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Deconstructing the new interface
A number of people asked exactly how I put together our new interface.
Though I really resist sharing this site as a model–it is still very much a messy work in progress–I do think it may be valuable to share what I learned as I built it.
The really important stuff:
I learned two critical building concepts when all this 2.0 stuff started:
1. Most of the growing number of available apps play super well together. It’s all a kind of jigsaw puzzle. But in this particular puzzle, all the pieces want to want to fit into each other. And so, the completed puzzle can morph in a myriad of beautiful ways. Unlike other jigsaws, this one has no one right configuration. You can create anything with your pieces. This is called a mashup.
2. A number of handy-dandy parking lots not only allow you to park your media, they also give you the lovely gift of embed code, so that you can park your media anywhere else for free. (See number 1.) These parking lots are called the cloud.
In creating our Virtual Library, I used the following pieces:
- Wikispaces for Teachers is my current building platform. I chose to use a wiki over a blog for my main canvas because I wanted a stable front page for my interface, one that wasn’t continually superceded by newer content. Wikispaces for Teachers is free and ad-free for K12 purposes.
- I am using Glogster for our image map. (Recently, I spoke with Jim and Andrew of Glogster and they whispered that exciting enhancements are coming very soon for their K12 users.)
- I am using the super-easy PollDaddy for my genre polls. You may want to choose any of a number other equally effective polling tools. In fact, I am using Google Forms for our Current Awareness service and for our Materials Suggestion form.
- I used a Google Docs template to create our September newsletter.
- I used Picnik to create that little snapshot logo in the left corner of the wiki.
- I mentioned in a recent blog post that we are using Wordle for our genre posters.
- To create our database widgets, I used these links:
- Our pathfinders now come in two different flavors. Some are wikis. I’ve chosen to create individual wikis to accomodate multiple pages as our pathfinders grow. (Some of the links on the nav bars are pages; others are links to other related wikis within our site.) The more newsy of our pathfinders are PageFlakes. I wanted to use these pathfinders for more dynamic subjects, so I could aggregate the many newsfeeds our students don’t even know they need. You might also choose NetVibes for this purpose. (For more personal information portal options.)
- I chose the Washington Post TimeSpace Widgets for its dynamic, visual news feed. Many other news feed options are available. I also chose a local feed.
- I’ve played with both the Twitter Profile Widget and Twidget to make library announcements.
- I am using both FlickrSlider and Flickr’s own very easy RSS functions to embed image sets and groups from our Springfield Life and Art Galleries.
- If you dig really deep down on our pages, you’ll see that I’ve used Slideshare to embed PowerPoint lessons, my own and those of others.
- I use a variety of Nings to park video and grab embed code for our News Broadcasts and online lessons and book trailers. We also use Nings to host class discussions and lit circles and our OneBookOneSpringfield events. (Sorry, many of these are protected.)
- And many of our archived student projects were created using digital storytelling tools like Voicethread and Animoto. Nearly all of these new tools offer that lovely embed code.
For advanced users: I really wanted to change the background color on my wiki homepage space to match the background of the photograph I chose for our Glogster image map. This is not an obvious Wikispaces edit. I found a way to do it using code on an FAQ page written by NeilSunderland.
I suspect there are a zillion different new ways to put a library website together. Take a look at New Tools Workshop, my page on Assorted Widgets, and these examples of effective practice for MANY other ideas.
Update: Modeling works. Today the seniors went a little embed crazy, selected all sorts of widgets and feeds to add to their own research wikis!
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Hope this helps! Please share more ideas in Comments.
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About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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