UPDATE: http://www.freevideocoding.com/ is now back online!

If you were shown how to get the code needed to post your own videos (such as flip etc), the site is no longer active and so any videos you posted using this code will not play your videos.  Please delete those modules until another solution can be found.  Deleting the module will only remove the video from your site since the video is already uploaded into your library.

Web 2.0 sites such as Delicious, Animoto, Google Apps and Glogster encourage you to embed their tools into your own website or blog.  You may have seen it done on our own district website and wondered how to do it yourself.

With the content management system that we use in the district, you can easily add html code to add enhancements to your website.  Luckily, you do not have to understand or even know html to embed their tools onto your website; it is as easy as copy and paste!

An added benefit to many of these web 2.0 tools that allow you to embed their tools onto your site is, once they are embeded, you never have to update the module on your website.  For example, if you embed a Google Calendar on your website, you only need to maintain the Google Calendar since the code makes sure that it is dynamically updated (synchronized) as soon as you make any changes!

So, how do you get these on your website.  The ‘hardest’ part may be finding the code from the web 2.0 application. 

Once you find it, you simply copy the code and paste it into the module text area of a content module; save, publish and voila!

There are two ways to post a link on your website. (1)By entering the URL into your Resource Links library and adding into a Content Resource Library Module or (2)by creating the link using the ‘External Link’ formatting button.

Use the following steps to create a manual link using the ‘External Link’ formatting button.

1.  Copy the URL and paste it into the External Link field:

2.  Highlight the text within your *Module Text that you want people to click on: 

3.  Click the External Link button…

4.  …and it will add code around your highlighted text making a link.

If you have been trying to enroll your students with Google in order to use the Google Docs feature, some students may be asked to provide a cell phone number to complete the validation.  We are aware of this new ‘feature’ and at this time only have a work around. 

Start at the create an igoogle page and click register from there and then add Docs to their list of resources.  This should allow them to create the google account without requiring the cell phone or an email to verify.

We hope this will not deter you from using Google Docs with your students and if you continue to run into problems, do not hesitate to contact me or the help desk.

Anyone who has previously been trained on maintaining websites with iAdmin is encouraged to attend the Latte Hours offered twice per month in the Technology Conference Room after school from 3:30-5:00. Dates/times for the 2009-2010 school year are now available in the Staff Tracker.

If you do not have access to maintain a website and would like to set up individual training time, fill out the online website form. *Note: There will not be time to do this during the Latte Hour.

Latte Hours are an informal opportunity for staff to meet with Technology and other staff.  Staff must register in the Staff Tracker. The Web Pages session can be use to get refresher help on maintaining your Web sites and/or share what others are doing with your sites or just to take an hour to sit an update your site without the distractions.

Everyone is REQUIRED to bring their LAPTOP! If you are responsible for maintaining a Web page and do not have a laptop, please notify the facilitator to ensure a check out machine can be assigned to you for the session.

Lattes, Italian sodas, hot chocolate and hot apple cider are available for $2. Pre-orders will be taken when a reminder email to the participants who have enrolled in the Staff Tracker is sent out the day before or morning of the session.

*Note: If you are unable to attend latte hours after school and would be interested in sessions offered before school, please contact me @ melissa_ochsner@bismarckschools.org