Search Cube

Search Cube is a visual search engine that shows search results in the form of a 3D cube. Each side of the cube shows displays 16 different websites each as a small square. Scrolling over each square displays more details about the website on the side of the screen.

You can rotate the square using the direction arrows on your keyboard to display more search results. Clicking on any square then takes you to the website. This unique search engine looks impressive on an interactive whiteboard or projector and it’s guaranteed to generate questions from a curios audience.

I keyed in Social Media.  If you run your cursor over a square - it will give you the website to the right. As you can see! FUN!!!

Internet Safety Tips

The Internet should be a place where you can talk, learn, shop and share without worrying about your own safety or the security of your personal information. You should also be a good and responsible citizen of the Internet. As in the real world, you need to be smart about what you share, who you share it with, and how you behave online. A few Internet Survival Tips for Kids and Teens include:

• Never give any personal information to anyone you meet online.
• Never meet up with anyone you don't already know.
• Don't fill out any "fun" questionnaires that are forwarded to you.
• Be careful about posting pictures of yourself.
• While online, you should avoid doing things that might hurt people or get yourself into trouble. Do not annoy, harass, offend, abuse, or threaten others while online.

There are many survival tips that could be shared to help students use the Internet safely.

Activity: We are going to be working with Go! Animate again. This time you will be creating an animation that shares at least 5 Internet safety tips. Use adequate scenes to cover your content. Add props, change backgrounds, and use different characters as needed. When you are finished, copy the embed code and put it in a post on your blog.

Utilize the websites in the post about Safer Internet Day to finish this assignment.  Delete your knock knock go animate if it is on your side bar.

Assignment:

Students will educate their peers on "what not to do" or "what you should do" to be safe on the internet by creating an animation that illustrates awareness of several safety issues - utlizing GoAnimate!  If you want to try an account that has all the features - you may use my account - User names is DawnJames and Mrs. Haugh will have the password.  Try my account - as I said it is the pro version.

First try on Ping.fm

This post is from utilizing Ping.fm.

Tumblr

Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML.

Evernote

What is Evernote?

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes everything accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Use Evernote to capture your ideas, snapshots, voice memos, things you see online, and just about anything else that you want to remember.

The best part: Evernote is always within arm's reach. There are versions of Evernote for Windows, Mac, the Web, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and other mobile devices. Each of these versions of Evernote is always synchronized, so any information added in one place is instantly available everywhere else.

Things to put into Evernote
Notes and research
Web pages clips
Tasks and to dos
Photos of whiteboards and blackboards
Business card snapshots

Evernote also has the ability to recognize printed and handwritten text within snapshots and images. Try it. Take a photo of a street sign, wine label, or business card. Add it to your Evernote account, give it a few minutes to process, then search for the text.

Evernote

Khan Academy

Watch.  Practice.  

Learn almost anything for free.

With a library of over 2,800 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 300 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.  Not only are their videos, but talks and interviews as well.

Khan Academy

Topics include:  Math, Science, Finance, Humanities, Economics, etc.

Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs.  You can key in a topic and search blogs or individual posts.

Wordle

Printer Friendly Button

If you want your visitors to print one of your posts, add a printer icon.

Printer Friendly Button

Tutorial for blogger

1.  Click website above

2.  Click the radio button next to Blogger.

3.  Choose the way you want your button to look.

4.  Blogger will automatically take you to your layout page and adds the gadget

EASY!!!!

Add This

AddThis helps you integrate sharing tools into your site, spread your content, and drive social traffic. In-depth analytics provide insight into your audience and their activity. 

There are sharing and following tools that you can add to your blog!

Clipix: Organize your life!

Utilize Clipix to clip anything from any website as you browse the web, using the "Clip" button. You can clip items such as, products, articles, photos, clothes, websites - anything. You clip items and store them onto clipboards.  You can create as many clipboards as you want and fill them with as many as clips as you like; organize your life!  Clipix is a place to keep everything you see online!


Create an account using Facebook or Twitter!


To watch video about Clipix - click here!

Digg

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web.  Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by their community.  They provide tools for the online community to discover content, discuss the topics that they’re passionate about, connect with like-minded people, and make  new friends in the process. By looking at information through the lens of the collective community on Digg, you’ll always find something interesting and unique. They are committed to giving every piece of content on the web an equal shot at being the next big thing.

 Digg builds lists of popular stories being shared across the web. Every story has a digg button. Along with that button is a number that is the number of people from the Digg community who have said they like that like or digg that story.  The number of diggs a story collects over time can affect how that story spreads and gains more popularity as it spreads more.

News on Digg comes straight from the digg community! The best links found from around the web are shared on digg to gain traction and exposure as the link is shared virally.  If you find an interesting link on the internet? Digg is the best place to take that news further and spread it quickly amongst a vibrant community.


Info taken directly from Digg's Website! 


Start digging today!

Internet Slang

Have you ever wondered what YBTJ, LOL or BRB - I have a solution!  Visit InternetSlang to see a full list of netlingo!

On InternetSlang, you will find a list of slang terms, acronyms and abbreviations as used in websites, ICQ chat rooms, Blogs, SMS, and Internet forumns - a complete dictionary of slang.  Please remember as with any webpage, you may come across words that stand for phrases containing words that may be offensive to some people.  A good thing is that this website substituted asterisks, etc. for the words in question.

Ping.fm

Ping.fm is a free service that makes updating your social networks a snap!

Post From Anywhere To Anywhere

to all of your favorite services!

Click here to see Ping.fm's mega list of supported social networks

Personal Learning Network - PLN

Today is all about creating blog traffic!  You will start following blogs today - and subscribing via RSS feeds.  You will also learn today how to add a contact me icon onto your blog and allow your readers to follow your blog.

Throughout this course you have began building a PLN - PLN - Personal Learning Network.  Today you expanded your PLN by following blogs, allowing readers to follow your blog, by subscribing to blogs, allowing readers to contact you.  That is just the beginning.  You will continue to build your PLN this semester.  You can use your PLN to learn from others, ask for help on any topic, and contribute your ideas and thoughts.  You will start using various online tools to build your own personal learning network! 

What is a Personal Learning Network?
Building a PLN means - making connections and building relationships with teachers, administrators, experts, etc. from around the world.

If you didn't realize it, you have a PLN.  This network includes the people and information sources that help you accomplish your goals, either at school, on the job or in your personal pursuits. They are the teachers in our school, your coaches, sponsors of organizations and clubs, your library media specialist, the art teacher at the middle school, past grade school teachers, the magazines you subscribe to, books you use in classrooms, etc.

Today, however, new techniques for organizing digital networked information, have enabled us to fashion new kinds of networks that extend far beyond our immediate location and face-to-face connections, and to grow our networks based not on explicit decisions, but through the ideas of other nodes (people and resources), whose ideas intersect with ours.

Having a PLN is about sharing ideas and resources, collaboration and learning.  We may share our learning, ideas and expertise in different ways, using media and tools.


a PLN can be about anything... you can create a group based on a hobby, an interest, a passion, or your profession.

My PLN includes:  Recipes, Money Saving, Social Media Tools, Health and Fitness



How to build a PLN? from Elena Elliniadou on Vimeo.

Feedjit

Feedjit lets you see friends and visitors as they arrive on your blog or website. Know when your best friends read about your latest adventure. If you are a business owner, be alerted when your most important clients view your latest product offering. Feedjit lets you know, right now, who is visiting your site. Simply add the Live Traffic Feed and instantly start seeing who is visiting your site as they arrive.

See the actual identity of hundreds of thousands of Feedjit members when they visit your site including their photo and links to their website and social profiles. You can make new friends and leads by contacting the Feedjit members who visit your site. The Live Traffic Feed turns your unknown readers into real people.

Visit Feedjit and add a live traffic feed.

How exciting!! It actually shows the country, browser, operating system and how a visitor arrives on your site!

Kontactr

Kontactr is a one-click contact form service which lets you create contact forms on the fly. With our simple tools, its even easier to integrate the contact form into your website.


Add a contact us onto your blog so that your readers may contact you if they have a question.

Follow by Email

Follow a blog by email to stay up to date on the latest blog posts for example.  You can also add this gadget on to your blog.   Why follow by email?  If you follow several blogs for example, you do not have to visit each blog to see if it has been updated.  Each evening if the blog has been updated, you will receive an email with the information - and it will show up in your google reader.

Lets follow by email to see what it is like:  Blogger Tips and Tricks

Add the gadget to your blog.

Blog Followers Gadget

Do you have a favorite blog and want to let the author and readers know that you are a fan?   You can do this by their Blogger Following feature! You can even keep track of the blogs you follow via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard.

How do I follow blogs?

There are several ways to follow a blog. One of the easiest ways is to visit a blog that has added the Following widget and click on the "Follow" button under the "Followers" widget:

Then choose Google - since we utilize Google Products in our classroom.

You'll then see a popup window with the options to either follow publicly or privately:

Select how you would like to follow the blog, then click the "Follow this blog" button. It is that simple, you are now a follower of the blog! If you elected to follow the blog publicly, your profile picture will be displayed on the blog with a link to your Blogger profile (Note: The widget may not show all followers of the blog. If this is the case all followers will be linked from the widget). When you become a follower of a blog, the blog will also be added to your Reading List on your Blogger dashboard and this site will also show on your. Additionally, you can become a follower of any blog or URL (even if the blog doesn't have the Followers widget) by adding the blog to your Reading List on the dashboard.

Let's try it out:  Bloggers Tips and Tricks

Add the followers gadget to your blog.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication

I am sure that you have seen this icon on various websites that you have visited? What exactly is it?  It is the RSS icon.  Why do blogs/websites include this icon on their sites?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  RSS allows the computer to bring the contents of a website or a blog to you rather than you going to it.  RSS has changes the way one consumes Internet content.
Instead of bookmarking things that you found interesting and return to those resources periodically to check for updates.   Going to sites to check for content can be a waste of your time if there’s nothing new to see.  Instead, make that content come to you.  Whenever you’re on a website, look for indicators that you can subscribe.  Do you see the RSS logo pictured above?  Do you see links called “Feed,” “Atom,” “RSS,” or “Subscribe”?  These are indicators that an RSS feed is present.  Some browsers even automatically detect the presence of feeds and turn on an RSS icon for you.  A feed is just a compacted, machine-readable version of the content you’re already consuming.  If you click on a feed, you may either see a bunch of code, you could see some snippits of the page content, or you could see a gaggle of buttons all with different logos on them.  Either way, you’ve found a feed!


Feeds, as I mentioned, are machine-readable.  They’re not very palatable to humans.  You will need a tool to consume the feed.  This is called a reader or an aggregator.  Google Reader is a web-based tool that I utilize to keep up to date on recipe and technology blogs that I enjoy reading - it follows me wherever I go.


Once you have your feed address, find the place to click in your reader to “subscribe.”  Yes, “subscribe” usually means “pay,” but in RSS terms it only means “sign me up to receive content from this source in the future.”  Once you’ve clicked the subscribe button, paste the feed address into the appropriate box and hit subscribe!

Here is a copy of my Goolge Reader.

Once your aggregator chews on the new feed for a minute, you should see the content from that source appear in the reader.  Voila!  You’ve subscribed to a feed.  In the future, just load your feed reader (Google Reader for example) up and see what new content has been posted on that site.  If you see something you want to see in its original glory, click the title of the posting.  That usually opens the original.


Using RSS and a feed reader has given me the ability to consume much more material than I previously could.  It gives me the chance to speed through lots of content and then stop when I see something that I care about and spend more time on it.  Instead of going to every blog I like.  Give RSS a try!

Here is what happens when you click on the RSS logo.  You can choose your reader.  

Lets try it out.  Go to Blogger Tips and Tricks

Facebook Privacy Settings

Watch video on Privacy Settings

Copyrights and Wrongs

The lesson was obtained from:  Common Sense Media

Have you ever used creative work that you found online?  For example, a photo or a poem - for personal or school use?

When you use creative work you find online, what considerations do you make about who made it, if any?  How do you think creators would want their work to be used?  What would be okay?  What would not be okay?


Respect Creative Work

What are ways you can be respectful of people's creative work?

• Check who owns it
• Buy it
• Get permission to use it
• Use it responsibly
• Give credit to the creator

How do you think you would feel if someone used your creative work?  Would it make a difference whether they did the following:

• Asked your permission to use it?
• Gave you credit as the creator?
• Changed the picture or added a caption without asking you?
  

What do you think it means to use someone's else's creative work responsibily?  Does it matter how and where you use it?

Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment, but only in certain ways.   Fair use allows you to use only a small part of someone else's creative work as part of something new.  The work can not be used for commercial purposes, and can be used in the following situations:

• schoolwork and education
• criticism or social commentary
• news reporting
• comedy or parody

Using a small amount in a school report or the school paper would be FAIR USE
Posting it on your blog or social networking site - WOULD NOT BE FAIR USEWashington College of Law, the Center for Social Media creates tools for creators, teachers, and researchers to better use their fair use rights.

What do you need to do if you want to use someone else's creative work?

• Check who owns it
• Get permission to use it
• Give credit to the creator
• Buy it
• Use it responsibly

A person OWNS the creative work that he or she has made, whether it is writing, visual art, photography, music, or in some other form.    You can not legally use copyrighted work without the permission of the person who created it.

Copyright:  A law that protects you're a creator's ownership of and control over the work he or she creates, requiring other people to get you're the creator's permission before they copy, share or perform that work

Creative Commons:  A kind of copyright that makes it easy for people to copy, share, and build on someone's creative work - as long as they give the creator credit for it

Public Domain:  Creative work that is not protected by copyright and is therefore free for you to use however one wants

Facebook Like Button

Add this add on to any page and it will allow your visitors to promote your pages on their Facebook profile.  


The social networking website Facebook has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture. Virtually anything, from the mainstream to the obscure, has a Facebook page or Facebook group dedicated to it. By adding a Facebook "Like" button to your blog/website, you can increase the amount of exposure the site gets through Facebook itself. Embedding a "Like" button requires an understanding of HTML, but the amount of time required can be reduced by using the code generating tools available on Facebook's Developers website.

Facebook has come up with Social plugins which enable you to provide engaging social experiences to your users with just a line of HTML. The Facebook Like Button is One of them. You can see a demo of the like button on my recipe blog page - which is on the right hand side of my blog (it will not show up here at school, due to the fact that FB is blocked). The Facebook like button will allow your readers to quickly share your posts with their Facebook Friends. You can also get to know how many people liked your Blog Post .  Follow the link below to add a Facebook Like button to your blog.

Here is the code - add a gadget and paste the following code:  Changing the red part to your blog address.

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=jamesfavoriterecipes.blogspot.com&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font=verdana&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>

Add a Like Button for Facebook on your blog!!

Get the code here!

Safer Internet Day 2012

Safer Internet Day is organized by Insafe (Europe) each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. 

Safer Internet Day encourages more responsible 

use of online technologies and services.

This year, Safer Internet Day (SID), is centered around the theme Connecting generations and educating each other, with the slogan: "Discover the digital world together... safely!"

With the emergence of smartphones, increased connectivity, and technology in schools and at home, the need for safety education is more important than ever before. Sharing resources and sparking discussion is the best way to educate and grow strong citizens in the 21^st century.

Goolge is using Safer Internet Day to launch its new digital literacy portal called ThinkB4U. The project, which is a collaboration between Google and its nonprofit safety partners, Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely.org and the National Consumers League, features "choose-your-adventure" style videos along with targeted safety tips from the nonprofit groups.

Digital media are excellent tools for forging and maintaining healthy and safe relationships. . . As with all tools, how we use them determines whether they provide positive opportunities or expose us to risk.

Digital communications are “sticky.” Anything communicated through digital media remains accessible indefinitely, which is great news when you have . . . great news.

Responsible, resilient digital citizens know to operate under the same good judgement online that they use in their offline lives. The Web may feel like a free-for-all. We must understand the risks that we face from others as well as from our own conduct, and the dangers posed by applications like viruses and phishing.  

• Think before you post. Be proud of what you post and the reputation you build online.
• Don’t know, don’t show. Make sure you know your privacy settings.
• Take action and report bullying. Don't be a passive bystander.
• Have a family chat. Share what you know about online safety.
• Only “check in” with friends you know IRL (in real life). Know your geo-location privacy settings

Newseum

Visit Newseum!


Through a special agreement with more than 800 newspapers worldwide, the Newseum displays these front pages each day on its website. The front pages are in their original, unedited form, and some may contain material that is deemed objectionable to some visitors. Discretion is advised.

What it is:  Newseum is a neat way for students to see the news from around the country.  Front pages of newspapers from around the US are displayed on a map.  Scroll over the map and the front page of the newspaper pops up.  Click on a different country to display newspapers from around the world. How to integrate Newseum into the classroom:  Newseum is a great site to visit for current events.  This is a great way to find out what is happening state to state or around the world that is news worthy.  Have students compare and contrast front page events around the country or around the world.  Is there a particularly news worthy subject that seems to pop up in multiple states, multiple countries?   Newseum could be a great discussion starter about newspapers, should they be saved or will they eventually be totally replaced by the Internet?  Use Newseum each morning to get an update of current events using an interactive whiteboard.   This site is like a virtual field trip around the world for newspapers.

Go Animate

GoAnimate:
The developers of GoAnimate "believe everyone has good stories to tell." GoAnimate was created to provide an outlet for everyone's creativities and ideas. With GoAnimate, you can easily make animations the way you want to. There is nothing to download and there is no need to draw. You can make your own animated characters, direct your own cartoons, and watch others' creations. It's easy, fun and free. You can customize your animations with a large number of tools and features that allow you to create truly unique works of expression. (GoAnimate4Schools is a safe environment for students to fully express their creativity through animation.)

Activity #1: GoAnimate Tutorial
Tutorial #2 Videomaker
Begin by selecting the "Start Tutorial" option where you should see the following: "Welcome to the GoAnimate Animation Studio, where you can easily make your own cartoons. Since this is the first time you are here, we should go through a short tutorial to show you the basics. Let's get started!"

From there you will be taken through the basic steps of creating your first cartoon. You'll start by selecting a background. Next, you will select a main character for your story. Then you will be asked to enter some text and select a voice. In order to continue your story, you will need to add more actions and have longer conversations, so you will need to have more scenes. Think of scenes as frames in a comic strip or storyboard.

Each character can perform one action per scene. Also, each scene can only have one person speaking. Remember a scene is like a frame in a comic strip. Once you have finished going through the tutorial, you are ready to begin!

Activity #2: Create a Cartoon
You are to create an animated cartoon portraying two characters sharing a "Knock, Knock" joke! Have fun and be creative!

Activity #3: Create a Cartoon Character
Explore this feature in GoAnimate and create a new cartoon character. Place this cartoon on a background of your choice and add a "voice" to welcome people to your blog. You can add additional characters if you want. Post the finished "cartoon" on your blog! GoAnimate.com: Example by DawnJames

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FACEBOOK!

Today marks the eighth anniversary since the social network launched at Harvard University in Mark Zuckberg's dorm room on February 4, 2004.

After Google, Facebook is the most visited site in the world and may reach as many as 1 billion members by August, notes Mashable.

Did you know that American Internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other site? Not only is it the site with the second-largest U.S. audience, just behind Google, but it far surpasses every other site in the top 10 of most popular websites, according to data from Nielsen, with the average user spending more than 7 hours and 45 minutes each month on the site.

No wonder it's a popular site for marketing and engaging with consumers.

The World is Obsessed with Facebook YouTube Video

FuN FrIdAy!!!!!

Have you ever wondered how some websites create all those cool fonts, especially the animated ones?  I have explored the Internet and found several sites to share with you so that you can create you own.  I have created several posts of websites that deal with animating text!  Please explore these and create animated text on to your blog!  I have also included a photo editing website as well - where you can edit photos, make collages, create a cube of pictures, apply animation onto your photos.  You not only can use these fonts on websites, but on documents as well!

I will show you each website before you begin.  Please wait.

HAVE FUN creating!!!!

Don't forget to check Edmodo for your assignments.

FlashVortex - animate text

FlashVortex is another animated text generator.  This website has several text templates, such as you can make your words, melt, bounce, scale, flame, sandy, glow, 3D, rotate, and many more!  You can also create buttons, banners, clocks, and menus!

Flaming Text

Utilize flaming text to create animated text.  You may download the animated GIF, get the HTML code and post it on Facebook, etc.

To create your flaming text click here!

Animate Text

On this website you can create animated text that you can place on your blog, website, email it to a friend, post it on facebook, etc.  You can add text as a gadget or in a blog post!

Click here to create your own animated text!

GlowText

Make your blog come alive with glowing text!  Utilize GlowTxt's text generator!

GlowText

Friday, Feb. 3 - Check your Visitor Counter

Please visit your classmates blog to create traffic.

Log in to your histats.com account and view the stats of your blog.

Create a post titled Visitor counter - explain what information you obtained from your visitor counter.

Did you have any visitors outside the US?

Histats - Visitor Counter

Lets start tracking our visitors!

There are numerous services available on the Internet for you to track your visitors.  Today you will look at Histats.com and add a counter gadget to your blog.

As mentioned, on this website you can create a counter to add to your blog, which tracks your visitors.  You must create an account on Histats.com

To see my HiStats counter - scroll down to the bottom of of this blog.

Follow these steps if you need help figuring histats out.

1. Go to histats.com
2. Register
3. Check your email for confirmation
1. check junk mail or spam folder it may have went there (mine did)
4. Click the link to activate account
5. Go to histats.com
6. Login
7. Click add a website
8. Key in your blog address--for description just put Social Media, for title Social Media or whatever
9. Click get your counter code
10. You will see your blog address with a number beside it - click your blog address
11. Click counter code in the right hand corner
12. Click add a new counter
1. choose your counter there are several--click to select
2. check mark what you want to show up on your counter - page visits, etc.
13. Click save
14. Click counter id and code will appear for you to copy.
15. Add the html gadget somewhere on your blog.
16. When you have it finished have someone visit your blog.
17. Now just explore histats - we will look at more closely next week.

To read more about the features of Histats - click below.