Ever had an event where a sign-up sheet was required? Maybe you’re a teacher who has needed parent volunteers for a field trip or class party. Or maybe you’ve been the team mom for your son’s T-ball team and needed parents to sign up to bring snacks for each game of the season. If any of these situations sound familiar, you need to check out SignUpGenius.

SignUpGenius is a free and incredibly easy way to create online group sign-up lists. Using the website’s form wizard with a variety of templates, you can create an online sign-up sheet in a matter of minutes. You have the option of making your sign-up sheet public or private, and once set up, a link to your SignUpGenius webpage is sent to people you’d like to invite to sign up. When visiting your customized sign-up sheet, potential volunteers can see what’s available and what’s already been taken. Plus, every time someone signs up, you receive an email notification.  No more shuffling papers or worrying about two people signing up for the same thing. For more information on how it all works, click here.

In a world where we’re always looking for time-savers, SignUpGenius definitely qualifies.

This past October, I had the opportunity to attend the T.E.L.L. (Technology, Education, Leading, and Learning) Conference in Van Nuys, California. While sitting in a session led by my friend Sean Williams, I discovered another cool tool, one that I’d forgotten about until just the other day. At the very beginning of his presentation, Sean put a slide up that asked attendees to pull out their phones and text a code word to the number on the screen (much like shows like American Idol do when asking viewers to vote using their cell phones). So, I pulled out my iPhone, punched in the code word and number, and.....instantly received a text message with Sean’s contact information and a link to the online resources from his session. I remember sitting there thinking two words – sliced bread. As in, “This is the greatest thing since…”

Okay, so it isn’t the light bulb or the wheel, but this is definitely a cool tool. How did Sean do it? With an incredibly easy-to-use website called Contxts. All you have to do is sign up for a free account, choose a username (the word people will type when texting), and enter your 140-character message. That’s it. Then, direct people to text your username to 50500 and they’ll receive your customized message in a tidy little text message. It’s free, and there is no limit on how many times your message can be requested.

If you present at conferences, this is a fabulous way to quickly and easily get your contact information and web links into the hands (phones, actually) of your attendees. I’ll be using this resource at the CUE Conference in March, and I plan on using it again at Back-to-School Night next year with my students’ parents. I would love to hear some of your ideas on how Contxts could be used in an educational setting.

So thank you, Sean, for sharing this cool tool, and thank you, Ruston Hurley, for sharing it with Sean. And now I pass it on to you. Enjoy.

In searching for a new way to display my students’ artwork on my classroom website, I recently discovered an amazing resource I think few people know about. It’s called SimpleViewer, and perhaps its website says it best – “Spectacular images galleries made simple.” This amazing, free resource allows users to create professional, Flash image galleries in a matter of minutes. No, really – minutes. By incorporating an incredibly easy-to-use desktop interface, creating a stylish gallery is a snap.

There are several cool features, but probably my favorite is that SimpleViewer supports Universal Playback, meaning image galleries created with the software can be viewed on mobile devices that do not support Flash (e.g. iPhone and iPad). Each time you create a SimpleViewer gallery, a mobile version of the gallery is also created, and if a user’s device doesn’t have the Flash plug-in enabled, the mobile version is displayed automatically. Awesome!

I could go on and on about it, but seeing is believing. Take some time and check out a few of the student art galleries I’ve created using SimpleViewer. If you like what you see, download it and take it for a spin. Remember, it’s free. What have you got to lose?

• The Vincent van Gogh Student Art Gallery
• The Claude Monet Student Art Gallery
• The Pablo Picasso Student Art Gallery

Most blogging platforms advertise themselves as easy to use, and most are. But recently I discovered one that truly delivers in the "Really-Easy-to-Use-and-Still-Has-Some-Cool-Features" department. If you are not familiar with Posterous, I strongly encourage you to give it a look (you're actually reading a Posterous blog right now). If you're wanting to publish a blog or you need a place to host your podcasts, it may be just what you're looking for.

Here are five reasons why I recommend Posterous:

1.  It's free. Enough said.

2.  It's free. Free is good, so it's worth saying twice.

3.  It's easy to use. REALLY easy. In fact, if you can send an email, you're ready to start blogging with Posterous. Yes, you can write and edit posts on the Web, but one of the great features of Posterous is that a post can also be uploaded by sending a simple email. The title of your email message becomes the title of your blog post, and the body of the email becomes the content of the post. That's it. Want to include media in your post? Simply attach it to the email and Posterous automatically converts and embeds it into your blog post. Attach an audio file and Posterous embeds a media player into your post so visitors can listen right in their browsers (see below).

sample_recording.m4a

(download)

Click here to download:

sample_recording.m4a (76 KB)

Attach photos and Posterous creates an image gallery, right in the post. Here's a sample gallery containing some of my students' recent artwork.

(download)

Click here to download:

cool-tool-posterous-CImdvFjctdyCbGxDBmeg.zip (612 KB)

4.  It's perfect for hosting podcasts. Posterous provides users with 1GB of total storage, giving podcasters plenty of room to store their broadcasts. Plus, Posterous automatically creates an iTunes-ready RSS feed, making your podcast subscribable. Oh, and did I mention it's free?

5.  You can post from your smartphone. Since posts can be published via email, you can use your iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, or other email-enabled phone to post when you're away from your computer. Want to publish a podcast episode while on the go? Use your phone's voice recorder to make a recording, and then email it to Posterous. Bam! Instant podcast.

Give it a look. I think you'll be happy with what you see.