With figures like “13.4 million downloads of WordPress 3.0″ or “10,935 Available Plugins” andthat WordPress “powers nearly 8.5% of all websites on the net”, this is one of the better infographics I have seen for a while.
I cannot find the original author, but thanks go to Robin Good for pointing it out.
It’s taken me awhile to find this (thanks to Ignatia on Twitter for the tweet to the PetaPixel website), but how good is this … “Streetmuseum is a new (and free) augmented reality iPhone app created by the Museum of London that allows you to browse historical photographs in various parts of the city”.
“The [iPhone] app leads you to various locations around London using either the map or GPS. Once you’re there, click the “3D View” button, and the app will recognize the location and overlay the historical photograph over the live video feed of the real world, giving you a brief glimpse into how the past looked.”
And it’s not just the Museum of London, even National Geographic are looking into the possibilities of Augmented Reality. At last, the possibilities are being explored by the kind of people and organisations who have the ability to lead.
So, who’s next?
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Note: In this series I’ll delve into some of the better plugins available for WordPress that I am already using, or about to start using. I’m aiming to highlight 30 of the better plugins.
If you’ve gone to all the effort to read a blog post and then type your comment in to the blog, waited to have it checked and moderated by the blog owner, wouldn’t you want to know when someone else replied or commented to either the original blog post or your own comment? I do.
By using the ‘Subscribe To “Double-Opt-In” Comments‘ plugin you give your WordPress readers this ability. The plugin
“allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry, with double-opt-in feature. First, the user will get an e-mail with a confirmation link, after the user has confirmed the subscription, he or she will be noticed about new comments.”
The plugin comes with plenty of settings you can edit including the ability to improve and personalise the standard text that is sent to the user when they subscribe. You can also query the plugin to see who is subscribing to what, and which of your posts are the most popular for email alerts on comments.
I have used this many times on other blogs, it is a very useful way to keep the conversation going. Otherwise you leave a comment then forget what you said, in response to what, and where you left it! For me that defeats the purpose of engaging in the first place?
So, when it comes to leaving a comment on a blog, do you like or use this feature, or do you leave the comment and forget about it?
“By now, we’re used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web – building a “social layer” on top of the real world. At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the “game layer,” a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.”
Skype is one of those tools I have had installed but rarely used. Over the past few weeks I seem to have been using it nearly everyday; I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden it’s become more popular with the people I work with.
Whether it’s a simple chat message (instead of the email or “walk down the corridor and open my door”) or a full hour-long conversation, it’s become my new best friend. Or could be my new best friend.
The thing is;
- I can put an email to one side and deal with it when I have finished whatever it is I’m doing at the moment.
- I can filter my phone calls if I think the call may take too long and distract me from my current task.
- I can have a quick chat in my office but you can clearly see I’m busy and, more often than not, volunteer to come back when I’m not so busy.
But with Skype;
- You can see if I’m online and contact me. It’s hard to ignore that constant ‘bing’ing coming through the speakers.
- You can see I’ve put myself as ‘away’ but everybody knows this means leave me alone but still sends the call or message through.
So, is there an etiquette to using Skype, for both parties? Well, thankfully the folks over at TechCrunch have come up with these suggestions;
It’s not a conversation until both sides are engaged.
“The best way to start a Skype conversation is to message something like “are you free?” If I respond then we’re all set. If not, don’t take it personally. And don’t start firing off whatever you want to say anyway. Instant messaging is both synchronous and asynchronous.”
Don’t abuse the ‘Enter’ button.
“The default Skype settings are lots of notification messages all the time. Every time you hit enter it beeps my computer. That’s really annoying. Get whole sentences, paragraphs even, down in the box before you hit enter. People will appreciate it.”
Don’t just jump into a phone call.
“It’s polite to send a chat message first saying “online? time for a quick Skype call?” It’s annoying when the Skype phone starts ringing randomly.”
Don’t assume confidentiality.
“The worst thing I ever did was Skype message someone, in a rush, to confirm a story. And it turns out that poor person was using his laptop to give a presentation to a group of co-workers. And my Skype message popped up on the screen for everyone to see.”
If in doubt, make contact first through more traditional media and then we can Skype if appropriate, and if I’m available.
Skype also have a section on Etiquette on their website – Skype Etiquette – which is fairly standard, almost like any corporate list of what not to do at work and on work computers.
A few other resources I found about etiquette include;
This video below would be really funny if it wasn’t so true. Has it happened to you (yet)? It’s worth watching in full-screen mode so you can read what is being written …
Note: In this series I’ll delve into some of the better plugins available for WordPress that I am already using, or about to start using. I’m aiming to highlight 30 of the better plugins.
One of the biggest gripes I have when I visit a website is the wait for the images to load before I can scroll down the page and read the text. So when I saw this plugin described on Twitter (and I’d seen the style used on websites like Mashable) I thought I’d give it a try. Why not – if I get annoyed when websites take too long to load, I’m sure others do too?
The plugin is called “jQuery Image Lazy Load“. As you visit the webpage the placement holder for the image is created, but the image is not loaded until you scroll the part of the page into view, and then it fades the image into view gracefully.
Nice and easy!
Note: Since installing I have noticed that images do not show, at all, if you are accessing on anything like an iPhone if you are also using the WPTouch plugin – all you see is a grey box where the image should be!
Do you have something similar working on your blog? Have you been using this and think it’s wonderful, or have a bad experience and want to warn me off it? Please comment below.
http://bit.ly/bKqDy9
I’ve spoken with a few people who have expressed an interest in what a QR Code is, and what we can do with them in an educational setting.
I’ve written previously about some ideas I’ve had about QR Codes in the Classroom, so have talked through some of these (and a few more I ought to document sometime too). But we must remember that there will be a few pitfalls to their implementation too, and to be aware of them might mean we don’t fall foul of them.
So, modifying the list from a list developed by Dan Smigrod, what do we need to do to make sure we don’t mess it up?
Link the code to meaningful content. Seems pretty straight forward, but it’s worth checking and double checking the link works as well as checking the code for a reference article actually points to the correct reference article.
“Scan codes are about engagement and added value. Engage! Add value! And, make sure your landing page is working!”
Link the code to a mobile-friendly site. Again, you would have thought this a sensible thing to do and, if you run WordPress you can easily install the WP Touch plugin that will handle this for you. If not you can develop your CSS and HTML with some code that will render the page in a mobile friendly CSS style sheet.
“Plus, if your mobile site requires Adobe Flash Player on a SmartPhone, you’ll create a non-working mess for your Apple iPhone audience (including me).”
Use a URL shortener to generate the link. The smaller the volume of text you use, the smaller the final QR Code is you need to show, and the easier it is for the user to scan and translate.
Include a shortened URL alongside or beneath the code. By adding this (see the image above) this enables people without the means of translating the code to also access the coded link. You don’t want to exclude anyone do you?
Track your codes. Find and use a service that can track and analyse your scan; there’s no point in doing all that work to then realise you don’t know if anyone has actually scanned it. You could monitor the stats on the landing pages the scans point to, but it’s not quite the same.
“… with digital printing, you can use individually unique scan codes linked to Personalized URLs (PURL) to send recipients to “their” own micro-site.”
Explain what a QR Code is and how to access them. While you and a few others know what they are, does everyone? I have Quickmark on my iPhone but there are others on the market, iPhone or not, that also do the job admirably well.
Can the code be read properly? Ensure enough white space surrounds the code where ever you print it or it can’t be read.
“Before you begin production, test with different mobile scanning apps – and smartphone devices. Content that looks great on my Apple iPhone 4 (love it), may not look so great on a BlackBerry, Android or Evo smartphone.”
Size matters. If it’s too small the software and camera mix might not be able to focus on the code enough to capture a clear image of the code and translate it.
Place the code where the link can be accessed. Why print the code in the basement of the library where there is no Internet access? Why not include your Social Network or Social Media channel as part of the link.
The worst this you could do (and I have been guilty of this) is to talk about it and not get started doing it!
If you get it right it’ll work wonders for you. Get it wrong and you could be the next New York City – they trialled QR Codes in Times Square, but the promises fell short of the advertised mark; the codes did not link to mobile friendly websites.
How about this I just found … a web-enabled napkin?
No, I’m not suggesting we all go out and start getting paper napkins printed, but just think of the other applications QR Codes are good for. Please read (or re-read) my post on QR Codes in the Classroom for some of my ideas.
I was reading this article last week – Death of the Web Team – and it got me thinking about who does actually takes responsibility for online or digital communications in your Institution?
One of my previous posts was on the availability or presence of a Policy within your Institution on staff using Social Media and Social Networks (for professional or work-related personal reasons), so this post kind of carries on from that, in a round about way.
With previous employers it’s been quite easy to answer this, it would have been me (webmaster for a motorcycle dealership, freelance Internet consultant, web designer for several local companies, etc). All these places were either small businesses or me working on my own … and I liked it like that. Small offices and small businesses meant that any question was easily asked, by calling across the desk and waiting for the answer. Any decision about anything (including pay, conditions, expenses, benefits, work, clients, business direction, etc) were discussed openly among the team and we all felt included. Sweet.
But in a large company, like a modern University, it might not be so clear cut. Yes, there is a Marketing department, but are they the ones who take ownership of the various ‘official’ Social Media accounts; Facebook or Twitter or YouTube? I don’t know.
But what of the Schools within the larger Institution? Are we/they allowed to have their own accounts in these networks? Well, some do, and some are very successfully used – the Media School (obviously) use the different Social Media channels very effectively, I believe, both internal and externally/publicly facing elements.
But what about right down at the programme level, in a framework, within a School? Can we effectively use Social Media? Well, yes we can, obviously (here I am for a start) but the question is not “can we (technically)?” it’s “can we (pretty please)?”.
The question of “can we (technically)” is a resounding ‘Yes’. I/we can, as the whole ethos of Social Media is it’s available to everyone and, with some time and effort, everyone can learn what it is and how to use it. But what about using it to brand / advertise / inform / learn / etc about your programme or your reading / research? Yes, I can do it, but where do I fit in the whole Institution’s “responsibility” matrix for the ownership of that kind of information, and how do I/they know whether the message being broadcast meets the required standards set by the policy makers, and not overstepping the boundary?
While I may be slightly confused by all this, I’m sure (hope) there are many who aren’t, and know exactly how this all works, for them. If you’re one of them please let us all know where your boundaries are, and how you work within them. If you have implemented such a responsibility matrix, and would like to help the rest of us to work our own out, please et us al know how you did it, how long did it take, and what hurdles did you encounter (and overcome)
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Thank you to Gabriela Grosseck for bring this presentation to my attention, “Creating a Personal Learning Network”.
Note: In this series I’ll delve into some of the better plugins available for WordPress that I am already using, or about to start using. I’m aiming to highlight 30 of the better plugins.
Even now, with all the changes and improvements in the way Search Engines do their work, we still look to a sitemap to find our way around. While you or I may look to the navigation, the Search Engines still appreciate it if you point them in the right direction and give them something to work with.
Someone pointed me at the Google XML Sitemap generator plugin a long time ago, and I’ve been using it ever since. You can find it easily in the Plugin directory via the WordPress control panel, or download it from the link above.
There are plenty of options to work through in the settings panel, from the basic settings of which Search Engines to publish/notify, the priority on the different types of content (pages, posts, comments, archives, etc) to the change frequencies on the same types of content (see images below).
In theory the sitemap generator will re-create the sitemap after each post you publish but I’ve never seen this working so I either re-create it manually using the ‘rebuild’ link in the settings after each post published or, which is more likely, when I remember to do so (about once a month).
I found this YouTube video, if you’re interested:
