Category: tools

I have talked before about Zotero, a good way to collect research. But Mendeley allows you to share it with other people. If you have some research, you can post it there, allow others to see it, and even download it.

Google Maps is a great way to work with directions. In addition, you can map out a route to someone’s favorite restaurant, and share all of these in class. Additionally, you can use Street View, that has pictures of almost every street in Tokyo, to show your neighborhood to other students. Be careful, though, maps you create are made public by default. You should click on the “private” box so you share only with people you want to.

Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is a great place for reference for anything to do with movies. I love to discuss movies with my students. Unfortunately, the names in Japanese often have no connection to the names in English.

With this web site showing, though, I can lecture and show short pictures or even trailers to make a visual connection with the language. I often have my students keep track of the logical connections that are between movies (one actor was in another movie, who’s director made another movie with an actor, who married an actress in another movie…).

Keeping notes organized is hard enough on paper. But when you add web pages, media clips, videos, audio, podcasts, and whatever, it gets hard to handle. Try EverNote, for keeping things organized and connected to what you do.

Just like most other Web 2.0 sites, you can share part or all of your online notes and great finds with your friends, family or students.