SocialMedia Archives - Page 21 of 26

Useful links: students and teachers networking, .gov sites, Dreamweaver tip

when teachers and students connect outside school at apophenia asks What do you think is the best advice for other teachers when it comes to interacting with students on social network sites? She said,

Digital technologies collapse social contexts all the time. The key to figuring out boundaries in a digital era is not to try to revert to space. The key is to focus on people, roles, relationships, and expectations. A teacher’s role in relation to a student should not end at the classroom door. When a teacher runs into a student at a local cafe, they are still that student’s teacher. When a teacher runs into a student online, they are still that student’s teacher. Because of the meaning of a teacher-student relationship, that should never be relaxed; the role of teacher should always be salient (except when the teacher also happens to be the parent which is when things get very murky very fast).

Leave your comments at apophenia.

Jim Thatcher continues his series examining the accessibility of Obama administration web sites with a look at Accessibiliity of MakingHomeAffordable.gov and Accessibility of Data.gov.

A Forgotten Productivity Tip: Dreamweaver CS4 from Greg Rewls is a good tip.

Google Web Elements

The big hoopla this week in the world of technology came from Google’s I/O conference. Among the announcements was one about Google Web Elements. What are they and what can you do with them?

Google Web Elements are widgitized versions of Google products such as calendars, chat, maps, custom search, YouTube news, and docs. You can add these widgets to your site or blog. Most of the widgets were already available. Now they’ve been aggregated in one spot. YouTube News is a newly added item.

It’s very easy to use one of these widgets. Making a map widget took about three seconds. I entered the address of the New Mexico State Capitol, commonly called The Roundhouse. I selected a satellite map display. Google handed me a bit of code, which I copied to get this map. If you close in on the map, you’ll understand the nickname.

Denise Wakeman at Biz Tips Blog described making a map widget in Google Launches Web Elements for Your Blog.

Have an event you’re promoting and want to include a map on the registration page or in a blog post? Choose the size map you want, type in the address, a title for the location and you immediately get the HTML to paste in your blog. Nothing could be easier. (click on the image to get the full size graphic)

Since Google Docs can be widgitized, you can embed a spreadsheet or a presentation in a web page.

The custom search widget lets you choose an option that will add AdSense for the search. I didn’t choose that option for this example, but you might want it for your own blog. You’re going to get Google ads no matter what. You don’t have to tell Google anything, even the URL of your site, to get search code. Try the search right now. When you’re finished use the small x beside the Search button to close the search. You don’t have to tell Google anything, even the URL of your site, to get search code.

Widgets are nothing new. You may already have ways to do what Google wants you to do using their products. The Conversation Element, which allows chats on your site, is similar to a FriendFeed widget. A Google Docs Presentation widget is similar to SlideShare services.

Barb Dybwad at Obsessable, commented in Google launches Web Elements suite, embeddable widgets for integrating Google products to your site. She included some tweets on the topic and explained the Conversation Element.

A “Conversation” widget allows readers to post comments and videos that can become shared global threads via Google Friend Connect.

Kate Green, reported on Google’s announcement for Techology Review in Google Launches Web Elements.

In the spirit of simplifying software, Google announced a new way to easily integrate its products, like News and Maps, into a personal website. The offering is called Web Elements and was demonstrated today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco.

At the event, DeWitt Clinton, the technical leader on Google’s developer team, illustrated how to use Web Elements within a blog. He embedded a Google News feed, a map, and a live conversation widget in about the same amount of time it takes to embed a YouTube video. While similar tools have been available for some time, it’s interesting to see Google’s take on letting users easily add some of its popular products to their sites. Currently there are eight products available, with the possibility of more to come.

Do Google Web Elements have any advantages over all the other widgets available already? If you are a Google Docs user, they might make things easier to share, especially presentations. They should work on most blogs and web sites. I’m not ready to say that they are superior to any other widget choices, but they are sure easy to use.

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Useful Links: Accessible forms, CSS Quick-Question

Accessible forms using WCAG2.0 from Web Usability. Code examples, screen grabs, video and transcripts of screen reader interpretations of forms. Very valuable. For educators: this is a great resource for an assignment. If I gave stars to my useful links, this one would get 5 stars.

Smashing Magazine is doing something interesting using Twitter. Their first post based on questions from forums/Twitter is Ask SM: CSS Quick-Question Edition. Questions posted to the SM forums or to @smashingmag or @chriscoyier are given complete answers in a column of the magazine. Common CSS problems are tackled in this post. I find this idea an example of “getting it.” A design magazine takes questions from readers/followers and answers them in SM’s well-illustrated fashion for all to see. This is a super example of a two-way street working well, of a magazine that gets what social media is all about. Looking for an example of a business that communicates in an effective way with its audience? This is one.

Compare what Smashing Magazine is doing with what Dell just did with it’s Della site. (SEE Big Aaargh! for Dell’s Della.) That’s an example of doing it wrong.

Useful Links: Skip Links, Twitter search, best job in the world

Iheni on skip links, Twitter search will soon include indexing links, and a new social media job description trend?

The shelf life of a skip link from iheni talks about accessibility, navigation with a screen reader such as JAWS, HTML5 elements that will aid navigation and WAI ARIA roles. Excellent reading.

@Google – @Twitter to start Indexing Links for Search from TechCrunch is a fast and concise explanation of why changes in search on Twitter may end up being a big deal. If you didn’t watch Laura Fitton’s talk about Twitter the first time I recommended it, I urge you one more time to do that.

In January, I published The Best Job in the World – Going Viral. According to MSNBC, that job has now been filled by a 34 year old Brit named Ben Southall. The way the job posting went viral was of more interest to me than the fact that the job is now filled. But the notion behind the way it worked has been picked up by at least one company, this time a California winery looking for a social media guru. They are paying $10,000 a month for someone who will visit wineries, taste wines, and do the whole 2.0 social media shtick about it for them. I think it’s about time educators developed a curriculum for social media shtick, because a lot of grads would like one of those jobs.

Summary of eHow articles for April

A list of the articles I published on eHow in April. How-to galore.

It’s spring. It’s beautiful. It’s renewal, life-affirming renewal. Get outside and take a walk.

Here’s a list of what I published on eHow in April.

Useful Links: Social Media Products, Typefaces, SXSW photos

Useful links: good resources for using social media, periodic table of typefaces, SXSW photos.

Resources: Web 2.0 Social Media Products, a guide on what to use lists the essentials. Handy.

Periodic Table of Typefaces is brilliant. The teacher in me wants to know where to order poster-size prints for the classroom wall. Hey, Behance, why not team up with Visibone to get this gem published? Visibone already has a direct line straight onto the walls of web design classrooms all over the world.

I’ll be posting photos from SXSW Interactive for the next few days at Flickr. I’m veesees on Flickr.