Mrs A's Blog

My Rambling Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

Slideshows Should Be Easy Right?!!!

Where I work we use SharePoint 2007 and I remember when I first started using SharePoint I was told anything you can do on the web you can do in SharePoint.  Well today I found that this was not quiet true.  All I wanted to do was display a picture library as a Slideshow.  Should be easy right – apparently not!!  First place I turned to was my friend Twitter, followed by my friend Mr Google.  Mr Google gave me many options but nothing that did exactly what I wanted.  I then managed to find this site…. Images Slideshow in SharePoint 2007 using JQuery – I managed to negotiate around the site only thanks to my brilliant husband @AshleyAngell and finally managed to get it working.

What you need to do is…

    • Create a picture library.
    • Add the picture library as a web part to the page where you want the slideshow on.
    • Add a content editor web part and add the following code to the Source Code Section:

      <script src=”http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.min.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
      <script type=”text/javascript”>
      var Imtech = {} || Imtech;
      Imtech.Slideshow = function() {
      this.images = null;
      this.current = -1;
      this.wrapper = null;
      this.duration = 6000;
      this.delay = 3000;
      this.init = function() {
      this.images = loadImages();
      this.wrapper.css(“display”, “none”);
      this.wrapper = $(“div.slideshow”, this.wrapper.parent(“:first”).append(‘<div></div>’));
      this.wrapper.html(‘<img src=”‘ + this.images[++this.current] + ‘”/>’);
      this.intervalObj = window.setInterval(this.showImage, this.duration + this.delay);
      }

      this.showImage = function() {
      if (++slideshow.current >= slideshow.images.length) {
      slideshow.current = 0;
      }

      slideshow.wrapper.fadeOut(slideshow.delay, function() {
      slideshow.wrapper.html(‘<img src=”‘ + slideshow.images[slideshow.current] + ‘”/>’);
      slideshow.wrapper.fadeIn(slideshow.delay);
      });
      }

      var loadImages = function() {
      var images = $(“table.ms-summarystandardbody td.ms-vb2 a[onfocus]”);
      //var images = $(“table.ms-summarystandardbody td.ms-vb2 a”);
      var imagesList = new Array(images.length);
      var i = -1;
      images.each(function() {
      imagesList[++i] = this.href.replace(‘about:’, ”);
      });
      return imagesList;
      }
      };

      var slideshow;

      $().ready(function() {
      slideshow = new Imtech.Slideshow();
      slideshow.wrapper = $(“table.ms-summarystandardbody td.ms-vb2 a”).parents(“div[id^=WebPart]”);
      slideshow.init();
      });
      </script>

      • Make sure that the content editor web part has no title so it appears “hidden” on the page.

        Hopefully if you work in SharePoint this makes making a slideshow for you a lot easier. Let me know how you go!

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        "What NO INTERNET?"

        Last week I attended the BEA (Business Educators Australasia) Conference, the conference was really good.  It’s always interesting to see conferences for various subject areas and the information you can gather.  In a previous life I was a business teacher and it’s nice to network with teachers who have brilliant ideas in the teaching of business and any subject for that matter.  In my new life I am at the conference as I’m one of their technology speakers.  When I agreed to speak I asked if there would be internet access for delegates as this would form part of my presentation.  I was assured there was.  I asked if delegates would have their own computers and was shocked to hear that they would have access only through the computers offered during my session.  But at least they would have a computer.  I asked if I could use my own computer and would I have access to internet while at the conference.  Yes we have wireless available for presenters.  Awesome I would still have net access.  However as I discovered when I arrived at the conference the access was only available during my presentation.  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

        Maybe I’ve been spoilt at the conferences I’ve attended in the past but in 2010 is it really acceptable not to offer net access to all your delegates?  Especially a business educators conference when we are offering strands in incorporating technology?  I have to admit three days without internet access has been hard and I feel very disconnected from the world and my PLN.

        Missed you all!!

        @MrsAngell

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        What Exactly is the Purpose of Education?

        This week I have spent my time in primary school planning meetings.  Each of these has started the same way with the teachers being given a copy of the draft National Australian Curriculum.  Each of these meetings has then gone in a very different direction depending on the combination of teachers.  One thing that did stand out is that the teaching staff got caught up with the content of the Australian Curriculum and how the content was different from what they currently taught.

        Something which has stood out to me is the severe lack of skills being taught in the National Australian Curriculum.  And the swift way in which teachers (myself included) seemed to throw the thought of teaching students skills out the window.

        I was reading Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum tonight and it got me thinking about what exactly the purpose of school and education is?  What do we take from school into the big bad world when we leave the gate at the end of year 12?  What do we take from school into university? And then our degrees into our job?  So as I always do when I start thinking I ask Twitterland!

        What is your clearest memory of primary school? High school? University?

        My clearest memory of primary school was as a whole class (year 3) being praised for being proactive and going into the classroom after first break everyday and reading while we waited for the teachers to return from their morning tea meeting.  Then on the sixth day of doing this scoring a lunchtime rubbish clean up (the whole class did) for going into a classroom without a staff member.

        For High School the memory is of me making a fool of myself dancing to Rip Rip Woodchip by John Williamson in Year 8 to explain the meaning of logging.  (I doubt I got the meaning across but it was fun even if it was embarrassing!)

        Meanwhile in University my memories are of me trying to get my readings complete with one or two children hanging off me.

        None of this was about the content or even the skills I learnt at school.

        So I asked my twitter friends. And their responses were the same.  They were about fights, arguments, results, excursions, bullying, parties, punishments and handing the last piece of assessment in. Nothing about content or skills.

        TeacherNZ high response Kvnmcl response rathhelen uni response TeacherNZ uni response

        So WHY as teachers do we get so hung up on the content?  Reality is none of us really remember it later in life.

        We should be teaching skills.  Lets throw the content out that window instead.

        Who’s joining me?

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        Time to Pop the Bubble Wrap

        I was reading a blog post tonight about what is the best age to teach Social Networking. Royan makes many good points.  The main one I agree with is

        Everywhere I turn I see a lot of time and money being consumed warning parents, children, and teachers about the dangers on the Internet. It’s getting to the point of absurdity. The problem with most of these initiatives and campaigns is they usually implicitly suggest that proverbial abstinence is the best policy.  –The Spicy Learning Blog

        I think that cybersafety has finally gone too far.    Blocking kids from the Internet, chat, social networking and web 2.0 does not help them later in life from the big bad world.  We need to teach kids to be smart from the start.  Teach them how to protect their privacy.  Teach them to talk to you as a parent or teacher. Teach them to make their own mind up about right and wrong.  Encourage kids to use technology in open areas.

        We used to teach kids (when I was a kid!) about stranger danger, we offered safe houses for kids walking home from school.  Perhaps we should transfer this to the Internet.

        Lets stop wrapping our children up in bubble wrap and teach them to be safe.

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        Clean Out the Tube Quietly

        I found this site accidently this week while searching for something else but the idea is fantastic.  Quietube allows you to add a button to your toolbar so that when you find a YouTube or other video online you can clean out the advertising and present a clean copy of the video without seeing inappropriate content.

        It is easy to add to Firefox just drag the button, however it wasn’t so easy in Internet Explorer so I put together a small video to make it easier.  Check it out to see what it looks like as well.

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