Added new tool!

EtherPad is a cool, real-time collaboration tool that has a variety of uses. It doesn’t require an account so it’s fast and easy... one-click on the link which follows (or #6 in the forms gadget to the right) gets you there and ready to contribute. Link: http://etherpad.com/5ZYpXlwa4X

Here are some things which might help once you open it:

How to use this...

- Edit where you wish; you'll have your own color assigned (or you can choose one by clicking on the tile by your name)

- no account necessary

- send the URL to invite people (no security other than protecting the URL, so 'invite' wisely!)

- save a shortcut to this URL so you can find it again; you can rename your shortcut to make it easier to recognize

- This and any other workspace can be exported in a PDF format as a collaborative end-product

- click on full window (bottom right) or sidebar (view or hide... also bottom right) for expanded views of this workspace

Here are some other possibilities for work or home use (this is cut from an email to teachers so not everything applies)...

- you could, for example, post a pre-meeting agenda and 1) get questions, comments, suggestions from the participants beforehand, 2) edit during (chat window included for virtual meetings) and 3) add results/wrap-up comments/action-item assignments after the meeting. Then you can watch the action-item comments develop and when you're done, export and post a PDF 'final report'.

- use it with a teacher mentor/mentee to post questions, answers, and links in an extremely simple-to-use format

- create a family grocery hot-list (each person adds what they need/deletes what they've bought)

- probably not a great classroom option (as a graded item) since participant inputs aren't logged, but might be a great group project planning/brainstorming tool

- You can create a shortcut to this document on your desktop and instantly join in collaboration with anyone that has a link… sort of like an interactive chat-with-history where instead of waiting & watching the little typing icon, you can watch them type (all of them at once) while you’re simultaneously typing an answer to something else. It's an awesome, free, simple, quick-access collaboration tool. I also use it as a scratchpad for quick ref. notes (like package tracking or current events links) across multiple computers.

Caution: there's no assigned access permissions (like with G-Docs) so if you forward a link to someone, they automatically have access to edit. This is not a tool for confidential information!!! It is, however, the simplest and best on-the-fly collaboration tool that I've used to-date.

For more info on EtherPad (including a video demo), click on this link: http://etherpad.com/