Notes for JP

For a collaborative blog, I'd suggest either a Blogger or Wordpress blog. Though Blogger is getting tangled up with Google+, for students with Gmail accounts already, the single log-in is advantageous. You could be the blog owner, and students could be contributors (co-authors), or, to ease them in, they could have only commenting privileges that you could moderate. However, screening comments in advance can impede interactions and responses among contributors, especially if you're not monitoring the blog 24/7.

I believe students would have to have Diigo installed on their computers to facilitate cooperative bookmarking of Internet sites. You'd probably want to set up (a) Diigo group(s) for them, with recommended tags. For example, I own a Weblogging in Kumamoto (WinK) group, and have an RSS feed for bookmarks tagged "wink_students" in the sidebar on a writing course blog. However, students don't do the bookmarking for that; other teachers and I do. You and other group members can share annotations and highlights publicly or privately (with particular groups).

With a Diigo group, and student invitees, discussion forums also will be available. So course blogs might be unnecessary, if you go the Diigo route. Carefully threaded discussion posts may be better than flat comment threads on target blog posts. (I'm not sure yet, but Blogger may have begun threading replies to particular comments.)

I hope this responds satisfactorily to most if not all of your recent inquiries. If not, please let me know in (a) comment(s) on this post.

After Google Reader: Getting organized in Feedly

The transition into Feedly from Google Reader is seamless, and what you can do there is amazing! Once you have your feeds in Feedly, you can add them to new categories, and reorganize them into multiple categories.  All will backwash to Google Reader, till it goes belly up on the first of July:

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. (Official Blog, A second spring of cleaning, 2013.03.13)

For example, in the screenshot below, there is a Language . . . feed in a topic grouping (Languages and Learning), as well as in another source grouping (Facebook). Likewise, there are social groupings, such as KGUW_13-14, new mash-ups for an instructional cohort, and Learning with Computers, connections from a series of professional development workshops.

It is also possible to rename feeds in Feedly displays. For example, in the Wikispaces (source) category feed  listing above, all five current items look the same. The feed names need to be trimmed back to the essential wiki titles, for ease of reading at a glance in Feedly displays.

[212 words]

An initial go at embedding from diagram.ly

It's hard to believe how easy it is to use this free diagramming tool. Thanks to who ever it was who pointed it out!

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

Here's a rebuilt view:

7VpNc5swEP01PsaDJD6PTZqmh3Ym08yk6VEBxdYEI0YIx86vLxjJRsh2mcRgPMUXwwOtpN23y2qlCbpZrO44Tuc/WUTiCbSi1QR9nUAIXOgWfyWyrhDfsiogC3FMKsya+h6s0BmnkWwqgZxGJNMgwVgsaKqDIUsSEgoNe2GxLizFM2IAD7uB1NDfNBJzOWQ1hxL/TuhsrroBbiAnI9ZKRkRecB6Lqw0kZ7WyqmdXnu9UyFoiyFeiE20I74wtNICTjL7rw3yhchxSo8+MR4RrUEyT17qe0O0E3XDGRHW1WN2QuLSXUnrV7NuBp1v1cJKINg3k5JY4zuXQDXVhztnbBF0n7DYqbCEfgAJhXMzZjCU43gBG1xLKWM5DKUwqV2A+I/Itr4JIpFleDveOsAURfF2aaGshexrUfnIKkr1A6vVtxw6gCD2vM0OBWGp/tu1p2/k9o8VUWvcMGhKreUshdRs05bqtZqTEVrozxH7hHK9rr6XlC1n9jeKiptAdtKHEAT55Bj9+ERzRZGbQpGhYeDw5yIIl4YKsWlnYAbo+HE0ftmlhf4+B/SP21TRyZPrQPqF7oOtCJXz9VNxY6uZPa8fxTMdBo+MM1nFs1HNgBfsIYo0MGS5DzNB6+thiTZ3ydkXFk3qvuFZP2vAKnp5Wvr3fuJ3wSrWRncHgo0yC+kfJd6AmGKEzckmlVeeNNmOw6TbYHOjVhlDr1dV6DTzp6AdHjQL/SHuA3CnUJBQX1Rg/HPncHtjamoa+dcxowRS4tZ9Kw7pgpY0aoaopo32ochuSzhmb7D5ikxaHnIsJRDbSe/b0nj/8rQKwIbch2D0nH2DP36oxMb6wxFgVDE6UGH8i+VU8udDw8h9yxxoOd0bqXBR1kJmnPKQEv3Zc6wQQ6Nl3I/22nalV+wHD5J3VPvuuYO3ZGgDj3sBwHUbx4awEcUeCnKXo4DjWkS0atXI5OGgHuu2bf7rgYFZaf9BMkOSs21jbRXoPsdzu2VOh6aljdXDAkdygx0OepjFZFDbGG6tMygMWaIVLOiQxTUgNwKGgSyooybp0Js8LNO0Fuvac/pypj+rlP5xpXEcMeB1h0OORhfg5jw1PykQerbv0GdRQUmNpYTm9+QwwneaRkrfNB9jqUgXHv8F9hg1zeflII8J0SiyVUrrTiGsPRSPolGkJum4VTPdVZcZi8ICjqVnQu+csyZOQYkFZortPystkJCRd+g900NSu+0/DgfzGlqHbmz/1npmoqD7m+T0606GtxKOnAApGTl2TlR89E1C4gPepMwHF7e6Mc/X67nA6uv0L

Which Google Docs for Beginners?

The presentation below recap's a pilot study I've undertaken to gather opinions regarding the most suitable Google Docs for beginning Google Docs users.

If you are willing to take part in the survey itself, please submit your responses, once, in a form you'll find here (opens in a new window). If you have questions or concerns about either the pilot study or the current survey, please post them in comments on this post. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Clay Shirky: How social media can make history | Video on TED.com

Clay Shirky: How social media can make history | Video on TED.com

"TED ideas worth spreading" mesh easily with Blogger. With a single click on the Blogger button below a video display on site, it generated a post with an enclosure link to the video on site (now removed) and the linked text that remains above the video here. Code for embedding the video in this post was just two additional clicks away (Share, then Copy).

Brainless language defaults: not necessarily so

Though service providers seldom notify individual users of enhanced affordances, it has come to my dumb-founded attention that Google Calendar embedding code generators now offer recovery from defaults imposed according to user ISP locations. Deep among your calendars, you may find:

• Settings:
• Embed This Calendar:
• Customize the color, size, and other options (sorry, no screen shots here because they might violate copyright).
  

Then, after culturally sensitive options like "Week Starts On" (left sidebar, 2009.06.19), there's a drop down menu that enables you to over-ride the default. I've over-ridden the default on two calenders, embedded in singular locations, so far.

If you have more calendars that you wish to appear in certain languages, when embedded in multiple locations, more power to you! You may need to regenerate embedding code in Google, and then replace whatever you've embedded in other websites.

Virus Transmission: Test Drive of WriteToMyBlog

This post represents a couple of mail-related security tips that I gleaned from a Microsoft publication (perhaps a Mactopia Newsletter), and mailed to myself as a reminder in August 2004. I'm posting it now to: a) purge mail archives, and b) test drive WriteToMyBlog (TM). [WriteTo... is a web-based word-processing application that appears to have been superseded or supplemented by SourcedFrom (WriteTo... Blog, 2008.11.07).]

* To prevent virus transmission when attaching documents:
o Save & send Word documents as rich text format (rtf) files.
o Save & send Excel documents as comma separated values (csv) files.

* To prevent automatically opening messages which may contain web-based graphics or executable virus files:
o Disable Outlook preview panes in the view menu after selecting each folder (Deleted items, Drafts, Inbox).

(Microsoft, n.p., c. August 2004)

__________

Notes:

The dialog that opens when you click "Publish" in WriteToMyBlog includes the following warning:
Warning! This website has not registered with Google to establish a secure connection for authorization requests. We recommend that you continue the process only if you trust the following destination: http://writetomyblog.com/action/blogs_publish.cgi

The tags you apply get converted to Technorati tags.

...

The layout got buggy after I'd opened and closed the Publish interface; the entire text of the draft post replicated itself in the word processing window.

When I went back to the publishing routine, after closing it once, and reviewing the explanation of Tags, the WriteToMyBlog interface recognized the fact that I was logged in to my Blogger account, but kept returning "500 Internal Server Error" messages:

Error Code: 564-5
Your Google session token may have expired, click back then [logout] and try again.

/////
I've captured what remained in the WriteTo... word processing window (Mozilla Firefox 3.0.8), and continued in NeoOffice.

Did that, but after logging back in to Google via the WriteTo... interface, no blogs or categories showed up A retry, after logging out again, generated the following garbage characters, but still no blogs or categories to select.

è��v ڻ͋rEÐïŒÕ@³##Öå?˜;±Ž¼«ÿ~��ï]ˆ0æÏóºê#$€VâtQõœ#–#x’Nø'#K7¿r áÆŸ#&€+Òàñš {å¾!æU¹5É_@ûÌÙ#§™z#ÿÇ.ÉWH¼¸�î5��?´¢û©ÔÔ†ÁŸ˜‡�EEKú�^��!�ï¿#Ú¹:\Oš÷è4W„ë-zÐ]ˆ0æÏóºê#åžØ•`2Û]ˆ0æÏóºê‰V
‡£½r’âe_ã�¸<ÿ]ˆ0æÏóºêb#Š2(0#­pdŠn¾¹îïÈlaÆû\@æç7…Mña" />

/////
Gut nut: WriteTo... is definitely a non-starter in Firefox! I'm going back to Flock.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Social media: Is there anything but?

August 7, 2008, Chris Brogan listed ebooks that he'd found available for free, and thought looked worth reading to learn about social media. I've made five quick picks from his list of twenty; my fifth pick (his 19th) is actually a journal article:

1. The Zen of Blogging, by Hunter Nutall (2008);
   
2. A Primer in Social Media: Examining the Phenomenon, Its Relevance, Promise and Risks, by Eric Karjaluoto (2008);
3. Effective Internet Presence, by Ted Demopoulos (2008);
• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
  
4. Introduction to Good Usability, by peterpixel (2008); and
5. How blogs and social media are changing public relations and the way it is practiced, by Wright and Hinson (2008).

I've made one more tentative selection from Chris' updates:

• The Essential Guide to Social Media, by Brian Solis (2008)
  

IBlogged with the Flock Browser

[Notes: What first caught my eye was Siemens' musing about Brogan's list, "In the sense that all media ... require a producer and consumer, doesn't the notion of media have an inherent social trait?" (elearnspace, 2008.08.21). I'd been wondering the same thing with regard to a local course entitled Social Communication, because even though communication may manifest anti-social characteristics, it is fundamentally social.

Though I've only peeked under the covers of a couple of items on my short list, it seems that my choies differ in concentration on marketing from other items and articles Brogan later added to his list. As a subset of social activity, he may be focusing more on the commercial than the educational. (2008.09.08)]