Ryan Collins

Ping.fm bookmarklet for multiple Ping.fm accounts

// March 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // RC Tips, Software, Web 2.0

Since Ping.fm doesn’t allow you to add multiple Twitter accounts to one Ping.fm account, I’ve resorted to have two accounts with them, one for my personal accounts (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace) and one for my professional accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). To update my status for either Ping.fm account I use the special email addresses they offer and my email client.

My problem was when I wanted to post the current page I’m reading to either account. Ping.fm offers a bookmarklet, but it uses the current logged in ping.fm account, so I would have to continually log in and log out. I decided to put together my own bookmarklet that starts up a new mail message in my default email client addressed to the correct Ping.fm account. To get started, drag the following link to your bookmark bar:

Ping.fm

Once there, right click on the link, select edit and replace YOURPRIVATEPINGADDRESS with your private Ping.fm email address (just the part to the left of the @). Would you like to do it with GMail? Drag this link:

Ping.fm

And once again, right click on the link, select edit, and replace YOURPRIVATEPINGADDRESS with your private Ping.fm email address.

You can drag the links multiple times, editing the email address and the name of the link so you can associate each one with a different Ping.fm account.

Setup a Facebook Page instead of using your personal FB account

// December 6th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // 21st Century Skills, Featured, Online Tools, Web 2.0

Unfortunately, your created page has a very unwieldy url. Mine is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Collins/181385642299. What I’ve done is setup a redirect from my website to point ryancollins.org/facebook to my Facebook Page. Be sure to become a friend when you visit!

One common question I see asked all the time is whether or not teachers should friend students on Facebook. Although you can set your privacy settings on Facebook to hide certain aspects of your life from groups of friends, this isn’t fool proof. Friending everyone including students and parents simply begins breaking down yet another wall between your professional life and personal life.

What you can do is create a Facebook Page for yourself. This gives you a presence on Facebook that can be used professionally which is totally separated from your person life.

“A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. Create one in a few minutes with our simple interface.”

Unfortunately, your created page has a very unwieldy url. Mine is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Collins/181385642299. What I’ve done is setup a redirect from my website to point http://ryancollins.org/facebook to my Facebook Page. Be sure to become a friend when you visit!

Facebook Pages are not limited to people either, you could also create a Page for each class you teacher or other departments within your organization.

More information about creating a Facebook Page:

• How to: Create a Facebook Fan Page
• 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page
• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page

Online collaboration with EtherPad

// May 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Online Tools, Software, Web 2.0

Etherpad, which was open to users, then closed, appears to now be open again. It is an online collaborative text editor usable by anyone with an Internet connection, a browser, and Javascript. There is no sign up required, you just share a unique URL with the people you want to collaborate with. Each user is color coded and there is a chat box. You can use the random URL assigned or make one up just by appending the name of the document to the end of the url:

http://etherpad.com/NAMEOFDOCUMENT

It has a couple of advantages of using the word processing aspect of Google Docs. For starters, it’s dead simple to get people involved just by sharing the url. It is also realtime, you see the edits of the other people as they make them. There is also a chat box to discuss changes as you make them.

They also offer a private hosted version, but there isn’t any pricing available on the website.

Although some school districts will be wary of using a product that would allow their students to chat throughout the district, I think the advantages would outweigh these concerns.

Uses in the school include after hour editing assistance, a student could send the link to a document they’re working on to their teacher, and both can work on the document. Also, any group projects could use it for notes, planning, todo lists, etc., available to all the members of the group.

Gmail presents Autopilot

// April 1st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Web 2.0

From the website:

The easiest email could possibly be.

As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.

With Gmail autopilot no longer do you have to worry about actually creating a response. Using technology from Eliza and the CADIE project, Google will craft automated responses in your style. You can adjust for capitalization, typos, brevity and emoticon use.

Google Spreadsheet Forms for class/meeting sign-ups

// February 9th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Online Tools, Professional Development, Software, Web 2.0

I was trying to think of a quick and easy way to have my staff sign up for classes. Right before I sat down to whip something up with a little php/mysql I realized I could just use a google form.

To get started, log into Google Docs and under the New button, one of the options is Form.

From there you can create your form. I only needed two pieces of information, their name and which class. For the user to enter their name I created the first item as a text field in which they would enter their name (and Google makes this easy for you since that’s what the first item defaults to. I did set it to be a required field though. For the class list I used a dropdown field. Each choice I labeled with the date of the class, the class title, and the time of the class. I didn’t go into great depths like a description of the class since that is emailed to the staff and available on the Technology Staff Development site in Moodle. Now the staff can easily sign up for classes, I can quickly find out how many people are in each class, and I can remove the class when the sign up deadline is past or when the class is full. The spreadsheet can also be used to take attendance.

Twitter tracking

// March 19th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Web 2.0

I’ve been playing around with Twitter for a little while (and if you’re really bored, you can follow me). A very cool feature is tracking. It works when you link your Twitter account with your instant messenger of choice. I’m currently tracking the following terms:

• education
• ed tech
• ipod touch
• educational technology

I then see any tweet posted with those terms. It’s a great way to find sites that you didn’t even know you needed. Just this week I found Glossy – MoLeNet:

“The Glossy project will undertake a large-scale development and implementation of mobile learning across Gloucestershire College utilising the mobile devices that learners already own. A comparative study will be made by providing a range of mobile devices for learners in excluded groups at Gloucestershire College and learners with learning difficulties and disabilities at National Star College. The project will put in place an infrastructure that will allow learners using devices which they already own to access learning activities and content through a mobile learning portal in conjunction with the college VLE.”

This is a very interesting project, to utilize mobile devices that students already have. I plan on following their blog and am very interested in their findings.

Tags: twitter, mobile devices, education

Low tech and high tech communication – eTech Ohio 2008

// March 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // 21st Century Skills, Professional Development, Web 2.0, eTech Ohio Conference

At the eTech Ohio Technology Conference this past February I presented on different ways a person can communicate. Some ways were very low tech (writing a letter, using the phone), and some ways very high tech (using Grand Central to control incoming calls, social networking with del.icio.us or Twitter). I’ve finally gotten around to tagging the sites in del.icio.us (thanks Alvin!). I used the tag etechohio08.
photo credit: steveyb

Google Reader and the iPhone/iPod Touch

// March 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Mobile Computing, Web 2.0

Using my RSS reader of choice Google Reader, I’ve discovered two ways to use it on my iPod Touch. If I navigate to:
http://google.com/reader/m I get a slightly different interface than using http://google.com/m#reader. The former address gives me a nice icon when I add it to my home screen, but the latter address works better on my touch.

Does anyone know what the differences are? Why can’t I get the nice icon to add to my home screen with the second address?

Websites to create newsletters, brochures, albums, and cards

// September 21st, 2007 // No Comments » // Online Tools, Web 2.0

From the NCS-Tech blog: Meet your “Maker” – Newsletters, Brochures, Albums and Postcards

Thanks to a tip from my friend and colleague Nancy Sharoff, I am pleased to tell you about these VERY cool and FREE of course services offering fast and easy creation of professional looking newsletters, brochures, photo albums and postcards Who needs Microsoft Publisher??

• http://www.mynewslettermaker.com/
• http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/
• http://www.myalbummaker.com/
• http://www.mycardmaker.com/

Google for Educators

// October 12th, 2006 // No Comments » // Online Tools, Professional Development, Web 2.0

Google, at Google For Educators, is now offering educational resources for using Google products in the classroom:

Google recognizes the central role that teachers play in breaking down the barriers between people and information, and we support educators who work each day to empower their students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. This website is one of the ways we’re working to bolster that support and explore how Google and educators can work together.As a start, we’re inviting you to share your best ideas for using technology to innovate in the classroom. To your left, you’ll find a teacher’s guide to 12 Google products, including basic information about each tool, examples of how educators are using them, and lesson ideas. You’ll also find lesson plans and videos from our partners at Discovery Education focusing on two of our most popular teaching tools: Google Earth and Google SketchUp.

When I first read it I was expecting a more general view of Internet
resources that may be used in the classroom, but limiting it to Google products still gives teachers and students some very cool software they can use. Google Earth is talked about a lot, but I think a lot of people are missing out learning opportunities that can take place with Google SketchUp.