The New Digital Backpack

A little over a month ago I wrote about the temporary demise of my Digital Backpack resource tool.  Well, after many hours of sweat and labor and nearly getting repetitive stress disorder from doing so much copy and pasting I have resurrected or rather reincarnated the Digital Backpack, this time with a few new features.




I have moved the Digital Backpack to Google Sites but also have created a backup version with Wikispaces.  New in the Google Sites version is navigation via drop-down menu, mobile browser support, and identifiers for web aps that either work "as-is" on iOS devices or have a downloadable iOS app available in Apple's App Store.

- Tool will work on iOS devices.

It had been nearly a year since I had updated the Digital Backpack with new tools before it shut down.  This recreation of the Digital Backpack forced me to go through and verify that every link worked and remove tools and sites that have gone on the dead list.  I also have been bookmarking tools all year in Delicious with the intent of putting them in the backpack but never got around to it.  The new Digital Backpack has over 100 new tools than the older version.  Here are just a few of my favorites that made it into this update:

  - Event registration service that is free for free events.
- Add voice to your slide presentations.
- Online camera. Take photos with your webcam and edit them.
- Online collaborative whiteboard.
- PrimaryWall is a web-based sticky note tool designed for schools that allows pupils and teachers to work together in real-time.
- Free online customizable virtual world with video conferencing capability. Gives you a customizable virtual showroom where you can upload picture files and 3d models.

- Create online polls quickly and easily without needing to have an account.

  - Online collaborative video editing. Integrated into Google Drive. 
- Corkboard is kind of like a cross between Posterous and Delicious.  Create corkboards to post collections of things such as websites, photographs, QR codes, videos, etc. Corkboards can also be collaborative.  Post to your corkboard from numerous devices.
- online resources aligned with MN content standards, ISTE NETS, MEMO standards, P21 standards, & more.
- Create video playlists from videos across multiple video hosting sites.
- Simple sharing platform. Post content by dragging and dropping what you want to share.  Also supports bookmarklet, email, and Twitter posting to make updates. Share photos, links, or text.

- Upload your documents and publish as an ebook accessible across platforms and devices.

 - Draw on Google Maps and share your creations with others. No sign-in required. Also generates embed code for sharing on websites.

   - enter a url, draw a box around what you want to share on that site. InFocus.cc generates a url of the site with everything darkened except the part you highlight.
- Automatically generates properly formatted citations of sites you bookmark.  Also allows for annotation and notes.
  - embed tweets, Facebook status updates, and Google+ posts on your blog or website
  - Take up to 5 urls and shorten them into one.
- create QR Codes that you can track and analyze
- gives your phone number a URL    

 
Also, the old Digital Backpack had grown out of many of it's categories.  Some categories had evolved into something else and others emerged that I didn't have a good place for.  With the Google Sites version I will have much more flexibility to adjust to these changes and evolutions in the technosphere.  


I still have more revision plans for the Digital Backpack.  I hope to find time to add free iOS Apps soon and if I can find an Android user who would like to collaborate with me on this to add Android tools as well. In the old Backpack I had an iOS App companion site that went down completely.  Besides, most of those apps are outdated now and would have had to be replaced.  

Let me know what you think. Are there sites I am missing that should really go into this backpack?