Web Design

Our next set of assignments pertains to web design, and one of the assignments is to create an HTML page which represents a portfolio of our assignments. The readings are from W3 Schools. After I've read and studied their tutorials, I should have a beginning foundation in web design. Once again I am utterly amazed at the quality of free resources available on the web. I'm looking forward to constructing my portfolio.

Jing video for del.icio.us add on for Firefox

Exciting time for educators and librarians.

There are so many exciting applications available on the web that educators can use to enhance the learning process. Instructors that encouraging their students to utilize applications as simple as a blog or a wiki; try a brainstorming session on bubbl.us, or a media application such as Jing or Voicethread, can move students beyond the tedium of a traditional classroom and may even create a sense of enthusiasm for a learning! These applications have the power to engage students, encourage collaboration, and in time build knowledge in a way that will tend to remain with them far longer than traditional teaching methods. These same applications can be used by libraries to build traffic on their website, instruct patrons to effectively use the library, build a spirit of community, and more.

Secure VPN tales of frustration

Of course I’m trying to beat the deadline on an assignment, and I only have a small piece of it to finish, so it was put off till the last minute because I thought it would only take a few minutes to complete. Well it took hours! For some reason I had a terrible time logging in to the VPN. It took multiple attempts. Then the database I was using moved sooo slowly, and then it would freeze up. Result: start over again. All the log ins must be repeated. The search has to be re-entered only to have the database move sooo slowly and then freeze again and again. Then it started to storm and I just knew I would lose power. Well I finally finished it, and I think everything was done correctly.

Jing

Too much fun! We have an upcoming assignment asking us to use “Jing”. It’s hard to believe such high quality and incredibly useful applications such as Jing are offered free to users. If you are unfamiliar with Jing, it’s an application that allows you to “grab an image or record a video”, then you can annotate and share your captured image or video. Pretty neat way to present instructional materials, or help a friend understand how to navigate an application. Here’s the url. Check it out for yourself. http://www.jingproject.com/

"Open Source Learning"

I love "TED" (Technology, Entertainment, Design.), so many interesting and inspiring talks. In class we recently identified material on open source computing for education and/or libraries. Here's a fabulous video from TED on open source learning. Richard Baraniuk is a university professor at Rice, and the founder of Connexions-an open source repository of educational materials. It's open to anyone to use for learning and/or contributing. Enjoy the video.

Scopus assignment

Wow. Talk about doing things the hard way. I probably shouldn’t even admit to making this mistake. The class assignment is to export our Scopus/Google Scholar references from RefWorks, into Word, using the APA format. I have all my references in a folder so I’m ready to export. I look over the exporting options offered by RefWorks and I don’t see how to use them, and use an APA format. I try a couple of the Exporting formats but nope, they definitely are not in APA style.

I open Word. I click on Write-N-Cite. So I start entering each reference individually using Write-N-Cite. I just had minor surgery on my hand so all this clicking is hurting me! I keep thinking there must be a better way. So I re-read export options in the Refworks help. I skim the tutorials RefWorks offers. Nope. I continue clicking, and I just know I can’t be doing this correctly. I’m so used to using Write-N-Cite I failed to notice the Bibliography options available in the full version of RefWorks until after I do a Google search and find a helpful illustration from Harvard. Thank you Google and Harvard.

SQL for Web Nerds

I finished reading SQL for Web Nerds, well I read it kind of fast! Imagine my surprise seeing in the afterword “Congratulations: You've learned SQL. You can tap into the power of the relational database management system for concurrency control and transaction management.” Wow. Never thought that could happen. Well it didn’t really, but I understood enough that I could go back and read it a little more thoroughly and then maybe I would be entitled to the author’s congratulations. Unfortunately I am still a little more interested in his dog pictures and found a link to the photographer’s site where she talks about photographing dogs. This is where I’m going to look around a little more. I don’t think Dr. Tomer expects us to become programmers but I do think we are expected to have some understanding of what is behind the tools we are using in our profession.

The author, Philip Greenspun, also suggests looking into “Web services for collaboration” and provides a link to his writings on this subject http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/. I will read this too when I have some free time. I like the way he writes and presents his information.

SQL for Web Nerds by Philip Greenspun

Normally an article on relational database management systems would have my eyes rolling to the back of my head by the third paragraph. However, I can honestly say this author has captured my interest (of course by posting his dog pictures, he got my attention right away.) I’ve only read the first few chapters tonight, and it’s a beautiful evening for a bike ride so I’m going to play hooky from my studies tonight. More tomorrow.

YouTube content- bookmarking with del.icio.us

I added a YouTube video successfully in my last post so let's try it again. This is a good video on using a number of the bookmarking features available in del.icio.us.

YouTube content- RSS and Google Reader

Thanks to a great idea from Ruth in the 2600 class, I am going to try to add a YouTube video on RSS and Google Reader. Let's see if I can make this happen.

Time

This semester I have time to complete my assignments before they are due. The past 2 semesters I've taken four classes and I was constantly up against a deadline of some kind. This semester I'm taking two, and I've completed one of them already. I've enjoyed the readings and completing the assignments this semester, and it's easier retain what I'm learning! Our text-Discovering Computers 2009, Complete is, I think, very good. At first I thought it would be a typical general information text but I've found it covers a great deal of information and clearly explains subjects I was a little foggy on.