Sheji Diigo 03/07/2009

• AYKM? Texting Improves Literacy » Blog Archive   Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech

  Does texting improve literacy or language skills? Chicken or egg debate going on here?

  tags: text, texting, sms, literacy, education

• Online diagram, flow chart software - Draw Anywhere

  DrawAnywhere.com - Draw Anywhere, Anything, Any time - complete web-based diagramming solutions. Create and share flow charts, block diagrams, process charts and other drawings online.

  tags: flowchart, diagram, tools, collaboration, brainstorming, education

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Sheji Diigo 03/06/2009

• BackupUrl.com - Create a cached copy of any url!

  Create instant cached mirrors of URLs (HTML, CSS and images)

  tags: backupurl, backupurl.com, backup, webpage, cache, education

• 7 Things You Should Know About Google Jockeying | EDUCAUSE CONNECT

  A Google jockey is a participant in a presentation or class who surfs the Internet for terms, ideas, Web sites, or resources mentioned by the presenter or related to the topic. The jockey's searches are displayed simultaneously with the presentation, helping to clarify the main topic and extend learning opportunities.

  tags: jockeying, educause, google, education, presentation, lecture

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Sheji Diigo 03/04/2009

• Mind42.com - Collaborative mind mapping in your browser

  Mind42 is a free online mindmap collaboration tool. You can easily share and develop your ideas with your friends.

  tags: mindmap, mindmapping, web2.0, design, education, collaboration, tools, brainstorming, software, mind42

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Sheji Diigo 02/20/2009

• CobaltWorlds

  Virtual Online? 3D World

  tags: cobaltworlds, virtual, secondlife, world, Croquet

• Taking Steps into the Digital Future - 2/16/2009 - Publishers Weekly

  E-books may date from the early 1970s, when Michael Hart launched Project Gutenberg, but the revolution in e-books for kids has only just begun. True, three novels from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series were library distributor Overdrive's three most downloaded e-books for 2008, but adult and children's digital books combined still make up a small percentage of book sales—less than 1% of ...

  tags: ebooks, e-book, book, publisher

• Tabblo

  Self publishing site for photos, stories and more. Templates also available for you to print your own.

  tags: photos, photography, sharing, flickr, tools, design, publish, book

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Sheji Diigo 02/19/2009

• FRONTLINE: teacher center | PBS

  FRONTLINE

  tags: lessonplans, PBS, education, frontline

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Brain and Nature Article

I am fond of nature and I am fond of brain research, so perhaps it comes as no surprise that an article in the Boston Globe entitled How the City Hurts Your Brain (and what you can do about it) caught my attention. Here is a snippet:

When a park is properly designed, it can improve the function of the brain within minutes. As the Berman study demonstrates, just looking at a natural scene can lead to higher scores on tests of attention and memory. While people have searched high and low for ways to improve cognitive performance, from doping themselves with Red Bull to redesigning the layout of offices, it appears that few of these treatments are as effective as simply taking a walk in a natural place.

Perhaps we should include more scenes of nature in our online courses? A virtual walk through the woods embedded into our lessons might help relax the stresses of our students' brains. Or perhaps real nature breaks could be added to lessons - encourage students to visit a park and stroll amongst some trees while contemplating the chapter review questions. I admit, it sounds a little out-there, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

Working with Video

YouTube is the power player for video sharing. If you are not registered, I'd recommend signing up. It's free and comes with benefits (subscriptions, favorites, playlists, uploading...). Other sites for video are available and some may have more or more specific content/functionality that interests you. Here are a couple:

• TeacherTube.com (instructional)
  
• Utterli.com (short video posts - video notes)
• Blip.tv (serials, vidcasts)
• Vimeo.com (serial, vidcasts)
  
• Youku.com (predominantly Chinese)
• Jumpcut.com (share, remix)
• Jingproject.com (screencast/recording)
• Screentoaster.com (screencast/recording)
  

How to Embed Video on a Page in Angel
Included with every video on Youtube (and most other sites) is all the code you need. Look for "Embed" code and copy this. To copy, click inside the text field to select it and press Ctrl+C to copy.

Nothing really happens when you copy this code to your computer's clipboard, but you probably did it correctly. We will find out in a moment.

Next step is to move to your ANGEL course and create a new page (html) in your lessons tab (Lessons, Add Content, Page). You will need to view the source code in order to paste in your copied embed tags. Click the View Source button on the html editor (pictured below):



Paste in your code with Ctrl+V. If you need your video to show within an existing page, you can do this too, but you will need to scan through the html code to find the right spot for the embed paste. Use the find feature for some text can save you time in a long page. Save your page and you are done.

How To Customize Player and Related Videos
YouTube likes to promote its content. When videos end, the default setting is to provide the viewer with related video content. You have no control over what that content might be. For educators, this can create unfortunate results - especially in an online class with parents looking over their childrens' shoulders. Fortunately, YouTube provides the necessary tools for some safety.



Clicking on the Customize Player cog wheel (pictured above) will provide you will several choices. One very important choice is "Include Related Videos". With this deselected, your embeded video simply stops and nothing more is provided the viewer. Nice. You also have choices here for general size and color of your video player. Note: You must make all these changes first - before copying the embed code.

Embed a Playlist



YouTube also gives you the option to add playlists, groups of selected video. You can embed an entire playlist in a similar fashion to the steps above as I have done above. To embed a playlist, you first need to create one.

• How to create a playlist demo and instructions

Once your playlist has been created, click on your username at the top of the YouTube page and select more... Under the More column, choose Custom Video Players, Create Custom Video Player. In the content section you can choose from any playlist you have previously created.

Bonus - Video Bar!
Check this out. YouTube has a slick wizard to include a video bar. The bar can be set up to pull videos in a certain category or from one or more channels.

Extra Bonus - Video Recording!
I'm not sure when this became possible, but you can record directly into YouTube with your webcam. Click the yellow/orange Upload button (after login) and choose Quick Capture. Choose to allow Flash to access your camera and microphone and tell the world a story!

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Jumpcut

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• Jumpcut - Be good to your video

  The future of online video is here. Upload your media, grab shared media, create and remix movies, publish to your friends, share with the world.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Net Generation on NPR

Praising a "Grown Up" Digital Generation. Author Don Tapscott talks on Talk of the Nation.