Stratepedia News archives

Important changes coming to Stratepedia’s Learning Labs

Effective today, February 25, 2010, we are changing our policy regarding the Learning Labs service. We will no longer add new groups to the Learning Labs. We will continue to host and support existing groups using the site.

Why? As you may know, the Learning Labs site is the only part of the Stratepedia toolkit that we don’t develop in-house. Due to this unique status, maintaining the Learning Labs requires additional time and effort. While we are able to maintain the site in terms of stability and security, we are limited in what we can do to improve its functionality. As we move forward with integrating the Stratepedia applications with one another, we’ve learned that keeping the Learning Labs up to speed with Coaching Calendar, Dossier, and Depot is in some cases not practical and in others not even possible.

My group is already on the Learning Labs. Do we need to find a new collaboration tool? No. If you’re already using the Learning Labs, you can keep using it. If you’re interested in moving to another service, please contact us for assistance.

Can you recommend any alternatives to the Learning Labs? Watch our blog in the coming days for suggestions about other online collaboration tools. (If you’ve found a collaboration tool you like and would like to share with others, please mention it in the comments at the end of this post.)

Can I ask you more about this change in service? Sure–just drop us a line online or leave a comment below. You can also call me directly at 785-864-7088 with your questions and comments.

By Aaron | February 25th, 2010 | Comments

Recorded Depot (re)introduction webinars

A few weeks ago, we hosted two similar Depot webinars to serve as a refresher for Depot members. You can now view the recorded sessions in the archives on Stratepedia’s webinar site.

Depot (re)introduction

Aaron – Monday, Feb. 1

Amber – Thursday, Feb. 4

In the sessions we also mention the Depot Introduction Handout which is available here if you don’t already have it.

By Amber | February 23rd, 2010 | Comments

2010 International SIM Conference: Stratepedia to host pre-conference session

Aaron and I will be hosting a four-hour pre-conference session on July 13th to help kick off the 2010 International SIM Conference. Here are a few details, but be sure to watch for more information in the coming weeks.

Stratepedia for Professional Developers

8 a.m.-noon • Registration fee: $40

This workshop is for anyone interested in integrating the Stratepedia online toolkit and related social media technology into professional development and instructional coaching. We will provide an introduction to the Stratepedia toolkit and the research and philosophies driving their development; an in-depth exploration of Depot, Dossier, Coaching Calendar, and Learning Labs; guided technical training and one-on-one support; and best practices for using these tools as parts of professional development. After this session, you’ll be able to confidently use Stratepedia with teachers. This session will be held at the School of Education computer lab. Transportation will be provided from the hotel to the computer lab.

By Amber | February 1st, 2010 | Comments

Stratepedia is 3!

It’s our birthday, sort of! On this day in 2007, we ceased being contentenhancement.org and became stratepedia.org (becoming 32% more efficient, typing-wise, in the process). This blog debuted on that day to keep people up-to-date as we made the switch. It was a rocky transition but one I’m glad we made.

Of course, tools like the Content Enhancement Library (Depot’s predecessor) and the Learning Labs have been around since 2005, but it was with this name change that we really began our efforts to deliver a cohesive toolkit for strategic instruction.

Thanks very much for your continued support of our work!

Photo: Rob J. Brooks on Flickr

By Aaron | January 23rd, 2010 | Comments

Create social, interactive, online posters with Nota

I was recently asked about the use of social poster software like Glogster for professional work. After visiting Glogster, you may agree with me that while the tool lets its users create fun, creative, interactive posters, it may not be the best avenue for more professional efforts (see also: MySpace vs. Facebook or YouTube vs. Vimeo). What’s more, Glogster is blocked my some school districts, limiting its use in education. There is an alternative, though–Nota, a “dynamic whiteboard wiki,” lets you collaboratively create online, multimedia-rich posters. Read on to learn more about Nota.

Nota’s interface is fairly intuitive, especially if you’re comfortable using software like PowerPoint, Keynote, GIST, or Inspiration. You can add text, shapes, and colors; not to mention media such as images and video. Those of you familiar with GIST will recognize a similar feature My favorite feature is the built-in media search tool. Keyword searches dig into vast repositories of Creative Commons-licensed media–the cat image in my sample came from such a search. The video search finds items on YouTube, like the clip I’ve included of Don Deshler.

My first effort is a little cheesy, sure, but it hopefully gives you an idea of the functionality. Just as important, though, are Nota’s privacy and security settings–you can make your poster public, like mine, or limit access. This may make it more attractive than similar tools if you’re planning to put it to use in the classroom or other professional avenues. This tour of Nota’s features shows how easy it is to create a poster, and their education use cases may help you generate ideas for using it yourself.

Check out Nota and let us know what you think–share links to your public posters!

By Aaron | January 19th, 2010 | Comments

Stratepedia mail service updates complete

For all intents and purposes, our mail service updates are complete. There are a couple of issues we still need to tweak but they should not affect anything. If you notice anything odd, particularly related to automated messages you should get (such as from Coaching Calendar) please let us know. Thanks!

By Aaron | December 22nd, 2009 | Comments

Some Stratepedia services may be briefly unavailable Tuesday, 12/22

At some point later in the day this coming Tuesday, December 22, I will be moving e-mail services for stratepedia.org to a new mail server. If all goes to plan we’ll only be down for a few minutes.

This means three things for you:

You may encounter error messages from functions in Coaching Calendar, Depot, Dossier, and Learning Labs that try to send e-mail notifications.
You may not receive e-mail notifications from Stratepedia applications during the migration.
We may not receive messages you send to our help e-mail address (try using our online help form instead).

Sorry for the relatively late notice. We usually try to do things like this over the weekend, but with the pending holidays Tuesday will be the only day we’re all here at the same time to make sure this goes off without a hitch.

By Aaron | December 21st, 2009 | Comments

Should we do more webcasts?

This afternoon, primarily as an exercise, I updated our webcasts directory to use the new Stratepedia look. The site’s new look is online, but begs the larger question: What would you like us to do webcasts about in the future?

Amber and I have discussed this off and on in the past, and with some recent advances in our webcasting technology we can do things we couldn’t before. In addition to providing demonstrations of our own tools, we’ve also talked about demonstrations related to social media and other online utilities created outside of our shop.

Does that sound interesting? What topics would you like to see? What times work best for you–morning, afternoon, or evening? If we started this series back up by mid-January would you be likely to participate?

By Aaron | December 16th, 2009 | Comments

New feeds and new look for feeds.stratepedia.org

Our new look has made its way to our CRL and SIM-related RSS feeds page. Want to keep up with the latest news from CRL and SIM, but haven’t set up an RSS reader yet? Just head over to the feeds page for all the headlines.

I also added some new feeds to this list:

Latest posts from Jim Knight’s blog
Twitter feeds for KU-CRL and StrateTweet
Latest activity from the Big Four Ning network

Let me know if you’ve got a CRL or SIM-related feed to add to the list. Want to know more about RSS? Check out the wonderful RSS in Plain English video from Common Craft and Lee LeFever.

By Aaron | December 10th, 2009 | Comments

Our blog looks great on iPhones, too!

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, be sure to check out the mobile-friendly version of our blog. While the mobile version didn’t undergo the major redesign the regular version did, I did take some time to clean up icons and other small issues to make it easier to read the Stratepedia blog on the go. Here’s how to add Stratepedia to your home screen:

Open blog.stratepedia.org in Safari on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Press the + icon at the bottom of the screen.
Select Add to Home Screen.
Click the blue Add button.

You’re all set! Be sure to watch for mobile-friendly versions of other Stratepedia tools in 2010.

By Aaron | December 8th, 2009 | Comments