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#blog12daysxmas

Colors with Storify WordPress plugin

Jan 12th, 2012
by pollyalida.
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One more plugin to test today. This one is the Storify plugin plugin. I think Storify is a great curation tool and it’s one of the first ones that I tested out.  The fexibility of being able to add notes and commentary interspersed with the embedded content from other sites makes it a great choice for students working on research projects.

The plugin adds a Storify button to the editing toolbar to easily insert a story into a post. But this is pretty easy to do without the plugin, just copy and paste from the Storify site to your WordPress post/page.

The plugin also adds a panel where you can build a new story from within your WordPress dashboard. If you spend all day in your WordPress dashboard this might be handy. Personally, I’d rather use the Storify bookmarklet in my browser toolbar to add content to my stories. And with them already embedded on a page/post, the content will just update itself anyways.

Tell me what I’m missing? I’d love to hear how people are incorporating this into their workflow?  I do love that Storify listened to folks who wanted this plugin though!

Photos from my flickr feed – to test the Storify plugin for WordPress

(And this is my last #blog12daysxmas post! Hooray, I did it, a week late, but done!)

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Testing Embedly Plugin

Jan 12th, 2012
by pollyalida.
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Our WordPress ecourse is about to begin! So I though I’d test out a couple of WordPress plugins today.

The Embedly plugin makes it easy to add content from other sites simply by pasting a URL into a post. No need to find the embed code for a photo, video, map, etc., just copy and paste the URL onto it’s own line in your post. There are over 200 services that will work.

Tweet


The Possibility of Alien Life Is Now (Almost) Impossible to Deny http://t.co/MHcfDzmY #astrobiology
January 12, 2012 7:22 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@astrobiology
astrobiology

Image from my flickr stream

2012-01-12

Google Map

And even though I’m a week late… I’m determined to write my final two #blog12daysxmas posts. Consider this Day 11!

iDoneThis

Jan 5th, 2012
by pollyalida.
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iDoneThis

Will I ever catch up and finish this challenge before it’s over? Day 10 of #blog12daysxmas was 2 days ago. I think the challenge is probably over in Australia, since it’s already Day 12 there! A quick post then.

iDoneThis is a handy tool that might help you keep track of what you’ve done everyday. You receive an email every day asking what you’ve gotten done that day. Just  reply with a list of what you’ve done and it goes on your private calendar on the iDoneThis website.

Handy, simple, fits in with my work flow.

 

Two free webinars: eBooks & WordPress

Jan 3rd, 2012
by pollyalida.
2 comments

Carterette Series WebinarsI’m very happy to be participating in the next Carterette Series webinars sponsored by the Georgia Library Association on Wednesday, January 18 from 2 – 4:15 PM. Registration is free.

The always awesome Kate Sheehan will talk about Ebooks, Discovery, and the Library and I’ll be talking about WordPress for Library Websites.

Be sure to check out their archive of past webinars for some great learning opportunities. And while you’re at it, like their Facebook page to make sure you see news of future programs.

 

(Still catching up – this is for Day 8 of #blog12daysxmas!)

14 Things To Tame

Jan 3rd, 2012
by pollyalida.
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Check out  14 Things to Tame, a terrific new Learning 2.0 project for teachers from Sara Kelley-Mudie.  They’ll be covering a lot of ground over the next 15 weeks! You can be sure I’ll be ‘stealing’ stuff from Sara for some of my own projects.  (Thanks Sara!) Lucky teachers at The Forman School in Litchfield CT to have Sara putting this together.

(Still catching up – this is for Day 9 of #blog12daysxmas!)

Podcast Feast

Jan 3rd, 2012
by pollyalida.
2 comments

I’m still a day or two behind – this is for Day 7 of #blog12daysxmas!

This was a busy weekend with more family visiting. And that meant more cooking. And cooking means lots of time to listen to podcasts. I love listening to podcasts while I cook, sometimes it slows me down a bit while I stop chopping & stirring to jot down notes, but it’s wonderful to have so much great company in my kitchen. It often feels a bit strange though when I finish cooking and realize that these folks aren’t really there and ready to eat dinner with me.

This past weekend I got to share my kitchen with Buffy Hamilton and the Bibliotech gang,  Steve Thomas and Dave Lankes (Circulating Ideas), and Maurice Coleman and Jill Hurst-Wahl (T is for Training).

Since some other library folks have shared their lists of favorite podcasts, I’ll share mine too.

  • Tech Chick Tips – Two educators from Texas who cover tons of great resources for all grades and subjects. They also ♥ their iThings (so do I) and share lots of great apps for iThings.
  • T is for Training – Biweekly podcasts about training & teaching in library settings. Maurice Coleman has been hosting this ever-changing feast of topics and participants for 3 years, wow!   Don’t just listen, call in and participate, it’s a fun and friendly crowd.
  • Circulating Ideas – Steve Thomas’ monthly conversation with a innovative leaders in the library field. Lots of great ideas are circulated.
  • Bibliotech – Discusses all things digital technology at our libraries. Hosted by Kayhan B., Erin Anderson and Doug Mirams.

And more! Adventures in Library Instruction,  TWIT – This week in Tech, Hack Education Podcast and of course Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

There are even more listed on these blog posts. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of these yet.

 

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