Screen Capture Tools - Jing
More new tools to experiment with. I got quite excited when I saw that screen capture tools were coming up. I have been looking for ways to make my areas of our Moodle VLE more exciting. I'm responsible for making sure that the science, technology, engineering and maths areas of the learning resources section are useful and engaging for our students.
I have been considering using screen capture to show them how to use some of our online resources. Advice on searching them for example or even just simple things like how to access our ebooks. We do cover this is in our start of year library skills session but some students miss them and others don't remember everything we show them. To be fair we do try to cover quite a lot in a short session. We have written directions on the VLE but a lot of our students are very visual and seeing something demonstrated is helpful for everyone.
Jing seems like a very clever sceen capture system. I love how easy it is to share the finished product. I was a bit worried about that side of it before I tried it out for myself. It seems like it should be very easy to put some screen capture tutorials up on the VLE.
We've looked at some interesting tools during CPD 23 but this is one that I really can put to use straight away. The scheme has motivated me to explore something that I've been meaning to try for a while. Thank you CPD 23.
Pod Casting - Audacity
I'm less sure about pod casting. I know they can be very effective but my past experiences of actually trying to create them suggest that they are not as technically easy as their more enthusiastic supporters claim. It's reasonably easy to create a pod cast but if you want to create one that actually sounds good then you have to either really spend some time mastering the finer points of sound recording or you have to beg for help from technical support.
As pod casting tools go Audacity seems reasonably easy to use and being free is always a plus. To be honest though unlike screen capture technology this probably isn't something that I will be using in the very near future.
It is entirely possible, even likely that I will one day find myself in a situation where pod casting seems like the answer to a need. When that happens I will be glad that CPD 23 gave me another chance to explore the idea and helpfully pointed me towards a free piece of software to do it on.
Showing posts with label Tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tools. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
CPD 23 - Thing 17 - Prezi and Slideshare
Prezi
Ah, the famous Prezi, the new all-singing, all-dancing alternative to poor old Power Point. I feel a bit sorry for Power Point. Everyone makes jokes about it and moans about it but actually it's not the tool's fault that people load it up with bullet points and then read them out or set up 43 slide presentations. Used properly Power Point does a perfectly good job of displaying information visually and thus making your talk more interesting and giving it some structure.
That said I am curious about Prezi. I have heard mixed reviews. Some people are very excited by the idea of a visual presentation that isn't tied down by a linear pattern. Prezi allows you to whiz around from idea to idea thus offering a better reflection of how people actually think. They see it as liberating us all from the tyranny of Power Point. On the other hand some people find that it is horribly time-consuming to set up and all that whizzing around makes them feel physically sick. It's hard to imagine two more different responses to the same piece of software.
The time-consuming argument is perhaps unfair. Using a system that you are unfamiliar with is bound to take longer than using one that you have known for years. People will get faster with practice.
However I think the time factor will stop teachers and lecturers from being eager to embrace this new tool. I hate to sound sneaky but I think this is an opportunity for librarians in educational institutions. Mastering Prezi and using it in inductions or research skills sessions will make us look ahead of the curve. I know it isn't really the latest thing anymore but using Prezi rather than Power Point would be a very noticeable way of highlighting the fact that we are experimenting with new digital tools. Spreading the message that librarians are experts on all the latest educational software must be a good thing. You could even see it as an example of advocacy as discussed in the previous 'thing'.
My own experiments with Prezi suggest that it will take me a while to feel completely comfortable with it. It seems like something that you have to spend some time playing around with before you unleash it on an audience. I want to impress people without making them sick or getting myself hopelessly lost. Once I've got the hang of Prezi it will be useful to have the power to create presentations that look more technically impressive than those created on the much maligned but perhaps genuinely overused Power Point.
Slideshare
Did someone at CPD 23 share my sense that Power Point gets a bad press? That seems like a plausible reason to pair Prezi with Slideshare. This is sort of a social network for people who use Power Points, a flikr for Power Point presentations. If you want to see examples of really effective or creative use of the software than this is the place to go.
I am very familiar with Slideshare because I used it in my teaching career. I uploaded my favourite Power Points onto the site in the hope that other teachers might find them useful. I'm not saying that any of them were particularly mind blowing but I'm a firm believer in sharing resources to spread good ideas and to stop us all going crazy. I also used it to find inspiration or resources for my own lessons. That is part of the spirit of Slideshare. It's a place for spreading good ideas and sharing best practice. It would be great if we all started to use it to share library and information literacy presentations.
The other useful aspect of Slideshare is that you can use it to learn about all kinds of interesting topics. Have a browse. You will be very surprised what people make presentations about.
I guess we might need something similar for Prezi soon. There's a project for someone. Unless that already exists somewhere?
Additional:
Interesting counterargument to my "hey give Power Point a break" naivety.
Power Point is Evil from Wired Magazine.
Ah, the famous Prezi, the new all-singing, all-dancing alternative to poor old Power Point. I feel a bit sorry for Power Point. Everyone makes jokes about it and moans about it but actually it's not the tool's fault that people load it up with bullet points and then read them out or set up 43 slide presentations. Used properly Power Point does a perfectly good job of displaying information visually and thus making your talk more interesting and giving it some structure.
That said I am curious about Prezi. I have heard mixed reviews. Some people are very excited by the idea of a visual presentation that isn't tied down by a linear pattern. Prezi allows you to whiz around from idea to idea thus offering a better reflection of how people actually think. They see it as liberating us all from the tyranny of Power Point. On the other hand some people find that it is horribly time-consuming to set up and all that whizzing around makes them feel physically sick. It's hard to imagine two more different responses to the same piece of software.
The time-consuming argument is perhaps unfair. Using a system that you are unfamiliar with is bound to take longer than using one that you have known for years. People will get faster with practice.
However I think the time factor will stop teachers and lecturers from being eager to embrace this new tool. I hate to sound sneaky but I think this is an opportunity for librarians in educational institutions. Mastering Prezi and using it in inductions or research skills sessions will make us look ahead of the curve. I know it isn't really the latest thing anymore but using Prezi rather than Power Point would be a very noticeable way of highlighting the fact that we are experimenting with new digital tools. Spreading the message that librarians are experts on all the latest educational software must be a good thing. You could even see it as an example of advocacy as discussed in the previous 'thing'.
My own experiments with Prezi suggest that it will take me a while to feel completely comfortable with it. It seems like something that you have to spend some time playing around with before you unleash it on an audience. I want to impress people without making them sick or getting myself hopelessly lost. Once I've got the hang of Prezi it will be useful to have the power to create presentations that look more technically impressive than those created on the much maligned but perhaps genuinely overused Power Point.
Slideshare
Did someone at CPD 23 share my sense that Power Point gets a bad press? That seems like a plausible reason to pair Prezi with Slideshare. This is sort of a social network for people who use Power Points, a flikr for Power Point presentations. If you want to see examples of really effective or creative use of the software than this is the place to go.
I am very familiar with Slideshare because I used it in my teaching career. I uploaded my favourite Power Points onto the site in the hope that other teachers might find them useful. I'm not saying that any of them were particularly mind blowing but I'm a firm believer in sharing resources to spread good ideas and to stop us all going crazy. I also used it to find inspiration or resources for my own lessons. That is part of the spirit of Slideshare. It's a place for spreading good ideas and sharing best practice. It would be great if we all started to use it to share library and information literacy presentations.
The other useful aspect of Slideshare is that you can use it to learn about all kinds of interesting topics. Have a browse. You will be very surprised what people make presentations about.
I guess we might need something similar for Prezi soon. There's a project for someone. Unless that already exists somewhere?
Additional:
Interesting counterargument to my "hey give Power Point a break" naivety.
Power Point is Evil from Wired Magazine.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
CPD 23 - Thing 14 - Reference Management Systems
Zoetero, Mendelay, Citeulike
A good reference management system is one of those tools that put you in danger of coming across as insufferably smug when talking to people who aren't using them. I know this because back in my student days I wasn't an early adopter of this technology. That was foolish of me because we had free access to Endnote so there was no excuse. Once I got into the swing of things I learnt to love Endnote. Who doesn't love technology which genuinely saves you time and makes your life easier?
Thing 13 asked us to look at two free reference management systems, Zoetero and Mendelay. We were also encouraged to try Citeulike, a tool which is primarily designed for sharing articles. Although there is an overlap it really performs a different function to the other two systems.
I tried all three tools but I focussed on Mendelay because it seemed like the most relevant. I use Firefox at home so Zoetero would work for me personally but its browser compatibility issues would make it harder to recommend it to students.
Mendelay compares well to Endnote particularly bearing in mind that it is free and the latter is a commercial product.
· It performs the essential functions of a reference management system so it would save students time and make their lives easier.
· It would also almost guarantee that their references were correctly set out. This isn't always the case when they do their references by hand.
· It is easy to use. Give yourself time to explore it but once you've had a look round it will all make sense.
· The "watched folder" feature is a really nice touch. It means that Mendelay can be used to tidy your research up if you've allowed it to get a little messy.
Areas for improvement
· Why does everything have to be a download? Very few workplaces will let you download anything without begging. I don't know about other institutions but at my own place students wouldn't be able to download this onto a college computer. There's definitely a gap in the market for a web-based, free, reference management system. Unless anyone knows of one?
· It's easy to use once you've spent some time playing with it. There might be space to make it a bit more intuitive though. I'm picturing a slightly panicked student trying to use it at the last minute.
Reference management systems are genuinely a great idea. I'm happy to have two new free systems that I can recommend to students. At the moment I'm particularly pleased with Mendelay but I will look at Zoetero in more detail in the future.
A good reference management system is one of those tools that put you in danger of coming across as insufferably smug when talking to people who aren't using them. I know this because back in my student days I wasn't an early adopter of this technology. That was foolish of me because we had free access to Endnote so there was no excuse. Once I got into the swing of things I learnt to love Endnote. Who doesn't love technology which genuinely saves you time and makes your life easier?
Thing 13 asked us to look at two free reference management systems, Zoetero and Mendelay. We were also encouraged to try Citeulike, a tool which is primarily designed for sharing articles. Although there is an overlap it really performs a different function to the other two systems.
I tried all three tools but I focussed on Mendelay because it seemed like the most relevant. I use Firefox at home so Zoetero would work for me personally but its browser compatibility issues would make it harder to recommend it to students.
Mendelay compares well to Endnote particularly bearing in mind that it is free and the latter is a commercial product.
· It performs the essential functions of a reference management system so it would save students time and make their lives easier.
· It would also almost guarantee that their references were correctly set out. This isn't always the case when they do their references by hand.
· It is easy to use. Give yourself time to explore it but once you've had a look round it will all make sense.
· The "watched folder" feature is a really nice touch. It means that Mendelay can be used to tidy your research up if you've allowed it to get a little messy.
Areas for improvement
· Why does everything have to be a download? Very few workplaces will let you download anything without begging. I don't know about other institutions but at my own place students wouldn't be able to download this onto a college computer. There's definitely a gap in the market for a web-based, free, reference management system. Unless anyone knows of one?
· It's easy to use once you've spent some time playing with it. There might be space to make it a bit more intuitive though. I'm picturing a slightly panicked student trying to use it at the last minute.
Reference management systems are genuinely a great idea. I'm happy to have two new free systems that I can recommend to students. At the moment I'm particularly pleased with Mendelay but I will look at Zoetero in more detail in the future.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Cpd 23 - Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox
Spot the connection? The thread that ties these three tools together is that they are all used for collaborative working. They allow people to share documents and perhaps more importantly to work on the same document.
Google docs and wikis are both old friends. I haven't used google docs recently but it was a very useful during my Masters course. Using google docs allowed us to work on a single document from our own homes. This made one particular group project much easier.
In the past I have contributed to wikis about teaching and about career development. I've also asked students to create a wiki as a class project. They are an easy to use tool and they can be good fun. As other participants have commented they aren't really something that most people would integrate into their daily working lives but that isn't really their function. Their strength is allowing groups to share their collective knowledge, experiences or learning.
Dropbox on the other hand is a new tool for me. Is it going to become a new friend? Well, I hope so. It looks like it could be very useful. The downside is that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to download it at work. Even if I can't it is still good to know about tools like this. They might prove useful in the future. Also as a college librarian I like to be able to talk to students about the different tools that might help them with their studies.
Tools like these have the power to make collaborative work much easier.
Google docs and wikis are both old friends. I haven't used google docs recently but it was a very useful during my Masters course. Using google docs allowed us to work on a single document from our own homes. This made one particular group project much easier.
In the past I have contributed to wikis about teaching and about career development. I've also asked students to create a wiki as a class project. They are an easy to use tool and they can be good fun. As other participants have commented they aren't really something that most people would integrate into their daily working lives but that isn't really their function. Their strength is allowing groups to share their collective knowledge, experiences or learning.
Dropbox on the other hand is a new tool for me. Is it going to become a new friend? Well, I hope so. It looks like it could be very useful. The downside is that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to download it at work. Even if I can't it is still good to know about tools like this. They might prove useful in the future. Also as a college librarian I like to be able to talk to students about the different tools that might help them with their studies.
Tools like these have the power to make collaborative work much easier.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
CPD 23 - Thing 9 - Evernote
"You want to be able to make comments on webpages and archive them along with your own notes so that everything is all in the one place and easy to access." - CPD 23 Blog
Erm. Do I? Now you mention it that might be useful but it's not a problem that's been keeping me up at night. The cpd 23 blog entry about evernote starts off with this 'problem'.
Once I'd got over the slight sense that cpd 23 was making up problems for me to worry about I realised that this might actually be useful. I decided to try using evernote to organise and make notes on my professional reading.
Evernote does have the potential to help me. Being able to make notes on blog entries, articles etc might help to make my professional reading more effective.
I'm just starting to explore this tool really. For example I haven't tried the photo feature yet but so far it looks interesting.
Perhaps most importantly evernote gives you a cool elephant icon. What's not to like?
Erm. Do I? Now you mention it that might be useful but it's not a problem that's been keeping me up at night. The cpd 23 blog entry about evernote starts off with this 'problem'.
Once I'd got over the slight sense that cpd 23 was making up problems for me to worry about I realised that this might actually be useful. I decided to try using evernote to organise and make notes on my professional reading.
Evernote does have the potential to help me. Being able to make notes on blog entries, articles etc might help to make my professional reading more effective.
I'm just starting to explore this tool really. For example I haven't tried the photo feature yet but so far it looks interesting.
Perhaps most importantly evernote gives you a cool elephant icon. What's not to like?
CPD 23 -Thing 8 - Google Calender
Reading others' work before you do your own is a mistake. I would have thought that the danger is that you worry about saying the same thing as everyone else but actually I feel left out and worse a little behind the times. I use a paper diary at work and perhaps odder my library uses a paper shared diary which we all update with meetings and so on. Is that hopelessly oldfashioned? I've never thought of it as unusual before. I've used outlook calender in other jobs but those teams were larger and spread out across a wider area.
Other cpd23ers seem to either already use Google calender at work or their workplace uses outlook calender to coordinate everyone. Perhaps we should be using google calender? I hate to let go of retro chic and I can see the advantage of just picking up a diary. It means people don't have to be logged onto a computer in order to check what's happening or to make an appointment.
In terms of embedding a calender in our website the college already has an online calender on our VLE which we do use to keep users informed.
My own investigation of Google calender suggests that it is a good online calender. It does what it should in terms of letting you organise your own life and it offers calender sharing options that would be useful for collaborative work or keeping a workplace coordinated. It can also be embedded into a website in order to promote events or to keep people informed about opening hours and such like. It's all very useful. I will look into using it at work.
Other cpd23ers seem to either already use Google calender at work or their workplace uses outlook calender to coordinate everyone. Perhaps we should be using google calender? I hate to let go of retro chic and I can see the advantage of just picking up a diary. It means people don't have to be logged onto a computer in order to check what's happening or to make an appointment.
In terms of embedding a calender in our website the college already has an online calender on our VLE which we do use to keep users informed.
My own investigation of Google calender suggests that it is a good online calender. It does what it should in terms of letting you organise your own life and it offers calender sharing options that would be useful for collaborative work or keeping a workplace coordinated. It can also be embedded into a website in order to promote events or to keep people informed about opening hours and such like. It's all very useful. I will look into using it at work.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
CPD23 - Thing 4 – Current Awareness
Thing 4 is all about using different tools to keep up to date with the fast moving library world. We all try to stay informed and engaged but the myriad distractions of everyday life and the disorientating effects of information overload mean that it can be tricky. I have been asked to investigate three online tools that are designed to help.
Current Awareness Tool Reviews
1. Twitter
The first tool is one that I imagine almost everyone on the scheme was already fairly familiar with. Although no doubt some people have previously recoiled in horror from the thought of being overloaded with celebrity gossip and random comments.
Current awareness of library and information issues was actually my original reason for joining Twitter. On the first day of my Library Science course we were told to sign up. Our lecturers wanted us to use it to communicate with them and with each other. They also highlighted its use as a current awareness tool. But behind those practical arguments was the clear implication that this was the future of information and we needed to be a part of it. It did prove to be a useful tool for staying in touch with other students, sharing information and for developing awareness. Is this the future? It is always too soon to tell.
Since signing up I’ve slipped into using it for other things. I found some of my non library friends on there. I also went through a period when I was mostly using it to publish very short stories on the excellent but sadly now defunct tweetzine Thaumatrope. (Is tweetzine a real word? I might have just made that up.)
As an aside I should say that I found @UKLibraryJobs very useful when I was trying to find my first professional librarian post. I recommend following them if you’re job hunting.
Prior to setting up this blog I did go through a bit of a tweet drought. CPD 23 has already helped to bring me back into the flow. I’ve been using twitter to tell people about my blog posts. I’ve also started following some of my fellow participants. Mostly because I was following their blogs and I thought having them on my tweet feed would remind me to read their entries.
I’ve also increased the number of library and information thought leaders that I’m following. I intend to use the crowd sourced recommendations on the CPD23 blog to start following even more interesting and insightful library folk.
2. RSS
RSS feeds are a useful way to make your online reading more organised. You can bring together the latest updates from all the blogs and such like that you follow. This is one of those online tools that I’ve long thought I probably should be using.
I have now signed up with Google reader as recommended. I will gradually build up the number of RSS feeds that I follow. I think this will quickly become a helpful part of my online routine. I do need a way to make my professional reading a bit more focussed.
As a note of warning if you have only just signed up to Google reader I’m not sure following the whole cpd23 bundle is the best way to start. My experience was that opening that led to a serious sense of information overload. I’m sure they are all great but I’d rather slowly build up the number I follow or just wander from blog to blog when I have some time to spare.
3. Pushnote
Social media tools have a bit of a chicken and egg problem. However clever the actual tool is they are only really useful if a reasonable number of people are using them. In most cases preferably people you know.
As far as I can tell I don’t know many people who are using pushnote. This means that I am unlikely to make much use of it myself. It would be different if there was a sense of enthusiasm from cpd23 participants. We could just use it amongst ourselves to share useful library or professional development websites. Presumably that was the plan. Unfortunately my impression is that the group consensus is that people are fairly underwhelmed by pushnote. Please let me know if that’s wrong.
This must be very annoying for people who are trying to develop new social media tools. There seems to be only two ways round it.
1. Aim your product at a niche market. Design it for people who share a particular interest or specialist need.
2. Make sure that your product has a unique selling point. It should be doing something that the more established services don’t.
Pushnote is clearly meant for the general market so I can only assume that we are meant to see it as a tool that does something new. I’m not convinced. I feel that we already have lots of ways of using social media to recommend websites to each other.
Not being compatible with Internet Explorer is probably a handicap in terms of gaining a larger number of users. For our purposes it means that fewer of us can even try it at work. Like many libraries my own workplace uses IE. This is something that the pushnote team should try to sort out.
As I write this I’m haunted by a nagging fear that this last review will look silly in a year’s time. Perhaps everyone will be using this. Of course if they are it will be much more useful and I will probably join them. Chickens and eggs.
Current Awareness Tool Reviews
1. Twitter
The first tool is one that I imagine almost everyone on the scheme was already fairly familiar with. Although no doubt some people have previously recoiled in horror from the thought of being overloaded with celebrity gossip and random comments.
Current awareness of library and information issues was actually my original reason for joining Twitter. On the first day of my Library Science course we were told to sign up. Our lecturers wanted us to use it to communicate with them and with each other. They also highlighted its use as a current awareness tool. But behind those practical arguments was the clear implication that this was the future of information and we needed to be a part of it. It did prove to be a useful tool for staying in touch with other students, sharing information and for developing awareness. Is this the future? It is always too soon to tell.
Since signing up I’ve slipped into using it for other things. I found some of my non library friends on there. I also went through a period when I was mostly using it to publish very short stories on the excellent but sadly now defunct tweetzine Thaumatrope. (Is tweetzine a real word? I might have just made that up.)
As an aside I should say that I found @UKLibraryJobs very useful when I was trying to find my first professional librarian post. I recommend following them if you’re job hunting.
Prior to setting up this blog I did go through a bit of a tweet drought. CPD 23 has already helped to bring me back into the flow. I’ve been using twitter to tell people about my blog posts. I’ve also started following some of my fellow participants. Mostly because I was following their blogs and I thought having them on my tweet feed would remind me to read their entries.
I’ve also increased the number of library and information thought leaders that I’m following. I intend to use the crowd sourced recommendations on the CPD23 blog to start following even more interesting and insightful library folk.
2. RSS
RSS feeds are a useful way to make your online reading more organised. You can bring together the latest updates from all the blogs and such like that you follow. This is one of those online tools that I’ve long thought I probably should be using.
I have now signed up with Google reader as recommended. I will gradually build up the number of RSS feeds that I follow. I think this will quickly become a helpful part of my online routine. I do need a way to make my professional reading a bit more focussed.
As a note of warning if you have only just signed up to Google reader I’m not sure following the whole cpd23 bundle is the best way to start. My experience was that opening that led to a serious sense of information overload. I’m sure they are all great but I’d rather slowly build up the number I follow or just wander from blog to blog when I have some time to spare.
3. Pushnote
Social media tools have a bit of a chicken and egg problem. However clever the actual tool is they are only really useful if a reasonable number of people are using them. In most cases preferably people you know.
As far as I can tell I don’t know many people who are using pushnote. This means that I am unlikely to make much use of it myself. It would be different if there was a sense of enthusiasm from cpd23 participants. We could just use it amongst ourselves to share useful library or professional development websites. Presumably that was the plan. Unfortunately my impression is that the group consensus is that people are fairly underwhelmed by pushnote. Please let me know if that’s wrong.
This must be very annoying for people who are trying to develop new social media tools. There seems to be only two ways round it.
1. Aim your product at a niche market. Design it for people who share a particular interest or specialist need.
2. Make sure that your product has a unique selling point. It should be doing something that the more established services don’t.
Pushnote is clearly meant for the general market so I can only assume that we are meant to see it as a tool that does something new. I’m not convinced. I feel that we already have lots of ways of using social media to recommend websites to each other.
Not being compatible with Internet Explorer is probably a handicap in terms of gaining a larger number of users. For our purposes it means that fewer of us can even try it at work. Like many libraries my own workplace uses IE. This is something that the pushnote team should try to sort out.
As I write this I’m haunted by a nagging fear that this last review will look silly in a year’s time. Perhaps everyone will be using this. Of course if they are it will be much more useful and I will probably join them. Chickens and eggs.
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