Dorman’s Trouvailles

Here is another REALLY cool feature of the 2009 launch of Discovery Education — sharing media assets out to your professional learning network with a simple one-click post.

Check it out . . . (click here to see the image in a new window)

By clicking on the new Share tab on the media asset page you can share your media gems via popular networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, and Diigo.  Of course, you need to have accounts established with these third-party services before you can share to them.

You are also able to access a unique URL address that is linked to the media asset (which could be a video segment as opposed to the full video).  You can use this URL to post DE media to your class webpage, Blackboard site, wiki, blog, Google Earth placemark, etc.  It is not a violation of copyright as anyone who clicks on that will be forced to authenticate (i.e. sign in) before viewing the media. Thus, only DE subscribers will be able to access the media.

I am really excited about the possibilities for sharing and collaborating made possible by the new Share features.

Image via CrunchBase

It seems like EVERYONE (and their dogs, goldfish, etc.) are Tweeting these days. If you aren’t on Twitter, yet, and are wondering what the buzz (or, rather, tweeting) is all about, check out these two videos from the Common Craft Show.

Twitter in Plain English

Twitter Search in Plain English

Twitter
Professional Learning Network
PLN
Community
Social Networking
Turbo Tagger

I admit that I am a bit of a Twitter junkie.  It’s not like I get the shakes when I am away from Twitter for too long (though, TwitterBerry may have something to do with that . . .)  Really, Twitter is one of the primary places I go to learn.  I have an AMAZING professional learning network populated primarily by Discovery Educators and Twitter is one of our primary sharing platforms.  Sometimes I just jump into the Twitter stream and immerse myself in collective knowledge.   Other times I enter with a specific purpose of seeking answers or suggestions.  It’s a bit like open swim verses lap swimming at the local pool.

Twitter polls are a terrific way to accomplish the latter.  I have used twtpoll numerous times to gather information in a highly visual format.  I have found twtpoll to be very effective in gathering information quickly and succinctly.

There are a couple of other really good Twitter polling applications:

PollDaddy Twitter Polls

StrawPoll

All of these polling applications are simply a way to visualize the results you might receive with @responses on Twitter.  One advantage is that respondents have anonymity which, for some questions, may increase your response percentage.  Plus, you “see” the results instantly without having to filter through responses over time.

So, if you are looking for a quick way to harness the collective intelligence of your professional learning community on Twitter, try out one of these free polling applications.