Vizu Poll Tool...

Hey, I just found another cool tool, Vizu, a visual poll creator available online. The online web tool allows the registered user to create a self-scoring, animated poll that can be embedded on a site. Here is my first poll created with Vizu.

Online Surveys & Market Research

The poll is customizable for color, graphics, pie chart or bar graph, and scheduling the start/end dates for the published poll can be programmed at the time of creation. The creator can make the poll private or public and the embedded code for the poll can be copied and pasted into any website. In addition, there are tools available that can automatically upload the poll to a variety of online blogging tools, such as, WordPress.com or Blogger.com.

Day One - WiFi at the Airport

Well, this is Day One of my trip and I am such a novice wifi traveler that I didn't know that you need to PAY for airport wifi service--but it does seem that nothing is free--unless it is OpenSource Software! So, I am now connected via Boingo Wireless for the tune of $7.95 for 24 hours--in this airport. It took me until now to get connected and they are just starting to board. Well, for $7.95 it is a good learning experience. I am looking forward to the trip and hope that I have used the resources that I have learned in class to collaborate and work online during my visit. So, I might need to spend a few bucks to connect, but, hey, this is so much better than just sitting here and twiddling my thumbs. I am happy!

Ning is nice....

We had a presentation in class on Ning.com, a social networking, online tool that provides free space and interaction tools for group networking. The instructor set up a Ning site for the CI5323 class members and we have been using it to communicate with each other. Ning provides tools, such as, blogs, email, video uploads, photo uploads and albums, and personal space as well as others, to enhance the social networking and interaction on the site. I have enjoyed checking-out the site and can think of several ways this tool might be used for a course, or for family communication.



As much as I find the site appealing and useful to group sharing, there are a few things that I am not too excited about. The site, while glitzy, is distracting for me, personally. I am finding it difficult to locate specific areas and to navigate the site tools. The learning curve, while not steep, is cumbersome to just getting started with this site. It was good to get a presentation on Ning.com in class and I know that for very specific purposes, I would definitely utilize this tool.

The one thing I really like about the site is that as administrator, it is possible to curtail certain linking activities and set-up administrative approved member sign-in and viewing. Utilizing this tool for a class might work best for older students--since there are advertisements that may be inappropriate or distracting to younger students. The creation of personal pages is also a very good feature and would allow a teacher to portfolio course work for each student in one place so that sharing between the student community would be a possibility. The best feature for myself being quite busy and having several sites going at once, is the email notification of content changes, requests for approval, and other changes, which are directly linked from the email so that changes are only a matter of acceptance or non-acceptance.

Overall, I think ning.com is an online tool that has great possibilities when matched with course objectives and community behavior goals.

Vista SP1....Yikes!

Well, all was well, until I tried to install Vista SP1 update--actually, it was Windows Automatic Update that insisted on my downloading and installing Vista SP1. All is not well in my little cyberspace--believe me. The install kept hanging and hanging in the same spot. Got an 0xc01a001d error; when I restarted, would continue to hang in the same spot. I checked out some help forums--yes, help forums are definitely a must for any community, technical or not.
From a help forum, I got an invaluable link to a special Microsoft SP1 help site. I went to the site for help and I have been working for the last two hours on trying to restore my computer and backing out of the SP1 install. I am a little concerned as the hours of operation for Sunday help are almost over. I don't want to be left "hanging" like SP1.

I must say that the chat help that I have been receiving has been reassuring and very helpful--except that restoring a system takes a lot of time and patience. The chat agent, Arun L., has assured me that SP1 can and will be installed on my computer! I hope that Arun is correct as I have been trying to get this up and running many times--but to no avail. I want SP1 as I have heard that it is infinitely faster than the original Vista--many fixes and security enhancements, too. Well, wish me luck!!! and I will let you all know what the status of my currently crashed desktop is--in the future!!!!

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Back again, because the Microsoft agent was unable to resolve the problems so I have a referral to a Microsoft Engineer tomorrow between 10am and 12fpm to try to resolve the issue. In the meantime, I am supposed to try to run the original Vista DVD through its paces to repair or restore my system--which didn't work when I was talking with the agent, but might work now that I have unlimited time to fool with trying some solutions.

The whole experience struck my however as a wonderful example of expert to student community learning interaction and I was able to save the chat for reference--which is quite a dramatic improvement over just jotting down notes and trying to pay attention at the same time. If you would like to see a copy of the chat dialogue, view it here.

Ooooh, Ooooh, Ooooh...Another Cool Tool....

I just found another cool tool for creating word clouds from the Wordle.net website. This tool allows you to take any text copy, url of a document or site and create a word cloud from the most prominent words in the text or website. Then, you can either link to the wordle.net word cloud, or you can screen capture the resulting wordle graphic for use in websites, text, or for other purposes. You must credit Wordle.net under the Creative Commons license, but that is definitely appropriate for the free use of this cool tool. Here is a word cloud that was created from this site, which I snipped from wordle.net and have inserted here.

Graphic created using Wordle.net

Other options are available to the user on Wordle.net, such as, code which directly links the graphic to a web page. This is an example of using the embedded code:

A word cloud created on Wordle.net from embedded code.

As you can see, the embedded version is more degraded and pixelated than the captured graphic; I would suggest a snip, save as jpg, and insert method for a better resolution word cloud graphic. Try it; you might like it! :)

Collaboration elaboration....

Wowee! I just checked out a few collaboration tools since I am going to need to collaborate on writing a research paper for this course with another student. The first tool I have looked at is Acrobat.com, which includes a suite of collaboartion tools. Collaborate on documents using Adobe Buzzword, save documents online or export in many common formats; present using ConnectNow, which allows real-time chat, conference call-in, audio-video presentation and more; share documents with others via Share; save your created files or uploaded documents online for easy access and sharing. A free sign-up is all that is required to start using Adobe's online collaboration suite.

Another tool that could work for my collaborative project is Hylighter.com, which is a free online document collaboration tool. Documents can be imported from my computer, website url, and created using the java wordprocessing tool included in Hylighter.com. Invitations for collaborating on documents can be sent from within Hylighter.com. The tool makes collaborative editing and commenting on a document easy. Exporting is available as PDF, DOC, and HTML formats. A free sign-up is required to use this tool.

I love all the online tools that are available to everyone to use!

What a Concept....

Found another online tool that is nicely collaborative, easy to use, and freely available after a sign-up. Check out Webspiration, which creates a visual concept map online based upon the stand-alone software, Inspiration. I really liked it as it is quite easy to use. It is drag and drop, resizable, and allows multiple invitees to work on the map at the same time.

I have been familiar with MindMeister and CMap from previous experiences. MindMeister does not allow real-time collaboration, is sometimes slow in creating large concept maps. It does provide a history of changes and has features for saving and exporting that Webspiration does not. CMap does allow real-time collaborative mapping, recording, and saving and exporting in many formats. It is not as glitzy as Webspiration, but seems to have more features useful to sharing of the finished product. Unlike MindMeister and Webspiration, CMap requires a free software download to your computer. Choosing a tool for mindmapping depends upon the purpose, depth of mapping required, and features needed to accomplish the goals of the learning activity. Check them all out--you decide!

Add Some Video Vavoom...

Last night in class we discussed fitting technical tools to the needs of communities. We explored the ideas that designers of online learning communities need to align their design and development goals to support the group activities and goals. So much of online learning community design is a top-down process with designers at the top and the community (or hoped-for community) at the bottom of the process. The reverse would better serve a community that wants and needs a online learning community space, a conferencing space, or whatever collaborative space they determine would work to further the community goals.

We also discussed that the idea of "build it and they will come" online design, is not as successful as utilizing existing groups, communities, organizations, and databases to establish intent and alignment of planning, design, and implementation of online tools, spaces, and activities as well as to inform design process, timing, and rhythm of development in coordination with existing entities. It is important that designers actually put together a feasibility plan where task force input, physical and online visit data is gathered, and advisory groups are created to inform the development process on an continuous process. Evaluation criteria for each phase of the project could be developed.

Ok, so what does this have to do with Video Vavoom? Well, I was thinking that having a mechanism to meet and speak with others in real-time to help with development could be an asset not only for designers, but also for a community that wishes to share information easily to collaborate, participate, observe, or evaluate activities of a group.

I have been running around the net and found some interesting free tools that could work for online video communication with collaborative/advisory groups. One such online tool is Paltalk Express, which is free with registration and sign-up and accommodates up to 200 viewers and participators. There are moderator tools and security features available for presenters. Audio-visual communications can be controlled by the moderator using a raised hand tool similar to the chat tools CI 5323 has used in WebCT.

In another jaunt on the web, MeBeam, a free video conferencing tool--but without the admin oversite of Paltalk Express. MeBeam seems to be a more informal and limited tool than Paltalk Express. It is extremely easy to set-up an online space to video meet with a small group. Microphone capabilities allow audio-visual communications.

Running Around the Internet...Again....

Been doing a lot of reading for CI 5323 and will soon have the opportunity to present an article review and discussion online. I have decided to use Adobe Connect since it has not been used in the class yet and I don't want to forget how to use it. Besides, it provides a way to deliver a synchronous lecture and follow-up discussion with ease. I am going to use UMConnect, which should work just fine. I have already set up the meeting and have my URL and invitations sent out to the participants.

As for the Scardamalia and Bereiter article, Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities, I have read it thoroughly once and will read it again while summarizing it. I have gotten the PowerPoint started and have Adobe Presenter installed. I wanted to find some exhibits or sites that utilize CSILE, Computer supported intentional learning environments, but found few. Part of the reason is that CSILE has evolved into other projects that have other features. CSILE, while still providing rich inquiry learning experiences, has been expanded upon by other newer knowledge-building projects. CSILE was one of the first projects to reframe inquiry learning within a knowledge-building context.

I did find some photos of CSILE projects in classrooms after looking for them most of the night and found examples of both low tech and high tech classroom projects. A low tech example might be shown as sticky notes with facts about particular topic stuck to a white-board where students can continually reconstruct category contents; high tech, an online constructed cmap that is available for ongoing public modification.

New Graphing Tool helps me find CoPs...

I have been checking out my communities--Disaboom and RTI Community of Practice this morning. I also was looking around the net to see what else I might google-up. Wow! I hit the motherload with a new graphing tool (well, new to me!). TouchGraph is an online java application that creates a concept map of google links for any particular topic. The tool comes up in your browser and the concept map is entirely interactive--meaning that you can click on any part of the concept map and find the URL and label for the site as well as expand each "bubble" into another concept map that is the result of another content google. It's free! It's relational!

Check out the free version of TouchGraph. This is a screenshot of the result of my TouchGraph search for CoPs.