testing purposes. Once you are happy export and use the SCORM zip file on your own LMS.

Technical support available: The online PDF guide will help you with any problems you might have, there is also a friendly forum where staff and users will happily solve your issues.

Knowledgeable support team: Very impressive team of technical staff who can help you with any issues.

Discussion: myUdutu is a great free tool for creating impressive e-Learning quickly and easily. It has an impressive range of templates and can create very professional results. Anyhow this open source tool is good to start for less than 50 module courses. You need to choose the commercial version of Udutu tool, incase if you like to choose advanced workspaces and it features.

Suggested Reading Getting Started Manual http://www.udutu.com/pdfs/EnglishUsersGuide.pdf

Udutu: Sample Course module http://samples.udutu.com/NPCA/Course/course3111.html

Suggested Videos What is UDUTU? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anJUcRuNPyA&amp;feature=related

Udutu Online video http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course3215/v2007_10_15_11_32_34/course/course3215.html

How to create a Course Framework http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course2882/v2007_10_15_13_49_16/course/course2882.html

How to Use Uduto Tool? http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/140/Course862/v2011_2_25_14_21_23/course/course862.html?redirect=true

Moodule Plug in with Udutu http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course5450/v2008_2_26_9_33_26/course/course5450.html

Stay Connected with Udutu. http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course3005/v2007_10_16_12_37_52/course/course3005.html

Importing Images http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course4590/v2008_1_16_11_44_11/course/course4590.html

Working with basic screens http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course5240/v2008_2_16_22_50_15/course/course5240.html

Working with assessment screens http://publish.myudutu.com/published/courses/1391/Course5718/v2010_5_11_16_35_10/course/course5718.html

Collaborative SlideShows: VoiceThread
Slide show "is an on-screen presentation of information / ideas presented on slides. A slide show enforces the ideas, comments, solution or suggestions presented in the slide”(WikiPedia, 2012). Slide show presentation helps to share the ideas with others and get the feedback from them.

VoiceThread is Web-based collaboration toll that allows users to create a shared presentation as a media album that visitors can asynchronously comment on either by text, voice, or video.

Reference: Wiki Pedia, accessed on 15-June-2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slideshow

VoiceThread

"A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam)” ("Voicethread," 2012). [Share] a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too. Users can doodle] while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies". VoiceThread is available for free at [website].

Quick demonstration: [click here to view the VoiceThread functionalities].

Brief History: VoiceThread was founded by Ben Papell and Steve Muth in December 2005 in Florida (USA). With a deep dissatisfaction with the current tools for socializing around media, the creators intended for VoiceThread to transform online communication. The development team worked 17 months, and launched a beta release of VoiceThread on April 15, 2007. Four months was spent receiving feedback on the site, and on October 10, 2007, the second and official launch of the site was released.

How to create and Post a new VoiceThread? To create a new voice thread you must have an account in account [VoiceTread.com]. After creating an account, which takes only a few seconds, you can begin creating a VoiceThread by uploading media elements (images, videos, text, audio) into slides to create a presentation. Also you can then add annotations that are audio, video, or text on each slide. At this point, as a creator you can share the presentation with any group of your friends/Students. They can turn quickly and easily add com¬ments on any slide in one of five digital forms. The VoiceThread, once set up, can be shared automatically via a Web link that can either be automatically e-mailed or posted. It can also be embedded into an existing Web page or blog. For example, a VoiceThread can be posted to an individual’s Facebook or MySpace page.

How to give the comment to a VoiceThread? VoiceThread allows 5-ways comments are given below:


 * 1) Microphone (Voice)
 * 2) Phone (Voice)
 * 3) Presentation files(Text, Word, PPT, Image, picture etc)
 * 4) Audio File (mp3) and
 * 5) Video (Web Cam)

VoiceThread permits the creator for moderating the user comments. VoiceThread is an asynchronous application, individuals can add to the digital conversation at any time they wish without worrying about being in the conversation “live.” It collects the voices of an entire group on a single slide by computer microphone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam. VoiceThread even has a phone com¬menting feature for users who want to make audio comments but do not have the appropriate microphone or Web camera configuration on their computer. Users add¬ing comments can also use the “Doodle” function that allows a commenter to draw on the media slide while making a comment. Note: You can read [An Educator Guide to VoiceTread] for Create, post, share and get comment of VoiceThread details.

How VoiceThread can be used in classroom?

VoiceThread specifically for K-12 settings are designed three type of users like Educators, Students, and Administrators. Their roles defined as follows, • Students participate only after being added by their Educators or school Administrators. There can be multiple avatars per account. These identities will only show student names, no pictures. • Educators and administrators have ultimate control, which means students have no administrative control. Invitations to the classroom VoiceThread are solely done by the Educator. The educator also approves comments before making them public to the rest of the class. • Each class VoiceThread has its own URL. Therefore, students can work in and out of the classroom. • Class VoiceThreads are stored as long as educator membership exists. Each year teachers can begin a new VoiceThread for their class.

Note: You can view below videos to know the more details of Voicethreads.



Content Authoring System
The term Authoring System to refer to a computer based system that allows a general group (including non-programmers or author) to create content for intelligent tutoring systems(Wiki 2012).

Authoring tool “is a program that helps you write hypertext or multimedia applications. Authoring tools usually enable you to create a final application merely by linking together objects, such as a paragraph of text, an illustration, or a song. By defining the objects' relationships to each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order, authors (those who use authoring tools) can produce attractive and useful course content materials”(WebOpedia 2012).

Content Authoring Tools (Wiki 2012) is a web-based authoring system that gives users the ability to create online course content rapidly. To create or edit the course contents, the Author requires a PC, web browser with internet connection only. This is done by compiling text and multimedia resources into structured and reusable learning objects and courses.

Collaborative Content Authoring Tools are effectively utilized for Elearning Application developments. Some of key benefits of Content Authoring Tools are given below:


 * Users can create and modify online courses rapidly without having to be computer programmers, or understand complicated code
 * Content can be updated from any internet-connected computer and then published live to the entire student base.
 * Learning objects and resources can be reused so authors can rapidly customize courses as per latest requirements.
 * Users can also take advantage of learning objects and resources created by authors from around the world
 * Powerful search-driven navigation of courses, learning objects and resources
 * Content Authoring Tools also supports International Standards Compliant (SCORM) formats. CourseLab and Exelearning.org are Collaborative Content Authoring Development Tools, these details are covered in following sub units.

Reference :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoring_system, (Wiki 2012), Accessed on 20-June-2012.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/authoring_tool.html (WebOpedia 2012), Accessed on 20-June-2012. Additional: http://www.intuto.com/page/cats.aspx

CourseLab
CourseLab “is a easy-to-use, e-learning authoring system that offers a programming-free environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning courses which can be published on the Internet, Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMS and other devices”(CourseLab, 2012).

Brief History: CourseLab was developed by WebSoft company located in Moscow, Russia. WebSoft was formed in 1999 by the group of Moscow State University graduates. Since then one of the main company goals is to develop the powerful, yet easy-to-use eLearning tools.

This company has release various version of commercial software. In Feb 2008, this company released basic version of eLearning content creation tools called as CourseLab as a freeware. The term "freeware" means that you can install and use it for free. Some advanced options, such as import of PPT slides, are made available by paying for extra amounts. But CourseLab is not open code software; therefore you cannot make any changes in the CourseLab software.

Feature of CourseLab Tool 

CourseLab features are specially designed to increase e-learning content creation productivity. These features are given below: e-Learning standards: Learning modules created using CourseLab are compliant with the following e-Learning standards:


 * AICC (http://www.aicc.org/ ) •
 * SCORM 1.2 (http://www.adlnet.org/ )
 * SCORM 2004 (SCORM 1.3) (http://www.adlnet.org/)

Ready-to-use e-learning module template: CourseLab comes with the large set of ready-to-use e-learning module templates. Just select the template that is suitable for your needs to start new module. Templates are easily modifiable and modified templates can be saved to templates library.

WYSIWYG environment: Course Lab supports WYSIWYG(What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) environment. so no HTML or other programming skills required for content creations.

Large object library: CourseLab contains the large library of ready-to-use complex objects, that covers most of frequently used e-learning needs. Objects are highly customizable to fit virtually any design – just add object on the slide and change its parameters.

Inheritance of objects: You can share once inserted CourseLab object through multiple slides or even entire e-learning module. This feature allows to save development time and efforts drastically.

Simple PowerPoint-like user interface: Familiar PowerPoint-like user interface allows easily get into the way of creating e-learning content.

Import PowerPoint presentation into the module: If you already have PowerPoint presentations then you can easily import it into the e-learning module to save development time. Objects of imported presentation will be translated to CourseLab objects and can be edited further in CourseLab.

Simple wizard-based publication: Instantly publish content to multiple platforms with the few mouse clicks. Content package will be created automatically depending on selected publish option

CourseLab freeware software download link  You can download the freeware version of CourseLab software at below URL. http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/root_id/download/doc.htm

User Guide download link:  http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/63F08BD84E03DACDC32571690042E564/doc.html

How to install the Tool:

Follow installation instructions in the download area of the CourseLab website: http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/root_id/download/doc.html

As part of the instillation process, you will be asked to register. A license code will be e-mailed to you. Retrieve the license code from your email and enter it in the registration form.

How to Creating course Slides :

After you enter the registration code sent to you, CourseLab will begin a new project. • Follow prompts to name the course, modules within the course and choose a template (background colors and navigation buttons). • When the project opens, begin adding content such as text or images to the slide. Use the tool palette or menu options to add content. • Use the directories on the left side of the window to add new slides or switch to Master slide. For more details refer the user guide at below link: http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/63F08BD84E03DACDC32571690042E564/doc.html

How to Creating Quizzes for a course?


 * Select Insert -&gt; choose Objects option.
 * In the Task Pane (right side of window) click Tests or Questions.
 * Right click (click the right-hand mouse button) on a question type or test feature to add it to the slide.
 * Double click the question within the slide to edit the question and answers.

'''How to Publishing Quizzes for a course? '''•


 * Select File -&gt; choose Publish.
 * When prompted enter identifying information about the course.
 * Choose a format for the final project. CD is recommended for easiest playback.
 * After publishing, locate the slideshow folders on your computer.
 * Double click Autorun.html to view the course.

Limitation of the CourseLab freeware version:


 * CourseLab Power Point Import and Screen Capture modules are included into the commercial versions of CourseLab, as a result Importing PowerPoint slides requires purchase of software add-on.
 * Default settings for quiz scores do not display scores in simple and direct way.
 * Published slides display correctly only Internet Explorer. Macintosh users will not be able to accurately view the finished slideshows (no IE web browser available for Mac).

References:

, (CourseLab, 2012), accessed on 12-June-2012.

http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/92FCEBAC429C8672C32571690042CB17/doc.html, ELearning Standards

http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/1CCE7B45B5FB1BC9C32571690042CB14/doc.html, file supported formats.

 Video References:

Example. How the Space Shuttle works (narrated) http://www.courselab.com/clpics/STS_narrated/3/start.html Example. Moving Planets http://www.courselab.com/clpics/Samples/Planets/1/start.html

Example. Alexander the Great http://www.courselab.com/clpics/Samples/HT010/1/start.html

ExeLearning.org
The eXe is a open source authoring tool. The eXe stands for eLearning X  HTML &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;" /&gt;editor.eXe is very user friendly which assist the teachers and academics to develop e-content without getting help from web designers or web software like HTML or XML markup. The content developed by eXe will be in e-content standards which can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

Initially eXe project supported by New Zealand Government Tertiary Education Commission's eCollaboration Fund and was led by the University of Auckland, The Auckland University of Technology, and Tairawhiti Polytechnic. It was later supported by CORE Education, a New Zealand-based not-for-profit educational research and development organization. eXe was rated Best for "Content Authoring" in IMS Global Learning Impact Awards 2008. There are now several projects developed by using eXe around the world.

Many content management and learning management systems do not provide WYSIWYG environment where authors can see what their content will look like in a browser. eXe enables WYSIWYG functionality to see what the content will look like when published online.

Features of ExeLearning tool:

eXeLearning is very easy to learn and there is no need to become proficient in HTML or complicated web-publishing applications. • The instructional units designed within exeLearning are portable - they can be deployed anywhere on a website, in any instructional system, on a CD-ROM, or on an iPod for example. • Instructional units are standards-compliant • eXeLearning is an open-source application, it is free and can be downloaded to computers running Windows, Apple or Linux.

In this unit provides a basic understanding of eXe and its components. For a thorough explanation of eXe and its more advanced features, please visit the eXe web site and reference its online user's manual at (http://www.wikieducator.org/Online_manual).  

How to download and Install of the eXeLearn tool foe Windows System? You just follow the below steps to download the set up files. • Go to: http://exelearning.org/ to download the file. • Click the Windows (installer) under the head Download eXe. • Save the file onto your desktop.

Installing to a PC:  

1. Save the executable file from the eXe home page onto your desktop

2. Double click the eXe installer file. This will launch the eXe Setup Wizard. Click Next

3. The installer will install eXe into a folder called C:\Program Files\eXe\. Click Next to accept this default location

4. The program will then be installed into the specified directory.

Once it is finished installing, close the Setup Wizard Once you install the application at your PC, you can create as many web-based instructional units as you would like, and it is all free.  

Note: For installation of MAC and UNIX operation system details are coved in this unit. If you need, you will get these details from online user manual at (http://www.wikieducator.org/Online_manual).  

'Overview With the eXe', users can develop a learning structure that suits their content delivery needs and build a resource that is flexible and easily updated. The Outline pane of the eXe Control Panel enables users to design an outline that reflects their own preferred hierarchical structure and taxonomy, i.e. topics-sections-units, or books-chapters-verses, etc. This can be established at the outset or can develop as the resource is built. The iDevice (instructional device) pane consists of a collection of structural elements that describe learning content. Some of these include, objectives, pre-knowledge, case studies, free text. Learning content is compiled by selecting iDevices from the iDevice menu and entering your learning content. A learning resource may consist of as few or as many iDevices as required to deliver the learning content effectively. New iDevices are in development and recommendations for additional iDevices are being sought from the wider learning community. An iDevice editor enabling users to design their own iDevices and templates has been released in an experimental format as work continues on its development. eXe offers the ability for users to customise their published content by selecting from a range of graphical style sheets. eXe’s Export facility allows content to be packaged in two ways. Learning resources can be packaged as a self contained web site for publishing to a web server, or as a SCORM Content Package which will enable the resource to be imported into any SCORM enabled learning management system (LMS).

 Reference: 

http://wikieducator.org/Online_manual, Online Manual, accessed on 15-June-2012

http://wikieducator.org/Online_manual/Installation, installation notes, accessed on 15-June-2012

http://wikieducator.org/Online_manual/Working_with_eXe, Working with eXe notes, accessed on 15-June-2012

http://wikieducator.org/Online_manual/Embedding_eXe_resources, Embedding eXe Resources, accessed on 15-June-2012

Reference Video:  

http://youtu.be/yynnOC6ecR4, Introduction to ExeLearn.

http://youtu.be/Q0hfEbrLER0, To begin with Exe (Start).

http://youtu.be/B9lcwkssKyI, How to download and Install Exe.

= Wiki Sites =

Wiki- A Brief History: Warn Cunningham created the first wiki in 1994, and released it in 1995, in order to facilitate communication between software developers. He chose "WikiWikiWeb" as the name based on his memories of the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" at Honolulu International Airport, and because "wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick"

Ward Cunningham chose the name wiki and created the first wiki. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web." He named it so because of quick and simple process of website creation. A wiki is a web site that is generally editable by anyone with a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. Group members can work together to design and develop resources, solve problems and thus march forward. The detail about wiki may be read on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki.

Wikis remind me of a story wherein the power of collboration and collective endeavour was emphasised. In the story when all the doves put their effort together, they could fly away with the net which the bird catcher had kept for them. Wikis show that when individuals work together in collaboration, all problems can be solved. Today wiki lets you work in-group to collaborate for larger goals.

Isn’t that interesting? Join the world of wiki while walking through the following pages.

Video Demo Link: On internet, there is a short excellent video available. A must watch if you want to understand what is wiki? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY. The video gives a short and interesting explanation of wikis and how they can be used to coordinate a group.

In this sub units you will learn more details about wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, wikisites googlesites, wikispaces, WikiEducator, pbwiki, wikispaces and Googlewiki.

Reference page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki, Accessed on 15-June-2012 http://www.wiki.com/

Reference Video: 

http://www.indiana.edu/~icy/media/de_series/wikis.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

Introduction to Wiki: The main URL of the Wiki web site http://www.wiki.com/. A Wiki is “a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively” (Wikipedia Wiki 2012).

Wiki true to its meaning uses a quick and easy syntax rather than the complex html code to publish on the web. It empowers users to do formatting of text, create hyperlinked pages, and develop learning material. The main strength of a wiki is that it gives people separated by time and distance, the ability to work collaboratively on the same document. You only need an internet browser. It is widely used as platform to share ideas, discuss, and collaborate. Any wiki site runs on a software called Mediawiki. It is a Free and Open source software. Wiki is used for a variety of purposes. It is used for building communities like WikiEducator- community of teachers. Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia. Wiki is gaining popularity round the world because of the community base it supports and entices. It invites like-minded people to come and work together on web base platform. If you make a mistake, it is easy to revert to an earlier version of the document.

Advantages of using Wiki:

The advantages of using a wiki are given below.

• Anyone can edit, as it is easy to use and learn. • Wikis are instantaneous so there is no need to wait for a publisher to create a new edition or update information. It empowers non-technical users to web publishing. • It promotes collaboration as people located in different parts of the world can work on the same document. • It allows the learners to make mistakes and learn from it as it keeps track of every edit made and at any time the error can be rectified. Reverting to a previous version of document is a simple process. • It is a flexible tool with no predefined structure and thus can be contextualised as per the learning situations. • Wiki allows constructivist pedagogy like cooperative learning where higher order thinking skills are exercised. • It practices 21st century skills like create, communicate, collaborate, above all manage, and evaluate online information. It supports connectivism.

Wikis are very useful in education. You will enjoy going through these PowerPoint presentations

Wiki in Education – http://www.slideshare.net/suryaveer/wiki-in-education-2071400.

http://www.slideshare.net/lesterk/wikis-education

These presentations beautifully elaborate on the use of wiki in education.

WikiPedia
What is WikiPedia? The URL of the WikiPedia site http://www.wikipedia.org/. Wikipedia is “a free, collaboratively edited and multilingual Internet encyclopedia supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation”. Wikipedias provides the collaborative platfome, where people work together to write encyclopedias in different languages. They use simple words and grammar to respective their languages.

Example: Simple English Wikipedia site: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simple_English_Wikipedia#Simple_English

This site provides easy-to-read online encyclopedias for people who are learning English. The Simple English Wikipedia is for people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties, and people who are trying to learn English. Other people may use the Simple English Wikipedia because simple language helps them to understand unfamiliar topics or complex ideas. This wikipedia's articles can also be used to help with school homework or just for the fun of learning about new ideas. Non-English wikipedia’s article can also be translated to in English using this website features.

WikiPedia- A Brief History: Wikipedia was formally launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, using the concept and technology of a wiki pioneered by Ward Cunningham. As of June 2012, Wikipedia includes over 22 million freely usable articles in 284 languages, written by over 34 million registered users and countless anonymous contributors worldwide. According to Alexa Internet survey, Wikipedia is the world's sixth-most-popular website, visited monthly by around 14% of all internet users. (WikiPedia 2012).

'''What are the advantage? (Advantage 2012)''' • Database-driven (MySQL databases supported), persistent connections • Smart caching: rendered pages are saved as static HTML files and served as such unless modified • Translated into many languages (refer Multilingual coordination on Wikipedia for details) • anyone can edit • easy to use and learn • Wikis are instantaneous so there is no need to wait for a publisher to create a new edition or update information • people located in different parts of the world can work on the same document • the wiki software keeps track of every edit made and it's a simple process to revert back to a previous version of an article • widens access to the power of web publishing to non-technical users • the wiki has no predetermined structure - consequently it is a flexible tool which can be used for a wide range of applications • there are a wide range of open source software wiki's to choose from so licensing costs shouldn't be a barrier to installing an institutional wiki • It provides the Special report pages like List of newly created articles, Ancient pages: Articles sorted by timestamp, ascending List of images, List of users, Site statistics, Popular articles (articles by number of visits, works only if counters are enabled), Most wanted articles (non-existent articles sorted by number of links pointing to them), Short articles, Long articles and list of all pages by title etc.

What are the Disadvantages? Advantages in one context, may be disadvantages in another.

• Anyone can edit so this may be too open for some applications, for example confidential documentation. However it is possible to regulate user access. • Requires Internet connectivity to collaborate, but technologies to produce print versions of articles are improving • The flexibility of a wiki's structure can mean that information becomes disorganised. As a wiki grows, the community plans and administers the structure collaboratively.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia, (WikiPedia 2012)Wikipedia History accessed on 22-June-2012.

http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/What_is_a_wiki/Advantages_and_disadvantages - (Advanage 2012) Advantage and Disadvantages 22-June-2012.

Video References:

http://youtu.be/kFlE6-E3Awo, what is WikiPedia?

http://youtu.be/1CwiZIsaM7s, How to create a Wikpeida Article?

Wiki Books
What is WikiBooks? The URL of the WikiPedia site is http://www.wikibooks.org/ Wikibooks is “a collaborative book authoring website, where users from all over the world work together to write textbooks and other types of instructional books on many topics. It is a Wikimedia project, operated by the same group of people who run Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation. You can edit this page, and almost all pages like it, at any time. That is the basic principle of Wikibooks. Anyone can edit it(WikiBooks 2012).

Brief History:

The Wikibooks project was started in 2003 by Wikipedia contributor Karl Wick for a project to host and build free textbooks on subjects such as organic chemistry and physics as part of Wikiversity project. In 2006, it become one of the largest free e-book websites in the world. More information about Wikibooks can be located in the information page Wikibooks:Welcome. In the early history of the project there were many high and low points, but more recently things have begun to even out. Wikibooks has a large volume of books on a variety of different subjects, and a vibrant community of volunteers to write and maintain them all.

Collaborative Community Wikibooks is a completely volunteer online collaborative community. Many members of Wikibooks are anonymous in that they have not provided much, if any, information about themselves. Wikibooks does not have a government nor any form of centralized decision-making body. Instead, all decisions are decided by the community via discussion, compromise, and consensus. All changes are implemented by their hardworking volunteers.

List of books at WikiBooks website:  This is a summary of lists of books/ articles available at below web site. This can organized by various criteria of ascending/ descending like Authorwise, title wise, mixed media wise and manuscript wise etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_books, WikiBook list.

Reference: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Using_Wikibooks/What_Is_Wikibooks, What is WikiBooks? (WikiBooks 2012)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks, History.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_books, WikiBook list.

Video References: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jll5dMwCNU, How to create a WikiBooks?

Wiki Sites
Wiki- A Brief History: Warn Cunningham created the first wiki in 1994, and released it in 1995, in order to facilitate communication between software developers. He chose "WikiWikiWeb" as the name based on his memories of the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" at Honolulu International Airport, and because "wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick"

Ward Cunningham chose the name wiki and created the first wiki. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web." He named it so because of quick and simple process of website creation. A wiki is a web site that is generally editable by anyone with a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. Group members can work together to design and develop resources, solve problems and thus march forward. The detail about wiki may be read on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki.

Wikis remind me of a story wherein the power of collboration and collective endeavour was emphasised. In the story when all the doves put their effort together, they could fly away with the net which the bird catcher had kept for them. Wikis show that when individuals work together in collaboration, all problems can be solved. Today wiki lets you work in-group to collaborate for larger goals.

Isn’t that interesting? Join the world of wiki while walking through the following pages.

Video Demo Link: On internet, there is a short excellent video available. A must watch if you want to understand what is wiki? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY. The video gives a short and interesting explanation of wikis and how they can be used to coordinate a group.

In this sub units you will learn more details about wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, wikisites googlesites, wikispaces, WikiEducator, pbwiki, wikispaces and Googlewiki.

Reference page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki, Accessed on 15-June-2012 http://www.wiki.com/

Reference Video: 

http://www.indiana.edu/~icy/media/de_series/wikis.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

Introduction to Wiki: The main URL of the Wiki web site http://www.wiki.com/. A Wiki is “a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created collaboratively” (Wikipedia Wiki 2012).

Wiki true to its meaning uses a quick and easy syntax rather than the complex html code to publish on the web. It empowers users to do formatting of text, create hyperlinked pages, and develop learning material. The main strength of a wiki is that it gives people separated by time and distance, the ability to work collaboratively on the same document. You only need an internet browser. It is widely used as platform to share ideas, discuss, and collaborate. Any wiki site runs on a software called Mediawiki. It is a Free and Open source software. Wiki is used for a variety of purposes. It is used for building communities like WikiEducator- community of teachers. Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia. Wiki is gaining popularity round the world because of the community base it supports and entices. It invites like-minded people to come and work together on web base platform. If you make a mistake, it is easy to revert to an earlier version of the document.

Advantages of using Wiki:

The advantages of using a wiki are given below.

• Anyone can edit, as it is easy to use and learn. • Wikis are instantaneous so there is no need to wait for a publisher to create a new edition or update information. It empowers non-technical users to web publishing. • It promotes collaboration as people located in different parts of the world can work on the same document. • It allows the learners to make mistakes and learn from it as it keeps track of every edit made and at any time the error can be rectified. Reverting to a previous version of document is a simple process. • It is a flexible tool with no predefined structure and thus can be contextualised as per the learning situations. • Wiki allows constructivist pedagogy like cooperative learning where higher order thinking skills are exercised. • It practices 21st century skills like create, communicate, collaborate, above all manage, and evaluate online information. It supports constructivism.

Wikis are very useful in education. You will enjoy going through these PowerPoint presentations

Wiki in Education http://www.slideshare.net/suryaveer/wiki-in-education-2071400.

http://www.slideshare.net/lesterk/wikis-education

These presentations beautifully elaborate on the use of wiki in education.

Google Sites
Google Site :Signing up With Google Sites, you can easily create and update your own site. Google Sites allows you display a variety of information in one place—including videos, slideshows, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text—and share it for viewing or editing with a small group, an entire organization, or the world. You always control who has access to your site. Here's what you can do with Google Sites: • Customize your site. • Create sub-pages to keep your content organized. • Choose page types: webpage, announcements, file cabinet. • Have a central location for your web content and offline files. • Keep your site as private or public as you'd like. • Search across your Google Sites content with Google search technology. Read this guide to familiarize yourself with the main features of Google Sites and get started creating your own. To start using Google Sites, simply sign in with your Google Account. (If you use Gmail, you already have an account.)

Creating your site Once you've signed in to your Google Account, you can start creating your site. Here's how: 1. Click the Create site button. 2. Enter your site name and the URL where it will be located (for example, sites.google.com/site/yoursite) as well as an optional description of the site. The name and URL you choose can't be changed after you create your site, or used again if the site is deleted. 3. Select the appropriate checkbox if your site contains mature material. 4. Select one of these sharing options: 'Everyone in the world can view this site' or 'Only people I specify can view this site.' 5. Pick a theme for your site. 6. Enter the wavy characters in the word verification section, and click the Create site button. Now that you've created your site, you can create a new page by clicking the Create page button.

Then, name the new page and select the type of page you want: webpage, dashboard, announcement, file cabinet, or list. After you've selected where you want to locate the page, click the Create Page button at the bottom of the page.

Sharing your site Now that you've created your Google site, you can share it with your friends, family, coworkers, or make it public. Just choose Share this site from the More actions drop-down menu. Note: Share this site lets you choose who views, edits, and owns content on your site. Even with these controls, use care when you publish sensitive personal information on the web, since people who may or may not have permission may still be able to access and use this information in unauthorized ways. Sensitive information includes social security numbers, financial account information, home addresses, and phone numbers. Users set to "Can view" can: • View pages Users set to "Can edit" can: • Create, edit, delete pages • Move pages • Add attachments • Add comments • Subscribe to site and page changes Users set to "Is owner" can: • Do everything that users set to "Can edit" can do • Set other people as "Can view," "Can edit," and "Is owner" • Change site themes and layout • Change the site name • Delete the site

If you are a Google Apps user, you can also control sharing settings across the entire domain. However, if your Google Apps domain is managed by an administrator, the administrator can restrict your ability to share your site with people outside your domain. You can send up to 50 invites per day. If you make your site public, you don't need to send invitations for people to be able to view it.

Reference:

https://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=153098&amp;topic=23216&amp;ctx=topic, Signing Up

https://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=153197&amp;topic=23216&amp;ctx=topic; Create your site

https://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=153196&amp;topic=23216&amp;ctx=topic, Edit your site

https://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=153309&amp;topic=23216&amp;ctx=topic, Sharing your site.

Video:

http://youtu.be/F1B_q_EiVHI, How to create a Google website.

http://youtu.be/fD-4FRTzxkI, Create Simple &amp; Secured Google Group sites.

Create websites – Wiki Sites
http://www.wiki-site.com

A wiki is a type of collaborative website with integrated tools for adding and editing content. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, WikiHow.com, wiki-site.com and WikiEducator.org are the few exmples. another. But not all wikis give public editorial rights as Wikipedia does. A wiki can also be created for a classroom or a club, with an administrator who decides what pages are editable, and who can do the editing. Learn more about creating wikis at the following sub units.

Wikispaces
Wikispaces The URL of the Wikispaces site is http://www.wikispaces.com/. Wikispaces is “a space on the Website where you can share work and ideas, pictures and links, videos and media — and anything else you can think of. Wikispaces is special It gives you a visual editor and a bunch of other tools to make sharing all kinds of content as easy for students and their teachers”. Wikispaces platform provides a special offer for teachers. Since 2006, they have given away over 100,000 wikis for K-12 education, and have announced a goal of adding another 250,000 to that number. For those of us who are not teachers, Wikispaces has a free option (a 2GB public wiki with unlimited users) or a tiered pricing plan based on which advanced features you need.

How to Create a WikiSpaces? Visit below URL to view the steps for creation wikispaces, and embedding YouTube video into wiki pages. http://youtu.be/G707UA1Yx4s

WikiEducator
WikiEducator The URL of the wikieducator site is http://wikieducator.org

WikiEducator is an international online community project for the collaborative development of learning materials, which educators are free to reuse, adapt and share without restriction. WikiEducator Purpose: The WikiEducator is an evolving community intended for the collaborative: • planning of education projects linked with the development of free content; • development of free content on Wikieducator for e-learning; • building of capacity and sustainable communities of support for educators; • work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERs; • networking on funding proposals developed as free content.

How to Create a WikiEducator page? - Video http://youtu.be/VCr9cDzFhXY Spoken Tutorial wikiEducator 1.wmv http://youtu.be/A0i1bq8mIqg, WikiEducator Collaboration Portal tutorial Wikieducator tutorial: Wikieducator tutorial is available at http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial.

pbwiki
pbwiki The URL of the Wikispaces site is http://pbworks.com/

In 2005, most wiki software was overly complex to set up and manage, requiring an extensive knowledge of Linux, and their own server. In 2005, David Weekly came up with the idea of providing easy-to-use privately hosted wikis through a website - which he named "PeanutButterWiki", a short name of this is called as pbwiki. The freeware version of pbwiki was released by pbworks company in May 2005. In 2009 onwards few more features are added into pbwiki tool and become commercial application software.

Now the pbworks.com provides the work spaces for collaborative learning environments for Students, Teacher and Parents. Wiki supporting multimedia plugins, tagging, access controls, etc. Users can create free basic wiki workspaces, or upgrade to a premium plan to access additional features. Workspaces can be public or private (only viewable by those who have been invited to join the workspace).

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBworks

http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/PBWiki+Tutorial, pbwiki PowerPoint slides.

Video Reference: http://youtu.be/neHt9G3R7TE, pbwiki Tutorial. http://youtu.be/A204JcGQiY0, pbwiki getting started.

GoogleWiki
GoogleWiki: Google Search (or Google Web Search) is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services.

Adds a Google Custom Search Engine to your wiki, using a specific page that you specify to display the search results. Also enables you to replace the standard MediaWiki search box with a Google search box.

What is google wiki search? It's the new service of Google that let's you adapt the Search Engine Response Pages (SERP) to what you like.

What does it mean? It means you can change the ranking of the websites in google according to your wishes. For exemple, you type in "bar", but you don't like the first answer of google, but you like very much the 7th one (which is a very cool bar), so you can delete the first one, and put the 7th on top of the google results!

How google wiki search is going to change your search engine optimization? Think as a search engine (as always). What if 1000 people change this 7th answer to put it first, you would probably consider that "yes", maybe this 7th website should be first. and you would change the natural response for every one. Well, i think it's exactly what google is starting doing. They found a way to make people improve their search engine and work for them... for free!

Back to the Content is King: It's gonna give more power to your content. You probably, like me, fall sometimes on websites that do not respond to your query, but that are first because they optimize the web page to be first. well, now you can delete them, and google will know it. If you don't want your website to be deleted... well, better provide the right information to the right query then.

Video Reference: http://youtu.be/LYp4RB6EjAM, Google &amp; Wikipedia vs. ProQuest Research Tools

Text reference: http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Raising_your_wiki%27s_Google_ranking http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;answer=115764

= Instant Messaging =

Nowadays people around the world use internet and email features for their routine life. Most people use email instead of writing letter or even calling people on mobile or landline telephone. Though sometimes emails are not instant speed enough - why? The reason is, if you are e-mailing back and forth with someone, you usually have to click through a few steps. This is why Instant messaging (IM) has become so popular.

Instant messaging(IM) "is a set of communication technologies used for text-based communication between two or more participants over the Internet or other types of networks". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

With IM, you can keep a list of people you interact with. You can IM with anyone on your Group list or contact list as long as that person is online. You type messages to each other into a small window that shows up on both of your screens. Most IM programs provide these features: • Instant messages - Send notes back and forth with a friend who is online • Chat - Create a chat room with friends or co-workers • Web links - Share links to your favorite Web sites • Video - Send and view videos, and chat face to face with friends • Images - Look at an image stored on your friend's computer • Sounds - Play sounds for your friends • Files - Share files by sending them directly to your friends • Talk - Use the Internet instead of a phone to actually talk with friends • Streaming content - Real-time or near-real-time stock quotes and news • Mobile capabilities - Send instant messages from your cell phone

Instant Messaging – a brief history Before the Internet became popular, a lot of people were already online. The major online services, such as America Online (AOL), Prodigy and CompuServe, were the main way that ordinary people could connect and communicate with each other online. ¬In the early 1990s, people began to spend more and more time on the Internet. Creative software developers designed chat-room software and set up chat rooms on Web servers. In a chat room, a group of people can type in messages that are seen by everyone in the "room." Instant messages are basically a chat room for just two people.¬ Instant messaging really exploded on the Internet scene in November 1996. That's when Mirabilis introduced ICQ, a free instant-messaging utility that anyone could use. ICQ, shorthand for "I seek you," uses a software application, called a client, that resides on your computer. The client communicates with an ICQ server whenever you are online and the client is running. In 1997, AOL, considered the pioneer of the online community, gave its users the ability to talk in real time with each other through chat rooms and instant messages. In June 1998, AOL acquired Mirabilis and ICQ. The ICQ model is the basis for most instant-messaging utilities on the market today. In the next section we'll examine how these services work. In these sub units, you will learn about IM and how it works. You will also learn few popular IM tools like skype, and Gtalk.

How Instant Messaging works?
Look at the steps below to understand exactly what happens with an instant-messaging service.

1. You go to the download page and get a copy of the free software client for your computer. 2. You install the software and open the client. 3. The client tries to connect to the server. It uses a proprietary protocol for communication. 4. Once the client is connected to the server, you can enter your name and password to log in to the server. If this is your first time on, you can sign up for an account and immediately begin using it. When the server verifies your name and password, you are logged in. 5. The client sends the server the connection information (IP address and number of the port assigned to the client) of the computer you are using. It also provides the user with the names of everyone in your contacts list. 6. The server creates a temporary file that has the connection information for you and the list of your contacts. It then checks to see if any of the users in your contact list are currently logged in. 7. If the server finds any of your contacts logged in, it sends a message back to the client on your computer with the connection information for that user. The server also sends your connection information to the people in your contact list that are signed on. 8. When your client gets the connection information for a person in your contact list, it changes the status of that person to "online." You click on the name of a person in your contact list who is online, and a window opens that you can enter text into. You enter a message and click "send" or hit return to communicate with that person. 9. Because your client has the IP address and port number for the computer of the person that you sent the message to, your message is sent directly to the client on that person's computer. In other words, the server is not involved at this point. All communication is directly between the two clients. 10. The other person gets your instant message and responds. The window that each of you sees on your respective computers expands to include a scrolling dialog of the conversation. Each person's instant messages appears in this window on both computers. 11. When the conversation is complete, you close the message window. Eventually, you go offline and exit. When this happens, your client sends a message to the server to terminate the session. The server sends a message to the client of each person on your contact list who is currently online to indicate that you have logged off. Finally, the server deletes the temporary file that contained the connection information for your client. In the clients of your contacts that are online, your name moves to the offline status section.

Skype
What is Skype?:

Skype is a proprietary voice-over-Internet Protocol service and software application originally created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in 2003, and owned by Microsoft since 2011.

Features:

The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features, including file transfer, and videoconferencing. Video:

http://youtu.be/xRTF-Spt-3E Skype is the easiest way to video chat – the best demo.

http://youtu.be/v_fboWD6gGM - How to download and install it?

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/videos/windows/ - a example demo

http://youtu.be/4pC2OztmbN4 - How to set up and use ?

http://youtu.be/fM06jg88rcU - SKYPE - How to make FREE calls

http://youtu.be/R0dr2kaRzoo - a demo by students.

http://youtu.be/GhIhV6RQsMw Skype Video Calls Now on iPhone and iPod Touch!

Download link:

Skype provides Instant Messaging tool and it is completely free. This tool can be downloaded and be installed at your computer at from their website: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/instant-messaging/

How to use the tool? https://support.skype.com/en-us/category/INSTANT_MESSAGING_WITH_SKYPE/

Advantages and Disadvantages of Skype Skype is becoming an extremely popular way of communication. Listed below are some advantages and disadvantages of Skype.

Advantages • free communication • can call across the world • cheap to use (if you are a subscriber) • brings societies together • has potential to be a great technology

Disadvantages • need internet access • has a negative effect on outside world contact with others (just stay at home and chat with friends) • requirements to use it keep people from using it (computer, headphones, webcam) • no language translator • Skype allows individuals to talk for free to other Skype users, but requires that additional payment cost for when calling land-line and cell phones numbers. • Group Video chats are not free, user need to pay additional costs.

gTalk
Gtalk: What is gtalk?: Google Talk (gtalk) is an instant messaging service that provides both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service is colloquially known as "gchat" to its users, although Google does not endorse this name.

Windows users can download the Google Talk application, and Mac and Linux users can use many other instant messaging applications with their Google Talk accounts or message directly from Gmail. Google Talk also supports PC-to-PC voice calls.When Google Talk is used from within Gmail on either Mac or Windows, you can also use it for video chats. The downloaded client does not support video as of this writing.

gtalk is integrated with Gmail or available as a separate download. Google Talk can be downloaded from the Web at www.google.com/talk.

History: Google Talk (gtalk) is a no-charge Windows web-based application for instant messaging and voice over internet protocol (VOIP) client offered by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005 Google Talk is also the name of the client applications offered by Google to access the service. Google Talk applications are available for Microsoft Windows[1] (XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Windows 7), Android,[4] Blackberry,[5] and Google Chrome OS operating systems.[6]

Features:

File Transfer With this top requested new feature, you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable.

Google Talk allows you to send files to your friends, right from your chat window! You can share photos, videos, or documents with the click of a button - there's no restriction on file size or file type. Sending a photo will insert a preview of the image directly into the chat session, so that your friend can see it right away

Voicemail If a friend isn't around to answer your call, now you can leave a voicemail. You can even leave voicemail messages for your friends who don't use Google Talk--they'll receive an email with the message attached as an audio file

Music Status Listening to music while on Google Talk? Now you can let your friends see what you're listening to by selecting "Show current music track" in your status menu. Your status message will change when your song does. Video: http://youtu.be/rCEWeop7lMs, How to Download, Install and Use Google Talk on your PC. http://youtu.be/8nRYCYwFF10, Google Talk Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread video chat demo

http://youtu.be/zJAiH5-64sI Google Talk with video and voice chat for Android

ustream.tv
Website: http://www.ustream.tv/about

What is Ustream.tv?

Ustream is the leading live interactive broadcast platform. Anyone with an internet connection and a camera can start engaging with their family, friends or fans anytime, anywhere. Millions of Ustream users view and broadcast a wide variety of content, from high school sporting events to red carpet movie premieres. Notable Ustream broadcasts include major political events, concerts, conferences, movie premieres, talk shows, sporting events, interactive games, and personal milestones. Reference: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7042.pdf

= Document Sharing =

What is documenting Sharing?

Document sharing sites that allow you to upload and share documents in various formats such as Word, Excel, PDF, etc. and which can be viewed or downloaded by group of users. This allow the people around the world collaborate to exchange knowledge and transfer information at convenient and at faster space.

Some document sharing sites are as follows: Free Document Sharing List S No Document Sharing URL 1 http://www.scribd.com/

2 http://www.docstoc.com/

3 http://www.slideshare.net

4 http://slidesix.com/

5 http://www.4shared.com/

6 http://www.wepapers.com/

7 http://www.authorstream.com/

8 http://www.edocr.com/

9 http://issuu.com/

10 http://en.calameo.com/

11 http://www.yudu.com/

12 http://www.docshare.com/

13 http://www.esnips.com/

14 http://www.slideboom.com/

15 http://www.empressr.com/

16 http://www.myplick.com/

Scribd
Scribd  “is a document-sharing website that allows users to post documents of various formats, and embed them into a web page using its iPaper format. Scribd was founded by Trip Adler, Tikhon Bernstam, and Jared Friedman in 2006”.

Features: Scribd allows lot of features. Some important features are explained as follows:

1. Allows various types of file: You can share virtually any type of file on Scribd.com including Word documents, PDF's, Excel documents, Powerpoint, image files and more. 2. Embedding: Scribd documents can easily be embedded in other web pages, such as your blog or Myspace profile. Just copy and paste the embed code on the right side of each document. 3. Audio downloads: It provides high quality text-to-speech converter, which allow you to download the audio version as an mp3 format. This means you can use Scribd to convert a book to a format you can listen to on your iPod or Tablet computers. 4. Search Engine: Scribd provides powerful search engines, which allow you to get the relevant document and page links. 5. Traffic analytics: It provide the various reports for document viewed history, number of new users visited to this document, number of users downloaded details etc. 6. Favorites link: This link allows saving a document in your “favorites” so you can come back and find it later.

Video: http://youtu.be/RwCqvHyhM5I, How to use Scribd?

SlideShare
http://www.slideshare.net

SlideShare is on online community created as a place to share presentations, webinars and other documents. Presentations are entirely user-driven and are converted using SlideShare's upload process, which supports over 30 file formats. Once uploaded, slides can be shared by the creator as well as by any other users. A SlideShare Pro account is required if you prefer to keep your slides private. The free account allows for unlimited presentations and document sharing, as well as public webinars.

Read more: How to Create Slideshare Slides? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_8663804_create-slideshare-slides.html#ixzz1zBQB3nL7

Features:

• Upload presentations publicly or privately • Download presentations on any topic and reuse or remix • Embed on blogs, websites, company intranets • Share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn • Zipcast: free, no download, 1 click web meetings • Leadshare: generate business leads with your presentations, documents, pdfs, videos • Slidecast: sync mp3 audio with slides to create a webinar • Embed YouTube videos inside SlideShare presentations • Use SlideShare PRO for premium features like branded channels, analytics, ad free pages etc

Slideboom
SlideBoom is a free service for sharing PowerPoint presentations that include animations, transitions, audio, video and Flash. It allows anyone can host and share PowerPoint presentations online. This is functionalities are as similar to YouTube, where YouTube is used the share the video links and Slideboom is used to share power point presentations. Features: 1) SlideBoom offers unique technology for PowerPoint presentations sharing on the Web. Almost all advanced features of PowerPoint are supported and your presentation at SlideBoom will look exactly the same as in your PowerPoint. 2) SlideBoom is a free PowerPoint add-in that allows you to upload presentations with audio, video and Flash to SlideBoom quickly and easily right from your PowerPoint. 3) SlideBoom supports PowerPoint 2007/2003/XP/2000 presentations (PPT, PPTX) and slideshows (PPS, PPSX). 4) SlideBoom also allows you to: • Search for presentations in different languages and by various categories. • Discuss presentations • Join an interest group or create your own • Embed presentations into your blog or website 5) SlideBoom offers 3 registration options: • Guest - without registration • Free - basic account used for non-commercial purposes • PRO - advanced account for business purposes like Secure, confidential presentation publishing or private hosting space. 6) Animations: It provides sophisticated animation presentations with lot of rich media content and keeps your PowerPoint animations and transitions. 7) Audio &amp; Video: It provides add-in to publish your PPT with Audio and video features to playing smoothly. 8) Embedding: It provides the embedding option with other social network sites like Blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Video URL: http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/why-i-love-slideshare-6053191, Why I live SlideShare talk?

Slideboom PPT files. http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/1837/What-is-SlideBoom%3F, PPT demo: What is Slideboom?

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/415404/SLIDEBOOM-TUTORIAL, Basic Tuotrial PPT.

AuthorStream
AuthorStream

AuthorStream Features


 * It allows to convert PPT to o Flash format and upload exiting presentations.
 * Browse shared reports: It provides various report like recently viewed, Most rated, Most Viewed, Categories (Educations, Science, Celebrities, Sports, etc.), and by Tags.
 * Subscribe to featured items or latest additions by category (using RSS feeds)
 * Rate, Discuss and Embed favorite presentations to your blog.

Video:'http://youtu.be/MSxxVXgFsqw, Why AuthorStream is required?

http://youtu.be/O0jyUBx2rEM, Comparison between SlideShare and authorSTREAM tool. Related Video: http://youtu.be/HO4ycFWK4Qk, PowerPoint to YouTube with authorSTREAM http://youtu.be/bN7CqfKu-F0, YouTube in PowerPoint with Free PPT Add-in http://youtu.be/gNG0etmnwuk, How to create an Awesome PowerPoint presentation