Problems along the way (cont.)
Wikispaces vs. PBworks
Q: what kind of Wiki site is easier for the Newbies, Wikispaces or PBworks etc. to start with for the first time? (VictorK, 26jan11)
A: I'm a 100% wikispaces fan (let the battle commence !) Why ?
- because I can open as many wikis as I want (create a wiki for each class you have or for small projects with colleagues is cool !)
- I can have wikis without adverts (see on the help page - K12 teacher plan)
- I can create passwords for all my pupils really easily !
- I can track all my wikis on an easy dashboard
- I can upload just about anything ( you can now embed glogster easily which is very good news !)
So I'm a wikispaces fan (I'm not earning any money here honest !) but I'm sure other bawers have different opinions !
Here are some wikis I visit to give you an idea of their variety !
http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/
and one I'm using now with my class to stock our videos in one easy access place
http://echangeculturel-vizillelakeplacid.wikispaces.com/
(Helen, 26jan11)
A: There are lots of educational wikis around; you can consult this wiki
about wikis:
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Articles+and+Resources
and examples:
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
I created some to use with my students, for example:
http://classghj.wikispaces.com/
http://myonlineclass.pbworks.com/w/page/10553733/FrontPage
http://bionline.wetpaint.com/
(Fernanda, 26jan11)
A: I also prefer wikispaces, seems very user friendly environment. PB works is a bit more complicated and does not give you so many free wikis. (Svetlana, 27jan11)
Qwiki
I read about Qwiki in a blog. It's so interesting.I would like share with all the Bawers http://www.qwiki.com/
(Yoon/Sookjhee, 27jan11)
It seems an audio and visio version of wikipédia. It's cool! (Wen Jun/Michelle Tang, 27jan11)
What I like most in it is the text-to-speech service which turns the wiki into a database of tutorials. (Mbarek, 27jan11)
YouTube Social
I'd like to share with you this service which allows watching youtube videos together with your contacts from facebook or invited via a direct URL with a chat box embedded in the interface .
YouTube Social lets you and your friends watch videos at the same time and chat through one unified web interface. http://tinyurl.com/5szozc7
(Mbarek, 28jan11)
That's one of the many potentials of YouTube Social. You can invite your students by sending them the room URL or invite them from your facebook contacts which is available as a feature on this platform. (Mbarek, 29jan11)
I have looked at youtubesocial, not bad, but it is for a limited number of viewers. For videos to be used by the whole group of students you can simply create your own channel and place the videos you want them to watch there and give them all the URL.
Like e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kajpdf
Hugs
Svetlana (29Jan11)
Nicenet
I used a lot Nicenet. http://nicenet.org/
It is very safe, NO ADVERTISING, allows placing links for students, documents, they can have a discussion thread there, send letters through this medium, upload their homework for all to see. We used it a lot and my students like it. (Svetlana, 28jan11)
Nicenet has very useful features such as conferencing ( forum ), link sharing, documents (only text ), class schedule and class members. When you create a class you get a code which you send to your students to allow them access to their class. (Mbarek, 29jan11)
Yahoo Mail
Changing language
- go to Account Information, Account Settings
- choose the language in Set language, site, time zone
- save the changes (Fernanda, 30Jan11)
Blended learning
Q: asked about the translation of "blended" last time, can you please translate it into Russian ? I don`t understand the "blended courses", so what does it mean in Russian, I am wondering. (Victor, 30Jan11)
A: "Blended" means смешивание (I am sorry for direct translation). You teach online and in face-to-face environment for the same class and students. For example, you have one class per a week for face-to-face instruction teaching grammar. In class, you discuss and explain the new grammar construction. Then, the next class will be online (the same week)- synchronous or asynchronous, it depends on you. You may use wiki for the second class during that week. Students may have an assignment (separate and online) to complete a writing paragraph (for example) and you check their grammar accuracy. Usually the second part (online) can be done in range of dates - during the last 4 days of a week (starting Thursday until Sunday for example). You may have assessment online as the second class, etc. This is a very simple explanation of what blended learning and teaching is - you blend (do you use blender at home? in your kitchen to mix food?), it is like the same definition - you mix approaches in teaching (Larissa, 30Jan11)
WiZiQ
Signing in for a class/session
Q: Can someone explain it to me how to register on classes? (Marijana, 2Feb11)
A: If you click on Join the class - WiZiQ will ask you to sign-in or sign-up. If you have WiZiQ account, click on sign-in and you will automatically be added (Larissa, 2Feb11)
Q: But I want to know how to join the class directly from WiziQ, when I sing in and open your profile!?(Marijana, 2Feb11)
A: You need to be invited directly from WiZiQ to see my class. I will do that and you will get it in your WiZiQ (Larissa, 2Feb11)
Bookmarking: which tool to choose?
Q: I heard about some bookmarking sites and how useful they might be such as (netvibes, diigo, delicious). As a newbie, I need the help of those of you who have been using any of them to know which one is better or what are the differences between them, or any advice before using any??! (Ayat, 5Feb11)
A: I have accounts both at delicious and diigo. I started by using delicious and then imported my bookmarks into diigo, but I can't remember why I decided to change.
Diigo has a practical toolbar and what they call digolet, which makes it very easy to bookmark.
Diigo has a faq about both:
http://www.diigo.com/transition-from-delicious-to-diigo-faq
What can you do with Diigo that you cannot with Delicious?
Bookmark
- - save bookmarks as private by default (optional)
- - organize your bookmarks as a list and shown as a slide
- - set up groups to pool resources and curate content
- - automatically bookmark your twitter favorites
- - keep a full-text copy of your bookmarks (Premium features)
- - full-text search of your bookmarks (Premium features)
- - save notes and images, in addition to bookmarks
Annotation
- - use highlights and sticky notes as you read - do not just bookmark
- - capture a portion of the screen and annotate on the screenshot
What can you do with Delicious that you cannot with Diigo?
Diigo does not support tag bundles. Delicious organizes bookmarks by tags, and tags by bundles. Diigo organizes bookmarks by tags, lists and groups.
I also found this opinion:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-reasons-diigo-tastes-better-than-delicious/
I hope it helps you decide. (Fernanda, 5Feb11)
A: Concerning bookmarking , I invite you to have a look at , Delicious or not Delicious , a recent post on my blog in which I tried to make a comparison between diigo and delicious as two powerful tools of social bookmarking . I hope it would answer a part of your inquiry. (Mbarek, 5Feb11)
Hot Potatoes
Need to download HotPot or not?
Q: I need to know if to create exercises in Hot Potatoes I have to download the program. When I go to the site, it tells that I need to do so. Can you help? (MariaB, 7Feb11)
A: Yes you do need to download the programme (HelenD, 7Feb11)
Uploading exercises to a wiki
Q: If you have a wiki, you can upload your HP exercises to it and create a link... Well, I do have a wiki, so I created another page in it and wanted to upload at least one of my HP exercises, just to try it, but did not figure out how. The only thing I can do is create a link to exercises I have elsewhere on the web (Svetlana, 5Feb11)
A: Let me try to explain things in a simple way. When you create a HotPot exercise, you should always save it as a HP file first (it's like a backup), I mean, with a HP extension such as .jcz or .jcw . Actually, that's the file that opens the exercise in your computer. (And you can change/edit it anytime.)
When you want to create a .html file (or webpage) of your exercise so you can upload it, you do this:
- open your exercise
- in the "File" menu select "Create Web page" > Standard format
- click "View the exercise in my browser" ((if you like it, then...)
- click "Save"
To upload it to the wiki (PBworks), you only need the HotPot .html file. Do the following:
- click the "Edit" tab in your wiki page
- click "Images and files" on the right frame (same as you did for uploading your photo in week 1)
- click "Upload files"
- in the window that opens, find the file you want to upload, click on it and click the "Open" button (bottom right)
- wait for the file to be uploaded to the wiki
Q: This way helps those teachers who do not own space on websites and want to upload HP for their students. However, there is a catch - you can only upload regular HP exercises, without pictures. I tried to upload one exercise where I have pictures and it does not work properly. I suspected it and understand fully why - there is relative link to pictures, not absolute link. I left it there for you to see.
A: After receiving your second message, I remembered that if we create a folder with all the files related to the exercise, it works. I tried it and it worked. :-)
So... there is a way out in PBworks for HotPot exercises with images. I don't know about audio, but I guess it's the same, though I don't have an exercise of this type to experiment with.
How to upload a HotPot exercise with images to PBworks (all this takes place in the "Pages & Files" page):
- click the "Pages & Files" tab, then click the arrow in the "New" button and select "Create a folder"
- name the folder (I named it "HotPot")
- click the "Upload files" button ((next to the "New" button)
- in the new window, select the files to upload and click the "Open" button
- check the files you want to move to the folder you created (in my case, I checked the image files and the .htm file)
- click the "Move" button
To place the link to your exercise in the wiki,
- go to the wiki page where you want your exercise
- click the "Edit" tab
- on the right, click the "Images and files" tab
- place the cursor where you want the link
- click the .htm file of your exercise (and see the link appear)
- click the "Save" button
Take a look at my example. http://www.digibridge.net/teresadeca/school/exs6/body-mt.htm
In Wikispaces you can't create folders (I couldn't find how, anyway), so I uploaded the 15 files associated to the "Parts of the body" exercise by going to the "Manage Wiki" page and clicking "Files". Then went to the HotPot page, clicked the "File" button and, finally, clicked the exercise .htm file. The link was put in place at once and the exercise works great. It's a private wiki, so I wouldn't like to give the link. (Teresa, 6Feb11)
A: If you look at the URL of the flags exercise, notice that there's an /f/ before the name of the file. I believe that means "folder".
I have further good news. We don't need to stick to the somewhat unpleasant looking link, such as "body-mt.htm" or "flags2.htm".
I just tried creating a link to a name I like for the exercise. Instead of "body-mt.htm, I called it "Parts of the body". This in PBworks.
- give your file a name (in my case, Parts of the body)
- select/highlight the complete name
- then click the name of the file under "Images and files" (on the right)
Voilá!!!! I think it looks much better. Take a look, Svetlana!
http://teresadeca.pbworks.com/w/page/35855231/hotpot_exos
It can also be done in Wikispaces. (Teresa, 6Feb11)
Tutorials
There are tutorials here for the several types of exercises:
http://hotpot.uvic.ca/tutorials6.php (Fernanda, 6Feb11)
Storing files online
Q: Can I store my folders in my PB works blog, then ? And how to act to do it? If not, where else in the Web can I store my folders and other stuff? (Victor, 7Feb11)
You can upload files to Pb works and Wikispaces as well, up to a certain amount, of course. When you are on the chosen Wiki page, you just need to click on File, Upload, and afterwards doubleclick on the uploaded file. It will appear in your page. Then don't forget to save the page. (Anisoara, 7Feb11)
A: If you want storage space I use "Google docs" to store all sorts of non audio/video documents - this is very useful as you can access your documents wherever you are and edit them with people.
Otherwise "dropbox" is a very useful way to store and share documents (audio and video too)
https://www.dropbox.com/
I'm exploring it now - so why not give it a try ! It seems to have a lot of potential ! (HelenD, 7Feb11)
A: For file storage you have for example Dropbox; I've used it for more than a year and it is great. You do't need to carry pens to school anymore or to copy files from your laptop to your desktop or viceversa. You can have access to your files in a browser or locally, providing you have internet access, they syncronize and you can have the same files in your computers.
http://www.dropbox.com/features
Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.
2GB of online storage for free, with up to 100GB available to paying customers.
Sync files of any size or type.
Sync Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected.
Sharing files is simple. It takes only a few clicks.
Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on the same files.
See other people's changes instantly.
Use your "Public" folder to link directly to files.
Control who has access to your shared folders. Kick people out and remove the shared files from their computers in the process.
Automatically create shareable online photo galleries out of regular folders.
There are other possibilities, but I have no experience of them:
http://www.fileden.com/
http://www.mediamax.com/
http://www.esnips.com/
http://www.box.net/
http://www.4shared.com/
http://www.elephantdrive.com/
(Fernanda, 7Feb11)