There are a lot of GREAT Free tools out there mostly thanks to open source software development. Thank you to all those contributors! I thought I would share a few tools that make my life easier. These are in no specific order, and are by no means the only ones available.
Jing captures anything on your screen. It is great for taking screen shots, or to create a how-to video. Jing was a life saver for me when I needed to teach my mom how to use her wordpress sight while I was in Boulder and she was in Tucson. If any of you have ever tried to explain blogging to their parents, then you know what I was up against. So, I recorded my steps with Jing and said what I was doing while I was doing it. Then I sent her the short step by step video. It worked great and she can replay it when she gets lost.
There are several resources that I have found useful in the last year, particularly in relation to helping my students understand various concepts and tools. This is an eclectic mix of sources provided by a variety of industries. The widespread use of internet technologies today means that many industries are using the same tools and learning from each other. In particular, the below sources represent journalism, politics, technology, non-profits and research.
I have followed the use of key pad polling for years and can appreciate what it has done for public meetings. Participants are allowed to answer questions anonymously and the audience can see the results immediately on the screen. However, I find the hardware is expensive and participation is limited to those attending the meeting. In keeping with the mission of BalancedCommunity, I decided to provide a public participation tool that is more accessible and usable than key pad polling.
As some of you may have noticed, I now have the mapping tool on 