Loose Stitch is a user-friendly outlining tool that can be used in many ways to support learning.  An individual can use it to record and organize researched information.  Or, it can be used to help keep track of scheduled events or assigned tasks on a project.  As well, Loose Stitch offers convenient ways of sharing  recorded information.  It has been designed to be used collaboratively by a group of people working together on the same project.

I especially appreciate the ease with which Loose Stitch outlines can be embedded in wikis or blogs.  When an outline is changed, the changes are automatically reflected in embedded versions of the outline.  Of course, each outline can also be shared via its  unique URL.

By selecting text in an outline, I found I was able to use CLiCk,Speak’s text-to-speech to have outlines read aloud in Firefox.

Registration is not required to use the fully functional free version of Loose Stitch, but a “Pro” version is available with additional features.

Please take a look at the helpful screencast put together by Maureen at  DemoGirl.com, and think of ways that Loose Stitch might be used to support learning in your context.  (For enhanced viewing, view in full screen mode and select HD for high definition.)

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Loyal subscribers will notice that it’s been a while since my last post. I’m probably more sorry about that than you are. That’s because there is just so much that I’d like to write about! Sometimes, there are neither enough minutes in an hour, nor enough hours in a day. I’m back with one of those resources that has really grabbed my attention because of the potential it offers to all learners. Thanks once again to Molly, everyone’s favourite Demo Girl, for sharing it and for demonstrating what it can do.

Twiddla bills itself as a free “web-based playground” that requires no set up. Twiddla is indeed an online tool that offers a real time collaborative white board where people can work together to accomplish a variety of tasks with all manner of digital media. I think there’s also potential to use Twiddla as a presentation tool, as a study aid, and for creative expression.

For collaboration, Twiddla offers a whiteboard that can be shared by multiple users, as well as built-in audio and/or text chat that allows people to communicate conveniently while working together. In addition to putting whatever you want on the virtual whiteboard to brainstorm, or to create an effective presentation, you have the opportunity to bring web pages into Twiddla and to mark them up. It seems to me that marking up web pages is a terrific study aid for the learner or teacher who is doing or sharing online research.

Twiddla’s user interface is straightforward and extremely easy to use. Molly’s screencast at DemoGirl.com shares some additional features and does an excellent job of showing how it all works. I’ve embedded that here for your convenience. If you want to see a larger version of the screencast, you can do just that by going directly to DemoGirl.com.

Viscosity describes itself as a “modern art generator”. The term generator may give a mistaken impression. While Viscosity allows you to generate a creation with ease, it also provides tools that can be used skillfully to great effect. Skill, of course, requires learning and practice. Full size versions of the art work below can be seen in Viscosity’s gallery. Each of these pieces involved considerable effort and no small measure of skill.

“Desert Rose” by Ahmed and “Arctic Seagul” by LOL

“Revolutions” by fra

Viscosity’s interface has been well designed, and its tools are easy to learn and use. For a great overview and demonstration, I highly recommend Molly McDonald’s 5-minute screencast at DemoGirl.com. Viscosity has made it easy to download your creations in .png format. Once downloaded, you can print a hard copy, convert the file format, and share your work in any way you choose. Each piece of art, of course, has its own URL so that it can be viewed by anyone anywhere.