blog for a cake

For once this is a reasonable representation of the winners cake this week!

(I know, astonishing, isn't it?)

Anyway the lucky winner will get a midsummer with peaches and blueberries, and that lucky winner is.......

Prize is in the blue tin in the staff room.

Week 6: Office 2.0 (part 2)

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools, but with benefits that wikis provide the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

You've probably used a wiki in the past - the best known is Wikipedia - ( how does wikipedia work?)

Some of the benefits that make the use of wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
• Earlier versions of a page can be rolled back and viewed when needed.
• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis and library staff manual wikis.

If you're still not sure what wikis can do, have a look at this:

Thing 12 -  wikis

For this thing you're going to receive an email invitation to register with PBWorks.

Please check your email, (look out for an email that looks like this:

and let me know if you don't get one)
Once you're registered, you'll see a page which displays the wiki you're invited to contribute to:

Open the "workspace" and you'll see this wiki - now you need to contribute your "edits" so don't just view the page, EDIT it by clicking that tab.

Make your changes as per the instructions in the wiki and remember to SAVE when you're finished (button at the bottom of the screen).

BLOG

Please add a screenshot of your contribution to the wiki.

How did you like to use it?

Do you think it could be useful in the Medical Library?

How might researchers collaborating make use of wikis?

Week 6 – Office 2.0 (part 1)

This week we'll be looking at the new ways you can create and share documents - to get an overview, get your headphones on, and watch this video:


(created by JISC)

Thing 11

In this Thing, you'll create and share a text document using Google Docs.

• First, log in to Google Docs at http://docs.google.com/ using your Google Account.
• On the page that appears, click on the "Create new" button below the Google logo, and choose Document from the drop-down menu to create a new text document.
• Now you will be in a word-processing environment, with some tools that should look familiar across the top. You don't even need to click in the white space to get started, just begin typing.
• Write a few lines of text, then make some formatting changes to it. For instance, select your text and change the font to one of the other 10 options. Or make some of the text bold, or italic or red. Click on the spellcheck button to check for spelling mistakes.
• Google Docs will save your document regularly as you work on it, so if you see "saved seconds ago" in the top-right corner, you know the most recent version is saved.
  
  If you don't see that message, remember to go to file and "save as" to ensure your work is safe.
• When you're finished, click on the floppy disk icon at the left of the toolbar to save your document, or choose Save from the File menu.
  By default, Google Docs will use the first bit of text in your document as the document title. You will see it next to "Google docs: at the top of the window. If you'd like to change the title, just click on the title and enter a new one in the pop-up that appears.

• Now, invite another 23Things participant to share your document, so that they can view but not edit it. To do this, click on the Share button at the upper right of the screen, then choose Invite people... from the dropdown menu.
  In the pop-up that appears, enter the email address of the person you wish to invite (enter their @medschl.cam.ac.uk or @cam.ac.uk email address), click the radio button that says "To view", change the subject line of the message and add your own message if you wish, then click Send.

If you don't have an email address to use, feel free to send Isla an invite at ilk21@cam.ac.uk

• 
  
  Comment or make changes to any document that is shared with you.
• 
  
  After a couple of days go back and check what changes have been make to the document you share

Extra Task: optional

• Create a Form with one question in Google Docs (using the "Create new" button as above but choose Form from the menu). Email it to several other 23 Things participants and ask them to complete it.
• Try creating a short slide presentation using Google Docs. Save it it to your computer in PowerPoint format.

BLOG

post a screen shot of the document you created in google docs.

How easy was it to create the document and share it? Tell me what you think of GoogleDocs.