Thing 19 – Catch up week on integrating things

As part of thing 19 we are encouraged to review some of the tools we have covered. I am going to review Google Docs and Dropbox as I am interested in finding a tool to help with a specific problem.

The Problem

We work as a joint library service serving Keele University staff and students as well as our local NHS trusts. Whilst most of our library staff work at the library we have an Outreach team who work across the trusts, using trust networks. Thus sharing documents can become a problem.

The Opportunity

Can cloud-based tools allow us to share documents with colleagues?

Potential Issues

Our NHS organisations provide quite a controlled network environment and this results in a large number of tools, applications and websites being blocked. Users are also prevented from downloading applications to their pcs.

Google Docs

Unfortunately Google docs was blocked by our NHS trusts. Thus it could not be used to share documents.

Dropbox

Dropbox was not blocked as a website on pcs connecting via the trust network. However this tool does rely on a download. Thus our colleagues would not be able to download and install this application. It was also not helpful that the application could only be linked to a c: drive folder rather than a network folder, so it proved not be very helpful to me either.

Thing 18 – Jing / screen capture / podcasts

Thing 18 is looking at multimedia tools.

Jing

Jing is a screen-capture tool, allowing you to create videos of on-screen activity.

ScreenR

We actually use ScreenR for this. It is a similar tool but you don’t need to download any elements. You can see some examples on our YouTube channel. We are creating these as part of our etutorial presentations. You do have to be well prepared before starting to record – what to say, the order to demonstrate something; and if you have to restart more than 4 times, do it another day.

I often just use an image editing tool to capture single screenshots and add additional elements.

Podcasting

The only time I have used podcasting was when I signed up for a radio 2 series of programmes. But I don’t think that this medium suits me – I don’t tend to listen to radio programmes.

I haven’t created stand-alone audio elements. It is something that I have often thought about – creating an audio tour of the library for example (similar to tours used in museums) but I’m not sure how popular they would be. Has anyone done this successfully? It always feels like the visual element is required these days.

Audacity

I have used audacity frequently to create the audio element of our etutorials. We incorporate the audio files created into mediator which we use to create the flash-based tutorials.

Summary

Over the past year I have experimented with a number of tools to create multi-media elements to use in the etutorials that we have been developing. It has been a steep learning curve and I’m sure that there are many improvements to be made but everyone has to start somewhere.

Thing 17 – The medium is the message – Prezi and Slideshare

We’re back to looking at tools in thing 17 – this time using presentation tools.

Prezi

I have used Prezi for a while now, Dec 2011 according to my account. I have seen some really great prezis but I’m afraid that my offerings don’t fall into that category. It can be pretty time consuming but gradually over time you learn about the different options and functionality. My first offering was about my job role and my latest is an interactive map of ourlibrary floor plan – including images and videos. It can be quite stomach-churning, but then we are a circular library and wandering around in real-life can make you dizzy too. I’ve now embedded this into our website. I have a couple more in development.

I think prezis offer something a bit more fun than powerpoints, though powerpoint can also be quite interactive and use multimedia; it also requires a lot of work to get something effective.

Slideshare

I’m familiar with Slideshare as a consumer. I often check out other people’s presentations. However I’ve not shared anything myself. It is not currently part of my role to create presentations and deliver talks. I did create a powerpoint presentation to promote our etutorials but decided to convert this to a video and share it via YouTube rather than use Slideshare.

Summary

Both these tools offer a good way to share your presentations.