Google Image Swirl
From time to time, I like to visit Google Labs and see their most recent projects. One of their latest is Google Image Swirl.
“Google Image Swirl organizes image search results into groups and sub-groups, based on their visual and semantic similarity and presents them in an intuitive exploratory interface. Try this tool to resolve an ambiguous query visually (apple, jaguar, beetle) or to explore a concept from different visual perspectives (Eiffel Tower, beach, impressionism).”
Below are some the results/swirls from searching “Caesar.” It is nice to see Sid is right up there with Julius.
It is still in the labs, so I am sure there will be improvements when released, and I do hope they increase the size of the images in the swirls. They are a bit difficult to view. What I do like is that I can very quickly dig into subgroups of the image results, refining the search visually.
Go ahead, give it a try, Image Swirl.
Adobe Design Achievement Awards
Adobe has announced it is now accepting submissions for the 2010 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. These awards celebrates higher education students who are creating amazing art with Adobe technology. Here is Adobe’s description:
The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition - which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software - honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world’s top institutions of higher education.
To learn more about the awards go to http://adaa.adobe.com.
Free and Easy Chart Creation Tool
Here is a free, practical tool for creating charts.
ChartGo.com provides an incredibly easy to use web-based tool for creating charts, including bar, pie, line and area charts. You can quickly create a chart, save it, and add it to a course, website or blog. They also provide numerous avenues of sharing your chart (URL, e-mail link to chart, social bookmarking, Twitter, etc.).
If you want something more sophisticated, stick with Excel. If you want something you can create in a matter of minutes, this is the tool for you. Here is an example of a chart I made.
Here are some more examples of the types of charts you can make.
My e-Learning Toolbox
Every so often I see my fellow bloggers posting lists of what they have in their e-learning toolbox. These posts are always interesting and helpful. It is a glimpse not just into their development tool preferences, but it also provides some reflection into the approaches they take in creating courses.
Here is what I have in my e-learning toolbox and some notes on how I use these tools.
- ToolBook authoring tool - this is the DHTML authoring tool used at my company, but prior to this I used TrainerSoft (now Outstart Trainer), which is my preference.
- Adobe Fireworks - editing graphics.
- Adobe Flash - creating interactive elements, including animation, games, immersive learning simulations, etc.
- Adobe Captivate - creating simulations (software sims and occasionally soft skill, branching sims).
- Sumtotal LCMS - already determined by the company I work for, but no complaints.
- SnagIt - grabbing screenshots.
- Adobe Dreamweaver - creating web pages and occasionally jerry-rigging the HTML in courses.
- Adobe Acrobat - creating PDFs included in courses (e.g. job aids).
- Notepad - editing XML.
- Windows MovieMaker - editing WMV files.
- PowerPoint - creating storyboards.
- Wordpress - editing and publishing my blog.
FYI: Most of what I make are asynchronous WBTs. Please feel free to share what is in your toolbox or any recommendations on tools I should add.
Wacom
I am considering buying a Wacom. If you do not know what is, it is a graphics tablet. You can connect it to your PC and with it’s pen you can write, draw, illustrate, etc. This can give more of a pen to paper approach to creating graphics, which for me is a big advantage over creating graphics only with a mouse. And it is compatible with a fair amount of software including many Adobe products such as Flash, Fireworks, and Photoshop. I am a big user of Flash and can see many advantages to having a Wacom at my side when developing in Flash. And not just animations, but also enhancing sims and videos developed or imported into Flash. Especially videos, which I love to “Add Pizzazz to videos.”
I do not have formal training in graphics, but without a graphic artist at my disposal I have been forced to learn enough to hold my own. This is probably the case for many e-learning designers. As a side note, having a skilled graphic artist on an e-learning team is essential, but not always a reality. So, any tools I can get my hands on to improve the quality of graphics I use and speed up the process, the better.
Here are some tutorials I have found while exploring Wacoms:
40+ Tutorials for Working WIth Wacom Tablets
How to Create an Animated Walk Cycle in Flash (Using Flash and a Wacom)
How to Work With a Wacom Tablet in Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop Tips and Tricks (Wacom)
Test Driving Google Labs’ Similar Images
I took the time today to check out Google Labs’ Similar Images, which was recently released. It does make the search quite a bit easier. A challenge I have always found when searching images via Google Images was that I had to sort through many unrelated images that shared the same keywords. With Similar Images even if you have many images unrelated to what you intended, you only have to identify one that is the subject you were looking for and click the “similar images” link below it.
As they describe it:
Similar Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words. With the similar images feature, most images have a link below them that lets you find other images like them. There’s no need for you to refine the text of your query. Your new results will be tailored based on whatever image you select. So if you see an image you like but you’re stumped on how to describe it, just click the similar images link to see “more like this.”
It’s great for queries with multiple meanings (jaguar), comparison shopping (hairstyles), or just browsing (New York).
Here are the results of my test drive.
I searched “archaeology” and results did vary, but all were related to archaeology. The first image was of Indiana Jones (the character was an uber-looter), which was bothersome to me, but I know how it got there. Anyway, there were quality archaeological images. I clicked one from a meso-american site and voila, a slew of meso-american archaeology images. Absolutely great results.
I dug deeper and clicked “similar images” for a pottery shard within the archaeology results. It did NOT result in more pottery shard images. The results varied a lot. Some archaeology images, but more were images from related fields like paleontology and geology. I did notice there were some images not in the least related, like a few pet pictures. Those not related had similar color schemes. I assume color scheme is a factor, which may be good at times, but can really throw the results off as in the this scenario. Maybe searching for pottery shards was asking a bit too much. FYI: I did find great results when I did a top level search for the words “pottery shard,” but I could have done this in Google Images which showed the same results.
So, although not perfected it is a useful option to searching images on Google. I look forward to future versions of this Google Labs product.
FYI: This is what a pottery shard looks like.
Graphics on the Cloud
I have slowly been moving onto the cloud. Thus far, I have starting using Google Docs and Picasa Web Albums (also Google). My motivation for using Picasa is to put all my graphics in one place. I have one too many computers each with too many graphics. This includes family photos and e-learning graphics. So, what better than to consolidate and organize on the cloud. Plus, I can easily access and share them with others.
An online photo album is nothing new and Picasa has many features you can find on other graphic tools found on the cloud, I am sure. But here is something I really found convenient about Picasa, e-mail upload. Here is how they describe it:
Email upload
You can now forward photos to your online albums using email. Perfect for use on your mobile device, you can even collaborate with friends by submitting photos to one album with the same email address.
I am really finding this convenient. Through Picasa, I set-up a Picasa web address, then I just send the graphics to it as an attachment. It then ends up in my Picasa drop-box. Real easy. So, now if the graphic is on the phone, I send it in an e-mail and it is there. Found it on any of my computers…e-mail…and its there. And if someone sends it to me as an e-mail, I can just forward it onto the drop-box. I can also send others the address and voila, they put graphics in Picasa for me.
FYI: If you use Picasa, you will find the e-mail upload listed under “New Features.” It will walk you through setting up the e-mail drop-box.
Characters
I absolutely love using characters in my e-learning courses. They are great for gaining attention throughout the course, acting as training facilitators, or for playing a role in a storyline or simulation. Over the past five years I have created many characters in my courses. And since my current role is coming to an end due to the bank acquisition, I feel it would be good to pay a quick tribute to my fictional colleagues who have made training easier and funner over the years. FYI: The first 2 characters were made early on and are a combination of edited clip-art images. The rest are made from scratch within Adobe Flash. Please do not copy or use these images as they are copyrighted materials.
Captain Outlook
IRA - retiree who knows an awful lot about retirement accounts
Sam Price - known to poke around branches and learn a little too much
James Cyclops - Expert in One View software, but has also been seen playing the role of a persistent customer with many pertinent questions
And of course there's the bank's middle management
Well, those are some of my favorite characters I have developed over the years. I will be continuing as the e-Learning Designer with the newly merged bank and hopefully will develop many new and exciting courses and graphics.
Ben Franklin m-Learning Course
Tracing Bitmaps in Flash
With Flash you easily convert your imported graphics into vector graphics. Once converted, you can manipulate the vector graphic from within Flash. For example, remove colors, add colors, distort shapes, etc. This has been extremely helpful while working on a Ben Franklin course I am currently developing. I have been importing graphics of historical illustrations and artifacts (none with copyrights). In order to keep the same “cartoon” feel of the Minutebio courses, I used this method. Giving the graphics a more uniform, cartoon look, plus vector graphics scale up better.
Here’s how it works:
Highlight the imported graphic. In the menu, use Modify>Bitmap>Trace Bitmap.
The Trace Bitmap dialog box will appear. Color threshold and other parameters can be adjusted and previewed. Click OK and it becomes a vector graphic.
- Tracing Bitmap
It can now be easily manipulated. In the example below, background colors have been removed, the shape of the arm has been changed and numerous colors have been added.
