iLocker.

BSU offers 2 GB of online storage to each and every faculty member and student through iLocker. Needless to say, this is a great way to store and access files you may need to use in class, and it’s a great way for students to store, access, and backup files they need for class. University Computing Services explains how to set up and use iLocker here, and they’ve posted some easy-to-follow iLocker help videos here. iLocker can also be accessed using FTP (file transfer) programs like Filezilla (PC) or Cyberduck (Mac) or Fetch (a Mac program supported by Teacher’s College). (A note for Mac users: one of the UCS Tech Clips describes how to connect to iLocker from on campus using “SMB”; but you can access iLocker from anywhere using virtually the same procedure. Open the finder; choose “Go” from the menu bar; choose “Connect to Server,” the last item on the list. Then, enter the following as a server: http://ilocker.bsu.edu/users/username, substituting your user name for “username.” iLocker will be mounted for use, and you will be able to access it like any other folder.)

Blackboard.

Blackboard is a familiar program, but I wanted to mention here that it is possible to link to tools like Blogger, PB WIki, and Ta-Da List from the main Blackboard menu. It's an easy hack that makes these online applications seem to show up right inside Blackboard. The only downside is that the "frames" structure of Blackboard sometimes causes glitches in the external programs. (If you find that this is the case for some program you've hacked into Blackboard, just make sure that you tell Blackboard to launch the link to that program in an external window.  It won't look as tidy, but it gets rid of pesky Blackboard troubles.) Here’s a quick help video for placing external apps “inside” Blackboard.

Sending Large Files.

As files become larger in general, and as we begin to work with more complicated (and big) visual assignments, you may need a way for students to send large files to you and to each other without overwhelming email in-boxes. Several free online services allow users to avert inbox explosions by making  large files temporarily available to online, including DropSend (the free version), MailBigFile, YouSendIt, and DropLoad.  Another interesting option is Pando, which uses a “P2P” approach. And DivShare is offering longer-term online storage and delivery of files, with optional Facebook integration. (You might also want to take a look at this list of online storage sites.)

Del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us is a site that allows you to save, annotate, organize, access, share, and search bookmarks online. Each site you save to Del.icio.us can be "tagged" with multiple tags, so that if, say, you've tagged a series of sites with "KennethBurke," you can search for "KennethBurke" and bring up all those sites at once, for easy access while teaching. You can also discover other users who have tagged sites with "KennethBurke." Or you can search for something like "burke+rhetoric" to discover any sites that have been tagged with both words. Or you can simply click a tag on the list of tags you've used (which you'll find on your homepage) and by doing so access all sites you've marked with with that tag. (Advanced features of Del.icio.us include RSS feeds for individual searches.) Major advantages: searchable from any online web browser, easy to use and access. Click here for a short demo video. Click here and here for short articles on effective ways to use Del.icio.us.  Click here and here to learn about interesting ways people have used and extended Del.icio.us; click here for the helpful Wikipedia article.

37 Signals: To-Do Lists, Collaborative Writing, Online Planning, Chat Rooms.

37 Signals offers four different well-designed, easy to understand and use online applications that you may be interested in using: Ta-Da List, Writeboard, Backpack, and Campfire. Ta-Da List is the simplest; it's just an application for creating online to-do lists that you can choose to share either by making them publicly viewable or by allowing particular other users the privilege of accessing and modifying them. I use Ta-Da list to post and check off ongoing assignments for my classes, and I list it in the main menu on the Blackboard sites for my classes. (Blackboard's Announcement section can do the same sort of job, but not nearly so efficiently as Ta-da List.) The second application is Backpack, kind of an advanced version of Ta-Da List that lets you add more extensive notes and content.  It's not much harder to understand than Ta-Da List, but some features are not available for free. Writeboard, the third app, is an interesting way either to store and compare versions of a document or to allow several users to collaborate on a document. This page shows how Writeboard allows you to compare versions of a document; notice that because Writeboard stores each version of the document, and identifies the author/editor of each version, it has a built in mechanism for keeping different collaborators accountable for their work. The final application, Campfire, is a chat room application. The free version allows up to four simultaneous chatters, and I've used it to create a comments/guestbook area for these help pages. (Click here for a short video/slide show.)

Also Consider:

1. •  Flickr, an online photo sharing site, which has excellent tools for setting up and annotating albums. (Here’s a short Flickr intro from Ben Bishop, and here is a series of very short help videos from USF.)
   

2. •  PB Wiki, an easy-to-use online wiki, which can be used for collaborative writing and information sharing.
   

3. •  Mindomo, an easy-to-use “mind mapping” site, for visualizing ideas in webs and bubbles.  In this category, also consider Gliffy and Bubbl.us, also good for online diagramming.
   

4. •  Blogger, for creating personal or class blog sites.
   

5. •  Zoho Show and Thumbstacks, web-based PowerPoint alternatives.
   

6. •  iRows and Zoho Sheet, web-based spreadsheet/Excel alternatives.
   

7. •  GE’s “Imagination at Work” collaborative online whiteboard.
   

8. •  YouTube, for online display and sharing of videos.  (Here’s a short article about YouTube.)
   

9. •  Writely, a web-based word processor that allows live collaboration between users in different locations.
   

10. •  Community Walk, for creating Google Maps that can be annotated with words and picture.
    

11. •  Google Earth, which is not strictly online (since you need to download the Google Earth interface/browser), but offers an interesting kind of visual mapping interface.
    

12. •  Zoho, an online office suite and set of productivity tools.
    

13. •  Jumpcut, an online video editing application
    

14. •  Splice, an online audio editor, much like Apple’s Garageband.  Short tutorial/info video here.
    

15. •  Vdoogle, a search engine that trolls popular online video sites.
    

16. •  Doodle, an effective, easy-to-use way to schedule meetings with several people.  (And TimeBridge, a similar application.)