Tar Heel Reader - Forum: Authoring Questions and Tips

ictsan42 on Download to Powerpoint - can "Loop Continuously" be set?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:19:23 +0000

I think that Tar heel reader is a great resource. I have to admit that we usually download the results as Powperpoint presentations - to;

Use locally available best quality voice - Cereproc Heather - the Scottish Voice.

Use locally available infant handwriting font - Sassoon Infant

I always have to make sure that "loop continuously until escape pressed" is set.

Could this be set as the default by Tarheel Reader? Just a suggestion.

Phllip Whittaker - pwhittaker@scotborders.gov.uk

lauragibbs on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:04:06 +0000

Aha, Gary, I had not thought about the load on Tar Heel from uploaded images - I had been building my library of Aesop images harvested from Project Gutenberg et al. at Picasa, rather than Flickr, but for my future Tar Heel books, I'll create albums at Flickr of my illustrations for that fable first, and then pull them in via Flickr. Picasa was nice for me because I am a hardcore user of Blogger.com which is integrated with Picasa, but I sure am impressed by Flickr now - especially since my stories and proverbs are about animals, there are so many great images of live animals to use!

Gary on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:38:59 +0000

Nothing in the system would prevent you from doing that (saving a picture from Flickr and uploading it) but that would violate the terms of use at Flickr. We are required by the terms of use to include a link to the photographer.

Also, uploading pictures repeatedly uses lots of disk space at the site. When I get a change I'll try to modify the search so it will accept the picture ids.

annapmagistra on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:54:07 +0000

Is there anything to prevent you "saving as" and putting the desired image on your own computer, so that you can upload it easily to another book? You could create your own album of images you like (Roman woman, etc.), which would make searching easier.

Thanks for all your help!

Ann Martin

lauragibbs on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:59:15 +0000

Aha, super - that will work! I was thinking there might be a way to use that long impressive-looking ID number that shows up next to the Flickr photos - but searching with some extra term to throw the search the right away is fine, too! Thanks, Gary!

P.S. I really like the "do math" alternative to the captcha thing to prevent spam at the forum here. That is really nice! Sometimes I have trouble with the captcha images (which is frustrating - because I really am a person, not a machine!). The math thing is much less frustrating!

Gary on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:38:34 +0000

It is harder than it should be but it can be done. Go to the book with the picture you want and click the Photo Credits link below a picture. You'll see thumbnails of the pictures from the book with a link by each. Click on the link for the picture you want. This will take you to its page on Flickr. Now scroll down the page on Flickr and look at the tags. Choose some unlikely ones and put them in your query separated by commas.

For example one of your books uses a picture of a fox. I went to its Flickr page and picked tags "Eric Begin" and "Fox". So I typed "eric begin, fox" in the query box. That took me to a small collection of fox pictures.

lauragibbs on Reuse a Flickr image from one Reader to another

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:09:30 +0000

Here's a question one of the Latin Tarheel Reader authors asked on the Latin teachers list - is it possible to reuse a Flickr image from one reader in another reader without having to search for it all over again? Here is her question (below); I'm not sure if she means an already-created page in ANOTHER reader, or in the same reader. I know how to make copies of pages in the same reader by holding down the control key, so I wrote and told her how to do that... but is there any way to reuse a Flickr image from a DIFFERENT reader...?

=======

Salvete omnes! If one wants to use a picture from an already-created page for a new page, is there a quick way to get it from the old page without having to search for it on Flickr again? Cut and paste or something? I used a picture of a dog from about p 35 of Flickr and looking for it again is annoying!

PennyT on Questionable Images

Sun, 10 May 2009 16:10:57 +0000

On the same topic--even pictures that look okay in thumbnail format can be less-appropriate when you see them full screen. I once included a photo of a young girl--looked fine as a thumbnail, but when I reviewed the finished book, I could see that her dress was more revealing than I realized (innocently so, I think, but it would still be a distraction). It was no trouble to replace the photo, once I knew.

So always, always review your final product with an eye for such details. It's one thing to choose an image with maturer content; but it's another to use something startling without even realizing it.

Gary on Questionable Images

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:54:08 +0000

The pictures you see when searching in the book writing wizard come directly to you from Flickr, a giant web repository of images. We use the interface they provide for selecting and filtering images but the filtering is only as good as the tags placed on the images by the Flickr users. You will almost certainly find images that are inappropriate for some students when searching on Flickr.

We never intended the book writing tool to be directly accessed by children. We understand that some teachers may be using it that way but we advise against it. A better strategy for allowing your children to write on the site is for you to preselect a set of pictures and put them on book pages. Your students can then delete the pages they don't want and rearrange the others while writing captions. That way you are in control of the images your students see.

We do try to keep up with the images and text in books that are published on our site but you may see images and captions that are inappropriate for your K-4 students in published books as well. Many of our beginning readers are teenagers for whom these texts are appropriate. We try to mark books that are potentially inappropriate for some readers with the caution category (the red exclamation on the front page) but there are likely books that have not yet been so marked. We recommend that teachers of young readers use the favorites feature to give students access to a limited set of appropriate books.

Ed Tech Diva on Questionable Images

Tue, 05 May 2009 08:25:43 +0000

Imagine how thrilled I was to be able to find a website that would allow my K-4 students to write and add images that were licensed under Creative Commons. Of course, as always, I decided to preview the site to see if there might be any issues that might arise. Oops! There was! I did a search with the term 'girl', and on the second page there was an image of just female legs and underwear pulled down around the ankles! Oh, oh....

Could you please tell me how images are selected for the website and if anyone reviews them prior to being posted on your website.

Thanks a bunch!

Gary on Reading books in languages you don't know

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:29:03 +0000

I'm very pleased to see an increasing number of books on Tar Heel Reader in languages other than English but it is disappointing to not be able to read them myself. I've discovered that you can read them pretty well using the mechanical translation service provided by Google Translate. Here's how to use it.

Find the URL for the book you want to read at Tar Heel Reader. The URL will be the text beginning with http://tarheelreader.org that appears in the address bar of your browser when you're on the first page of the book. Copy that text to the clipboard.

Now go to the Google Translate page and paste the link. Use the pulldown choosers to select the source and result language you want. Then click the Translate button.

You'll be taken to a translated version of the page. The Next and Previous page links are a bit messed up (I've got to work on that) but they work. You can click through the book reading each page as translated by Google.

Note, machine translation leaves a lot to be desired but you can usually figure out what the story is saying.

PennyT on Misc Questions

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:53:27 +0000

If privacy concerns are a problem, consider using this constraint as a prompt to more creative photos. Maybe photos of the students' hands, shoes, or shadows can convey the story you want to tell just as well as faces. Maybe the students can create masks to use for the photo shoot--or they can be photographed holding various objects in front of their faces (a hand mirror, a fan, a pair of binoculars, a magazine, etc.). It could actually be fun to come up with a set of photos like this--no privacy issues, lots of personality and fun.

Gary on Misc Questions

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:10:45 +0000

Hi Nancy,

The easiest way to print a book is to download it as PowerPoint or Impress and then print the resulting slideshow.

The books you create will be visible to anyone, anywhere. So, yes, I imagine some parents might want to give their permission before pictures of their kids are posted. I don't worry about it, but some might.

What do you mean by "How safe is the web site"? Anyone can read it, so nothing you do will be hidden. Any of our registered authors can write and someone might write something that someone else finds offensive. We included the Rated C: Caution category to partially address that issue. The pictures you find with the search in the writing wizard may be offensive, they are whatever has your given tags at Flickr. The site is monitored but we can't keep up with incredible rate that books are being added.

I hope this answers your questions.

dmelanson on Misc Questions

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:44:31 +0000

I am fairly new to Tar Heel Reader. I have made some books. I would like to print the books I made, how do I do that. I work with a 10th grade Autistic student. Do we need to get permission from the parent if the students photos are in the book? How safe is the web site?

I am really having fun making books that my student can be a part of.

Thanks

Nancy

PennyT on Tar Heel Authors, Check In!

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:38:40 +0000

If you type Penny in the searchbox on the homepage, you'll find some but not all of my books. "Books You've Written" is also incomplete. For some reason, the only way I can get a full listing of my contributions is to click Penny in the index of tags. So maybe try that!