Avoid disaster by backing up your data

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

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

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.

SLVLearn 2012 resources now available

Last week the State Library of Victoria’s Education team hosted the inaugural SLVLearn 2012 conference with two varied days of professional development and sharing. The first day explored the topic of information access, while the second day saw a number of Melbourne’s cultural institutions get together to show how Melbourne can be used as a learning environment.  Many of the resources and presentations from the conference are now available online.

The Future of Information saw a number of educators present on topics such as curation tools, digital citizenship, creative commons and accessing digitised resources.  The presenters have kindly shared their presentations and you can find links and a full summary of the day in this Storify- SLVLearn 2012 The Future of Information.

Kelly Gardiner, Cindy Tschernitz, Sandy Phillips, John Pearce and Cathy Hainstock explore the topic of Information vs. Skills

Learning in the Present: The Melbourne City Experience saw 22 of Melbourne’s cultural institutions come together to showcase their resources and school programs. A panel discussion explored the logistics of organising city experiences for students. Teachers also had the opportunity to go on a walking tour of a number of institutions.

The day also explored how technology such as Historypin, Storify and Twitter can be used to enhance the experience before, during and after the city visits. You can access a list of the resources mentioned in this Diigo list: The Melbourne City Experience.

 

Save quotes with Citelighter

Citelighter is a free online bibliographic management tool. It claims to be a simple tool that allows you click on a ‘Capture’ button every time you want to add a resource to your collection. This will then allow you to automatically create a bibliography.

After downloading the widget to Firefox, I ran into trouble right from the start – the Citelighter toolbar didn’t seem to let me login and the ‘Capture’ button didn’t seem to work. I tried logging off and logging back on but that didn’t help.  But after a few attempts I managed to get it going. Using the toolbar in Google Chrome seemed to work better. Despite the way Citelighter lets you save quotes with one- click,  I still have a few reservations about the extent of its usefulness:

– The introductory video mentioned that it “grabs most of the bibliographic information”. Despite this, Citelighter will not grab details of books. In this way it is less powerful than tools like Zotero or BibMe. Citelighter is not as efficient if we have to source and enter the missing information.

– Citelighter seems to rely on the user to highlight the text and also fill in several bibliographic details. This can be problematic for people who prefer to read from the printed text. This indicates that Citelighter is only capable of recognising websites but not printed resources such as books and journals. And yes, sure enough, you will need to manually add all the bibliographic details yourself – how inconvenient!

Citelighter lets you highlight and capture quotes

Overall I would say that Citelighter and the toolbar is a useful tool for keeping track of online quotes, but it is not as powerful as a tool like Zotero. But if all you need is a service that lets you save quotes and produce bibliographies for online materials, then Citelighter could be useful. Have a look at our guide to using Citelighter to see how to get started.

Create Customised Resource Collections with Gooru

Gooru is a search engine you won’t want to miss if you are a Science, Math or Social Sciences teacher. It is free to use and allows teachers to create customised ‘play-lists’ of resources for their students. Gooru’s library of resources is extensive, vetted by learning professionals and includes videos, games, interactive items, texts and quizzes.
Once registered, creating your own ‘play-list’ or ‘Collection’ is an easy search, drag and drop process. Teachers will also appreciate professional touches such as the ability to include key vocabulary and learning objectives in the collection overview, and being able to add voice narration to direct students or highlight points within the collection.
The collaborative nature of the site allows teachers to use and adapt collections that other professionals have created and shared. Initially, any collections you create will default to a private setting, but once the quality of the content has been checked by the site’s experts (they are stringent about inappropriate content), Gooru encourages users to share; it is part of the growing OER (Open Education Resources) movement.

Students need to register to access collections and resources too, but are not able to create content or edit unless collaborator status is shared with them.

Perhaps the most appealing feature of all is Gooru’s ‘smart quizzes’. Students can test their understanding as they learn via enriched quizzes that can offer hints and explanations during the process. Once a quiz is taken, students receive feedback, including suggestions for further resources to enhance their understanding if needed.

Gooru is currently in beta so feedback and suggestions are welcome as they further improve the site. The website promises:

Our machine learning experts are working hard to develop and improve our algorithms and performance and deliver a truly personalized and adaptive learning experience.

Sounds like things will even get better.

 

Learning with Gusto

Today’s guest post comes from Emma Reilly, Education officer at the State Library of Victoria. Emma explores some  online resources related to food and introduces a free webinar that will run on October the 16th.

The State Library of Victoria is currently presenting a free exhibition, Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria. The exhibition explores Victoria’s historic and contemporary culinary landscape, featuring gastronomic treasures from the Library’s collections – from the first Australian cookbook, published in 1864, to an actual World War I army biscuit. To support the exhibition, the State Library of Victoria has produced a Gusto! Education resource for Years 3-6 of the Australian Curriculum (VELS Levels 3 & 4).

When we consider the Masterchef phenomenon, issues of global food security, health, well-being, ethics and nutrition, it is fair to say food certainly plays an important role in the lives of students today. In an upcoming free professional learning opportunity, educators from the SLV and Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation will explore engaging learning experiences through the themes: Food and Identity, Food Supply and Eating In.

Some of the highlights of the webinar will include:
• Get some Bright Ideas about bringing to life online media using simple thinking routines.
• Be introduced to engaging digital learning tools such as Glogster, Story Scrapbook, bubbl.us and Google Maps.
• Learn how to access extensive digitised resources for the primary classroom using the SLV catalogue and Gusto! research guide.
• Get a backstage pass to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation Professional learning community, The Shared Table.

Have we tantalised your tastebuds? Sink your teeth into this Blackboard Collaborate session on October 16th at 4.00pm-5.00pm.

SLAV & NGV explore art, literature & stories

The details of the final SLAV conference for 2012, Art, literature and stories: exploring sharing across cultures have now been announced. This partnership between SLAV and the National Gallery of Victoria will be held at NGV International on Friday the 9th of November, 2012.

The program features two keynote addresses. The first by Anne E Stewart will explore storytelling as a sharing of heart and spirit. Helen Kent and Dr Larissa McLean Davies will discuss Literature in the Australian Curriciulum in a socio-historical context. The session will also explain some of the ways in which the NGV can be used with students studying Literature and English.

Explore NGV’s learning resources at their website

The conference also features a number of concurrent sessions that explore many aspects of literature and art. The day will finish with an intriguing discussion about the significance of frames and the choices made when presenting paintings to the public.

The full conference schedule is now available and registrations can be completed through SLAV. As always, you will also be able to participate in the event on Twitter using the #slavconf hashtag.

Learnist: visual literacy in action

You may be familiar with the addictive pinboard site, Pinterest. Now comes Learnist, which takes many visual clues from Pinterest, builds on similar organisational principles, and adds a whole range of functionality.

Image of learnist homepage

Still in beta, Learnist is designed around the idea of collecting resources on topics or themes and presenting them in a visually appealing and social format. Resources such as videos, images and links aren’t just collections in Learnist: they are arranged in step-by-step lessons or processes, so you can work your way through the information or tasks and tick them off as you go. It’s not only for formal education, but has an Education category and we anticipate it’ll be perfect for quick online learning projects, introducing students to new concepts, or for digital storytelling.

You can share resources and collections uploaded by other teachers or librarians, and add your own. (At this early stage, the ability to curate  collections isn’t provided for all users, but it will be.)

Here’s an introduction to Learnist from its creators:

Request an invitation, have a play, and let us know what you think.

Even more Pinteresting…

Recently we had a post about Pinterest – a social media platform for pinning images to virtual boards. Pinterest has really taken off, most likely due to the lovely presentation and the way it allows for browsing of images rather than text.

To give you some more inspiration about how you might use Pinterest, we’ve collated a few articles and posts about how Pinterest is being used in libraries and in other fields.

See some examples of how other libraries have used Pinterest at this article: 25 Libraries we love most on Pinterest (OEDB).

Have a look at this Pinterest board put together by Laura Gentry about Libraries using Pinterest.

The fabulous Joyce Valenza recently wrote about how she harnessed the power of Pinterest to overcome her Bulletin board anxiety and search for great library display ideas.

Pinterest also has uses in the field of cultural heritage: Pinterest for Cultural Heritage  (Archives Info).

We hope you can use this collection of ideas as a launch pad for something amazing at your library or classroom. We’d also love to hear how you’ve made use of Pinterest in your work.