Category: Uncategorized

So many tools, so little time!

~ joanvinallcox ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday while glancing through my Tweets, I stumbled across a request by @wmacphail to go to an address. Since I've always found his work interesting, I clicked. I ended up on an app he'd embedded in a course wiki, which let me talk to him and another guest. We were on tokbox – http://www.tokbox.com/ – a videochat tool.

I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

When I DMed @wmacphail my thanks for introducing me to tokbox, he sent me another link, showing me how LiveScribe works – http://www.livescribe.com/ – and I fell into equipment lust. I want one, but I'll have to save up first.


I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

Then my colleagues in the HPCA Google Group sent around an amusing video with robot-like characters made with Xtranormal – http://www.xtranormal.com/ – and this tool looked like fun.


I wish I had time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

While scanning through my Posterous subscription to Steve Rubel's LifeStream this morning, – http://www.steverubel.com/google-preps-server-side-clipboard – I saw the link to the post about the Google Cloudboard – http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-cloudboard.html – and it looks very useful.


I hope I'll have time to experiment with it. I hope, when it becomes available, people will let me know how it works for them.

In my Inbox this morning, I found an invitation to Google Wave, and I'm so-o-o- curious, and so short of time!


I'm determined to have time to experiment with it. I hope people let me know how it works for them.

Joan Vinall-Cox
Social Media & Learning

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Getting Published Seminar – Brian Henry

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

I’ll admit it; I tend to be hyper-critical of people trying to teach writing, but only because I’ve spent over 35 years doing so myself. So when I signed up myself and the young teen I’m mentoring to a seminar on how to get published, I had a cynical edge. I was prepared to spend from 10:00 to 4:00 on a Sunday closeted in a small room in the back of Toronto’s World’s Biggest Bookstore only because a colleague I respect spoke highly of Brian Henry’s impact on her writing, and because the seminar fee was relatively low, aspiring writers being a frugal crowd.

It didn’t start well. Just after 10:00, standing outside the locked doors of a store that didn’t open till 11:00 on Sundays, directly in the wafting stream of pot smoke, with a 16 year old entrusted to me by her parents – I was having negative thoughts. Then I saw someone approaching the door from the inside; it was unlocked and we were escorted in.

We found our seats, and settled in. Within 10 minutes, I was won over. As a long time teacher, it was clear to me that Brian Henry knew both his stuff and how to manage a class. When participants focusing on their own specific questions interrupted, he answered clearly and then steered back to his (well) planned presentation with no show of irritation. I really enjoyed his sense of humour, and his passion for what he was teaching. Both my young friend and I found him easy to understand and we felt we learned what we needed to know for our next step in getting her novel published – how to write a query letter. Listening to an actual agent who is taking on authors was a bonus.

So thanks, Brian Henry – http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/ – and here’s my recommendation to any aspiring writers in the GTA – sign up for one of his seminars – http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/search/label/*%20%20Brian%20Henry%27s%20schedule

Joan Vinall-Cox
JNthWEB Consulting – http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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Gmail’s Tasks, and Why I Use It ((no gallery))

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

This morning I will assemble a newsletter that has been sent to me by email, an article at a time. I find gmail's Tasks invaluable in doing this.

In the image below, the Tasks link in the left sidebar has an arrow pointing out its position. It used to be in labs (the green lab jar at the top just to the right of your gmail address) but is now integrated.

Arrows also point to what its window looks like opened, and where you can click on the icon to minimize it.

Tasks can sit tidily out of the way bottom right, or, if you click on the bar icon, open in the Inbox window. If you click on the angled arrow icon, it opens as a separate window. Or you can close it altogether by clicking on the "X".

Here's where to find Tasks:

Here's what Tasks looks like close up:

Notice the "related email" links – When they come in to my inbox, I label the message, but I also go to More Actions menu and down to Add to Tasks for every related message, and there I have it, listed in Tasks with the relevant link! You can also see

  • Minimize, Separate Window, and Close icons at the top right
  • Actions menu bottom left for a number of possibilities

  • 3 icons, bottom right, for adding another task, trashing, and going to a Tasks menu.

All-in-all a handy little tool!

(Now I can't put off working on the newsletter any longer ;-> and will go to work on it, using gmail's Tasks!)

Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD
JNthWEB Consulting – http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning

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