100+ eBooks On Everything You Might Want to Know About Microsoft Products

Aside from the core aspects of Windows 7 and Windows 8, I don't regularly use any Microsoft products (almost all of what I do is in the cloud). But if I was going to dive into the world of Microsoft, I would start by looking through this collection of more than 100 ebooks about Microsoft products. In the collection you can find ebooks on everything from Windows 7 & 8 keyboard shortcuts to programming Windows Store apps.

Applications for Education
A few of the ebooks in this collection that might be of interest to educators are BYOD Devices - A Deployment Guide for Education, Getting to Know Office 365, and Windows To Go - A Deployment Guide for Education (all links open PDFs).  

H/T to Lifehacker. 

How to Use Padlet Mini

Padlet Mini is a new Chrome extension that I wrote about yesterday. The extension makes it easy to send links, videos, and images to a public and or private Padlet walls. In the video below I demonstrate how easy it is to use the new Padlet Mini Chrome extension.

Diffen Provides Quick Comparisons of Similar Things

Diffen is a nice resource for those times when you need a quick comparison of two things. Let's say you need a chart to highlight the differences between latitude and longitude, Diffen has that. Or perhaps you need a comparison of Medicare and Medicaid, Diffen has that too.

If you can't find the comparison that you need, you can create your own on Diffen. Diffen is a community site. Anyone who registers on Diffen can contribute to the comparisons on the site. Comparisons are not limited to text. Images can be added to the comparison charts on Diffen. An embed code is available for each chart. I've embedded the comparison of latitude and longitude below.


Applications for Education
Diffen could be a good place to find comparisons to post as references on your classroom blog or website. The latitude vs. longitude chart and the homonym vs. homophone chart are two that jump out as good options for classroom blogs.

New "Replace Image" Function Makes it Easier to Edit Google Slides

In their on-going quest to make Google Slides as robust as Keynote and PowerPoint, the Google has added a new slide editing tool. You can now right-click on any image your slides to quickly replace it with another image. In the past you would have had to delete the old image then insert the new image and in the process lose the size formatting. The new "replace image" function allows you to swap images without losing the size formatting.

Mammoth - Evernote Meets Tumblr

Update, February 2022: this tool is no longer available.

Mammoth is a bookmarking tool that seems to offer the key aspects of Evernote mixed with Tumblr. At its core Mammoth allows you to bookmark websites and save files onto boards in your account. You can add notes to each of the links and files that you add to your boards. Mammoth boards can be private or public. Public boards are organized in a linear fashion similar to that found in default Tumblr themes.

Mammoth could be used as a project management tool. To use it to manage projects create a board and share it privately with your collaborators. Then use the board to share notes and assign tasks to each other.


Applications for Education
Mammoth could be a good tool for creating digital portfolios. Students could use Mammoth to showcase examples of their best work in a nice linear layout. Students can use Mammoth to share their portfolios publicly or share them only with you where you can give them feedback.

There is certainly not a lack of bookmarking and blogging tools on the Internet. The nice think about that is that we can try all of the options until we find one that suits our needs. If you haven't found the perfect tool for you, give Mammoth a try.