cyber64edu - Recently Updated Pages

On a Stick & In the Cloud

erindowney — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:38:43 CST

computing for patrons on the go

In this workshop, we are going to learn techniques for creating a portable computing environment - wherever you have internet access! There are two ways to do this: create a "stick" using a USB flash drive and mini-versions of your favorite applications, or create a Google Docs account "in the cloud" that you can access via the internet.

On a Stick:
You'll need a USB flash drive, preferably with 1GB or more in memory.*
Then let's visit the Portable Apps site and go shopping for programs.

Convenient, flash drive-based solution to people who get their computing access from various places

Personal, customizable – load any applications you want

Works with most computers that will let you run .exe files from the drive

Advantages of PortableApps:
Open source/freeware!
More options than Google!
Specialized programs!

Most recommended for the beginner, or basic patron needs:

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure

Google Chrome Portable (Freeware) - fast, simple, themeable browser

OpenOffice.org Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility

InfraRecorder Portable - full-featured CD and DVD burner

Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder

MPlayer Portable - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats

Pidgin Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface

Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable - A full-featured screen magnifier

*Will my stick have enough memory?
Kilobytes (K) are smaller than Megabytes (M) are smaller than Gigabytes (G).
1G = 1,204M = 1,449,616K
(so a 256K drive is infinitesimally smaller than a 1G drive!)

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In the Cloud:
Google Apps
docs.google.com

Available wherever you have internet access

All the basic programs familiar to users of Microsoft Office

User info goes across all Google products

Advantages of Google Apps:

Can collaborate with others!
Files safe “in the cloud!” Don’t have to remember your drive!
Can publish to the web!

Cyber 6 Pack 4 Educators

erindowney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:40:00 CDT

Need background? Check out the recommended reading page. When you're ready to start, try this page first.
Here's a copy of the handout for this workshop in .pdf format. Want more? The Cyber6 are in print! Read the .pdf from VOYA.

Looking for my blog? schoolingdotus.blogspot.com

The Original Cyber 6:

Even More Online Goodness!

Tagging | Creative Commons and Copyright | Best practices for tech in schools | On a Stick & In the Cloud

Coming soon: In Development Fall 2009

Twitter: Microblogging for Fun and Learning

Adapted from an original workshop, Cyber Six Pack
Given by Johnson County Library, 2005-2007

This wiki and its content is licensed under Creative Commons:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

header pic courtesy only_alice

twitter

erindowney — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:50:29 CDT

Microblogging for Fun and Learning!

online photo albums

erindowney — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:25:39 CDT

More than 3000 a minute!
Your digital life will expand online… use tags to organize, join groups or “pools,” and share pictures instantly all over the world.

An online photo album allows you to categorize all your photos and share them with friends and family members. Flickr.com and Photobucket.com are two examples of online photo albums. To categorize your photos online, you can label them with words that describe the image. These words/terms, called tags, are used to search your photo album for images that match your search.

Setting up a Flickr account
You will need to create a username/password and provide an e-mail address to set up a free Flickr account. Once you have created your account, you are free to upload any photos you would like. However, you may reach a limit of how many photos you will be able to add for the month. You have the option of upgrading to a premium account which requires a fee, currently $25/year. You can make your account open to the public, invite certain people to view it or keep it completely private. You can tag specific photos for certain groups – set viewing privileges to only “friends” or “family” and cut off casual browsing access to these pictures.

Ways to use Flickr and teach visual literacy:

Host photos for your blogs and wikis
Share your community (a day in the life?) with others around the world
Use the geotagging feature to make other locations on Earth come alive
Budding artists can study advanced photo manipulation techniques like HDR
Explore plants and animals of other places, or nearby
Ask students to find visual representations of abstract concepts and describe them
Talk about commenting, noting, and tagging photos. Find examples of constructive criticism in photo comment sections. Talk about being a good community member.
Search using Creative Commons for works they can use for presentations.
Annotate a favorite poem or saying with pictures: http://jakespeak.blogspot.com/2005/05/sandburg-meets-flickr.html

Great Links
Purchasing a Flickr Pro account for your school's use http://www.utechtips.com/the-best-25-your-school-will-spend-this-year/
Flickr for Education Group http://flickr.com/groups/33384223@N00/
An older (but great!) article with Flickr edu ideas http://www.techlearning.com/shared/printableArticle.php?articleID=172302903
Try having fun with FD's Flickr Toys: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

creative commons and copyright

erindowney — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:40:31 CDT

Lose your MASL spring 08 handout? Get another here.
Couldn't hear the videos @ NEKLS Tech Day 2008? Here's the CC overview and Larry Lessig's TED talk.
Here's Seven Things You Should Know About Creative Commons from Educause
BIG NEWS! (8/2008) Use of CC was upheld in the Federal Circuit's Court of Appeals! Read all about it.
New curriculum available online (5/2009): Teaching Copyright

Creative Commons is an alternative to traditional copyright. You might call it "copyleft," or a remixed version of traditional copyright.

Under the various licenses that Creative Commons offers, you can retain all original rights as a creator but also explicitly allow others to use your works -where you define the terms. Here's the page on choosing the right license for your needs.

For example, this is the license I chose to use on the original content that I create in my blog, Schooling.us. People can share my content, but they must attribute it back to me. They may not use it for commercial purposes, and they cannot alter it in any way... it needs to stay just as it is. I can change this license at any time if I so choose, or remove the license and smack a big "all rights reserved" on my site instead. It's up to me!

So where can I find and share CC licensed work?

You can search in Flickr for photos with specific licenses that suit your purposes.
You can also use the CC platform for searching Google, Yahoo!, Flickr, Blip.tv, and more for images, text, music, videos and anything else licensed under CC.
One example of an external site using CC is Jamendo, a music platform for artists to upload and share.
Also try this wiki: CopyrightFriendly has a number of resources to access and use online.
The Wikimedia Commons has some 2.5 MILLION files for use!
The education community lives here on Creative Commons' website.
Freesound is a collection of CC-licensed sound effects, perfect for student podcasts or videos.

Creative Commons enables you and your students to have a conversation about attribution. Not only can they find material to use in their schoolwork and presentations, they can license their own content and feel a sense of ownership in the process.

Try using a pre- or post-test to measure the effectiveness of any teaching unit that incorporates Creative Commons and copyright.
Here are some possible outcomes for students building their understanding of CC and copyright.
Show your fellow educators the standards supported by CC-oriented lessons.

Educators clearly need to keep incorporating copyright into student work: this article from Ars Technica explains a survey where teens who knew more about copyright were less likely to use media indiscriminately.

Darren Draper blogs about how he would encourage use of Creative Commons in the classroom - both in his teaching practice but also for pedagogy.

blogs

erindowney — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:57:14 CDT

The new web “site”
Your online journal. Collaborate and write “posts” on all sorts of different topics, or concentrate on your favorite things. Others can comment on posts and you can respond back!

Blogger.com is one of many online journals or blogs. Other examples are shown below.

Setting up a Blogger.com account
You will need to create a username/password and provide an e-mail address to set up a free Blogger account. Since Blogger is owned by Google, if you have a Gmail account you can log in with your Gmail username and password. Once you have created your account, you are free to alter your template to change how the information is displayed on your blog. Entries, called posts, can contain text, photos, and even embedded video. You can use pre-formed drag-n-drop templates OR if you know HTML you can use that to customize your “look” as well.

Users and Security
You can also invite people to contribute posts so that a group is blogging together, not just an individual. You can allow or not allow other bloggers to make comments on your posts and have the option of deleting any comments or posts as well. Comment moderation is very helpful as that allows you to screen every comment before it is posted. You can also require that anyone who comments must have a username—no anonymous comments allowed! The “captcha,” or “word verification” function is also handy to keep out spam-bots—to find out more, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
In addition, when creating a new post or adding a photo, you have the option to save it as a “draft” so that you can add it later. Many of these functions are similar between blogging platforms—most all blogs share these features so it’s just a question of what you like best!

Examples and templates

Asynchronous participation is made possible through blogging. One way that a JCL reading group has stayed solvent despite scheduling difficulties: using a blog to communicate. It’s even kept teen members beyond graduation and into college! http://gryphonsanddragons.blogspot.com/

To make history and literature more interesting, some teachers are asking students to create MySpace profiles instead of writing term papers. Through the use of music, graphics, fonts, and dialect, these long-dead figures come alive... and even blog about current events and "friend" their contemporaries! See more in this SlideShare presentation, Who Would Jane Austen Friend?

If you visit Ashley’s site at www.whateverlife.com, you will see how one teen posting free blog templates (designs, or skins, to customize your “look”) has become a total mogul by selling ad space. She’s been on the View, interviewed by Fast Company, and more… and she’s only 17.

Teachers are using blogs in the classroom to bring more depth to student writing. Here are some guidelines an elementary class agreed on.

Other blog creation Web sites:

My Space

(

http://www.myspace.com

)

What started as a SoCal music site has blown up into a cultural phenomenon.

EduBlogs

(

http://www.edublogs.org

)

A blogger platform and an education-specific network. Powered by WordPress.

WordPress

(

http://www.wordpress.com

)

Free blogs but will also power blogs on your existing site, too.

Vox

(

http://www.vox.com

)
Ning - Classroom 2.0
Ning is a social networking platform that lets you create your own network. You can blog and connect on Ning in much the same way you do on MySpace and other social networks... and they have a lot of great offers for educators, such as ad-free networks and more!

AASL standards for CC lesson plans

erindowney — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:02:49 CDT

This workshop includes information aligned with the American Association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21st Century Learner :

Standard 3: Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.

3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
3.3.5 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within and beyond the learning community.
3.3.6 Use information and knowledge in the service of democratic values.
3.3.7 Respect the principles of intellectual freedom.

best practices

erindowney — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:48:11 CDT

Michael Stephens recently gave some talks in Texas about schools, tech, & the future. Here's The Hyperlinked School Library and Ten Trends & Technologies for 2009.

Sir Ken Robinson talks at TED about how we can inadvertently stifle the creative mind when learning doesn't evolve along with the learners.

Some say the future of education is free: Minds on Fire is a great article by John Seely Brown & Richard P. Adler

Jerry Swiatek is in instructional technology and he has a great wiki featuring many tools useful to the classroom.

This slideshow from the Christian Science Monitor shows how one high school is using student "Tech Sherpas" to enhance the quality of practice for teachers.

One teacher in New Jersey has parents use a blog to record their reactions to their students' required reading.

The Economist magazine has online debates - check out the ones on technology and social networking in education!

Don Tapscott's video keynote for the Horizon Project

Fair use and online videos: from American University

online libraries

erindowney — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:45:31 CST

keep track of your stuff!
Your personal library online. You can catalog books, DVDs and CDs, and a host of other things that you might be “consuming.” Keep track of what you’re reading and share it with friends. Use tags and other data to see what media others are using!

Have you ever wanted to keep track of the books you have in your personal collection? Now you can with tools like AllConsuming, LibraryThing, and Goodreads.

Alternatively, you can use these tools to let people know what you’ve been reading as opposed to what you own.
To set up an account with LibraryThing for example, you will only need a username and password. Once you are logged in, you can start adding your books. If you’d like, you can also add descriptions of the book, information on when you purchased it, etc. You can also create a blog widget that feeds a list of books at random or in chronological order directly to a website.

Ideas for online library activities:

Add books assigned by teachers and tag them by teacher and due dates for book reports.
Have students keep track of what they read over holiday breaks.
Create a group for your class or cadre where users can join with their individual accounts and conduct a conversation about what they’re reading.

From dragonLadylibrary2.blogspot.com :

Week 8, Thing 19
Library Thing is a wonderful find. As I posted earlier, my husband and I had discusssed cataloging our home library and this is perfect. It's very easy to use. I borrowed a scanner from school and just scan in the ISBN number (some paperbacks have to be entered by hand). I also added the mobile feature to our cell phones so that we can search our home library while in book stores, etc.

tagging

erindowney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:11:11 CDT

It has nothing to do with graffiti - just another kind of metadata! Instead of using controlled vocabulary, the web organizes itself from the ground up - users "tag" content in order to search, sort, and find it later.

Tags can be useful in different capacities:

Tags often describe places. This is popularly referred to as "geotagging." Examples include "Monterey," "Arizona," "France," "Bronx," and so on.

Tags can describe people, topics, or moods. You might see "depressed," "Sandy," "newbaby," or "history."

Tags can be based on events. A search for items tagged "il2007" on Flickr will show you participants' photos from the 2007 Internet Librarian conference, or "aasl07" will show you pics from the AASL 2007 conference in Reno. Typically a conference will establish and publicize their chosen tag to coordinate bloggers and publishers as they tag their events.

You will often see tags as "clouds," where the frequency of use is indicated by a larger font size:

Graphic from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Web_2.0_Map.svg

Others will let you categorize and group them, like del.icio.us' bundle feature:

This bundle, "socialnetworking," includes 7 tags. The number beside each tag refers to the number of links saved under each tag. Web2.0 is a popular tag!

"Schoolstuff" is collapsed and in shadow. If you click on the arrow it will flip down so you can see what's inside.

This bundle called "tools" isn't as dense as "social networking," but it's getting there. Looks like I need to go back into the 22 links tagged "tools" and name the specific tool used... or some other strategy.

But how do I develop my system?

I think that tagging develops in three phases: 1) free-for-all, 2) epiphany, and 3) refinement. At first, you just tag randomly... you're just getting the hang of things. You discover that you can't have spaces (or you create two tags instead of one), and you're observing what terms other people use when they tag. Then, you have a realization! A more refined system is needed so you can use your tags more efficiently. Finally you're ready to edit your tags and make them work for you.

wikis

erindowney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:03:12 CDT

info wiki wiki! (wiki = quick in Hawaiian)

Here are some basics from writingwiki.org.
Get our handout for evaluating Wikipedia articles.
Here's the education info page for classroom Wikipedia projects.

Wiki –A hybrid webpage/knowledge base. “A wiki is computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.” (from Wikipedia’s entry “wiki,” 11:33, 22 October 2007)

Wikis are a quick and easy way to build a knowledge base that's constantly changing. (You're reading one right now!) For example, popular culture and “new” topics are perfect for wikis as the definitions themselves evolve. The community can use a wiki as a natural way of building a consensus among a group of people.

The evils of Wikipedia
There’s a lot of fear about letting students cite from Wikipedia because articles can be edited by anyone… but this does not make it a worthless resource. It actually works as an excellent teaching tool to help students understand the construction of knowledge. Many folks follow their topics so closely that article vandalism can literally be reversed in seconds! There are many articles where senior editors have locked down or put notices on articles that are rapidly developing, are controversial, or do not adhere to community quality standards. The real gems are always at the bottom of a topic page: the References section at the bottom of every page. Don’t cite? Then expect to have your article in moderation and fixed by the many users dedicated to creating a quality resource. The “neutral point of view,” or NPOV, is highly prized in the Wikipedia community.

Go Further
Wesley Fryer's post on Oklahoma history and racism has some nice observations and musings on the role of wikis in teaching history; here's an excerpt:

Some librarians have strong, negative opinions about WikiPedia, in my view, because they do not understand WikiPedia. Like so many other topics and issues relating to digital technologies, they may have heard “bad headlines” about WikiPedia and not yet explored in depth (as all advocates for media literacy and information fluency should, of course) the veracity of those claims. To address possible misconceptions about WikiPedia, I often recommend that people watch Jimmy Wales’ presentations “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia” on TEDTalks as well ashis longer (and more in-depth) discussion about WikiPedia on Fora.TV from April 2006 titled, “Vision: Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture.”

Examples of Wikis:

Wikipedia

(

http://en.wikipedia.org

)

The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

pb wiki

(

http://www.pbwiki.com

)

Make a free, password-protected wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich. Pay a nominal fee and gain control of contributor functionality. NO ADS.

WikiSpaces

(

http://www.wikispaces.com/

)

Another great space for your wiki. Create a space where you can “edit together.” Has ads, but functions most like the MediaWiki.org software.

TiddlyWiki

(

http://www.tiddlywiki.com

)

A reusable non-linear personal web notebook.
WetPaint (http://www.wetpaint.com)
Has ads, but gives you total control of contributor functionality.

Best Practices:

Joyce Valenza's Information Fluency
Carolyn Foote's Connected Libraries

aggregators/readers

erindowney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:02:16 CDT

really simple syndication
Also known as an RSS feed, this tool will help you use your time online wisely. Pick favorite bloggers, news sites, lists, or anything else on the internet and file its “feed” so you can read when you have the time. Preview posts so you don’t have to check every site every day—all your favorite sites send content to one place—your place!

An “aggregator” is a fun little tool that will collect the newest posts from all your favorite blogs or news sites. By using an aggregator, you’ll save yourself time because you won’t have to go visit a lot of Web sites. You’ll have all the latest information right there on one page! It’s also called “syndication” because it allows the content to be lifted from its original context and exported into new juxtapositions by the user. Bloglines.com is an example of an aggregator.

Graphic explanation from Back in Skinny Jeans

The aggregator (or reader, as they are also called) updates your page whenever the pages you have subscribed to have new posts. To subscribe to a page's "feed," use the “RSS” or “Atom” buttons on the originating site. Examples of these buttons are to the right.

WHY RSS? It makes your life easier! Just one example: an aggregator is a great way for students to quickly skim current events from newspapers, or to compare and contrast reporting on same or similar events from different sources. For example, students can get the daily headlines from a variety of news sources around the world without having to locate a physical newspaper!
Getting your own news from RSS feeds couldn’t be simpler. You’ll find that you can get many times more reading done when you’re filtering out uninteresting articles and only visiting one site instead of many individual ones.

A great feature of many sites is that they separate feeds by topic. For example, I subscribe to the New York Times' Education page and the Most Emailed Articles feed so that I get the highlights that are most important to me... and not the entire paper ;) Blogs sometimes let you subscribe to the comments section, so you can follow a conversation. And best of all - some readers allow you to i mport an email listserv into your reader so that your inbox isn't so cluttered! RSS feeds are very useful and new ways to use them are being discovered every day.

Share with others, too!
In most cases you can share the "public" side of your reader with others through a special URL, which makes it fun to discover what your friends and colleagues are reading. For ease of use, I find it easier to simply set some selected feeds to “private,” so that they don’t show up in my reader to other viewers. You can also establish two different accounts if you'd prefer.

Setting up a Bloglines.com account:
You will need to create a username/password and provide an e-mail address to set up a free Bloglines.com account. Once you have created your account you can start adding your favorite feeds to your page. Want a different reader? Try any on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feed_aggregators#Web_based

bookmarks

erindowney — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:59:39 CDT

Online bookmark managers (are wherever you are!)
Like “My Favorites” in Internet Explorer, but you can take it anywhere you go. Find other users with similar interests, browse their pages, and stumble on new and exciting links you may never have found!

Del.icio.us is a great tool to manage your own personal favorite bookmarks and share these with the online community. Not only do online bookmark managers allow you to view your bookmarks anywhere with an Internet connection, but you can also see what other people have as their bookmarks and discover Web sites that may be of interest to you.
(Furl.com is a similar site that also archives the page. Ma.gnolia.com is similar as well.)

Setting up a del.icio.us account
You will need to create a username/password and provide an e-mail address to set up a free Del.icio.us account. If you do not want others to find your bookmark account, use an inconspicuous username instead of your last name. You could set up a professional and personal account separately.

If you do not install the bookmarklet buttons into your browser, or can't because you're at a public PC, just click the "post" link on your del.icio.us homepage to save a new link. You will be asked to enter the URL of the site you want to save, along with a short description and some "tags" to describe your link (and make it easier to find later). Hit save, and the fun part arrives: your del.icio.us homepage will update with the new link and you can see how many other people have saved that exact link! It's colored varying shades of pink - light pink for fewer saves, dark pink for more saves. You can see at a glance scrolling down your page which of your links are the most "popular!" You can use that pink link to see what other people saved - making social bookmarking really work for you - and save some of their links for your own. It's a big network that saves you surfing time!

You can also add people to your network and save links for them to peruse. Just click on the "your network" link to see your friends and add more. Feel free to add me - my username is erindowney.

Erin’s .edu picks can be found at http://del.icio.us/erindowney/cyber4edu

CC Lesson Outcomes

erindowney — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:48:24 CDT

Students should be able to:

Identify CC insignia and the concepts they represent.
Locate works appropriately licensed for the intended use.
Properly attribute works used in assignments.
License any derivative works appropriately.
Imagine how others might use new intellectual material from their own work.
License any new material with future users in mind.

CC pre/post testing questions

erindowney — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:05:47 CDT

You could use true/false responses, or a Likert-type scale
(i.e., strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree)

When I use information or media in my school projects, I give credit to the original creator through attribution and/or a works cited section.

When I look for quotes, pictures, or other media to use in my school projects, I use resources that tell me how the original creator wants their works used.

It is important to credit the sources I use in my school projects.

When something can be copied by hand or on a computer, it doesn't matter if I use it without giving the original creator credit for their work.

When I select information or media to use in my school projects, I try to find out who the original creator is/was.

Everybody should use other people's ideas or creations without checking for permission.

Why pre/post testing?

This is one way to gauge a difference between students' knowledge of and attitudes towards copyright before a unit teaching the use of Creative Commons licensing. You can use their scores to demonstrate that they are more deliberative and thoughtful users of other people's intellectual material following lessons in CC licensing.

what's next?

erindowney — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:10:32 CST

After you have explored all these awesome web-based tools, there’s still more out there to discover. If you’d like library staff to visit your next school in-service, department meeting, or classroom, we can do a similar workshop for students or teachers!

There are more in-depth exercises that you can do alone or in a group with fellow educators. Most of these were designed for public libraries, and one especially adapted for schools. Check them out:
School Library Learning 2.0 - California
23 Things from PLCMC
Five Weeks to a Social Library from Meredith Farkas

If you liked Cyber Six Pack, you’ll also like Open Source Made Simple. Try five free applications that will enable you to make use of older machines and liberate yourself from purchasing expensive software!

EduBuntu, the open source operating system for educators

http://www.edubuntu.org/

Firefox, an open source browser with plugins and addons (that can travel with you!)

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

OpenOffice, a productivity suite just as powerful as Microsoft’s Office

http://www.openoffice.org/

GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, similar to Adobe Photoshop

http://www.gimp.org/

Audacity, a free digital audio editor that makes podcasting simple and easy

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

hints and tips

erindowney — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:53:27 CST

To set up an account with any of the online tools in this presentation, you will need to provide one or more of the following:

Username & Password
E-mail address
Photos to upload
Ideas to discuss with the world
A few favorite Web sites and/or blogs

Note: If you do not want others to find your online accounts, use an inconspicuous username instead of your last name and first initial or make your account “private.” You can also set up a professional and personal account separately. I always encourage students to never use their real name, but instead make up a non-personally identifiable username like “stargirl398” or “84luvsoccer” or something else that works for them. You’ll know their names, but if anyone stumbles on their work online (now or years in the future) they won’t be able to match a real person with the username unless they specifically give out that information to others.