LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer

I heard about this gadget last week from a fellow techie-aholic. I wasn't quite clear about what it did at the time she mentioned it, so I googled it to learn more. You can go to the site for the product and learn more http://www.flyworld.com/buyfly/index.html. I have to admit that this is an interesting little toy. I had gone to the Walmart site and tried to find the product in electronics, but it turns out that it was in the toys section. The target audience is your traditional tween kid, but adults who take notes regularly for any reason could also benefit from the pen. It looks like an adult writing object, so you wouldn't have to blush to pull it out in a meeting. It would save you from having to lug around your notebook computer to take digital meeting notes. You just hook it up to your computer with the FLY software installed, and it transfers your meeting notes in a digital format to your computer. You do have to buy special paper and ink to use with the pen which of course will not be as cheap as your standard office supplies. For kids, you can buy games and educational software for the pen. You can also put mp3s on it. You can use it to create and play & replay music (keyboard & drums) that you create using the pen. It costs a little less than $80. I would love to see one used before making the purchase, but the item definitely has caught my attention.

Localendar

I can't believe that I haven't put this free, web based calendar tool on my blog yet! I've been using it for a while. You can find it at http://www.localendar.com. It is soooo easy to use. You can post private or public entries, and you can select a category for the event which will color code the background according to the category that you have selected. You can find my professional development calendar with an abundance of free, online seminars for teachers and instructors at http://www.wvup.edu/dl/OnlineEd/seminars.htm. I am only using the basic product, but you can upgrade to get more out of the calendar tool, discussion board, upload graphics, let visitors add events, task editor, import/export, and more. If all you need is to post events for public or private events, then the basic version should be just fine. I highly recommend this tool.