CRU Training

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all the people from the CRUs who attended the training session today, and also to Donna, our new Rural Access worker from the East Gippsland Shire. Hope you have fun playing with blogs, and we look forward to 'meeting' you all at the next practice link up on Friday 11th July at 11am. Don't forget to run the Wizard on Live Classroom sometimes before this date.

Toni and Denece

Another Discovery exercise. It's all about having FUN!

Find a few fun image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and display the result.
Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and pasting the code that the page provides.
If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger’s image button to add it to your post.
If you’re having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask for help.
In looking at several blogs, it’s easy to see that we have lots of people in the system who have figured out how easy it is to add images to their blogs.


Discovery Resources:

The Generator Blog

Letter James

FD Toys

Also try searching for online generators, text generators or image generators!


Discovery Exercise:

1. Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.


2. Post the result of your discovery process in your blog.

Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too.So take some time and have fun with this exercise.

....discovering web 2.0 technologies through PLAY!

Boardmaker Resources

http://www.region2library.org/DATA/Boardmaker/EZRA_AAC_resources_May_2007_FINAL4.pdf
Thanks to Gemma for adding some Boardmaker resources to her blog.
This one is a sample

Check out her blog 'espeechie' in the Blogroll

Live Classroom Link up

Hello everyone
Congratulations!!
And a very big thank-you to everyone who joined us in the live linkup today.
I think everyone did extremely well. (and, there doesn't appear to be too many bugs to sort out). Leah, I will look into the connection at Omeo Library and get back to you.
I haven't forgotten that our visits to your sites are still to be organised - I will get back to you all asap to set a date. We have a very busy week at the library next week - with Library week events and celebrations. So it will probably be the week after.
The State library are bringing their Travelling Treasures into Bairnsdale on Tuesday, there is an Australia wide simultaneous storytime on Wednesday morning, and we are launching online public access to InterLibrary Loan reservations on Thursday.

Once again, thanks for joining us today, I think its great to explore the opportunities this technology provides.

Before I go can I remind you about the Forum on Talking Visuals Online http://talkingvisuals.edublogs.org/
Another exciting opportunity to try out the new technology..
Talk again soon
Denece

P.S. Did you know you can subscribe to this blog by clicking on the subscribe link in the right hand panel?
Read how in the RSS and Newsreader exercise below. It's really simple.

Welcome to our speechies

Hello everyone,
We had another enjoyable session yesterday when we introduced our local speech pathologists to the world of Web 2.0 tools.
It was pleasing to hear some enthusiastic comments about opportunities for using these tools in their work.
I've added a forum to our Talking Visuals Online blog, seeking discussion on the content and information you would like included. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts.
There is a Talking Visuals Online link in the blogroll.
Regards
Denece

Are you ready for RSS & Newsreaders? It's 'really simple'

In the information world, RSS is revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.

Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit regularly. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the pages for just the text you want to read. Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you?
Well, it’s available through a newsreader and RSS. These self-discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

What will you do in this discovery session.
Discover RSS feeds and setup your own Bloglines newsreader account.
Locate a few useful related blogs and/or news feeds.

Learning Resources:

CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds
(3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users.

Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds
A good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative

Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday)
This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds.Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)

Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines
A short YouTube video showing how to add feeds.

RSS in Plain English:
A simple and user friendly overview of RSS created by Commoncraft Video on Youtube.


Discovery Exercise:

Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.

Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.

Newsfeeds:
Subscribe to several feeds. This is as easy as typing the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Or go to your friends' blogs, click on the 'subscribe' or 'atom' button at the bottom of the page. Try it, it's easy!

Then try adding a few other types of news feeds from news sources (you may like to select a couple from the list below)
http://www.assistivetechnology.vcu.edu/2006/10/monthly_ideas_from_boardmaker.html

http://nolimitstolearning.blogspot.com/2008/02/boardmaker-plus-makes-great-interactive.html

http://managingautism.com/uncategorized/schedules-task-boards

http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/

http://specialneedsparenting.suite101.com/blogs.cfm

When you've done all this:
Create a post in your blog about this exercise.
If you're up to the challenge, you can provide the URL address to your public bloglines account (find where to find this below).

P>S> Don't forget to subscribe to this blog, too!!

Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:
What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?

How to find your public Bloglines URL:
1. Click on the Share tab within your Bloglines account:

2. Scroll down the right screen pane and locate the public URL (see screenshot)

3. Be sure to add this as part of your post to demonstrate your completion of this activity.

Why make your RSS feeds public?

Try to think where a public account may be useful. ie: sharing with a group of people with the same interest, sending information to specific types of clients, etc...

PS: Once you tackle this discovery exercise, you've tackled the most difficult one of the whole program.

Are you confused?

Then you're not alone. One of our team has asked for some clarification of how creating a blog fits in with the Talking Visuals Project.

Thanks for your question. In hindsight I don't think we did explain that too well. I hope this helps...
During the course of the project, Toni and I will be using different technology to present information to remote facilitators and the public. We thought that everyone would be more comfortable with this if they understood some of the online tools we will use. This is where the Talking Visuals virtual classroom comes in.
The tools you learnt last week, blogging and live classroom, are the ones we will mostly use.
We will keep a photo journal of the project using Flickr - I've just added resources and excercises to the Virtual classroom for this; [See posts below] and when we get right into it, we will also introduce podcasts, video and a wiki.
Doing the exercises is optional, we are offering these tutorials to take the mystery out of web 2.0 tools and give participants who haven't seen or used them before an opportunity to play with them and learn how they work.
Why the blog?
As a bit of background - At the library, we discovered that using the tools to learn the tools in self paced discovery sessions worked well. That is why we ask people to create their own blog and use it as a journal, recording their progress through the exercises. We add the exercises at intervals; to maintain contact with the group, not to overload them with information, and to give them time to explore and experiment.
Please let me know if you are still confused.
Denece

Face-to-Face Introductory day

Hello everyone
First, a big thank you to everyone that turned up on the 22nd. It was great to meet some old friends and put faces to new names.
I know I always learn something new from Toni's talks on Communication and find it really helps to understand the processes we use and take for granted in our everyday speech and to appreciate the difficulties that other people endure.
I really enjoyed the day and am most impressed with the way you all participated. Your new blogs are fantastic, and I'm looking forward to watching them develop as you work your way through the exercises. We will be using some of these tools in the project, some others are included purely for the experience and play. Who knows what tools you will discover for your personal use??
Regards for now.
Denece

Discovering Flickr

Photo sharing websites have been around since the 90s, but it took a small startup site called Flickr to catapult the idea of “sharing” into a full blown online community. Within the past couple of years, Flickr has become the fastest growing photo sharing site on the web and is known as one of the first websites to use keyword “tags” to create associations and connections between photos and users of the site.

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a good look at Flickr and discover what this site has to offer. Find out how tags work, what groups are, and all the neat things that people are using Flickr for.

We will be using Flickr to record milestones and events in the Talking Visurals Project. However, you can have a lot of fun with these tools, so have a play and see what interesting images you can produce.

Discovery Resources:

Flickr Tutorials Series
Starting with Flickr
Signing up for Flickr
Uploading Photos to Flickr--01
Creating a Flickr Web Address
Who is Scooby Gooseberry?
What are Flickr Sets?

Flickr Learn More tour (6 steps)

Flickr: Popular tagsInteresting- Last 7 days

Flickr Services (3rd party applications & mashups)

Discovery Exercise:

In this discovery exercise, you have two options…

Take a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to blog about. Be sure to include either a link to the image or, if you create a Flickr account, you can use Flickr's blogging tool to add the image in your post.

-- OR --
If you have access to a digital camera you might like to upload a picture to Flickr.

I have created an account for the project. http://www.flickr.com/photos/talkingvisuals/

To upload a photo, first save your photo to your computer (or USB).
Then:
Go to the Flickr website at http://www.flickr.com/
Sign in (using the login and password I have emailed to you. If you have forgotten it, please email me and I will send it to you).
Click on upload photos.
Click on browse and locate where you have saved your photo (you can upload more than one photo at once).
You can add tags describing your photo at the bottom of the page including the project tag - Talking Visuals
Click upload to complete the process.

Something else to look at: You might also like to take a look at the National Library Picture Australia website
Click on the Flickr icon on the front page and you will be led to a display of images the National Library have used from Flickr. This is part of the National Library's vision of building a comprehensive pictorial record of Australian history.

Other photosharing and photography websites include http://www.snap.com/, http://www.fotolia.com/, http://www.slide.com/, and http://www.dumpr.net/.

PS: A quick word about photo posting etiquette - When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you (unless you have the photographer's consent) and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.
Don't forget to label this post on your blog “Flickr” and talk about what you have learned doing this activity.

Live Classroom

Each participant will need a computer and an internet connection with a microphone - ideally we recommend use of a computer headset, but speakers may suffice.

The login for Live Classroom is http://liveclassroom.tafevc.com.au/

Before trying to access the live classroom, please go to the setup wizard (Note: It is critical that this be used before attempting to access Live Classroom for the first time on any particular computer).




Once you have navigated through this wizard and sorted any problems, you should be able to access the room easily. Please feel free to login any time before the session to check you can get in.

Please Note: There is a Live Classroom help desk available to users of Live Classroom. If you have any problems that the wizard can't sort out, then please contact the help desk.
Phone 1800 730 288
Email: liveclassroom@tafevc.com.au
(Hours: 8am - 6 pm Mon-Fri)

Please refer to the handout for additional instructions.