29 January 2009

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/28/2009


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27 January 2009

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/26/2009


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26 January 2009

Get Serious About Goals with Get Goaling

It's almost the end of January and time for a progress update . . . How are you doing on your New Year's goals?

Not sure, maybe GetGoaling can help!

What is GetGoaling?

Getgoaling.com is a platform that enables users to set goals and action plans necessary to achieve those goals. It enables sharing of experience among users having similar goals. Users can share goals with only few members of their choice who can support and motivate them, or with the community at large. They can maintain regular record of their progress on the goals with help of daily or weekly journals. Members having similar goals can come together by searching for goals tagged with relevant keywords.
Here is how the application helps users.


The Goal Chest

The Goal Chest is a single page summary of your active goals. All the goals that you create and any action plans you create to achieve your goals are listed here.




Log Progress

There are three ways of tracking your performance on your goals. One is by way of tracking if you made it or missed it on your action plan on a day or week. Two, by making daily or weekly journal entries and third by sharing your experience by making comment entries.


Sharing Experience

Sharing experience of working on your goal with others builds a healthy relationship with the community. Others who want to pursue similar goals can learn from your experience and those who know more or have been through it can advice and encourage you, building enthusiasm and improving your chances of success.

Journals

The journal shows the day or week wise log details. The daily journal shows in a calendar format whereas the weekly journal shows in a table format. The entries that you have made for the daily or weekly progress on your action plans is what is displayed here, providing a consolidated view of how you are progressing on your goals.



Goal Details Worksheet

The goal details displays what the name suggests, besides that it is also a the launch page for adding a new action plan for the goal, editing the goal details, moving the goal to archive once you are done with the goal. The page is also used to mark action plans as complete.


When compared to similar goal setting applications built around a social networking framework, like 43 Things, GetGoaling is definitely superior. It is much more specific and involved and, I believe, it models the goal setting process much more vividly.

So, get working on those 2009 goals with GetGoaling!




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Generate Your Own Hex Color Schemes

I came across a pretty cool little application, pic2color. The application allows you to upload an image or paste the URL of an image to generate a color scheme with Hex codes.


When you click on one of the colors generated by the image, the Hex code is displayed.

This is a terrific design tool for those creating websites and visual presentations. You can base your entire color scheme around a central image.

By the way, if you are looking to customize your own color scheme, check out this Hex Color Scheme Generator. You can paste the Hex code you get from pic2color into that generator to further customize your color scheme.







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Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/25/2009


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25 January 2009

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/24/2009


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Migrating Cliotech's RSS Feed

Image representing FeedBurner as depicted in C...Image via CrunchBaseThis is just a quick update to let you know that I am in the process of migrating my Feedburner feed to Google. This is something that all Feedburner accounts will have to do by Feb. 28, 2009. Click here to learn more.

I apologize for any disruption in syndication.





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24 January 2009

Going Googley with Google Tools - Week 4

Image representing Picasa as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBaseWelcome to the latest installment of my weekly series, Going Googley with Google Tools. As my regular readers and, certainly, my Twitter / Plurk / Facebook networks know, I recently became the proud owner of my very first Mac, a MacBook Pro.

Thus, I thought I would share a Google tip that merges my love for both my new Mac and Google tools.

Picasa is an image album and photo utility application. I used to use it on my PC. There is also an online publishing component called Picasa Web Albums. You may be wondering why a Mac user would be interested in Picasa since Macs come with the iLife suite including iPhoto.

Here is an overview view of Picasa on the Mac



While the Picasa image suite has some pretty nice features, the real advantage is in the web publishing features that can be added to iPhoto to publish directly Picasa Web Albums.

Here is an overview of the iPhoto Picasa plugin.



Here is an summary of the differences between the Picasa Mac Uploader and the Picasa Web Albums iPhoto Exporter.

The Picasa Web Albums iPhoto Exporter is an iPhoto plug-in that enables you to upload your photos and videos directly from iPhoto. Using the Exporter, you can do the following:

  • Create new albums and upload photos and videos to them
  • See how much storage you have available for Picasa Web Albums

The Picasa Web Albums Uploader is a standalone application for uploading your photos or videos to your web albums. If you don't use iPhoto, or want a few more features, this one's for you. In addition to creating albums and uploading photos or videos, you can do the following:

  • Upload photos and videos and folders of these items that aren't in iPhoto
  • Add captions to your photos before you upload them
  • Search your Mac for recently added photo
Want to learn more about the Picasa for the Mac and the iPhoto plugin? Visit the FAQs page.

Click here to download Picasa for Mac and click here to download the Picasa iPhoto plugin.

Click here to visit the Picasa page on my Google Tools for School site to learn more about Picasa.







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Grown Up Digital - The Compelling Story of the Net Geners

  • Grown Up Digital

    Newest book by Don Tapscott

  • “As the first global generation ever, the Net Geners are smarter, quicker and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors,” Mr Tapscott argues. “These empowered young people are beginning to transform every institution of modern life.”
  • Mr Tapscott identifies eight norms that define Net Geners, which he believes everyone should take on board to avoid being swept away by the sort of generational tsunami that helped Barack Obama beat John McCain.
    • Net Geners value freedom and choice in everything they do.
    • They love to customise and personalise.
    • They scrutinise everything.
    • They demand integrity and openness, including when deciding what to buy and where to work.
    • They want entertainment and play in their work and education, as well as their social life.
    • They love to collaborate.
    • They expect everything to happen fast.
    • And they expect constant innovation.
Some quotes taken from the Economist's review of Grown Up Digital.

Follow Don Tapscott on Twitter http://twitter.com/dtapscott

Click here to learn about and enter the Net Gen Education Challenge (submissions will be accepted until March 31, 2009)

I think this would be a terrific book to consider for an online book club. 

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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The Secret Life of the Brain

As someone who really enjoyed Brain Rules, I can't believe I missed the PBS mini-series, The Secret Life of the Brain.

Here is the series description:

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE BRAIN, a David Grubin Production, reveals the fascinating processes involved in brain development across a lifetime. The five-part series informs viewers of exciting new information in the brain sciences, introduces the foremost researchers in the field, and utilizes dynamic visual imagery and compelling human stories to help a general audience understand otherwise difficult scientific concepts.
There are some terrific interactive features online including the three-dimensional model of the brain, mind illusions, and a library of different types of brain scans.

So, if you are looking for some cool interactive media to supplement your understanding of the brain be sure to check out The Secret Life of the Brain. Oh, don't forget about all the exemplary media on the Brain Rules website.



By the way if you are a Discovery Education streaming subscriber you may have this series in your media library. It is part of the PBS media pack.






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Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/23/2009


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23 January 2009

Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/22/2009


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22 January 2009

Stream Inaugural Addresses

Image representing hulu as depicted in CrunchBaseImage via CrunchBase

Did you know that Hulu has a fairly extensive library of inaugural speeches that you can stream for free?

This collection of inaugurations and inaugural addresses spans more than a century of U.S. Presidents, from William McKinley to George W. Bush.

Check it out at http://www.hulu.com/inaugural-speeches.







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Find Images Licensed for Your Use With ImageCodr

I came across this terrific resource online.  I would be an excellent resource to use with students to model the appropriate use of intellectual property. 

Welcome to ImageCodr.org

Flickr currently hosts more than 75 million images that are licensed under a Creative Commons license. Depending on the license, you may use the images on your private or commercial webpage, or make changes to it.

Often, you are in a great need for some pictures to freshen up your webpage and would like to include one of these images. If you want to do this, there are quite a lot of steps necessary:

  • Make sure you understood the license correctly
  • Get the correct HTML code for the IMG tag
  • Link the image back to the Flickr photo page
  • Give the author of the image proper credits (Attribution)
  • Link to the Flickr profile of the author
  • Link to the license the image is licensed under

The solution

With ImageCodr.org, there is no need to do all this manually, you simply enter in the URL of the picture page (as seen in your browser) you are interested in and ImageCodr.org will generate the ready to use HTML code. It will also display a brief and easy license summary, so you don't get in legal trouble because you missed something.

Click here for an example what ImageCodr does

Getting started

Either go directy to the Get code! page to utilize a Flickr URL you know. Alternatively, use our Search page to search Flickr for Creative Commons licensed images.


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Places to Import Your Google Notebook Files


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Teaching Financial Literacy - In Plain English

If so, check out the newest video from the folks over at the Common Craft Show.

Borrowing Money in Plain English



This video is a great follow-up to Saving Money in Plain English.





Check out the rest the terrific videos from the Common Craft Show.







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Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/21/2009


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Maximize Your Twittsperience

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBaseI know what many (okay, most) of my readers are also on Twitter. I have been cataloging Twitter applications on my PLC wiki page and I decided to share them here as well.

Build Your Network

Measure Your Twitter Influence
  • TweetStats - offers detailed stats of your tweets, who you sent them to the most and when you usually sent them
  • twInfluence - tool for measuring the reach of your account and your entire network
  • Grader for Twitter - grades your relative reach and influence on Twitter - also suggests a few people you should follow based on your profile

Maximize Your Twittsperience
  • Your Twitter Karma
  • Twitt(url)y - a service for tracking what URLs people are talking about as they talk about them
  • Twitter Search (formerly known as Summize )
  • Tweetag - search for topics on Twitter
  • Twilert - create an alert for any keyword in Twitter
  • Tweet2Tweet - follow a Twitter conversation more easily
  • BrightKit - manage multiple Twitter accounts; schedule future Tweets; track statistics
  • Twemes and Twittervision - alternative viewing options for your Twitter feed
  • Twiffid - find out what links your Twitter network has shared
  • GroupTweet - allows users to send messages via Twitter that are instantly broadcasted privately to only the team members
  • Twitly- separate your Twitter friends into groups
  • Plodt - use Twitter to track and rate things that are important to you
  • Phweet - open a private chat with one of your Twitter friends directly through Twitter
  • TweetBeep - Great service that notifies you whenever your name (or any other word you specify) is mentioned
  • Tweet Later - you can automatically 1) send ‘thank you’ and welcome messages to new followers, 2) “return-follow” your new followers and 3) schedule tweets to be delivered at a specified time in the future
  • Twuffer - Twuffer allows the Twitter user to compose a list of future tweets, and schedule their release.
  • iTweet - Built-in auto-refresh, search and hashtags / Full follow, block, notifications features / View user bio, location, URL inline with tweets / Watch conversations with "in reply to" links
  • TwitterCal - add items to your Google calendar directly from Twitter
  • TwitPic - post images to your Twitter feed
  • TwitSay - record a 10 second voice message and share it with your Twitter friends
  • StrawPoll - create a poll and solicit responses just by tweeting
  • HashTags - lets you tag your posts as a way to group and organize them with others
  • Twtpoll - create an easy Twitter poll (even ask multiple choice questions)
  • Click here to access a listing of URL shrinkers and chunkers. These will make it easier for you to share long URL addresses or multiple URL addresses.

- I learned about many of the Twitter tools listed here from 47 Awesome Twitter Tools that You Should Be Using at Deontee.com. You can access additional Twitter tools and integration strategies by visiting the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies Twitter Application List and Twitter Reading List.




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Disclosure and Privacy Policies for Blogs

A handful of times over the past few years I have been contacted by companies and web designers who want me to review their product/service on my blog. Occasionally, those people also offer me a free copy or license for their product so that I can fully review it. As this seems to be happening more frequently lately, I thought it prudent to publish a privacy and disclosure policy for this blog.

At the bottom of this blog you will now see both: Cliotech's Disclosure Policy and Privacy Policy.

If you are interested in creating similar policies for your blog, here are the services I used.




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21 January 2009

Processing the Inauguration in the "Cloud"

Now that the festivities of the inauguration are behind us, we can start to process the images and words of that historical day.

Here are some tips and resources to help you process the day with your students:

Wordle of the Inaugural Address

Wordle: Obama's Speech


You can create your own Wordle online. Another free service similar to Wordle to try out is TagCrowd. It would be really interesting to compare the tag clouds of different inaugural addresses. Here is an example. The New York Times created tag clouds for all the inaugural addresses going back to President Washington - orientated along a horizontal timeline. You can also access the full text of those speeches on the timeline.



If you import the text of the inaugural address into Microsoft Word, you can use the Auto Summary feature to create different visualizations of the speech. Here are two samples:
If you have never used Auto Summary, click here for Word 2007 instructions or click here for Word 2000/2003 instructions.

There are some free online and open source text summarizers that are also great resources.

If you want to access images of the day check out the Presidential Inaugural Committee's Photostream on Flickr, the Official Inaugural Book on Photobucket, or any of the many Flickr groups created for community members to share their images. If you are seeking general images from the campaign, check out the photo gallary on MyBarackObama or the official campaign Flickr photostream.

You can also view a video of the whistle stop tour.









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20 January 2009

Experiencing the Inauguration Virtually

If you can't be present at the inauguration tomorrow, you can still experience it virtually through Google Earth.

Here are some details posted on the Google Lat Long blog. (I'm basically just reposting it here in case some of you didn't see it.)

Earlier today, we posted some tips about how to use Google Maps to be prepared for tomorrow's Inauguration. Well, for those who aren't able to take in the historic event in person, our own 3D data specialist Nathan Kohrmann put together an amazing model of the Inauguration venue -- the US Capitol Building.

Visit the Google 3DWarehouse where a full scale replica of the 2009 Inaugural Stage is ready to be explored... complete with Barack Obama taking the oath! With Google Earth installed, click "Download Model" to instantly import the stage into a fantastic 3D view, then let the fun begin. Zoom in close to where Barack Obama is standing on the stage to take in the exact view he has or swoop down to the National Mall to see what millions of other spectators are watching.

News.com.au has also put together a great Street View "walking tour" of the Inaugural Parade route, which is another great way to feel like you're a part of the festivities no matter where you are.
If you ARE lucky enough to be present for this historic event, you might want to check out some of the helpful maps and traffic resources posted on the Lat Long Blog.

If you are going to be participating in the festivities virtually, you might find some of the resources posted on Lifehacker helpful - sites where the events will be streaming live online, places where video will be archived, and other resources.

If you were looking for some good lessons to help students process the inauguration, check out:




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Websites I Found Interesting - Diigo 01/19/2009


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19 January 2009

Visualizing the Financial Crisis

I found this visual guide to the financial crisis on Flowing Data. I thought it was an interesting way to conceptualize what has been happening in the U.S. economy.







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Did You Know - The Inauguration Edition

I just came across this video on YouTube. It was created by XPLANE, the design team who collaborated with Karl Fisch on the famous Did You Know 2.0 video. It is a terrific video that highlights some organizational and historical details of the 2009 and past presidential inaugurations.

Did You Know?: The 2009 Inauguration Edition









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Video Help for WordPress - WordPress.tv

Image representing WordPress.com as depicted i...Image via CrunchBaseIs it weird for me to share some terrific video tutorials for a rival blogging engine here on Blogger? Since I also blog on the DEN PA blog, a WordPress blog, I can empathize with those of you who are using WordPress and are occasionally frustrated by some of its idiosyncrasies.

I came across a terrific resource to assist WordPress bloggers, WordPress.tv.

Here is a quick blurb from the WordPress blog:

If you want to learn how to use WordPress, how to do cool stuff with it, how to push it to the bloody edge of reason - we’re building an exponentially growing library of video training content. You’ll find the beginnings of that in the How-To section of the site. There’s a lot more to come, both WordPress.com and WordPress.org side, but it’s happening, and fast.


Check out this quick video that overviews WordPress.tv.



I previewed a handful of the how-to videos. They are short and easy to understand. Here is a sample video tutorial with instructions for adding widgets to your sidebar.









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