Author Archives: Mark Glynn
Embedding an interactive mindmap into your blog – SpicyNodes.org
Spicy nodes are ideal for creating mind maps and sitemaps for websites. First of all it is free for individuals to use. There are commercial rates for organisations but if you are willing to put up with the company logo to be inserted on your mind map, you can create as many mindmaps as you like. One of the benefits of this software is the ability to link elements of the mindmap to specific urls, images and text boxes. You can also embed YouTube videos to any branch of the mindmap. The software is web based and produces interactive mindmaps that are flash based.
The snag with all programs like this is the ability to integrate them into your blog / website particularly if you are using WordPress. It is not as straight forward as you would think. However thanks to Panos Adams I am delighted to share the solution with you.
The solution involves a slight adaption of the embed code and producing a “gigya” code. I must admit this is new to me, I’m just grateful to Panos for sharing his expertise with this workaround for wordpress. The embed code below is a sample of the code that Sync node provides on any mind map produced through this software. The key section of this code is highlighted in red. You will have to excuse the quality of the text below as I had to paste an image of the code rather than type the code directly into the post
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Ideal for the classroom – How to create Youtube Playlists
A playlist is a list of videos that you organise . This is perfect if you want to watch a series of videos back to back.
You then can share this list by capturing the url of the playlist or embed the video playlist on your website. The other cool feature about this is the fact that if for example you insert a url link on your learning management system for your students to access. You only have to share one weblink, not a separate link for every video. Furthermore, the url that you have distributed to your student is automatically updated if you come back a day, a week or even years later and add new videos to the original playlist.
To set up a playlist is very straight forward
- Log into Youtube
- Find your video of interest
- Click on the “add to” button under the video
- Click on “create new playlist” to start a new playlist of click on the name of an existing playlist that you have previsouly created
- To access the url for your playlist, click on your youtube username (normally top right corner of the screen
- Click on video manager (top right hand corner of screen)
- Click on playlists (left hand side of screen)
- Click on your play list of choice
- Copy the url
Posterous
The main idea behind Posterous is to let bloggers blog using email. Simply email your articles to Posterous and they do the rest. If you insert image or video links, they will show up as embedded!
The simplicity makes Posterous the best blogging service today for people that are not that “tech savy”.
Great for:
– blogging
– photo sharing
– cross-posting
Blogger – Googles Blogging platform
Blogger (same as Blogspot) is Google’s own blogging tool. Easy to use, comes in many languages and very competent. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com
Google have created a strong set of support resoruces associated with Blogger: http://bit.ly/H4Ydkk however below is my playlist of useful youtube videos to help you get started
Blogger has the following limitations on content storage and bandwidth, per user account*:
- Number of blogs = Unlimited
- Size of pages = Individual pages (the main page of a blog or archive pages) are limited to 1 MB
- Number of labels = 2,000 unique labels per blog, 20 unique labels per post
- Number of pictures (hyperlinked from user’s Picasa Web Album) = Up to 1 GB of free storage
- Size of pictures = If posted via Blogger Mobile, limited 250 KB per picture; posted pictures are scaled to 800px[14]
- Team members (those that can write to a blog) = 100
- Stand-Alone Page = Limited to 20 stand-alone pages
* Retrieved from Google support – http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42348
40+ Super Secret iPad Features and Shortcuts | iPad.AppStorm
40+ Super Secret iPad Features and Shortcuts | iPad.AppStorm.
A selection of very useful (and a few not so useful) iPad tips and tricks
Google Docs
Google Docs allows users to upload existing and to create new web-based documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and to edit them on-line
Twitter in Higher Education
For the uninitiated, Twitter is a messaging service that limits you to 140 characters and spaces per post (or per tweet)
The advantage for a lecturer is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed.er “tweet”).
Twitter is basically a potential alternative to email, instant messaging and discussion forums, as ways of communicating with students.
Students can also use this when doing their classwork, trying to understand the material. Tweet: “I don’t understand what this reading has to do with New Media? any ideas?” Other students then respond. (This actually happened recently in a class)
Students can follow someone else who is on Twitter, who interests them. For example if they are thinking about technology in education they can follow @topgold who works for LIT and Tweets about a range of topics including the use of technology in education
Twitter integrates with blogs and other Web pages, providing Flash and JavaScript code options that allow Web pages to access Twitter updates.
What are the downsides?
The most common criticism of Twitter is that it enables inane interaction. Tweets that say nothing more than “I’m eating pickles” or “Really tired today” are not uncommon, and, indeed, the value of such postings to the casual user is minimal. TO be honest I just don’t follow people who put up posts like this. However there even when you have an ideal set of people to follow, as an asynchronous broadcast service, there is no guarantee that any individual tweet will be read, let alone responded to.
The selection of video tutorials below are taken from YouTube and will help you to set up your twitter account. Click on the small box in the bottom left of the youtube screen to get the full list of youtube tutorials available through this list
For more information on Twitter please below a link to useful websites I have found on Twitter
Moodle Discussion forums to collect new class material
Discussion forums are extremely powerful tool help bring learning outside the classroom. However they also can be used to bring learning back into the classroom from the teachers point of view. This short youtube clip illustrates the different type of discussion forums available into moodle and also how to set them up.
Later clips will show you how to use this as an assignment that gets the students to assessment the contribution of their classmates
One page Guide for teachers using Moodle
Compliments of @catspyjamasnz
An excellent resource mapping potential tasks that teachers may have to the various tools within Moodle
Technology Enhanced Learning 