Learning Technologies, Social Media

Share Your Slides.

Laura Pasquini

Do you have a stellar presentation that you would like to share with your students, faculty or staff?

Then join the SlideShare community!

slideshare

You can post your presentation slides online to share with individuals & organizations.  It is also a great knowledge-sharing community where you can connect with other interesting presentations & topics.  This is an eco-friendly way to share presentations post-lecture, conference or meeting.

Some of the things you can do on SlideShare include:

– Embed slideshows into blogs or websites.
– Share slideshows publicly or privately.
– Synch audio to your slides.
– Market your own event.
– Join groups to connect with SlideShare members who share your interests
– Download the original file

Virtual Communities, women

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

Laura Pasquini

Kudos to all the ladies who engage & contribute to the world of technology.  You continue to influence and inspire those around you.

ada2

Today is Ada Lovelace Day:

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognized. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants. The list of tech-related careers is endless.   c/o http://findingada.com/

Be sure to celebrate by posting about women who inspire YOU.  Although the numbers are growing , there are less women in technology.  Let’s be sure to recognize those we admire.  Speaking of which, here are just a few of the many women who inspire me:

blogs, Social Media

Characteristics of Blog Design

Laura Pasquini

Today I found a great article on how to pretty up your blog, especially if you are blogging for professional reasons.  I think I will do a bit of blog design review & updates as well.

the-computer-demands-a-blog

The 13 Characteristics of Outstanding Blog Design include:

1. Readability

2. Useful Sidebars

3. Unique

4. Comment Design

5. Integration of Ads (for professional blogs)

6. Effective, Usable Navigation

7. Images in Posts

8. Footer Design

9. Color Scheme

10. Icons

12. Subscription Areas

13. Social Media Integration

 

For those of you who are just starting out, be sure to check out these tips from PROBLOGGER that shares Blog Design for Beginners.

blogs, Collaboration, Higher Education, Photo Sharing, Social Media

Happy Birthday ACE!

Laura Pasquini

For those of you thinking about implementing a new online, web 2.0 project for student learning… I say: GO FOR IT!

This is the 1 year anniversary of the ACE pilot project that was initiated at The Academic Advising & Career Centre, University of Toronto Scarborough.  Happy Birthday, ACE!

ace

ACE (Academic & Career Explorer) is an online, peer buddy who connects with students at UTSC to share information & resources about job search, academic questions, career options and study skills support.  You can connect to ACE various ways online:

The ACE project was a fun project to work on with staff and students.  Kudos must go out to E-Lin, Suzanne, Esther & the great team of student staff at the Centre for all their creative work and on-going support.

Here’s a shot of E-Lin celebrating ACE’s birthday today with some cake (office tradition), of course:

photo_1

Micro-Blogs, Social Media

What the Tweet?

Laura Pasquini

There’s a whole lot of buzz in the news, on the political scene and elsewhere about micro-blogging with Twitter.  As an educator, you decided to join to see what the tweet it was all about.

The good news is that educators CAN use this social media tool to connect with resources & individuals in their profession.  Be sure to check out The Top 100 Edu Tweeters who share great resources, information & news about education.

Here are a few that I have been following on Twitter [and I am sure that a few more will be added shortly]:

  • @OpenUniversity: The Open University offers university education to everyone, and shares tips, news, and developments through this Twitter stream.
  • @utpress: This Tweeter offers news from Canada’s oldest and largest scholarly publisher.
  • @Librarian: This tweeter works to “reach the parts other libraries have yet to reach.”
  • @edventures: John Martin is a technology architect for higher education.
  • @eduguru: Follow edguru to learn about Internet marketing and web development for higher education.
  • @higheredu: Higher Edu works to get colleges and universities on Twitter.