Just recently was teaching students about how to track their digital footprints, and discussed the use and helpfulness of Google Alerts. Interestingly enough, had an alert come to me just yesterday with my name in it, and I guess the only reason I opened it was because in the email snippet it said I was a "cator" not "educator". I was familiar with the rest of the text- it was from a recent bio I'd submitted for a webinar. However, I didn't recognize the URL listed on the alert and thought I'd better look into it. As I clicked on it, I thought to myself, now who would have changed this text to 'cator' - whatever that is? I shouldn't have been surprised, but was. In the lower right hand corner of my screen I immediately noticed a pop-up box that an intruder attempt on my computer had been blocked by Norton's. Clever - yes, but despicably devious, as well.
Cyber thugs have way too much time on their hands. Just think if they'd use their skills for something positive and good for mankind.....wishful thinking, I know, cause there's no money and thrill in this. This is a pretty slick backdoor into your computer and just wanted others to be aware if you're using this service.
With the explosion of content on the Internet, gathering relevant material in various mediums on a specific topic becomes somewhat of an art. A point in case would be all the blog posts starting with "10 ways to....". The ability to gather and then quickly sort is a valuable commodity in this day and age, and any service that comes along to ease our pain deserves some air time. And so it is with Yahoo Glue. Here's what the big to-do is all about.
"Yahoo! Glue search results include web search, images, news, blog search, Wikipedia and YouTube videos. That's right - in the India version at least Yahoo! displayed search results from both Google's YouTube and Google Blogsearch. The end result - all these links on one page - is pretty awesome. " ReadWriteWeb.comValuable for students? Teachers? Anyone? Am pretty sure that's a "yep". What do you think?
The following are questions asked at a recent Blogging for Intermediates webinar. I'm posting the answers in hopes of maximizing learning - my own included. :)
Patricia: Does the RSS button change colors when there is new mail?
Answer: There's no color change of the RSS button, but when new posts are delivered to you via Google Reader, often times the number of new pieces to be read will be in parentheses. For instance, if you have seven new posts from a particular blog, the blog will have (7) listed at the end of the subscription's title.
Joan: With Google Reader can you have two accounts?
Answer: You'd have to have two Google Accounts to have two Google Reader Accounts. Yes, this is possible.
Debbie : Do you work with educators on developing blogs?
Answer: Yes.
Beth: What grade of students are you doing this with?
Answer: 9th thru 12th
Ann: Since you are embedding code from a site (VoiceThread), must VoiceThread be available to the student when s/he clicks the VoiceThread "link"? I'm wondering about WebSense, etc.
Answer: VoiceThread does not need to be up on another browser window, if this is what you're asking. If you're asking will a student see a VoiceThread if your district blocks it, the student will not until he/she goes home where the site is not blocked. While I've not seen any advertising accompanying embedded material yet, I wouldn't doubt that this may be an issue in the future. But right now, no it's not an issue.
Piatek: Can you do this with video from YouTube? What about rights and permissions?
Answer: Yes you can embed YouTube videos in a blog. When you embed, you are really just linking to the multimedia which is stored/housed on another server (in this case the YouTube server). You are not downloading and hosting any version of the multimedia. If there is a notice from the owner saying that there is to be no linking to, or embedding of, a particular video, then of course, you have to abide by this wish. Otherwise, when a site offers embeddable coding it is saying "link to this" using this code.
I greatly appreciate these statistics. Sometimes I feel pretty alone in what I do and my participation in the edublogosphere. But then these stats come along and I feel like things might really be progressing as they should. Can anyone relate? For a more lingering look at the results, trot over to Dr. McLeod's post. He's graciously provided almost every downloadable format one could hope to see. But above all, wow, don't you just love the creative way he shared the data with us!
2008 Education Blogosphere Survey Results from Scott McLeod on Vimeo.
Sure, blogs allow your students to communicate via text, static images and hyperlinks, but wait -- there's so much more!! Teach students (video tutorial here) how to embed already-made video to help get their message across to the viewer. Below is an example of video call "We Didn't Start the Fire" created by 
Scott Allsop (http://www.mrallsophistory.com/ ) and posted on TeacherTube.com.
If using Edublogs...
1. **EDUBLOGS CURRENTLY DOESN'T LET YOU EMBED TEACHERTUBE VIDEOS, BUT THEY ARE WORKING ON IT. YOU CAN TRY FINDING THE SAME VIDEO AT YOUTUBE.COM or GOOGLE VIDEO AND IT WILL EMBED IN EDUBLOGS. Type in any text you may want in your post first. Check it thoroughly for errors (spelling and grammar). Why? Sometimes if you have to come back in and make changes in the text, it can "break" your slideshow. This isn't the end of the world, but you will, more than likely, have to delete the embed coding (from step 4 below), then reinsert it again (in the HTML view) to make it work. What will it look like if it breaks?
2. Publish the textual part of your post first.
3. Go back in and edit this post. Place your cursor where you want to place the video's embed code.
4. Click on the HTML tab to go into the "HTML view". Paste in your embed code from your video.
5. Publish again and check it out. :)
**IF YOUR GOOGLE VIDEO EMBED ENDS UP BEING TOO SMALL IN EDUBLOGS, REPLACE THE CODING IN THE HTML TAB WITH THIS CODING. MAKE SURE TO PASTE IN THE URL OF THE GOOGLE VIDEO WHERE IT SAYS TO.
Sure, blogs allow your students to communicate via text, static images and hyperlinks, but wait -- there's so much more!! Embed multimedia to help get the message across to the viewer. Below is an example of an embedded digital story I made on the topic of child slavery and chocolate using OneTrueMedia.com. Text elements were created in Paint and then saved as .jpgs. You can add text in this webware, but sometimes it is a bit too small to get your point across.
Sure, blogs allow your students to communicate via text, static images and hyperlinks, but wait -- there's so much more!! Embed multimedia to help get the message across to the viewer. Below is an example of an embedded VoiceThread. (video tutorial here)
1. Type in any text you may want in your post first. Check it thoroughly for errors (spelling and grammar). Why? Sometimes if you have to come back in and make changes in the text, it can "break" your slideshow. This isn't the end of the world, but you will, more than likely, have to delete the embed coding (from step 4 below), then reinsert it again (in the HTML view) to make it work. What will it look like if it breaks?
2. Publish the textual part of your post first.
3. Go back in and edit this post. Place your cursor where you want to place the VoiceThread project.
4. Click on the HTML tab to go into the "HTML view". Paste in your embed code from your VoiceThread project.
5. Publish again and check it out. :)
Sure, blogs allow your students to communicate via text, static images and hyperlinks, but wait -- there's so much more!! Add in a multimedia slideshow to help get the message across to the viewer. Below is an example of an embedded slideshow using Vuvox.com (Titled "Unbroken Spirit": Muslim Filipinos in time of war - Photographs by Rick Rocamora).
While there is no text on this example, you could have students type in text on top of each image (could use some simple photo editing software -- Paint -- or webware -- Picnik.com) before creating the slideshow in Vuvox. That way you'd have text to support the slideshow/story. Also, I see some interesting potential for displaying student art with Vuvox.
If using Edublogs...
1. Type in any text you may want in your post first. Check it thoroughly for errors (spelling and grammar). Why? Sometimes if you have to come back in and make changes in the text, it can "break" your slideshow. This isn't the end of the world, but you will, more than likely, have to delete the embed coding (in the HTML view), then reinsert it again (in the HTML view) to make it work.
2. Publish the textual part of your post first.
3. Go back in and edit this post. Place your cursor where you want to place the slideshow.
4. Click on the HTML tab to go into the "HTML view". Paste in your embed code from your Vuvox project.
5. Publish again and check it out. :)
***For more advanced use, check out their three tutorials on creating collages where you can add interactivity in your story with audio, text and even video hotspots.
Welcome to my blog where I explore everything Web 2.0 in the classroom. It's my hope you'll add your ideas - comment and collaborate - so that we can maximize our learning. JBlack
