Blogging While In The Woods

So this afternoon my techo journey is taking me out into the woods on a walk with our dogs, my iPhone, and newly downloaded Blogger app. I am typing this with my thumb as I multi-task my way along the trail, taking photos, typing, but mostly soaking in the beauty of this stunning fall day. Ah yes -- this is one of the finer points of distance education -- being able to get outside and still work (at least for a while -- once I hit "publish" I will become one with the woods and abandon technology for a while!).

Let's see if this works!:)

How to Save Webpage as a PDF and then annotate it

This is just a quickie post because I was asked how to annotate a web page. I know there are other tools to do this, and invite others to jump in with suggestions here, but one quick and easy way is:

1. save a web page as a PDF (on a Mac you just choose "print" but then instead of printing it you choose from the print window "save as PDF." Windows users, how do you do this on Windows?
2. Then, once its a PDF, you can write on it and highlight, use notes and so on, either using Adobe Acrobat or on a Mac you can also use the Mac Preview program. I just did this with your blog here and "Jinged" it. 

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying: We HAVE to speak out and work together to stop this and all forms of bullying, intolerance and prejudice!!


I wrote this a while ago but for some reason I didn't post it (I just saw that it was still listed as a "draft"!). Given the recent events at UMD I though I would still post this, as sadly it is more important than ever for us to stand up and speak out against cyberbullying (and every other kind too!). This past week, a conservative campus youth group, Youth for Western Civilization,  was handing out pocket U.S. Constitutions at the University of MN Duluth (UMD). A representative from Youth for Western Civilization videotaped and selectively edited the video of an interaction between him, the UMD Director of the Office of Cultural Diversity, and the UMD President of the Black Students' Association. This video was then posted on the website of another conservative student organization, Campus Reform along with the contact information (phone and email) of the UMD Director of the Office of Cultural Diversity. This, in turn, was posted on the website of another right wing group, The Blaze.

Since then, both the Director and the BSA student president have been receiving hundreds of threatening phone calls and emails in an orchestrated campaign of intimidation. The effect has not only been devastating on these individuals, but also on the students for whom the UMD Multicultural Center is a safe haven -- many of whom are still traumatized by the events of last year surrounding a horrific, racist event on Facebook at UMD.

Also recently in the news: an article in Digital Life Today about the apparent suicide of a young gay teen, Jamey Rodemeyer, as the result of bullying. Read this article -- it describes the traumatic experiences of this 14 year old boy who was relentlessly persecuted through cyberbullying because of his sexual orientation.

I know that there are critics of social media who blame these tools when they are used for cyberbullying. I would argue that the tools themselves are not the problem, but rather the ways in which they can be used by people intent on intimidating and harming others. As I argued below in my earlier post written in 2010, every time any of us witness any kind of bullying (cyber or other) and do nothing to try to stop it, then we become collaborators in perpetuating the cycle of cyberviolence. So next time you see someone on your Facebook wall post something that is hurtful of others, respond (not privately as a message, but publicly on their wall) so they and others can see that this kind of behavior is not acceptable. Thanks everyone! :)


Blog post originally written in 2010: The senseless and tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi, a gay college student this week who took his own life because of cyberbullying has me feeling outraged and more determined than ever to work to try to educate anyone I can about how essential it is for EVERYONE to speak out and act to stop intolerance and prejudice. 

For those of us who are in education, especially those of us who teach people how to use the Internet and other forms of technology, we MUST do everything in our power to help people (young and old) (a) understand their responsibilities in appropriate and respectful use of technology and (b) stand up, speak out and stop the use of cyber-technologies and cell phones bullying as tools of intolerance and bullying.


My plea to anyone who may be reading this is that you will make a commitment to intervene and do everything in your power to help. I truly believe that there is no such thing as a bystander (people who stand at the side and do nothing when someone is being bullied, or when injustice is happening). If we are not actively involved in speaking out to stop bulling and injustice, I believe that our inaction places us in the role of perpetrator (alongside the bully). I know it isn't our intention, but when we are silent it is interpreted (especially by the victim) as meaning that we support the perpetrator.

If you see or hear about anyone using any Web 2.0 tools in ways that hurt others, please don't remain silent!

So Many Blogs, So Little Time..

The subject line for this weeks blog refers to 2 aspects of "so many blogs"-- the first being that I have been exploring different blogging tools, and also that I am now so enjoying following the blogs of my doctoral students (which they are doing for our course Distance Education - Theory to Practice). Their blogs are a description of the "practice" part -- what they are learning as they try out all sorts of different online tools -- and also their reflections on the intersection between theory and practice.

So first: It is amazing how many different blogging tools there are out there! I still don't have one favorite, as there are pros and cons to each one, and also which is best depends on the context. So let me share some thoughts, and I would love it if others would jump in and add comments about the blog tool you use, why you chose that one, what you like about it and what you don't!

• Blogger.com: that's what I am using here! What I like about this is that it is one of the tools that comes with the Google Suite, so it interacts easily with the rest. I use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs, and so being in one place is useful. I also find Blogger fairly intuitive to use.
  Major downside: Because I also have an official education Google account through my university (Univ of MN), things can get confusing. The educational Google account does include a blog and Google Reader, BUT you can't follow other people's blogs (not quite the same as subscribing) using that account. Additionally, I began my blog and using Google reader long before our university moved to Google and gmail, so I don't want to move things over there. Thus I have to use a separate browser for my personal gmail (and my blog and Google Reader), otherwise when I am in my work email (UMD gmail), if I try to edit my blog or follow other blogs, I am told that I am already logged into Google under another account. Frustrating! But I do understand that the university has to have special authentication to login to Google because we can store and access confidential information through this account.
  
• Posterous: I am enjoying Posterous (see Helen's Happenings) more and more as a blog tool because it is so easy to use! I started using it to replace my handwritten, paper phenology journal that I have kept for over 10 years. My paper journal filled up, so I decided that instead of staring a new one, I would just switch to Posterous because then I could add to the phenology journal any time I liked from anywhere, and easily include photos and even video. Before I had to have the physical journal in my hands to do this.
  -- For one, it is very easy to post a blog entry to my Posterous blog merely by emailing my Posterous account. The subject line of my email becomes the blog heading, and if I attach a photo or video (or any other kind of file), it is embedded in the blog. Sweet!
  -- Also, there is an app for Posterous, meaning that I can post from my iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, and can also subscribe to and follow other Posterous users blogs on my iDevice using the app.
  
• Weebly: Weebly is not a blog itself -- but rather a tool to create a website (free and cross wor). In addition to having different web pages as part of your site, you can also have a blog to go with it. I LOVE Weebly -- I strongly encourage my students to use it to create professional portfolios (but when they use Weebly for that purpose, then they don't usually have a blog as part of it). Example: I created a professional portfolio for my dog Peanut as a demonstration!  I did set up a Weebly site with a blog just to show how it is done.
  
• Blog.com: I just learned about this tool this week from a colleague of mine who is teaching in England and having her students keep a blog as part of her course over there. So of course I had to jump in and try it right away, and it's really easy and intuitive to use -- I will add this to my list of suggested tools in the future.
  
• Tumblr.com: I tried this out a year ago and forgot about it -- but have a student using Tumblr this semester and his blog look great!
  
• Typepad.com: See http://www.typepad.com/ This looks like a good tool, but it is free only for a trial period -- thereafter it is $8.95 for the basic blog and then more expensive for more features. Since there are so many good free blogs out there, I don't see this as a viable option

Posting images and commenting on blogs

This week my adventurous students have been jumping into the bloggosphere and have begun blogging (as I am) about their experiences using technology. There have been some issues that have emerged as they have done this, so I thought I'd blog in response.

Issue 1: Posting images (especially from Jing)

I haven't yet figured out what might have caused the problem, but some folks have reported not being able to upload a Jing image into their blog. Here's how I do it:

• I take a Jing screen shot (and if I want to put annotations on it, I do)
• When I am done annotating, I click on the  "save" button below the Jing image  so that I save it to my computer (rather than clicking on the button to save it to my screencast account)
• Next, in my blog, I click on the icon to upload an image
• On the upload screen that appears, I click  on the "choose files" button and locate and choose  the image that I just saved onto my computer
• A thumbnail of the image that I want to upload appears in the blog image upload box, and I click on the button that says "add selected"
• The image is upload to my blog -- voila! :)

Issue 2: Allowing others to post comments to your blog

What makes blogs even more meaningful is when others can comment (in appropriate ways) on what you have said, giving encouragement, asking questions, sharing their opinions or suggestion etc to extend and deepen the ideas that you have shared. To enable this to happen, you need to allow them to comment. Here's how to do it:

• Go to your blog dashboard 
• Click on the settings link
• In settings, click on comments
• Set comment options to allow others to comment (you can allow anyone, or just 
• Save
• If you moderate comments, you do need to check your blog and approve comments waiting to be moderated so that others can see them (unless you don't want them to be seen!).

I invite others to jump in here and share your experiences -- where you have had problems doing this and what happened, solutions you may have, or other questions!

Find my iPhone/iPad/iPod

This is just a very quick post because it is something that I think is really useful to folks who have iPods/iPads/iPhones and don't know about it: how to find your device by tracking it online!  I know I heard about this but never set it up until I thought I'd lost my device this week.

So I went to How to set up Find my iPhone and did this -- and it works! On my laptop I logged into the free me.com account I had just created and directed it to to find my phone (which I have next to me as I type this while sitting on the couch at home). And magic -- there on the screen a map appeared showing a flashing blue dot hovering over the exact location of our house on a Google map! Next I did exactly the same thing for my iPod Touch and my iPad, and it works for them too. I'll show a screen shot below of what the Find My Phone results look like.

Now, if someone could just invent an app to help me find my phone inside our house when I can't remember where I put it, that would be really cool!

My Techno Journey Continues, this time with my doctoral students

I'm back! I have sadly neglected my techno-journey blog since my last technology class, but I'm raring to go again, greatly inspired by my students:)! This semester I am teaching a course called Distance Education: Theory to Practice for doctoral students, and my students' first task is to create a Distance Education Techno Journey blog. I am a great believer in at least attempting to practice what I preach, so of course I need to get blogging! I'm really excited to be doing this with a new group of students:)

So I'll jump right in here with some of my recent great discoveries on my Techno Journey (my journey has been continuing in leaps and bounds since I last blogged here -- I have just not written about it). Here are 3 just to get started...

1. Tech Talk America: This has been a wonderful addition to my life for a while now. I subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and listen each week to the entertaining and very informative tech update from co-hosts David A. Cox and Allen Gallant. I also follow them  on Facebook and receive their weekly newsletter. All of these are filled with hot-off-the-press (or web!) tidbits on practical, easy to use, fun tech tools and news e.g. their app pick of the week. I highly recommend subscribing (to the Podcast and newsletter at least, but the Facebook updates are great, too). They also have a now free (used to be paid) webinar series providing live (online) tutorials on how to do all kinds of cool things.
2. iPad: Although I have had an iPad for a while (first the iPad 1 and now 2), it's only really since this last summer that I have become a huge fan of it. I used to think the iPad (and also iPod Touch) was merely a "computer lite" but as more an more really impressive apps are created, it has become MUCH more than a computer -- doing things that cannot be done on a computer. And with the invention of really good iPad keyboards (I use the Zagg one after doing quite a bit of research on iPad keyboards. However, since I bought this at the start of the summer, other better ones may be out now) and word processing apps like Pages or just using Google Docs, I can use my iPad instead of my computer to take notes in meetings, observe student teachers and much more (easier than carrying around my laptop). I could say a lot more about the iPad -- and will in a later blog, but this will do for now.
3. Posterous blog: I found a wonderful and really easy to use blogging tool called Posterous. What I really like about it is you can post to the blog merely by sending an email! It's free (of course -- I am all about free and cross platform!) and doesn't require any set up at all. I have started using it to keep a phenology journal which I have called Helen's Happenings. Sadly I neglected it over the summer, but I'm back at it again.