745.5 Voki Fun...and Questions

Was helping someone set up a blog with avatar today. She selected a Voki. So I made the one you see in an attempt to answer questions that came up as we did hers.

Does anyone know if you can remove the comment button on the frame?
If you have tips and can point me to any help, I'd appreciate them.



Get a Voki now!

006.7 Apture: Unflattening the Web

Ok...a new tool with lots of potential.

Apture

I found it while perusing thru my favorite blogs...at Weblogged. Then I read more about it here and watched the tutorial. Even Creative Commons chimed in.

My first attempt ended up in the blog post below...basically because I didn't understand what was going to happen when I added the widget. Check out what happens when you mouse over "New math." That is a pretty mild example. (Make that a really mild example)

Here is a very rich Apture experience. Watch out! Once released with your click, it can be a bit overwhelming if you aren't prepared.

I am adding some terms here to see what happens when I "apture" them!

• Texas
• Chihuahua dogs
• Oatmeal raisin cookies

It is in beta (so what else is new...all cute things are in beta, permanent beta).
It is free. Yes, you have to register.

Forgive me if you land on my blog for the next few days and encounter the tutorial. It pops up automatically. I'm not ready to turn it off because I'm not comfortable with exactly what I have added! i.e. I'm a tad confused...my naturally state!

Update Note: I got a comment regarding this almost as I pushed the publish button...this won't be an issue for you...only pops up for me!

And if you are not seeing anything when you mouse over...it could be the added info is blocked where you are.

O, and the meaning of my subtitle...
comes from the site itself...and a few thoughts of others that I read

Apture provides the first rich communication platform allowing publishers
and bloggers to easily turn flat pages of text into multimedia experiences

Guess we will see how it goes!

031 Encyclopedia Britannica Freebies

Encyclopedia Britannica has decided to make a subscription free to some bloggers and other web publishers. You must register/apply to be considered for the service. It will last one year. I saw this announcement over at Joyce Valenza's Neverending Search so you can see more details there. She got some information about it from Tech Crunch as well, including a little discussion about whether this is a good thing or not.

Another new thing that could prove to be interesting is the widgets of information that EB is making available. Here is the current list of topics. I have added one about presidents so you can see what is available. Might be good additions to a web page or wiki where you are building resources for a project or research needs?



Guess we will need to see how this all shakes out as far as how people feel about it being a good thing or not. Me--for now, it is access to information and that is never a bad thing, I don't think.
The widget info is pretty basic...might prove to be nothing more than a gimmick, but if it makes one more learner take a look....what is the harm?
Will be glad to hear how others feel as the news spreads and the idea develops.

005.3 Widgets: Banned Fun, Bummer!

In working on my 23 Things assignments, I came across a nice widget collection called SpringWidgets and added one to this blog to count down the days to TLA...the annual conference being held in Dallas this year.


But don't count on it in district...same song, forgotten which verse...it's blocked! Guess it's too cute and clever!
Couldn't stand it that you could not see it so I took a screen shot so you could get the picture, if not the real fun. You can see the "hole" for it on the side bar to the right.

But if you are looking for some fun things to add to your webpages or blogs or whatever, go see what you can find. You can adapt many to meet your needs or even create something new and the site will host it for you. I can see this being used to count down to a special event like an author visit, the 100th Day of School, or everyone's favorite Spring thought...how days before summer! The ideas are endless.

Have fun...at home!

005.3 Feedjit: Virtual Trip by Blog

On of the most interesting aspects of this blog for me has been the opportunity through various means to connect with librarians, educators and other bloggers from all over. When I started, I thought I would merely be interacting with a small group within my circle of influence. Had no idea how big that circle would become.

As I learned about things like Technorati, I signed up because of how it let me know who was linking to my blog. I found it fascinating and it has brought me many hours of virtual travel experiences. Even studying another blogger's blogroll was often done just so I could see where I would end up, geographically speaking.

As I have already noted, I have more blog readers (many I affectionately call "lurkers") than commentors because they verbally tell me so! But no way of knowing where all of them come from.

So when I began to notice the Live Traffic Feed widget from Feedjit on several blogs over the last few days, I took the plunge. Now I can see where visitors to my blog come from. It is SO cool!

But I can make a case for it being an educational tool as well. Having the flags of different countries pop up is a review of sorts, plus a understanding of where English speakers are. It also is a clock of sorts because certain areas of the world tend to pop up in clusters during certain parts of my central time zone day.

But I'm not going to get too serious about it...I added it simply because I think it is fun.

O BTW, it is super easy to add. It is basically all done for you from the site if you are using a Blogger or Typepad blog. Unfortunately, the creators say that it is not possible (or maybe not easy) to add to a WordPress (including Edublog) blog...at least right now.

So take a look...to the right and all the way down.