Inserting a YouTube Video into Your Google Presentation

As I reported it is now possible to embed a YouTube video in your Google Presentation by simply using the Insert Video command and then searching for the video you would like to use. It is best to do your search within YouTube since it will help you to sort out which keywords to use to search for the video you will use. Here is a very simple Google Presentation showing you what a YouTube video looks like when it is embedded in your slide. I embedded a YouTube video that I created showing how you can Hide and Show the Ribbon in MindManager 7. Enjoy!

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Meeting the Visual Strategist- Kyle McFarlin

It was a real treat to have the time to meet with Kyle McFarlin, the Visual Strategist, this weekend in Cleveland, OH. Having spoken a number of times on the phone and on Skype it is always great fun to finally meet Kyle in person. We had a chance to speak about the state of visual mapping and to catch up with one another. Kyle and I spoke about the upcoming visual mapping event on October 1, 2008 and how excited he is to be able to participate in it. The theme for the event is: Intelligent Visual Mapping: graphical information management, solving your real world problems. Join us for this wonderful event on:

Wednesday, October 01, 2008 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

College of St. Elizabeth
2 Convent Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
USA
To Register for the event click here

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Google Apps- New Features

I have been a big fan of Google Apps and with each passing day the suite of applications keeps getting better and better. Today Google added two new features which I thought would be of interested to you. Google Presents just added the ability to add Speaker Notes which is certainly a really nice feature. You can access the feature when editing a slide- simply click on the Speaker icon on the bottom right of the slide.


This will open up a window where you can type your notes. With the release of this upgrade we will now have the ability to embed a YouTube video right within a Google Presentation. I'm sure this is going to be a big feature and one that most users will delighted to have. Enjoy the new features and isn't great that all we have to do to access these features is point our browser to Google Apps.

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WriteOnline Demo

I received a comment today from Jim who has been beta testing WriteOnline and he was kind enough to send me a link meets Web 2.0 for to get a better idea of the features and capabilities of WriteOnline. As Tim said- WriteOnlineassistive technology. Crick Software as certainly raised the bar and has found a way to give students access to the tools and supports they need wherever they are as long as they are connected to the web.

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John Crick's Comment about WriteOnline

It was a real surprise this morning to wake up to a comment on my blog from John Crick, the CEO of Crick Software whom I have known for quite sometime who commented on WriteOnline. You can read my original post about WriteOnline by clicking here. I thought that it was important for everyone to see his comment in a post rather than have it buried in a Comment. So here it is. And John thanks for taking the time to write a comment.

"Brian is the first person in the US to write anything about WriteOnline! We are currently in beta with the UK version and we have orders from hundreds of UK schools and a number of whole districts. We've just gone live (late on Thursday) with our new LearningGrids World site in both the UK and US (at the usual LearningGrids.com address). This will be used to deliver WriteOnline. You can view a tour of WriteOnline on this site at http://www.learninggrids.com/WriteOnlinePage.aspx?siteid=2
We are expecting to 'ship' WriteOnline in the US at the end of June (do you 'ship' an online product?)."

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Pulse Smartpen Update

Many of my readers have asked me to post some of the audio recordings from my Pulse Smartpen and I just wanted to let you know that it is in the works. I hope to be to do this by the end of the week. I had the opportunity to use the Pulse Smartpen last week in a large lecture hall and the audio recording using the 3D recording headset was exceptional.The quality is surreal! I hope to be able to share the page and audio very soon.

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Mindjet Connect- Collaboration Comes to MindManager 7

For the last three weeks I have been part of a Private beta of a new product from Mindjet called Mindjet Connect. I am now longer under a NDA and can talk about my experiences using this new and innovative collaboration tool for sharing MindManger Pro 7 maps. In order to use Mindjet Connect you need to download a new version of MindManager Pro 7 which includes the Mindjet Connect component. Once you have installed the new version of MindManger 7 Pro and have set up your account you can invite your friends and clients to share a workspace that you have set up for them. As the owner of the workspace you can give your colleagues different Access levels as far as being able to edit or read your mind maps. Mindjet refers to these as Author, Owner and Reader. You can in addition to placing mind maps also store Word, PDF, and any other files that you would like to within the workspace.

I had the opportunity to practice using Mindjet Connect with Steve Rothwell and Gaelen O'Connell and it was quite amazing being able to change things within a MindManager Pro 7 mind map in real time as if we were sitting next to each other. Steve and I connected via Skype for the audio and worked on a mind map together. When another user is modifying an idea there is a legend in the top right portion of the screen showing who is making the changes and there are visual cues on the mind map when someone makes a change. The changes on the mind map occurred very quickly and the system as a whole was very responsive. As long as you store your attached documents in the workspace clicking on an attachment on your mind map, works as you would expect. Links to websites work as you would expect by opening your browser and opening the URL.

One of the really nice features which is part of Mindjet Connect is the ability to launch into a web meeting right within the application. This lets you share your screen and desktop and is very similar to a WebEx or GotoMeeting session. There is also the ability to use a chat feature to communicate to the users online and that are involved in the session. If you are interested in trying out Mindjet Connect let me know and I will see that you get an invite. I can also invite you to my collaborative workspace and you can check out the mind map that is there. If you would like to give it a try shoot me an email and I will get an invite out to you.

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