Virtualmv (Michael Verhaart)'s Blog: Digital learning

Showing posts with label Digital learning. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Animated Video Tool - #GoAnimate.com #vmvwiki #vmvdlt

A new Twitter follower for @virtualMv

However experience shows a 14 day free trial in an education setting just doesn't work, and the pricing structure suggested does not work for students.

For education a trial needs to work over a minimum of a semester to be of any use, no student can devote enough time in 14 days (alongside their other assessment work) to create a useful artifact. There is nothing like having students learn then promote a product when they go into the workforce, and it doesn't hurt to have a copy available for the lecturer either.

In the past some software companies have discretely watermarked with "Educational Copy". In some cases "Educational Copy" was so visible as to make the software unusable - so we didn't!! )

http://goanimate.com/business/videoplans/

Sent from my iPad

Thursday, July 9, 2015

#Bluetooth framework for teaching #vmvwiki #vmvhw

This post will be a record of things I discover while trying to set up a Bluetooth framework for teaching (so this post will actually be more like a wiki and change!)

1. Speakers.

Purchased: HIFI X-6 MINI Sound Rugby Football Wireless Bluetooth Speaker AUX USB Portable Audio Player Music for phone Computer Subwoofer http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HI-FI-X-6-MINI-Football-Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker-TF-AUX-USB-Portable-Audio-Player-Music/32309649617.html

Unfortunately Bluetooth does not work with Windows. Windows cannot locate a driver (it appears that the speaker has no description attached so Update cannot link a driver). Worked fine with iPad/iPhone. Buddy jack design actually not working (linking the speakers together) I think they need to add a din plug output to connect to aux in other speaker for this to work.

2. Mouse.

Purchased: Adjustable DPI 1600 Brand New Wireless Mouse Bluetooth Rechargeable Optical Mice 3.0 For Notebook Computer Laptop PC BM01-K60 http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Adjustable-DPI-1600-Brand-New-Wireless-Mouse-Bluetooth-Rechargeable-Optical-Mice-3-0-For-Notebook-Computer/32236660866.html

First issue was that after remaining idle the mouse would switch off. Seemed to be an issue with windows power management. See below for how this was fixed.

Interesting the side buttons on this mouse - allow a browser back/forward (alt left-arrow/alt right-arrow or backspace/shift backspace-though shift backspace doesn't quite work) - which is not the same as PowerPoint's back button.

Configuration issues

Problem: Device disconnects

It appears that by default Windows power saving kills a USB device. The mouse connected would die and not reconnect. To disable this you need to

go to Start > type in "Device Manager" >

Expand Bluetooth Radios >

Right click on Generic Bluetooth Adaptor + Properties, and

uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

#Facebook RSS in #MediaWiki (#Wikieducator) #vmvwiki #vmvdlt

Following from the Twitter/Wordpress RSS into MediaWiki, I now have a Facebook page RSS feed working. Note that due to Privacy setting Facebook Groups do not RSS Feed.

Sample Page: http://wikieducator.org/VirtualMV

Experimental Page: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mverhaart/Wikieducator/TechTips

Christina Bergey has written a blog providing good instructions for this at http://christinabergey.com/blog/2013/03/get-facebook-group-feed-via-rss/ (note she has "groups" in the URL but this only works for Facebook pages.

The following code will insert a Panel into your MediaWiki Wiki ( replace YourID, and YourPage)

<div style="font-family: menu,Arial;border: 1px solid #808080; width: 250px; margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;background-color: #F6F9ED;-webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 7px #999;">
{|
|[[File:Facebook.png|25px]] RSS from: https://www.facebook.com/YourPage<br /><hr width="248px"/>
|-
|
<rss>https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?id=YourID&format=rss20|short|date|max=5</rss>
|}
</div>

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

#Twitter & #WordPress RSS in #Mediawiki (#Wikieducator) #vmvwiki #vmvdlt

Using RSS to put a Wordpress or Twitter feed into Mediawiki (wikieducator)

Sample Page: http://wikieducator.org/VirtualMV

Instructions: http://wikieducator.org/User:Mverhaart/Wikieducator/TechTips

Thanks

I must thank my friend & colleague Steph Day for working behind the scenes into finding Amit Agarwal's connection between Twitter and MediaWiki via Google Drive Developer, and proving it could be done.

WordPress

The RSS extension in MediaWiki allows you to feed from the WordPress RSS feed. Add the following to your MediaWiki page (but replace my WordPress blog with yours)

<rss>http://virtualmv.wordpress.com/feed/</rss>
<rss>http://virtualmv.wordpress.com/feed/|short|date|max=5</rss>

Instructions

The following parameters are supported:

charset=… The charset used by the feed. iconv is used to convert this.

short Do not show the description text for each news item.

date Shows date/time stamp for each news item.

max=x Shows x most recent headlines.

highlight= term1 term2 The terms separated by a space are highlighted.

filter= term1 term2 Show only RSS items containing at least one of the terms.

filterout= term1 term2 Do not show any RSS items containing any terms

reverse Display the RSS items in reverse order

See complete article at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:RSS

Twitter

This is much more complicated since in 2013 Twitter changed the way it allowed developers to access the Twitter Stream. An RSS feed unfortunately is not available, instead a JSON file is generated. However, using a bit of "magic" by creating a Google App allows you to convert the JSON file into an RSS feed which can then be accessed in MediaWiki.

Instructions

Amit Agarwal from Digital Inspiration created the bridging program that performs the magic and has generously shared the instructions at http://www.labnol.org/internet/twitter-rss-feeds/27931/

Examples of an RSS feed generated

Twitter Timeline of user @labnol https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbz-_qbLKf5lAUBkPlCpVYgVPess6-NV1GRL6TNaz-6YNLbvUCs/exec?action=timeline&q=labnol

Twitter Favorites of user @labnol https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbz-_qbLKf5lAUBkPlCpVYgVPess6-NV1GRL6TNaz-6YNLbvUCs/exec?action=favorites&q=labnol

Twitter List labnol/friends-in-india https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbz-_qbLKf5lAUBkPlCpVYgVPess6-NV1GRL6TNaz-6YNLbvUCs/exec?action=list&q=labnol/friends-in-india

Twitter Search for New York https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbz-_qbLKf5lAUBkPlCpVYgVPess6-NV1GRL6TNaz-6YNLbvUCs/exec?action=search&q=new+york

You should replace the value of 'q' parameter in the URLs as per requirement.

Following Amit's instructions I found one area that needed a little further explanation: For Step 2. Configure your Google Script:

Enter the google developer area using https://developers.google.com/google-apps/

When you get to the pop-up Google Apps Script choose Script as a Web App

If you want to get a wrapper for your feed refer to the Sample page/instruction links at the start of this post.

Some Notes:

Don't expect the RSS Feed to show older Tweets particularly for Search. After activating the gApp you may need to add a Tweet for it to appear in the panel.

Twitter Search does not necessarily return all the relevant Tweets in the Search. So in my classes I have had a lot of students post with my #vmvwiki hashtag and they have not shown up in the panel. Unfortunately this is what Twitter have done and in 2013 this killed the student use of Twitter as a viable communication tool for Social Media in the classroom.

.. now to see if I can create an RSS Feed for a Facebook Group :)