Showing posts with label Uniform Resource Locator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uniform Resource Locator. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Bookmarking...visually

Image representing Symbaloo as depicted in Cru... There are probably times when you would like to share a set of hyperlinks. However, sometimes these can be pretty dull visually...a list..., and often the URL does not provide information about what the follower of a particular link will find or be able to do. Enter Symbaloo (which was recommended to me by John S Oliver, sometime ago, but this is the first opportunity I have had to follow up on it).

I must admit to being cautiously interested. Symbaloo is an online tool that enables you to make visual 'webmixes' that can be shared, organised, and downloaded. One example is this Digital Portfolios webmix from Marti Ingram.  Marti has put together a collection of links to content research sites, a variety of tools that could be used to develop a digital portfolio, some 'how to' support sites, and then some more general sites around digital citizenship for example. I could see how a learner might find this an accessible format with visual as well as text clues as to why they might want to access a site.

Perhaps the next step (which is maybe more exciting for me) is that learners can create and share their own Symbaloo. For example, as part of the  Technology and Education Course at CSUSM students create webmixes to meet assessment requirements (Allison - http://allison422.blogspot.com/p/symbaloo-webmix.html. You can access a whole heap more ideas of how educators are using Symbaloo (across sectors), and I also feel that it would offer a great tool for businesses too - especially in the collation of support or 'how to' resource collections.


This is Symbaloo from Team Symbaloo on Vimeo.


Image Image via CrunchBase

Monday, September 27, 2010

Using QR Codes, video clips and trades training: A pilot study (Kevin Hall and Mike Crosson at Sharefest)

Source code in QR Code. Coded text is "Mo...Image via Wikipedia
Kevin Hall and Mike Crosson are based at Wintec and have been piloting QR codes and video clips in trades training - partly to encourage students to do some revision. QR codes are described in Wikipedia as "A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones". The idea is that it makes it easier for students to access and use conent on online courses.

The speakers demonstrated live how to create a resource in Moodle and an associated URL (and how to create a much shorter link by also using Tinyurl). All content has been trialled in advance to make sure that it is mobile compatible. The benefit for students is that they don't have to mess around trying to get a URL ' perfect', and makes it really easy to grab a link from (with) a mobile phone.

Image via Wikipedia
The first thing we were asked to do in the practical aspect of this session was to download the reader onto our phones from www.i-nigma.mobi, and then we logged in to the Moodle site at mobile.elearning.ac.nz. People then grouped up and those with phones that were 3G capable trialled and demonstrated. The presenters also went around and lent out phones. The initiative is only in pilot phase at the moment and the presenters have been surveying students to find out what phones they have, and investigating options.
Enhanced by Zemanta