Emma Duke-Williams :: Blog :: Archives
http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/04/geo-l The Guardian’s technology section has an article on 3 different sites that allow users to upload photos and associate them with a particular location. While I like the way that Geograph has a UK focus (though you seem to have to know the OS grid reference, rather than the postcode as the Guardian article suggests), I really like the way that Whoopy works. (Luckily it’s in English, despite being Dutch)
Tags: Other Web 2.0 
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/04/gizmo I blogged about Gizmo a while ago. Since then I’d more or less forgotten about it, until I read about it recently, when the discussions had come up in Elgg about the difficulties of using Spype in UAE. It would seem from this post in the Gizmo forums that it is allowed there, however, I’m reading it as “We allow you to use it”.
This report suggests that even though Gizmo allow for use in UAE, they have banned it anyway - as they ban based on packet types, rather than particular tools. Tags: Communication and Communities digital divide majority world/gender/etc Gizmo Listen to this podcast
http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/05/tags- I have decided to deactivate the current tag plugin that I’m using (Ultimate tag Warrior). It was working by converting the categories to tags, and then allowing me to add extra ones. I’d only installed it to see if I was able to use it to generate tags on the Elgg site, but it didn’t really work as intended, as though the tags appeared, they were links, back to this site, rather than linking into the the Elgg tag system (I’m not really surprised). It just seemed to look funny to me - so I’ve removed them.
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/05/livel I’ve just been testing LiveLOOK - a Java based screen sharing application. You can’t control the other person’s screen, but you can see it; also, unlike NetMeeting, when specify the applications that you are sharing, this does as it says, shares the screen. I’m using Firefox Portable on this PC at the moment, which has Java on it. HOwever, it’s clearly not properly integrating with Firefox Portable, as when I tried to share the screen on this computer, it redirected me to the download for Java. It worked fine with IE, which has java properly integrated.
I have tried however, sharing a screen on another PC, and I can *see* it fine in Firefox Portable on this one, so I’m guessing that the viewer doesn’t have to have Java installed. (Though most people do)
It’s free till the end of the year; I’m not sure what the pricing will be after that.
Via: Robin Good
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/08/exper December 6th.. This went really well, though I did get caught on camera mopping the floor. At least our dummies won’t get MRSA!
It was also on the ITV local news (Go to news & features, then select Meridian Tonight - South for Dec 6th. They only archive them for a week).
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/11/using Vicki Davis gives a good overview of downloading, editing and then, crucially, ideas for how one might cite a section taken from Google video - as it’s something that the citation guides haven’t really taken on board … yet.
The video that she has about citing, uses CitationMachine, something that David Warlick has helped to develop. I’ve had a look, but as it doesn’t have Harvard as one of the citation systems, I’m not sure how useful it will be. I’ve looked at Zotero - the Firefox plugin that I’m using, and that has options for Video/ TV/ Radio so that should allow the same sort of data. Zotero doesn’t automatically output as Harvard - but I can output the data in a form that EndNote can import. (Which I can’t test immediately with a record for a video, as I’ve not got EndNote on this PC).
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/11/recon I’d not heard of this particular journal before, but a post by Lilia Efimoava points to it. (The initial link isn’t working, but just select one of the others). The papers cover wide range of aspects. I’ve not read them all yet, but I have read Saper’s Blogademia - where he seems to be focussing quite a lot of the personal/ gossip side of academic blogs. As that’s something I’ve not really got into, I’ve tended to keep mine very much work focussed, I did start to wonder if I’m more typical, or if those he’s studied are.
Of course, as has often been pointed out before, “blog” is just a word; just as many people have diaries, many have blogs - the range of uses of both is massive!
Christian Long points to a paper that Fred Stutzman wrote. Stutzman puts a view more similar to mine, pointing out:
Because we gossip on the telephone does not mean all phone conversations are gossip; unfortunately, the notion pervades that all blogs are simply pulpits for one to spill mundane details on one’s personal existence.
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/11/how-d Quite often, students are required to blog as part of their coursework. Many staff, as I do, hope that by requiring students to blog initially, over time they’ll start to realise the intrinsic worth of blogging. , However, if we require students to blog, clearly we have to mark blogs, which poses an interesting dilemma, given a blog is essentially personal. How do you evaluate something that is personal?
It’s for this reason that many teachers who use blogging have particular requirements - such as “it should be reflective”, or “you should comment on other’s posts”.
David Warlick looks at this dilemma, pointing to a marking scheme from San Diego State University, which covers different aspects of blogging.
The comments have pointers to quite a few other marking guidelines.
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http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/12/12/porta I’ve mentioned previously running software from a USB stick - and what I might put on it to make a “learning kit”. When I first tried, it was a case of downloading several Portable Apps & just putting them on a USB stick. Now the site that offers the Portable apps has also added a front end so you can have a start menu rather like Windows Start Menu. As well as the start menu, which is “nice”, it also includes backup features (you can choose where to back up to) - which is defintely “useful”.
There are quite a few apps, I’ve got most of them, and have added Moinmoin desktop, which was automatically added to the menu. I’ve now installed some of the extensions such as Zotero for students. The main drawback that I’ve found is that it’s not possible to install Java to the stick, so if you are using websites that require Java, you have to be using a PC that has Java installed.
On my massive new 2GB USB stick (we now have a branch of Novatech in the Uni), I have still got about 1.6 GB free for data etc.
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