Archive for the ‘Guides’ Category

How To: Use Wikis for Business Projects

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

wiki

Jeff Hobbs, Director of Engineering at ActiveState, blogs for Mashable about How To: Use Wikis for Business Projects. If you’re thinking about using one of these collaborative tools in your workplace, you’ll want to check out his tips and recommendations:

  • Seed the Wiki
  • Capture Feedback
  • Beware the Wiki-Wary
  • Applying Wikis to User Communities
  • Just the Facts
  • Choosing the Right Wiki

Twitter Search in Plain English

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The folks at the Common Craft Show have put together another of their amazing educational videos called Twitter Search in Plain English which uses a metaphor of the small town of “Twitterville to explain concepts such as hashtags and trending topics.

Twitter Guide Book

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

twitter-guide-book

Mashable has created a one-stop hub for all things Twitter with its new Twitter Guide Book. This aggregated directory of news and resources will be continuously updated by the folks at Mashable.

100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students About Social Media

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The Teaching Degree.org blog posts about 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students About Social Media. This useful guide offers tips and resources for educators for instructing students about new media sites. Here are just a few of the 100 articles listed:

100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

pdfdb

The Hongkiat blog has put together a mega-list of 100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know. This helpful guide categorizes these niche search engines into the following types:

  • E-Book & PDF Search Engines
  • Audio/Music Search Engines
  • Video Search Engines
  • RapidShare Search Engines

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Onlinecolleges.net puts together a giant list of 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom. This guide provides Twitter tips and third party applications for the following categories:

  • Communication
  • Class Projects and Discovering Content
  • Twitter Tools
  • Finding People in Academia to Follow
  • Get Ready for Life After Graduation

10 Twitter Tools to Organize Your Tweeps

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

twitterkarma

Josh Catone at Mashable puts together a guide to 10 Twitter Tools to Organize Your Tweeps. This quick list includes annotated resources which will help you:

  • Find Out Who You’re Following
  • Find Your Friends
  • Get Rid of Inactives
  • Manage it All

The Ultimate Drupal Toolbox: 150+ Themes, Modules & Resources

Monday, June 1st, 2009

drupal_theme

If you’re interested in creating a website using the open-source Drupal content management system, you may want to check out this latest post from Noupe titled The Ultimate Drupal Toolbox: 150+ Themes, Modules & Resources. This handy guide provides resources for plugins, examples, and themes and is divided into the following sections:

  • 75 Great Drupal Themes
  • 16 of the Best Drupal-Powered Website Designs
  • 30 of the Best Drupal Modules
  • 25 Great Drupal Tutorials and Resources
  • 15 Cheat Sheets and Debugging Tools

What Everybody Ought To Know About Podcasting

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

podcasts

Sue Waters at Edublogger publishes the first in a series of posts called What Everybody Ought To Know About Podcasting: Part I. This initial article provides an overview of what podcasting is and will be followed by entries detailing how to host podcasts on your blog and how to create both audio and video podcasts.

20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Hongkiat.com comes up with a guide to 20 Facebook Tips/Tricks You Might Not Know. This useful article offers instructions for some pretty obscure FB features and hacks such as removing advertisements by utilizing a Greasemonkey script. Here are the first five tips and tricks, be sure to check out the full article for more:

  1. How to Place Facebook Chat On Firefox Sidebar
  2. How to Download Facebook Photo Albums
  3. How to Share Flickr Photos to Facebook
  4. How to Update Facebook without Using Facebook
  5. How to Schedule Facebook Messages

101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using WordPress

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

wp_cms

Noura Yehia writes the first in a 4-part series titled The Comprehensive Guide for a Powerful CMS using WordPress. The initial article Part One: 101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using WordPress, provides code snippets, hacks, and tricks for how to fully utilize WordPress as a content management system. Some of the post’s how-to’s and tutorials include instructions for:

  • Creating Two-Tiered Conditional Navigation in Wordpress
  • How to widgetize your theme
  • Set Up Custom Wordpress post Templates
  • and more.

Stay tuned to the Noupe website for the next articles in the series:

  • Part Two: 25+ Great Websites Using WordPress as CMS
  • Part Three: 40 Exceptional “CMS Enabling” WordPress Plugins
  • Part Four: The Big Contest - Winning 10 Premium WordPress Themes

Twitter for Libraries (and Librarians)

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Sarah Milstein, co-author of “Twitter and the Micromessaging Revolution,” a research report from O’Reilly Media, writes about Twitter for Libraries (and Librarians) for the May issue of Computers in Libraries.

“The essence of Twitter is conversation. Libraries, however, tend to use it as a broadcast mechanism. Libraries on Twitter should encourage followers to interact with the library—ask questions, share links, re-Tweet interesting posts from others, and reply when people message you (those are prefaced with @ your account name). For professional development, look for conference coverage on Twitter.”

Four Copywriting Techniques for Engaging Podcasts and Audio Presentations

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

Brian Clark at Copyblogger puts together a guide to Four Copywriting Techniques for Engaging Podcasts and Audio Presentations. This useful article discusses how to structure an audio presentation using techniques such as attention, empathy, solution, and action as well as how to present content in a compelling well through the following four techniques:

  1. Stories and Anecdotes
  2. Metaphors, Similes and Analogies
  3. Mirroring
  4. Mind’s Eye Scenarios

100+ Massive Wordpress Tutorial Collection

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Tripwire Magazine has produced a mega-guide to over 100 WordPress tutorials. Anyone who is just starting out with this blogging platform, or wants to develop deeper knowledge about customization and features will want to check out the 100+ Massive Wordpress Tutorial Collection. Some of the listed tutorials include:

7 Things You Should Know About Live Question Tool

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Educause has published a guide to 7 Things You Should Know About Live Question Tool. This brief article answers the following questions about this web-based application that lets audience members at a presentation pose questions for the speaker:

  1. What is it?
  2. Who’s doing it?
  3. How does it work?
  4. Why is it significant?
  5. What are the downsides?
  6. Where is it going?
  7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?