Edufire: Online Language Tuition

Today I gave my first Edufire session. Incredible service and set up for tutors and students of languages alike.  The Website itself is very intuitive and sports pretty much every major community tool you may want to use. Within minutes my profile was up and running, and a day or two later (today actually!) I’d completed my first session. The online video conferencing tool is a lot easier to use than most tools I’ve encountered in the enterprise, and the Web 2.0 functionality is reminiscent of similar communities like Facebook. Check it out under: http://edufire.com/.

LibriVox: Talking Books for Everyone

LibriVox provides free audiobooks from the public domain. If you would you like to record chapters of books in the public domain, Librivox offers the opportunity to volunteer. All you need is a computer, some free recording software, and your own voice.

“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch

I woke up early to watch an inspiring video suggested as a breakfast session by a good colleague this morning, and was not disappointed. “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, a pioneer in the area of virtual reality, follows a tradition at some American universities to offer leading professors the opportunity to give an hour speech as if it was going to be their last lecture. An incredible Tigger-like individual, the twist with Randy’s speech is that it will be his last lecture.

Also, if you would like to learn programming in a fun, intuitive way, take a look at the Alice environment Randy talks about at www.alice.org.

Music: LearnLicks, WholeNote and MXTabs

Still on the topic of music and composition, LearnLicks.com is a free community for musicians hosting thousands of educational music lessons. Alternately, Wholenote.com offers an awesome integrated MIDI-player environment to actually play through the tablature on the screen, and includes a nicely organised set of lessons for beginner through to ridiculous. For a good new tabs site, you may also be interested in mxtabs.net/.

Composition: Hyperscore (MIT)

I first encountered Hyperscore on one of the many fascinating TED.com video podcasts. It is a product of the MIT Media Lab and enables anyone irrespective of age, physical conditions or training to compose music in an intuitive and fun way. The software costs US$79 to download, but whether you actually buy it or not, it’s well worth simply checking the Website: http://www.hyperscore.com/. Alternately, you can take a quick look at the TED.com video: Releasing the music in your head (Tod Machover & Dan Ellsey)

Common Craft: Video Podcasting

The Common Craft is quite legendary as far as simplifying technology goes. Back to the roots…well…pulp…paper…errr…anyway, well worth a look!

Digital Love Song

This is so terribly funny for anyone who uses MSN, IM, Skype, or any other chat medium…All I can say is ROFL!

Binary Toys

Very cool little desktop creatures that apply the laws of physics and a dash of AI to stick-figure-like automatons you can play with on your desktop. You can get Binary toys for free under: http://www.binarytoys.com/.

Chess Mind

If you would like to work out how ELOquent a chess player you are, the Chess Mind community is an excellent start. Still in beta, the community numbers over a thousand, with some decent games for complete beginners and more experienced players alike. Link http://www.chess-mind.com.

Free Online Family Tree

Those interested in putting together a family tree in a collaborative Web 2.0 way, can do so cheaply and effectively at http://www.itsourtree.com. The resulting trees are exportable to major genealogy-software formats so even if the Website were doomed to failure, your work can be stored offline and imported into a new application. I’ve been playing around with it for a few months now and I’ve got around 130 odd people in there…quite odd actually…