Developing my Diigo: Step Two

• Leslie Holwerda's Groups | Diigo - Groups
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Diigo toolbar is a wonderful thing.
By adding a toolbar to my browser I have the ability to bookmark any page on the internet without leaving the page and have it available to me no matter what computer I am using. I can highlight text and capture either a selected area of my screen or the whole page.

From The Book Whisperer, Making room for graphic novels
 


I am able to send the page link (see top of page) to a blog (Blogger, Wordpress, Livepress or four others platforms), Facebook, Twitter, email it to friends or easily share the URL of my highlighted, sticky noted page. Richardson (2009) states that " just getting in the habit of saving interesting and useful links can be a huge asset in itself." (p.96)

The toolbar allows me to quickly filter my Diigo bookmarks by tags I have selected.

I can identify my bookmarks with tags, and then share with any of my groups or send to Twitter.  I have begun to add tags to my bookmarks and to select groups for sharing.

My Diigo Tags

Diigo has changed the way I bookmark. I have NOT used browser favourites on any of my computers since beginning my Diigo exploration. Diigo provides access to every link from any computer. Diigo Rocks!

Mashing with Masher:Step Four

Finally my video and photos are uploaded and I am ready to drag and drop. 
AppAppeal reviewed Masher.com and stated, "The site features an easy to use Studio for combining video, photos, and music and for editing in effects and adding text." 
It was easy.
I selected my video (sans audio) and dropped it in the timeline. I added photos and was able to shift their position as I worked. Video effects and text were added to the timeline with an animated menu for selection.  The Masher studio provides music files which I used to complete the video.

I wanted a full audio track for the video. Unfortunately I was unable to loop the music I wanted and needed to replace it with a longer track which was not as long as stated on the file information. In order to finish the video I wanted to add a text screen thanking viewers for watching. No matter what I did I was unable to access the last few photo clips or the colour screen to add my text message.
The video was given a title, description,and tags. It was saved, and I attempted to share with an embed code added to the post below. The HTML code is incomplete so I have provided the link made available for emailing. I sent an email to the Masher Support team requesting assistance.
Until the problem is rectified:

http://masher.com/player.jsp?key=5cb983ae-4959-31e4-7faf-0000837392f0&adscheme=0


Thank you for watching.

Response from Masher.com Support- "We are a small team here at Masher, but we will investigate the issue and hopefully come up with a solution."

Thinglink in Action: Step Three

Hover over the tag and click Thinglink markers to access links.
Note:If using Google reader please connect to this page to view tags.

Trying Thinglink: Step Two

In order for Thinglink to work on a website or blog I needed to embed a Thinglink code in the template by following directions on the site. The directions were clear and the task was accomplished before I knew it was done.

I remained logged in to Thinglink at the same time as I logged in to my blog in order to tag an image already in a blog post. When I scrolled over the image the Thinglink menu appeared which allows users to edit tags, and share or embed the image. I was immediately successful adding a link on the image. See the image on Ontario Library Association Launches New Website!

I experienced difficulty when I decided to add a page to the website and was unable to tag using Thinglink on the new page. I returned to the Thinglink site uploaded a photograph (one click uploading using Flickr images or an image URL) and proceeded to add tags linking Youtube videos, Soundcloud recordings, a web site and web pages directly to the image on the Thinglink site. I saved the image on Thinglink and used the menu offered on the image to access the embed code which worked instantly when I added it to the HTML of a new post.

The Thinglink dashboard allows editing tags and offers statistics for your images in the form of a graph or a list of clicks, views and hovers.

Thinglink is a new tool with benefits over the simple addition of notes found on Flickr. “The main benefit to ThingLink seems to be that it offers granular contextual information about objects inside images.” (MacManus, 2011, para.5) The amount of detail and opportunity to link to a variety of sources of information creates an exciting platform for both teachers and students.

Moving Forward with flickr: Step Three

I am developing some comfort with flickr and its associated tools and I can see myself sharing my paintings with the world (I can’t believe I wrote that). I found I am able to easily upload photos, store them online and manage the photos with the available organization of sets, collections, favourites, tags and groups.

Flickr tags

There are many books and web sites available to help me get started and help me explore ideas and more I am sure to come across in my ongoing learning.

•  Choosing Web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
• ·The Digital Diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes. Churches, A., Crockett, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). Kelowna, BC: 21st Century Fluency Project
• Technology Resources for Schools 
•  Classroom Uses of Flickr 

Tomaiuolo (2011) identifies Flickr uses by librarians. “For example, the Librarian Trading Cards Group is an area where librarians frequently display their whimsical side to colleagues. The Libraries and Librarians Group at Flickr connects 3,700 information professionals spread across six continents.” (para.10) I added these two groups immediately.

I may be almost as hooked as PC World’s Nikki McDonald. McDonald writes: “After just over a week of using Flickr, I'm hooked. I've gone from checking my e-mail account every 2 minutes to checking my Flickr account instead.” (McDonald, 2005,para. 7) Using Flickr has encouraged me to share not only my paintings but also my personal photographs online. I am interested in the Libraries and Librarians group and the connection to the world of libraries it offers. I was surprised to find this group and others connected to librarians and libraries and look forward to further exploration.

In my school I would like to encourage teachers to use Flickr to develop Flickr sets and introduce students to digital images as part of Geography and History units. I might add a photostream link or set to the library blog for easy access. I need to investigate if my sqworl visual bookmarking pages will accept photostream links from Flickr.

"Registered users can comment on photos, create image "pools" and users around a central
theme, and actually select favorite pictures." (Stephens, 2006. p.58) I am excited by my exploration of Flickr. I hadn’t realized the scale of possibility for flickr use for me personally, professionally, or in my role as a teacher-librarian.

As a result of this exploration I am excited to try the Google image sharing tool, Picasa and begin collaborating with my colleague to add photos to the blog Paths to the Future: 21st Century School Libraries.