MASHe

Electronic APEL/RPL resources, projects and papers

Martin Hawksey — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:55:14 +0000

One and Other-University Of Life^[1]
Originally uploaded by Victius^[2]

For those of you unfamiliar with how the JISC Regional Support Centres work we have a national network of 13 centres (What we do JISC RSCs^[3]). So around the UK there are 12 other people like me advising our supported HEIs. As part of our role in ‘brokering support and advice’ we occasionally call on upon each other for some ‘collective intelligence’.

A recent case in point was a request from an advisor for resources on APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning). Here’s what we came up with:

University of Derby E-APEL Pathfinder project^[4] and associated paper for the Work-Based learning Futures conference: To What Extent can the APEL Process be Facilitated Through the Use of Technology?^[5]
JISC^[6] funded NIACE report which looked at the APEL landscape: Accreditation and Recognition of Prior Experience and Learning^[7]
The JISC funded PINEAPPLE project^[8] which is “aims to investigate, implement and evaluate methods, technologies and associated interventions and policies that will assist in the embedding and widespread acceptance of APEL”

From further afield the Flexible Learning Framework (Australia) have some other resources (highlighted in information for a past online event on using technology for RPL^[9]):

The Framework’s E-portfolios^[10] web page: access the latest e-portfolio news and resources, including the recent E-portfolios for RPL Assessment^[11] report. This report identified e-portfolios as a key tool to support timely and client focused RPL processes, in line with COAG^[12]’s (Council of Australian Governments) RPL initiative^[13].
The South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology’s paper: ICT Tools for RPL Assessment^[14].

[I also mentioned a recent RSC-MP3 podcast which I recorded with RPL expert Ruth Whittaker^[15] ;)]

If we have missed any other resources or projects let us know about them using the comments section below.

Mobile Learning: Some resources, tools and statistics

Martin Hawksey — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:39:09 +0000

I was looking for resources for a potential mobile workshop and came across the slides below from Judy Brown.

GMU/DAU Mobile Learning Workshop^[1]

View more presentations^[2] from judyb^[3].

There were some resources I wasn’t aware of and others so good I thought it would be useful to extract these here:

Judy’s existing list of authoring tools, polls and quizzes, and miscellaneous tools services^[4] – published Jan ‘09 but still relevant
Mobile Learning Engine (MLE) for Moodle^[5] – “MLE-Moodle is a plugin for Moodle, which adds mLearning functionality to this open-source eLearning system. The mobile learning area can be accessed with the mobile phone browser or with a special mobile phone application, which is designed for mobile Learning.”
Opera Online Mobile simulator^[6]
mobiReady^[7] mobile site testing tool
Educate iPhone/iPod Touch App^[8] – Calendar/timetabling, attendance and grade marking database, stopwatch, voice recorder, images, reference area, link to Moodle

Ever wondered what devices students are carrying around with them? On last site which might give you an indication is GetJar.com’s mobile market share stats^[9]. According to GetJar data Nokia and Sony-Ericsson have almost 60% market share, Nokia having three different models of phone is the top 5. More information on how these stats are derived is here^[10].

Manufactures	Market Share
Nokia^[11]	28.96%
Sony-Ericsson ^[12]	28.5%
Samsung^[13]	13.98%
LG^[14]	8.4%
INQ^[15]	4.13%

UK Manufacture market share December 2009

Devices	Market Share
Nokia E71^[16]	6.23%
Nokia N95^[17]	4.76%
LG KU990 Viewty^[18]	4.23%
Nokia E63^[19]	3.05%
Samsung GT S5600 Preston/Hailey^[20]	2.84%
Total market share	21.11%

UK Device market share December 2009

If you would like to see an example of an institution embracing mobile technology, Judy highlights Abilene Christian University’s ACU mobile site^[21]. Using this and a number of applications specifically developed for iPhone/iTouch ACU students have access to a range of tools and resources including learning content, classroom communication (including a virtual EVS/clicker), ebooks, podcasts, notetaking tools, and gradebooks.

If you are wondering why ACU are only catering for one platform they gave out free iPhones and Ipod Touches^[22]. Some might see this as a marketing gimmick but if you start looking at the University’s Vision for Mobile Learning^[23], it looks like they are embarking on a very serious endeavour. In particularly I liked this statement:

It’s not about technology; it’s about communication. It’s not about control; it’s about convergence. Social learning theory tells us that humans learn best in community – when they feel connected to others. And community forms when people explore and collaborate together, connecting their experiences – convergence. Any technological solution aimed at increased learning must enhance communication and convergence. If it doesn’t, it’s likely to be pedagogically irrelevant. ACU Convergence and the 21st-Century Classroom^[24]

What I’ve starred this week: February 2, 2010

Martin Hawksey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:00:26 +0000

Here's some posts which have caught my attention this week:

Eduserv negotiates agreement for Camtasia Studio for HE and FE^[1] – January 29, 2010
A 16-year-old’s view of Apple’s iPad: iFail^[2] – January 28, 2010
Plan for students who can't get no satisfaction^[3] – January 28, 2010
Use of Web 2.0 in Australian Universities^[4] – January 26, 2010
The Most Important Question^[5] – January 26, 2010 – Liked – The Most Important Question: under what conditions can a learner manage his or her own learning? (from Half an Hour)
Bill Gates Hearts Academic Earth^[6] – January 25, 2010

Automatically generated from my Google Reader Shared Items^[7].

Links
[1] http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/news/show_story.asp?nid=544
[2] http://tinyurl.com/yg7776l
[3] http://tinyurl.com/ybwgc9o
[4] http://tinyurl.com/ydlm5hz
[5] http://tinyurl.com/ya8tvwq
[6] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/WPcEWkJ7WcU/
[7] http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11609741331127149470

RSC-MP3: HE Update Jan 2010

Martin Hawksey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:01:00 +0000

RSC-MP3 is a monthly audio podcast highlighting some Higher Education focused e-learning news, interviews and resources brought to you by Kevin Brace (JISC RSC West Midlands) and Martin Hawksey (JISC RSC Scotland North and East). As ever we have summarised links to the various topics we discuss and indicate the timestamps so you can jump straight to our insightful repertoire. You can listen to this podcast on your computer, or when “on the move” by adding it to your ipod playlist. Here is an archive of our recordings^[1], which is also available on iTunes^[2].

An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of digital items – ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback etc, which ‘presents’ a selected audience with evidence of a person’s learning and/or ability. Sutherland and Powell (2007)

Widening participation, lifelong learning, employability, these are some of the reasons why e-portfolios are being used more widely in our institutions to support teaching and learning. In our first RSC-MP3 of 2010 we practice what we preach, Martin highlighting some of his recent reflections on his own ‘purposefully aggregation of digital items’, reviewing some of his blog posts from the last 18 months. As part of this we discuss mobile technology, looking at the continue rise of the mobile phone and the ‘flat-line’ of student-owned netbooks. Continuing the theme of ‘power in your pocket’, Martin highlights the evolving area of using student owned devices (including mobile phones) for ‘Ask the Audience’ style voting interaction.

Having practiced what we preach, we preach some more with Kevin highlighting the JISC RSC West Midlands new e-portfolio “try before you buy” project. The University of Southampton’s embryonic eFolio project is highlighted as best pracice, which has used gap analysis and user centred design principals to integrate existing university e-systems into a bespoke e-portfolio platform, using a number of open source tools as the glue. Continuing our look at open source solutions Kevin discusses how you can get the most out of Moodle using custom themes.

For this months podcast Martin also interviews Susi Peacock discussing how Queen Margaret University (QMU) have implemented their campus-wide e-portfolio solution, PebblePad. Susi talks about QMUs journey from adoption to integration, describing how local championing of e-portfolios has evolved into programme level integration extending beyond the institution through alumni access and professional body support. Click here for the interview with Susi Peacock^[3].

HE Update January 2010

Download Link^[4]
Duration: 36 minutes
Size 35 MB

Subscribe to our podcast via RSS^[5]
Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes^[6]

Our blogs

Gabber^[7] – Kevin’s blog
MASHe^[8] – Martin’s blog

Links from Martin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

MASHe Review: Mobile technology, mobile connectivity^[9] [00:43]
- Facebook (Mobile)^[10] [03:09]
- Linkedin (Mobile)^[11] [3:15]
- Google Mail (Mobile)^[12] [3:20]
- BBC (Mobile)^[13] [3:24]
- Google Android OS^[14] [03:34]
- Apple iPhone^[15] [04:06]
- Oops not 18% but 17% of smartphones sold worldwide in Q3 2009 were iPhones (Gartner)^[16] [04:07]
- Deloitte Predictions 2010 – net tablet impact on e-Readers^[17] [05:22]
- 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)^[18] [08:05]
- Horizons Report 2010^[19] [08:35]
  
  ^[20]
MASHe Review: Electronic voting systems^[21] (clickers) [09:08]
- Links for DIY Wireless Voting, TwEVS (voting via twitter), Timo Elliot Twitter/PowerPoint integration are contained in the MASHe EVS Review^[22]
- polleverywhere.com^[23] – SMS voting example [10:35]
- Scot-BUG event 11th Feb^[24]: Lecture Capture, SMS and Blackboard building block for assessment and feedback (Meeting face-to-face and online) [11:00]
- txttools^[25] – SMS services similar to JISCs JANET txt^[26] [11:04]
- 2010 Blackboard T&L Conference^[27] – Swansea 12-14th April [12:25]
- Purdue University Hotseat^[28] [13:10]
- JISC funded Wild Thing project blog^[29] [13:20]
- Promethean voting system^[30] [14:00]
- Quizdom voting system^[31] [14:25]
- Turning point voting system^[32] [15:00] (another manufacture widely used in the UK is Interwrite PRS^[33])
- Widely cited studies on the impact of interactive teaching are Hake, R. R. (1998)^[34] and Crouch, C.H. and Mazur, E. (2001)^[35] [15:57]

Links from Kevin’s subjects: Timestamps represented as [minutes:seconds]

Evaluate or fail?^[36] – Evaluation resources linked RSC WM e-portfolio “try before you buy” project^[37] [17:00]
- Elgg^[38] – Open Source social network & blogging platform [17:15]
- Mahara^[39] – Open Source e-portfolio platform [17:15]
- Wordpress^[40] – Open Source blogging platform [17:15]
- Moodle^[41] – Open Source learning platform [17:15]
- Mahoodle^[42] – Moode + Mahara (single sign-on “learning platform”) [17:15]
Moodle mootings^[43] – moodle themes, look and feel [18:55]
- Moodlerooms^[44] – USA Moodle hosting/services (open source Flex Page add-on^[45]) [20:30]
- 2010 MoodleMoot Event^[46] London, April 14-15th [21:20]
- University of London Computing Centre^[47] – UK Moodle services & UK Mahara partner [22:00]
e-safety^[48] [22:20]

e-Portfolios and Education for the Professions^[49] [22:30]
- eFolio updates from Dr Alex Furr^[50] (this contains a link to an earlier demonstration of their system^[51]) [23:00]
- tikiwiki^[52] – Open Source wiki platform [24:30]
- User centred design process^[53] [28:00]
- Web Usability (user) design principles & process^[54] [28:00]
- RSC West Midlands e-Portfolio resources page^[55] [34:18]
- Queen Margaret University Eportfolio resource pages^[56] [34:18]

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup^[57]

RSC-MP3: HE Update Jan 2010 – Interview Susi Peacock [e-portfolios]

Martin Hawksey — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

This month Martin interviewed Susi Peacock from the Centre for Academic Practice at Queen Margaret University (QMU) about their use of the PebblePad e-portfolio system. QMU have been using PebblePad since 2004/05, providing all their students and staff with the opportunity to maintain their own portfolio of work. In the interview we discuss how the University has gone from adoption at modular level to integration into entire degree programmes, and beyond with alumni and professional body access.

Interview with Susi Peacock

Download Link^[1]
Duration: 13 minutes
Size: 9MB

Subscribe to our podcast via RSS^[2]
Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes^[3]

Summary

0:50 – Background of e-portfolios at QMU?
- 4/5 years ago looking for a way to support personal and professional development planning.
- criteria for selection included linked to VLE, easy of use, accessible and available technical support.
2:00 How was integration of a campus wide solution achieved?
- Using earlier adopters already using paper-based portfolios targeted. Looking for the quick wins. Building on this as a foundation to promote use in other areas like Drama.
- Important to remember that you need team and external examiner support.
5:37 Is there an assessment strategy which supports the use of e-portfolios for across the institution?
- Number of guides have been produced to help staff decide a workflow to maintain consistency, combined with central support from CAP.
7:15 Are there any examples of programme level adoption of e-portfolios?
- Several programmes including nursing have a staggered level of introduction from year 1 (continuing use as part of professional development).
- Crucial to explain to staff and students that they have alumni access to portfolios after they graduate.
- Important to liaise with professional bodies who maybe using other portfolio systems.
8:15 Has there been much take-up of alumni access?
- Physiotherapy students can transfer straight into the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) system^[4] (also PebblePad) or continue alumni access.
- Other main take-up is from radiography, nursing and drama.
- It is an opt-in service
8:40 What feedback are you getting from students on the use of e-portfolios?
- Don’t introduce in last year, start from the beginning.
- Value feedback particualarly when it is linked to what they are doing.
- Need to know why they are using it and embedded in the curriculum
10:00 Are there many staff that use PebblePad for their own professional development?
- Starting to grow, particularly for professional doctorate.
- It is noticeable that tutors who use an e-portfolio for themselves are the best tutors when it comes to supporting student use.
10:40 Has there been much change in use since the beginning of the project like mobile access?
- Not interest in mobile (they do have guides on how to do it)
- Change has been from module to programme adoption.
- Using it as a tool for dialogue around assessment

Intro/Outro music: 1-2-3-4 from stream of unconsciousness by Jeremy B. Northup^[7]

Links
[1] http://tinyurl.com/yzbfx4x
[2] http://feeds2.feedburner.com/rsc-mp3
[3] http://tinyurl.com/aawesm
[4] http://tinyurl.com/ycldssp
[5] http://www.qmu.ac.uk/cap/
[6] http://www.qmu.ac.uk/eportfolio/
[7] http://www.opsound.org/artist/stateoftheart/

What I’ve starred this week: January 26, 2010

Martin Hawksey — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:00:43 +0000

Here's some posts which have caught my attention this week:

STRIDE E-Learning Handbook^[1] – January 25, 2010
Personal Learning Environments in the Cloud?^[2] – January 25, 2010 – A useful reflection by @GrahamAttwell on OUs adoption of GoogleApps and PLE implications
Google Wave: 100 tips & tricks^[3] – January 25, 2010 – A useful collection of resources for Google Wave (100 tips, tools and tricks) [spotted by @hopkinsdavid]
To create or curate? That is the Apple question^[4] – January 25, 2010
Eduserv’s report into the use of SharePoint by Higher Education Institutions^[5] – January 21, 2010
New forum for mobile learning^[6] – January 22, 2010 – @lisparcell highlights a new JISCmail list (MOBILE-SIG) which has been set up to discuss all aspects of mobile computing
Google Wave Gets More Business-Friendly With Read-Only and Restore Options^[7] – January 21, 2010
Tablet PCs to ‘take off’ in 2010^[8] – January 19, 2010

Automatically generated from my Google Reader Shared Items^[9].

Links
[1] http://tinyurl.com/ycvm95h
[2] http://tinyurl.com/y936dje
[3] http://tinyurl.com/ya5nomc
[4] http://tinyurl.com/yam773f
[5] http://tinyurl.com/yj7z2a5
[6] http://tinyurl.com/y8v4vns
[7] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/_JMUDHMt5CA/
[8] http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/technology/8467654.stm
[9] http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11609741331127149470

MASHe review: Mobile technology, mobile connectivity

Martin Hawksey — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Aiming for Mobile Platforms!^[1]
Originally uploaded by The Lightworks^[2]

In this second MASHe review I’m going to look back at some of my posts on mobile technology. This is obviously a very broad topic, elements of which were covered in the first review on electronic voting systems^[3], but I’ve identified some specific areas including mobile connectivity; and mobile hardware (phones and netbooks) to theme this post.

Mobile connectivity

Connectivity is tied to the hardware you use to connect. Broadly mobile connectivity is being achieved through phones or dongles. In September 2008 I posted ‘I don’t need your network, I’ve got Mobile Broadband^[4]’, which highlighted that students were potentially less reliant on wireless networks provided by institutions, instead using either their phone or mobile broadband dongle.

Since then networks are beginning to show the strain as they start reaching capacity, not helped by the popularity of streamed media like on demand TV. Interestingly whilst mobile data usage is up it is thanks to the phone and dongle and not, as highlighted in my original post, built-in to laptops which are still the domain of the ‘pro-user’.

One device which wasn’t around back then was mobile wireless routers such as Mi-Fi^[5]. These make it possible to create your own wireless network using mobile networks for the data connection. So if you were worried about students accessing dubious content whilst on campus via their phone, now they can do this and share the Internet connection with their friends (hopefully this will mean institutions will focus on e-safety rather than relying on blocking sites).

Mobile and VLEs

A couple of months later I revisited this topic with the post Mobile Internet, Mobile Life, Mobile Learning^[6]. This post highlighted the increasing popularity of accessing the Internet through mobile phones. This is further evidence that staying connected is increasing important particularly as we require more ‘on-demand’ access to media, our social networks and data we store ‘in the cloud’.

The ‘on-demand’ culture is influencing education with flexible delivery and blended learning, but as I highlight in the ‘mobile internet’ post certain systems like the virtual learning environment seem ill prepared. There have been some developments in this area and Blackboards announcement last year^[7] of a mobile version of their system is probably evidence that manufacturers recognise that mobile optimisation is a must have feature.

Netbooks

I’m probably pushing the ‘mobile’ theme with the inclusion of netbooks, but for me it a very interesting market and one that I’m surprised hasn’t really taken off with students. For the uninformed netbooks are laptops which have been on a diet (slightly smaller, lighter, not as powerful). They first appeared on the market in November 2007 and now virtually every computer manufacturer has a netbook range.

I’ve visited netbooks twice on MASHe. First in September 2008 in Ultra mobile, ultra cheap – Netbooks^[8] and then again 6 months later in Ultra mobile, ultra cheap – Which netbook now?^[9]. If I was going a follow up post now it would probably be called ‘Ultra mobile, reasonably cheap – Which tablet netbook?’ and in 6 months it would be ‘Ultra mobile – Which tablet?’.

So why haven’t netbooks taken off as a student owned device? Probably because they can get a better spec’d laptop for a similar price and whilst student ownership of laptops is high very few bring them on campus (for various reasons including: storage, lack of desk space with power, using campus desktops instead, not part of teaching/learning).

So it appears manufacturers have realised there market is in the middle ground. Not the high-end titanium clad portable powerhouse or the low-end portable and cheap, but a medium priced portable second PC which looks nice and has a touch screen. Gong by a recent consumer electronics fair (CES2010^[10]) manufacturers are betting on tablet netbooks as filling this market (which maybe of interest to academics looking to replace their conference PC ;)

So if netbooks and tablet netbooks are going to be of limited appeal to students what about ebook readers? Probably not for the foreseeable future. I would argue that the majority of students are looking for multi-function media rich devices like their phone or iPod.

Phones

A potential challenger to Apples dominancy is the Google backed Android operating system. This is an open source project and the community is working hard to compete against iPhone/iPod Touch. Already a number of manufacturers have phones (and even tablets and netbooks) running Android and the platform potentially has a lot to offer. In August last year I wrote Android Mobile OS: Pandora’s box of accessibility opportunities^[11], which gives an overview of the Android project and it’s philosophy highlighting what is already possible in terms of accessibility. Just as there have been a number of educational ‘apps’ for the iPhone, Android is already being used in this area (one use which I covered in the last review was for electronic voting^[12]).

Mobile futures

So what has this review shown? Mobile technology has been and will continue to be an important part of life and learning. This is highlighted in the recent Horizons Report^[13], which reconfirmed mobile computing as having a large impact on teaching and learning and I’m sure it will be a topic I’ll revisiting again and again.

Links
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/22385963@N00/2092712440/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/22385963@N00/
[3] http://tinyurl.com/y9bffel
[4] http://tinyurl.com/yj7ranb
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiFi
[6] http://tinyurl.com/pkhn86
[7] http://tinyurl.com/ygfjy46
[8] http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/2008/09/which-netbook/
[9] http://tinyurl.com/crstlq
[10] http://www.cesweb.org/
[11] http://tinyurl.com/ylkb8yx
[12] http://tinyurl.com/l3aqz9
[13] http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf

Creating a PDF or eBook from an RSS feed (feedbooks.com)

Martin Hawksey — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:03:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I was interested to read Joss Winn’s blog post on Creating a PDF or eBook from an RSS feed^[1] in which he highlights using the FeedBooks^[2] service. This was ideal timing as we are always looking for new ways to make RSC NewsFeed^[3] readable in as many formats as possible.

The post has generated a number of comments, in particular, James Kwak at baselinescenario^[4] mentioned that a limitation of FeedBooks was that it didn’t include the post author or date in the automatically generated eBook.

This is very easy to do using Yahoo Pipes. Here is my ‘feedbooks pipe^[5]’. You can either run this pipe entering the url of the RSS feed of your blog. This will let you get the RSS feed required for FeedBooks (step 4 in Joss’s instructions). Alternatively you can just enter http://pipes.yahoo.com/mashe/feedbooks?_render=rss&url={enter your blog rss feed url here}^[6]. Feel free to clone this pipe if you would like to experiment with other manipulations. I’ve already created this extended version for WordPress users to only include last months posts^[7].

[All this pipe is doing is taking the feed url, copying the pubDate (item publish date), then using Regex^[8] to edit some of the post items. The first regex replaces the long date format (e.g. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:03:54 +0000) by extracting the pattern ‘digits character digits’. The next 2 entries modify the post description by putting ‘the author {dc:creator} | the date {date} plus break return’ before the existing content]

Links
[1] http://tinyurl.com/yevyoh2
[2] http://www.feedbooks.com
[3] http://scottish-rscs.org.uk/newsfeed/
[4] http://baselinescenario.com/
[5] http://pipes.yahoo.com/mashe/feedbooks
[6] 400 - Bad Request

400 - Bad Request

[7] http://tinyurl.com/yjmnndp
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

What I’ve starred this week: January 19, 2010

Martin Hawksey — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:01:33 +0000

Here's some posts which have caught my attention this week:

French Government Also Warns Against Using Internet Explorer^[1] – January 19, 2010 – If you are looking to argue that IE shouldn’t be the default browser on your campus this is a good starting point #N
Time For A Blog Revival?^[2] – January 16, 2010
2010 Horizon Report^[3] – January 15, 2010 – “identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years.” via @HelenHRSC @c4lpt #N
Transforming Higher Education Through Technology Enhanced Learning book – chapter visualisations^[4] – January 14, 2010
Too many cooks, not enough cash^[5] – January 14, 2010
Reflections on CETIS’s “Future of Interoperability Standards” Meeting^[6] – January 14, 2010
Do you have to do social media to get social media?^[7] – January 14, 2010
Presentations and recordings from Innovating e-Learning 2009 now available^[8] – January 13, 2010
What is social learning – and why does it matter?^[9] – January 13, 2010 – I’m looking fwd to consuming more of OU’s @sociallearn project. Nice post on ‘What is social learning – and why does it matter?’
3 Ways Educators Are Embracing Social Technology^[10] – January 12, 2010 – @mashable article ‘3 Ways Educators Are Embracing Social Technology’- Skype, Mobile and Twitter highlighted

Automatically generated from my Google Reader Shared Items^[11].

Links
[1] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/R5x9rOP8FBw/
[2] http://tinyurl.com/yd7jrqh
[3] http://tinyurl.com/yblgwqb
[4] http://elearning.heacademy.ac.uk/weblogs/ea/?p=484
[5] http://tinyurl.com/y93edas
[6] http://tinyurl.com/ychk6uo
[7] http://tinyurl.com/ye86k7m
[8] http://tinyurl.com/y8m9z8c
[9] http://tinyurl.com/ydryp56
[10] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/6-ZQDINtg04/
[11] http://www.google.com/reader/shared/11609741331127149470

This week’s solutions: export twitter followers, auto anchors for WordPress and shortening urls in twitter badges

Martin Hawksey — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:03:54 +0000

Thought I’d share some solutions I’ve found for problems I’ve encountered this week.

Problem: How to export a table (*.xls or *.csv) of twitter followers?
Solution: I first tried http://twitterexport.com/^[1] which was good because it didn’t ask for twitter account login details, but the results are limited to 100 entries. I then tried http://tweetake.com/^[2] which did the job (but does require twitter username and password)

Problem: Adding anchors to WordPress blog?
Solution: This problem was asked by our e-learning accessibility expert, Craig Mill. He wanted to make some of his longer blog posts more accessible by having a table of contents at the top. The solution was very straight forward as MindWireMedia^[3] have created the Auto Anchor List plugin^[4] which does exactly what we were looking for. The plugin scans though posts and pages looking for headings, automatically creating a navigable contents list at the beginning of the post. To see it in action check out Craig’s e-Inclusion Blog^[5]

Problem: How to reformat long urls in twitter badges? We had a problem with urls in the @rsc_ne_scotland^[6] twitter badge which we use for News announcements on our site^[7].
Solution: Using help from this how-to on Taco Quest^[8] and code from sevenofnine on whirlpool.net.au^[9] I came up with the code below. If you would like to use it just grab this JavaScript file^[10] to replace ‘http://twitter.com/javascripts/ blogger.js’ (this method of creating twitter badges has changed but here is an explanation for adding an old widget^[11]):

function twitterCallback2(twitters) { var statusHTML = []; for (var i=0; i var username = twitters[i].user.screen_name; var status = twitters[i].text.replace(/((https?|s?ftp|ssh)\:\/\/[^"\s\<\>]*[^.,;'">\:\s\<\>\)\]\!])/g, function(url) { var lm = 28; var strD = url.split(""); var strB = ""; var strT = ""; var breakChar = "..."; for(var i=0; i < strD.length; i++){ strB += strD[i] ; if(strB.length >= lm){ strT += strB + breakChar; strB = ""; } } if(strD.length < lm){ strT = url; } return ''+strT+''; }).replace(/\B@([_a-z0-9]+)/ig, function(reply) { return reply.charAt(0)+'http://twitter.com/'+reply.substring(1)+'"^[12]>'+reply.substring(1)+''; }); statusHTML.push('

'+status+'
http://twitter.com/'+username+'/statuses/'+twitters[i].id+'"^[13]>'+relative_time(twitters[i].created_at)+'

');      
  }      
  document.getElementById('twitter_update_list').innerHTML = statusHTML.join('');      
}

Links
[1] http://twitterexport.com/
[2] http://tweetake.com/
[3] http://www.mindwiremedia.net/
[4] http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-anchor-links/
[5] http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/e-inclusion/
[6] http://twitter.com/rsc_ne_scotland
[7] http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/
[8] http://tinyurl.com/4xsead
[9] http://tinyurl.com/ydq4hur
[10] http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/twitter.js
[11] http://tinyurl.com/5ezbyv
[12] http://twitter.com/
[13] http://twitter.com/