Friday, April 2, 2010

Thing 7: Using slideshare

Slideshare is a free web 2.0 tool that lets you upload PowerPoint or Open office presentations and share them online. You can also use Slideshare to research a subject to see what others have said to help you put your presentation together.

Some of the things you can do on Slideshare are:

  • share slideshows publicly or privately. There are several ways to share privately
  • synch audio to your slides
  • market your event on slideshare
  • join groups to connect with Slideshare members who share your interests
  • download the original PowerPoint / pdf file
  • embed your presentation into web 2.0 tools such as Blogs, Twitter or Facebook
  • add tags to your presentations to make it easy for others to find
  • and add comments to others' presentations

Note: slideshare does not support motion - so keep your presentation simple eg no fancy flyins etc

Users who upload presentation can choose to make them available to be downloaded. After you have uploaded a slideshow, you can go to the 'edit your slideshows' page and either keep 'All Rights Reserved' or choose from one of the Creative Commons licenses.

A useful tip: first convert your .ppt presentation to .pdf and then upload. Images in your presentation will render so much clearer.

Discovery exercise

  1. Signup for a free account with Slideshare

  2. Search for slideshows that interest you

  3. Post a comment below about your experience...let us know if you found it useful...would go back again....what you liked....disliked etc
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Thing 6: Wikis

Wikis are a collaboration tool designed to engage people in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration. Wikis allow users to easily add, remove and edit content.

The most well known example of a wikis is Wikipedia, an online open-community encyclopedia that is written and maintained by..well anyone. If someone makes an inappropriate entry, anyone can reinstate an older version. Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

  • anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content
  • tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom
  • earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed
  • and users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content.
Some people use wikis to conduct virtual meetings, projects, schoolteachers are posting assisgnments and receiving feedback from parents and children, and businesses are using it to keep up to date with best practise. Libraries have developed their own learning & development wiki to encourage best practise and sharing of ideas.


Discovery exercise

  1. Watch the you tube video wikis in plain english

  2. Using this wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich - or so says their maker PB works. Use the following username and password to sign in to the PB wiki:
    Username:     acl.elgar@gmail.com
    Password: aclweb20

  3. Choose one of the entry points to add stuff to the PB wiki, it could be your favourite holiday destination, movie, book, recipe or a joke etc...Yes it really is that easy to use.
    Post a comment below about what you learned...what you did...liked...disliked etc about wikis.
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Thing 5: Delicious

The social bookmarking site Delicious allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorise your bookmarks. Many users find that the real power of Delicious is in the social network aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you.Libraries encourage staff to set up their own Delicious accounts to bookmark their favourite websites to help them keep up to date with best practise, to use as a research tool and answer customer queries.Here is an optional discovery resource that you may find useful:

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Take a look at Social Bookmarking in Plain English and create a Del.icio.us account for yourself.

  2. Explore the site options and add at least 5 bookmarks eg Auckland City Libraries website. Note: try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorise this reference?

  3. Post a comment below about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance, or is it just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? What did you like...dislike...what surprised you...do you think you will go back?
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Thing 4: Join Twitter

Twitter is a miniature blog. A personal blog for those that want to keep others informed about what they are doing, but don't want to spend hours crafting a post. Users send and receive short messages (less than 140 characters) - known as tweets via computers or mobile devices. You just say what's up and leave it at that!

The popularity and growth of Twitter since its launch in August 2006 has been astonishing and has now moved into the domain of uber coolness. Movie and rock stars are tweating, companies are into it - everyone seems to be tweeting! Perhaps this is due to its simplicity as a way to keep in touch with others using the computer or a mobile device. Twitter is New Zealand's 39th most popular website.

You may be reading this and wonder why anyone would be interested in what tv programme you are watching, what you ate for lunch or which shop you bought a new shirt (you'd be surprised). People use Twitter to find out what others are doing, get quick feedback on ideas, store thoughts, advertise jobs, keep up with news, get updates on events, blogs, websites etc and of course for fun.

Twitter lingo
  • Tweet - a twitter message up to 140 characters long. Messages are public unless a profile is protected (or have a private setting)
  • RT or retweet - when you forward someone else's tweet because you think it particularly good. Twitter etiquette is to quote the source eg "Cool stuff RT@username check out this cool site http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/"
  • Timeline - this is your homepage on Twitter. It shows all the messages you send and messages that people you are following send. If you aren't signed in you will only see the tweets sent by the tweeter. It also applies to any collection of tweets
  • Following/Lurking - you don't have to say anything if you don't want to, you can lurk and follow tweets. If you find a fellow tweeter interesting, simply click on the big 'Follow' button beneath their username and every message they send will be funnelled directly to your Twitter stream - a list of tweets you see when you go to your twitter account
  • Hash tags - are a great way to tag your tweets. You usually use hashtags when tracking a particular topic eg #akldlibraries2010"
  • @replies - you can send a public message to any tweeter by putting their username with an @ symbol in front of it. An @reply works kind of like email in that the recipient will be able to see they have a message directed to them.
  • and there are lots more

Twitter tip

It is quite common to see shortened URL addresses from tinyURL or bity.ly in twitter updates. These websites allow you to enter a long URL and turn it into a short one. Twitter is limited to 140 characters so this can be quite useful.

Discovery exercises

  1. Watch Twitter and Twitter search in plain english video.

  2. Join Twitter, search for words, people, places or hash tags and follow at least two tweeters. If you are having trouble finding anyone, here are some examples of those on Twitter:Ashton Kutcher; Britney Spears; Ellen deGeneres;Greenpeace; Jamie Oliver; John Cleese; John Key; Manukau City Library;National Library; Stephen Fry

  3. Send someone a tweet and post a comment below about who you found....was it easy...was it hard...did you like it.....couldn't see the point....how could you use twitter etc

Optional extra

  • If you are looking to grow your follower base you can look at Just Tweet It or Twellow to find users with similar interests
  • If you follow more than two people it starts to get hard to follow. A third party twitter client such as TweetDeck provides dynamic searches and allows you to create groups that automatically separates messages into specific categories.
  • Read this article on how to use twitter lists
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Thing 3: Playing with Flickr

It took a small startup site called Flickr (and now owned by Yahoo) to catapult the idea of “photo sharing websites” into a full blown online community. You can show your photos to the world, share them privately with friends, use tools to crop or edit photos and manage them into groups. A basic flickr account is free and an easy way to share photos with friends.

Flickr uses "tags" or what we would call keywords to help identify and search for photos. Find out how tags work and what groups are.

Following are some optional discovery resources that you may find useful:

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Watch online photosharing in plain english to get an overview of Flickr. Then take the Flickr Learn More tour to find out more about other features.

  2. Search for photos that interest you. If you have time... create your own free Flickr account

  3. Post a comment below post and tell us about your experience....what you liked...what you didn't....if you would set up your own account etc
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Thing 2: Personal and business social networking sites

You may have heard of websites such as MySpace, Bebo, FaceBook and LinkedIn but have you taken the plunge and joined?

Personal social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, allow users to create a profile of themselves, upload pictures and be "friends" with other users - like an online diary. In most social networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked. MySpace became the most popular personal social networking site in the the USA in 2006 but was overtaken by Facebook in 2008. Generally over 30s crowd use Facebook and Bebo is aimed at the younger market.

Business social networking sites such as LinkedIn offers a way to build professional relationships and boost your personal brand. Your profile should say who you are, what you do, what your point of difference is and why should we use you.

Discovery resources


Discovery exercise
  1. Choose one of the social networking sites listed above that you would like to explore and sign in.

  2. Search for a friend, topic of interest or group that interests you and request to be a friend or join the group.

  3. Post a comment below and reflect about what worked for you...and what didn't....what surprised you...what frustrated you....what amazed you...or even which of the social networking sites you liked best.
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Thing 1: Set up your own blog and add your first post

To blog or not to blog...why even start? Blogging is a useful online tool for people to write their thoughts about a particular subject. Communities of interest develop around bloggers because they share an interest in the subject and like their style of writing. People can choose to either lurk or watch and/or contribute to ideas posted. Following are some examples of blogs:

Discovery Exercise:

  1. Create a Blogger account using an anonymous blog name that is unique to you. Remember to write down or bookmark the URL address of your blog (URL is the address at the top of the screen, and looks kinda like this http://www.nameofblog.blogspot.com/) A useful tip when signing in is to use your computer login and password because it is easy for you to remember.

  2. Play around with your blog and customise it. Click on any of the folders or try changing the template, perhaps the font or colours and get familiar with the different features on Blogger. And....if you have time, write your first post...tell us what you did, was it easy or hard?

  3. Post a comment below and reflect on what you did....what worked for you....what didn't....what surprised you...and if you think this tool is useful. Also post a comment on this blog about what you did.
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