The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy?

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The Web and Parents

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The Web and Parents Are You Tech Savvy? Judy Hauser

LIBRARIES UNLIMITED An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

Copyright 2009 by Judy Hauser All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or reproducibles, which may be copied for classroom and educational programs only, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hauser, Judy. The Web and parents : are you tech savvy? / Judy Hauser. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59158-795-8 (alk. paper) 1. Web 2.0—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Social media—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Internet and children. I. Title. TK5105.88817.H38 2009 006.7—dc22 2009028594 13

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This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

To my mom, who would have gotten a kick out of this book.


Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction

xi

Disclaimer

xvii

Chapter 1

Blogs—Express Yourself

1

Chapter 2

Social Networks—A Snapshot of Your Life

31

Chapter 3

Wikis—Collaborate on Content

47

Chapter 4

Search Engines—Focus Your Search

71

Chapter 5

Podcasts—Communicate and Listen

83

Chapter 6

RSS—Subscribe to Web Sites

109

Chapter 7

Web Sites—Have a Web Presence

119

Chapter 8

Forums—Online Discussions

129

Chapter 9

Photo Management—Store and Share Your Photos on the Web

139

Chapter 10

Graphic Generators—Create Your Own Graphics

145

Chapter 11

Internet Safety, Digital Citizenship, and Copyright

159

Chapter 12

Conclusion

177

Appendices

181

Bibliography

225

Copyright Acknowledgments

229

Index

233 vii


Acknowledgments

Thank you to my dad and sister for their input on the book. Special thanks to Kristin Fontichiaro, media specialist and author of books on podcasting, for listening to my book suggestion and for introducing me to Libraries Unlimited editor Sharon Coatney and School Library Media Activities Monthly editor Deborah Levitov. Several friends and colleagues generously read sections of the book and gave me their suggestions and opinions. This was extremely helpful, and I really appreciate their time and generosity. Thank you to Anne Rau, reference librarian for the Capital Area District Library and good friend since library school, for her input on the social networking chapter; Bruce Hawkins, a friend since we met in the anthropology department at Oakland University many years ago, for reading chapters and testing some instructions; Ken Crawford, computer coordinator for the Troy (Michigan) School District, for reading the sections on students and schools; Ruth Dukelow, associate director of the Michigan Library Consortium, for her input on the copyright section; Thomas Cryer, of FreeForumHost.com, for his input and permission to use a screenshot; Jill Nissen, chief IP counsel for Ning, for permission to use screenshots and for her input on Ning instructions; Patrick Clinger, of the ProBoards staff, for permission to use screenshots and his input on the forum instructions; David Rusenko, of Weebly, for permission to use screenshots and his input on the Web site instructions; and Rachel Pennig, of PBworks Support and Services, and Kristine Molnar, PBworks community evangelist, for their permission to use screenshots and input on the PBworks instructions. ix

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Acknowledgments

Many, many thanks to each of these friends and colleagues for helping me complete this book. Screenshots from the following used with permission: Audacity, Creative Commons, Big Huge Labs (FD’s Flickr Toys), Flickr/Yahoo!, ForumsFree, FreeForumHost, Gcast, Grokker, IAC Search & Media (Bloglines), Moodle, NationMaster, NetLingo, Ning, PBworks, Proboards, Web Wise Kids, Weebly, Wikipedia, WordPress. Audacity® software is copyright © 1999–2008 Audacity Team. Web site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net. It is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The name Audacity® is a registered trademark of Dominic Mazzoni.

Introduction

WHY A WEB BOOK FOR PARENTS? Are you a parent with kids in elementary, middle, or high school? This book is for you. You may feel that your children are experts on using the Web, technology wizards, computer geniuses. Please don’t despair. First of all, they are not necessarily all of these things simply because they may know more than you do about using the Web. Or are you someone who keeps hearing about the Web, but you haven’t explored it for various reasons— for example, fear, timidity, or you don’t think there is a reason to use it? Even if you search the Web using Google or Yahoo! you are probably not using the vast array of great Web tools. You have come to the right place. One thing you can definitely learn from your children is to boldly go beyond e-mail and Google searches. Young people should always be aware of parameters when using the Web. They should be involved in discussions on Internet safety and commonsense when living in the virtual world. They have embraced social networking, text messaging, and instant messaging so much that these are their main venues for communication instead of e-mail (Lenhart, Madden, and Hitlin 2005). News media reports about the Web, children, and predators are always horrible to hear, but they do not represent all that happens on the Web. Of course, this is a reprehensible problem, but it is also a small fraction of what occurs in the large virtual world. What this news may do is turn adults, especially parents, off when it comes to the Web. However, Web tools have so many excellent uses that the negative news should not deter you from exploring for yourself the many ways in which these tools are used in positive ways. xi

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Introduction

WEB 2.0 The current Web is referred to as Web 2.0. The term Web 2.0 is attributed to Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. The original Web was Web 1.0. What’s the difference? With Web 1.0 you could still search for information, but you often had to go to the information. Newsgroups were online discussion groups that you would go to in order to share information. Sites were often quite static without much interaction. Bookmarking, which is still popular of course, was the method for visiting sites on a regular basis to get new information. What else is different about the current Web compared to Web 1.0? The Web is all about sharing, collaboration, self-publishing, self-expression, and getting information quickly and just in time. You can communicate and share information on your own blog. Consider it your personal Web site where information is published without a webmaster. Wikis are tools intended specifically for collaboration. If two or more people are working on any content, such as a project, meeting minutes, or a report, a wiki is the tool to use. Podcasts are audio files that provide one-way communication. There are numerous uses for self-expression. Really simple syndication, or RSS, allows you to get information quickly. The information can now come to you instead of you going to the information as with traditional bookmarking. Each of the tools you will learn about contributes to the crux of the Web, and that is social media. There are numerous sites for creating and participating in actual social networks, and blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS can be incorporated into social networks. Yet all of these tools are social media tools and allow you to share, communicate, collaborate, selfpublish, and express yourself. Let’s get into Web tools, and you will see how they create and foster social networking and the sharing, collaboration, and self-expression mentioned earlier.

USING WEB TOOLS The Web has so many free, useful, and helpful tools to use at work or at home that you will be surprised when you see that they are quite easy to use. The tools are available to help you accomplish successful communication, collaboration, sharing, and dissemination of information. The bonus in learning about these tools and how to use them is that you will be more knowledgeable when it comes to your children using technology. This knowledge will help you guide your children and ask questions.

Introduction

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Communication Many Web tools facilitate communication with others, and you are bound to find one or two that you want to use. Create a social network page to communicate with people in a format that allows you to have lists, discussions, photos, and other features that make it a rich venue. To report information to family, friends, or colleagues, start a blog. A Web site can be home base to discussions and resources, and a podcast lets others hear your voice in more ways than one. And forums will give you the template needed to participate in threaded discussions with others.

Collaboration To truly collaborate with others without a face-to-face meeting, use a wiki. This collaborative tool was designed to meet that particular need, and wikis are very easy to use, accessible by all members, and available 24-7 to participants.

Resources Take advantage of the variety of search engines available to find information on the Web. A search engine is a tool used to locate subject-specific information by entering keywords, names, or terms. It’s fine to use a favorite search engine, but be aware that there are many search engines available to help you focus on your information quest. Branch out and explore those resources to more fully utilize the amazing information on the Web. The many photo-storage and sharing sites on the Web are also helpful and convenient resources. If you enjoy photography, store your photos on the Web for easy retrieval, organization, and dissemination. There is also a great pool of photos by others available for use with permission. Graphic generators are a creative and fun resource for creating customized graphics. By adding text or an image to a graphic (e.g., sign, photo frame), you can create a customized graphic for use on a blog, Web site, or wiki or for posters, invitations, or other printable documents. Graphics enhance and customize a blog or Web site, so try some out to see how easy they are to create and how much you will enjoy adding them to your sites. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a huge timesaver if you visit Web sites regularly. If you open a free account with a newsreader and subscribe to blogs, wikis, and Web sites via RSS, you will not have to bookmark those sites. No longer will you have to go to the information—the information will come to you in real time! This tool is highly recommended to keep up on certain Web sites when new information is added.

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Introduction

Internet Safety Internet safety is a huge issue and not one to be overlooked, especially in the case of children. And if those children are young adults, they still need to know safety guidelines for Internet use. The more you learn about safety on the Internet, the richer your discussions with your children. Learning about online safety is too important to ignore as the Internet pervades our lives more and more. Many young people are using social networks to “meet” friends, share information, and communicate, so discussions must be frank and ongoing. Please do not shortchange this issue. It’s much too important to ignore!

Digital Citizenship With the abundance of Web-based tools available, and at no or little cost, we are digitally connected more than ever. Children and teens are learning how to be good digital citizens. In other words, they are not just learning about these tools; they are also learning how to use them ethically and appropriately in the real world and the virtual world. This knowledge will help them in higher education and in their jobs.

Copyright The availability of seemingly endless information and resources at our fingertips is a wonderful thing, but it also brings up issues of copyright. Whether content by an artist or author is in print, in audio, or online, it is still protected. More than ever, users of information on the Web must be aware that they need to legally and properly use the information. That may mean requesting permission to use content or to give attribution. Some information is available for use under a license that gives all the permission needed. Acquiring some commonsense guidelines regarding copyright is necessary and essential.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND THE WEB Children and young adults are using technology in school and outside of school, so it is important that they learn to use it well. Many adults believe that children and young adults know everything about technology and the Web. They are pretty savvy, and that is partly because they are digital natives who grew up with technology, unlike their parents. However, they don’t always know the best resources to use and how to keep safe on the Web. School staff works with students to teach them proper and appropriate uses of technology not only for their current classwork but also to prepare

Introduction

xv

them for jobs or higher education after graduation. States have their own technology standards for K–12 schools, and they may also be using the National Educational Technology Standards as prepared by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Parents should always feel comfortable contacting the school to ask questions about what students are learning in school regarding technology and the Web. If you have any questions about your child’s school and how they are addressing information and technology literacy, you should talk to the principal, media specialist, and technology director. These key players can explain how information and technology literacy are implemented in your child’s school.

Students and Technology Standards Most states have K–12 technology standards that children must meet in certain grades, and you should be aware of what is required of your children in their school district. When it comes to using Web tools in schools, in addition to learning about these tools generally, students are also learning how to use them in the curriculum. Learning how to use these tools to accomplish projects will also help students when they graduate high school and go to college or directly into the workplace. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web tools are being used in abundance in higher education by professors and students. If students are going from high school directly into a job, they will have an advantage if they have information and technology literacy skills. Questions for Your Child’s School Regarding Technology Use What Web tools are students using and why? What tools are covered in each grade? How are the tools used in the curriculum? Are students accessing the tools in a safe environment? What are the technology literacy standards for the district? How are students meeting the standards? How is Internet safety taught to students?

PARENTS AND THE WEB Go for it—try using some of the Web tools and resources for personal use or for work. Once you see how they work and apply them to something in your life, you will become a convert. Not all of the tools may be applicable to your needs, but you will be aware of how they are created, how they would be used, and how they will help.

xvi

Introduction

Become tech-savvy so that you have more tools and resources at your fingertips and so that you are more aware of what your children are using and why when they are working on a computer. You are going to find out that using Web tools is not the fearful phenomenon you may have imagined. The tools you are about to learn will be fun and helpful whether they are used for work or for personal use. Get ready. Welcome to the Web! References International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). http://www.iste.org. Lenhart, Amanda, Mary Madden, Paul Hitlin. 2005. Teens and technology: Youth are leading the transition to a fully wired and mobile nation. The Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/Teens-andTechnology.aspx?r=1 (February 2009).

Disclaimer

Web resources are periodically updated or changed by the authors. Some of the Web sites mentioned in this book may look different by publication. A feature may change, or the look of the Web site or even the wording for an instruction may change. If any changes have occurred, please read the Help section for that Web site. If a change has been made, it will most likely not be a major change as to how you use the feature. Not all Web sites and resources mentioned in the book are child-friendly. They were chosen to give parents a good variety of tools and resources, knowledge of different resources, and tips on adult use of the resources. Some Web sites may have child-inappropriate advertisements, images, or links visible.

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Chapter 1

Blogs—Express Yourself

Blogs are such a great Web tool. The main function of a blog is communication. A blog is an online journal, and it can be a personal blog or one that represents a group, company, or association. Even if the blog represents more than one person, it usually has only one administrator—the person with the password to make changes to the site. A blog can be considered a personal Web site because numerous features can be added to customize it. A blog can be created at no cost. There are great blog hosts available that will let you create a blog (or several) and keep it on the host server (or computer network). That means that you go to the host’s server to add content to a blog or to read content. The advantage to this is that the host provides support and other features. If an organization puts blogs on their own server, their staff has to administer everything and provide support and troubleshooting. Microblogging has also become wildly popular. Users of Twitter, a free microblogging service, can send messages of 140 characters or less from a computer or cell phone—just one more way that people can connect online or on the go.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER A blog is an online diary or journal and is usually written by one person. Others may leave comments on what you have written. A blog administrator is usually the person who created, owns, and makes decisions regarding the blog. 1

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Blog hosts are Web sites that provide space and templates for blogs. Blog hosts usually offer free accounts and premium accounts that cost a monthly or yearly fee. A blogroll is a list of recommended blogs and Web sites that is placed on a blog. Categories are keywords or phrases that describe the content of a blog post. Categories are listed in the sidebar of a WordPress blog to guide readers to other posts. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers alternatives to copyright for intellectual property. A dashboard is the administrative panel behind a WordPress blog. This is where the blog owner does everything “behind the scenes.” Flickr is an online Web site for photo storage, sharing, and organization. A header is the box located at the top of a blog that holds the title and perhaps a graphic. Another name for a header is banner. ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education. Moodle is an open-source, or free, online course management system used by educators. The NETS are the National Educational Technology Standards created by ISTE and used as technology guidelines in K–12 schools. NSBA is the National School Boards Association. Open-source software is free software that can also be modified. A post is the text you write and publish on a blog. A post could also be (or include) a photo or other graphic. RSS, or really simple syndication, allows readers to subscribe to a blog. Once subscribed, the user can read the “feed” for that blog in a newsreader. Spam is unsolicited e-mail sent to a blog as a comment. Spam is sent from bots or automated computer systems. Tags are keywords or phrases that describe the content of a blog post. A theme is the template used to create a blog. Includes the header, sidebar, and different features. Twitter is a microblogging service that people use on a computer or cell phone, writing 140 characters or less at a time. URL, or universal resource locator, is another name for a Web site address that begins with “http.” Widgets are tools that allow features to be easily added to a blog. A wiki is a Web tool used for collaboration. Once a wiki is created, a group of people can go to the wiki to collaborate on content at their individual convenience.

Blogs

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WordPress MU, or WordPress Multi-User, is an open-source or free version of blog software that can be placed on an organization’s computer server. WordPress.com is a blog host site. Free and premium accounts are available.

BLOG HOSTS There are several blog hosts available on the Web. Blog hosts are Web sites that offer blogs for free or for a cost. To start, set up a blog for free, and then if additional storage or features are required, look into the paid accounts available. Blog hosts offer similar features and resources, so look at the different domains available and choose one to start a blog. We will be using WordPress.com to go through the steps to blogging. Following are some other examples of blog hosts:

Blogger Blogger is a Google blog domain: http://www.blogger.com/start. You can take a tour of the site and create a blog in three steps.

LiveJournal LiveJournal is a LiveJournal, Inc. domain: http://www.livejournal.com. You can take a tour and start a free account.

WordPress WordPress is an Automattic Inc. blog domain: http://wordpress.com. Check out the free features for more information on WordPress blogs.

WHY BLOG? People blog for many reasons. Some just want to express themselves on topics in which they feel they have some expertise, whereas others blog for an organization or for their place of work. Teachers may blog to share their educational viewpoints with other educators and parents, and they may have their students contribute to the blog as part of their schoolwork. Blogging is a creative form of expression. To try blogging, think about a topic of interest, such as knitting, music, or collecting. If you market it well, like-minded people will find the blog and read it. The nice part about trying out a blog for the first time is that it’s free, and it’s not written in stone—a blog can be deleted. Remember however,

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that information you put on the Web may remain on the Web for a very long time even when you have deleted it. Information is stored or “cached” and may be retrievable. Again, remember that a blog is the new personal Web site. It actually is a Web site, and in addition to posts (or journal entries), other features can be added that will make it uniquely your own.

HOW DOES A BLOG WORK? A blog usually has one administrator. This is often the person who set up the blog, or it may be the person who is in charge of the blog even if it was set up by someone else. The administrator has the password to everything “behind the scenes” of the blog. The administrator has the keys to the blog, so to speak, and can change the look of the blog, graphics, and any content. This person also has the ability to delete the blog. This is why it is recommended that there be only one or maybe two administrators, depending on whether it is a personal blog or an organizational blog. The administrator should be the blog owner and creator if it is a personal blog. Once a blog is created, features can be added. Look at the section on blog features and customization to see what is available. Then start posting! Posts can be any length, but it is better to make them short and readable. Long essay-style posts may turn some readers off. Many blog readers scan their favorite blogs, read entries of interest to them, and move on. A nice feature of blogs is that a post can always be edited after it is published. If new information is to be added, a post can be edited or updated. Obsolete information may need to be removed, or a Web site address changed. An entire post can be deleted from a blog. Posts do not need to be published to a blog every day. Many bloggers post periodically. It may be a few times a week or it may be a few times a day. There is no set rule on how often to post; however, don’t wait too long between posts or readers may lose interest.

HOW DO PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IN A BLOG? A blog most often has one person who publishes posts. The blog owner may be the only person who posts but may allow others to send posts to be published. Some blogs allow the administrator to add people as contributors or authors so that they can post directly. The majority of blogs allow readers to comment on posts. It works like this: someone goes to a blog, reads a post, clicks on “Comments,” and

Blogs

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types in a comment on that post. Now the administrator can set a blog up so that all comments are moderated which means that they are e-mailed to the administrator who can decide to post the comment or delete it. This is highly recommended. Why delete a comment and not publish it? There is an annoying entity out on the Web, and it’s called spam. Spam is an unsolicited e-mail or comment usually sent from a bot, or Web robot. Spam is the electronic version of junk mail. A handy feature on some blog sites is the availability of spam-catchers. They sift through your blog comments and catch most spam, so that you don’t have to deal with it. You can see the list of spam messages caught in your blog and delete them or skim them if you want. Much of the spam is pornography, medical “miracles,” and financial offers. If a personal blog is created on a .com blog site, the spam-catcher is going to do its job for you. If the blog is on a .org or MU (multiuser) blog site—one that has been downloaded to a server at work—then the company will have to pay for a spam-catcher or use another method to catch the spam. The blog administrator can just go in and delete everything but will get e-mails every time a spam e-mail comes to the blog.

CREATE A BLOG When you are ready to create your blog, have a title ready. In fact, have a couple of blog titles ready in case the first choice is taken. Think about a username for yourself. It can be a variation of your name—for example, first initial and last name, last name and first initial, or a nickname. The blog Web address and name of the blog will also have to be entered. It is usually recommended that you use the name of the blog; for example, if your blog name is “ABCD,” then you may want to use “http://abcd.blogdo main.com” as your blog address. It is the easiest way for people to remember the blog address and, quite frankly, the easiest way for you to remember the blog address.

Get a WordPress.com Account We are going to use WordPress.com as our blog domain site. These are the steps to sign up for an account: 1. Go to http://wordpress.com and click on SIGN UP NOW. (One of the great perks of using Wordpress.com is that once you create an account, you can create several blogs. And one login will take you to all of your blogs.)

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Sign up for a WordPress account.

•

• • •

• • •

Choose a username. This is the name you will use to log in to WordPress.com. It has to be at least four characters long. You may want to see if your first initial and last name or a variation is available. Have a second and third choice ready in case the first choice is taken. Enter a password and reenter it in the next box to confirm. Enter your e-mail address. It is important that it is correct. Under LEGAL FLOTSAM be sure to read the Terms of Agreement and then click the box to indicate that you will abide by the terms. If you are ready to create your blog, select GIMME A BLOG! If you just want the account for now, click on JUST A USER. Click NEXT.

WordPress account username.

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WordPress legal flotsam.

2. The next Account screen is where you make some decisions about the blog: • • • •

•

Choose a DOMAIN NAME. Make the domain name the same as the blog name; it will be easier to remember. Choose a BLOG TITLE. Choose the language for the blog. Keep the PRIVACY box checked if you would like people to be able to find your blog by searching the Web. This is desirable. Click on SIGNUP.

WordPress blog domain.

3. The next Account screen indicates that you need to check your e-mail to complete the procedure.

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Check your e-mail.

WordPress themes.

The Web and Parents

Blogs

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Select a Theme for the Blog The next step is to choose a theme or “skin” for the blog. WordPress.com offers a generous selection of free themes represented as thumbnails from which to choose. Following are the steps for choosing a theme: 1. Log in to your WordPress.com account, and you will be at the DASHBOARD. This is where you control all of the features of the blog. 2. Click on APPEARANCE. A screen titled MANAGE THEMES will appear. 3. Scroll down to AVAILABLE THEMES. Try them out by clicking on either the thumbnail or the name of the theme. When you click on a theme, a screen will appear showing what the blog will look like using that theme. (See screen at bottom of page 8.) 4. To look at other samples, click on the X in the upper left corner. 5. When you find a theme you want to use for your blog, click on ACTIVATE in the upper right corner. 6. Then click on VISIT SITE, the button next to the name of the blog, to see how it will look.

THE DASHBOARD The WordPress dashboard is the control center. This is where only the administrator/blog owner goes and has access unless the account password and username were shared with a co-administrator (not recommended). Descriptions of features of the Dashboard follow.

Posts A post is the information you publish on your blog. A post can include text, graphics, photos, podcasts, and links to Web sites. Are you ready to write your first post?

ADDING TEXT TO A POST 1. Go to the DASHBOARD and scroll down to POSTS. 2. Select ADD NEW. 3. A page titled ADD NEW POST will appear. 4. The title box appears under ADD NEW POST. Enter a title for the post. 5. Tab down to the text box and enter the text. A post can be any length. 6. Click on PUBLISH button on the right-hand side of the page. 7. A page titled EDIT POST will appear. 8. Edit your post or go to VISIT SITE to view the post on your blog.

From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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Adding a Photo or Graphic to a Post 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Go to the DASHBOARD and scroll down to POSTS. Select ADD NEW. A page titled ADD NEW POST will appear. The title box appears under ADD NEW POST. Enter a title for the post. Tab to the text box. Click on the ADD AN IMAGE icon next to UPLOAD/INSERT (between the title box and the text box). A screen titled ADD MEDIA FILES FROM YOUR COMPUTER will appear. Click on SELECT FILES. Browse your computer image files and select a photo to upload. Scroll down and click on INSERT INTO POST. PUBLISH the post. Click on VISIT SITE to view the photo on your blog.

Adding a Web Site Link to a Post 1. 2. 3. 4.

Go to the DASHBOARD and click on ADD NEW under POSTS. Add a title to the post. Tab to the text box. Enter your post text. If you want to make a link to a Web site referenced in the post, follow these directions: a. Highlight the name of the Web site referenced in the post.

b. c. d. e. f.

Click on the LINK icon from the toolbar (looks like a chain link). The INSERT/EDIT link box appears. Enter the full Web address in the LINK URL box. Click on INSERT. Click on UPDATE POST on the right-hand side of the page.

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g. Click on VISIT SITE to view the post. h. Click on the link to go to the Web site. Icons/Buttons in the Post Box Notice that there are several icons/buttons above the text box. They allow the following features in your posts:

Icons in the Post box.

Bold—Highlight text and click on this button to make the text bold. Italicize—Highlight text and click on this button to make the text italicized. Strikethrough—Highlight text and click on this button to strike through. Bullets—Enter a list, highlight the list, and click on this button to add bullets. Numbers—Enter a list, highlight the list, and click on this button to add numbers. Left Justify—Highlight text and click on this button to left-justify. Center Justify—Highlight text and click on this button to center the text. Right Justify—Highlight text and click on this button to right-justify. Link—If you want to add a URL to a Web site, highlight a word or words and click on this button, and then enter the URL. Unlink—Click on the text that features a link and then click on this button to undo the linking on text. Insert More—If the post is long you can insert the icon “more” at a certain point so that the rest of the text can be read only when the icon is clicked. Spellcheck—Check the spelling for typos. Fullscreen Mode—Toggle to a bigger screen. Show/Hide Kitchen Sink—Show or hide more options available for writing a post.

Tags and Categories When a blog is created, the blog owner wants people to be able to find it. The blog address can be sent to family, friends, and colleagues, but everyone

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should have a fighting chance in finding the blog. The best way to lead people to a blog is to assign keywords or identifiers called tags and categories. Tags in Wordpress.com are keywords or identifiers assigned to a specific entry. Categories are keywords assigned to multiple posts. The Web has blog directories available to help people locate blogs that pertain to their interests. These directories use these keywords to help readers locate your blog.

Adding Categories Once a list of categories is created, you can add categories to new posts simply by selecting them from the list on the right hand side of the screen. Here are the steps for adding a category: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Click on ADD NEW CATEGORY. Enter a category. Click on ADD. Click on UPDATE POST. Click on VISIT SITE to see that the category shows up with the post.

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If a category or categories for an entry are not selected, it will be assigned to “Uncategorized,” and that description will show up on the entry. Remember that it is much more helpful to blog readers if you assign categories. Don’t be afraid to use several for each entry. Once you have created a list of categories, the list will show up on your blog so that readers can click on a category and view all of your posts related to that category.

Save and Publish Once a post is written, it can either be published later or be published now, to appear on the blog immediately. To publish it now: 1. Click on PUBLISH. 2. Click on VISIT SITE to see how the post looks on the blog.

EDITING POSTS To edit or delete a post: 1. Go to the DASHBOARD. 2. Under POSTS click on EDIT. 3. The EDIT POSTS page will appear. 4. Select the post and click on EDIT or DELETE. 5. Key in changes and click on UPDATE POST.

ADDING OR DELETING TAGS AND CATEGORIES To add or delete a tag or category, do the following: 1. Go to the DASHBOARD. 2. Under POSTS click on POST TAGS or CATEGORIES. 3. To add a tag or category click on either ADD A NEW TAG or ADD CATEGORY. 4. Type in a word or phrase in the box and click on the ADD TAG or ADD CATEGORY to save. 5. To edit or delete select a tag or category by moving your cursor over the word or phrase and then click on EDIT or DELETE. 6. Click on APPLY to save. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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Comments Encourage people to comment on your posts. The blog owner can view, delete, or edit comments and also set up e-mail alerts to be notified when comments are received.

To View Comments •

Go to the DASHBOARD and click on COMMENTS.

To Delete a Comment 1. Go to the DASHBOARD and select COMMENTS. 2. Select a comment and click on DELETE.

To Edit a Comment 1. 2. 3. 4.

Go to the DASHBOARD and select COMMENTS. Select a comment and click on EDIT. Then edit the text in the same way you would any text. Click on UPDATE COMMENT.

To Set Up E-mail Alerts 1. Go to the DASHBOARD and select SETTINGS on the left-hand side. 2. Click on DISCUSSION. 3. On the DISCUSSION SETTINGS page under the subcategory E-MAIL ME WHENEVER, click the selection boxes for: • •

Anyone posts a comment. A comment is held for moderation.

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Upgrades If more space is needed, or extra features are desired for your blog, click on UPGRADES to see the options available. The costs are reasonable and desirable for those who need the options. As with many Web tools, you will have the choice of the free version and the option to pay for extras.

Settings Assign certain criteria to your discussion settings so that there is some control concerning who may comment on the blog. To do so: 1. Select DISCUSSION under SETTINGS. 2. Select the settings illustrated here for optimal control and then click SAVE CHANGES: Default article settings—keep these checked. Other comment settings—keep, at least, the first box checked so that you can identify the sender of the comment: “Comment author must fill out name and e-mail.” E-mail me whenever—make sure that both boxes are checked so that you always know when a comment has arrived. Before a comment appears—keep “An administrator must always approve the comment” checked so that no comments are published to your blog without your permission. Comment moderation—you can probably leave this unchecked. Comment Blacklist—if you feel strongly about some words not appearing in comments, you may add them here. Avatars—if you use an avatar (a photo, logo, or other graphic that represents you), you can assign some criteria at this point.

Delete Blog To delete a blog for whatever reason, go to DELETE BLOG. This step is irreversible. To delete a blog: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

On the DASHBOARD click on SETTINGS. Under SETTINGS click DELETE BLOG. A page titled DELETE BLOG will appear. Click the box under “IF YOU ARE SURE.” Click on DELETE MY BLOG PERMANENTLY.

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Users Assigning USER ROLES allows other people to participate in your blog. Anyone added must have a WordPress.com account. Other users need to register but do not need to create a blog. To add a user to a blog:

User roles.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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Go to the DASHBOARD and click on USERS. A page titled USERS will appear. Scroll down to ADD USER FROM COMMUNITY. Select the text box for user e-mail. Key in the user’s e-mail address. Under ROLE select from the drop-down menu.

Help WordPress.com provides wonderful help for users. Support and Forums options are available so that you can search for a topic. Go to the Support option and enter the topic or problem in the search box.

CUSTOM FEATURES Now that you have a blog set up, and the settings are in order, you are ready to move on to some custom features that will add to the blog. These features will enhance the blog and make even more information available and helpful to readers. Be aware, however, that once you start adding custom features to your blog, you may lose those features if you switch themes.

RSS—Really Simple Syndication RSS is a way for readers to subscribe to a blog. This does not involve any money; it simply allows someone to be notified every time a post is published on a blog. There is more about RSS in a separate chapter. It is a very important tool, offering RSS on a blog is highly recommended.

Widgets Widgets allow customization of a blog by adding content that may not be built in to the theme (design). To add widgets to your WordPress blog: 1. Go to your Dashboard and click on APPEARANCE. 2. Click on WIDGETS to go to a list of available widgets. A calendar is one example of a widget. To add a calendar to a blog, click on ADD next to CALENDAR. 3. Always click on SAVE CHANGES when finished with the widgets. 4. Click on VISIT SITE to see how it looks on the blog.

PHOTOS, IMAGES, AND HOSTING SITES Photos and other graphics always enhance a blog or Web site. Use your own photos or find royalty-free photo sites. Always remember to check the Terms of Service to see if you need to display attribution of any kind.

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Flickr Use iPhoto, Photoshop, or any other graphics editing software to work with photos on your computer. Sites such as Flickr and Snapfish allow storage of photos and images on the Web for free. Flickr has a Pro account for a cost if more storage space and other features are necessary. Snapfish has lists of all costs for photo duplication and manipulation. Photo storage sites also allow sharing of photos. Go to Flickr.com and type in a subject, such as a city or landmark, and you will get results from numerous Flickr users. To use a photo for a blog, presentation, or other use, contact the photographer by clicking on the username for a photo. The photographer should have a profile with an e-mail address or Web site listed. You can also try leaving a comment for the photo you are interested in using.

Images and Copyright All photos on Flickr and anywhere else on the Web are copyrighted unless otherwise indicated. Don’t ever assume an image from the Web can be used without permission. Sometimes the terms for using an image are listed and may require only that attribution to the photographer be given on the blog or Web site. Flickr has an area on their site called Creative Commons that is an alternative to full copyright. Creative Commons, a resource used for alternatives to full copyright, pertains to all formats and will be discussed further in the copyright chapter. Go to the Flickr Creative Commons page at http://flickr.com/creativecommons to find photos that can be used and the exact form of attribution that must applied to any photo. The Flickr Creative Commons page offers six different licenses: Attribution License Attribution-NoDerivs License Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs License Attribution-Noncommercial License Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License Attribution-ShareAlike License Under each license there is a number of photos for that license. Click on “see more” and browse a collection. Go to the Creative Commons Web site (http://creativecommons.org) to learn more about the licenses that people assign to their creative work. Creative Commons is a great resource, and you may use it yourself someday when you start creating content on the Web.

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Creative Commons Licenses.

Photo Storage Another fantastic feature of a site such as Flickr is that photos can be stored there and then accessed from anywhere in the world as long as there is a Web connection. Upload vacation photos and send the Web address to friends and family for their viewing pleasure. Whether the photos come from a hosting site or just from a computer desktop, it is desirable to add photos and graphics to a blog. The chapter on graphic generators covers another great, free Web resource that can be used to enhance a blog. But photos are very nice. Add a personal photo if it is a personal blog. Also, add graphics to posts (remember ADD AN IMAGE above the post box?) to catch a reader’s eye.

Sharing Your Photos Photos can be uploaded to a site such as Flickr for sharing. Once the photos are uploaded to a Flickr account, a Web address for the collection can be sent out or published on a blog. In fact, many bloggers publish a post when they add new Flickr photos, add the Web address, and let readers go to a slideshow or just a photo. If writer’s block strikes, you can post a link to photos. Go to WIDGETS to find one specifically for adding a link to Flickr photos in a blog.

ADDING A CUSTOM HEADER TO A BLOG WordPress.com provides the ability to add a custom header to a blog in some of the available themes. The header is the box at the top of the blog that shows the name and tagline for the blog. To add a custom header:

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1. Scroll through the themes to look for CUSTOM HEADER in the tags below each theme. If that feature is indicated, then a personal graphic can be added to the header. 2. Once the theme is selected, click on CUSTOM IMAGE HEADER. Assuming that you have already placed a photo or image on your desktop, follow the directions for uploading and cropping if necessary. When scrolling through the themes, also look for CUSTOM COLORS. If it’s preferable to have a header without an image, the colors could be changed. This is the option that allows header colors to be changed.

Free Blog Headers on the Web To look for free blog header images, search the Web using Google, Yahoo, or other sites. For example, if you enter “free blog headers 760 x 200 pixels” or “free blog banners 760 x 200 pixels” in a search engine, you will get results. Select headers that will fit the blog header dimensions and test it out. If the new header does not work out, upload another image.

BLOGROLLS Blogrolls are links to blogs and other Web sites that are recommended to the readers of a blog. If someone reads a blog often, he or she may be interested in other blogs and Web sites that are similar or recommended by that particular blog owner. So a blogroll is created and appears on a blog. When a link to a Web site is clicked in a blogroll, it will take the reader to that site. To add sites to your Blogroll: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Go to the DASHBOARD and click on LINKS. The EDIT LINKS page will appear. Click on the subcategory ADD NEW. The ADD NEW LINK page will appear. Key in the name of the Web site and the Web address. A description is optional. 6. Click on ADD LINK. 7. Go to VISIT SITE to view the new link under BLOGROLL.

There is no set number of blogs and Web sites that should be listed in a blogroll. Readers look at these for suggestions on where to go for good, possibly like-minded information. If a blog catches on with readers, they will look to that blog owner for direction to other sites on the Web. A blogroll is a nice resource to add to a blog.

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SOCIAL BOOKMARKING Social bookmarking allows you to save bookmarked sites on the Web. Why is this handy? It’s handy because you can be on any computer in the world with Web access and get to your bookmarked sites. When you learn about RSS, you will want to use it to get updated on your favorite Web sites as they add new information. But social bookmarking is popular too because you can also share those links. Diigo is a social bookmarking site where you can save Web pages and share them with others. 1. Go to http://www.diigo.com and sign up for an account. 2. Set up your profile. Upload a photo or avatar (not required). Save and continue. 3. Find your friends on the Web or skip this part. This feature allows you to share and interact with friends. 4. Check your email to verify and activate your Diigo account. 5. Install the Diigo toolbar on your computer. 6. Go to any Web page and click on the “Bookmark” button from the Diigo toolbar to save the link to your list. Fill in the information on the pop-up window. 7. Click on SAVE. 8. Share your bookmarks and annotations by sending the list to your blog or through e-mail. Other options are also available.

BLOG DIRECTORIES Blog directories are Web resources to use when looking for blogs to read on specific areas of interest. Technorati (http://technorati.com) is a directory that tracks blogs and tags. You can also find blogs by broad topics such as Health and Fitness, Web 2.0, and Social Policy. Technorati is also one of the many sites that offer a widget that will add a Technorati search engine on a blog. Many sites offer this resource because it benefits their product or service and can make a blog more valueadded for readers. It is certainly not required to add a lot of widgets or any widgets from Web sites to a blog, but the options are there in many cases.

RULES OF BLOGGING It is a wonderful experience to be able to self-publish on the Web. But as with any publication, there are rules. Being in a virtual world doesn’t mean that commonsense rules do not apply. There are also legal, concrete rules concerning copyright and defamation.

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If something is published on the Web, it is still copyrighted material. Web content cannot be used without permission. Even using a free graphic may require that attribution to the artist or Web site be given. Never assume that you can use content from the Web without permission. Would you want someone to take information from your blog and republish it on another site without your permission and attribution? No, of course not. Publishing on the Web, like writing an e-mail, is so easy that people sometimes forget that the content is not private and that anyone can likely access it. It is unwise to use work e-mail to complain or talk about someone, and the same rule applies to a personal blog. Yes, it is your blog, but anyone can read it if it is open to the public. It’s good to read some general guidelines about blogging, and there are some good resources available. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a document available on the Web called “EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers” (http://www.eff.org/issues/ bloggers/legal). The guide addresses questions on common legal issues, defamation, privacy rights, student blogging, workplace blogging, and other issues. Don’t let this scare you off. You are, most likely, not planning on creating a blog to break the rules, but this guide will answer many questions about blogging.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND BLOGS Most blog sites are probably blocked in K–12 schools. That may sound harsh, but it’s true. Why are so many blogs and other Web tools blocked in K–12 schools? First of all, there may be ads on the home pages where you go to create an account or log in to a blog. The ads may not be inappropriate for those 18 years of age and under. Also, if a young person clicks on an ad or any other link on the page, they may go to an inappropriate place on the Web. Other links on the page may include a list of the most popular blogs of the day, and they too may be inappropriate for young people. School administrators and school technology staff members block many Web tools so that they do not encounter problems with students accessing inappropriate sites on the Web. However, the good news is that educators are using age-appropriate, “safe” sites so that students may use Web tools at school. Why is it so important for K–12 students to be able to access Web tools for schoolwork? One reason is that educational technology is essential for students because they must have computer skills if they are going on to higher education or directly into a job after high school. One of the great things about young people is that they easily take to technology—they are used to it, they are not afraid to try it, and once they feel that they have mastered it, they want to use it to the fullest extent.

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Another important reason for using technology and specifically using Web tools in schools is that there are technology standards that must be met at different grade levels in K–12 schools in most states. For example, Michigan has an online learning requirement and the METS—the Michigan Educational Technology Standards. These standards address all manner of technology literacy for grades K–12. Go to http://www.techplan.org/ and scroll down the page to click on the standards for grades K–2, 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12. Additional information on the METS and the online experience are also available. To find out about the K–12 technology standards for your state, contact the school. Reading school technology literacy standards will indicate that the emphasis is not on the tool itself but on how the student uses the tool to address a skill. For example, in the METS, by the end of grade 8, the student will use a variety of telecommunication tools, including blogs, to “collaborate interactively with peers, experts and other audiences.” Technology standards are periodically revised. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) offers the NETS—the National Educational Technology Standards—for improved teaching and learning. The NETS also focus on the skills rather than the tools. They are used in every state in the United States. This is all good. Reports from the Pew Internet & American Life Foundation and the NSBA indicate that young people are using the Web both for school and for personal reasons. And much of the use is for school. The availability of Web tools, along with the requirement to use Web tools for school, fosters the student’s technological skills.

How Can Students Safely Access Web Tools at School? How do students work on the Web if there are problems with schools blocking sites? Teachers can always talk to the school administrator to see if a site can be unblocked for school use. The technology director will have questions about the request and will make sure that the request meets certain criteria before unblocking. There are also solutions available for schools when it comes to using tools on the Web. Some of these software solutions are commercial, and others are open source. As mentioned earlier, “open source” refers to free software code that a school, organization, or business may download to its own server. The advantage to open-source software is that the school or organization can control the content. There are no ads, and the technology staff can control who has access and what features are available to users.

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A problem with many of the free Web tools is that you have to sign up for an account with an e-mail address. Some schools do not want students using personal e-mail addresses because of identity issues. Other schools do allow students to use their e-mail addresses so that they do not have to assign school e-mail addresses to each student. Yet another option is for a school to use an e-mail source such as Gagglenet (http://gaggle.net) to acquire free or purchased e-mail addresses for students that can be controlled. Then students do not need to use personal e-mail addresses. If a school uses an open-source program such as Moodle (http:// moodle.org)—which has wildly caught on with K–12 schools—then student logins are controlled, and the student is directed right to the school Moodle site and cannot go outside the site. Students can, however, go outside the site if links to other Web sites are added to the Moodle pages.

Moodle Moodle is a course management system, and it is free from the Moodle Web site. Teachers use Moodle to set up coursework, discussions, announcements, homework, and tests. It is designed for a teacher to create an online learning community, and that is why it incorporates many Web tools in one package.

Moodle Home Page.

Moodle is considered a “safe environment” for K-12 students because it is a self-contained site and the school can control who has an account and who has access to courses. This prevents unwanted outsiders from communicating with students. Moodle is not a free and open forum for the public,

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Moodle.

schools limit access to the school community and invited guests. The only way a student could get outside of the Moodle site to the Web is if someone were to add a link to a Web site. The only way a student could go outside of the Moodle site to the Web is if someone were to add a link to a Web site. Teachers are creating coursework in Moodle, allowing students to participate by logging in. Once the student is in the site, lesson plans, tests, and discussions can be accessed. A teacher can allow students to login with their real name, or they can assign a username to each student for

Moodle.

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Moodle.

anonymity. Students may be required to interact by joining discussions or collaborating on wikis. Downloading Moodle to a school server alleviates the big problems with access to Web tools on other sites. By having students access course work, tests, forums, blogs, and wikis on Moodle, schools can address technology literacy in a much safer environment.

Other School Blog Considerations There are other venues for teachers to use blogs with students. If a teacher wants to set up a blog, there are blog sites available specifically for that purpose. Sites such as Class Blogmeister (http://classblogmeister.com) and Edublogs (http://edublogs.org) are for teachers who want to set up blogs for their class.

CONCLUSION Blogs are an online journal or diary, usually written by one person to communicate information to readers. Blog posts are pieces of information that can be a sentence, paragraph, or longer text or an image or podcast. The posts are usually related to a specific or general topic related to the blog theme. Some bloggers use this tool as their own personal Web site because information is posted and can be updated; sidebars can contain graphics, announcements, and calendar items; and readers can subscribe to blogs

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using RSS so that they are alerted whenever new information is posted on the blog. Blog posts can be tagged and categorized to help readers find the information if searching that particular blog or if searching the Web. Numerous Web sites offer free blog hosting and premium accounts if a blogger wishes to upgrade to additional space or features for a cost. Blogs are an excellent Web tool used for communication. For those who want to report out information to people, this is the tool to use.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT BLOGGING Q: Can anyone in the world see my blog? A: If you keep it “public,” then anyone may read your blog. Q: How do you find blogs on certain topics? A: You can use a blog directory such as Google Blog Search (http:// blogsearch.google.com), Technorati (http://technorati.com), or others. Q: Do you get a lot of spam when you create a blog? A: If your blog domain has a built-in spam-catcher such as Akismet in WordPress.com, then you will see a list of all spam caught, and very few will get through. Even if they get through, you will have the option to moderate all comments so that the spam will not automatically publish on your blog. Q: Can you delete blogs? A: Yes. If you create a blog and decide that you do not want to keep it, you can delete. Q: Can I make my blog private? A: Yes. You have the option to make your blog private. You will have to add the e-mail addresses of those people who will have access to read your blog. Q: Who is collecting the information from blogs? A: Blog directories are keeping track of blogs and tags in blogs. Q: Are my kids learning this in school? A: Most states have technology literacy standards that must be met in different grades. Students are learning about Web tools and how to apply them to meet the standards. They should also be learning about Web netiquette and copyright issues.

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References Blogger. http://www.blogger.com. Blogmeister. http://classblogmeister.com. Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org. Diigo. http://www.diigo.com. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Legal Guide for Bloggers. http://www.eff. org/issues/bloggers/legal. Edublogs. http://edublogs.org. Flickr. http://www.flickr.com. Gagglenet. http://www.gaggle.net. Google. http://www.google.com. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). http://www.iste.org. LiveJournal. http://www.livejournal.com. Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS). http://www.techplan.org/. Moodle. http://moodle.org. National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). http://www.iste.org/AM/ Template.cfm?Section=NETS. National School Boards Association (NSBA). http://nsba.org. PEW Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org. Snapfish. http://www.snapfish.com. Technorati. http://technorati.com. Twitter. http://twitter.com. WordPress. http://wordpress.com. Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com.

Screenshot Permissions Martin Dougiamas and Moodle.org. WordPress. An Automattic Creation. http://wordpress.com.

Chapter 2

Social Networks—A Snapshot of Your Life

Social networking may be familiar to anyone who has children, watches television, listens to the radio, or follows the news. MySpace, Facebook, and Ning are just a few networks that are often mentioned. It may seem that MySpace is only for young people, but anyone may create an account if 13 years old or older. Facebook and Ning are also for users 13 years old or older. One of the many research findings in the Pew Internet & American Life Project report Adults and Social Network Websites is that one-third (35%) of American adult Internet users have a profile on an online social networking site. Although this percentage is four times that of three years ago, it is still much lower than the 65 percent of American teens who use social networks (Lenhart 2009). The best way to learn about social networking is to create an account on one of the sites. Learning about social networks—how they work, the mechanics of the site, why people use these networks—will make it easier to understand why young people flock to these sites. In addition to understanding more about what children are doing with social networks, there is an opportunity to connect with friends, relatives, and colleagues and have a presence on the Web. Social networks provide synchronous and asynchronous conversations, and both are desirable to those who want to communicate with friends and colleagues. If your child has an account on a social network, then the agreement should be that you, the parent, have access. Parents will want to know about the content on a child’s social network site. Consider this scenario: A parent requires that his teenage daughter write a paper about MySpace 31

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and Facebook, including the pros and cons and safety measures, before she is allowed to create a page. But the parent, in addition to the child, should research some topics such as Internet stalking so that there is an awareness of safety measures and knowledge to provide topics for parent– child discussions. Of course, there should also be discussions about the use of the social network and what kind of content can be added.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Asynchronous communication means it is not necessary for participants to be online at the same time to communicate. Examples: e-mail and forums. Facebook is an active online community. Create an account to communicate and share conversation and media with friends using social media. Moodle is open-source course management software. MySpace is an active online community. Create an account to communicate and share conversation and media with friends. Ning is a social networking site. Social networks are online communities or networks where a Web presence can be created. Also allows finding old and new friends with like-minded interests or from the same geographical area. Synchronous communication means participants are online at the same time to communicate. Examples: instant messaging, online chats. The Terms of Service includes information that explains the rules and procedures for that particular Web site. A widget is a piece of code that can be placed into a Web site to create a graphic, game, calendar, or other content to be displayed to viewers.

WHY SOCIAL NETWORKS? When a child creates a presence on a social networking site, it is for selfexpression and communication. Favorite songs and videos can be shared as well as photos and links to Web sites. Messages can be sent back and forth as well. A lot of personal “flair” can be added to a page using the numerous free graphics and widgets available on the Web. Read the Terms of Use on sites such as MySpace and Facebook to find specific information on who may use the sites. If you scroll to the bottom of the homepage on these sites, you can garner a lot of essential information by following the links to read the FAQ (frequently asked questions), Terms of Service, Help, Privacy Policy, and About pages.

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Where to Find Helpful Information On and About a Web Site •

•

•

•

•

FAQ—Frequently asked questions. This information is helpful because it comes from the Web site owners based on questions of interest to the Web site users. It is possible that a question can be answered by reading the FAQ if there is one on the Web site. Users can often start here to find information on a topic. Terms of Service. The Terms of Service let users know how they may use the site and what is expected of user’s conduct and provides information on proprietary rights, disclaimers, copyright—basically what the user is agreeing to if using the Web site. Help. If you need directions or support to fix a problem or figure something out, the Help section of a Web site may have links to documentation or perhaps FAQs and forums. Some Web sites have video tutorials to demonstrate features. Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy page contains statements on intellectual property rights, personal information provided for registration and in profiles, disclosures, security, links, third-party advertisers, ownership, and other information related to content and data on the Web site. About. The About section on a Web site contains information on the company providing the Web site. This may include staff members, jobs available in the company, press about the company, and mission statements.

PRIVACY AND DISCRETION WHEN USING SOCIAL NETWORKS Young people are putting personal information on their pages. Any use of the Web by minors is worthy of family discussion because even young people with the best of intentions could get caught up in some dubious situations with someone claiming to be their age. The good news is that not just anyone can see all of the personal information on your page. For example, by default, “only users within your networks and your confirmed friends can view your profile.”1 This can be changed in your profile. In addition to controlling the profile in Facebook, you also have the ability to control who sees your contact information, photos, videos, and posts. Young people may love to display their interests on their social network page (as do adults), but they should be cautioned and engaged in conversation about how much to display. For example, if a teen talks about being a part of the track team and has mentioned the name of the school, a predator could put this information together and find out when and where the track team practices. Giving too much information about personal interests along with information that may pinpoint a geographical location could lead to problems.

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Children need to be very careful about the information they display on their social network page. If a photo of the child wearing a school t-shirt or sweatshirt is on the page, that places the geographical area in which the child lives. Flair, or the buttons that adorn a social network page and reflect interests, can also give indications of geographical location. Make sure that your child is using caution. If a child’s school has a social network, the child will most likely want to participate. It may be suggested that the child use an alias instead of a full name. An alias would obscure the child from predators. However, it is most likely that children and young people will use their real name on social networks, so keep the discussions going about online safety and commonsense. It is exciting for young people to have hundreds of “friends” on these sites, but once they let someone have access to their page by adding that person as a friend, that person can see any information posted. On a Facebook page, personal information such as the e-mail address can be hidden so that if someone does get to your child’s information, that person won’t have access to the child’s specific contact information. Children and teens have a tendency to express themselves bluntly on a social network, like others do with e-mail. They can sound too harsh, feel very brave, and tell too much information. Another aspect that should be discussed is the fact that friends and friends of friends can turn against someone in a social network. Caution your children to watch what they say and how they say it because a friend of a friend could turn and comment, and then your child will see that conversation. When people get brave and say too much in a social network, feelings can be hurt just as they can in the offline world. It’s not just young people putting personal information on social networks. Adults also do this, and it is wise to be careful about content added to pages. College students have been known to put inappropriate information on their pages such as party photos, and this can come back to haunt them if a potential employer decides to view their pages. Again, adults with a social networking page should also use discretion regarding information and media posted. Because potential employers could be looking at a social network page, it may be advisable for adults to leave off date of birth and graduation dates. A social network can also be locked down to prevent access to anyone who is not an invited friend. This may be desirable to prevent potential employers from viewing anything on a social network. Once a social network account is created, there is quite a lot of privacy control available. The profile does not need to be filled out completely. Just fill out enough information to make yourself comfortable. Of course, the more information added, the more likely it is that possible “friends” will be matched up with you.

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Speaking of “friends,” when someone sends you an invitation to become a friend, as it is done on Facebook, it isn’t required that you “accept.” If you want to deny that person access to your information, do not accept him or her as a friend. If someone sends an invitation, and you really suspect that it is a mistake, just message the person and ask if the invitation was meant to be sent to you, or if it was a mistake. Again, many young people love having hundreds of friends, but you may want to limit your friends to real friends, colleagues, and relatives. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook allow users to create their own page and add photos, personal information, messages, and links to other sites. It can become addictive. The main reason for using a social network is to share information and communicate with friends, but social networking sites can also be used for business, associations, and groups of like-minded people on any topic. A good example of a social networking site used by organizations and associations is Ning. Ning is not only for adults who want to create a social network but also for anyone 13 years of age or older. Ning will be our example for creating a social network in this chapter.

CREATE A SOCIAL NETWORK Ning is a very easy-to-use social networking site. A Ning can be created for personal or business use. Let’s go through the basic steps to create and set up your social network. When you get to step 7, don’t forget to write down the name of your social network and the Web address or take a screenshot of the page (you may want to take screenshots when setting up other accounts for other Web tools too). To take a screenshot of a Web page on a Mac: 1. Go to the Web page. 2. Open the Grab software application that came with the Mac. The icon looks like a piece of paper with scissors on top. 3. Click on the drop-down menu titled CAPTURE and choose SELECTION. 4. Drag the arrow over the page you wish to select. 5. When the saved page appears, save it to your computer for insertion into a program such as Word or Paint. To take a screenshot of a Web page on a PC: 1. Go to the Web page. 2. Click on the PRINT SCREEN button at the top of the keyboard. 3. The screenshot is now ready to insert into a Word, Paint, or other file.

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It is easy to forget this information! Jot down any information you fill in to create and set up the social network account. This advice also applies to any account created on the Web for blogs, wikis, and other tools. 1. Go to http://www.ning.com.

The Ning homepage.

2. Click on SIGN UP. 3. Fill in your account information and click on SIGN UP.

Account information.

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4. A box will pop up. Either fill in the information (country, gender, and “about me”) and upload a photo, or click on SKIP and fill in the information at a later time.

Pop-up box.

5. On this page you can update your status, invite friends to your network, create a new social network, or choose another feature.

Start adding some content to your social network.

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6. Click on CREATE YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK in the box next to the photo box. 7. In the pop-up box, fill in the information in the spaces labeled NAME YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK and PICK A WEB ADDRESS. Once the information is entered, click on LAUNCH.

Pop-up box.

8. The next page is the social network just created.

Your new social network.

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9. At this point you may invite friends, add content, upload photos and videos, and customize the appearance.

Start adding content.

10. Click on CUSTOMIZE APPEARANCE to give the social network your own look. 11. Choose a THEME out of the many choices available for your social network.

Themes.

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12. Scroll down the page and choose colors, text, badges, and other features for your social network. Click on SAVE when finished.

Other appearance choices.

13. The next page will indicate that the changes have been successfully saved.

Your appearance choices have been successfully saved.

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14. Click on PREVIEW if you are still deciding on a theme. If you are ready to move on, click on MAIN.

Preview different themes.

15. Click on MANAGE to access all resources and features for your Ning social network.

Manage your social network.

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16. Under YOUR NETWORK, click on FEATURES. If you want to add any features, just drag them to the layout template. Click on SAVE.

Click and drag features to your social network.

17. Click on MAIN to view the added features and to view the current look of your social network.

Facebook Facebook is a very popular social network Web site used by adults. To create a Facebook account: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Go to http://www.facebook.com. Fill in the information under SIGN UP. Check your e-mail for an activation link. Set up your Facebook profile. a. This is important. Decide how much information you want to add to your profile. You are not required to fill in all areas. If you fill in your school information, Facebook will try to help you find “friends” who also attended that school. b. Once you have your Facebook page set up, you can invite friends to join you, join groups on Facebook, send messages to friends, and see what your friends have posted. There are numerous opportunities to join individuals and groups.

5. Facebook is an easy-to-use social networking Web site. Try it out and communicate with friends, relatives, and colleagues.

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SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND SOCIAL NETWORKS There may be some schools that allow students and teachers to create and participate in a social network for educational purposes, but this is not a common practice. Institutions such as public libraries are creating social networks to share information with customers and to have a presence on the Web and may attract those who participate in this form of communication. Schools are more likely to use software such as Moodle to create a social network for students. If a teacher creates a Moodle site, all of the tools and features such as blogs, wikis, forums, graphics, and links to other information are in one space. These are the components of social networking that make communication, collaboration, self-expression, self-publishing, and sharing meaningful, helpful, and easy-to-use. The one big difference is that a teacher creates a Moodle site, and students would log in to view and participate in the site. Friends are not invited to a Moodle site as they are when using a site such as Facebook. A teacher will have a Moodle site, and students will need to create accounts and log in to access the site. The good news is that many students probably use social networking sites outside of school, so using Moodle will seem familiar because many components are the same. It is essential that students in K–12 schools have hands-on experience with Web tools because they have to meet technology standards before they graduate high school and because they need to have knowledge and experience with these tools before they go to college or into a career. Students also learn Internet safety, copyright rules, and digital citizenship—appropriate and ethical uses on the Web as part of the technology standards. The knowledge that they acquire in these areas will help them greatly in and beyond school. Because social networking (MySpace, Facebook, Ning) is so popular, it is essential for students to learn about appropriate and ethical uses of these tools. If students aren’t savvy about the consequences of misusing social networking or putting themselves in a bad light, it could come back to hurt them with a possible employer, college recruiter, or friends. A school’s technology standards and general online use rules should be taken seriously.

CONCLUSION Social networking has wildly caught on as a method of putting personal information, feelings, thoughts, likes, and dislikes out into the virtual world. Creating a social network page is the personal Web site choice for many. It’s the place to share personal information and to find friends both old and new.

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There are many choices of Web sites from which to choose a free social network—some are more popular with young people, and others are geared more to groups. Social networking has struck a chord with so many people because a variety of information can be stored and shared in one place. The added aspect of inviting people to become part of your social network and you becoming part of their network is another draw.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS Q: How do I find someone on Facebook? A: Create an account and enter a name in the search box at the top right of the page. When you get the list of results, your choices are Add as Friend, Send a Message, or View Friends (of that person). On the MySpace homepage, you can search without creating an account. Q: How can I view my child’s social network page? A: You should discuss that upfront with your child. Make sure that you have access to your child’s page so that you can occasionally monitor the content. Discuss safety measures with your child regarding personal information on the page and inviting friends to the page. Create your own page on a social network, and you will learn the mechanics of it in addition to the benefits. Q: Why would I want to participate in social networking? I thought it was for kids. A: There are many reasons to participate in social networking. By participating you will become more savvy about how it works and what it entails, so that you better understand your child’s interest in it. You can communicate with friends, relatives, and colleagues who are invited to have access to your page. Your committee, association, or organization can have a Web presence and a place to communicate and share ideas. You will give people a snapshot of your life, and you will see snapshots of your children and their friends; and you just may locate long-lost friends from the real world as well! Q: Who may view my child’s social networking page? A: Social networks provide settings that determine who may view a page. It can be locked down so that only certain people may view the page. However, have discussions with your child about whom they should invite to view the page. On Facebook, for example, one setting allows friends of friends to view the page, creating a much larger group than just your child’s friends.

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Note 1. Facebook.com help section, http://www.facebook.com/help.php?ref=pf.

References Facebook. http://www.facebook.com. Lenhart, Amanda. 2009. Adults and Social Network Websites. The Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adultsand-Social-Network-Websites.aspx. MySpace. http://www.myspace.com. Ning. http://www.ning.com.

Screenshot Permission Information courtesy of Ning Inc. (http://www.ning.com). Used with permission. All rights reserved.


Chapter 3

Wikis—Collaborate on Content

Wikis are a Web tool specifically used for collaboration. If two or more people work together on any content, they could create content in a wiki to expedite or give easy access to their collaborative work. The wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in the mid 1990s. Cunningham worked with computer languages and wanted to create an online site for people who worked in software development. The tool would be used by staff for collaboration, no matter where they were physically located. So the wiki was created. Once a wiki is set up, it can be accessed from any computer with a Web connection. Think of a wiki as a blank sheet of paper on the Web. Once a wiki is set up, people are invited to participate as collaborators. All collaborators can go to the wiki at any time and from any location with Web access. As text or other content is added to the wiki, each collaborator can add, edit, or delete any of that content. Wikis have revision control, meaning that each time the wiki is edited, the version is saved. Collaborators can revert back to previous versions of a wiki page so that they are able to see what changes have been made to the wiki content.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Google Docs is a Google application used for word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets that can be accessed by two or more users at the same time. The Page history or version is where you go to see previous versions of wiki content. 47

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PBworks is a hosted wiki farm with options available for individual, school, or business use. A PDF or portable document format opens a document on most computer platforms. A Plug-in is a computer program that works with a Web browser to create a new function. PowerPoint is a Microsoft program used to create presentations. A Wiki is a Web 2.0 tool used for collaboration. Wiki hosts (also called farms) are Web sites used for setting up and storing wikis. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia.

WIKI HOSTS/FARMS As with blog sites and other Web tools, there are numerous free wiki host sites. When a wiki is set up on a hosted site, it is stored on a server operated by the wiki company. In other words, the wiki is taking up space on the host server, and it is free unless a premium account is purchased. Premium accounts typically offer more advanced security controls, more features, and extra storage, but for most purposes, a free account should be just fine. We will be using PBworks to go through the steps of setting up and using a wiki. Some examples of wiki hosting sites are the following:

PBworks PBworks has wiki features for business, individuals, and educators available. http://pbworks.com.

MediaWiki Media wiki is a free software wiki package that was created for Wikipedia. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki.

WHY CREATE A WIKI? As previously mentioned, a wiki is a tool used for collaboration with another person or more than one person on any kind of project. Content can be a report, meeting minutes, brainstorming ideas, planning, or any general information on a topic. Using a wiki for collaboration has the following benefits: • • •

Saves time and eliminates back and forth e-mail Precludes the need to set a meeting or find a meeting location Content is always current and accessible, 24-7

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Many associations and organizations are also using wikis to coordinate their conferences and bring conference attendees together in one online space. Wikis may be used for ongoing or short-term projects and can be used for as long as the project lasts. If a wiki is set up for collaboration on writing a paper, the final draft can be removed, and the wiki can be saved for the next project. When content is completed, the wiki can also be deleted. Why would a wiki be used to market an event when the purpose of a wiki is collaboration and participation to add and edit content? A wiki, like a blog, is a Web site, so in addition to adding content to market an event, it can be used to encourage people to contribute content. For example, wikis developed to coordinate a conference typically ask association members to add content—for example if they have heard a keynote speaker or read any books on any session topics. By encouraging members’ participation, you can enrich a conference wiki so that it is more than static content.

HOW DOES A WIKI WORK? A group of people working together on a project may set up a wiki to collaborate on that project. For example, the content could be writing a report, creating an agenda, brainstorming, or writing a lesson plan. Whatever the content is, a wiki could be used to work on that content. One of the collaborators in a group would go to a wiki site and set up the wiki. Depending on the wiki site chosen, the collaborators could set up one wiki at a time or create an account so that more than one wiki could be set up under that account name. There are several wiki sites from which to choose, and because wikis all work basically the same, collaborators could look at the various services and features offered by different wiki hosts. For example, does it matter if there are advertisements appearing on the wiki pages, or if there is a choice of free templates or skins from which to choose? Those are some features to consider. Once a wiki is set up, it can be designated as public or private. A public wiki can be viewed by everyone, whereas a private wiki can only be viewed by its members. Once you have your wiki created and have decided if you want it public or private, you will need to invite other collaborators.

How Do People Collaborate on a Wiki? Each person who will be collaborating on the wiki needs to have an account, with personal log in and password information, to access the wiki. All people who create a wiki automatically have an account. Other users can join and create an account at anytime. Most commonly, wiki creators invite participants to join their wiki. When users receives an invitation, they

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are asked to create an account. There are additional ways people can create wiki accounts. On a public wiki, users can click “edit” to gain access—if you don’t have an account you will be asked to create one. On a private wiki, you can request access to participate in the community. When access has been approved, you are then invited to create an account. Once a wiki is ready, go for it! Just click “edit” to start collaborating. Add content, communicate with the other collaborators so that they know they can add content, and keep the communication going. The collaborators will probably have to be reminded to use the wiki. Marketing the wiki is part of the process.

START COLLABORATING ON CONTENT—CREATE A WIKI! To recap: a wiki is a collaborative Web tool used for collaboration between two or more people. When you create a wiki, you can invite collaborators to your wiki by adding their e-mail address to your list of users, or just by sending them the Web address where they can create their own accounts. Or if you want more control over the wiki community, have users request access to join. This way you know exactly who is on your wiki. Collaborators can add, delete, and edit content. Graphics and links to Web sites may also be added to a wiki. A wiki may contain all of the features that any Web site would although its main purpose is for collaboration. Now you can create a wiki using PBworks: 1. Go to the PBworks Web site at http://pbworks.com.

PBworks Homepage.

Wikis

Increase your productivity.

2. Click on TRY IT NOW.

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3. Choose a plan (the basic account is free).

4. Click on SELECT under BASIC. You can upgrade at any time.

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5. Create your wiki. You can make the name of the wiki the first part of the wiki Web address. For example, if the name of the wiki is “ABCD,” then you would type in “abcd” in the Web address box. The name of the wiki should be something that identifies the topic but isn’t too long. Give it a name that people will remember. Don’t make it complicated. If the name chosen is taken, or if there are prohibited characters, a message indicating the problem will appear. Try something else and be sure to write it down!

Finish creating your account by filling in your name, your e-mail address, and a password. Click on NEXT.

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6. A message will indicate that you should check your e-mail for a verification link to finish creating your account. Go to your e-mail and check for the message. If the e-mail has arrived, click on the link.

7. Choose the SECURITY SETTINGS. Select who may view the workspace: • •

Anyone Only people I invite or approve

Then agree to the TERMS OF SERVICE by clicking in the box. Click on TAKE ME TO MY WORKSPACE.

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8. Now you will see the FrontPage of your wiki.

Permission Levels To invite people to collaborate on the wiki, add them as users: 1. Click on USER SETTINGS in the bottom right corner of the page.

2. Under MANAGE USERS you can ADD A USER and assign a PERMISSION LEVEL.

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Add a User.

When you add a person’s e-mail address, he or she will be asked to create a personal account. After users create their account, they can access your wiki. (Notice that a permission level may be assigned for each person added.).

PBworks Permission Levels.

Colors and Logo In PBworks the color scheme of the wiki may be changed. A selection of colors is available.

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To change the color or to add a logo in PBworks: 1. Go to SETTINGS and click on COLORS to add color to a wiki. Adding custom colors is available in premium accounts. Choose a color scheme and click on SAVE COLOR SCHEME.

2. Go to SETTINGS and click on LOGO under BASIC SETTINGS to upload a logo or graphic to the wiki. This is a premium account feature. 3. Click on SAVE COLOR SCHEME. The new color scheme is now displayed.

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Public/Private When a wiki is set up, it can be made public or private. If you originally chose to make it public and now want to make it private, change the setting: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Go to SETTINGS. Under ACCESS CONTROLS click on WORKSPACE SECURITY. Who can view this workspace? Choose “Anyone” to open the wiki to the public. This means anyone in the world can view the wiki. 5. Choose “Only people I invite or approve” to keep the wiki private. This means that only invited wiki members can view the wiki. 6. Click on SAVE.

History To see a different version of the wiki (e.g., to retrieve some edited information), click on PAGE HISTORY at the top right of the wiki page. Earlier versions are available for viewing. This is also helpful if information is accidentally deleted. Just go back and retrieve the last version.

Page History.

WRITING AND EDITING ON A WIKI It’s time to add some content to the wiki. Many of the buttons are the same as those used on a blog where posts are written. Working in a wiki is like

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working in a word processing program. To edit a wiki, follow these steps (remember, only one person may edit a wiki page at a time): 1. Go to your wiki. 2. Locate the page that needs editing or additional content. 3. If the wiki is public, anyone may click on EDIT PAGE. Choose edit page to begin the editing process. The next page looks like the previous page, only with the addition of an editing toolbar. The tools should look similar to those in a word processing program. The buttons include the following: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Bold Underline Italics Left/Right/Center Justification Links Insert Image Indents Bullet Insert Table Font Size Color Palette

4. Click the cursor in the text box beneath the tools and start entering text.

Editing a Wiki Page.

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5. Click on SAVE.

Editing a Page.

PBworks Editing Buttons.

6. To upload photos or graphics, click on IMAGES AND FILES on the right-hand side of the page and click on UPLOAD.

PBworks Editing Buttons.

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Adding a Web Address to the Content 1. Highlight a word or phrase with the cursor. 2. Click on the LINK button. It usually looks like a chain link. 3. A box will pop up. Enter the URL or Web address of a Web site. In order to make sure the correct Web address is used, go to the Web site ahead of time and copy the URL to the clipboard. Then paste it into the pop-up box. 4. Click on INSERT. 5. Notice that the word or phrase is now blue and underlined. 6. Click on SAVE.

Inserting an Image into Content To insert an image into wiki content: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Click on the INSERT IMAGE tab on the right side of the page. BROWSE the desktop and locate the image. Locate the image and select UPLOAD. The image will then be added to the list of images available for that wiki and can be added to the wiki at any time. 5. Click on SAVE. The most important step to remember is to click on SAVE before leaving the editing page. If this step is forgotten, any writing or editing that was completed will be lost. It will soon become rote to go to the EDIT page, add or delete content, and click on SAVE.

Upload Multiple Images, Documents, and Files 1. You can also upload more than one document at a time; to do this, choose the “Pages & Files” link on the top right of your wiki page. 2. Next you will see a new page where all of the wiki pages and documents already uploaded to the wiki are located. To upload multiple files— including PowerPoint, Excel, and even videos—choose upload files. 3. Choose up to 10 files from your computer—hold down the shift key so that you can select more than one file. 4. When you have selected all your files, choose “select.”

Change the Color of Text 1. Highlight any text and click on the text color button. 2. Click on any color square, and the text will change to that color. 3. Click on SAVE.

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Create Lists 1. Enter the text that will become a list. 2. Highlight the text and click on the numbered list or bulleted list button. 3. Click on SAVE. Remember that any time content is changed on the editing page, you must click on SAVE before leaving the page.

Comments In PBworks there is a box for COMMENTS. Only invited users may comment on a wiki. The wiki owner can choose to allow readers to comment on the wiki. If someone is reading the wiki and sees a message indicating that he or she doesn’t have permission to comment on the page, the reader then must contact the wiki owner (you) to be invited. At the bottom of the wiki there is a CONTACT THE OWNER link. A message may be sent to the wiki owner by clicking on this link and entering contact information, a message, and verification. Alternatively, if people try to log in to a wiki, they can click on the REQUEST ACCESS button to send a message to the wiki owner. The COMMENTS are a feature that allow for some communication, in that a participant may leave a message.

Marketing Your Wiki Once a wiki is up and running, it’s good to market it to others. Collaborators can be invited to participate in creating the content of the wiki, but how do you get readers for a wiki? 1. The wiki Web address can be e-mailed to groups and individuals. 2. When someone e-mails you information that should be on the wiki, tell the person to post it to the wiki. 3. The RSS feature can be marketed as an easy way to stay up-to-date on any changes made to the wiki. 4. E-mail notification of changes on a wiki is available to all wiki users. 5. Remind people! It is easy to set up a wiki and to get people excited about it in the beginning. However, readers and collaborators will need to be reminded to go to the wiki. Not surprisingly, it is easy for people to forget to go to a wiki for information, so keep them interested.

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BEHIND THE SCENES OF YOUR WIKI The owner of a wiki has administrative control over everything behind the scenes of the wiki. This includes inviting people to collaborate on the wiki, controlling whether the wiki is public or private, and deciding if a wiki is to be deleted.

Deleting a Wiki 1. Go to SETTINGS. 2. Under ADVANCED SETTINGS click on DELETE.

Delete a Wiki.

This will delete that particular wiki permanently. So if you have created a wiki to test the waters and see how the features work, you can delete it and start a new wiki. It’s good to know that a wiki or blog may be deleted because people often want to try one out before creating one for good. Also, look for free tutorials on creating wikis. Along with the help sections, they are extremely helpful and will, most likely, answer your questions and concerns.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND WIKIS Wikis, like blogs, are another great Web tool for students to use for schoolwork. However, schools face some of the same obstacles with wikis as they do with blogs that are not in a “school-safe environment.” If a wiki has ads, they may be inappropriate for students. Some wikis list terms that have been highly searched, and some of these may be inappropriate for students to see. If you do not want your

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wiki to be indexed by search engines, make sure to set your wiki security to private. Wikis can link to other places on the Web; if students have created their own wiki or have access to other wikis, they may have access to inappropriate links to dubious Web sites. Wikis are also a perfect Web tool to help students meet state K–12 technology standards. In meeting technology standards, the emphasis is not on the tool but on how the tool facilitates learning, collaboration, and achievement. Students using wikis are not only using a simple Web tool but are also using the perfect collaborative tool.

Wikipedia To see a great example of a wiki, go to wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is controversial because any registered user may contribute content. Even though Wikipedia has contributors worldwide, it is a wiki, and it works the same as all other wikis. Anyone may read Wikipedia content, but you must register to add or edit content. 1. Create an account with Wikipedia.org. 2. Click on EDIT THIS PAGE to add, edit, or delete content. 3. Click on SAVE PAGE.

Wikipedia Home Page.

Young students may use Wikipedia for schoolwork as they would any encyclopedia. Because any registered contributor may add, edit, and delete content in Wikipedia, many educators don’t want students to use it as a resource for

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schoolwork. It is not always viewed as a reliable resource because it is not a commercial product with a paid staff of contributors. However, there are educators who do allow students to use Wikipedia as a resource if at least two or more commercial resources are also used to corroborate the information. Even with a variety of philosophical concerns about Wikipedia among educators, it is a great example of a wiki and how a wiki works. Wikipedia can also be used as a discussion tool with K–12 students. Educators could talk to their students about how it is used as a collaborative tool, about the pros and cons of worldwide collaboration, and about how they can be part of the solution and not the problem by contributing content, possibly about their school, their city, or a project, to Wikipedia.

About Wikipedia.

There are people who “vandalize” the site by putting in false information or graphics that do not pertain to the topic. The staff at Wikipedia catches these problems and has put rules into place to ensure that the information will likely be reliable. For example, the registration process is in place to prevent people from posting inappropriate information anonymously.

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Citizendium, the “citizens’ encyclopedia,” is another free online encyclopedia. Read the FAQ to find out more about Citizendium and how you can contribute content. Compare Citizendium to Wikipedia to see how they are similar and how they are different from one another.

How Can Students Safely Access a Wiki? As noted, in addition to being a great Web tool for students to use for collaboration, wiki use will also help students meet state technology standards. As with blogs, podcasting, and other Web tools, students use wikis to work together on projects and to complete assignments. The work completed is not about how to use the Web tools but about how to use the Web tools to facilitate assignments. However, as with blogs and other Web sites, there may be inappropriate content for K–12 students, ads, or other links. There are some wiki tools for K–12 students that are in a safer environment.

Moodle Moodle is a free course-management system available on the Web. Moodle. org can be placed on a school server so that the school technology staff has control over content and system administration. One of the features of Moodle is the availability of a wiki.

Moodle wiki uses.

PBworks.com Teachers can set up a PBworks for classroom use. Many schools will not allow students to use personal e-mail addresses in order to set

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up accounts with Web tools. On PBworks, wiki creators can automatically generate accounts for their students. These accounts do not need e-mail, and instead usernames and passwords are distributed to the students. PBworks does not have ads, and this is desirable when working with students. Parents and educators may download the following free PDF (portable document format) handouts and PowerPoint presentations from the PBworks site (http://pbworks.com/education/presenterresources): • • • • • • •

What Is a Wiki? PBworks PowerPoint PBworks PowerPoint (Spanish) Security Handout What Are Plugins? Sharing a Calendar Insert a Chat Room

CONCLUSION Unlike some Web tools, such as podcasts and blogs, a wiki is not used for one-way communication. Wikis are a Web tool used specifically for collaboration. Once a wiki is set up from a wiki host site, a group of people can collaborate on content. This means that all of the wiki participants may add, edit, and delete information on the wiki pages. Wikipedia is an example of a wiki and demonstrates how people can participate in adding, deleting, and editing content and work with others. Wiki host sites provide free wikis, but often premium wikis are also available for a cost. Once a wiki is set up, other participants are invited to the wiki to collaborate on the content.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT WIKIS Q: Can I password-protect a wiki? A: Yes. A password or access can be required to work on wiki content. Check your wiki host site to see if passwords are an option for access to the editing pages. Q: Can you add photos to a wiki? A: Yes. You can browse your computer desktop and upload photos. Most free wiki hosts allow for quite a bit of free photo storage, but if you are a heavy photo user, you may want to look at a paid account for more space.

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Q: Can anyone see my wiki? A: If you make your wiki public, then anyone may read your wiki, but not necessarily work on the content. Check parameters for password protection or invitations for collaborators to add content. Q: Can wikis be deleted? A: Yes. You always have the option to delete a wiki. This step is permanent. Q: Are students learning this in school? A: Students should be learning about Web tools in order to use them to work on projects, collaborate with other students, and meet technology literacy skills. Check with the school to see which Web tools students are using and for what purpose. Q: Is Google Docs a wiki? A: Google Docs is not a wiki host, but it has many similar features. It is excellent for collaborating on a document, creating a spreadsheet to share, and working on presentations. Like wikis, it has some great free templates available. Q: Can people change what I’ve written in a wiki? A: If you give collaborators access to the editing page, then they can edit what you and others have written. This is actually one of the philosophies regarding wikis –you want others to be able to go in and write new content, edit what you and others have written, and even delete content if appropriate. Collaboration is the key to wikis. Q: My son only uses Wikipedia in his research. What should he do? A: Your son (or you) should talk to the teacher or media specialist to see if it is acceptable to include information from Wikipedia in a report. And if it is, how should it be cited? Also, check to see if a number of commercial sources must also be cited in addition to Wikipedia content. It is highly unlikely that a teacher would accept one source when researching a topic. References Citizendium. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium. Google Docs. http://docs.google.com. MediaWiki. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki. Moodle.org. http://moodle.org.. PBworks.com. http://pbworks.com.

Wikis Wikipedia. http://wikipedia.org. Wikispaces. http://www.wikispaces.com.

Screenshot Permissions PBworks. © 2005–2009. All Rights Reserved. http://pbworks.com. Wikipedia. http://wikipedia.org.

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Chapter 4

Search Engines—Focus Your Search

There are numerous search engines available on the Web, so it is not necessary to rely on only one or two. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are great, but to ramp up or finesse a search, consider some alternatives. Numerous search engines focus on specific topics such as song lyrics or statistics. For those who prefer graphics to text alone, some search engines will cluster results or present them as images. Others will categorize results to give even more choices. That is one of the great things about the Web—choices! The list available in this chapter represents a variety of search engines. Visit them to see if they are useful or if you prefer one method of presented results over another. Remember that when children are using search engines, they are sometimes taken to a Web site that will not be “safe,” meaning that it is outside the search engine and may have inappropriate ads or links. Therefore, it’s a good idea to look them over so that you know what your children are using and whether or not the search engines will be useful, specific enough, or too general.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER A database is a collection of data—records, text, images, or other information stored on a computer. Commercial databases purchased for students to use in schools for research are considered good, reliable resources. A search engine is used to find information on the Web when the user enters words or phrases. Some search engines have options 71

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that allow a search to be focused for more targeted results. For example, if a search engine offers “advanced searching,” then you are able to enter more keywords or phrases to help make your search more specific.

SEARCH ENGINE ROUNDUP! The following are examples of interesting search engines that have unique features or may just offer something unique. Some are primarily child-or family-oriented, whereas others may offer something new.

RedZ RedZ Search (http://redz.com/) is a great search engine that presents results in a visual manner by displaying small images of Web sites. Use the cursor to scroll through the Web sites in the results, and click on an image to go to that particular site. The speed at which you can scroll through the images is amazing. RedZ has a “family-safe commitment” pertaining to search results. The commitment isn’t explained in the “About Us” section, but it does indicate that thought has gone into selecting the Web resources.

Wolfram|Alpha Wolfram|Alpha is a computational knowledge engine (http://www. wolframalpha.com/). Adults and children will find this search engine not only useful but a lot of fun. Enter a word, phrase, date or formula and Wolfram|Alpha will compute results for you. Enter the date and year of you birth and the results will include the time difference from today in years, months and days, notable events from that date and other information. Enter a food type and the nutritional information is displayed. Source information can be accessed at the bottom of the screen.

Grokker Search results from Grokker by Groxis Inc. (http://www.grokker.com) are presented in a visual manner. The free version of Grokker can search three sources: Yahoo!, Wikipedia, and Amazon. Enter a search query, select sources, and begin the search by clicking on the GROK button. The results can be displayed in OUTLINE VIEW or MAP VIEW, descriptions of which follow.

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In the OUTLINE VIEW the results are displayed on the left side of the page, and the details on the right side. •

• •

The option to EXPAND or COLLAPSE the outline is available. If EXPAND is selected, it displays subcategories under each main category of search results. This provides more choices and a more specific selection of results. Collapsing the results takes it back to the main categories. The amount of information displayed under Detail can be controlled by selecting LESS, MEDIUM, or MORE.

The Grokker MAP VIEW is a great visual way of looking at results. Zoom in on a circle with results for more information, and then click on a result in a circle for information on one resource.

Grokker Visual Map.

Grokker results in OUTLINE or MAP VIEWS may be e-mailed. The ability to e-mail search results comes in handy. Results can be e-mailed to an address to be viewed at a later time. It’s also nice to be able to e-mail results to someone else. Check out Grokker for a search engine with some nice display choices for those who prefer text results and for those who prefer visuals.

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AskforKids This search engine from Ask.com (http://www.askkids.com) is focused on learning for children from ages 6 to 12. AskForKids has a PARENTS button for information about the site. This page offers some interesting information on this child-oriented site. For example, the linked pages are selected by editors and are considered child-appropriate or relevant and practical for a child’s learning. The Schoolhouse section of the Web site lists broad subjects: mathematics, science, history and language arts. Once a subject is chosen more information is listed. For example, click on “science” and the following “Narrow Your Search” links are displayed: • • • • •

Cool Science Experiments Easy Science Experiments Experiments for Kids Science Projects Simple Science Experiments

Below those links “Expand Your Search” links are displayed: • • • • •

Chemistry Experiments Science Questions Scientific Method Biology Experiments Kids Science Websites

AskforKids is a nice site for younger children looking for information to use for school papers and projects.

AllTheLyrics Allthelyrics.com (http://www.allthelyrics.com) is one example of the many free song-lyric sites available on the Web. Click on a letter to search for a singer or band. Then click on the title of a song to retrieve the lyrics. The option to choose a non-English version of the site is available. You may choose from Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, and Italian. A lyric translation forum is also available. A forum is a place where people discuss topics. Someone will post a question, and others may respond to it. A topic is called a “thread” in a forum. Sometimes a thread will lead into a different thread that is related. Forums will be discussed in more detail in the chapter on forums.

Google News The news archive search engine from Google (http://news.google.com/archi vesearch) is excellent for creating historical timelines of news events.

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Enter your topic in the search box and click on SEARCH ARCHIVES, and you will get results of news articles. Most of the articles are free. If there is a cost involved, it is listed. Then click TIMELINE at the top of the page to see a historical time line related to the topic. If a time line only is desired, just make that selection on the search page when the topic is first entered.

On the main page enter the name of someone in the news (e.g., “Jackie Kennedy”) and click on SEARCH ARCHIVES to get a list of results. Look at the results of your search and notice that under each article title is the name of the news source and the date of the particular document from that source. If the name of the source and date are visible, but no cost is indicated, you probably have access to the full text of the document. Other options that will appear in the results list include the following: • • • •

The actual cost (if the article is not free) Pay-per-view (click on the article title, and the next page will indicate the cost of the full article) Free with registration (click on the article title to find out how to register online) Subscription (click on the article title to see if the subscription is free or a trial)

Click on an article that indicates it is “free with registration,” and a message may appear that indicates that your local library has access to the article. Public libraries should have a variety of commercial databases available for research, so it’s good to check with your library via phone or Web site to inquire before purchasing an article. Ask the librarian at the adult services desk if an article can be e-mailed from a database. If the public library does not have access to the specific article, the option to purchase directly from the news Web site is another way to go.

NationMaster Looking for information about various countries? Statistics, maps, and flags can be found on NationMaster (http://www.nationmaster. com). The Web site has compiled statistics from sources including the CIA Factbook and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Other resources from NationMaster include the following tabs:

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NationMaster Home Page.

NationMaster Home Page Tabs.

Encyclopedia. The ENCYCLOPEDIA tab accesses a page with a search box and categories. Statistics. Click on the STATISTICS tab at the top of the page to see the same search box that appears on the homepage. At this point you have the following options: • •

Entering a topic under SEARCH ALL. Choosing one of the graphable categories under FACTS & STATISTICS. If a graphable category is selected, the next step is to choose a specific statistic from the second drop-down menu. Then click on the GO button.

The STATISTICS page has even more information on stats than the homepage. On this page all of the categories from the drop-down menu of graphable categories are displayed under the title STATISTICS. • • •

Click on a category such as ECONOMY. On the next page you will see ECONOMY STATISTICS BY COUNTRY. If there is an asterisk (*) next to any of the stats, that indicates that a bar graph is available.

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On the right-hand side of the page, you will see if a PIE CHART or MAP is available. Two optional views are available as tabs: see TOP STATS and ALL STATS for a complete list under that topic.

Countries A–Z. The COUNTRIES A–Z tab has loads of helpful information on facts and figures for a specific country. Click on any country, and numerous links to FACTS AND FIGURES, BACKGROUND, BORDERS, POPULATION, and much more will appear. MAPS and FLAGS are also on the country pages, or click on the FLAGS and MAPS tabs for that information. Flags. FLAGS can be viewed alphabetically or by region. Maps. MAPS can be viewed alphabetically or by region. Education. This very helpful section gives suggestions on how to use NationMaster to the fullest extent. It also includes information on how to download a NationMaster toolbar to your Web browser (Mozilla/Firefox or Internet Explorer). Links to LESSON PLANS, a STUDENT AREA, and a STUDENT FAQ are also available under EDUCATION. Forum. The FORUM is the place to discuss NationMaster and topics related to statistics and countries with other users. Register to start a discussion or thread in the forum. FAQ. The FAQ or frequently asked questions is always a good place to go on any Web site. Go to the FAQ to find specific information about the site or to see if it addresses your question.

NationMaster FAQ Page.

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Choose from one of the many categories for which NationMaster has graphs available: • • •

Select a category such as “Energy.” Select a statistic from the drop-down menu such as “Commercial Energy Use.” Click on GO, and you will get a graph showing the stats for several countries.

NationMaster Search Box.

Graphical Categories Agriculture Background Crime Currency Democracy Disasters Economy Education Energy Environment Food Geography Government Health Identification Immigration Industry Internet Labor There is so much helpful and interesting information that anyone could use NationMaster. Click on the EDUCATION tab, and you will see that the

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staff at NationMaster has put a lot of thought into the educational uses of the resources on the site for school use. The links to free lesson plans as well as the STUDENT SECTION, where students will find tips on how to use NationMaster, are very helpful. Most sites have helpful resources on how to use the information. Look for such tabs as HELP, FAQs, BLOGS, and FORUMS on a Web site to explore. To find out more about a site, especially pertaining to the purpose of the site and who created it, always look for the ABOUT or ABOUT US section to learn more. Often quite interesting and meaningful information can be found.

TextRunner The Turing Center KnowItAll Project from the University of Washington offers this very interesting search engine. TextRunner (http://www.cs.washington. edu/research/textrunner) actually searches the Web for assertions— statements presented as facts—on a topic. Enter a query or click on one of the examples to see how the results are displayed. This search engine offers a unique way to present search results in that it doesn’t look like a typical page of results. Instead the results will list the keywords from your search as they relate to your search topic. Click on the number indicated in the result, and a synopsis describing the topic will appear. Click on a synopsis, and it takes you to a Web site with more information. This is another great example of looking at a search and search results in a very different manner. Try TextRunner to see if the results on a query are presented in a way that is more helpful than the usual way search engines display results. It may take some getting used to, but it may be just the type of search engine that is helpful, depending on the type of searcher/learner looking at the results.

Factbites Factbites (http://www.factbites.com) is a search engine from the same people who created NationMaster. When searching a topic on this site, users will see that the results include meaningful sentences that describe the content. Search engines often give results that show partial text highlighting your topic. Factbites results try to be more helpful by extracting meaningful sentences from the search results. It is another way of looking at search results and one that you may wish to explore.

Quintura Kids Quintura Kids (http://quinturakids.com) is a search Web site with a graphic-friendly interface. Topics are searched using either the search box

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or the subject cloud. Place the cursor on a general subject, and related subtopics pop up. For example, place the cursor on “School Bell,” and topics like these pop up: biographies, social studies, librarian, language arts, read, and cultures.

KidsClick! KidsClick web search for kids by librarians (http://www.kidsclick.org/) is owned and run by the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San Jose State University. The site offers a variety of methods to locate information. The first is a search box for entering a subject. Next to that box is the option to perform an advanced search. The advanced search page allows for selecting the reading level of the search results. The next search option is to click on a letter to locate information on a subject. Yet another search option is to click on a subject under a broad category. Click on “What does this page look like through a Librarian’s Eyes?” and Dewey Decimal Classifications are listed. Additional search tools are also included on the site.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND SEARCH ENGINES Students in K–12 schools often have commercial databases available for their research use, in both the school library media center and their public library. Media specialists work with students to teach them information literacy that includes print and electronic literacy. A component of becoming information-literate is to learn proper research skills, including how to evaluate Web sites and other Web resources, how to improve search strategies, when to use print and online resources, and how to determine the authority of the Web site. School library media specialists teach students proper search strategies to garner accurate and reliable information. Schools often provide commercial databases for research so that students aren’t searching the Web and coming up with too many general results and inappropriate information. Learning research skills is part of the teaching of information literacy and is beneficial to students when they are conducting research using search engines on the Web. Because of the vast amount of information available the skill of focusing a search in a search engine or database is essential. Some schools have blocked many Web sites to preclude the problem of a student encountering inappropriate materials. Web sites can be unblocked in schools if those who make such decisions are presented with a good case for unblocking.

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Schools want to make a variety of good, safe sites available to students for research. The media specialist teaches students how to research topics and what resources are the best for that research. Hopefully, your child’s school district has certified media specialists. Classroom teachers and media specialists often collaborate on curriculum topics and related resources for the students to use to meet those curricular needs. If parents have questions about what sites are available to students in the school, they can ask the principal, the technology director, or the library media specialist.

CONCLUSION Most who search the Web have a favorite search engine. That search engine is probably used over and over. There are so many other specialized search engines available that it’s worthwhile to take a look and add some to your searching regimen. Search engines can search specific topics or may have features and resources that are unique from other Web sites. If you prefer visuals, then you may want to try a search engine that uses graphics to provide information. If text is fine for you, there are still different ways to get results that may be organized better for your thought processes than what you are currently using. It’s worth your time to explore different search engines for finding different types of information. You may very well find one that meets your information needs.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT SEARCH ENGINES Q: Can my child access any Web site from school? A: Many Web sites are blocked in schools because of ads and links to inappropriate Web sites. However, it is hard to block Web content 100 percent, so there is always the chance that students can work around obstacles and get to sites that are off-limits to them in schools. Q: Why are Web sites blocked in schools? A: Web sites are blocked so that students cannot access inappropriate or objectionable materials and so that they will stay on task. Q: If my child is not supposed to use a search engine such as Google for research, what will she use? A: Many schools have commercial databases available for student research. When students use a database, they are searching in an

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environment where reliable and accurate information is available. You can certainly get reliable and accurate information from a search engine, but students need to be taught searching skills. Q: Can I talk to someone about the research skills my child is learning? A: Talk to the school’s library media specialist. Ask about research skills taught and what databases and search engines are available to students. The media specialist can also discuss the curriculum and standards for the school district and how they are being met using technology and research. Q: Can a site be unblocked at a school? A: Yes. If you find that a particular site with educational value is blocked in your child’s school, and you want it unblocked, discuss it with the principal. The principal will probably confer with the technology director to see why the site is blocked and to see whether there are good reasons for it to be unblocked. Asking does not guarantee that it will be unblocked. References All the Lyrics. http://www.allthelyrics.com. Amazon. http://www.amazon.com. Ask for Kids. http://www.askkids.com. Blogger. http://www.blogger.com. Factbites. http://www.factbites.com. Google News Search. http://news.google.com/archivesearch. Grokker. http://www.grokker.com. KidsClick. http://www.kidsclick.org/ LivePlasma. http://www.liveplasma.com. NationMaster. http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php. Quintura Kids. http://quinturakids.com. RedZ Search. http://www.redz.com. TextRunner. http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/textrunner. Wikipedia. http://wikipedia.org.

Screenshot Permissions Grokker. Groxis Inc. was founded in 2001. http://grokker.com. NationMaster. This Web site was created by Rapid Intelligence, a Web technology company based in Sydney, Australia. © NationMaster.com 2003–2009. http:// nationmaster.com.

Chapter 5

Podcasts—Communicate and Listen

Podcasts are audio files that can be played on computers or downloaded to MP3 players or iPods. Like blogs, podcasts are an example of one-way communication using the Web. Podcasts can be created using commercial or free software or Web-based tools, and the results can be pretty exciting. Adding a podcast to a blog or Web site not only enhances it; podcasts can be fun, interesting, and informative and can also help the visually impaired, those who speak or are learning English as a second language, or students with reading problems or learning disabilities. Both free and commercial software is available for creating a podcast. The free, open-source software called Audacity is what we will use to learn how to create a podcast in this chapter. You can download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. It works with both PCs and Macs. Once an audio file is recorded using Audacity, it can then be made into a podcast and added to a Web site. Of course, many people don’t create podcasts, but they do listen to podcasts. Directories are available to help locate Web sites that provide podcasts. Once located, the podcasts can be played from the Web site or downloaded to an iPod or MP3 player.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Audacity is a free software program used for recording and editing audio. Works with both PCs and Macs. Gcast is a podcast Web site for recording, uploading and listening to podcasts. 83

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An iPod is an audio player from Apple. iTunes is free software from Apple that allows you to organize, share, download, and play music and podcasts on a Mac or PC. LAME is a free MP3 encoder that converts an Audacity audio file to an MP3 format. MP3 is an audio format, short for M-PEG 1 and Audio Layer 3. An MP3 player is a device used for recording and playing audio in MP3 format. Open-source software is free software with code available for use and modification. A podcast is an audio file, usually converted to a media format such as MP3 or WAV. Podcast hosts are Web sites that let you store your podcasts, listen to podcasts, and search for podcasts. Podomatic is a Web site for creating, finding, and sharing podcasts. WAV is an audio format, short for Waveform. An uncompressed (large) audio file. Web-based means that the source is housed on the Web, so it is accessible from any computer with Web access.

WHY PODCAST? People create podcasts for a variety of reasons. People may want to include podcasts in blogs to explain or describe a particular subject or include an interview. Students create podcasts in school for assignments. They may interview and create oral histories with grandparents or teachers or read stories and poems they have written. Podcasting may also be used to document process or as a performance product. Podcasting is easy to master, and it provides a great opportunity to express creativity. Podcasting is more than just recording an audio file. Creating a podcast can facilitate collaborative group learning. When students create a podcast, they can learn about the production process and can collaborate together on one project in different assigned roles, such as audio engineer, anchor, sound effects engineer, editor, and scriptwriter. Many Web sites and blogs provide podcasts that can be listened to from the site or downloaded to a computer, MP3 player, or iPod. Because podcasts are one-way communication, they are an interesting enhancement to Web sites and offer listeners an option different from just reading text. Listen to an interview, procedural or driving directions, or a story instead of reading them. People often download podcasts so that they can listen to them at their convenience—in the car or on the subway.

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Family-Friendly Podcasts Not all podcasts are family-friendly or child-friendly. When searching for podcasts, be sure to read about the site content to see if it is appropriate for children or families. Read the ABOUT US section for information on content and other issues. The following family-friendly podcast sites are a good start: • • • • •

Crazy Dave’s Kid Show—http://www.crazydaveradio.com/ Kidslearnoutloud.com—http://kids.learnoutloud.com/Kids-FreeStuff Boutique Café—http://www.boutiquecafe.com/home/tag/podcasting The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd—http://www.doctorfloyd.com iTunes Kids & Family Podcasts—http://www.apple.com (to download iTunes software).

Podcast Directories and Hosts Directories are available to help you locate podcasts on topics of interest to you. You usually have the choice of searching for podcasts by category or keyword. If you look at the choices on podcast directories, you will usually be able to find free videos too. Podcast hosts will store your podcasts so that they can be shared. A podcast saved as an MP3 file may take a large amount of space, so hosts will most likely offer you so much space for free and then offer premium accounts if more is required. Podcast directories will have ads and titles of podcasts that may be unsuitable for children, but for an adult looking for podcasts they will work well. Take a look at podcast directories before sharing information with your children because not all podcasts are suitable for children. If you find a series of podcasts that you like, you can subscribe to that series so that you will be notified when a new podcast is available. Many podcast directories also offer hosting. Some examples of podcasts directories and hosts follow: •

Podcast Fusion. Podcast Fusion is one directory that has a list of categories from which to choose podcast titles. By creating a “MyFusion” page, you can bookmark podcasts that can then be synchronized for downloading to a computer or MP3 player. Podcasts can also be submitted to Podcast Fusion. People submit podcasts if they have information to share on subjects or if they wish to create a Web presence and find a regular audience. http://www.podcastfusion. com/fs/home.asp.

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•

•

•

• •

iTunes. In Apple’s iTunes store, music can be purchased and downloaded legally. In fact, iTunes Plus now offers music from major and independent music labels that are free of digital rights management (DRM). Digital rights management means that media formats are controlled by the publishers and copyright holders so that users have limited usage of those formats. It is meant to stop unauthorized use or copying of audio formats. Free podcasts are also available from iTunes. The iTunes software, which works on both Macs and PCs, has to be downloaded onto a computer. Once a podcast is downloaded to iTunes, it can be played from iTunes or transferred to an iPod the same way as music. It’s a good idea to back up podcasts and music from iTunes. Podcasts can also be submitted to iTunes. If someone subscribes to an author’s podcast, a link will automatically be sent to the subscriber each time the author publishes a new podcast. Download iTunes to your computer and explore. Click on PODCASTS to see what’s available. http://www.apple.com/itunes. Odeo. Odeo is another podcast directory with keyword search, categories, and featured podcasts. As with other podcast directories, you can submit your own podcasts for others to enjoy. http://odeo.com. Podcast Directory. Podcast Directory offers broad and specific categories and featured podcasts of the week and the most-listened-to podcasts of the day. http://www.podcastdirectory.com. Podcast Alley. A portal for podcasts and podcasting. http://www. podcastalley.com. podCast 411. This podcast portal has a lot of good information including some Q and A under “How to get podcasts?” http://www. podcast411.com.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO CREATE A PODCAST? A podcast is an audio file. The recorded file can be edited and published. When published, the Web address for the podcast can be added to a Web site or blog. The following are resources needed to create a podcast.

Software Mac computers by Apple come installed with GarageBand as part of the iLife software suite. This software application was originally developed for musicians for recording and editing their music. However, it is also used for creating podcasts. GarageBand has some features that are not available in other software such as Audacity. These include sound loops and an easy visual interface.

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Audacity is a free software program available on the Web for both PCs and Macs. Audacity is not just free software; it is also open-source software, which means that anyone may use the source code in Audacity to update or change Audacity’s features. Open-source software is one of the great benefits of the Web. The Firefox Web browser is open source. Openoffice.org is an open-source suite of productivity software used for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. They are just two of the many examples of open-source software. Download Audacity for free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net. If you’re not sure which version to download, choose the stable version for your computer operating system. While at the site, also download LAME. LAME is an MP3 encoder that is necessary for converting a project to the MP3 file format that nearly all computers can play. In brief, Audacity does not create MP3 files directly, so if you need an MP3 file, you will have to run your file through LAME. We will learn more about that later. Keep the Audacity icon on your desktop so that it can be easily accessed whenever you would like to create a podcast.

Audacity icon.

Microphones To record an audio file, you need a computer with a built-in microphone or an external microphone that plugs into a computer. Laptops generally have built-in microphones, but desktop computers often do not. Computer mics can be purchased with a mini-tripod or built-in stand. Another option is to record directly onto an MP3 player or an iPod because some MP3 players have the ability to record audio, and microphones can be purchased for iPods. Recording an audio file directly onto a computer is a good introduction to podcasting. If your computer has a built-in microphone just speak

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directly into it to record audio. Many people make their first podcasts using the computer’s built-in microphone. Using a microphone provides better audio quality because it will capture more of your voice and less of the ambient sounds in the room. If your computer does not have a built-in microphone, purchase a handheld microphone or a headset. A headset is a combination of a headphone and a built-in microphone. Headsets are great for podcasts because you can wear one while recording and adjust the microphone so that it’s not too close to your mouth. Generally, adjusting the microphone so that it is one to two inches away from your mouth or in front of your chin will result in clear audio. Microphones that are too close may distort audio, and microphones that are too far away may capture only a “faraway” sound quality. Check your computer before buying a microphone: some Macs require a microphone that has a USB connection; most PCs can take either a USB mic or a plug right into a mic jack—but not both. If using an external mic, check the Preferences menu on your computer to make sure that an external microphone is selected as the audio input source.

Scripts Before recording an audio file, you need to prepare your thoughts. Few people can speak off-the-cuff; most benefit from an outline, notes, or complete script. If you are comfortable speaking without a script, then just make some notes so that you have something to glance at and keep you on task. It is also helpful to have some notes ready so that you don’t lose your place. For a more formal podcast, write a script and keep it in front of you while you record. If you are interviewing someone, make a list of questions to help you cover all of the topics agreed upon.

CREATE A PODCAST Have your notes or script ready, but remember, even if you flub your first try, just start over. If the podcast is going to be a brief salutation to place on a blog, try speaking off the cuff. Download Audacity and LAME to your computer. Both are necessary to create an audio file, to add soundtracks such as music or sound effects, and to convert the file to an MP3 format.

Downloading Audacity The first step is to download Audacity onto your computer desktop. To download Audacity go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download.

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Audacity Download.

Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the choices in Audacity. It’s not necessary to know everything right up front, but you do need to know the basics. Once you have learned the basics of podcasting, go back and learn even more Audacity features. Excellent documentation on Audacity is available to help you use all of the features. The documentation is available here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help.

Downloading LAME To convert an Audacity audio file to an MP3 format, you need an encoder— software that will change one audio format into an MP3 format. Podcasts submitted to iTunes must be MP3-formatted files. MP3 files are compressed and much smaller that WAV or uncompressed files. LAME is an encoder that works with Audacity, and it is mentioned in the Audacity documentation. Download Audacity and LAME at the same time. LAME downloads as a zip file, which means you need to “unzip” it by double clicking the icon. LAME can sit anywhere on the computer. Remember where it is located because the first time you export a file as an MP3 on Audacity, a message pops up asking you to locate this encoder. http://audacity.sourceforge. net/download Windows 1. Download LAME, unzip it, and save the file lame_enc.dll anywhere on your computer. 2. The first time you use the “Export as MP3” command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved.

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Audacity.

Mac OS 9 or X 1. Download the version of LameLib for your operating system. 2. When downloading is complete, use Stuffit Expander to extract the files. (This may happen automatically.) 3. Save the file anywhere on your computer. 4. The first time you use the “Export as MP3” command, Audacity will ask you where the Lame Library is saved. 5. Then upload your MP3 files to a podcast host site.

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Audacity with Audio Track.

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AUDACITY TOOLS AND BUTTONS The Audacity TOOLBAR contains the Editing Tools and the Audio Control Buttons. These are the tools and buttons you will learn to use to create an audio file.

Audacity Main Toolbar.

Editing Tools The EDITING TOOLS will allow you to tweak your audio. You can delete certain parts or change the volume of a music track that you have added.

Audacity Edit Toolbar.

The EDITING TOOLS that you will use the most are the selection tool, the envelope tool, and the time-shift tool. These three tools can do so much to enhance a podcast.

Audio Control Buttons The Audacity AUDIO CONTROL buttons resemble the buttons on a CD player. They are used to record and play back your audio files.

Mixer Toolbar The input/output sliders are located on the mixer toolbar. If your recorded audio has distortion in the sound, use the sliders From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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Audacity Mixer Toolbar.

to control it. The source from which you record is chosen from the input selector. Lets get going: Have you downloaded Audacity and LAME? Are your notes ready? Have you plugged your microphone into your computer’s microphone jack? Are PREFERENCES in Audacity set up for an external microphone? Have you checked to make sure that the microphone is not selected for MUTE on your computer? Podcast Checklist: Download Audacity and LAME. Write notes or script. Set preferences for the microphone. Plug in the microphone. Test the microphone. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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RECORDING A PODCAST The first time you record an audio file with Audacity, it may seem like it takes several steps, but it will go much faster after you have used it a few times. Have a practice script or notes in front of you. Let’s go: 1. Open Audacity. 2. Click on the RED record button and wait a few seconds to speak. 3. When you are finished, wait a moment and then click on the YELLOW stop button. 4. Click on the PURPLE LEFT ARROW button to rewind the audio file. 5. Click on the GREEN ARROW to play back the recording. 6. Click on the FILE drop-down menu in Audacity and select EXPORT AS MP3. • If you plan to edit the file later, you can save it as an AUP file on your desktop, add a soundtrack later, and then export it as an MP3 file. 7. Name the file in the pop-up box and save it to the desktop or someplace else on the computer where it can be easily located. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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Audacity Screenshot 29oct07. From Podcasting at School by Kristin Fontichiaro. Copyright © 2008 by Libraries Unlimited. Reproduced with permission of ABCCLIO, LLC.

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Now you have an audio file saved on the computer. Now what? At this point a music or sound effect could be added. See the section titled “Adding a Music Clip or Sound Effect to an Audacity Audio File” later in this chapter. Store the audio file online and publish it so that others can hear it. There are numerous podcast host sites available for free use on the Web, but we will look at two hosts: Gcast and Podomatic.

Setting up a Gcast Account and Uploading an Audio File 1. Go to http://www.gcast.com and click on SIGN UP NOW, IT’S FREE!

Gcast home page.

2. CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT by filling in your e-mail address, zip code, country, password, and screenname.

Gcast account information.

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3. Click on I AGREE, CREATE MY ACCOUNT. 4. Name your podcast and upload a photo (optional).

Information about your podcast.

5. Click on NEXT. 6. The next step is setting up an account if you want to record podcasts by phone. There is a charge for this service so skip it if you just want the free account. Sign up later for this account if you change your mind.

Information on recording a podcast over the phone.

7. Click on OK, FINISHED. 8. At this point you can upload an audio file. Click on UPLOAD NEW AUDIO in the orange box on the lefthand side or click on YOUR COMPUTER: UPLOAD NEW AUDIO FILES on the main part of the page.

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Your new Gcast home page.

9. Add a title for your podcast and click on BROWSE to locate your saved MP3 file on your computer.

Upload your audio file to Gcast.

10. 11.

Add a description (optional). Read the user agreement and click on I AGREE, UPLOAD THIS FILE. 12. Gcast will then upload and convert your file. Wait at least five minutes for this process to complete.

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Gcast will check and convert your uploaded file.

13. When the podcast is converted and uploaded you will have the opportunity to add it to your blog or Web site.

Your podcast is now ready.

14. Select a theme and some playback options. 15. Copy and paste the code into your blog or Web site using the widget feature.

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Select a player style and theme.

Add the podcast to your blog or Web site.

Setting Up a Podomatic Account and Uploading an Audio File 1. Go to http://www.podomatic.com/. 2. Click on SIGN UP. 3. Create a free account: name, e-mail, gender, date of birth, PodOmatic address (which is also your username). 4. Read the Terms of Service and click on SIGN UP. 5. Add a photo or skip for now. 6. Click on the MY PODCAST tab. 7. Click on POST NEW EPISODE. 8. Write a description for your podcast or skip and click SAVE & CONTINUE. 9. Upload an audio or video clip by clicking UPLOAD A FILE. (This will probably take a few minutes.)

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10. Select a photo for this episode, or skip and click DON’T CHANGE MY PHOTO SELECTION. 11. Add tags (keywords for phrases that pertain to the podcast) or skip and click SAVE & CONTINUE. 12. Review the information and publish your episode by clicking SAVE & CONTINUE (It may take a few minutes to process). 13. To promote your new episode, you have a number of options: • • • • •

Email contacts in your address book Update your status on Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace Post to Facebook, MySpace or your favorite social network Post to Delicious, Digg or your favorite bookmarking site Embed a player in your web page

Submitting a Podcast to iTunes Podcasts can be submitted to iTunes. To submit a podcast to iTunes: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Open iTunes (must be downloaded to your computer). Click on the iTunes Store icon. Choose PODCASTS from the GENRES menu. Scroll down to the LEARN MORE menu and choose SUBMIT A PODCAST. 5. Enter the URL of your podcast and follow the instructions.

Each podcast submitted is reviewed by iTunes staff before it is added to the iTunes store. This process may take a week or two. Once a podcast is submitted to iTunes, people can subscribe to the podcast via RSS, and they will be notified when a new podcast is available by a certain author.

Adding Music or Sound Effects Adding a music clip or a sound effect to a podcast makes it more creative and audio-friendly for listeners. And of course, there are free audio samples available on the Web. You may be required to give attribution to the author, a fair and legal tradeoff for free music and sound effects. Remember, any content someone creates and places on the Web is still copyrighted to that person. This topic is discussed more in-depth in the chapter on Internet Safety, Digital Citizenship and Copyright. Remember, if using music from the Web check to see if permission or payment is required before use. Even Web sites that offer free music and sound effects clips for podcasts may require that attribution is given to the author of that clip or to

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the Web site. Always check the terms of use on a Web site to understand the rules for using content from that Web site. Some Web site content is offered to users under a Creative Commons license that provides different levels of copyright protection and permission to users. This is discussed more thoroughly in chapter 11, “Internet Safety, Digital Citizenship, and Copyright,” but here is a brief summary of what that means. Creative Commons provides tools for authors, artists, and anyone else who creates work placed on the Web to mark their works from “some rights reserved” to “all rights reserved.” If you write and publish music on the Web for people to use freely in podcasts, you would assign a Creative Commons license to that music, giving people permission to use the music as long as they give you attribution. Anyone may then use your work under the Creative Commons license, but you set the limits as to whether they can use the music for commercial or noncommercial works, how to properly attribute the work to you, and whether they may or may not alter, transform, or build upon your work. Like many Web tools and resources, it is not necessary to know hundreds of examples, but two or three that work well for you. We are going to look at free Web sites for sound samples and sound effects. The Web sites are fOURbEES and the Freesound Project. Music or sound effects make a podcast introduction or background more interesting for the listener. Sound can be added as a second track in Audacity after you record your voice. How about adding applause or the sound of a crowd present just before you speak? How about laughter? Or if the podcast topic is on a subject such as nature, would the sound of rain or thunder add to the podcast?

Downloading a Free Sound Clip Free music and sound effects are available on the Web for use on Web sites and in podcasts. It may be easier for a school to purchase music and sound effects for student use in online projects so that copyright is covered and no longer an issue. Free Web sites may also provide clips for student use under a Creative Commons Noncommercial license. Examples of resources that may be used, some for personal uses or nonprofit uses and some with options for commercial use, follow:

A1 Free Sound Effects A1 Free Sound Effects provides free sound effects samples that can be used in podcasts for personal or nonprofit use. Sound effects are also available for purchase for commercial use. In addition, the Web site has CDs for sale under $10. http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/.

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Magnatune Magnatune is a music licensing company. The Web site does offer some music for noncommercial and student projects. http://www.mag natune.com/.

The Freesound Project The Freesound Project is a site of sound samples that may be used under the Creative Commons license. Any sound used from this site requires that attribution be given to the artist. If attribution is not given, that is a breach of copyright. To download a sound clip from freesound.org: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Go to http://www.freesound.org/. Register for a free account. Click on SEARCH under the SEARCH/BROWSE menu. Enter a sound or music genre. Examples: “applause” or “jazz.” To listen to the sound, click on the black arrow next to the title. To download the clip, click on the image. On the next screen, click on the DOWNLOAD—RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS button in the upper right corner. 8. The sound clip will save to your computer desktop. It can then be added as a second track to your Audacity audio file.

Fourbees.com fOURbEES from Covera Web and Media Elements provides free music clips for use in podcasts. Credit must be given to fOURbEEs (this is the correct way to format the name of the Web site) or Covera if content is used. To read all of the terms of use, go to http://www.fourbees.com/fourbees/tou. asp. If you have other questions on the terms of use for fOURbEES content, there is a form on the page that can be filled out and submitted to staff. To download a sound clip from fOURbEES: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Go to http://www.fourbees.com. Click on the FOUR BEES FREE MEDIA button. Click on the AUDIO icon. To listen to a sound, click on the green arrow next to a title. To download a sound clip, RIGHT CLICK the green arrow next to the title and choose SAVE AS LINK. 6. Save the clip to your computer desktop. Now you can add the sound effect to your Audacity audio file by going to the Audacity file and clicking on PROJECT and IMPORT AUDIO. At this point,

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browse your computer desktop to find the sound effect and add it as a second track to the audio file. Multiple tracks may be added to an Audacity file.

Adding a Music Clip or Sound Effect to an Audacity Audio File 1. Open an Audacity audio file that you already created or create a new one. 2. Then go to the PROJECT drop-down menu and select IMPORT AUDIO.

Audacity—Imported Audio Stereo Track.

3. Browse your computer for the music clip or sound effect you just downloaded and select it. 4. The sound clip will be added as a second track to the file. 5. Play back the new track to now hear both voice and introductory or background sound. To test it click on the REWIND button and then the green PLAY button. This is the raw audio file with your voice, music, or sound effect before editing. Now edit the audio file.

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Removing a Music Clip or Sound Effect from an Audacity Audio File To remove an audio track in Audacity, click on the “x” in the upper left corner of the audio track box.

Editing Your Audio File 1. Use the TIMESHIFT TOOL to move the voice track over to the right so that there is lead time before it starts. Lead time is the time leading into the content. So instead of the voice recording beginning immediately, there may be some music or a sound effect leading into the voice recording. 2. Now reduce the volume of the music so that it plays quietly while you are speaking. Click and drag the points on the ENVELOPE TOOL to shrink the track in different places. Make it “smaller” so that it is very quiet while your voice is playing. In other words, make the music loud as an introduction, and make it quiet and in the background while you are speaking. Then make the music loud again after you have finished speaking. 3. Play back the file to see if it needs adjusting. 4. As a result of your edits, you now have a podcast that begins with a musical introduction, followed by your voice with quiet music in the background, and finally finishes with louder music after you have finished speaking. Use the same process to add sound effects. Add applause, nature sounds, or anything that pertains to the podcast topic. 5. Go to your podcast host, log in and upload your newly edited file. Now your podcast is stored on a podcast hosting site where you can always retrieve it and add it to a blog, wiki, or Web site.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND PODCASTS K–12 students are using podcasts in very creative ways in school. First of all, simply producing a podcast is a great lesson for students. A teacher could have some students writing a script or getting notes in order and getting background music or sound effects in place, and others could fill the jobs of director, on-air voices, and technicians. Podcasts can be used for a variety of student projects, including interviews of school staff, students’ family members, and people from the school district or community. Once students create podcasts, they can be published on the school Web site or played during events for parents. Basically, once a podcast is

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created, it can be placed anywhere on a blog, wiki, or Web site. It is a link that listeners click on to play. It’s that easy! Unlike other Web tools that can take students “outside” a school’s server environment, podcasts do not include links. That’s why they can be placed on a school Web site, blog, or wiki and will stay there and not direct listeners to other Web sites. Podcasting for students is fun and easy and serves as a creative outlet.

CONCLUSION Podcasts are audio files that are easily produced with free software. They are also one of the Web examples of one-way communication. A podcast can be recorded, edited, and stored on the Web to be used in a blog, on a Web site, or in an e-mail. For those who want to listen to podcasts, they can be found through search engines or from searching podcast directories. Once a podcast is located, it can be downloaded to a computer, synched to an iPod or MP3 player, or added to iTunes and burned to a CD.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT PODCASTING Q: Can I send a podcast in an e-mail? A: Yes. You can add the URL to your podcast to an e-mail just as you would any URL. When the e-mail is received, the reader will simply click on the link. Q: Why do people create podcasts? A: Podcasting is an expressive method of communication. It’s easy and free to create a podcast and to enhance it with music or other sound. Adding a podcast to a blog or Web site is an effective way to enhance the content and personalize it. Kids can easily create a podcast and share it as part of a class project or to send to relatives. Q: Can a podcast be moved to a CD? A: Yes. Podcasts on CD can make great gifts! If you sync your podcast to iTunes or Windows Media Player, you can then burn it (put the music) onto a CD. Q: What about privacy issues? A: It is important to talk to children about whether or not last names or even first names should be used. In fact, an alias or nickname would be preferred. Children should also avoid adding any personal details in a podcast.

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Q: How do I subscribe to podcasts in iTunes? A: To subscribe to podcasts in iTunes: 1. Make sure that iTunes is downloaded to your computer and that you have set up an account. 2. Access the iTunes Store through the software. 3. Click on PODCASTS in the GENRE box. 4. Choose a podcast from the podcast page or by searching for one using the SEARCH box. 5. When the page appears for that podcast, click on the SUBSCRIBE button. 6. In the pop-up box, click on SUBSCRIBE. Notice that the download begins in the sidebar under STORE. 7. Then click on PODCASTS under LIBRARY in the sidebar to view and listen to the podcasts just downloaded. References A1 Free Sound Effects. http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com. Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download. Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org. Firefox. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US. Fontichiaro, Kristin. 2007. Active Learning through Drama, Podcasting, and Puppetry. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Fontichiaro, Kristin. 2008. Podcasting at School. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. fOURbEES. http://www.fourbees.com. Freesound.org. http://www.freesound.org/index.php. Gcast. http://www.gcast.com/. iTunes. http://www.apple.com/itunes. LAME. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac. Magnatune. http://magnatune.com. Odeo. http://odeo.com. Openoffice.org. http://www.openoffice.org. Podcast Alley. http://www.podcastalley.com. Podcast Directory. http://www.podcastdirectory.com. Podcast Fusion. http://www.podcastfusion.com/fs/home.asp. Podomatic. http://www.podomatic.com.

Screenshot Permissions Audacity® software ©1999–2008 Audacity Team. It is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The name Audacity® is a registered trademark of Dominic Mazzoni. http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Audacity does not distribute LAME MP3 encoders, but users can direct Audacity to use them according to the legal precedents in their country. Gcast.com, Ali Partovi, CEO, iLike, Inc.


Chapter 6

RSS—Subscribe to Web Sites

To subscribe to Web sites, blogs, podcasts, and wikis, there is a Web tool called RSS, or really simple syndication. There is no cost to subscribe to sites, but a free newsreader or aggregator to receive feeds via RSS is necessary. Feeds are the data received from Web sites that go to a newsreader. When feeds come to a newsreader, they may be represented as a summary of the document or the full text of the document. The document could be an article, blog post, or Web site update. The bottom line is that RSS expedites receiving information in a timely manner. So let’s learn about RSS and how to receive Web site updates fast!

RSS Chicklet.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER An aggregator is an application used to receive and read Web feeds. Also called a newsreader. Bloglines is a newsreader for RSS feeds.

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Bookmarking is saving a site so that you can access it from a dropdown menu on your computer. A chicklet is an RSS/XML icon on a Web site. A feed is the information you receive, in full text or summary, from a Web site via RSS. A newsreader is also known as a news aggregator. Examples: Bloglines and Google Reader. RSS is a procedure to receive feeds from Web sites. XML is extensible markup language. Some feed URLs will end with XML.

WHY USE RSS? If specific Web sites are visited regularly, RSS is extremely helpful and even necessary. Bookmarking Web sites is one method of keeping track of favorite sites, but that requires remembering to go to those bookmarked sites. Using RSS is a better way to keep track of favorite sites and have the information come to you! To start using RSS, simply open a free account and download a newsreader, and you are ready to subscribe to sites. We will go over that procedure in the next section. Once a newsreader is downloaded, and specific Web site feeds have been added using RSS, the feeds will automatically go to the newsreader as soon as new information is posted on that Web site. For example, if someone subscribes via RSS to a blog, then whenever the blog owner publishes a new post, the feeds will automatically go to the newsreader. Think of it as an alert that there is new information, but it just shows up in your newsreader. The name of that blog will be on the subscribed feeds list in your newsreader, and it will be bold and have numbers after the Web site name. The numbers indicate how many new posts are available for that site. It is convenient to have a list of favorite Web sites in one place and to have a visual alert that new information is available. The feeds that display in the newsreader are a summary or the full text of a document. At this point the feeds may be read or skipped. After the initial setup of downloading a newsreader and going to Web sites to subscribe to feeds, RSS is a great timesaver. No more going to several bookmarked sites—the information comes to you!

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A list of feeds in a reader.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SUBSCRIBE TO FEEDS? To use RSS to subscribe to feeds, a newsreader or aggregator is required. Once a newsreader is set up on a computer, there is a place to receive and read feeds. Some newsreaders are Web-based and require only that a (free) account be set up in order to start receiving RSS feeds. Other newsreaders can be downloaded to a computer. Yes, it is that simple! The newsreader icon can sit on a desktop or in the toolbar. If the user stays logged on, it can be accessed anytime that is convenient. Many free RSS readers are available. A selection of readers and the Web sites are listed below.

Newsreaders/Aggregators Netnewswire for Mac This free RSS reader can be downloaded to a computer at this URL: http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/Default.aspx.

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Bloglines Open a free account at http://bloglines.com and start subscribing to feeds immediately. Bloglines is Web-based, so feeds may be accessed from any computer with Web access.

Google Reader Google has a free RSS reader that can be used by setting up a free account. Go to http://www.google.com, click on MORE, and scroll down to READER.

SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS! Using RSS really does save time. For those who visit Web sites regularly, subscribing to those sites via RSS saves the time it would take to visit all of those sites individually using bookmarking. Also, if sites are bookmarked so that they can be checked regularly for new information, then subscribing to those sites via RSS will eliminate that procedure completely. Download a newsreader to your computer or open an account with a Web-based newsreader. For example, here are instructions on setting up a Bloglines account and adding feeds:

RSS Using Bloglines.com 1. 2. 3. 4.

Create an account at http://bloglines.com. Watch your e-mail for a link to activate your account. Once your account is activated, log in to your Bloglines account. Then go to a Web site and look for the RSS feed icon (the icon is usually orange and has RSS or “waves” on it). Click on the icon.

Create a Bloglines Account.

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5. You should be directed to a page with information about the Web site. Click on the SUBSCRIBE NOW button. 6. The Bloglines AVAILABLE FEEDS page will appear. Scroll down and click on SUBSCRIBE. 7. The Bloglines feeds will now include the Web site just added. A feed has now been added to the Bloglines newsreader! Now go to other sites and repeat the procedure. Some Web sites actually have a Bloglines button to make subscribing to that Web site possible in even fewer steps but most use the procedure listed above. Look at the feeds to see if any

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Login to Your Bloglines Account.

Look for the RSS Icon on a Web site.

Subscribe Now.

new information is available because the name of the feed will be bold and have a small number next to it. The number indicates how many new posts or articles are unread. Now, instead of scanning Web sites that are bookmarked and available in a drop-down menu, you will have visual notification when there is new information to see.

Click on Subscribe.

Bloglines Feeds.

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It may seem labor-intensive at first because the Web sites must be visited to add the RSS feed, but once that is over, the newsreader is ready and established to accept more feeds.

CONCLUSION RSS is a way to subscribe to Web sites, blogs, and podcasts. All that is required is a newsreader, which is a free download to a computer or a Webbased service. Web sites that you subscribe to via RSS send feeds to the newsreader. Feeds can be a sentence or a paragraph with a link to the full text of the article or blog post. Subscribing to Web sites via RSS precludes the need to bookmark the Web site because any new information will come to your newsreader automatically. If you create a blog or personal Web site, readers can subscribe to your site via RSS and will be alerted when you add new information. RSS expedites getting new or updated information, and that means that you will not miss anything. After subscribing to Web sites through a newsreader, you simply check it to see if any new feeds have arrived. RSS is a great timesaver.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT RSS Q: Bloglines—does it come to my e-mail? A: You go to your Bloglines account to read feeds. Bloglines can be accessed using an icon in your toolbar. Q: What are the benefits of using RSS and a newsreader? A: Subscribing to Web sites via RSS is a timesaver and gives you one place to go for new information. The information comes to you instead of you going to all of the Web sites.

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References Bloglines. http://www.bloglines.com. Google Reader. http://www.google.com. Netnewswire for Mac. http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/ Default.aspx.

Screenshot Permissions Bloglines. IAC Search & Media. http://www.bloglines.com.


Chapter 7

Web Sites—Have a Web Presence

Do you know how easy it is to have a Web site? Believe me—it’s easy. If someone wants to publish a variety of information regularly, but not in posts like on a blog, then a Web site is a good tool. It’s also perfect for groups, associations, or committees that need and want to report information on a regular basis. Of course, like all Web tools, there are free versions and commercial versions. It’s a good idea to start with a free version. If a free version works out well, many of these sites offer upgrades to a premium account that costs a small amount of money each month or year and offers more features and storage space.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Buttons on Web sites, blogs, and wikis are icons or any image linked to a URL. Click on the button, and you are directed to a different page or Web site. HTML, or hypertext markup language, is code used to create Web content. It is unlikely that you will need to know HTML, but there are times when you may see this code. Pages can be created on Web sites so that information can be separated by topic or area. A sidebar is a space on the left or right side of your Web site or blog. Content that you want visible for long periods of time or for a special event can be added to sidebars (e.g., calendars, buttons). Tabs are buttons that link to other pages on the Web site.

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Uploading is when digital photos or images in a JPEG, TIFF, or GIF format are located on a computer desktop and are then placed into or uploaded to a Web site for display. Weebly is a Web site host with free and PRO accounts available.

Web Site Hosts Web site hosts are Web sites that offer free and premium accounts to create a Web site. An abundance of Web site hosts are available that cost nothing or very little in yearly fees. Look at some hosts and see what is available and what the costs are in case you decide later that you want to upgrade. Some examples are Weebly, Bravenet, and Webs. To find more hosts, use a search engine and search for “free Web site hosts.” The Web site host we will use for our example is Weebly.

Weebly Home Page.

WHY A WEB SITE? A Web site is very easy to create and manage. Blogs and wikis are also Web sites where text, graphics, multimedia, and links to other Web sites may be added, but they have specific purposes. A Web site may be created to post new information but also may be a place for static information (e.g., hours of business). Some people don’t want to write blog posts and may prefer a Web site. For collaboration on content, a wiki would be used,

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but if that is not the purpose of reporting information, then a Web site may fit the bill. However, keep in mind that creating a Web site does not preclude creating blogs and wikis because links to blogs and wikis can be added to a Web site (and vice versa). So it may be necessary to have a Web site, a blog, and a wiki depending on whether information is being reported, collaborated on, or updated. An association or organization will want a Web site to have a Web presence or a venue in which to provide information to members and to other interested parties. Then there is one place for an event calendar, information about the association, graphics, links to related Web sites, and any other information pertaining to that area of interest. The Web has provided many opportunities for creating a presence, expressing a point of view, self-publishing, collaborating, and information sharing. We have already looked at several tools, so now it’s time to create your own Web site. As with all of the other tools, if you create a Web site and decide you don’t want it or don’t like it, it can always be deleted. Think about starting with a practice Web site to see how it works; you can then delete it and create a permanent site.

CREATE A WEB SITE! Before creating a Web site, think about a name just as you did with a blog or wiki. Also, have a second choice in case the first choice is unavailable.

Create a Weebly Account Go to Weebly.com and create an account. 1. Go to http://weebly.com. 2. Sign up for a Weebly account (and don’t forget to check the box to accept the Terms of Service). 3. Click on CREATE A SITE.

Designs The next step is to choose the theme or look of the Web site. To choose a theme or template for the Web site: 1. Click on DESIGNS. a. You have several choices of themes. Place your cursor on a theme, and you will see a sample. b. Click the right arrow to see more themes. c. When you find one you like, click on it to select that theme.

Create an Account and Web site on Weebly.

Creating a Weebly Web site.

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2. If the theme has the option to add a customized header, it will be indicated. a. The dimensions are indicated in HEADER OPTIONS. To upload a new header, find one with the dimensions required to fill that space.

Elements Now that the theme for the Web site is selected, you can start adding content. Weebly offers several content format choices and makes it easy to delete an element simply by clicking on the small “x” in the upper right corner. Elements include Basic, Multimedia, Revenue, and More.

Weebly Elements.

Basic Elements The basic elements are text and image elements, and these are used to add the content to the Web site. Weebly uses a “click and drag” method by which elements are represented at the top of the page and dragged down to the theme or template. Paragraph with Title. To create a section of text with a title, drag this element to the template. Click on the text in the title or paragraph box and then fill in the information. Paragraph with Picture. Drag this element to the template to add text with a related picture.

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Weebly Basic Elements.

Picture. Use this element to add an image of some kind without text to the template. Title. Drag this element to create a title only. Paragraph. Add a new paragraph to the template. Two Column Layout. Create columns with this element. Drag a picture or text into the columns. Custom HTML. Use this widget to paste in HTML code. Google AdSense. Place ads here to create revenue from Web traffic.

Multimedia Elements Multimedia elements make it easy to add resources such as Flickr slideshows and Google Maps to a Web site by dragging the icons to the template. If an element has “PRO” on it, that means that a PRO account is required to use that element. There is a fee to create a PRO account. Paragraph with Picture. This is the same as Paragraph with Picture under Basic Elements. Picture. This is the same as Picture under Basic Elements. Photo Gallery. Add your own photos. File. Add a PDF or other formatted file to upload to the Web site. Audio Player. Add an audio player (requires a PRO account). YouTube Video. Add a YouTube video to the Web site. Google Video. Add a Google video to the Web site. Flickr Photo Slideshow. Add your own Flickr photos. Google Maps. Add a Google map to the Web site.

Revenue Elements Google AdSense. Read about revenue-generating advertising on your Web site in Weebly Help.

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More Elements Other useful elements can be found under the More Elements link.

Weebly More Elements.

Feed Reader. Add this to a Web site so that readers may subscribe to the Web site via RSS. Custom HTML. Add HTML code to customize a Web site, for example, in the form of a calendar or game. Contact Form. Add this element so that readers may send you a message. Divider. Place this between content. Nabble Forums. Create your own forum for discussion on a topic.

Fun Elements Weebly offers a few fun elements to add to your Web site, including the New York Times crossword puzzle and two games.

Pages This is where pages are created for the Web site. Pages can be either visible or hidden. • •

If the page is visible, it will appear as a tab on each Web site page. If the page is invisible, you can still link to it, but it will not become a tab.

When you see a reference to a PRO account, that is the account that can be purchased for 6 months, 12 months or 24 months.. Check the Weebly site for current costs.

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Weebly Manage Pages.

EDITING YOUR WEEBLY WEB SITE To edit your Web site, log in and click on EDIT SITE next to the name. After adding, deleting, or editing content, remember to click on PUBLISH. If you are not ready to publish information you can still add it to the page. It won’t be visible to viewers of the site until you log in and click on PUBLISH.

Congratulations! Your site has been successfully published to . . .

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND WEB SITES Some educators use free Web sites from hosts that have no ads. Many educators are using Moodle, the open-source course management software, to create their own Moodle space as a Web site. Educators can create

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a Moodle site and use blogs, wikis, forums, images, and links to other Web sites. This is considered a safe environment for students because they have to create an account and log in, and many educators require the use of an enrollment key or password to access the content.

Moodle.

If you have questions about your child’s use of the Web at school, please contact the teacher, media specialist, technology director, or principal. School personnel work very hard to keep students in “safe” Web environments, and they do that to the point of blocking some good Web sites that would benefit the students. Schools sometimes err on the side of being too cautious, although some would probably claim that you cannot be too cautious when providing Web resources to K–12 students. Schools also provide commercial databases for student use so that they have appropriate information resources. Educators should be teaching students about Internet safety, about what constitutes a good or bad site, about how to focus a search for information, and about rules regarding personal information. If you are curious about Internet safety and how it is taught in your child’s school, please ask staff for more information.

CONCLUSION People create Web sites for a presence on the Web, whether it is for personal use or for an organization or association. Web sites are particularly useful for those who do not want to write a blog, for a place to post information

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about businesses such as hours and services and for marketing events. Of course, links to other Web sites and blogs can be posted on a Web site, so having one does not preclude using other Web tools. Several free Web hosts are available for creating Web sites. If more space or features are needed, then a premium account can be purchased. Web sites are fairly easy to set up, which makes this tool accessible to those who are technologically savvy and to those who are not. A Web site is another tool that is great for communication, self-expression, and selfpublishing.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT WEB SITES Q: Can I create a Web site for free? A: Yes. Like other Web tools, there is always a free version. There are usually premium versions available too in case you want more storage or more features. Q: Can I add my own photos to the Web site? A: Yes. You can upload images to your Web site. Browse and locate the photo on your computer and then upload to the Web site. Q: Could I use a blog as my Web site? A: Yes. A blog is a Web site with the same features: buttons, tabs, links, photos, and text. With a blog you post information and let others comment on that information. That format can most certainly work as a Web site for you or your association. References Bravenet. http://www.bravenet.com. Webs. http://www.webs.com/. Moodle. http://moodle.com. Weebly. http://www.weebly.com.

Screenshot Permission Weebly. © 2009 Weebly Inc. http://www.weebly.com.

Chapter 8

Forums—Online Discussions

Forums are tools used specifically for discussions. Think of it—if a group of people were together in a room asking and answering questions, they would have a face-to-face forum. Well, the Web has, once again, made it convenient to collaborate, discuss, and create user-generated content without being in the same room. So to create an online discussion, you would create a forum. There are several helpful forum hosts on the Web, and they all work in basically the same manner, just as all wikis work the same way and all blogs work the same way. Like other Web tools, you will find that perhaps some forum sites offer more features, but the general procedures for using a forum are the same. A forum can be a standalone—an individual site where participants are directed to go—or a link from a blog, Web site, or wiki to the forum. Forums are specifically used for discussion in a question-and-answer format. The great thing about forums is that there may be numerous answers to one question, and they will all be listed after the question. So all of the information is in one place. Forum topics are called threads, so you will often see the term “threaded discussion” used to describe a forum. To create a forum or join others, you need only register for an account on that particular forum Web site to participate. Once registered, you can begin asking and answering questions on a topic.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Boardster is an open-source forum host. A Forum is a Web-based tool used for discussion. 129

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Forumer is a forum host. Forums-Free is a forum host. FreeForumHost is a forum host. ProBoards is a forum host. A Thread is a topic of discussion in a forum.

FORUM HOSTS Finding a forum on the Web is easy. Search for forums in a search engine, and you will get numerous results. To test out a forum if you have a topic to be discussed, try one of the following: •

Forums-Free

Forums-Free Home Page.

• • • •

Boardster Forumer FreeForumHost ProBoards

Go to any forum site and register for an account. Then either create a forum or participate in a thread. When you go to a forum host, you can also search for forums on topics of interest to you. Look for a search box or some kind of directory and type in a topic. It is very likely that you will find forums in which you may wish to participate.

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FreeForumHost Home Page.

WHY A FORUM? What makes a forum different from other Web tools? The question-andanswer format of forums makes them unique from other Web tools. Wikis and blogs can look like any Web site, but a forum consists of a thread (topic) question followed by answers or comments pertaining to that specific question. Blogs use one-way communication and allow readers to add comments to posts. Wikis are collaborative tools but are not specifically designed for discussion. So if you are looking for a tool to implement and facilitate discussion, a forum is the Web tool to use. Once in a forum, you will see lists of threaded discussions. Of course, if you have a blog, wiki, or Web site, you could link to the forum from there. Enhancing your Web site with discussions is a nice addition and another way to include and offer user-generated content. Threaded discussions on forums are visible so that all readers can view the questions and answers. If readers register, they can participate in the discussions. It’s just another example of an easy-to-use Web tool.

MAKE A PRESENCE ON THE WEB—CREATE A FORUM To create a forum, you must first choose a forum site and register an account. There are a number of free forum hosts available on the Web, but we are going to use ProBoards for our example.

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1. Go to http://proboards.com and click on SIGN UP!

ProBoards Home Page.

2. Fill out the Join Form—user name, password, e-mail, category. Enter the security numbers/words and click on the Terms of Service box. Click on the SIGN UP button.

ProBoards Join Form.

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3. The next message concerns accessing your forum—user name, password, and URL.

Your user name, password, URL.

4. Click on the forum URL, and the forum appears.

Login to your forum.

Your forum page.

5. Log in to the forum using the user name “admin” and your password.

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6. Enter your birthday and click on SUBMIT INFORMATION.

Enter your birthday.

7. Select your gender and click on SUBMIT INFORMATION.

FreeForumHost Home Page.

8. Select a forum category and click on SAVE FORUM CATEGORY.

Select your forum category.

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9. Click on GENERAL BOARD.

Click on General Board.

10. Click on NEW THREAD to start a discussion topic in your forum. 11. Enter a title and a question or comment and click on POST MESSAGE. You now have a new forum! The link to the forum can be e-mailed to people, and you can add the link to your blog, wiki, or Web site. To start

Enter your first post.

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Give your forum URL to others and they can join in the discussion.

a new discussion, you need only go to your account and click on NEW THREAD. To participate in a forum other than your own, go to a forum host and use the directory to search for forums on topics of interest to you. If you are required to register in order to participate in a forum, you will be prompted to login.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND FORUMS Students can use discussion forums in school if a teacher has created one, and it’s allowed in school policy. Of course, teachers can always create a forum if they have a Moodle account. This is the open-source course management software that is used widely by K–12 educators. Moodle has a forum feature so that a teacher could start threads and have students participate.

CONCLUSION Forums are the Web tool used for discussion. In a blog someone posts information, and others comment on those posts. In a forum someone asks a question or makes a statement to begin a discussion. Then other participants add their answers, suggestions, and comments below that original question or statement. If one of the answers goes off-topic, a new thread or discussion begins. This is the perfect tool if trying to solve a problem or answer a question. For example, a technology blog may have a link to forums where

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participants can problem-solve or discuss a topic related to that technology.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT FORUMS Q: Can I add images to a forum? A: In regard to adding images to forums, it is possible if the image is located somewhere on the Web. In FreeForumHost, when users create a new posting, or new thread, they have the option of using an “img” (short for image) tag that will embed the image into the post. For example, a user could enter the following: [img]http://www.website.com/picture.jpg[/img] This is not case sensitive, so “IMG” or “img” works the same. Also, users are not required to memorize this code because every time they make a new post, there will be an “img” button that explains the process. When a user uses this code, freeforumhost.com will automatically find the image, grab it, and put it on the post. Thus, users browsing the forum will not see the code but instead a picture. Q: Can I just use my blog for discussion? A: You can post to your blog and have readers leave comments, but that’s not really discussion in the same way you use forums. A blog is much more a tool for one-way communication. In a forum you will see the question and all of the answers listed after the question. You can always create a forum and link to it on your blog or Web site. References Boardster. http://boardster.net. Forumer. http://forumer.com. Forums-Free. http://forums-free.com. FreeForumHost. http://freeforumhost.com. ProBoards. http://proboards.com.

Screenshot Permissions Forums-Free. Forums-Free.com © 2008. http://www.forums-free.com/en. Thomas Cryer, Owner and Operator, http://www.FreeForumHost.com. Patrick Clinger, ProBoards, http://proboards.com.


Chapter 9

Photo Management—Store and Share Your Photos on the Web

The Web offers great opportunities for those who take a lot of photos or are in to photography in general. Photo management sites are Web sites that let you upload your own photos for storage and sharing. Like other Web tools, there is usually a free account available and a premium account if you plan to store a large number of photos. Some sites include options that let you order prints through the mail, pick up prints at a store, or print them at a store.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Creative Commons is an alternative to full copyright and lets you share your photos, text, and video for others to use for free as long as they attribute the work to you and follow other assigned rules. Flickr is a Web site for photo storage and sharing. Graphic generators are Web tools that let you customize and manipulate photos or graphics to add to Web sites. Photobucket is a Web site for photo storage and sharing. Picasa is a Web site for photo storage and sharing. Shutterfly is a Web site for photo storage and sharing. Snapfish is a Web site for photo storage and sharing. Zooomr is a Web site for photo storage and sharing.

PHOTO STORAGE HOSTS The Web offers great tools to help us communicate, collaborate, and share information, and photo storage sites are yet another example of these 139

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helpful tools. If you are into photography, then you will love photo storage sites. You can upload photos, organize them or even create a slideshow, share them with others, and use other features and options available for free. Even if you take photos only on special occasions or just once in a while, you will still love these sites. The Web has made it easy to upload photos and view them from any location with Web access. Think of it— upload your baby shower photos and send the link to friends and relatives. One-stop viewing for all! As with other Web tools, there are numerous opportunities to store and manage photos for free on the Web. Following is a short list of photo storage sites: • • • • • • •

Flickr Phanfare Photobucket Picasa Shutterfly Snapfish Zooomr

Flickr. Reproduced with permission of Yahoo! Inc.® 2008. YAHOO! and the YAHOO! logo are trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.

WHY WEB PHOTO STORAGE? Storing your images on a photo storage Web site means that you are not taking up space on your own computer, which frees up your hard drive memory. Photo storage sites are extremely helpful if you want to not only store but also share your photos. Once you create an account and upload photos to a site, you can share that link with others, so that they can view your photos at their convenience from any computer with Web access. You can also create a slideshow that you can feature on many sites to present your photos in a creative, meaningful manner. You can be anywhere in the world and still view and manage your photos.

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STORE, ARRANGE, AND SHARE PHOTOS—WEB-BASED PHOTO STORAGE Flickr is a Yahoo! Company Web site, so when you sign up for a free account on Flickr, you will create a Yahoo! ID. Once you have created your account, you can start uploading photos from your digital camera via your computer. Synchronize your digital camera to your computer so that the photos can be uploaded from your desktop to your Flickr account.

Flickr Home Page. Reproduced with permission of Yahoo! Inc.® 2008. YAHOO! and the YAHOO! logo are trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Create a Flickr account. Log in to your Flickr account. Click on the UPLOAD PHOTOS button. Click on CHOOSE PHOTOS. Browse your files and select a photo or photos. Choose to make the photos PUBLIC or PRIVATE.

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7. Click on UPLOAD PHOTOS. 8. When the photo has finished loading, you will have the option to add a DESCRIPTION. 9. Click on SAVE. If you choose some other site for photo storage, the steps will be similar. From this point you can create a set of photos, join a group, view your tags, and add more photos and edit information concerning your photos. You will find that it is easy to share your photos with others via the Web.

FLICKR’S CREATIVE COMMONS Flickr also has a Creative Commons Web site that contains millions of photos that can be searched by keyword. The Creative Commons attributions are listed so that when you choose a photo, you know what kind of attribution you need to give to the author. Schools probably block Flickr because it contains photos that are inappropriate for students, but anyone with a Web site may use these photos under the Creative Commons license assigned per photo.

SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND PHOTO STORAGE Student use of photos in K–12 schools is probably very limited because many photo storage sites have inappropriate photos that are accessible simply by searching a subject. There are free sites available on the Web with the main purpose of providing free photos and images, but again these can be a problem because of the inappropriate content. Students and teachers could take their own photographs to use on Web sites, but even then a release form should be used so that legal issues are covered. Schools may also use photo sites that provide royalty-free photos for educational use. Some examples of Web sites that schools might use to obtain photos for Web use follow.

Freedigitalphotos.net Free images used from Freedigitalphotos.net require a link back to the Web site. If a photo is purchased from this source, no credit is required. “Images can be used freely in school projects.”1

Freefoto.com Freefoto’s large collection of photographs is for online use (link back and attribution required) and for noncommercial offline use. The works on

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Freefoto are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncom mercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Freegraphics.com FreeGraphics.com provides several links to free photo Web sites. Each of the Web sites listed will have some requirement for use. Be sure to read the terms of use for each Web site.

Pics4learning.com Pics4learning is a categorized compilation of photos specifically for school use, operated by Tech4Learning—and it’s free. This copyright-friendly Web site grants permission to teachers and students to use the photos.

CONCLUSION Photo storage sites such as Flickr, Snapfish, and Photobucket let people store their photos on the Web. Using a photo storage Web site means that those photos can be accessed anywhere at any time. And not only can photos be stored and retrieved, but they can also be shared with others and organized. There are photographers both amateur and professional who make their photos available through photo storage sites. Some can be used through Creative Commons licensing, whereas others may be used in exchange for payment to the artist. Copyright is a huge consideration when searching the Web for photos to use for educational purposes. Photos, like any Web content, are the property of the copyright owner. Anything someone creates and places on the Web should be considered to have copyright attached and should not be used freely without permission. Having so many choices on the Web is tempting, but the fact that they are there and you are viewing them does not mean you can freely use them for your Web site or report. For an easy and convenient way to organize, share, obtain, and store photos on the Web, try a photo storage site.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT PHOTO STORAGE SITES Q: Are there any costs involved in photo storage sites? A: If you need more storage space, you can pay for an account. You may also have the option on some sites to purchase prints of your photos.

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Q: Who can see my photos? A: If you use a site such as Flickr, you can make your account public or private to limit who views your photos. Note 1. Freedigitialphotos.net. Terms of Use. http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ images/terms.php.

References Flickr. http://www.flickr.com. Flickr/Creative Commons. http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons. Freedigitalphotos. http://www.freedigitalphotos.net. Freefoto. http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp. Freegraphics. http://www.freegraphics.com. Photobucket. http://photobucket.com. Picasa. http://picasa.google.com. Pics4learning.com. http://pics4learning.com. Shutterfly. http://www.shutterfly.com. Snapfish. http://www.snapfish.com/Tech4learning. Zooomr. http://www.zooomr.com.

Screenshot Permission Flickr/Yahoo! Reproduced with permission of Yahoo! Inc. ® 2008 by Yahoo! Inc. YAHOO! and the YAHOO! logo are trademarks of Yahoo! Inc.

Chapter 10

Graphic Generators—Create Your Own Graphics

Now that you have a blog, wiki, social networking account, or Web site, you will want to add some graphics to the pages to make them look visually interesting. There are scores of free clipart Web sites, but you cannot manipulate these static images. A Web tool called a graphic generator takes an image and manipulates it in different ways. The image may be one of your own photos, or it may be an image accessible from a graphic generator Web site. The example on the next page is a graphic generated by adding text to a poster template. Graphic generators are simple to use—honest! Just a warning: generating graphics may become addictive. Once you start using these great tools, you will think of numerous reasons to create graphics to adorn Web pages or to market an event.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER Adobe Photoshop is powerful media editing software. Different versions are available for photo, video, and multimedia editing. Attribution is giving proper credit to an author or artist for work used. Big Huge Labs is a free and family-friendly graphic generator Web site. Flickr is a Web site used for photo storage, organization, and sharing. A Graphic generator is a Web tool used to create a custom graphic. iPhoto is photo editing software that comes with Apple’s iLife suite software. A JPEG is an image format that works well with graphic generators. 145

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A Poster Graphic Generated from FD’s Flickr Toys.

A Link back is a link of a Web site address or URL that directs people back to that Web site. Some Web sites require a link back to their Web site if content from that Web site is used. A Wiki is a Web tool used for collaboration. All participants may add, edit, and delete content. Social Networks like MySpace, Facebook and Ning are where users may create networks to communicate and share with friends and colleagues.

WHY USE GRAPHIC GENERATORS? Graphic generators are used to create custom graphics for Web sites, blogs, social networking pages, or wikis. Numerous free graphic generator sites are available on the Web, and you simply go to one of these sites to generate a custom graphic. For example, to create a graphic that looks like a sign announcing an event on your blog, just go to a free graphic generator

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Web site for signs. There are many sign graphic generators from which to choose, but be cautious before letting children see any graphic generator Web sites. Many of these Web sites have inappropriate graphics available and visible on the homepage. Check out the Web sites first and find those that are children-friendly or family-friendly. There are several reasons for using graphic generators: • • • • • • • • •

You can create a custom graphic. Graphic generators offer “photo-like” graphics to manipulate. Clipart often looks cartoonish. Graphics make Web pages more interesting. Custom graphics can be used to market or announce events. No artistic ability required! Graphics can be generated quickly and easily. A graphic can be made into a button that links to information on your Web page. No commercial software is necessary.

A Web site with a lot of text and few or no graphics on it can be pretty boring. It is so simple to add a graphic to a Web site that there is no excuse not to do so. So generating a graphic is free, easy, and customizable—let’s get started!

RULES FOR USING GRAPHIC GENERATORS Although graphic generators on the Web are free, you may be required to follow some specific rules. The following are some considerations to keep in mind when using graphic generators. Always read the terms of use on graphic generator Web sites, or any Web site for that matter. This is where you will find out under what conditions you may use content from that Web site.

Attribution Using a graphic generator may require that you give attribution or credit to the author or to the Web site. In some cases the name of the Web site is branded on the graphic and will remain there even after the graphic is generated into a customized graphic.

Linking Back Some graphic generator Web sites require a link back to that Web site. This means that you must add the URL to the graphic generator Web site somewhere on your Web site page so that people looking at your site can

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click on it and go directly to the graphic generator Web site if they wish to do so. This not only gives attribution to the Web site providing the graphic but also markets the Web site. If people like the generated graphic, they may decide to go to the source and create their own graphics. However, many graphic generator Web sites do not require a link back or attribution. Find two or three (or more) good Web sites for generating graphics; learn the rules for using those graphics, and you will become comfortable using those Web sites. It is not necessary to know 50 graphic generator sites. Usually a short list of Web sites will work just fine for most of your needs. Again, once you start using graphic generator Web sites, you will know which sites offer a good variety of graphics and are easy to use and appropriate and what rules apply to using graphics from those sites.

Copyright Some graphic generator Web sites include graphics of cartoon characters, brand products, and famous people. Keep in mind that these are trademarked or copyrighted materials. If you use those images on a site that infringes on trademark or copyright, you can receive a cease and desist order or at least a very firm letter advising you to remove the graphic immediately. Keep in mind that copyright infringement is against the law and that students are learning about such rules when they are taught information and technology literacy skills. Be a good example. If you have any doubt about using a graphic, err on the side of your better judgment and pass on it. There are numerous graphic generators from which to choose, so there is no need to use something that is doubtful or obviously an infringement of copyright. Using copyrighted works without permission is cheating the author of that work out of credit and possibly payment.

USING YOUR OWN PHOTOS WITH GRAPHIC GENERATORS Creating a graphic from a graphic generator on the Web requires very little preparation. Once you are connected to the Web, go to one of the numerous free graphic generator Web sites available, choose a graphic, add text or one of your own photos, and click a button to create or generate a customized graphic. It is quite easy to generate a graphic using one of your own photos. Assuming that you have a digital camera and have synced or moved

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the photos to your computer, the next step is to have the photo on the computer desktop. Photoshop and iPhoto are two of the numerous photo software programs available. There are many other programs available, and some are free.

Adobe Photoshop Photoshop is commercial photo imaging software from Adobe. The software is powerful and used by both amateur and professional photographers. Go to the Adobe Web site at http://www.adobe.com for details and pricing.

iPhoto Apple iPhoto is part of the iLife suite of software programs that comes on Apple’s Mac computers. Go to apple.com for ordering information.

Picasa Picasa from Google is a free download that lets you organize, edit, and share your photos. It is available for both PCs and Macs. Go to Google.com for information on Picasa.

GIMP GIMP is an open-source image manipulation program. It works on different computer platforms. Download GIMP at www.gimp.org.

Preparing a Photo for a Graphic Generator 1. Connect your digital camera to your computer to sync photos to a software program such as iPhoto or Photoshop. 2. Open the software program and locate the photo that you want to use with a generator. 3. Select the photo and edit (lighten, brighten, sharpen, etc.). 4. Crop the photo if necessary. 5. Save all changes. 6. Export the photo, select JPEG as the format, and resize if necessary. 7. Save the photo to your computer desktop. Once the photo is on your desktop or in a file on your computer, you are ready to add it to a graphic generator.

THE BASIC STEPS FOR GENERATING A GRAPHIC Following are the basic steps to generating a graphic: 1. Connect to the Web. 2. Go to a graphic generator Web site. 3. Choose a graphic. 4. Add text if it is a graphic such as a sign, newspaper headline, or magazine title. • Change the font, font size, and color or any other choices available. 5. Add one of your own photos or other image if appropriate. • Browse your computer desktop. • Locate a photo or image. • Upload the photo to the graphic generator Web site. 6. Click on the button to create or generate a graphic. • If the directions indicate that you right-click to save the graphic, this will work with a PC mouse or a two-button Mac mouse. • If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, push the “control” or “ctrl” button and then click on the graphic. Select “Save Image As” and name the graphic, and it will save on the computer desktop. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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TAP YOUR CREATIVITY—GENERATE SOME GRAPHICS! The graphic generator we will use is called FD’s Flickr Toys. FD’s Flickr Toys is brought to you by Big Huge Labs and John Watson. This Web site has appropriate graphics for students and adults and a very nice variety of graphics from which to choose. Although the Web site is not endorsed or certified by Flickr, you can use your photos stored on Flickr to generate graphics. It is not necessary to use Flickr to use FD’s Flickr Toys. If digital photos are stored anywhere on your computer, you can use them with FD’s Flickr Toys and other graphic generators.

Generating a Graphic Using FD’s Flickr Toys 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Go to http://bighugelabs.com/. Select “Badge Maker.” Click on BROWSE to locate and upload a photo from your desktop. A window will pop up to let you browse your computer. Locate the photo and OPEN it. A URL will now appear in the BROWSE window. Fill in any information you would like on the badge. Examples: badge color, header, text. Click on CREATE. You have now generated a name badge graphic! Scroll down below your graphic and you have some choices: • • • • • •

Edit Badge—Go back and change anything on your name badge graphic. Start Over—Start over with a new name badge graphic. Save—Save the graphic to your computer desktop, so that it is ready to add to your Web site. Upload to Flickr—Upload the generated graphic to your Flickr account (if you have one). Share—Join Big Huge Labs as a member for some nice perks. E-mail—E-mail your image and a message to a friend.

Now try some of the other graphics on FD’s Flickr Toys. The graphic on page 155 shows a magazine cover graphic generated from the Web site. This type of graphic would add a customized, fun visual to a blog or other Web site. Remember to use the EDIT feature to make any changes to a generated graphic. It is easy to edit, and a generated graphic can be tweaked several times before the final graphic is created.

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FD’s Flickr Toys.

FD’s Flickr Toys—Graphics.

Badge Maker – Click Here.

The Web and Parents

Upload a Photo.

A Photo Was Selected.

Fill in Your Badge Information.

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Sample Name Badge.

Create Your Badge!

Choices.

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Graphic Generators

Badge.

Magazine Cover Graphic.

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SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND GRAPHIC GENERATORS Student-safe and school-safe graphic generators are available. The problem with many graphic generator Web sites and student use is that many of the Web sites have inappropriate graphics. Teachers and media specialists may find their own education-oriented graphic generator Web sites and stick with those, but if students use a search engine to look for graphic generators, they will come across some inappropriate materials. Students need appropriate graphics for reports, slide presentations, and other projects. Another problem with letting students use just any graphic generator Web site is that many have ads on the pages, and some may be inappropriate. There is also the problem of students going “off the grid.” If your child has a MySpace or Facebook page, graphics are most likely used on that page. People young and old like to adorn their social networking page with graphics because it customizes their page and represents things that they like and want to share with friends. It is better if educators locate graphic Web sites for the students to use and limit them to those Web sites. As with any Web tool, school administrators are concerned about students going to inappropriate Web sites. However, this doesn’t stop students from occasionally straying to Web sites that they should not be accessing in school. It’s impossible to keep students on task with appropriate Web sites 100 percent of the time, and parents should not be harsh with school staff members if this happens. Remember that school staff members work very hard to keep students in “safe” environments on the Web, but this also precludes students from accessing some great Web tools and Web sites. Schools block many Web sites to keep students on task and to avoid problems with accessing inappropriate sites. It’s unfortunate that schools feel the need to block so much on the Web because there is a wealth of good Web sites for student use. If students are given enough good, useful Web sites to access for schoolwork and the knowledge of how to discern if a site is good or bad (Who is responsible for the site? Is the author of the site a respected authority on the topic? etc.), they will have a variety of resources to use. This is where information and technology literacy come in to play. Your children should be learning about these skills from their classroom teachers and the school library media specialist. The research skills that students learn in school help them evaluate Web sites. School staff members spend time working on issues of blocking and unblocking Web sites. They tend to err on the side of more blocking, but if there is enough cause for a Web site to be unblocked, it can be done.

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If a school has a certified school-library media specialist and a technology coordinator, then it is highly likely that students have access to good Web sites and commercial databases to use as resources for schoolwork. Students are also learning good information and technology literacy skills, so that they learn how to research topics, learn how to discern good resources from bad and appropriate from inappropriate, and understand copyright issues. Again, if you have questions about electronic and print resources available to your child in school, contact the school library media specialist. If you have questions about Web sites that are blocked, contact the school to ask those questions.

CONCLUSION Graphic generators are Web sites that let users create a customized graphic using text and/or an image such as a photo. The generated graphic may then be placed on a blog, wiki, social networking page, or other Web site and adds a nice touch of customization. Numerous free graphic generators are available, but be aware that many may have images or ads on the Web site that are inappropriate for children. Find some graphic generator Web sites and then read the terms of service and try them out to see if they meet your needs.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS Q: Can people take photos off my Web site? A: Yes. Anyone can save an image or take a screen capture of a Web page or part of a Web page. Q: What is Snapfish? A: Snapfish is a photo storage Web site similar to Flickr. There are many photo storage Web sites available for free photo storage, and they all have similar features, but some may also offer a service or resource that differentiates them from other photo storage sites. Other examples of good photo storage Web sites are Shutterfly, Photobucket, and Zooomr. References Adobe PhotoShop. http://www.adobe.com. FD’s Flickr Toys. http://bighugelabs.com. Flickr. http://flickr.com. GIMP. http://www.gimp.org. iPhoto. http://apple.com. Photobucket. http://photobucket.com.

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Picasa. http://picasa.google.com/mac. Shutterfly. http://www.shutterfly.com. Snapfish. http://www.snapfish.com. Zooomr. http://www.zooomr.com.

Screenshot Permission John Watson. © 2009 BigHugeLabs.com. All rights reserved. This product uses the Flickr API but is not endorsed or certified by Flickr.

Chapter 11


When you think of Internet safety, you probably think of ways to keep your children safe from predators, bullies, and inappropriate Web sites. That is an essential part of Internet safety, and it involves discussion and using appropriate Web sites and commonsense. Several tips for helping to keep your children safe on the Internet are covered in this chapter. Digital citizenship and copyright are also addressed. Digital citizenship takes Internet safety further because it involves educating students on how to use technology productively, ethically, and legally in a global society. This is also an essential part of Internet safety in schools and is now included in nationwide K–12 technology standards. The virtual world has given us vast and wonderful resources at our fingertips but has also made it quite easy to use the work of others without attribution or permission. The ready availability of something on the Web does not mean that you can use it without permission. Copyright is the protection of intellectual property, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works unless it is in the public domain. In this chapter we will explore Internet safety, digital citizenship, and some basic copyright rules.

LEXICON FOR THIS CHAPTER An AUP is an acceptable use policy—a document signed by students in which they agree to follow the rules of using school technology. Copyright is a form of protection for original works of authorship both published and unpublished. 159

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Creative Commons is a tax-exempt charitable organization that provides licenses to protect your works from fully copyrighted to public domain. Digital citizenship is the consideration of ethical and legal issues related to using technology. Fair use is a copyright doctrine that allows users to reproduce the works of others without permission or payment under certain conditions. ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education. The NETS are the National Educational Technology Standards provided by ISTE. P911 and POS (parent over shoulder) are acronyms a young person may send in a text or instant message to indicate that a parent or guardian is watching. One of the numerous acronyms used in text messaging and instant messaging. Public domain works are authored works that are no longer protected by copyright because of age, year created, or other factors. The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the U.S. recording industry.

INTERNET SAFETY TIPS FOR HOME USE There are many practical steps that a parent can take to help protect children from some online dangers while at home. Of course discussion about Internet safety is essential. Even though the Internet is so important, essential, helpful, and fun, there are commonsense rules that parents should discuss with their children for safety reasons, including the following: • •

•

• • •

Never meet an online “friend” in a face-to-face situation. Do not share personal information online (blog, Facebook, MySpace, etc.), including the name of your school, city, or anything that would help someone locate you. This includes any graphics that would pinpoint where you live. Be aware that people are not always who they seem to be online. They could lie about their gender and age or about other personal information. Use commonsense when posting information on the Web. Any photos posted on Web sites may be viewed by or taken and used by anyone. Do not post suggestive photos. Copyright protects created works, and that includes anything on the Web.


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What Else Can Parents Do to Keep Kids Safe? Are your children spending hours of time on the computer? Have discussions about computer use and make sure that they spend time away from the computer in other situations. You want to make sure they are safe and that they are not communicating with strangers. Limit the amount of time your child may spend on the computer if it’s not school-related.

SAFETY TIPS FOR HOME USE • If your child is spending too much time on the computer, limit use time. Make sure they are safe and not communicating with strangers. • Does your child switch computer screens when you walk into the room? Be observant. They may be on an inappropriate Web site. • If your child has a MySpace or Facebook account, make sure that you have access to it and have discussions about online safety. • Create your own social networking page on MySpace or Facebook so that you know how it works (you will also find people you know and be able to invite them as friends to your social networking page). • If you have concerns about your child’s Internet use, search for your child’s name to see where it appears on the Web. • Choose child-friendly search engines. • Place the computer in the living room so that you can monitor use. • Your child should have signed an AUP—acceptable use policy—at school. Talk about what that means and make clear that rules also apply at home. • Do not forbid your child to use the Web—educate and discuss! From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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SAFETY TIPS FROM MYSPACE AND FACEBOOK Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook both offer Internet safety information and resources. It is not necessary to create an account on either social network in order to read and use the resources. MySpace safety tips (http://www.myspace.com) include the following: • • • • •

Safety tips for parents and educators Safety tips for teens Resources Safety videos Safety tips and settings

Facebook safety tips (http://www.facebook.com/safety) include the following: • • •

Information for parents Internet safety Web sites Safety FAQs for users and parents

IM—INSTANT MESSAGING Instant messaging and chatting online requires a program such as Skype or AIM. The chats happen in real time, when the participants are on their computers at the same time, and you can choose whom to include in the conversations. Whether children and teens are messaging their friends on the computer (IM) or on their cell phone (TM or text messaging), they have a specialized vocabulary of acronyms or codes used for communication. Some codes indicate that a parent is present. Many are just shortcuts for regularly used terms and phrases, and some others are acronyms for inappropriate language. NetLingo is an Internet dictionary with a large collection of definitions of terms used in the online world. Go to NetLingo and click on any letter to become familiar with acronyms used in IM and TM online. http://netlingo.com/.

INTERNET SAFETY RESOURCES Several programs on Internet safety are available for schools and home use to educate students, and parents play a very important role in promoting and enforcing Internet safety. Some programs involve game playing, and others are “trainer of trainers” programs. In addition to programs and Web sites, there are also local police and government programs that address Internet safety in schools and at home.

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NetLingo – Example of Acronym Used in IM.

iSafe One Internet safety program that is widely used in schools is provided by iSafe, a nonprofit foundation. The iSafe program provides K–12 curriculum and community outreach programs to teach Internet safety. Training is provided to students, educators, and parents so that they can, in turn, become iSafe trainers. http://isafe.org.

Web Wise Kids Web Wise Kids is a nonprofit organization that provides Internet safety games targeted at young people. The games teach young people about online predators, cell phone safety, social networking, fraud, identity theft, and other safety issues. Web Wise Kids also offers a family edition of one of its games for middle school children and a special online program for parents, Wired with Wisdom, that was sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Justice. Both the game and Wired with Wisdom will benefit any parent looking to enhance his or her knowledge of online safety issues. http://www.web wisekids.org.


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Web Wise Kids.

NetSmartz NetSmartz provides Internet safety information for parents and guardians, educators, teens, kids, and law enforcement officers. Free information is available on the site, including a Parent FAQ that includes information to use when discussing Internet safety with children and teens. NetSmartz is provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). http://www.netsmartz. org/index.aspx.

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NetSmartzKids NetSmartzKids is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) for children ages 5 to 17, parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet (from the NetSmartzKids About Us document). http://www.netsmartzkids.org/in dexFL.htm.

NSteens NSteens is a Web site from NetSmartz. The Web site uses comics and videos to cover Internet safety for teens. Teaching materials are also available on this Web site. http://www.nsteens.org.

CyberAngels CyberAngels is a resource from the Guardian Angels. Topics on the Web site include the Learning Center, Help for Parents, Cyber Security, School Programs, Teen Angels, and Just for Kids. A cyber safety guide and articles on Web-related topics are also available on the Web site. http://www. cyberangels.org.

NetLingo NetLingo is an online Internet dictionary. Look up Internet acronyms, text messaging shorthand, and other definitions. http://netlingo.com.

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cyber Division, Web site provides a Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety. http://www.fbi.gov/publications/ pguide/pguide.htm.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP Digital citizenship addresses the teaching of appropriate and ethical behavior on the Web and with technology. Students are taught digital citizenship in schools because it is part of information and technology literacy and national technology standards. Students need to learn at a young age about the appropriate and ethical uses of technology because it will affect them now and when they go to a job after high school graduation or into higher education. Some good Web sites to check out for information on


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digital citizenship, ethical uses in blogging and podcasting, and Creative Commons licenses follow: Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/ Digital Citizenship—Using Technology Appropriately http://digitalcitizenship.net/ EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/ Podcasting Legal Guide http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICIES (AUPS) Schools should have acceptable use policies (AUPs) in place for students. The AUP may even be part of the student handbook, and many aspects of digital citizenship might be covered in the student handbook. Some school districts have parents sign authorization forms that allow students to use the Internet in school, and other schools have release forms that parents sign, allowing the student’s picture to be used on a Web site, in a newsletter or other school publication, or on recordings of school programs shown on district TV.

The Nets The National Educational Technology Standards, or the NETS, as they are called, are provided by ISTE. The NETS help to measure proficiency and guide skills in the areas of technology for K–12 students. Standards are listed and followed by performance indicators that students should accomplish to meet each standard. Following are the standards: • • • • • •

Creativity and innovation Communication and collaboration Research and information fluency Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making Digital citizenship Technology operations and concepts

You can download the NETS from the ISTE Web site.

COPYRIGHT Copyright means that if you create a work, whether it is a book, article, song, video, or any other content, you own rights to that work as soon as

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it is created. You have choices as to how to protect your work further, and these include going through the Copyright Office to register your work or using one of the Creative Commons licenses to grant limited permission to others to use your work.

Creative Commons Creative Commons is a tax-exempt charitable organization that provides different licenses that authors can attach to their works. Creative Commons licenses grant permission to others to use those works. For example, if someone writes a song, makes it available on the Web, and will allow people to use the song on a blog if they don’t modify it, and if they give credit, they could attach a Creative Commons license of “Attribution—No Derivatives.” If an author wants to apply a Creative Commons license to a work published on the Web, he or she may go to the Web site and fill out the free form. Once the form is filled in, a license is suggested, and the html code is provided. The code can be pasted into the Web site and will appear as a button indicating “Some Rights Reserved” and a statement that the work is licensed under a Creative Commons license or “No Rights Reserved,” indicating that the work is in the public domain. The following chart indicates the Creative Commons licenses that are available to attach to authored works.

Creative Commons Licenses.

Each Creative Commons license indicates how it may be used and the conditions under which it may be used. The individual Creative Commons Licenses follow:


Attribution

Creative Commons Attribution License.

Attribution—No Derivatives

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License.

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Attribution—Noncommercial—No Derivatives

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

Attribution—Noncommercial

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License.


Attribution—Noncommercial—Share Alike

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License.

Attribution—Share Alike

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

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Fair Use The term “fair use” indicates that a work may be used without permission under certain guidelines. Fair use is a doctrine defined in Section 107 of the Copyright Act that pertains to the rights of a copyright owner to reproduce or authorize others to reproduce the work. For example, a teacher may assume fair use applies when making copies of someone’s work to give to students in the first semester. After the first semester, the teacher needs to get permission to copy, distribute, and post the information on Web sites. A request for permission to use information can be e-mailed to the author. Most Web pages have a “contact us” page. There are four rules that must be addressed to determine whether a work can be copied under this doctrine. According to the United States Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov), Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair: 1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; 2. the nature of the copyrighted work; 3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and 4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission. The four fair-use rules may seem ambiguous, and that is why they are easily open to interpretation. There are questions to consider when deciding whether something may fit into the fair use category. For example, if information is going to be reproduced for educational use, a teacher has a better chance to invoke fair use. If a student is using information from the Web for a class project, it is fair use, but if the student is posting the information on a Web site, he or she should get permission from the author. If only a small portion of a work is being used, it may fit under fair use.


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When it comes to class projects, fair use applies for most everything unless a student or teacher tries to sell it or put in on the Web. In other words, no distribution beyond the classroom is allowed under fair use. The Copyright Act gives some more advice regarding this doctrine: The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission. When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of “fair use” would clearly apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine if a certain use may be considered “fair” nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney. This advice is always the best road to follow. If you want to use any information from the Web, the best course of action is to contact the copyright owner for permission to use the work or part of the work. Find the contact information on the Web site. When in doubt always seek permission so that you know you are following the legal rules of copyright, digital citizenship, and role modeling.

Downloading Music If your child downloads music from the Web, be sure that he or she is using legal download sites because if files are downloaded illegally, you, the parent, can be fined. And if music is downloaded from certain illegal file-sharing sites, the RIAA will send the user to a Web site where a fine can be paid immediately using a credit card. Avoid legal problems, be a good example, and do the right thing by always using legal music download sites. By downloading music illegally, you are not only breaking the law but also taking money away from the artist and anyone else who contributed to the production of the music. The RIAA Web site lists legal music download sites under the heading “Tools for Parents” and has other useful information for parents and educators including a downloadable guide about digital music and downloading. Check it out and discuss downloading music with your kids. Help your kids be good digital citizens by being a good role model.

CONCLUSION Internet safety is not only about commonsense rules for children and young people to follow regarding technology; it also includes digital citizenship and

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copyright. Parents should have conversations with their children about staying safe when using a computer to connect to the Web. Basically, no personal information should be given out or placed on a social networking page. Anything that locates the child geographically or by name should not be used. Parents need to do more than have conversations with their children about safety issues. They should also be aware of what their children are working on when using a computer and have the computer placed in an open family area such as the living room. Computer use should also be limited to a certain amount of time. Digital citizenship is now part of national technology standards for K–12 students. This means that students are learning not only about safety issues but also about how to use technology to be good citizens and to prepare them for life after graduation. Copyright is a huge issue and part of the ethical use education that K–12 students are learning in school. Because information is so readily available on the Web, it’s easy to assume that it’s free for the taking. That is certainly not the case, and children (and adults) should always ask permission of the author or artist before using any content from the Web. The Web’s ease of use and abundance of information has ramped up the teaching of Internet safety, digital citizenship, and copyright and made these issues all the more important in K–12 schools.

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY Q: Are my kids learning about Internet safety in school? A: K–12 students should be learning about Internet safety and digital citizenship based on the NETS. To find out if your child’s school has any specific/commercial programs in place, contact the technology director. Q: My child says that you can block people in AIM. Is that true? A: Yes, using the AIM® PRO privacy settings, you can block IMs from specific users or allow IMs from specific users. Read the AIM FAQs for more information. Q: Is it legal for my kids to download music from the Web? A: Only if they are using legitimate, legal sites such as iTunes, Napster, Best Buy, or Tower Records, to name some examples. Go to the RIAA Web site for a list of legal online music resources. References AOL Instant Messenger. http://dashboard.aim.com/aim. Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org.


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CyberAngels. http://www.cyberangels.org. Digital Citizenship. http://digitalcitizenship.net. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Legal Guide for Bloggers. http://w2.eff.org/blog gers/lg. Facebook. http://www.facebook.com. Federal Bureau of Investigation. A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety. http://www. fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm. Garlick, Mia, and Colette Vogele. Podcasting Legal Guide. Creative Commons. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). http://www.iste.org. iSafe. http://isafe.org. MySpace. http://www.myspace.com. National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). http://www.iste.org/AM/ Template.cfm?Section=NETS. NetLingo. http://netlingo.com. NetSmartz. http://www.netsmartz.org/index.aspx. NetSmartzKids. http://www.netsmartzkids.org/indexFL.htm. NSteens. http://www.nsteens.org. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). http://www.riaa.com. Skype. http://www.skype.com. SpaceBook. http://www.myspace.com. United States Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov. Web Wise Kids. http://webwisekids.org.

Screenshot Permissions Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. http://creativecommons.org. NetLingo. Reproduced by permission. © 1994–2008. NetLingo™ The Internet Dictionary at http://www.netlingo.com.

Web Wise Kids is a nonprofit organization based in Southern California. http://webwisekids.org.


Chapter 12

Conclusion

The Web contains a wealth of information available for research, for fun, and for reference. It also has tools available that make it easy to collaborate, communicate, self-publish, share information, express thoughts, receive information, and search for information quite easily. These tools usually come in free versions but are also offered as premium versions that have a cost attached. Some people upgrade to premium versions of tools for additional features or storage space, but the free versions are fine for most needs. With so many tools for communication and self-publishing available on the Web, anyone with Web access can participate and have a virtual presence. The user-generated content (UGC) may be expressed on a blog, wiki, or Web site or in a podcast. It may also be expressed through the publishing and sharing of photos on photo storage Web sites, via music clips, or in a customized graphic created using a graphic generator. The Web also provides numerous venues for information seeking. Blog directories help locate blogs on a particular subject, and search engines can focus on subjects from general to specific. Search engines make information-seeking easier, especially if you learn about different types of search engines, their features, their focus, and how results are displayed. Search engines can, of course, be utilized more fully if advanced features are used to help focus the search. Also, search engines are available that display results in ways other than basic short citations. For those who prefer more visual representations, a search engine with results displayed as graphs or images may be very desirable.

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Once favorite blogs, wikis, Web sites, and podcasts are located, feeds can be sent to newsreaders whenever new information is added or up dated. This is accomplished simply by subscribing to Web site feeds using RSS. Set up an account for a free newsreader, and start subscribing to information on the Web. Then, whenever information is added or updated, the feed goes directly to the newsreader. The Web provides great opportunities for students to learn and conduct research. Students are learning not just how to use these tools but also how to use them to accomplish classwork. Going beyond classwork, students are also learning to use these tools appropriately and ethically, not only for use in school but also for life after graduation. When it comes to Web tools, schools, and students, there are concerns and issues that are always addressed. School personnel work hard to protect children from inappropriate Web sites, ads, and information available in the virtual world. Internet safety and digital citizenship education is essential. Teaching students the proper and ethical uses of technology prepares them for life after graduation whether they go straight into a job or into higher education. These areas involve teaching students about the proper use of Web resources, search methods, appropriate tools such as commercial databases, and information and technology literacy. Teachers are using the Web to work with their students. Course management systems such as Moodle allow students to use Web tools in a safer environment where it is necessary to login to access tools. Using software such as Moodle creates an environment in which the teacher can post assignments, quizzes, tests, reading lists, bibliographies, and other documentation for student access. Blogs, wikis, forums, and chats can be used in the course-management software so that students do not have access to inappropriate materials on the Web. Parents should contact their child’s school for information on how students are using Web resources for classwork, including individual and collaborative projects and assignments. The principal and technology director can be contacted for questions on technologies used and Internet safety education. The media specialist teaches students information literacy and, most likely, works with several technologies. Students may very well be conducting their research in the media center, and the media specialist is the expert on finding information and teaching those skills to students. Because children are digital natives, they adapt well to learning how to use technologies and technology resources. Parents may feel that their children are way beyond them when it comes to technology skills, and that may very well be true. But parents can learn how to use these tools too. It is wise for parents to become familiar with Web tools so that they

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know how they work, why they are used, and how to use them for their own personal and business needs. Reading about Web tools is one thing, but actually creating a blog, wiki, Web site, or podcast is better. It’s wise to gain the experience and knowledge of creating with these tools, not only to keep up with what your children are doing but also for communication, collaboration, and self-expression. Creating a social network not only will be easy but may just turn out to be a convenient and fun way to communicate with friends and family too. The Web has given us a tremendous wealth of resources and tools. Children and young adults are learning about and using these tools in school for classwork. They are also using these tools outside of school to express themselves, share information, and communicate with friends. Learn about these tools and jump into using them for work and personal uses. They afford wonderful opportunities for communication, information-sharing, collaboration, and self-expression. Go for it and become Web-savvy!


WORKSHOP OUTLINE

BLOGS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on blogging to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 2 hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 30–40 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define blogs and blogging. a. Blogs are online journals. b. A blog usually has one owner who writes posts. c. Readers may leave comments pertaining to posts. d. A blogger may write posts at any time—there is no set schedule. Posts can be published daily, weekly, or randomly. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Do you already have a blog? ii. Do you read blogs? From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? iv. How would you use a blog? 3. Demonstration of blogs as examples. Choose some blogs to present to the attendees, and point out features such as posts, comments, RSS, categories, themes, About sections, and sidebars. 4. Discussion of Web hosts for blogs. a. School use—K–12 students may have blogs on Moodle, Edublogs, Class Blogmeister, or other appropriate student hosts so that they will not encounter inappropriate content. b. Personal use—numerous free blog hosts are available, such as WordPress, Blogger, and LiveJournal. Discuss free and premium accounts. Instructions for creating a blog with WordPress follow (or choose your own preference for a blog site). 5. Creating a blog using WordPress: a. Go to http://wordpress.com and click on SIGN UP NOW. (One of the great perks about using Wordpress. com is that once you create an account, you can create several blogs. And one login will take you to all of your blogs.) b. Choose a username. This is the name to use to log in to WordPress.com. It has to be at least 4 characters long. You may want to see if your first initial and last name or a variation is available. Have a second and third choice ready in case the first choice is taken. c. Enter a password and reenter it in the next box to confirm. d. Enter your e-mail address. It is important that it is correct. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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e. Under LEGAL FLOTSAM be sure to read the Terms of Agreement, and then click the box to indicate that you will abide by the terms. f. If you are ready to create your blog, select GIMME A BLOG! g. If you just want the account for now, click on JUST A USER. h. Click NEXT. i. Choose a DOMAIN NAME. Make the domain name the same as the blog name; it will be easier to remember. j. Choose a BLOG TITLE. k. Choose the language for the blog. l. Keep the PRIVACY box checked if you would like people to be able to find your blog by searching the Web. This is desirable. m. Click on SIGNUP. n. The next Account screen indicates that you need to check your e-mail to complete the procedure. 6. Select a theme for the blog. WordPress.com offers a generous selection of free themes represented as thumbnails from which to choose. The steps for choosing a theme are as follows: a. Log in to your WordPress.com account, and you will be at the DASHBOARD. This is where you control all of the features of the blog. b. Click on APPEARANCE. A screen titled MANAGE THEMES will appear. c. Scroll down to AVAILABLE THEMES. Try them out by clicking on either the thumbnail or the name of the theme. When you click on a theme, a screen will From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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appear, showing what the blog would look like using that theme. d. To look at other samples, click on the X in the upper left corner. e. When you find a theme you want to use for your blog, click on ACTIVATE in the upper right corner. f. Then click on VISIT SITE, the button next to the name of the blog, to see how it will look. 7. Adding text to a post. a. Go to the DASHBOARD and scroll down to POSTS. b. Select ADD NEW. c. A page titled ADD NEW POST will appear. d. The title box appears under ADD NEW POST. Enter a title for the post. e. Tab down to the text box and enter the text. A post can be any length. f. Click on the PUBLISH button on the right-hand side of the page. g. A page titled EDIT POST will appear. h. Edit your post or go to VISIT SITE to view the post on your blog. 8. Adding a photo or graphic to a post. a. Go to the DASHBOARD and scroll down to POSTS. b. Select ADD NEW. c. A page titled ADD NEW POST will appear. d. The title box appears under ADD NEW POST. Enter a title for the post. e. Tab to the text box. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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f. Click on the ADD AN IMAGE icon next to UPLOAD/ INSERT (between the title box and the text box). g. A screen titled ADD MEDIA FILES FROM YOUR COMPUTER will appear. h. Click on SELECT FILES. i. Browse your computer image files and select a photo to upload. j. Scroll down and click on INSERT INTO POST. k. PUBLISH the post. l. Click on VISIT SITE to view the photo on your blog. 9. Adding a Web site link to a post. a. Go to the DASHBOARD and click on ADD NEW under POSTS. b. Add a title to the post. c. Tab to the text box. d. Enter your post text. If you want to make a link to a Web site referenced in the post, follow these directions: Highlight the name of the Web site referenced in the post. i. Click on the LINK icon from the toolbar (looks like a chain link). ii. The INSERT/EDIT link box appears. iii. Enter the full Web address in the LINK URL box. iv. Click on INSERT. v. Click on UPDATE POST on the right-hand side of the page. vi. Click on VISIT SITE to view the post. vii. Click on the link to go to the reference Web site. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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10. Adding categories. Once a list of categories is created, you can apply them to new posts simply by selecting them from the list on the right-hand side of the screen. Here are the steps for adding a category: a. Click on ADD NEW CATEGORY. b. Enter a category. c. Click on ADD. d. Click on UPDATE POST. e. Click on VISIT SITE to see that the category shows up with the post. If a category or categories for an entry are not selected, it will be assigned to “Uncategorized,” and that description will show up on the entry. Remember that it is much more helpful to blog readers if you assign categories. Don’t be afraid to use several for each entry. 11. Discuss other features of WordPress. a. ABOUT. b. MANAGE (posts, categories, links, pages, etc.). c. USER ROLES if time allows. 12. Internet safety issues in the home. i. Do not give out personal information. ii. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. iii. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 13. Summarize the blog chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on blogs to add more information to the outline.]] From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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SOCIAL NETWORKS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on social networking to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately two hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 30–45 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define social networking. a. Connect with friends and colleagues. b. Share information, photos, and videos. c. Make your social networking pages private or public. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Do you already have a social networking page? ii. What have you heard about social networking? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? iv. How would you use a social network? From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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3. Demonstration of social networks. Use screenshots or tutorials from social networks or your personal or association social networking page in demonstration. 4. Discussion of social networks. a. School use—K–12 students are, most likely, not using social networks as part of their classwork. They are, however, using them outside of school. b. Personal use—free social networks are available for personal or work use. Some social networks are MySpace, Ning, and Facebook (choose your own preference for a social network). 5. Creating a social network using Ning: a. Go to http://www.ning.com. b. Click on SIGN UP. c. Fill in your account information and click on SIGN UP. d. A box will pop up. Either fill in the information (country, gender, and “about me”) and upload a photo, or click on SKIP and fill in the information at a later time. e. On this page you can update your status, invite friends to your network, create a new social network, or choose another feature. f. Click on CREATE YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK in the box next to the photo box. g. In the pop-up box, NAME YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK and PICK A WEB ADDRESS. Once the information is entered, click on LAUNCH. h. Don’t forget to write down the name of your social network and the Web address or to take a screenshot of the page. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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To take a screenshot of a Web page on a Mac: 1. Go to the Web page. 2. Open the Grab software application that came with the Mac. The icon looks like a piece of paper with scissors on top. 3. Click on the drop-down menu titled CAPTURE and choose SELECTION. 4. Drag the arrow over the page you wish to select. 5. When the saved page appears, save it to your computer for insertion into a program like Word or Paint. To take a screenshot of a Web page on a PC: 1. Go to the Web page. 2. Click on the PRINT SCREEN button at the top of the keyboard. 3. The screenshot is now ready to insert into a Word, Paint, or other file. i. The next page is the social network just created. j. At this point you may invite friends, add content, upload photos and videos, and customize the appearance. k. Click on CUSTOMIZE APPEARANCE to give the social network your own look. l. Choose a THEME out of the many choices available for your social network. m. Scroll down the page and choose colors, text, badges, and other features for your social network. Click on SAVE when finished. n. The next page will indicate that the changes have been successfully saved. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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o. Click on PREVIEW if you are still deciding on a theme. If you are ready to move on, click on MAIN. p. Click on MANAGE to access all resources and features for your Ning social network. q. Under YOUR NETWORK click on FEATURES. If you want to add any features, just drag them to the layout template. Click on SAVE. r. Click on MAIN to view the added features and to view the current look of your social network. s. Discuss other features of Ning as time allows. 6. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 7. Summarize the social network chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on social networks to add more information to the outline.]]


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WIKIS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on wikis to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 45–60 minutes blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 20–30 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define wikis. a. Wikis are online tools used for collaboration. b. Wikis allow two or more people to add and edit content. c. Graphics and Web site links can be added to a wiki. d. Wiki content can be accessed by the collaborators at their convenience. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Have you used a wiki? ii. Have you used Wikipedia? From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? iv. How would you use a wiki? 3. Demonstration of wikis as examples. Choose some wikis to present to the attendees and point out features such as editing, fonts, Web site links, pages, and themes. a. Demonstrate and discuss Wikipedia. i. Wikipedia is the world’s largest wiki. ii. Wikipedia works like all wikis in that anyone (with a registered account) may add, edit, and delete content. iii. Discuss issues regarding Wikipedia—only registered users may edit content, vandals, content accuracy in comparison with commercial resources, etc. 4. Discussion about wikis. a. School use—K–12 students may use the wiki features in Moodle or a wiki host such as PBworks that provides wikis for educators. b. Personal use—numerous free wiki hosts are available, such as PBworks, Wikispaces, and MediaWiki (or choose your own preference for a wiki site). 5. Creating a wiki using PBworks. a. Go to the PBworks Web site at http://pbworks.com. b. Click on TRY IT NOW. c. Choose a plan (the basic account is free). d. Click on SELECT under BASIC. You can upgrade at any time. e. Create your wiki. You can make the name of the wiki the first part of the wiki Web address. For example, if From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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the name of the wiki is “ABCD,” then you would type “abcd” in the Web address box. • The name of the wiki should be something that identifies the topic but isn’t too long. Give it a name that people will remember. Don’t make it complicated. • If the name chosen is taken or if there are prohibited characters, a message indicating the problem will appear. Try something else and be sure to write it down! f. Finish creating your account by filling in your name, e-mail address, and a password. Click on NEXT. g. A message will indicate that you should check your e-mail for a verification link to finish creating your account. h. Go to your e-mail and check for the message. If the e-mail has arrived, click on the link. i. Choose the SECURITY SETTINGS. Select who may view the workspace: • Anyone • Only people I invite or approve j. Then agree to the TERMS OF SERVICE by clicking in the box. k. Click on TAKE ME TO MY WORKSPACE. l. Now you will see the FrontPage of your wiki. 6. To invite people to collaborate on the wiki set permission levels. a. Click on USER SETTINGS in the bottom right corner of the page. b. Under MANAGE USERS you can ADD A USER and assign a PERMISSION LEVEL. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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c. When you add a person’s e-mail address, he or she will be asked to create a personal account. After the person creates an account, he or she can access your wiki. (Notice that a permission level may be assigned for each person added.) 7. Colors and Logo. In PBworks the color scheme of the wiki may be changed. A selection of colors is available. To change the color, or to add a logo in PBworks: a. Go to SETTINGS and click on COLORS to add color to a wiki. Adding custom colors is available in premium accounts. Choose a color scheme and click on SAVE COLOR SCHEME. b. Go to SETTINGS and click on LOGO under BASIC SETTINGS to upload a logo or graphic to the wiki. This is a premium account feature. c. Click on SAVE COLOR SCHEME. The new color scheme is now displayed. 8. Public/Private. When a wiki is set up, it can be made public or private. If you originally chose to make it public and now want to make it private, change the setting: a. Go to SETTINGS. b. Under ACCESS CONTROLS click on WORKSPACE SECURITY. c. Who can view this workspace? d. Choose “Anyone” to open the wiki to the public. This means anyone can view the wiki. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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e. Choose “Only people I invite or approve” to keep the wiki private. This means that only invited wiki members can view the wiki. f. Click on SAVE. 9. Discuss other features of wikis if time allows. 10. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 11. Summarize the wiki chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on wikis to add more information to the outline.]]


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SEARCH ENGINES The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on search engines to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately two hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need less time, maybe 30–40 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. This workshop topic could also be combined with other Web tool training to make a longer workshop. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define search engines. a. Keyword searching to focus your search. b. How Web sites such as Google and Yahoo! work. c. An introduction to the numerous search engines available. d. Advanced searching in some search engines. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. What search engine do you use to find information? From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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ii. What search engines have you tried? iii. What kind of information have you searched for in a search engine? 3. Demonstration of search engines as examples. Choose some search engines to present to the attendees and point out features such as advanced searching, results-view choices, information presented in the results, information about the source, and so on. Some examples follow but can be replaced or supplemented with other search engines.

RedZ Redz (http://www.redz.com) is a great search engine that displays results in a visual manner by displaying small images of Web sites. Use the cursor to scroll through the Web sites in the results, and click on an image to go to that particular site. The speed at which you can scroll through the images is amazing.

Wolfram|Alpha Wolfram|Alpha is a computational knowledge engine (http:// www.wolframalpha.com/). Adults and children will find this search engine not only useful but a lot of fun. Enter a word, phrase, date or formula and Wolfram|Alpha will compute results for you. Enter the date and year of you birth and the results will include the time difference from today in years, months and days, notable events from that date and other information. Enter a food type and the nutritional information is displayed. Source information can be accessed at the bottom of the screen.

Grokker Search results from Grokker by Groxis Inc. (http://www.grok ker.com) are presented in a visual manner. The free version of Grokker searches three sources: Yahoo!, Wikipedia, and Amazon. Enter a search query, select sources, and begin the search by clicking on the GROK button. The results can be displayed in OUTLINE VIEW or MAP VIEW. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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AskforKids This search engine from Ask.com (http://www.askkids.com) is focused on learning for children from ages 6 to 12. AskForKids has a PARENTS button for information about the site. This page offers some interesting information on this child-oriented site. For example, the linked pages are selected by editors and are considered child-appropriate or relevant and practical for a child’s learning.

AllTheLyrics Allthelyrics.com (http://www.allthelyrics.com) is one example of the many free song-lyric sites available on the Web. Click on a letter to search for a singer or band. Then click on the title of a song to retrieve the lyrics. The option to choose a non-English version of the site is available.

Google News This news archive search engine from Google (http://news. google.com/archivesearch) is excellent for creating historical timelines of news events.

NationMaster Looking for information about various countries? Statistics, maps, and flags can be found on NationMaster (http://www. nationmaster.com/index.php). The Web site has compiled statistics from sources including the CIA Factbook and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

TextRunner The Turing Center KnowItAll Project from the University of Washington offers this very interesting search engine. TextRunner (http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/textrun ner) actually searches the Web for assertions—or statements presented as facts—on a topic. Enter a query or click on one From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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of the examples to see how the results are displayed. This search engine offers a unique way to present search results in that it doesn’t look like a typical page of results. Instead the results will list the keywords from your search as they relate to your search topic. Click on the number indicated in the result, and a synopsis describing the topic will appear. Click on a synopsis, and it takes you to a Web site with more information.

Factbites Factbites (http://www.factbites.com) is a search engine from the same people who created NationMaster. When searching a topic on this site, users will see that the results include meaningful sentences that describe the content. Search engines often give results that show partial text highlighting your topic. Factbites results try to be more helpful by extracting meaningful sentences from the search results. It is another way of looking at search results and one that you may wish to explore.

Quintura Kids Quintura Kids (http://quinturakids.com) is a search Web site with a graphic-friendly interface. Topics are searched using either the search box or the subject cloud. Place the cursor on a general subject, and related subtopics pop up. For example, place the cursor on “School Bell,” and topics like the following will pop up: math, social studies, language arts, history, and music education.

KidsClick! KidsClick web search for kids by librarians (http://www.kids click.org/) is owned and run by the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San Jose State University. The site offers a variety of methods to locate information. The first is a search box for entering a subject. Next to that box is the option From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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to perform an advanced search. The advanced search page allows for selecting the reading level of the search results. The next search option is to click on a letter to locate information on a subject. Yet another search option is to click on a subject under a broad category. Click on “What does this page look like through a Librarian’s Eyes?” and Dewey Decimal Classifications are listed. Additional search tools are also included on the site. 4. Discussion of search engines. a. School use—K–12 students have commercial databases available for research. Check with the school media specialist to see what resources students are using for research and what is included in information literacy instruction. If search engines are allowed for research, students should be learning proper search techniques to focus searches. b. Personal use—numerous search engines are available for research and general information-seeking. General search engines are widely used, but search engines that focus on certain topics or offer optional results viewing should also be explored (discuss the search engines demonstrated previously or include others). 5. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 6. Summarize the search engine chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on search engines to add more information to the outline.]] From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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PODCASTS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on podcasting to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 1.5 to 2 hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 20–30 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define podcasts and podcasting. a. Podcasts are audio files that can be listened to on a computer, iPod, or MP3 player. b. A podcast can be recorded on a computer using a built-in microphone or external microphone. c. Podcasts are available on the Web and can be found through search engines or podcast directories. d. A podcast can be created and placed on a blog, wiki, or Web site. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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i. Have you ever heard a podcast? ii. Why would you create a podcast? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? 3. Demonstration of podcasts as examples. Choose some podcasts to present to the attendees. 4. Discussion of resources for podcasting. a. School use—K–12 students are creating podcasts for classwork. Students can use their creativity to create interesting podcasts. They may interview teachers, other students, or family members; record stories or poems; create news announcements; or use podcasting for a variety of other uses. b. Personal use—podcasting is free. If you own a computer with a built-in microphone, you need only to download the free software Audacity to start podcasting. (Have attendees download LAME, which is available on the Audacity download Web site. LAME is an MP3 encoder. Audacity does not create MP3 files.) Once you have created your audio file, you can store it on a free podcast host on the Web. 5. Downloading Audacity. The first step is to download Audacity onto your computer desktop. To download Audacity, go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download. Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the choices in Audacity. It’s not necessary to know everything right up front, but you do need to know the basics. Once you have learned the basics of podcasting, go back and learn even more Audacity features. Excellent documentation on Audacity is available to help you use From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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all of the features. The documentation is available here: http:// audacity.sourceforge.net/help. 6. Downloading LAME. To convert an Audacity audio file to an MP3 format, you need an encoder—software that will change one audio format into an MP3 format. Podcasts submitted to iTunes must be MP3-formatted files. MP3 files are compressed and much smaller that WAV or uncompressed files. LAME is an encoder that works with Audacity, and it is mentioned in the Audacity documentation. Download Audacity and LAME at the same time. LAME downloads as a zip file, which means you need to “unzip” it by double clicking the icon. LAME can sit anywhere on the computer. Remember where it is located because the first time you export a file as an MP3 on Audacity, a message pops up asking you to locate this encoder. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download. Windows

a. Download LAME, unzip it, and save the file lame_enc. dll anywhere on your computer. b. The first time you use the “Export as MP3” command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved. Mac OS 9 or X

a. Download the version of LameLib for your operating system. b. When downloading is complete, use Stuffit Expander to extract the files. (This may happen automatically.) c. Save the file anywhere on your computer. d. The first time you use the “Export as MP3” command, Audacity will ask you where the Lame Library is saved. e. Then upload your MP3 files to a podcast host site. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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7. Audacity Tools and Buttons. The Audacity TOOLBAR contains the Editing Tools and the Audio Control Buttons. These are the tools and buttons you will use to create an audio file.

Editing Tools The EDITING TOOLS will allow you to tweak your audio. You can delete certain parts or change the volume of a music track that you have added. The EDITING TOOLS that you will use the most are the selection tool, the envelope tool, and the time-shift tool. These three tools can do much to enhance a podcast.

Audio Control Buttons The Audacity AUDIO CONTROL buttons resemble the buttons on a CD player. They are used to record and play back your audio files.

Mixer Toolbar The input/output sliders are located on the mixer toolbar. If your recorded audio has distortion in the sound, use the sliders to control it. The source from which you record is chosen from the input selector. 8. Podcast Checklist. a. Download Audacity and LAME. b. Write notes or script. c. Set preferences for the microphone. d. Plug in the microphone. e. Test the microphone. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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9. Recording a Podcast. a. Open Audacity. b. Click on the RED record button and wait a few seconds to speak. c. When you are finished, wait a moment and then click on the YELLOW stop button. d. Click on the PURPLE LEFT ARROW button to rewind the audio file. e. Click on the GREEN ARROW to play back the recording. f. Click on the FILE drop-down menu in Audacity and select EXPORT AS MP3. • If you plan to edit the file later, you can save it as an AUP file on your desktop, add a soundtrack later, and then export it as an MP3 file. g. Name the file in the pop-up box and save it to the desktop or someplace else on the computer where it can be easily located. Now you have an audio file saved on the computer. Now what? At this point a music or sound effect could be added. See the section on Adding a Music Clip or Sound Effect to an Audacity Audio File. Store the audio file online and publish it so that others can hear it. There are numerous podcast host sites available for free use on the Web, but the one we will use is called Podomatic (or choose another host). 10. Setting up a Podomatic account. a. Go to http://www.podomatic.com/featured. b. Click on SIGN UP. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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c. Create a free account: name, email, gender, date of birth, PodOmatic address (which is also your username). d. Read the Terms of Service and click on SIGN UP. e. Add a photo or skip for now. 11. Uploading an audio file to Podomatic. a. Click on the MY PODCAST tab. b. Click on POST NEW EPISODE. c. Write a description for your podcast or skip and click SAVE & CONTINUE. d. Upload an audio or video clip by clicking UPLOAD A FILE. (This will probably take a few minutes.) e. Select a photo for this episode, or skip and click DON’ T CHANGE MY PHOTO SELECTION. f. Add tags (keywords for phrases that pertain to the podcast) or skip and click SAVE & CONTINUE. g. Review the information and publish your episode by clicking SAVE & CONTINUE (it may take a few minutes to process.) h. To promote your new episode, you have a number of options: • E-mail contacts in your address book. • Update your status on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. • Post to Facebook, MySpace or your favorite social network. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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• Post to Delicious, Digg or your favorite bookmarking site. • Embed a player in your Web page. 12. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 13. Summarize the podcasting chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on podcasting to add more information to the outline.]]


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RSS—REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on RSS to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 30–45 minutes blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 15 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. This workshop topic can be combined with other Web tool topics. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define RSS, feeds, and newsreaders. a. RSS is a tool for subscribing to Web sites in order to receive new information. b. Feeds are pieces of information sent from the subscribed Web sites. c. A newsreader is needed to receive RSS feeds. Free newsreaders are available. d. Subscribing to Web sites using RSS saves time and gets new information to you as soon as a Web site is updated. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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i. Do you visit specific Web sites regularly? ii. Do you bookmark Web sites? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? 3. Demonstration of RSS as examples. Choose some blogs and Web sites to present to the attendees, and point out the RSS icons. a. Go to http://nyt.com and click on the RSS symbol. b. The next page will show that you can subscribe to different sections of the NYT. 4. Subscribe to Web sites using RSS. Using RSS really does save time. For those who visit Web sites regularly, subscribing to those sites via RSS saves the time it would take to visit all of those sites individually using bookmarking. Also, if sites are bookmarked so that they can be checked regularly for new information, then subscribing to those sites via RSS will eliminate that procedure completely. Download a reader to your computer, or open an account with a Web-based newsreader. For example, follow these instructions to set up a Bloglines account and add feeds: a. Create an account at http://bloglines.com. b. Watch your e-mail for a link to activate your account. c. Once your account is activated, log in to your Bloglines account. d. Then go to a Web site and look for the RSS feed icon (the icon is usually orange and has RSS or “waves” on it). Click on the icon. e. You should be directed to a page with information about the Web site. Click on the SUBSCRIBE NOW button. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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f. The Bloglines AVAILABLE FEEDS page will appear. Scroll down and click on SUBSCRIBE. g. The Bloglines feeds will now include the Web site just added. A feed has now been added to the Bloglines newsreader! Now go to other sites and repeat the procedure. Look at the feeds to see if any new information is available; the name of the feed will be bold and have a small number next to it. The number indicates how many new posts or articles are unread. Now, instead of scanning Web sites that are bookmarked and available in a drop-down menu, you have a visual that indicates when there is new information to read. It may seem labor-intensive at first because the Web sites must be visited to add the RSS feed, but once that is over, the newsreader is ready and established to accept more feeds. 5. Discuss other features of RSS. a. Deleting feeds. b. Keeping feeds “as new.” c. Feed options. 6. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 7. Summarize the RSS chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on RSS to add more information to the outline.]]


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WEB SITES The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on Web sites to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 1.5–2 hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 20–30 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. a. You can have a personal Web site. b. Photos and graphics can be added to a Web site. c. Custom buttons can be added to a Web site. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Do you already have a Web site? ii. If so, what Web site host do you use? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? iv. How would you use a Web site? 3. Demonstration of Web sites as examples. Choose some Web sites to present to the attendees, and point From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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out features such as RSS, graphics, photos, banner, sidebar, blogroll, and so on. 4. Discussion of Web hosts for Web sites. a. School use—K–12 teachers may have Web sites for students, staff, and parents. They may also be using Moodle so that students can use Web tools in a “safer” environment. b. Personal use—numerous free Web site hosts are available, such as Weebly, Webs, and Bravenet. Discuss free and premium accounts. Instructions for creating a Web site with Weebly follow (or choose your own preference for a Web site). 5. Create a Web site with Weebly. a. Go to http://weebly.com. b. Sign up for a Weebly account (and don’t forget to check the box to accept the Terms of Service). c. Click on CREATE A SITE. 6. Click on DESIGNS. a. You have several choices of themes. Place your cursor on a theme, and you will see a sample. b. Click the right arrow to see more themes. c. When you find one you like, click on it to select that theme. i. If the theme has the option to add a customized header, it will be indicated. ii. The dimensions are indicated in HEADER OPTIONS. To upload a new header, find one with the dimensions required to fill that space. 7. Discuss other features of Weebly. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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a. Elements. b. Pages. 8. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 9. Summarize the Web site chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on Web sites to add more information to the outline.]]


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FORUMS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on forums to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 15–20 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define forums. a. Forums allow for two-way discussion. b. Threads or topics are created by forum participants. c. A link to a forum can be added to a Web site or blog. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Do you already have a forum? ii. Do you participate in forums? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? iv. How would you use a forum? From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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3. Demonstration of forums as examples. Choose a forum to present to the attendees, and point out features such as questions, answers, and threads. 4. Discussion of Web hosts for forums. a. School use—K–12 students can participate in forums using Moodle. b. Personal use—numerous free forum hosts are available, such as ProBoards, FreeForumsHost, and Free-Forums. Instructions for creating a forum with ProBoards follow (choose your own preference for a forum site). 5. Creating a forum using ProBoards. a. Go to http://proboards.com and click on SIGN UP! b. Fill out the Join Form—user name, password, e-mail, category. Enter the security numbers/words and click on the Terms of Service box. Click on the SIGN UP button. c. The next message concerns accessing your forum— user name, password, and URL. d. Click on the forum URL, and the forum appears. e. Log in to the forum using the user name “admin” and your password. f. Enter your birthday and click on SUBMIT INFORMATION. g. Select your gender and click on SUBMIT INFORMATION. h. Select a forum category and click on SAVE FORUM CATEGORY. i. Click on GENERAL BOARD. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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j. Click on NEW THREAD to start a discussion topic in your forum. k. Enter a title and a question or comment and click on POST MESSAGE. 6. Discuss other features of forums. a. Search. b. Views. c. Replies. 7. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 8. Summarize the forums chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on forums to add more information to the outline.]]


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PHOTO MANAGEMENT The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on photo management to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers and digital camera, you will want approximately 1.5 to 2 hours blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstration-only, you will need much less time, maybe 30 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define photo management Web sites. a. Upload and store photos on the Web. b. Share your photos with others. c. Organize photos into albums and slideshows. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Do you take digital photos? ii. Have you uploaded photos to your computer? iii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? 3. Demonstration of photo management Web sites as examples. Choose a photo management site to present From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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to the attendees, and point out features such as uploading photos, organizing photos, and sharing photos. 4. Discussion of photo management Web sites. a. School use—K–12 students may not be using photo management Web sites because they may come across inappropriate photos. There are free photo Web sites available for student and teacher use if they are looking for images to use on class Web sites. b. Personal use—numerous free photo management Web sites are available, such as Flickr, Snapfish, and Photobucket. Discuss free and premium accounts. Instructions for uploading photos to Flickr follow. 5. Upload photos to Flickr. a. Create a Flickr account. b. Log in to your Flickr account. c. Click on the UPLOAD PHOTOS button. d. Click on CHOOSE PHOTOS. e. Browse your files and select a photo or photos. f. Choose to make the photos PUBLIC or PRIVATE. g. Click on UPLOAD PHOTOS. h. When the photo has finished loading, you will have the option to add a DESCRIPTION. i. Click on SAVE. If you choose some other site for photo storage, the steps will be similar. From this point you can create a set of photos, join a group, view your tags, and add more photos and edit information concerning your photos. You will find that it is easy to share your photos with others via the Web. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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6. Flickr/Creative Commons. a. Discuss Creative Commons and copyright. b. Demonstrate Flickr/Creative Commons and discuss CC licenses. 7. Other free photo Web sites. a. Demonstrate other free photos sites such as the following: i. Freedigitalphotos.net ii. Freephoto.com iii. Freegraphics.com 8. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 9. Summarize the photo management chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on photo management to add more information to the outline.]]


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GRAPHIC GENERATORS The following is a suggested outline for presenting a workshop on graphic generators to parents of K–12 students or to anyone new to using Web tools. The workshop can be adjusted depending on the format of the training. If the workshop is hands-on in a computer lab or in a room where attendees may bring their own laptop computers, you will want approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour blocked out (perhaps more time if you have a large group). If the presentation is not hands-on and is demonstrationonly, you will need much less time, maybe 15–20 minutes. Of course, if you add or delete information from the outline, you will need to adjust the time of your training accordingly. 1. Trainer introduction and overview of workshop. Define graphic generators. a. Create your own graphic using text and your own photos. b. Generate a graphic for your blog or Web site. c. Generated graphics can be used in flyers and other documents. 2. Introductions by attendees. a. Suggested information to share along with introductions: i. Have you used graphic generators? ii. What are you hoping to learn from this training? 3. Demonstration of graphic generators as examples. Choose some graphic generators to present to the From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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attendees, and point out features such as variety of graphics to generate and uses for graphics. 4. Discussion of graphic generators. a. School use—K–12 students may be using commercial graphics for projects. Many graphic generator Web sites have inappropriate graphics available. b. Personal use—numerous free graphic-generator Web sites are available. Instructions for generating a graphic follow. 5. Basic steps to generating a graphic. a. Connect to the Web. b. Go to a graphic generator Web site. c. Choose a graphic. d. Add text if it is a graphic such as a sign, newspaper headline, or magazine title. e. Change the font, font size, and color or any other choices available. f. Add one of your own photos or other image if appropriate. i. Browse your computer desktop. ii. Locate a photo or image. iii. Upload the photo to the graphic generator Web site. g. Click on the button to create or generate a graphic. h. If the directions indicate that you right-click to save the graphic, this will work with a PC mouse or a twobutton Mac mouse. i. If you are using a Mac with a single-button mouse, push the “control” or “ctrl” button, and then click on the graphic. Select “Save Image As” and name the graphic, and it will save on the computer desktop. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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6. Generate a graphic using FD’s Flickr Toys from Big Huge Labs. a. Go to http://bighugelabs.com. b. Select “Badge Maker.” c. Click on BROWSE to locate and upload a photo from your desktop. d. A window will pop up to let you browse your computer. Locate the photo and OPEN it. e. A URL will now appear in the BROWSE window. f. Fill in any information you would like on the badge. g. Examples: badge color, header, text. h. Click on CREATE. i. You have now generated a name badge graphic! j. Scroll down below your graphic, and you have some choices: i. Edit Badge—Go back and change anything on your name badge graphic. ii. Start Over—Start over with a new name badge graphic. iii. Save—Save the graphic to your computer desktop so that it is ready to add to your Web site. iv. Upload to Flickr—Upload the generated graphic to your Flickr account (if you have one). v. Share—Join Big Huge Labs as a member for some nice perks. vi. E-mail—E-mail your image and a message to a friend. vii. Adding text to a post. From The Web and Parents: Are You Tech Savvy? by Judy Hauser. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Copyright © 2009.

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7. Internet safety issues in the home. a. Do not give out personal information. b. Keep the computer in the living room or family area. c. Go to the chapter on Internet safety for more tips. 8. Summarize the graphic generators chapter; Q & A. [[NOTE TO TRAINER: Go to the chapter on graphic generators to add more information to the outline.]]


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Bibliography

A1 Free Sound Effects. http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com. Adobe PhotoShop. http://www.adobe.com. Amazon. http://www.amazon.com. AOL Instant Messenger. http://dashboard.aim.com/aim. Ask for Kids. http://www.askkids.com. Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download. Blogger. http://www.blogger.com. Bloglines. http://bloglines.com. Blogmeister. http://classblogmeister.com. Boardster. http://boardster.net. Bravenet. http://www.bravenet.com/ Citizendium. http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citizendium. Crazy Dave’s Kid Show. http://www.crazydaveradio.com/. Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org. CyberAngels. http://www.cyberangels.org. Digital Citizenship. http://digitalcitizenship.net. Diigo. http://www.diigo.com/. Edublogs. http://edublogs.org. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Legal Guide for Bloggers. http://w2.eff.org/ bloggers/lg. Facebook. http://www.facebook.com. Factbites. http://www.factbites.com. FD’s Flickr Toys. http://bighugelabs.com. Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/ pguide.htm. Firefox. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US. Flickr. http://flickr.com. Flickr/Creative Commons. http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons.

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Fontichiaro, Kristin. 2007. Active Learning through Drama, Podcasting, and Puppetry. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Fontichiaro, Kristin. 2008. Podcasting at School. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Forumer. http://forumer.com. Forums-Free. http://forums-free.com. fOURbEES. http://www.fourbees.com. Freedigitalphotos. http://www.freedigitalphotos.net. FreeForumHost. http://freeforumhost.com. Freefoto. http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp. Freegraphics. http://www.freegraphics.com. Freesound. http://www.freesound.org. Gagglenet. http://gaggle.net. Garlick, Mia, and Colette Vogele. Podcasting Legal Guide. Creative Commons. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide. Gcast. http://www.gcast.com. GIMP. http://www.gimp.org. Google. http://google.com. Google Docs. http://docs.google.com. Google News Search. http://news.google.com/archivesearch. Google Reader. http://www.google.com. Grokker. http://www.grokker.com. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). http://www.iste.org. iPhoto. http://apple.com. iSafe. http://isafe.org/ iTunes. http://www.apple.com/itunes. KidsClick. http://www.kidsclick.org/. LAME. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac. Lenhart, Amanda. 2009. Adults and Social Network Websites. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adultsand-Social-Network-Websites.aspx. LiveJournal. http://www.livejournal.com. LivePlasma. http://www.liveplasma.com. Magnatune. http://magnatune.com. MediaWiki. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki. Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS). http://www.michigan.gov/ mde/0,1607,7–140–28753_33232_37328—-,00.html. Moodle.org. http://moodle.org. MySpace. http://www.myspace.com. National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). http://www.iste.org/AM/ Template.cfm?Section=NETS. National School Boards Association (NSBA). http://nsba.org. NationMaster. http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php. NetLingo. http://netlingo.com. Netnewswire for Mac. http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/ Default.aspx. NetSmartz. http://www.netsmartz.org/index.aspx. NetSmartzKids. http://www.netsmartzkids.org/indexFL.htm.

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NSteens. http://www.nsteens.org. Odeo. http://odeo.com. Openoffice.org. http://www.openoffice.org. PBworks.com. http://pbworks.com. PEW Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/index.asp. Phanfare. http://www.phanfare.com/home.aspx. Photobucket. http://photobucket.com. Picasa. http://picasa.google.com. Pics4learning.com. http://pics4learning.com. Podcast Alley. http://www.podcastalley.com. Podcast Directory. http://www.podcastdirectory.com. Podcast Fusion. http://www.podcastfusion.com/fs/home.asp. Podomatic. http://www.podomatic.com/featured. ProBoards. http://proboards.com. Quintura Kids. http://quinturakids.com. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). http://www.riaa.com. RedZ. http://www.redz.com. Shutterfly. http://www.shutterfly.com. Skype. http://www.skype.com. Snapfish. http://www.snapfish.com. SpaceBook. http://www.myspace.com. Tech4learning. http://www.tech4learning.com. Technorati. http://technorati.com. TextRunner. http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/textrunner. Twitter. http://twitter.com. United States Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov. Web Wise Kids. http://webwisekids.org. Webs. http://www.webs.com/. Weebly. http://www.weebly.com/ WordPress. http://wordpress.com. Wikipedia. http://wikipedia.org. Wikispaces. http://www.wikispaces.com. Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com. Zooomr. http://www.zooomr.com.



Audacity Audacity® software is copyright © 1999–2008 Audacity Team. Web site: http://audacity.sourceforge.net. It is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The name Audacity® is a registered trademark of Dominic Mazzoni. Bloglines

IAC Search & Media. http://www.bloglines.com Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org FD’s Flickr Toys http://bighugelabs.com Flickr/Yahoo! http://www.flickr.com 229

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Forums-Free http://www.forums-free.com/en FreeForumHost Thomas Cryer, Owner and Operator, FreeForumHost.com Gcast http://www.gcast.com/ Grokker http://grokker.com Moodle Martin Dougiamas and Moodle.org NationMaster http://nationmaster.com NetLingo Reproduced by Permission © 1994–2008. NetLingo, The Internet Dictionary at http://www.netlingo.com Ning Information courtesy of Ning Inc. http://www.Ning.com. Used with permission. All rights reserved. PBworks http://pbworks.com Podomatic http://www.podomatic.com/ ProBoards Patrick Clinger. http://proboards.com


Web Wise Kids http://www.webwisekids.org/ Weebly http://www.weebly.com Wikipedia http://wikipedia.org WordPress An Automattic Creation. http://wordpress.com

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Index

A1 Free Sound Effects, 102 About page, 32, Acceptable use policy, 159, 162 Adobe PhotoShop, 145, 149, 157 All The Lyrics, 74 Ask For Kids, 74 Attribution, 19, 20, 24, 101, 102, 103; Creative Commons, 168 – 71; Flickr/ Yahoo!, 142; Freefoto.com, 142 – 43; 145; Graphic generators, 147 – 48 Audacity, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88 – 96, 102, 103 – 4, 105, 107, 202 – 203, 204, 205 Avatars, 17, 23 Banner. See Header Big Huge Labs, 145, 146, 151 – 55, 157, 222 Blog administrator, 1, 5 Blog directories, 13, 23, 29, 177 Blog hosts: 1, 2, 3, 29, 182; Blogger, 3; WordPress, 3, 5 – 14, 15 – 19, 21 – 22 Blogger, 3, 30, 82, 182 Bloglines, 109, 110, 112 – 16, 117, 209 – 10 Blogroll, 2, 22, 212 Blogs: blog directories, 23; blog hosts, 3; blogrolls, 22; copyright, 20 – 21; create, 5; header, 21 – 22; how, 4; Internet safety, 160, 165 – 67; Moodle, 26 – 28; participate, 4 – 5; photos, 19 – 20; RSS, 109, 110 – 11; rules, 23 – 24; social bookmarking, 23; students, 24 – 28; why blog, 4 – 5; WordPress, 5 – 19; workshop, 181 – 86

Boardster, 129, 130 Bookmarking, 23, 110, 112, 209 Boutique’ Café, 85 Boys & Girls Club of America, 165, 166 Bravenet, 120, 212 Buttons: Audacity, 92 – 93, 204 – 5; blog, 10 – 13; social networks, 34; Web sites, 119, 211; wikis, 58, 59 – 62 Categories: blogs, 2, 12 – 14; workshop, 186 Chicklet, 109, 110 Class Blogmeister, 28, 182 Comments: blog, 4 – 5; forums, 131; wikis, 62 Copyright: blogging, 23 – 23; Copyright Office, 168; Creative Commons, 20 – 21, 168 – 71; digital citizenship, 166 – 67; Digital Rights Management, 86; fair use, 172 – 73; graphics, 148; images, 20; music, 101 – 2, 103, 173; photos, 143; students, 43; Terms of Service, 33; Crazy Dave’s Kid Show, 85 Creative Commons, 20 – 21, 168 – 71 CyberAngels, 166 Dashboard, 2, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22 Database, 71, 75, 80, 127, 157, 178, 200 Delete: blogs, 3 – 4, 5, 15, 16, 17 – 18; podcasts: 92, 204; Web sites, 123; wikis, 47, 49, 58, 63 Digital citizenship, 159, 166 – 67, 174

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Index

Digital rights management, 86 Diigo, 23

Header, 2, 21-22, 123 HTML, 119, 124

EduBlogs, 28 Electronic Frontier Foundation, 24 Email, 16, 17, 34, 66, 67, 73

Information literacy, 80, 178 Instant messaging, 32, 160, 163 International Society for Technology in Education, 2, 25, 160, 167 Internet safety: CyberAngels, 166; Facebook, 163; FBI, Cyber Division, 166; Guardian Angels, 166; home, 160 – 61; instant messaging, 163; iSafe, 164; MySpace, 163; National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 164 – 66; NetSmartz, 165; NetSmartz Kids, 166; NSteens, 166; resources, 163 – 64; safety tips, 162; Web Wise Kids, 164 – 65 iPhoto, 20, 145, 149 iPods, 83, 87 iSafe, 164 ISTE. See International Society for Technology in Education. iTunes, 84, 86, 89, 101 – 2, 107

Facebook, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42, 54, 160, 163 Factbites, 79 Fair use, 172 – 73 FAQs, 32, 33, 66, 77, 163, 165 FD’s Flickr Toys. See Big Huge Labs. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cyber Division, 166 Feed, 2, 109, 110, 111, 112 – 13, 115, 116, 125, 178, 208, 209 – 10 Flickr, 2, 20, 21, 139, 140, 141, 142, 218 Flickr Creative Commons, 142 Forum: 77, 125, 129; create, 131; forum hosts, 130 – 31; Proboards, 131 – 36; students, 136; workshop, 214 – 16 Forum hosts: Boardster, 129; create, 131; Forumer, 130; Forums Free, 130; Free Forum Host, 131; ProBoards, Forumer, 130 Forums Free, 130 fouRbEES, 102, 103 – 4 Free Digital Photos, 142 Free Forum Host, 131 Free Foto, 142 – 43 Free Graphics, 143 Freesound, 102, 103 Gaggle.Net, 26 GarageBand, 86 Gcast, 96 – 100 GIMP, 149 Google: Blogger, 3; Google AdSense, 124; Google Blog Search, 29; Google Docs, 47; Google Maps, 124; Google News, 74 – 75, 198; Google Reader, 112; Picasa, 149 Graphic generators: 21, 139, 145; attribution, 147; copyright, 148; create, 150 – 57; FD’s Flickr Toys, 151 – 55; generate, 151 – 52; linking back, 147 – 48; photos, 148 – 49; rules, 147; students, 156; workshop, 220 – 23; Graphics: Big Huge Labs, 145, 146, 151 – 55, 157, 222; create, 148 – 49; Flickr, 20; Free Graphics, 143; generators, 148 – 49; Pics4Learning, 143; rules, 147; upload, 60; Grokker, 72 – 73 Guardian Angels, 166

Jpeg, 120, 145, 149 Kids Learn Out Loud, 85 KidsClick!, 80 LAME, 84, 87, 88, 89 – 90, 93, 203, 204 Link back, 142, 146, 147 – 48 LiveJournal, 3 Magnatune, 103 Marketing, 62 Media specialists, 68, 80, 81, 82, 127, 156, 157, 178, 200 MediaWiki, 48 METS, 25 Michigan Educational Technology Standards. See METS. Microphones, 87 – 88, 93, 201, 202, 204 Moodle, 2, 26 – 28, 32, 43, 66, 126 –2 7, 136, 178 MP3, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89 – 90, 94, 98, 202 – 3, 205 Music downloads, 173 MySpace, 31, 32, 35, 163 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 165, 166 National Educational Technology Standards, 2, 25, 160, 167 Nationmaster, 75 – 79 NetLingo, 163, 164, 166

Index Netnewswire, 111 NETS. See National Educational Technology Standards Netsmartz, 165 Netsmartz Kids, 166 News aggregator. See newsreader. Newsreader, 2, 109, 110, 111, 112 – 16, 178, 208, 209 – 10 Ning, 31, 32, 35 – 42 NSBA, 2, 25 NSteens, 166 Odeo, 86 Open source, 2, 3, 25, 26, 32, 83, 84, 87,129, 149 P911, 160 PBworks, 48, 50 – 63, 66, 67, 192 – 95 Pdf, 48, 67, 124 Permission levels, 55, 56, 193 Pew Internet & American Life Foundation, 25, 31 Phanfare, 140 Photo software: Adobe Photoshop, 145, 149, 157; iPhoto, 20, 145, 149 Photo storage hosts: Flickr, 2, 20, 21, 139, 140, 141, 142, 218; Phanfare, 140; Photobucket, 139, 218; Picasa, 139, 140, 149; Shutterfly, 139, 140; Snapfish, 20, 139, 140, 218; Zooomr, 139, 140 Photo uploading, 141 – 42 Photobucket, 139, 218 Photos: 19 – 22; Flickr, 2, 20, 21, 139, 140, 141, 142, 218; Free Digital Photos, 142; Free Foto, 142 – 43 PhotoShop. See Adobe PhotoShop. Picasa, 139, 140, 149 Pics4Learning, 143 Plug-in, 67 Podcast: Audacity, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88 – 96, 102, 103 – 4, 105, 107, 202 – 3, 204, 205; GarageBand, 86; LAME, 84, 87, 88, 89 – 90, 93, 203, 204; Microphone, 87 – 88, 93, 201, 202, 204; MP3, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89 – 90, 94, 98, 202 – 3, 205; Scripts, 88, 93, 94, 105, 204; WAV, 84, 89 Podcast Alley, 86 Podcast directories: iTunes, 86; Kids Learn Out Loud, 85; Odeo, 86; Podcast Alley, 86; Podcast Directory, 86; Podcast Fusion, 85; Podcast 411, 86 Podcast 411, 86

235 Podcast Fusion, 85 Podcast Hosts: Gcast, 96 – 100; iTunes, 84, 86, 89, 101 – 2, 107; Podomatic, 84, 100 – 1; Podcast Alley, 86 Podcasting Legal Guide, 24 Podomatic, 84, 100 – 1 POS, 160 Posts, 4, 9 – 14, 15, 29, 181, 184 – 86 PowerPoint, 48, 67 Privacy policy, 32, 33 ProBoards, 130, 131 – 36 Public domain, 159, 160 Quintura Kids, 199 Recording Industry Association of America. See RIAA. RedZ, 72 RIAA, 160, 173 RSS: 2, 19, 29; Bloglines, 109, 110, 112 – 16, 117, 209 – 10; Chicklet, 109, 110; Feed, 2, 109, 110, 111, 112 – 13, 115, 116, 125, 178, 208, 209 – 10; Google Reader, 112; Netnewswire, 111; Newsreader, 2, 109, 110, 111, 112 – 16, 178, 208, 209 – 10; XML, 110 Screenshots, 35, 188 Scripts, 88, 93, 94, 105, 204 Search engines: A1 Free Sound Effects, 102; All the Lyrics, 74; Ask for Kids, 74; Factbites, 79; Google, 22; Google News, 74 – 75; Grokker, 72 – 73; Wolfram|Alpha, 72, 197; Nationmaster, 75 – 79; Quintura Kids, 199; RedZ, 72; Textrunner, 79; Yahoo!, 22, 72, 141, 197 Shutterfly, 139, 140 Sidebar, 2, 28, 119 182 Skype, 163 Snapfish, 20, 139, 140, 218 Social bookmarking, 23 Social networks: Facebook, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42, 54, 160, 163; MySpace, 31, 32, 35, 163; Ning, 31, 32, 35 – 42 Sound effects, 101 – 2, 103 – 4, 105 Spam, 2, 5 Students: blogs, 24 – 28; digital citizenship, 166 – 67; forums, 136; graphic generators, 156 – 57; photo management, 142; podcasts, 105 – 6; search engines, 80 – 81; social networks, 43; websites, 126 – 27; wikis, 63 – 67

236

Index

Tabs, 119 Tags, 2, 12 – 14, 15, 23, 101, 142, 206, 218 Teachers, 3, 25, 26 – 28, 43, 66 – 67, 81, 84, 105, 127, 136, 142, 143, 156, 172 – 73, 178 Technology literacy, 25, 28, 148, 156, 157, 166, 178 Technology standards, 25, 43, 64, 66, 159, 160, 166, 167, 174 Technorati, 23 Terms of service, 19, 32, 33, 54, 100, 121, 132, 157, 193, 206, 212, 215 Textrunner, 79 Themes, 8, 9, 19, 21 – 22, 39 – 41, 121, 182, 183, 192, 212 Threads, 129, 136, 214, 215 Twitter, 1, 2, 101, 206

Wav, 84, 89 Web Wise Kids, 164 Websites: Bravenet, 120, 212; Webs, 120; Weebly, 120, 121 – 26; Sidebar, 2, 28, 119, 182; Tabs, 119 Weebly, 120, 121 – 26 Widgets, 2, 19, 21, 23 Wiki: collaboration, 49 – 50; deleting, 63; hosts, 48; marketing, 62; MediaWiki, 48; PBworks, 48, 50 – 63, 66, 67, 192 – 95 Wikipedia, 64 – 66 Wiki hosts, 48, 49, 192 Wolfram|Alpha, 72, 197 WordPress MU, 3 WordPress.com, 3, 5 – 14, 15 – 19, 21 – 22

Upgrades, 17, 29, 52, 119, 120, 177, 192 URL, 2, 12, 146, 147 User roles, 18 – 19

Yahoo!, 22, 72, 141, 197

XML, 110

Zooomr, 139, 140

About the Author JUDY HAUSER is an information media consultant for Oakland Schools, an intermediate school district in Waterford, Michigan. She provides professional development on educational technology and Web resources and consultations to K–12 educators in Oakland County public schools. In addition, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME).

237

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