Librarians and Emerging Technologies

I have been visiting lots of library related websites and blogs. I am finding there is alot of information posted on them about emerging technologies.

As Deborah mentioned in a blog entry, Librarians are our friends .

Here are some of the websites that I thought were interesting about emerging technologies:

• Information Wants To Be Free
• Blogs & RSS
• InfoTangle

Publications and Blogs

I recently read an article on nature.com titled "Science in the web age: Joint efforts". The article is about The American Journal of Bioethics having an associated blog.

Text from the article -

Blogs associated with traditional journals may help bridge the gap between the literature and blogs, says Glenn McGee, editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Bioethics. The leading journal in its field, it was the first to create a companion blog, Blog.Bioethics.Net.

The bioethics blog allows the journal to respond faster and in different ways to public controversies, says McGee. The blog has high impact, he adds, often influencing reporting on ethical issues by the mainstream media.

Print journals cannot keep up with developments in certain fields, adds Gavin Schmidt, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, who blogs at RealClimate.org with other climate scientists.

After reading this article, I came up with more ideas for nonprofit blogs. Nonprofits can create blogs for their publications, and to discuss the issues and news related to their organization. This would allow the readers of publications and people interested in the mission of the organization to join in on the discussion and to keep up to date. The readers of the blog can post comments and link to the blog on their blog or website. If the blog allows comments, people can see who else is interested in the issues and meet new people with their same interests.

Tagging and Social Networking with Books

I recently discovered Library Thing, an online service to help people catalog their books.

Here are some of the features of Library Thing:

• You add books by searching Amazon and other libraries.
• You can use Library Thing to find people with similar libraries and get suggestions from people with your interests.
• You can also add tags to your books and find books by tags. (just like del.icio.us and Flickr)
• You can learn more about a user by clicking on their user profile.

There are so many more features about this website. To find out more about Library Thing, check out About Library Thing .

Some questions to think about:

• How can web designers/technologists use Library Thing?
• How can educators use Library Thing?
• How can non-profits use Library Thing?

4Teachers.org

4Teachers.org has great tools for educators to use.

Tools:

• TrackStar - Educators can use this site to create online lessons by collecting websites to create a track. You can also search the database of tracks by keywords, subjects, and grades.
• RubiStar - Educators can create rubrics and search for already made rubrics.
• Web Worksheet Wizard - Educators can create a simple webpage and search for already made webpages.

How Nonprofits Can Use Social Bookmarking and Blogs

I recently started thinking about how nonprofits can find people interested in their issue and organization by using social bookmarking and blogs.

Social Bookmarking using del.icio.us

A nonprofit can use social bookmarking by bookmarking their organization site, blogs, and other related sites about their issue. Then they can see if any users have already bookmarked their sites and what tags they use. From there they can view a tag stream to find new resources.

Example:


I bookmarked the American Red Cross website on del.icio.us. There are 48 others who bookmarked this website. I then click on where it says 48 other people. It takes me to the following page.




If I look on the right, I can see a list of the most popular tags used to tag the American Red Cross website. These tags include charity, donate, disaster, relief, hurricane, volunteer, katrina, health, nonprofit, reference, education, aid, medicine, and emergency. I could then click on each of these tags and find more bookmarks with these tags.

If I scroll down the page, I can look at each user and see what they tagged for the American Red Cross. I can also click on each user and see what other bookmarks they saved and the tags they use.

Some users include a link to their website on the top of their user page. If users provide a link to a website, I can learn more about them. If you have a website or blog (or any other site), I encourage you to include that in your user information so it will show up in your user page.


Social bookmarking can help nonprofits in many ways. By bookmarking blogs, blog entries, and nonprofit websites, nonprofits can see how many people bookmark a site. They can also see who is interested in their nonprofit or topic.


Blogs and Technorati

In addition to social bookmarking, nonprofits can search blogs to see who is writing about them or a particular topic.

For example, I want to find out what blogs mention the American Red Cross. I go to technorati , and click search. I then put in "American Red Cross", and I get the following screen.



30, 171 blogs/blog entries mention the American Red Cross.

I can then go through the list and look at these blogs. I can comment on them and contact these bloggers.


Now I want to find out what blogs link to the American Red Cross website. On technorati I put www.redcross.com in the search and I get the following screen.




I see that 15,114 blogs/blog entries provide a link to the American Red Cross website.

I can then do the same as I mentioned above.




* Note: I used the American Red Cross as an example because of the recent disasters.

Social Networking and Nonprofits

I recently read a post about social networking and nonprofits on Betsy's Blog. I started thinking about how nonprofits can make use of social networking sites.

As a member of a bunch of social/business networking sites, I know nonprofits can make use of these sites.

Nonprofits can find future volunteers and employees by searching through profiles of members of these sites. Some of these sites allow you to create groups, many of them have a category for nonprofit groups. If a nonprofit creates a group, members can join these groups, and the nonprofit can see what members are interested.

I am interested in hearing about how nonprofits are using social networking sites.

World Usability Day

World Usability Day is tomorrow.

As some of you know, usability is a topic I am interested in, especially as it relates to nonprofits and education.

Here are some usability links:

http://www.useit.com/

http://www.usabilityviews.com/index.html

GuideStar - How Good Is Your Web Site? The Importance of User Feedback

GuideStar- Does Your Web Site Give People What They Want?

Jakob Nielsen: Web Site Usability and Accessibility for NPOs

Kids' Corner: Website Usability for Children

Usability of Websites for Teenagers

Writing About Blog Entries

Tonight I learned about a website that had information on how to mark a book. This website seems to be more for educators and actually marking a book. As I was reading this, I realized some of these ideas could apply to writing about blogs.

I was thinking about how this could relate to the Nonprofit Blog Exchange. One of the goals of the exchange is to encourage nonprofit bloggers to write an entry in their blog about another nonprofit blog.

Listed below are a few ideas which might help when writing about another blog.

• Comments agreeing or disagreeing with the blog or blog entry
• Write about something that happened to you that the blog or blog entry reminds you of
• Does the blog or blog entry remind you of something else? A song? Another blog?

How to Tag Hurricane Katrina Bookmarks on del.icio.us

The blog entry titled Tagging for Katrina on You're It! has great information about tags, tagging blog entries on Technorati, and a table of suggested tags.

However, I have not seen an entry yet about tagging for Hurricane Katrina on del.icio.us.

What is del.icio.us?

Del.icio.us is a great tool to share bookmarks with others. When you add a bookmark, you add tags that are related to the link.

How can del.icio.us help you find and share Hurricane Katrina related websites?

You can find and share:

• News articles about Katrina
• Organizations who are helping out
• Information about volunteering and donating
• Information about missing people and people who have been found
• Information about missing pets and pets who have been found
• Education websites about Hurricane Katrina and Hurricanes
  

Finding bookmarks tagged by others

By adding tags to your bookmarks, it helps others find bookmarks you use.

For example, you are looking for bookmarks related to Hurricane Katrina that are tagged with hurricanekatrina.

How do you find these bookmarks?

Example:

http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricanekatrina

http://del.icio.us/tag/tagname goes here


What if you wanted to find a bookmark that uses both a hurricanekatrina tag and neworleans tag?

Example :

http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricanekatrina+neworleans

http://del.icio.us/tag/tagname goes here + tagname goes here

Hurricane Katrina related tags

Listed below are Hurricane Katrina related tags and the del.icio.us links to the tags that might have resources to help you. I am sure there are more tags, but this is a start.

• disaster AND relief
  http://del.icio.us/tag/disaster+relief
• hurricane
  http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricane
• hurricane AND blog
  http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricane+blog
• hurricane AND katrina
  http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricane+katrina
• hurricanekatrina
  http://del.icio.us/tag/hurricanekatrina
• katrina
  http://del.icio.us/tag/katrina
  (lots of bookmarks here)
• katrina AND news
  http://del.icio.us/tag/katrina+news
• neworleans
  http://del.icio.us/tag/neworleans
• nola
  http://del.icio.us/tag/nola
• volunteer
  http://del.icio.us/tag/volunteer

How to Add an American Red Cross Donate Now Button to Your Website or Blog

Code for an animated Red Cross button:

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.redcross.org/">
<img alt="Donate to the Red Cross" src="http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/news/images/badge-rc-anim-125x125.gif" width="125" height="125" /></a></p>


Code for a static Red Cross button:

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.redcross.org/">
<img alt="Donate to the Red Cross"
src="http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/news/images/badge-rc-static-help-125x125.gif" width="125" height="125" /></a></p>

Thanks to Deborah and Rebecca for posting information about this.

Blog Day 2005

Here are the 5 blogs I recommend for Blog Day 2005:

1. The Future of Mathematics: This is a great blog for math educators. The entries have information on using Flickr, blogs, and digital images for teaching math.
2. Information Wants to Be Free: This blog has information about libraries, technology, and job searching.
3. SimpleBits: This blog has information on designing websites.
4. WCC Family Tech: Each entry of this blog has links to education related websites.
5. Spark Armada: This blog is written by the person who came up with the idea for blog day. Most of the entries are about blog day. There are some entries about technology and Israel.

Blog Day Website

Links about Nonprofit Blogs

TechSoup -An Introduction to Weblogs

TechSoup - Ready to Start Blogging?

TechSoup - Profiles of Nonprofit Weblogs

Blogs for Non-Profit Orgs - Global PR Blog Week 1.0

onPhilanthropy - Four Steps to Better Online Communications

onPhilanthropy - Blogging as an Effective Fundraising Strategy

Blogging for Nonprofits: There's Less to This Than Meets the Eye

Non-Profits Can Profit From Blogs

Should Your Nonprofit Launch a Blog?

Tagging Missions of Organizations

I started researching organizations to help me with my job search and I have been looking at the missions of these various organizations. Even though I am looking for a technology related position, I decided I would first focus on organizations whose missions interest me. I am interested in organizations related to education, environment, and health.

Through my research and the recent posts about the use of Flickr for nonprofits, I have realized the nptech tag can be used in other ways. Learning about tagging is not just a skill for techies, it is a skill for anyone.

More uses of nptech

• bookmark blogs of non-profit organizations
• bookmark blogs or blog entires about an issue
• take pictures at non-profit related events and tag them on Flickr
• write a blog entry about an issue and tag it using tags on Technorati

How can non-profit organizations use tags?

• Tag images, bookmarks, and blog entries to share with others who might be interested in the mission of your organization.
• Look at the users of the tags and see who else is interested in the mission of your organization
• Find images on Flickr related to the mission of your organization. Images found on the Creative Commons section can be used for websites, newsletters, or blog entries.
• Find bookmarks on Del.icio.us to help with researching about the mission of your organization.
• Find blog entries on Technorati related to the mission of your organization.
  

Tags (missions, events, organizations)

• conservation
• ecology
• pollution
• raceforthecure
• recycling
• redcross
• wildlife
  

I will be adding to this list as I find more tags.

I decided to write an entry about this topic after reading the following blog entries:

Wonder what flickr has to do with nonprofits?

Digital Images for Nonprofits, Courtesy of Flickr and Creative Commons

Flickr and Nonprofits

Participating in the nptech tag experiment

Since January, I have been participating in the nptech tagging experiment on del.icio.us.

My interest in nptech tag

Since I graduated college last year, my career goal has been to find a web design or training position in Washington, DC with either a nonprofit organization or technology company that provides services to nonprofits.

A year ago, I started researching the internet to learn more about nonprofit technology and how I would be able to make a difference. Through my web searches I found nonprofit technology resources like Techsoup and the Information Systems Forum. Then my list of nonprofit technology resources grew. I had a collection of links that included nonprofit technology organizations, web design companies in DC that design websites for non-profits, and articles that interested me relating to nonprofits and technology.

In December 2004, I first learned about the nptech tagging experiment on del.icio.us. At first I was not sure I wanted to participate in this experiment since I do not work in nonprofit technology yet and did not know what nonprofit technology professionals would be interested in. I also did not know anything about tagging, but was willing to learn.

After reading more about the experiment, I finally decided to participate and sign up on del.icio.us.

How do I use the nptech tag?

I first started using nptech to tag my bookmarks that I already found that were nonprofit technology related. I wanted to share my links with others. Since my interest is in designing websites for nonprofits, I started sharing bookmarks related to that.

As I spent more time tagging nptech, I started sharing blogs and articles about nonprofit blogging. I also started sharing websites and articles about usability, accessibility, and anything else web design related that nonprofits might be interested in.

I also browse the nptech tag stream on del.icio.us to see what other nonprofit resources nptech taggers are tagging.

What have I gained by participating in this?

By participating in the nptech tag experiment, I have learned more about nonprofit technology and how to tag with del.icio.us. I also learned about blogs and started reading nonprofit related blogs. I have also met new people by participating in nptech tagging.

Ideas for Nonprofit Blogs

After reading Deborah's blog entry titled Blogging for Nonprofits: There's Less to This Than Meets the Eye , I decided to write an entry on ideas for nonprofit blogs.

In my opinion, a blog for nonprofits can be compared to a newsletter.

What would nonprofits want their readers to find out about their organization?

Here are some ideas for what to include in a blog for a nonprofit organization:

• News
• Upcoming events
• Past events
• Wish list
• Articles about the organization
• Links to websites /articles related to the mission of the organization
• Pictures
• Facts about topics relevant to mission of organization
• How to get involved in the organization
  

Teacher Training and Integrating Technology

I recently came across an article on The Town Times website titled "Integrating Technology Throughout District 13". This article is about a technology integration plan for a district in Connecticut.

As I read the article, I noticed that it described one of the current problems with integrating technology into the classroom.

What is the problem?

As the article states, there are two kinds of people when it comes to technology.

1. Digital Immigrants - People who remember life before computers and e-mail.
2. Digital Natives- These people are children. They have lived with technology all their lives, and it is a part of their every day lives.

Schools in this district (and probably in many other districts & schools around the world) are being filled with digital natives and they are being taught by digital immigrants.

Teacher Training

This district is trying to help teachers learn technology and how to integrate it in the classroom so technology can continue to be a part of the students every day life.

Some teachers integrate technology into the classroom more than others. The district hopes to develop a way to ensure that each student will have the same exposure to technology.

I thought this article had some great points about the importance of teacher training and integrating technology into the classroom.

Usability in Educational and Non-Profit Websites

I have noticed that many educational and non-profit related websites lack usability, especially when it comes to links.

Here are a few articles about links and usability:


Change the Color of Visited Links

Guidelines for Visualizing Links

Broken links and poor information architecture design

How to make links work for your website

Integrating Websites into Teaching

I realized recently that many educators do not know how to integrate websites into their teaching.

Making use of Websites

Educators might know about websites that could be used for teaching, but they do not know how it fits into their lessons.

There are many ways educators can make use of websites. Here are a few ways:

• Educators can find information to help them plan lessons.
• Educators can create webquests or online scavenger hunts.
• If there is Internet access in the classroom, the class can go on a virtual tour.

Bookmarks on del.icio.us and Planning Lessons

In a previous post, I mentioned the use of del.icio.us for educators. Since then I have thought of another way del.icio.us can be used for educators.

You have found lots of educational related websites. You decide to bookmark them with tags on del.icio.us so it will be easy for you to find in the future.

For example, you found a lesson on the Smithsonian Education Website. The lesson is titled Minerals, Crystals, and Gems.

You bookmarked the page with the following tags on del.icio.us - minerals, science, crystals, gems, lessons, smithsonian

Now it is the future and you are planning a lesson on minerals. You remembered finding a lesson on the Smithsonian Education Website about minerals.

To locate the link, you go to your del.icio.us bookmarks and go to the following page-

http://del.icio.us/(username)/smithsonian+minerals

Now you have found the bookmark to help with your lesson.

The Future of Educational Websites

As a web designer, I am very interested in the future of educational websites. However, I would not want to create an educational website unless I knew it would be helpful. I am curious what types of websites educators are interested in.

Have you ever taught a topic and thought "I wish I could find a great website about this topic"? If you have, I would like to know.

In my opinion, websites need to have more instruction on how educators can make use of the site.

Tagging Bookmarks with del.icio.us for Educators

Have you ever used del.icio.us?

It is a great tool to share bookmarks with others. When you add a bookmark, you add tags that are related to the link.

How can educators and students use this?

There are many possibilities, and I am interested in exploring this more.Educators can tag and share their favorite educational websites and websites used to plan lessons. Educators can also organize their bookmarks better for courses or subjects they teach by using tags. Students can tag bookmarks they use for assignments. Students working on group projects can share bookmarks with each other.

Finding bookmarks tagged by others

By adding tags to your bookmarks, it helps others find bookmarks you use. For example, you are looking for bookmarks related to math that are tagged with math.

How do you find these bookmarks?

http://del.icio.us/tag/tagname goes here

Example: http://del.icio.us/tag/math

What if you wanted to find a bookmark that uses both a math tag and education tag?

http://del.icio.us/tag/math+education

http://del.icio.us/tag/tagname goes here + tagname goes here

Education related tags

Listed below are education related tags that might have resources to help you. I am sure there are more tags, but this is a start.

Click the link and start exploring!!

http://del.icio.us/tag/ed

http://del.icio.us/tag/edu

http://del.icio.us/tag/education

http://del.icio.us/tag/teach

http://del.icio.us/tag/teaching

http://del.icio.us/tag/teacher

http://del.icio.us/tag/teachers

http://del.icio.us/tag/classroom

http://del.icio.us/tag/k12

http://del.icio.us/tag/elementary

http://del.icio.us/tag/highered

http://del.icio.us/tag/homework

http://del.icio.us/tag/lesson+plans

http://del.icio.us/tag/lessonplans

http://del.icio.us/tag/technology+education

http://del.icio.us/tag/elearning

http://del.icio.us/tag/technologyintegration

http://del.icio.us/tag/onlinelearning

http://del.icio.us/tag/efl

http://del.icio.us/tag/esl

http://del.icio.us/tag/education+history (history education)

http://del.icio.us/tag/social+studies

http://del.icio.us/tag/socialstudies

http://del.icio.us/tag/math

http://del.icio.us/tag/mathematics

http://del.icio.us/tag/algebra

http://del.icio.us/tag/geometry

http://del.icio.us/tag/science

http://del.icio.us/tag/astronomy

http://del.icio.us/tag/biology

http://del.icio.us/tag/chemistry

http://del.icio.us/tag/physics

http://del.icio.us/tag/specialed

http://del.icio.us/tag/special+education

http://del.icio.us/tag/art+education(art education)

http://del.icio.us/tag/music+education(music education)

Technology in the Classroom Links

I have been busy researching topics relating to technology in the classroom.

Here is my list of links so far:

4Teachers

CAST: Center for Applied Special Technology

Education Grants

Education World: Technology in the Classroom Center

eduScapes: A Site for Lifelong Learners

How to Overcome Technology Integration Barriers
article written in April 2005

How to Set Up Computers in Your Classroom

Implementing Technology in Education: Recent Findings from Research and Evaluation Studies

Integrating the Internet into the Classroom

Internet4Classrooms - Helping Teachers Use the Internet Effectively

MarcoPolo - Internet Content for the Classroom

Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers

The Literacy Web at The University of Connecticut Homepage

Using Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom

Ways to Integrate Technology in Your Classroom

What I realized this week about the nptech tag experiment

1. Not many people are participating in the experiment (about 35).
2. There is still a lot more to add.
3. The experiment needs to be advertised more.
4. It is ok to tag a link with nptech even if it is already tagged with nptech (it actually helps the experiment).
5. Since blogging and rss is still new, it would be a good idea to start finding blogs non-profits write and tag them.
6. Many people do not tag the main address of a website which makes things more complicated. For example, instead of tagging a website with __.org, users tag with _.org/index.html or any other webpage on the site.
7. On websites where there are articles, people link to the webpage of the article, not to the actual website.
8. The experiment is fun to participate in!!

Content Ideas for Non-profit Websites

1. Background and Purpose of Organization
2. Calendar
3. Contact Information
4. Pictures
5. News articles
6. List of Staff
7. List of Members and Partners
8. Links to sites relevant to organization
9. Facts about topics relevant to organization
10. How to get Involved
11. Job Listings
12. Ways to Volunteer

RSS Feed Ideas for Non-Profits

Here are some ideas on how non-profits can use RSS feeds:

1. Announcements/Special Offers Feed
2. Technology Training Feed
3. Other Training Feeds
4. Staff Feed
5. News Feeds (Organization, Local, National, or International)
6. Volunteer Opportunites Feed
7. Wish List Feed
8. Donor Feed
9. Campaign Feeds
10. Member of the Week Feed

nptech tag experiment

I have been participating in the nptech tag experiment on del.icio.us. There are now about 400 bookmarks on the nptech tag list. Now the question is, where is this going? What are we going to do with these bookmarks?

Here is a list of some of the types of bookmarks we have been tagging-

- non-profit organizations that bring technology to communities
- technology companies that provide services to non-profits
- blogs, news sources, articles, and blog entries about nonprofits using technology

I am sure there are many more links that can be added to this list. The nptech tag has also been added to photos and blog entries.

Do you have any thoughts about this tagging experiment?

I can see this experiment lead to a virtual library about nonprofit technology. Imagine a place where you can find news resources, pictures, and other media about nonprofit technology. That is what I hope to see.

As someone looking for a job related to nonprofits and technology, I have been enjoying tagging these links. I have been reading these articles and websites trying to figure out what needs to be improved in non-profit technology, and how I can make a difference.

Nonprofit Technology

I have been participating in the nptech tag experiment by gathering links that are companies that provide technology services to non-profits, organizations that are involved with technology in some way, and articles or blog entries with content about non-profits and technology.

I have been reading these articles and websites trying to figure out what needs to be improved in nonprofit technology, and how I can make a difference. I am currently seeking employment in nonprofit technology, and I am ready ready to make a difference.

I have started a list of things that could use some improvement and I hope to add to it as I come up with more things. My list is included below.

NON-PROFITS NEED...

1) to update their websites
2) to analyze the needs of their organization before applying technology
3) to analyze the needs of their users/clients
4) to learn how to communicate on the web
5) to be familiar with web standards and accessibility
6) to learn how to train staff, volunteers, members
7) to realize the importance of their web presence
8) to write technology plans

nptech tag

I have been posting links to the nptech tag on del.icio.us.

I am really enjoying this because for the past year I have been adding links to my bookmarks that are non-profit organizations that relate to technology, web design companies that design websites for non-profit, and any articles that interested me relating to nonprofits and technology.

I had started adding these links to my bookmarks because one of my career goals is to find a job relating to non-profits and technology. But since I have started using the nptech tag, I have been adding links to websites that might not interest me, but might interest someone else who is interested in non-profits and technology. For example, some of the websites that I was saving in my bookmarks were mainly organizations and companies in the DC area because I hope to find a job there. Since I have been adding links to the nptech tag, I have also been adding links to webpages in other areas.

After reading the messages on the discussion on TechSoup this past week on accessible websites, I realized that is a big issue in non-profit websites. I started adding links to websites about accessibility, web standards, and usability that could help non-profits.


This is still just the beginning of the nptech tag, and I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

If you want to read more about nptech, here are some links-

Time to get serious about the Nonprofit Technology Taxonomy Experiment

Folks are jumping on to the tagging experiment

Community Technology Review

I recently browsed through the Winter 2005 Community Technology Review and found 2 articles that really interested me.

The was first article was "An Introduction to The Journal of Community Informatics". This intrested me because I recently graduated college with a degree in Informatics. I recently heard of community informatics and I really would like to learn more about it. I completed a course called Social Informatics and it seems like the topics are very similar. I am not sure how the two are different.

The second article that interested me was "An Interactive, Web-based Training for Teenage Mentors". I was very interested in reading this article because one of my career goals is to develop web-based training. When I first heard of training, I thought it meant corporate training which is really not my first choice in developing training. However, I am now realizing that training can be in an educational, non-profit, or government setting. That interests me alot more.

Until I read the article, I had never thought of training youth for non-profit volunteering or work. Developing e-learning for youth is something I would enjoy doing. It could either be e-learning with educational topics (school subjects) or non-profit training.

Since I am interested in web-based training I viewed the demonstration. I really thought the training was developed well. I really liked the open ended questions and who wants to be a mentor activities. However, there should have been another interactive activity to test their knowledge on on confidentiality. There could have been questions that asked if a topic was either an activity & skills or content of discussion.

Thanks to the article I have found another area of web-based training that interests me.

Website Validation

Last year in college I learned about validating websites when I was learning XHTML and CSS (cascading style sheets).

I haven't thought about website validation that much until this week. Techsoup is having a discussion this week on web accessible sites. Many organizations have been submitting their sites to be reviewed. One tool that is being used to check these websites is the website validator.

Since I design websites, I decided to check the validation for these websites. Most of these sites had lots of errors. Even though I am still learning the standards, I was surprised to see some of these errors. There were so many errors with the HTML code. I noticed on a couple of sites that there was more than one body or html tag, and that really bothered me. Another common error I saw was closing a tag that was not open. Almost all the errors on these sites were with the img tag not having the alt attribute (a text explanation of images).

After looking at these websites, I decided there is a need for nonprofits to learn more about checking for errors on their site and basic HTML knowledge.

"Digital Divide" in nonprofit websites

As someone interested in working on nonprofit websites, I have visited many different organizations/associations websites. I realized recently that there is a "digital divide" in nonprofit websites.

Many nonprofits have a website, but there are still many nonprofits that do not have a web presence. I have come up with 4 groups to describe the gap in nonprofit websites.

1) This group has had a website for years. They are up to date with the internet and knows how they can use their website effectively.

2) This group has a website, but there is still room for improvement. They have an updated website, but they are ready to redesign their site and add more features to it.

3) This group has a website but it lacks usability and has not been updated in years.

4) This group does not have a website. They do not know how a website can help their organization.

Technology in Education

Over the past 2 weeks, I have been thinking about the National Education Technology Plan and Computers in Education. As a recent college graduate who studied both Information Technology and Instructional Systems Technology, I see a great future for my career goals.

I think the biggest challenge is teacher training and integrating technology into education. Before using technology in the classroom, teachers need to make sure they know the basic computer skills (MS Office, e-mail, searching the internet, etc.) There are so many ways educators can use computers in their teaching. If a teacher has a computer with Internet access in their room, they can easily load websites in class for students to understand a topic better. Since there are many resources available for teachers to use in their lessons, how can they use all of them? They probably won’t have enough time to load each website in class, but they can easily compile a list of other resources students can access at home. This list could either be handed out in class or if a teacher has a website it could be posted up there.

Besides using technology in the classroom, teachers can also use the Internet to help them teach. There are many websites that have lesson plans listed. There are also newsgroups where teachers can exchange ideas with other teachers.

There are so many issues about how to integrate technology into education effectively. Even though I do not have classroom teaching experience, I know computer services would not be the department to help with this. Yes, they should be involved in computer related issues, but not instruction. Training staff on technology is a problem for many different fields. But technology training for teachers is different. Not only do they need to be trained on computer skills and how they can use these skills to help them teach, but they also need to learn how to use technology to help students learn. Maybe both the computer services department and curriculum and instruction department can work together to help teachers. The computer services can help them learn the skills, while curriculum and instruction can help them learn the benefits of these skills and how to integrate technology into the classroom.

Teachers can start integrating technology by having objectives or goals for each lesson. Then they can decide if media (print, video, website, multimedia) could help illustrate the topic or concept better. If media can, is there one that is more effective? Teachers also need to analyze the needs of their students. Do students not understand a concept or topic? Can technology help them understand this better?

I have already mentioned my thoughts about computer services being involved in this. However, their place is to develop websites for the school district or school. I am not sure how many school districts or schools have a website. If not all of them do or not have a well developed website, that should be part of a technology plan.

Another way computer services and the curriculum and instruction department can work together is to develop e-learning. If a school or school district chooses to do this, then the curriculum and instruction department would be responsible for writing the content, examples, and lessons. Then computer services would use this information to develop e-learning using HTML, JavaScript, Dreamweaver, Flash, and any other web development tools.

It is important that educators understand that what makes e-learning different is interactivity. When a learner answers a question on the screen, they get immediate feedback. Instead of just having a message on the screen that says wrong answer, there would be an explanation about why it wrong.

There are so many more thoughts I have about the use of technology in education and I hope one day I can make a difference. I know I would really enjoy training teachers on computer skills and how to integrate technology, designing educational websites, and developing e-learning.

Developing Teacher Training

If I were to develop teacher training, I would use the ADDIE Model (analysis,design, development, implement, evaluation), and do the following:

1. Create a survey for teachers to fill out. This would have questions relating to technology like searching the Internet, using Microsoft Office, designing a webpage, and other topics.
2. Look over the results and see what it is that teachers are lacking. This is very important to do because it is hard to develop training without knowing what the audience is like.
3. Divide up the topics into different training sessions.
4. Decide if the training would be web-based, computer-based, or in person.
5. Write the objectives of the training session.
6. Write the content, examples, and questions for the training session.
7. Deliver the training.
8. Teachers would then be asked questions related to the topic. This would not only evaluate the teacher's progress, but it would also evaluate the effectiveness of the training.

Website Pet Peeves

I have been visiting a lot of websites over the past year. I have decided that there are 3 things that bother me about websites.

Contact Information

It seems like most the websites I visit have at least an e-mail address or a web form, but what is lacking is an address or phone number. For example, I find a website for a company or organization that interests me, but I do not know where they are located without this information. It would be great to include an address or phone number, but more importantly I want to know the city or state (or country) they are located in. Not only is this information important for jobseeker like me, but it is also important to people wanting to get involved in organization or to buy services/products from companies.

Outdated Websites

I can not stress how important it is to update the website for your organization or company. There are many times I go to a website and the last update was over a year ago. Even though the organization or company will probably still provide the same services or products, the information on there is outdated.

How do I know when these pages were last updated? The person who updated the website either manually entered the date of the last update or used JavaScript to include that information. Maybe the news, calendar, or job listings have dates listed.

What if there is no date or year listed of the last update? Well, the information on the page can get confusing. For example, there is a job listed on the website that does not have a date listed. How do I know they are still hiring?

I can write so much more about my opinion on outdated websites. Please keep in mind that even though I hate going to websites that are outdated, I would rather see a website that was last updated in 2000 than a website that has no date of the last update.

Broken Links

There are are 2 categories of broken links - internal links and external links.

Internal links are links to webpages on the website. I usually do not find problems with internal on website. However, there are times when I click on link for learning more about the organization and the page is not found.

External links are links to other websites. Companies or organizations sometimes have a links page. Almost every links page I go to has a broken link or links. It really bothers me when I go to a page and over half their links are broken.

Thinking back to the outdated pages, sometimes the date is listed on the links page. Obviously if the page was last updated in 2000, there will be many broken links.

New Year, New Blog

Last year I graduated college, this year I am starting a blog.

I plan to use this blog to write about topics that interest me.

Topics that interest me include-

1) Web Design
2) E-Learning / Web-Based Training / Instructional Technology/ Educational Technology
3) Non-Profits
4) E-Government