Avoid disaster by backing up your data

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Cam Hocking

One of the great advantages of the internet is the convenience of cloud based services where you can store documents, pictures, bookmarks or notes and access them on any device with an internet connection. Despite this level of convenience it is still important to maintain backups of your data in the case of unforeseen circumstances, such as your account being hacked or a service shutting down. Here we will take a look at a few ways to backup your online data from some of the most popular services like Diigo, Google and Evernote.

Diigo

One of the most useful online tools that we recommend is Diigo, a cloud based service where you can conveniently save all of your bookmarks. Last week we saw the flip side to this convenience as the Diigo.com domain was hijacked and the service became unavailable. Fortunately the Diigo team managed to restore the site and all user data was recovered. But for those users who faced losing years of bookmarks and work it was a reminder of the importance of backup.

Diigo provides a couple of easy ways to backup your bookmarks and duplicate your library. To save a copy of all of your bookmarks, you can login to Diigo and select Tools>Export your library. You will have a number of options for export, but the best one to choose is the CSV format. This is a standard file type that can be opened by many other bookmarking tools and services, as well as spreadsheet software like Excel. Export the file and save it to computer in a safe place so you always have a copy. It’s good practice to back up in this way every few months so even if you lose access to your account you’ll still have your bookmarks.

Diigo also has another useful feature which lets you link to Delicious (another bookmarking tool). You can set up your Diigo account to automatically send all new bookmarks to your Delicious account as well. It’s a useful way of automatically backing up. To enable this feature login to Diigo and select Tools>Save to Delicious. You will be asked to enter your Delicious account name and password. Do this and then click Validate. Once this is completed then any new bookmarks added to Diigo will also be added to Delicious.

Evernote

This powerful service is a great way to store all sorts of data. Backup is quite a simple process. You can save all of your notes by opening the Evernote software on your computer, right clicking on the All notes button and selecting Export Notes (see below). Choose the ENEX format and save it to your computer in a safe place. For more information visit the Evernote support forum.

Google services

Many of us also have a lot of information stored in our Google accounts like Google Docs, YouTube or Picasa. Google provides a useful service for backing up your data called Google Takeout. To use this service visit https://www.google.com/takeout/ and login to your account. You will be presented with all of the services you use, and here you can choose to save All of your data or just the data from specific services by selecting Choose services.

Google Takeout lets you create an archive of your Google account

Once you’ve chosen the services you want to backup, select Create Archive and the backup will begin. The archive will be built and when it is ready you can click Download and save it to your computer in a safe place.

Cloud based drive apps

Several of the most popular cloud based storage options like Dropbox, Microsoft Skydrive and Google Drive also make backing up easy. All of these services let you install software that will sync all of your files back to a folder on your computer. In this way even if you lose access to the internet or your account you will still have your files. To download and install these apps follow the respective links below.

Google Drive

Microsoft Skydrive

Dropbox

Other services:

We’ve only touched on backing up from some of the most popular services, but many other web based tools also provide backup and export options. Take the time to explore the options menu of each service, look for backup or export options and make sure you read through the help and support forums of each site. If you’re feeling really adventurous then have a look at our posts on If This Then That or Wappwolf, two services that can be used to automate the internet and create backups across your services. A little bit of digital housekeeping today could save you a lot of heartache or hard work in the future.

Integrated apps added to Google Drive

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Google Drive has been adopted by many schools and educators as a powerful and flexible cloud based documents editor. The service (formerly known as Google Docs) is now even more useful as you can install apps to create and edit a range of documents.

While Google Drive has always replicated the Microsoft Office suite in being able to create spreadsheets, word processed documents and presentations, now users can also install apps like image editors, mind mapping software or even graphing calculators.

In order to see a full list of apps that integrate with Google Drive login to your Google Drive account. Once you are logged in select Create> More> Get more apps. (See below)

Install apps from the Create menu

If you are using any browser other than Google Chrome you will get a message saying that you need to download and install Chrome to use these apps. I’ve been able to install and use several of the apps in Firefox, but you will probably find the services do work more reliably in Chrome.

Now you will see a list of all of the apps that integrate with Google Drive. To install an app hover over the icon and click +Install or +Add to Chrome. You will also be asked a series of confirmation questions regarding what the app can access. As always, read these messages carefully and don’t give an app access to your data if you are not comfortable with the level of access it is requesting.

Once the app is added to Google Drive you may notice that some of the icons of your files will change. This indicates that the file will open in the related app or you can create a new file using the Create>More option. If you’d like to uninstall any apps you can return to Google Drive and select Settings>Manage Apps (see below).

You can uninstall any apps from the Settings menu

If that all seems a bit confusing, we’ve put together a short video demonstrating how to install, use and uninstall apps to your Google Drive account (3.08 min).

With this addition Google Drive is certainly becoming an even more tempting alternative to Microsoft Office. To get you started, here are some of the integrated apps that we recommend:

Pixlr Editor – a powerful photo editor with a number of features found in high end software like Photoshop. The Pixlr Express app is also a good option for adding simple frames, filters, stamps and text.

Mindmeister– a very attractive mind mapping tool, with lovely graphics and some powerful export options

Floorplanner– a fun but powerful app to plan out rooms. Includes 3D furniture and displays floorplans in both 2D and 3D. Just make sure you draw in a floor first!

Floorplanner lets you design your ultimate room

Google Cultural Institute

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Cam Hocking

With History Week kicking off in Victoria today seems like the perfect time to take a look at the new Google Cultural Institute. The project brings together a number of historical and cultural resources from cultural institutions around the world. The site features a range of digitised items, curated timelines and a number of interesting digital projects.

The Cultural Institute features resources from institutions such as the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Anne Frank House, along with photographic archives from organisations like Life and Getty Images. You can select the institution or decade you are interested in by clicking on the Explore button. Context is provided to many of the digitised items in the form of curated timelines produced by the relevant institutions. A great example of this is the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day timeline.

Curated timelines provide context to the items displayed

The site also brings together a number of digital projects that you may already seen, such as the Google Art Project or World Wonders (with streetview images of the Great Barrier Reef and Scott’s Hut). A particular favourite with library staff has been the Versailles 3D project, where you can help Louis XIV build his palace.

While the curated timelines and digital projects offer a great deal of value, you can also browse archives using a general search term. Items can be narrowed down with a date slider and modified by topics such as place, event or object type. It’s a similar process to a standard Google search and may suggest that soon the Cultural Institute will be a standard Google search option in the same way News, Images and Video are now.

It’s clear that Google aims for the Cultural Institute to become a repository for a range of artefacts from across the world, moving items from individual websites to a single archive. It is an interesting move to try and create a place where all cultural material can be stored and seems to continue Google’s attempts to position themselves as the holders of culture and knowledge (as they are also doing with their book scanning project). Whether their lofty ambitions are successful remains to be seen, while some may again call into question the true motivations of the company. But for the moment there is no doubt that the Cultural Institute is a useful site and well worth exploring.

Explore the Creativity of Indie Video Games

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Cam Hocking

As part of the Off-Book series exploring cutting edge art and internet culture, PBS has released a fascinating video examining the Creativity of Indie Video Games. The video makes some interesting observations about the changing culture of gaming, which organisers of the Freeplay festival argue is “the dominant art-form of the 21st century”.

Indie games are seeing a surge in popularity and are seen by many as a reaction to overblown, overhyped or overly violent big budget games (often referred to as Triple A titles). In contrast to Triple A games, Indie games place emphasis on visual styling, innovative game mechanics and storytelling. Games like Passage, Papa & Yo or Journey explore complex themes and aim to create an emotional response in the player, while games like Bastion place an emphasis on the importance of story.

PBS Off-Book: The Creativity of Indie Games (YouTube)

While the use of gaming in education is a developing field, these Indie titles certainly present some exciting prospects for exploration in the classroom in terms of storytelling, art and game development. The other benefit is that many of these titles are relatively inexpensive and run on mobile devices or low specification computers, so have a look at this video and then jump in and try some of these fantastic indie games. The full list of games featured in the documentary is available in the video description on YouTube.

Automate your Dropbox with Wappwolf

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Wappwolf is a free service which connects with your Dropbox or Google Drive account and lets you set automated tasks. It has a number of useful features and is a handy way to automate many time consuming tasks such as file conversions or basic image editing. In particular it works very well when it comes to converting audio, e-book or picture files, which can then be saved back into your Dropbox folder, uploaded to Google Drive and Evernote or emailed automatically to an address you define. Because of the excellent integration with Dropbox these automations could be particularly useful for getting student work off an iPad or other mobile device.

Wappwolf works in similar fashion to If This Then That which we featured earlier this year. You can select a folder in your Dropbox that Wappwolf will watch. As soon as a new file is added to that folder the task you have defined will begin. There are a wide range of tasks that Wappwolf can complete. You can convert files, edit an image, turn a text file into a PDF or upload a picture to your Twitter or Facebook account. You don’t even need to have a computer running as all of the automation is done in the cloud.

As an example, you could set Wappwolf to watch a folder in your Dropbox and as soon as you add a picture to that folder it could be converted to black and white and then sent to Evernote. Or you could create an automation that automatically sends any picture you save in a folder to your Grandmother! A free Wappwolf account lets you define up to 10 different automations.

Here are some of the automation options available:

For audio files: Convert to MP3, WAV or MP4

For picture files: Stamp a logo on an image, Convert to black and white, Upload to Flickr

For documents: Convert to PDF, Convert ebook, Send to Kindle, Upload to Google Drive

An example action from Wappwolf. This action stamps a logo on to an image and saves it back to Dropbox.

There are many other options available for Dropbox and also options for Facebook, Google Drive or Box. The best way to understand the range of options is to explore Wappwolf’s features, so have a look at our guide to getting started and see how you can use Wappwolf to make you life easier.

Twitter announces updated widget features

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Cam Hocking

If you have a blog or website it can be a good idea to include a panel displaying your recent tweets. The process of adding a stream of tweets to your blog is now much easier with the addition of a widget maker in Twitter.

This new feature lets you choose between displaying all of your tweets, your favourites or even a search of a particular hashtag. We’ve included a sample widget below which displays tweets with the #vicpln hashtag. The widget also lets visitors to your site send you a tweet if they are logged into Twitter.

Tweets about “#vicpln”

To access the new widget option, login to Twitter and go to the Settings menu. Once you’ve set up the widget you’ll get a code to embed the stream in your blog. To help you with the process we’ve put together a guide to adding a Twitter stream to your blog.

TEDx Melbourne talks now available

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Cam Hocking

On the 19th of July the State Library of Victoria played host to the TEDx Melbourne event on Educational Leadership. The event explored the importance of collaboration in education and the way communication technology is changing the way we teach and learn. You can now watch the talks delivered on the night by Will Richardson and Toorak College’s Jenny Luca.

The event was documented in a drawing by Lynne Cazaly

In his talk Will Richardson explores the definition of learning and advocates for the importance of educators being involved in the conversation about assessment. Will also explains the changing role of the educator as a learner and a facilitator of learning, rather than the traditional pattern of teachers as content experts. You can read more of Will’s thought on his blog.

Many of you may be familiar with Jenny’s work through the Lucacept blog. In her talk Jenny touches on the value of the networked teacher and the opportunities afforded by new technologies in creating meaningful learning.

Congratulations to the organisers of the evening and to the presenters involved. You can find out more about this and other events at the TEDx Melbourne site.

Howard Rheingold talks about being Net Smart

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Cam Hocking

The Circulating Ideas podcast recently featured a fascinating discussion with author and digital literacy expert Howard Rheingold. Rheingold’s book Net Smart explores literacy in a digital age and touches on some of the skills that are critical for learning, particularly in regards to online information access.

You can download Steve Thomas’ interview with Howard Rheingold from the Circulating Ideas podcast stream (Itunes). In the interview Rheingold speaks about the role of Wikipedia in research, Facebook’s threat to an open web culture and some of the skills that all learners need to find reliable and authoritive information online. Rheingold also advocates for the importance of librarians in teaching critical literacy skills and modelling effective research techniques.

For more of Howard Rheingold’s thoughts about the topic you might also read an interview with him by Henry Jenkins entitled How did Howard Rheingold get so Net Smart? You can find links to the three part interview below and keep up to date with Howard’s work through his website and on Twitter.

How did Howard Rheingold get so Net Smart? Interview: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Moleskine Journal app for iPad

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Cam Hocking

iPad users now have another option for creating and saving notes using the newly launched Moleskine Journal app. This free app lets you create virtual notebooks with text, handwriting, photographs and drawings. These notebooks emulate the style of the iconic Moleskine notebooks.

Moleskine Journal joins a crowded market of iPad notebook apps and challenges popular paid apps like Penultimate and Notability (both $0.99). But several novel features, an elegant visual style and good integration with Evernote and Dropbox makes the app a worthy alternative.

The launch of Moleskine Journal also coincides with Moleskine’s announcement of physical notebooks that are designed to work well with Evernote. Page markings within the notebook and special stickers for tagging pages promise to make snapping your handwritten notes much easier. (Find out more at Techcrunch).

We explored the Moleskine Journal app and you can read our first impressions and guide to some of the features in our Storify below.

Download the Moleskine Journal app (Itunes store)

School Library Association of Victoria

Author Archives: Cam Hocking