Plurk

Posted on November 11, 2008 by slav

Plurk is a tool that enables members to have an online social conversation with multiple friends. You can join conversations by topic, or use the micro blogging tool to send ‘plurks’ which use a maximum of 140 characters (like Twitter). Updates from friends are shown on your page as a timeline in chronological order.

Homepage

Plurk’s aim is to introduce a balance between blogs and wikis, instant messaging and email. Users of the micro blogging tool use verbs to explain how they are feeling.

Example

There is a great wiki that lists schools and other educational institutions that are using Plurk. The wiki provides links to the projects that the schools are undertaking, and currently there are at least seven Australian schools, with three of those from Victoria. Many of the projects linked to the wiki are outstanding and definitely worth investigating. If you like the sound of Plurk and you’d like to learn more about how it works, click here.

Feature wiki – Samaritan Catholic College, Preston

Posted on November 8, 2008 by slav

Lynda Santolin, ILC Co-ordinator at Preston’s Samaritan Catholic College has spent time since completing the SLAV Web 2.0 course earlier this year developing numerous tools for teaching and learning. She has also led a staff PD introducing them to the world of blogs and wikis.

A Book Club blog, Staff Book blog, del.icio.us site, Rollyo account and online image generators have all been tools that Lynda has introduced. But she feels her greatest success was with wikis. ‘I created a wiki for staff to use. I think it has great potential for staff in faculties, or across campuses or even across schools, to share resources and planning. I also set up the Shared Stories Anthology wiki – which is run across 8 schools – the school coordinators compile student writing/visual arts pieces on a theme and publish and ‘book launch’ it each year. The wiki has enabled us to share:

Planning
Practicalities and pitfalls
Logistics
Launch details
Post-launch’

Shared stories anthology wiki

Lynda has developed a further two wikis for teaching and learning; Year 7 Ancient history and Year 8 Middle Ages. ‘In each of those, I had an information focus, but then something interactive – ‘test yourself’ type of thing. Our team put those websites together, I made the wikis, and the kids were engrossed with them and said they had ‘fun’. One example is this one interactive game to dress a knight for battle by answering a few
questions.’

Middle Ages

She continues, ‘I also had a discussion forum, where I tried to ask ‘thinking’ questions, for example, Would you have liked to have lived in Ancient Times? Why/why not? (Their responses were really interesting and often funny ‘No, because I wouldn’t be able to play computer games’). The discussion posts where each student needed to be members of the wikispace to respond. And from memory, they had to reply to an invitational email to do that. That was a lot of work and effort!’

Ancient history wiki

Lynda explains she is ‘finding wikis – wikispaces.com (it is free and the educational membership is advertisement-free) – easier to handle than blogs. Blogs are hard to do if you are trying to give many people a voice (page). I wouldn’t do it again as a blog, but I’d try wikis.’

Lynda has been very happy with wikispaces.com as she feels that it has great guides and support for teachers. She recommends using wikis over blogs as they are easy to use. She suggests:

‘Before using wikis with students:

Have a ‘play’ by creating your own personal/professional wiki. Learn.
Wikispaces = great help/tutorials (see above)
Know about Netsafety, Copyright and other cyber issues
Show students: examples/models
Use old technology – pen & paper! – to plan
Plan your ‘discussion’ to encourage higher order thinking and metacognition’

Lynda also suggests that: ‘Students need to know practicalities, pitfalls. For example:

Uploading content/feedback comments is NOT ‘chat’ – stay focused
Never reveal your or another person’s entire name, contact details, school
The wiki/blog does not replace homework (can’t be an excuse not to do homework!)’

Lynda also addressed other issues such as Netsafety, Copyright and other cyber issues. She says to ‘familiarise yourself with Working with the Web and to have dialogue with the Assistant Principal and other relevant co-coordinators/staff.’

Overall, Lynda has had great success with the wiki, but explains that the ‘practicalities and pitfalls of wikis and blogs include:

Being time-consuming, so has to be suited to the educational project – worthwhile/rewarding
It gets less tricky as you get more proficient – there is light at the end of the tunnel!
You still have to constantly monitor it and moderate comments (all sent to your email inbox)
Suggest: set a start and end date for the wiki
It’s easier to create the wiki with another person – solo is hard but still possible…
Take small steps and start small!’

Lynda says that the SLAV Web 2.0 course gave her ‘the skills, knowledge and experience to participate in the Web 2.0 world, and I love the multi-literacies, communities, collaboration and peering.’

Thanks to Lynda for sharing her thoughts and hard work and congratulations on the success of all your Web 2.0 tools, particularly the wiki.

Zotero

Posted on November 4, 2008 by slav

A new way to research? Zotero is a revolutionary Mozilla Firefox (an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer) extension that helps users ‘collect, manage and cite’ research sources.

With the results of a recent survey where 49% of Cambridge students admitted plagiarism, that sounds fantastic. How does it work?

The Zotero website says that it:

‘automatically captures citation of information from web pages
has a playlist like library that keeps a record of saved searches
saves records and notes in many languages
integrates with Microsoft Office, WordPress and other blogging software
has formatted citation export
stores web pages, PDFs, files, images, links and other attachments.’

Like Diigo, you can create ‘sticky note’ annotations that ‘stick’ onto the webpage you are using. The Zotero website explains how to create bibliographies; ‘For example, you can drag and drop references into any text field as either HTMLor plain text. You can also print bibliographies directly from Zotero or copy them to your clipboard. In addition, MS Word and OpenOffice plugins offer more precise control for integrating bibliographic information in your writing projects.’

Zotero provides a lot of information about how to use it as a research tool. There are screencasts that give demonstrations of how to use Zotero, as well as lots of links that explain just about everything you’ll need to know. Once downloaded, the Zotero icon lives in the bottom right-hand corner of the Firefox window. Just click on the Zotero icon when you want to use it. With the click of the mouse, Zotero saves the bibliographic information of a website to file.

Zotero in action

Zotero can also be used with Netscape Navigator (no link as Netscape are no longer developing their product) and Flock web browsers as well as Firefox. Zotero 1.0 is the current version, but when version 2.0 is released, it will allows users to share collections, notes and documents, allowing better collaboration. Although Zotero is downloaded to a particular computer rather than generating a user login, it can be used on multiple computers. Version 2 should enable user logins for better portability.

Zotero really is an amazing tool for those who want to organise their research, searches or topics. It could be the new way to take notes and to teach students how to notetake online! Also a wonderful tool for anyone doing graduate or post graduate studies.

Feature blog – Mill Park Secondary College

Posted on November 1, 2008 by slav

Heather Bailie, College Library Coordinator at Mill Park Secondary College has set up a most interesting blog. Did I speak to you about… is a site just for library staff.

Did I speak to you about...

Heather explains, ‘We have nine people making up 7.4 EFT on two campuses. I spend half my time at each campus, others have one or two days a week at their non-home campus. Due to part-timers it is impossible to have a meeting that all library staff can attend. I set up this site during the Web 2.0 course when the penny dropped that blogs are a sensational communication tool. Now instead of conversations between 2 or 3 people, phone calls and emails going back and forth and people being left out of the loop we can keep the conversation in a central location and it is up to each of us to contribute. Better than that, with our Google readers set up as a widget in our iGoogle pages we are instantly alerted of new news. I have even used a post to call for agenda items for an actual meeting and then made comments to record the minutes.’

She continues, ‘This site has been set up directly as a result of the library staff at Mill Park Secondary College completing the SLAV Web 2.0 course. I have just been appointed to the Leading Teacher Position of College ICT Coach – I don’t know if I would have even considered applying before doing the SLAV Web 2.0 online course. What I do know is that having completed it and what I have gained from it has contributed enormously to my successful application!’

It really does go to show that the possibilities of Web 2.0 are only within the realms of our imagination. Congratulations to Heather on her innovative use of a blog and on her appointment as a Leading Teacher, College ICT Coach.

Web-based Microsoft Office announced

Posted on October 31, 2008 by slav

This week the New York Times reported that Microsoft would finally launch a web-based version of Office. After years of Google docs and Zoho providing this for free, Microsoft announced an ‘Office-lite’ for the web. Pricing and release date has not been announced.

In the article, Janice Kapner, senior director of Microsoft’s Information Worker Group said the web-based versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint would be available.

Zoho Notebook

Posted on October 29, 2008 by slav

If you create a lot of documents, or want to collaborate with colleagues, Zoho has a fabulous tool called Zoho Notebook. The idea behind it is that Notebook acts as your complete online record of tasks; you can embed content of any type from multiple applications and share the whole Notebook or just a page or two with others (or not, if you don’t want to). Users are able to create content as well, including text, audio, images and video. Amongst other things, you can clip webpages (and then continue to use the webpages interactively, not just see a screenshot), draw flowcharts and import Powerpoint presentations and other documents. Zoho Chat is embedded into Notebook for quick communication with collaborators. Zoho Notebook is your one stop shop for creating records that embed multiple applications. You can even sign into Zoho Notebook with your Google or Yahoo ID. Here’s a notebook I prepared earlier…

Zoho Notebook example

Google has a similar product, Google Notebook. If you use iGoogle, Google Notebook may be your best bet. But comparing the two, it seems that Google Notebook has far less functionality that that of Zoho Notebook, which is unusual knowing how well Google does most things. Have a look at both to see which application suits your needs best.

Uses of Zoho Notebook could include digital portfolios for students and even a personal portfolio for teachers for annual reviews.

Zoho Notebook has to be one of the most exciting Web 2.0 tools around. Have a look at the demonstration video for yourself. Zoho have a number of tools in their suite, most are free but some business applications only allow limited numbers of users before you must pay a subscription fee. However, the tools are definitely worth investigating!

Note: You may have Microsoft’s OneNote as part of your Office 2007 suite. OneNote is similar to both Zoho Notebook and Google Notebook and definitely worth a play if you have a few minutes.

Feature blog – Mossgiel Park Primary School

Posted on October 24, 2008 by slav

Lisa Hill is the Director of Curriculum and teacher librarian at Mossgiel Park Primary School in Endeavour Hills. She has developed a comprehensive and engaging library blog that features categories such as “Reader of the Week”, “News” and information of interest to their IASL Bookmark Project partner school.

Front page

Lisa has also created a resource post for the current Year 5/6 project including task requirements, a slideshow and links to research sites. She has lots of video and word files embedded into the site, for both students and teachers to explore and to link to the curriculum.

Lisa completed the SLAV Web 2.0 course and says, ‘Although I don’t think I had any really clear aims in setting up the blog, I mainly wanted to show our library program to our IASL partner school. I also wanted the children’s parents to be able to look at what we are doing in library; this was an element of library promotion.’

Book Week

Lisa continues, ‘Ultimately I want the blog to be a motivating activity for students. I encouraged them to make comments after I uploaded a photo of a literacy week activity we had, and eventually I want to have student wikis and pages about projects, but that seems like a long way off at the moment!’

Library teddies

As Director of Curriculum (and teacher librarian!) at Mossgiel Park Primary School, Lisa has really led by example in developing this blog. Here’s hoping that other Mossgiel Park teachers are inspired by her creativity, resourcefulness and sheer hard work.

CMap tools

Posted on October 22, 2008 by slav

CMap tools is a free Web 2.0 tool that helps users create, navigate, share and critique concept/mind maps. The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) have developed this program and encourage users involved in education to download to as many computers as they wish (for free). A university affiliated research institute, IHMC is a not for profit organisation administered by Florida University System and is affiliated with several Florida universities.

: CMap tools home

Concept or mind maps have been popular for a while now, and being able to work collaboratively on them is a bonus. The ability to access the saved maps of others is a terrific teaching and learning tool. Students can critique completed maps and understand what is required of a great map before they begin.

Information on the IHMC website says:

IHMC faculty and staff collaborate extensively with industry and government to develop science and technology that can be enabling with respect to society’s broader goals. IHMC researchers receive funding (current funding in force exceeds $22,000,000) from a wide range of government and private sources. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, NSF, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, NIMA, NIH, DOT, IDEO, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, Procter & Gamble, Boeing, Lockheed, SAIC, and IBM among others.

Sounds impressive. You do have to download the program, which takes about 50 minutes. That is a problem for schools, but if your IT people can download it to a server and install an icon on desktops, that solves a few problems.

HTC library

When trying to find maps that have been uploaded by other users, rather than use the ‘Shared CMaps in Places’, it is easier to go to ‘tools’ then ‘search’ and type in what you are looking for. Refine your search by selecting ‘Select resource types to return’ and click on concept maps. Otherwise a list of other resources will appear.

Some people may remember the program entitled Inspiration that came on CD Rom. CMap tools seems to be the Web 2.0 version of that. Why don’t you have a play and when you feel confident, give it a go with your students? There are a number of Youtube videos to show you how to use CMap tools, Creating concepts and propositions, Introduction to the views window and Adding resources are just a few. They are great visual aids to assist you (and your students) when starting to use CMap tools.

Please submit comments if you do use CMap tools.

Feature blog – Paisley Senior Campus, Bayside Secondary College

Posted on October 18, 2008 by slav

Zlata Matskarofski, teacher librarian at the Paisley Senior Campus of Bayside Secondary College has agreed to share her journey of developing and marketing a blog for staff and students. She describes both how and why their blog was developed.

‘The primary purpose of the Paisley Library Blog is for both students and teachers to be able to post Book reviews, which then may be read and shared by other students and teachers,’ explains Zlata.

Paisley

She continues, ‘The ultimate aim of the blog is to create an interest in literature and promote wider reading. We hope that students will be inspired by other readers through the personal reviews, suggestions and recommendations they post. Essentially, the blog provides a platform and opportunity for students to share their reading experiences, as well as gain from other readers’ experiences.

‘We introduced the Paisley Library Blog to the staff through a Powerpoint presentation at a staff meeting, highlighting that it may be of particular interest to English and English Literature teachers. Our presentation outlined the aim and purpose of the blog, as well as the process involved to get started. The blog has been placed on the school network and is easily accessible to all staff and students.’

Zlata says, ‘The initial setting up of the blog posed its own challenges, which were gradually overcome as we became familiar with the way it was organised and laid out. Persistence and perseverance paid off. The Paisley Library Blog is the fruit of the SLAV Web 2.0 course, which I found to be an excellent introduction to the various Web 2.0 tools available.’

Congratulations to Zlata for developing the blog and the English and English literature teachers for using it with their classes. Well done!

School Library Association of Victoria