Why it’s worth picking Pocket

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Pocket is one of the many tools that aims to help you keep track of web content. This free app serves as a good way to save articles and videos and is particularly useful for storing content when you are on the move so you can then explore it at a more convenient time.

Formerly known as Read It Later, Pocket was recently renamed and redesigned. It offers a very smooth interface and a number of useful features. Bookmarks can be added via email, through a bookmarking button that can be installed in your web browser or through a number of different mobile apps that can integrate with your Pocket account. Many mobile Twitter apps and RSS readers now include a ‘Read Later’ option which will let you save interesting content to Pocket with one click. Considering many people read their Twitter feed when on the move or in a rush, being able to save this content for a more convenient time is very useful. One excellent feature of Pocket is that any links that have been added via a tweet will also retain the content of the original tweet. In this way you can save a link shared by someone, explore it later and then still be able to keep track of who shared the original link.

Saving to Pocket from Tweetbot on iPad

Pocket’s biggest competitor is Instapaper, which has been one of the most popular article saving options for quite a while. While the two services offer similar features, there are enough differences between the two to mean that you could make use of both. Instapaper is more suited for saving longer articles and provides a more elegant reading experience. But Pocket is perfect for saving shorter articles, videos or pictures. The reading list view (below) in both the mobile app and the web interface is also much more attractive than Instapaper. Unread content is presented in a magazine style layout, and once you select and view a link you can choose to either keep it by marking it as read, star it to keep it as a favourite or choose to delete the link permanently from your library. Saved content can also be tagged or searched.

Your unread links are presented in a magazine style layot

Pocket isn’t comprehensive enough to manage a large library of links in the way Diigo does, nor does it provide as smooth a reading experience as Instapaper. But the integration with a number of other mobile apps, as well as an attractive reading layout means it is the perfect option for keeping track of those video clips and short articles that you want to explore when you have more time.

Pocket for IOS

Pocket for Android (Google Play store)

Create interactive stories with Inklewriter

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Many of you would remember the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books which were incredibly popular in the 1980s and 1990s. These novels gave the reader the option of choosing a path through the story and the narrative unfolded in a different way depending on the option selected. This style of fiction was then replicated in some of the early text based adventure games on home computers, however these games tended to be frustrating to play and hard to make. But now writers can easily produce interactive narratives with Inklewriter.

Inklewriter is a non-linear story writing tool which lets you define options for your reader after each section of your story. These options then link to different story sections, so you could end up writing many different stories within the one piece. You can define options which could be as simple as making a character turn left or right, or a much more complicated situation like a conversation with many different options. Pictures can also be added to the story and your writing can be shared.

Inklewriter is quite easy to use and helps you build different story options. You are presented with a first paragraph, and then you can define choices for the reader. Each option links to a new paragraph or can also be linked to an existing paragraph you’ve written. Even a simple story can actually become quite complex once you add a few options, but Inklewriter shows you when you have any loose ends from each story that you need to tie up. In this way, your reader will (hopefully) never get stuck.

This tool would be perfect in creative writing classes or even in other subjects like History, where students might explore the different options available to historical figures. When creating an interactive story students will have to examine the motivations of their characters carefully. It could also lead to some really good discussions about narrative structures, pacing and conversation. Here’s a quick story that we wrote that explains what Inklewriter is all about. It’s not Shakespeare, but hopefully it gives you a bit of an idea of how it works.

The Inklewriter website has some quick tutorials to get you started, and you can begin writing without creating an account (though you will need to create an account to save your work). You can click on Start writing or Read a story to get started. While Inklewriter is still in beta at the moment, it does seem to be quite reliable and is a really interesting option for creating digital, interactive stories.

SLAV Conference: Be the expert

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Cam Hocking

The program for the next School Library Association of Victoria conference has been finalised, with Hamish Curry from the State Library of Victoria announced as the keynote speaker. The conference, entitled Be the expert: promote yourself with skill development will be held on Monday the 22nd of October at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne.

The conference schedule includes featured addresses about library displays, concurrent sessions exploring digital tools and a closing address by Gerry Kennedy on e-books. The conference registration form is available from the SLAV website.

This event follows on from the Global e-literacy conference in July at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The shared notes from this very successful day are available on the Global e-literacy site. You will find details of sessions on screencasting, digital storytelling, iPads and much more. For a summary of this conference have a look at our Storify of the day.

Springpad

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Cam Hocking

In recent times there has been a deluge of online tools that promise to help you organise all aspects of your life. Many services keep track of your bookmarks, notes or contacts, but only a few services try to do it all. One of the best and most comprehensive is Springpad.

On first impressions Springpad seems very similar to Evernote as it organises items using notebooks and tags. Simple text notes can be created and then added to notebooks. However, Springpad has quite a few features not available in Evernote. Items can be manually added and then grouped into types such as recipes, books, movies, contacts, bookmarks or products. You can also make checklists or create events that can be synced with your Google Calendar.

Where Springpad really shines is the search function which helps you to automatically add an item to your collection. You can search for a book title, then add this to your collection, add a short note or review and mark the item as ‘read‘ or ‘want‘. Notebooks can be shared and collaborators can be invited, so you could have students creating their own wishlist of books or building a shared page with reviews of their favourite novels. With categories for film, television, books and recipes Springpad would also be a useful tool for shared curriculum planning for teachers across many subject areas.

Adding a book using search

One brilliant feature is the barcode scanner in the mobile app (available for IOS and Android), which lets you scan product barcodes and then add the item to your collection. It’s a great way to quickly index your personal library as the app will also search the web and find cover art and details of the book. This function would also be useful for students keeping track of their research. The app also includes a QR code scanner.

Barcode scanner in the Springpad mobile app

When saving a web page the Springpad clipping tool does a good job of recognising the type of resource you are saving. However, in terms of saving the full text of webpages Springpad is not quite as powerful as Evernote or a dedicated bookmarking tool like Diigo. It doesn’t clip an entire page and then allow you to search within that saved page. What Springpad does exceptionally well is saving recipes, books, films or products and then automatically adding the details of the item.

Saving an item with the Springpad toolbar

The lovely visual nature of notebooks combined with easy sharing and collaboration options means Springpad definitely deserves a place on your device. It’s the perfect tool for keeping track of many aspects of your life. With some minor improvements to the web bookmarking feature Springpad may well become the all in one organisational tool that many people have been craving.

Interview series explores the impact of technology

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Ryerson University in Toronto is running a web series called rdigitalife. The series is hosted by Ramona Pringle, a member of Ryerson’s New Media faculty and explores a range of topics related to the impact of technology on our lives. The recently published topic of Community is particularly interesting and includes interviews with people such as Clay Shirky, Sherry Turkle and games journalist Leigh Alexander. Here is an introduction to the Community topic.

You can view the full interviews for this topic and also explore the other published topics of Environment and Robot evolution from the rdigitalife page. Other topics such as Storytelling, Culture and Identity will be explored in future interviews.

Texts in the City from the Wheeler Centre

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Cam Hocking

The Wheeler Centre is an institution that is dedicated to the discussion of reading and writing. Based in Melbourne, the centre hosts a number of excellent events and panels related to reading. A regular event at the Wheeler Centre is the Texts in the City series which explores texts from the Victorian upper secondary (VCE) English reading lists. Many of the novels or plays discussed, such as The Quiet American or The Crucible, are being studied in other states as well. You can view or download all of the Texts in the City talks here.

One excellent aspect of these discussions is that they provide students with original and varied perspectives about a text. In senior levels when detailed text studies are being completed there can often be a level of fatigue that sets in amongst the students. Hearing the text discussed by fresh voices with new views helps to avoid this common problem. The talks would be perfect for a revision or homework task.

The Texts in the City recordings also provide a great example of how teachers might record their own video discussions or podcasts about texts. With relatively easy to use video and audio recording devices now available (even a mobile phone will do) there is an opportunity for teachers to record their own discussions about a text, which could then be shared across a whole year level and many classes. Check out free tools like Audacity or the YouTube Video Editor for some simple tools that can be used to edit together audio or video.

To keep up to date with the Texts in the City series and any other events you can follow The Wheeler Centre on Twitter, or subscibe to the video and audio podcasts using the links below.

Subscribe to the Wheeler Centre Video Podcast

Subscribe to the Wheeler Centre Audio Podcast

YouTube video editor

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Cam Hocking

Recently a new Video Editor function was added to YouTube. It is available to any user with a YouTube account and allows for simple timeline based video editing from within your web browser. The editor has a similar feel to Windows Movie Maker and lets users create movies from existing clips uploaded to a YouTube account.

If you want to create a new project from multiple video files it is best to upload each file and set each to private so only you can view them. Then you can edit your project together and publish the final results for all to see.

The editor enables you to search for Creative Commons videos which can also be included in your project. Music tracks can also be inserted. Any edited video projects which are then published to YouTube also include an attribution of any music or videos used.

We had a look at the editor and recorded a short guide to getting started with this very useful new feature. The Youtube Video Editor is easy to use, has all of the basic features you’d expect and may be the perfect option for putting together your video projects.

Watch below for our Guide to getting started with the Youtube Video Editor. Please note- the video below shows us accessing the video editor through the Video Manager page. The button appears to have moved, but you can still access the editor by visiting http://www.youtube.com/editor and then logging in to YouTube.

Leading the reinvention of learning

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Cam Hocking

The SLAV Global eLiteracy conference was held last Friday, 27th of July. The conference explored the changing face of learning in a digital age.

The event was significant as it saw the announcement by Judy O’Connell of oztlnet.com, a new site for the Australian Teacher Librarian Network. You can become involved with OZTL through Facebook, Twitter or the Diigo group.

The day involved a number of interesting presentations, but the highlight was the round table session. Delegates spent time in small groups learning from peer leaders about a range of technologies. There was a wonderful atmosphere of collegial support, exploration and sharing.

You can find notes from the event as they are added here and also see a summary, including highlights from a very active Twitter stream, at this Storify of the day.

Congratulations to all of the organisers for a very successful day of professional learning.

Bright Ideas user guides

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Cam Hocking

While we’re always looking out for great new web tools here at Bright Ideas, we know that sometimes it can be difficult to have the time to learn how to get the most from a new tool or service. To help you along we’ve recently launched several user guides which will help you get started with some of our favourite tools.

You’ll be able to find all of the guides in the menu bar at the top of the site, or on our Guides page. All of the guides have been built using Storify and feature either screenshot or video tutorials to guide you along. We’ve aimed to keep the video tutorials to no more than 90 seconds each so you are able to quickly find the tips you need.

The first video guides are for Historypin and Twitter (both getting started and taking Twitter further). We’ll be adding more user guides over the coming months and would love to hear you feedback or requests for other guides that you’d like to see here. Next we’ll be adding guides for Evernote, Diigo and Twitter apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

We’ll keep you posted about new or updated guides here and on our Facebook page, so follow us there to stay up to date. You can also keep track of any new video tutorials by subscribing to the Bright Ideas Youtube channel.

Feel free to let us know about any other guides you’d like to see here on Bright Ideas.

School Library Association of Victoria

Author Archives: Cam Hocking