How to embed an annotated flickr image

I thought you couldn't embed an annotated flickr image into a page, but then Alun told me you could using the brilliant Mbedr. I had to use the <iframe> code rather than the <object> code but it was still quick and easy.

Matt will be pleased because he was wanting a way to embed an annotated CV into a page. This should do it nicely. And I'm sure they'll be lots of other uses too.

So here's the photo of Andrew's office again, but this time complete with annotations. Thanks Alun!

Using Microsoft Word for long documents

This morning I ran the Using Microsoft word for long documents. Again. I've just searched my calendar and I can see that I've run it at least 28 times since December 2007. I wrote the original workshop for Word 2003 sometime in early 2006 when I discovered that students were creating tables of contents manually for 20,000 word documents. I'm sure I've run the session at least 50 times and trained hundreds of students in the process (there can be anywhere between 10 and 45 at a time).

The workshop, and associated workbook, has clearly been helpful, explaining to students how to:

• use heading styles
• use captions
• insert tables of contents and tables of figures
• use cross-referencing
• use master and subdocuments (with the necessary cautionary notes with this feature)

I also let them know that Microsoft isn't the only software that enables them to do this kind of thing and that Open Office can do it too.

So I thought I'd put this post up to let others know that you can get Word to do some pretty useful things, especially when writing a long document like a dissertation or thesis. I would put the workbook on here but now I've put a Creative Commons license on my blog I'm not sure I should (so here's a sneaky link instead). Microsoft copyright all the images associated with their Office products so I can't make a Creative Commons version. Strictly speaking I'm not sure I should have created any version at all, but there you go.

So I hope this post means that more people will discover these useful features, and if you have any Creative Commons license advice on the issue I'd be really pleased to hear it.

Firefox portable, diigo and tagginganna

I'm currently involved in a project called Text Tagging: Searchable Reader-Commentary on e-Texts, and a Pedagogy of Implicit and Explicit Meaning. Otherwise known as tagginganna - which I've blogged about several times before. The tools we are currently experimenting with are digress.it and diigo. Digress.it is proving relatively easy to use, from a student perspective at least, because it doesn't require users to download anything or sign up for anything. Diigo, on the other hand requires users to both create an account and install a toolbar. Creating an account in diigo is easy enough to do but installing a toolbar, when your students are forced to work on Internet Explorer 7 and don't have permissions, is more difficult. Getting the diigo toolbar officially installed across campus will take months and will also require evidence that diigo is useful. So how do we pilot software that we can't install? I think we've got round the problem by using Firefox portable on a USB stick. This is how:

• I downloaded Firefox portable and saved it to a USB flash drive;
• I then used these clever instructions to add Flash to Firefox portable (by default it doesn't come with it) just in case we need it at some point;
• then I opened Firefox potable from the USB stick and added the diigo Firefox addon;
• then I set the home page of Firefox portable to the site I want the students involved in the project to view first.

I've tried it out on a student account and it worked fine - Firefox opens up, Flash works and users are prompted to sign in to diigo or create an account via the tool bar Diigo - sign in button - which is handy.

I think it should work fine. Have I missed anything?

Why I really like Sreenr

This is just a quick post to say how useful I've been finding screenr lately. There are lots of reasons why I like screenr, here a just a few:

• it doesn't require installation - so no need to bother IT Services;
• it's really easy to use - no specialist expertise is required (I showed it to a non-tech colleague the other day and he couldn't believe how easy it was);
• you can create basic screencasts quickly - like this one;
• you can also create more polished screencast animations when combined with PowerPoint (or similar) - like this one;
• you get options re how you want to publish it - including embedding (see image);
• if you upload to YouTube you can even add closed captions - which I blogged about a while ago.

There are of course some downsides, so just to be balanced...

• you have to have a Twitter account (but there's no reason why you can't set one up under a pseudonym and protect your updates);
• you can't edit the screencast in screenr (but there is a pause button so you can take a breath - and if you downloaded the mp4 file I think you could edit it then);
• there is a maximum time limit of 5 minutes (but this is a brilliant idea - any longer than 5 minutes is very dull!)

Advice from Helpdesk Hollie

Our helpdesk is staffed by a group of postgraduate students who answer the phones, respond to emails, talk to visitors and are, as the term suggests, generally helpful. More recently they've also been tweeting and facebooking (I'm verbing nouns) - this started back in September. Our aim has been to engage with students without invading their social space. When they started it was quite experimental, I gave very little guidance other than 'be friendly and remember it's public' but they took to it like ducks to water.

Well, a much-loved member of our helpdesk staff is moving on so I asked her if she would write some guidance on how to tweet from our Student Development account to help new members of helpdesk staff. Here's what she said.

There are just a few things to remember when sending out Twitter updates:

• Students are not children - they do not like to be patronised.
• Students don’t generally use Twitter for business, so don’t want lots of boring updates. You have to catch their attention.
• Anyone can see your Twitter update- you need to make sure you don’t say anything you’ll later regret.
• If you make the tweet interesting enough, maybe it will be re-tweeted (and you could start a revolution).

It’s important that students know what’s going on, but also important that you show how it could be useful. I try and make it a bit personal, usually by asking a question beforehand or relating it to a situation that many students will be in:

You can do the same thing for resources that are available. I think if it’s clear that you understand what students are going through, they’re more likely to make use of the things you are advertising.

You can find things on the events pages of the website that people might not know about otherwise, like tree planting or cake baking, or re-tweet things from other people that SDZ followers might find useful.

Feel free to be creative with tweets- it might make people take more notice.

If all else fails and there is nothing going on, I usually resort to grammar guides - if your grammar is shoddy and you don’t make an effort to sort out your punctuation either in essays or job applications, it gives the impression that you might not pull out all the stops in other areas, too. Anyway, nobody likes a misplaced apostrophe!

I thought this was really helpful advice for the way we are using Twitter. What do you think? And have you got any suggestions?