Instructify

BY KEVIN HODGSON

At the end of our school year, one of my colleagues teaching sixth grade has all of her students write a letter to themselves in the future. She dutifully puts the letters away until the students’ senior year of high school, when she puts a stamp on each of them and mails them to her all-grown-up former students. I always loved that idea of a student writing to themselves in the future. FutureMe gives that idea a 21st century twist by setting up a system for sending an email to yourself at a specified time in the future. You provide the email address, add a subject line, write a note to your future self, and then choose when it should get delivered. You may designate your emails private or public, and there is a gallery of interesting public emails (I did not find anything inappropriate, but you would be wise to check the gallery out before bringing students to the site).

A great time to use FutureMe would be at the start of the school year, as students begin to lay out their plans for the coming year. What if they sent themselves an email about their goals and then received that email at the end of the year? It might spark some interesting reflections.

As a classroom tool, FutureMe works through verified email addresses, so a teacher might need to set up a classroom email account for the site, and then let students use that account to send an email either to a home email address or back to the classroom account.

What would you say to your future self?

Futureme

BY DAN FROELICH

Have you ever found yourself telling a fellow educator, “I don’t have that file with me, but I’d be glad to email it to you when I get home tonight”? With the aid of Dropbox, you’ll never have to say that again.

Dropbox is a web service that allows you to store up to two gigabytes of data online for free. Simply get an account with Dropbox, download and install the application, and place the files you want to store on the web into Dropbox, and you’re done. Now any time you save files in your Dropbox, they are automatically synced online and on your computer. Better yet, once you install the Dropbox application on any computer or mobile device you own, you‘ll have instant access to all your files with a simple login.

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BY BILL FERRIS

I’ve been using Thunderbird for my email since 2006. It’s a highly functional, lightweight email option. This week, however, I made the switch to Postbox. Postbox is to Thunderbird as Super Mario is to Mario — bigger, stronger, and occasionally able to shoot fireballs. Well, two of those things, anyway.

Postbox takes the best features of Thunderbird (in fact, Postbox is built on Thunderbird’s open-source code by some ex-Mozilla personnel) and creates a much more robust email program. Frankly, Postbox bears as much resemblance to Gmail as Thunderbird — the conversation view and the big, fat “Archive” button are straight out of the Googleplex.

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Whenever I see that I have a voicemail, I’m instantly demoralized. I’m not that busy, but man, am I impatient. Dial voicemail, dial in pass code, listen to robot tell me that there’s a new voicemail, dial number to listen to new voicemail, consider possible phone-related seppuku methods — you get the point.

Now, with K7 Unified Messaging, you can have your voicemails and faxes emailed directly to you. It takes a little bit of effort up front to arrange everything in a workable manner — after you set up your call-forwarding options to have your original number sent to the number K7 issues for you, you’ll pretty much be in business. The voicemails and faxes will arrive as attachments to the email that you receive. K7 will also have a private mailbox you can access directly by logging into the K7 website.

How might this be useful to you in the classroom? Its not. But whenever your central office sends a caller to your voicemail after you’ve left for the day, or if your students call to beg for an assignment extension, getting it before you go to work the next morning can be pretty handy. Also, if you end up with a bunch of messages, you might reclaim some more of your time in the morning. -NICK YINGLING

K7 Unified Messaging

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There are lots of desktop calendar programs out there, and they all boast similar, if not the same, features. You know, your basic shared calendar, maybe an e-mail client built in, a place for notes or a to-do list, a saved contact list. But there’s more to your day than just your appointments and to-do lists, right?

ReminderCube is a desktop calendar that’s much more than a calendar. With an RSS reader, an application launcher, a client for your GMail, a password manager and much more, ReminderCube is like your own personal assistant. And like a personal assistant, you can set it up to remind you of certain appointments or tasks. Unlike a personal assistant, though, you can change the look and feel of the application to with different colors and skins.

ReminderCube is a pretty slick little program that is easy and intuitive to use and can help you get organized quickly. Plus, unlike some other calendar programs, it’s totally free! Beware, however — it seems to only run on Windows-based operating systems. Sorry Mac users! -LAUREN FROHNE

ReminderCube

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Get everything done. (Maybe.)

Ever need to send a video, or audio file that’s more than 20MB (the size limit on a Gmail attachment)? Drop.io is the answer. It’s really fast and easy. All you do is create a “drop” with a unique URL, add file(s), then decide if you how long you want it available (up to 1 year from last view), whether you want a password, and whether visitors can add, or delete files from the drop (great for projects). You can even share the drop through Twitter. Just click on “Drop It” and voila. Once you have files in your drop, you can notify folks by email so they can retrieve files.

What if you have files larger than 100MB (the limits of a drop on drop.io)? Here are some alternatives from Lifehack Magazine some taking files up to 500MB. You’ll never need to burn a CD again. -ALICE MERCER

drop.io

Amazing – 7 Ways to Send Huge Files – Bigger than Gmail via Lifehack Magazine

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“Is there any e-mail in your inbox right now that you’ve read but you haven’t done anything about?”

When writer and speaker Merlin Mann asks this question of a packed-to-overflowing audience of Google employees, the world’s most prestigious knowledge workers laugh, ashamed (but relieved) that their dark secret has been brought into the light. You can hear the moment at minute 15:15 in the hour-long “Inbox Zero” video, a recording of a 2007 presentation that adds multimedia sparkle to the “Inbox Zero” series of posts at Mann’s “time, attention, and creative work” blog, 43folders.com.

Teachers, of course, are also knowledge workers, and we get more than our share of e-mail: personal e-mail, administrative e-mail, informational e-mail from listservs and colleagues, e-mail from parents, and, most importantly, e-mail from students. Swing a cat, and you’re likely to hit an educator who has over a thousand e-mails in his or her inbox. Such a mass of messages can cause high stress levels, and Merlin Mann offers compassionate and sensible advice for this 21st-century problem. Mann is one of the technology sector’s go-to guys for productivity, whose enthusiasm for David Allen’s Getting Things Done book has probably influenced the notable proliferation of applications and websites designed specifically to help people implement “GTD,” as Allen’s plan is affectionately called.

There are just a few key points to the Inbox Zero system, one of which is to “process” rather than “check” e-mail. Processing e-mail, says Mann, is “more than checking and less than responding”; it consists of clearing out your inbox (and your mind) by taking a small, simple action on every single e-mail. Often, this action is “delete” or “archive”; sometimes it’s “reply briefly, then delete or archive” or “enter date on calendar, then delete or archive” or “enter task on To Do list, then delete or archive.” Mann’s technology background also makes him a useful source of advice on things like e-mail settings, filters, and templates; and there are in-depth pieces on such advanced topics as how to get rid of an enormous backlog of e-mail with an “Email DMZ.”

So. Is there any e-mail in your inbox right now that you’ve read but haven’t done anything about? — AMANDA FRENCH

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Get everything done. Maybe.

Read Seth Godin’s e-mail checklist before you forward that e-mail

We’re all prone to a little questionable judgment every now and again, whether it’s caused by a crazy birthday party, a lack of sleep, or just some strange interaction with allergy medicine. But that doesn’t mean you should send that email to your ex at 3am or give your principal a piece of your mind after a night of venting with your colleagues. You’re only going to regret that rambling mess of incoherence and misspelled choice words.

Luckily for Gmail users, Mail Goggles has you covered. Mail Goggles prompts you to solve a couple simple math problems before you send your email. You know, just to make sure your head is on straight. The default setting makes Mail Goggles active only late at night on weekends, but you can change the settings to whenever you want.

Now, if only my cell phone had my back like this. -NICK YINGLING

Mail Goggles

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Read Seth’s Godin’s Email Checklist before you forward that email

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Email abuse. No one is immune. Every one of us has committed or been victimized by some form of email crime, whether we’ve forwarded chain letters that promise a digital camera if enough people respond, typing messages in ALL CAPS, or writing on e-stationery with a dancing kitten graphic. Marketing guru Seth Godin wants each of us to do our part to stop these abuses by following his handy Email checklist.

Godin’s specialty is marketing, but his advice applies to anyone who uses email on a regular basis (which is pretty much everyone). Most of the reasons are common sense stuff (always include your contact information, write in a font that’s easy to read, don’t make it any longer than it has to be, don’t email when angry, and consider whether a phone call might be more appropriate instead). Godin’s implied golden rule is to only send emails that people actually want or need to get, are in a format that’s easy to read and understand, and that don’t waste the reader’s valuable time.

It wouldn’t hurt to pass this on to your students, too, before they start forwarding emails about how Bubble Yum gum contains spider eggs. If we can teach tomorrow’s generation proper email etiquette, we may stamp out email abuse in our lifetime. -BILL FERRIS

Email checklist via Seth’s Godin’s Blog

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Back that Thing Up: Backup to Email

Photo credit: idogcow on flickr

So, you’re reading about all these great Web 2.0 tools on Instructify, and you want to start using them in your class, but as you try to set things up, you run into a little-bitty hitch…when you go to sign up students, the sites ask you for an email for each student.

You ponder the wisdom of giving twenty-plus 6-10 year olds their own email. Your district may explicitly forbid this (in addition to your own common sense about things). What to do?

Some Web 2.0 applications (like Wikispaces, and VoiceThread) will let you set up classrooms with an email. For Wikispaces, just email help@wikispaces with a list of student names/user names and a password for each one. For VoiceThread, sub accounts are built in. Just go to your account page, and click on the add identity button.

You could also sign up for Gaggle Mail, a service that will provide free emails to schools (with ads which can be turned off by paying a fee).

What if you have a service that is not as accommodating as Wikispaces and VoiceThread, but you don’t want to be administrator to a classroom full of emails even on a service like Gaggle Mail? Well, there is a GMail work-around. It’s called the “append” feature. Here is an example:

1. First, you will need your own GMail account (but only one is necessary). Let’s say you are awesometeacher978@gmail.com
2. You go into Ning, or Tumblr, or Edublogs to set up a blog for a student (you can do this as a batch process in Edublogs).
3. When it asks for an email, type in your gmail account name, but add a plus sign and something that will identify that student.
   ex: awesometeacher978+malik@gmail.com
4. The beauty of it is that if the service requires that you answer a confirmation email it still works because GMail ignores that +malik, and will send the email message through to awesometeacher978′s account.

So don’t fear the Web 2.0 gatekeeper asking for an email, and try some of these solutions in your classroom. -ALICE MERCER

Hat tip to Sue Waters at the Edublogger

Email was supposed to make our lives easier. It was supposed to open up new opportunities for learning, to communicate with students, even an easier way to assign and turn in homework. If only your school didn’t have that strict no-email policy.

If you want to add email to your teaching arsenal, talk to your administrators about Gaggle. Gaggle is a free email program tailored for teachers and students, and is perfect for schools who don’t want to spend big bucks to add server space, administer accounts, deal with spam and cyber bullying, and all the other headaches that come with student email.

You can monitor all messages and keep an eye out for inappropriate messages, cyber bullying and the like. You can also give Gaggle a list of blocked words, so if your students have a penchant for saying “doo-doo head,” you can block those messages. You can also revoke email privileges for students who abuse the system. Best of all, you can control all incoming messages, so you don’t have to worry about angry calls from parents because Little Johnny received a great business offer from a Nigerian banker.

Gaggle is ad-supported, but you can upgrade to (that is, pay for) a subscription service that’s ad-free. But it’s not like students haven’t seen commercials, so Gaggle is a good way to get your class online for free. -BILL FERRIS

This utility means you’re never more than two clicks away from peace of mind. If you’re a Windows user, Backup to Email sends a backup copy of important files to your email address. The best part? Rather than logging on to your email, filling out your address, adding an attachment, then giving up because of the hassle and swearing you’ll do a full-scale backup “over the weekend,” Backup to Email takes about three seconds, and works for any file type. It splits large files so your inbox won’t be overwhelmed by one behemoth attachment.

Remember: a failure to plan is a plan for failure. And a hard drive failure can drive you to smack your head against a hard surface. This is a fast solution that beats burning a bunch of fragile CDs, and is infinitely better than “I’ll back up my files tomorrow.” –BILL FERRIS

Backup to Email

Everybody hates email forwards. If you work at a school, every day you get bombarded with schmaltz like, “Little Joey will get money for his new lung if you just keep forwarding this email!” And the ever-popular, “Respond to this exciting investment opportunity!” Or spam like, “Whoever took all the dry-erase markers from the supply closet, please return them or face disciplinary action.” Worst of all, you can’t even read the content half the time because of those stupid formatting marks (>>) getting in the way.

That said, there are times when you might have useful information to forward to others. Do your e-pen-pal a favor and take out all the formatting with emailSTRIPPER. It’s a freeware program, which is good since it only does one thing. It does that thing well, though, and your emails will definitely be easier to read. Also, emailSTRIPPER fights formatting in the flyweight division, weighing in at a measly 171 KB–smaller than a lot of the emails you’ll be cleaning up.

All in all, emailSTRIPPER is a classy program, and you won’t have to wonder where to put the dollar bill. –BILL FERRIS

emailSTRIPPER