Post on the web right away

One day you may experience a situation when you need to post something on the web fast (but not necessarily furious :)) and you don't want to use your blog for this purpose. What can you do? Use one of the numerous web services which promise to publish your article immediately.

I have already written about such sites before but it seems that they keep mushrooming in steady rows and we get new possibilities offered again and again. I have used some of them and there are moments when they are really convenient and helpful.

Now you can post a single picture on the web and get a unique URL to send it to whoever you want. Think of the possibilities it gives us - good and not so good...
Clipica just asks you to copy and paste (Ctrl + V) your picture and there you go, the link it ready.

Snaggy works in exactly the same way and you can also crop or annotate the image once it is uploaded - useful!

wePaste is an internet clipboard for your text. Give a name to your page, write the text and publish it. You can create a password for the page and set the date when the page will expire.

Qacker gives you a blank page which you can fill with your text or images and post on the web.

 Textsave is a blank space for writing your text and posting online. The tool is really basic but it can serve well if a student needs to send in an essay or write a draft for a project.





Loose Leaves - a place where to write and publish your thoughts. If you don't have your own blog, you can post your message and share it on Twitter or Facebook.

Justpaste.it  is a great way to publish your text or images without much trouble. It also has HTML editor and you can export your page to PDF.

Checkthis is a great instant webpage which lets you add your text, images, videos, links, polls and share it online. 



All the websites mentioned above don't require sign up and you can create your page anonymously. And, it goes without saying, they are all free.

    

How to make your Scoop.it work

I have been asked several times to share my experience about curating the content on the Scoop.it site.

I am pleased to see that my Digital Presentations in Education keeps gaining popularity, the number of visitors is growing daily and the magic score which measures the topic quality has reached 91 (out of 100).

I have been curating my topic for about 10 months and I have mulled over the principles that I stick to in curating my topic. They are simple and they are proven.


1. Pick a topic that is relatively narrow so that you can focus on one theme (instead of gathering a wide range of links and eventually going off on a tangent). This will attract the right audience who have true interest in your topic.

2. Pick a topic which you are familiar with and, better still, where you have some knowledge and experience because you will need to evaluate the resources you are going to scoop.

3. Be very picky! Don't scoop everything the sources offer, select only the most relevant articles or posts which will add new value to your collection.

4. Be consistent. Keep to the topic you have chosen, don't go astray when you see a new, fantastic tool or resource which is a gem but does not match your theme.

5. Scoop regularly. (Perhaps this is the hardest part.) New information gets stale in a day. Try to find all the new tools/ resources/ information/ reviews etc. pertaining to your topic that have been published on that day. It's no use scooping very old information except if it is extremely worthwhile and you wish to save it on your site.

6.  Check and double check how reliable and valid is the source you are going to link to your site. Verify the authenticity of the website. Out there I have seen so many fake websites which post stolen materials and disappear in a day or a week.

7. I have seen some curators write their own reviews of the tools or technologies they scoop but I have neither time nor skill to do it, and I believe the developers or professionals have said everything that has been worth saying on the webpage I am scooping.


My Scoop.it page is obviously useful not only to my visitors but also to myself. I return to it every time I need to prepare a new presentation or suggest a new tool to my students.