A colleague asked me about online scheduling of parent-teacher conferences and I came upon this today.  Earlier this year I had looked at some pretty robust paid solutions, but it seems as if SkyLark Productions' SignUpGenius can handle most of what we were looking for...and it's free!

I only played around with it for a short while, but the interface is very intuitive and flexible.  You can choose how many people are "needed" for a particular slot and vary the dates and times of events.  You can also set up recurring events.  You do not need to force users to set up an account, but it is reccomended if you want them to receive a reminder.  One of the best options is one that allows users to switch time slots with each other, rather than needing to go through a central "list manager."

We'll see how it goes this first go around, but I am optimistic because I have been so impressed by both the simplicity and the depth of this tool.

Etherpad was a simple and great web-based application that allowed multiple people to collaborate on a single document.  Google acquired the company that developed it and released the code as open source.  As a result, several replica sites of the original Etherpad have emerged. Google is supposed to be incorporating this technology into their Google Wave platform sometime soon.

The interface is simple and elegant.  A teacher or student needs to start the collaborative document space at site such as TypeWith.me or PiratePad.net.  A link will be generated in the address bar and this URL can be emailed to the other collaborators. There is a space to enter the collaborators names, an option to assign a color to yourself to identify your contributions, and a space for live chat. It does not use user accounts, so co would have to export the document  (or copy and paste the text) once the collaboration session has concluded.

It's basically a very stripped down shared Google document that is perfect for just-in-time collaboration. This tool might be great for a class to begin work on a collaborative note taking or document writing project that can then be later stored on Google docs (export or copy + paste).

Customized Google Maps can add a lot of dimension to any lesson or project.  Jim Wenzloff shared some powerful features of this free web-based application.  All you need is a Google account, and when you log into Google Maps you'll see a tab for My Maps.

You can pin locations, add descriptions and images, share maps, and overlay multiple custom maps.  One cool feature that I didn't know about was the library of Google Map Gadgets where you can add other people's custom maps to your list of maps. You can use these custom maps like filters.  Fun ones to try are 'Earth at Night' and 'Dig a Hole Through the Earth.

If you click on the "More..." button, you can view content that is linked to photos, video, or Wikipedia entries.  If you choose webcams, you can see up to the minute images taken from webcams all around the world.