Tools like blogs and wikis are used to share knowledge and experiences and more people are using rss feeds to keep on top of everything.  And tools like Twitter to keep up beetween blog posts. So I thought, I’d better give this a go!

So why did I create an online presence for myself?

Use of online tools, like Facebook, Flickr, del.icio.us, Twitter and Lastfm are increasing in people’s day-to-day life. These tools are used to network with others, in order to learn, knowledge share and collaborate with like minded people, to keep in touch with faimly and friends easily, without having to be a web designer or programmer.

The demand for easier, efficient and more flexible ways of teaching and learning is rising and I’m exicted to be part of that. Interest in web-based learning and exploring new technology for more engaging methods for delivery is increasing as the much discussed generation gap becomes more of an issue as Gen Y hit the workplace.

It was time to join them. So, I made this blog to share my journey. Since I started this blog, many friends and family members created their own blogs and wiki’s, colleagues have started Facebook groups, and we’re all uploading images to sites like Flickr!

So where to start?

Sites like pbwiki and blogger are a great place to start, and I recommend having a play around here. I found edublogs had more features and add-ons to play with and suited the educational focus I wanted. There are many teachers successfully using edublogs to record their own journey, to collaborate and with their classes to upload/point to resources and engage students through collaborative discussion, for resource sharing and to monitor and engage with students work.

How I Made this Blog….

I tried setting up with blogger, but I didn’t get the flexibility I was after back then. I wasn’t going to learn enough myself and I wanted that challenge.

So I visited one of my favourite blogs to see how it was made. Veerle’s Blog is Powered by some blogging software called Expression Engine. It looked great, so I downloaded the software and read the instructions. It involved setting up an MySQL Database and configuring some php pages. Although I’ve worked with this type of technology before, I really didn’t have time to make this work.

So I went hunting for a more simple option. I already have a web space (web hosting) and wanted to use my own domain name (flairandsquare.com) . I also wanted to download additional plug-ins and themes to use with my blog (not just because I’m a nerd, but because I wanted to create a presence, a virtual identity).

The solution for me…

This is when I found Wordpress. You can sign up with Wordpress and get your own blog, with many themes and customisation readily available.

Wordpress actually offers to install everything directly on your web space for you for free – Install4Free (very handy – thanks Wordpress). I provided them with my hosting details and within a day, it was all ready to go.

Note: once it has been installed, you’ll need to delete your old default page from your web space (index.htm or default.htm)

Web Hosting

BlueHost is a great service if you want your own space. They’ll also help you with the set-up.

It’s installed, now what?

Once it’s all set-up, you need to log in to your new blog (with the provided details), you are then free to explore the features of your own wordpress blog.

The first thing I did was choose a theme for my site.  The free WordPress Blog has many themes and plug-ins already set-up for you to use. I chose the iTheme initially, which I downloaded after searching for free Wordpress themes (here are some good sites for them). It’s very cool (looks like a Mac desktop and you can click and drag the boxes in the sidebar on the right around), it took some configuring, but the simplicity that resulted was worth it I think. I’ve now moved on to a more complex theme as my knowledge of coding, blogging and RSS has increased, I wanted a more ‘magazine style’ site.

WordPress is also the power behind edublogs, which I highly recommend for flexibility, creativity, choice of themes, support for teachers and plug-ins available.

Things I’ve Learnt

• Make sure you choose a theme and set-up your plug-ins before adding your first bit of serious content.
• Back your site up regularly while you’re building it (particularly if you are using wordpress on your own server)
• Create lots of profiles in all the social networking sites (listed below) and list your site in as many places, or on as many sites as you can. Give the link to everyone. This will improve your blog rating and it’s ranking in Google Search, as will visiting other blogs and leaving comments for other bloggers. It’s about developing online communities.
• Don’t do it all yourself when there are so many excellent free options for educators out there that offer everything you will need.
• Explore, try, fail. Explore… Try something else.

“Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings. ” Wikipedia

How can Social Media help provide a better service?

Watch this great video by Commoncraft;

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

I twitter, do you?  Have you seen the video below from Common Craft about Twitter?

http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

Not sure what Twitter is?

“Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app.” Time Magazine

Heard of micro-blogging? It’s a brief form of blogging, short blog posts, there’s usually a character limit of 200 or less, like Twitter’s limit of 140 characters.

It’s a bit like Reality TV on the net. Your network of ‘friends’ tell you how long they’ve been waiting for the train, what they are listening to on their iPod, what they are eating and what they are wearing to bed. It’s short and it’s sharp.

You’ll read what they are presenting and at what forum, you’ll read what happened in their class that day or what amazing discovery they have made.

How does my network use Twitter?

I’ll invite them to comment on why they like Twitter, but mostly, I see them sharing educational resources, asking each other for support and advice, and making friends. They notify each other of the latest educational news and happenings, not just locally but internationally. It’s a fantastic way to keep your collaborative networks real, alive, dynamic.

Twitter is a great and convenient way to interact, you can post ‘Tweets’ from your mobile, on the Twitter website, from twitter widgets inside Facebook, edublogs, wiki’s and even from within Second Life. I can put a Twitter widget just about anywhere so I can keep an eye on the conversation. I can even add a Twitter widget to my netvibes/ RSS feed reader so that I can read and communicate with educators, friends and family all over the country.

What cool things have I discovered about Twitter?

A little secret I’ll share with all of you, you can actually add a Twitter application into your Facebook profile that updates your Facebook profile everytime to post a Twitter. So you don’t need to go into Facebook to update your profile.

Try it! It’s fast and it’s fun!

A blog can be a great way to communicate with everyone at the same time, thus avoiding the giant email recipient list (as my parents have just found out here). You ‘post’ an update on your blog and your readers can then leave their comments as and when is suitable and the conversation begins.

Interesting problem – Where do I leave my comment?

Some bloggers tell me they don’t allow any commenting on their blog because it changes the way they write, or it takes too much time to monitor. However, so many people ask me “how do I leave a comment on a blog?”

Whenever I visit a blog and wish to comment, I always have to go hunting for the comments link. I watch others go hunting as well. People that blog and visit blogs may know what to look for, but what about the people that don’t?

Admittedly, as bloggers we can make it easier for them by inviting them to comment within our blog post. As I have done at the bottom of this post (but I don’t do it enough!), this tip came via the 31 day blog challenge I participated in last year (thanks to Problogger) and is a great tip.

So, for those of you wanting to leave a comment, here’s how;

*please note, this will not be the same on every blog. The link will often be a different colour, to match the blog theme/ style.

If you have any comments on this, please leave a comment here.

]]> http://www.flairandsquare.com/wordpress/archives/210/feed 7 http://www.flairandsquare.com/wordpress/archives/175 http://www.flairandsquare.com/wordpress/archives/175#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 06:23:45 +0000 alex miller http://www.flairandsquare.com/archives/175 Which Social Network should I join?

So, now you know what Social Networking is, and you want to get in on the action, but there are so many Social Networking sites and so many ways to network with people online, so which do I think are the best, or most appropriate?

Let’s start by looking at questions below.

• How should I network?
• Why am I joining this network? Is it to collaborate with colleagues or students?
• What are my students using and why?
• What do I have to contribute, can I add value to this network?
• Do I have time to contribute?
• Am I ready to have a go at this?

Here are some of my thoughts;

• I want to connect with students in their space – myspace
• I want to connect with students and colleagues in a structured manner – facebook
• I am time poor but want to connect with people via image sharing – flickr
• I am time poor but want to connect with people visually by videos – YouTube
• I am time poor but want to share presentations – slideshare
• I am time poor and want to keep in touch, in the loop and determine my own involvement – Twitter
• I want to collaborate and contribute to my community – Ning, edubloggers

If you are thinking about joining a Social Network to collaborate with colleagues, then perhaps an edu specific space like EduBloggerWorld could be appropriate. If you are in DET, you might already use Edna. Many educators in my Social Networks have a presence in at least one and usually up to six or seven networks.

If it’s students you want to engage and connect with, then I think it’s a good idea to use one of the spaces they are already in, like myspace or Facebook. The Del.icio.us online bookmarking is a good tool for sharing links and you can join networks or groups already in these spaces.

Facebook is could be good for both because you can specify what some readers/ friends you add see, you can allow students to see your ‘limited profile’ for example. Facebook was created for college students. There are also lots of educational groups in Facebook. Here are some of the groups I’m in;

• Library 2.0 Interest Group
• Edubloggers Worldwide
• Social Networking Tools Enhance Learning!
• Using Wiki in Education
• E-Learning
• jokaydia Group
• Networked Learning

As at today, there are 409 ‘categorised’ educational applications to use on your Facebook profile.

If you just want to network by sharing something of yours or favourite things, things you are interested in, like photo’s or video’s, then consider YouTube or Flickr.
Word of warning; these networks can demand quite a bit of your time, so before you commit to one, consider if you have time to check in once or twice a week to read and contribute.

Educational Social Networks

There are a number of social networks that have been created specifically for educators.

Ning based communities

• Classroom 2.0
• EduBloggerWorld
• School 2.0

Readers, please comment…

This is a call to all educational readers of this blog and in my networks to post a comment and share what you think, where you network, or suggest a good space you have found that has been beneficial. What have been the advantages of becoming a member of an educational network? What have been some of the challenges?

Let me know here.

See Wikipedia

A social network site allows people who share interests to build a ‘trusted’ network/ online community. A social network site will usually provide various ways for users to interact, such as IM (chat/ instant messaging), email, video sharing, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, etc.

The main types of social networking sites have a ‘theme’, they allow users to connect through image or video collections online (like Flickr or YouTube) or music (like MySpace, lastfm). Most contain libraries/ directories of some categories, such as former classmates, old work colleagues, and so on (like Facebook, friendsreunited, Linkedin, etc). They provide a means to connect with friends (by allowing users to create a detailed profile page), and recommended systems linked to trust.

Here are some of the more popular Social Networking spaces:

Popular Social Networks (widely used in 2007)

• Facebook – A social networking website. Initially the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University. It was originally based on what first-year students were given called the “face book” which was a way to get to know other students on campus. As of July 2007, there over 34 million active members worldwide. From September 2006 to September 2007 it increased its ranking from 60 to 6th most visited web site, and was the number one site for photos in the United States.
• Twitter – A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or an application/ widget within a space of your choice, like MySpace, Facebook, a blog, an RSS Aggregator/reader. More
• MySpace – A popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world’s sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks. As of September 7, 2007, there are over 200 million accounts. More

Click here for a more extensive list.

Can I have it in English please?

Sure. Watch this movie from Common Craft;

Coming soon…

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to explore Social Networking with you. I’ll invite you to join me in my Social Networks, if you don’t already belong.

We’ll look at some options for creating and maintaining Social Networks for educational purposes, and some examples of education focused Social Networks.

Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see covered, or please ask any questions and I’ll endeavor to get some answers for you!

Watch this movie now!

*Special thanks to Des Osborn for pointing out this movie after a recent Elluminate Session… e-Tools ‘n Tips

There a few more of these “in Plain English” videos by Lee LeFever at CommonCraft

• Social Networking in Plain English
• Wiki’s in Plain English
• Social Bookmarking in Plain English

There has been a lot of interest in RSS lately. What is RSS, how can it help you and save you time? If the movie above wasn’t enough, then check out some of the links below…

Looking at my blog statistics and reader clicks, the RSS information seems to be the most popular, so here is a list of posts and resources from the archives;

• Netvibes Vs Google Reader – Aug 14th
• Alex’s demonstration of netvibes – August 13th
  
• Netvibes ‘How To’ – June 14th
• RSS in education - April 18th

Other good RSS feed readers;

• netvibes – this site is really cool. Your feeds are loaded into pods that you can click and drag around your homepage. You can also add To-Do lists, weather, search engines, calendars (very Mac friendly), video searches, and more…
• pageflakes - here’s another site you can personalise with your favorite news, weather, sports, entertainment, photos, videos, music, email…and much more, all in one place!
• bloglines – another useful site that once you have an account, you can add RSS feeds… I find this hard to use in comparison to netvibes and pageflakes

With Jing , you can create effective media-rich learning material, provide instruction, demonstrate how to use a web site or a software application, record everything you do and pass it along AND it couldn’t be easier to use!

Capture audio and screen movements easily with Jing!

Thanks to Joanna Kay from the Illawara Institute, I have been playing with a really cool, free Web2.0 tool called Jing.

So what exactly is Jing?

Jing is a free program that allows you to capture what’s on your screen (for all the visual learners out there). You can very easily add arrows and text boxes to highlight points of interest and provide instruction to learners. You can even capture screen movements and audio, which are outputted as a little video/ flash files (you’ll need a microphone/ headset), you can then save these to your computer, or if you sign up for an account, it will automatically upload to their server and give you the URL (link), which you can then email or IM to learners.

Sound like Adobe Captivate?

Yes, it’s a bit like Adobe Captivate, but it’s free. It doesn’t have as many features as Captivate, nor does it offer you the same level of editing ability. It does keep a history of the files you create and it allows you to store them somewhere else (which is great if you’re using the same account at home and at work) AND if that’s not enough, Jing has a Mac OSX version, yay Jing!

What does Jing look like?

Well, it’s a cute little yellow program that sites on your desktop like in the image below.

It’s easy to use. – Just watch this video tour.

Have a look at my first attempt – My first attempt was pretty ordinary, you can take a peek here.

Hints & Tips
* Keep your recordings short and sweet
* Script what you are going to say because you can’t edit it
* Keep your screen to a minimum size so everyone can see it!

There are many great extensions (I’ll list my favourite ones at the bottom of this post), but for now I’d like to show you Twitterbar.

Have you seen twitter? Here’s my twitter page.

The twitterbar extension allows you to post a ‘tweet’ (message) to twitter from the firefox address bar.

Just type your message where you would usually type a URL and click the twitter button.

A small unobtrusive grey icon sits to the right of your addressbar, clicking on it will then post your ‘tweet’, mouseover will tell you how many characters you have left.

You can also post by typing ‘ –post’ or hit the grey arrow when visiting a webpage to carry out a URL tweet (i.e it adds ‘Currently Browsing: ‘ in front of the url).

I am currently trialling this tool at the moment, so Tweet me. Surely I’m not the only one that has noticed that a high percentage of students have and use mobile phones, in fact more so than computers! I have also had some feedback from a TAFE (trades) teacher at the North Coast Institute who says that using mobile phones with a class of young guys has not only engaged his class, but opened the door for improved communication….

…think about that!

A couple of my favourite Firefox Extensions:

• deli.icio.us – add websites to your online bookmarks/favourites
• netvibes- (track updates to CLI/LRR resources this way!) add rss feeds to your personal netvibes page (please see this post)
• twitterbar- send sms/ messages from your address bar
• ForecastFox- have three days of weather at the bottom of your browser
• Foxmarks- sync your bookmarks from EVERY computer you work at
• Copy Plain Text- select text on a website and click this button to copy plain text (avoids taking all the web formatting with you)

I use a few more, but that’s a good start.

Get Firefox!

Mac Users: Twitteriffic!

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I know I’ve mentioned netvibes before, but the new features really are amazing!

New to RSS?
For those of you who need a primer, have a look at this post about RSS. After that, you can have a look at the RSS Session in my wikispace.

The best thing about the new features?
Apart from the new themes, wallpapers and cool customisation choices, you can really extend the capability of the Tabs by sharing them. You can now set up a page of links/ feeds/ resource that is conten/ topic specific and share it with your students/ colleagues. A VERY HANDY way to share links & resources from one spot!

What?
If you’ve created an account and explored netvibes before now, you will know that you can sort and place all of the information/ RSS feeds you subscribe to on the Internet (that is, all those blogs, wiki’s, news and resource sites) into the one spot. Let’s investigate…

Cool New Feature 1. Share Your Tabs!
Imagine setting up a page of RSS feeds to a selection of resources for a special class… sounds good huh? Well not only can you set it up very easily, you can share that page with an entire class. Have a look at the images below for an example of what you can do.

Cool New Feature 2. Customisation Heaven! Have a look at the new galleries of wallpapers and themes that are available. One of the most beautiful blogs I read now has a netvibes theme (This is the blog – Veerle if you’re interested)!

Click below to view larger images

Cool Old Features:

• Drag ‘n Drop pods – click and drag the pods around , AND drag them to anoter Tab!
• Colour schemes
• Add content from your favourite sites
• Add content from their feed directory
• Add a To-Do List pod
• Add a local weather pod
• Add a web-note pod (place notes & web links here)
• Add your del.icio.us bookmarks
• Add a Web Search pod
• Add an Image Search pod
• Add a Video Search pod

Get netvibed today!

netvibes blog/ help/ gallery

Share my Technology in Education netvibes tab –

So what is RSS and how can it be used in education?

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication.

Either way, RSS is important technology that information specialists and educators would be smart to harness sooner rather than later.

As a teacher you may find a heap of Weblog and media sites on the Internet that are consistently publishing interesting and relevant information for you and your Keeping on top of these is nearly impossible.

RSS feeds allows you to do get all of this information in one place by using a type of software called an “aggregator” or feed collector. The aggregator regularly checks the feeds you subscribe to and collects anything new from those sites you are subscribed to.

Then, your aggregator (such as netvibes, bloglines, SharpReader) displays the individual stories, which provide a link to the full story if you want more info.

Here are some examples:

• Moodle – when you force your students to subscribe to a class forum, an RRS Feed icon appears at the top of the forum. Students can use this link to receive updates directly into their RSS Aggregator of choice or directly to their browser.
• It can work the other way too, if you have 20 – 30 students posting their work to a wiki, blog, flickr or other site, instead of checking all 30 sites, you can subscribe to their RSS feeds using an aggregator and view it all from the one place.
• If you use Weblog software (like Moveable Type or Manila) you can import RSS feeds into pages you create for your or your students’ sites. While it takes a bit of code to make it work (there is plenty of help for doing this on the net), the benefits of bringing topic specific feeds into student (or teacher) work spaces is something worth exploring don’t you think?
• For more examples of RSS Search Feeds, RSS Feeds for News Searches, RSS Feeds for Weblog Searches, RSS Feeds for Website Searches, RSS Feeds for News Group Searches, RSS Feeds for Other News Outlets, RSS Feeds for Bookmarks or Combining RSS Feeds – have a look at this RSS FAQ for Educators.

For more detail/ examples, have a look at this site.
This Guide will also be really helpful – RSS Guide by TeachingHacks.com

Check out netvibes…

What is netvibes?

Netvibes is an RSS Aggregator. It automtically reeds RSS web feeds. Compose your start page the way you like it…

With netvibes, all your digital life fits in one page. Blogs, news, online videos, podcast, pictures, e-mail: pick your favorite service to create your netvibes page.

Have a go! See it in Action

1. Go to netvibes
   
2. Copy an RSS Feed URL from any site (eg. TeachingHacks.com)
   • (Firefox users) Right click and select Copy Link Location
     
   • (IE users), click the icon and then copy the URL from the address bar at the top of the browser
3. Go back to your netvibes page and click on the Add Content link
   
4. Click Add Feed
   
5. Paste in the URL that you copied, into the Address section (above) and click Add.
6. The latest posts to this Educational Web Tools Blog will now appear, automatically on your netvibes homepage. click for larger image
   
7. From the new ‘pod’, you can click the item to get more info, or go to the site itself.
8. That’s it. Everytime you see the RSS feed logo on a webpage, you can follow the same steps. In fact, I have set mine up to give me the Forum posts as students & teachers reply to them.

Sometimes you’ll see the netvibes button on news sites, blogs and other information portals. By clicking this button, you are subscribing to the RSS feed for that site. You can subscribe to this blog by clicking this;

Add TeachingHacks.com to your netvibes page by clicking below;

Once you have an account, click the button below to share my Technology in Education netvibes tab;

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