Hello readers, this is an update from jott.com. I'm actually calling a phone number and it's transcribing what I'm saying and posting to my blog. That's really, really cool.
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Today I had a wonderful, long conversation with the yearbook teacher and webmaster for one of our schools. Mostly it was polite complaining about how the people in charge just don't "get it" about marketing, customer service, and technology. Well, and leadership, if you ask me.
In our conversations about wanting to buy a content management system for her school's website, she decided to show me the website that her class uses to design their yearbook. Yes, they design their entire yearbook within a web-based application. So long, InDesign, these kids are designing in 100% dee-licious Web 2.0.
The site is called Yearbook Avenue and is a service of Jostens (who probably published my yearbooks, too, way back in the day). Unfortunately there isn't a demo login you can get access to unless you give them a call. So instead I've taken a few screencaps:
(Click for full size)
The site is much more powerful than I thought a web-based print layout application could be. The yearbook teacher gives each student in the class their own login account and from any computer on campus or at home they can work on the pages to which they are assigned. A number of students can work on it at the same time. The teacher has the ability to lock and unlock pages to specific users. She can even add virtual sticky notes on a page to tell a student what they need to edit!
One might think, "Yeah, but InDesign really will always be better." Sure, it might be. But this comes pretty darn close to the functionality of InDesign and Quark. And the built-in content/photo management system can't be beat, especially since the teacher and students can work on the book from any computer and at any time. The teacher told me she used to stay in her classroom until 10 pm working on grading students' layouts in InDesign. Not anymore. She now does that from the comfort of her home.
Photo management
Photos can be uploaded and managed by students from any computer. There is also an area for community members to upload school-related photos if they like. This school has nearly 5,000 images uploaded. Even better, when placing an image into a layout, the application will automatically tell you if the photo does not have a high-enough resolution for print. No worries about crappy cellphone camera photos at 72 dpi.
Printing and Previewing
For proofing purposes, students can easily make a PDF of the layout with the click of a button. They can also view a "virtual" book and literally flip through the pages to get a feel for how it will look when printed and bound.
All-in-all this is a fantastic application. It is a great example of how technology, and Web 2.0 in particular, can be used in the classroom. And while I'm on the subject, why do I call this Web 2.0? Honestly, I'm not quite sure what Web 2.0 really is. I'll look it up tonight perhaps. But its starting to crystalize in my mind that Web 2.0 is the trend of web-based applications replacing software applications: Google documents replacing Microsoft Word, Flickr replacing iPhoto, and Yearbook Avenue replacing InDesign (at least for yearbooks).
Maybe I'm wrong, but this is certainly an exciting trend!
I'm a major information design junkie. I love intricate timelines and maps and anything color coded. So when I first saw Geni I just about fell off my bed.
As always, I'm a little late on this one. Geni was launched back in January 2007 and is the new way of creating your family tree online. Yes, there are still Ancestry.com and GenCircles and a few dozen software packages, including my former favorite Family Tree Legends.
But there are two major differences in Geni that make it better: 1. the user interface is highly intuitive and looks great, and 2. you can 'invite' family members via e-mail so that they can add to the tree as well! I immediately added my parents and before you know it my mom had added 35 new people to the tree!
I can't express how beautifully made this website is. This is information design at its best. Years ago for a college graphic design project I created my own family tree book with cards for each family member, but my attempt was no where near as wonderful as Geni.
And if you've already got your family tree in a gedcom-format database (created through many geneology software apps), and don't want to manually add each person to Geni, not to worry because the folks at Geni are working on a GEDCOM import/export feature. I can't wait!
So I'm looking to find an
Atari 2600 adapter for my mom's old Atari that she's mailing me and of course what better place to look for old junk than
Ebay? But what do we have here? An Ebay... with RSS feeds! Yippeee!
Apparently I'm a
few months late on this one, as they made this change permanent back in November. I do remember being very excited when I saw the "trial run" of RSS on Ebay before that. I guess I just haven't been on the site in a long while to notice.
Anyway, now when I search for something on Ebay, in this case "
atari adapter," at the waaaay bottom there's an RSS button that will give you the RSS feed for that search. Pop that into
Google Reader and voila, automated checking of new auctions that fit those search terms.
Now at first I thought, what's the difference between an RSS reader and just adding a link to your bookmarks? The difference is that the RSS feed knows when you've seen something before and can tell you when there's something new for you to look at.
In other words, less time checking all blog pages individually to find that only a couple have new content posted. And now I have more time to check other sites I've never tried before, like
Slashdot,
Techcrunch, and
Ads of the World.
More on the wonders of RSS:
"Why aren't you using RSS?" on
blogcritics.org.
Now, excuse me while I set up my Ebay RSS feed for size 4.5 shoes with a heel height of 3" and up.
I just found out my boss and probably at least one governing board member (if not all 5) aren't paying attention to the blogs about our district.
I don't care what anyone says, all the old people need to wake up and join the 21st century. To miss all the meaningful conversation that is happening on these blogs is not acceptable. Our base customers - parents and students - are using this technology every day. But many (not all) in the older generation are used to their ways, mainly ignoring the wave of technology that the younger folks can't live without.
I don't expect these people to have a
Twitter account. But at least know and understand what it is. Set up
Google alerts for your own name and district and each of your schools and school board members. Check out
myspace (if it's not blocked by Websense). Force yourself into being *curious* for goodness sake!
We're letting our customers just pass us by. What a shame.
