I really wanted to use the Pro features of this to track my learners but I went ahead and made my Playlist public because I want to be able to share this with you all.  I’m pleased with this and I’m really looking forward to feedback on them, especially from a learner’s prospective.

I wish I could have this public at all times and just enable the Pro features by giving a password to those that I want to track with those features.  (Hint, hint MentorMob.)

As I continue to work on my MentorMob playlist, I’m realizing there is so much more to the program that I initially thought.  Originally, I thought of it as a curation tool.  Well, it certainly can curate a nice bundle of links if you’d like. But, MentorMob is really a learning tool.  It provides a platform to create engaging lessons.   The big bonus is the ability to collaborate with others in creating these lessons.  As their video notes, just like Wikipedia allows others to come along and add to content to improve it and make it richer, the very same thing can be done with MentorMob.  So, imagine a teacher workshop where the teachers begin to put together a lesson for their students.  They begin the work together, sharing ideas and finding great resources to add to the Playlist.  They add some documents, a PowerPoint Presentation, a quiz (Yes, you can create a quiz in MentorMob), and some discussion questions for students to answer within MentorMob.  Planning time ends and the teachers go on their way.  What usually happens is, well, nothing.  The work done becomes stagnant because the teacher
s don’t have the opportunity to get together again and create.  But MentorMob solves that problem because collaborators can add to work that’s already begun, edit, and enhance from wherever they happen to be.  

In fact, this takes the possibility of collaboration and quality to a whole new level because, with the right permissions set, I can allow educators worldwide to join me in creating a enriching and high-quality Playlist that literally combines the best of all worlds together and in an easy and efficient way.

So, once I began the MentorMob process in earnest, I found it easy.  I learned how to make the “Steps” in MentorMob reflect an appropriate picture.   There’s a secret.  Set up your Step and see what pictures MentorMob offers you based on the tile of your step.  If one is good (and there are only about 4), highlight it and accept it.  If not, simply change the title to something that gives you a different set of pictures. So, for instance, in my earlier blog entry on MentorMob, I noted that the graphics weren’t very good for one of my steps.  The title had the word “Introduction” and I wasn’t given great choices for my Step cover picture.  I simply changed it Firefox and saved my Step.  I went back into Edit on the step and I had a new choice of pictures and these contained the Firefox logo which was perfect. I selected the best logo and then changed the title back to “Introduction” and saved again.  Bingo!  I had my “Step” cover with the Firefox logo and the title Introduction.  

Another thing I learned is that the Step titles need to be short so keep it concise.  For instance, “Introduction to the Firefox Workshop” would be too long so stick with something simple like “Introduction.”  This is probably a good thing.  Keeps it short and clear for the students.

Now, the MentorMob steps require that you choose between options in terms of skill level of the card (Beginner, Intermediate,and Advanced) and I’m actually not sure about whether I like this feature or not.  You also must enter a description and this I applaud.  It drives me crazy when I see a resource provided and no explanation for it in an educational setting.  And, there’s one more item selected which is  Type, either Article or Video.  MentorMob, I know you’re listening  and this is just too limiting.  I am SURE it will confuse users and creators.  The fact that this is also indicated on the front of the Step Card in the MentorMob Playlist makes it even more critical.  I would recommend Document, Presentation, Video, and Resource.  These are 4 clearly different items and are the right indicators for students or learners using a Playlist.  This request has now gone to the very top of my MentorMob Wish List because I think it detracts from the learning experience.  Does it detract so much that I won’t use MentorMob?  Absolutely not!  But, it detracts enough to impact learning so it needs to be addressed. 

I should mention again that it is very easy to order the Playlist “Step” cards.  It is also easy to add or delete a card.  One thing I noticed I couldn’t do was edit the type of card that I selected once I made it.  When you make a MentorMob Step Card, you select between “From a Link,” “From Upload,” and “Add Pop Quiz.”  If you choose “From a link,” you’ll need to create a whole new card if you decide to change the content of the card to a PowerPoint  upload, for instance .  Since creating cards is easy, this isn’t a problem.  It is just a little time-consuming.

 I intend to continue my discussion of my MentorMob Workshop that I’ve created/.  I have invited my grad class to be my students and I’m using the Pro package to view their progress in the class so I will have a lot to share and some new insights as my MentorMob Playlist takes on life.  In the meantime, I sincerely hope you’ll take a look at MentorMob and see what it’s all about.  I highly recommend taking a look at the Playlist that have already been created and collaborate with a few of the Playlist creators to get an idea of what this learning environment offers.

By the way, MentorMob, I’d love the ability to duplicate my Playlist so I can make one private and one public.  Any chance that could happen?

I’m using Mentormob (www.mentormob.com) to create an online professional development workshop for teachers.  The workshop has three purposes:  1)  it’s a grad assignment, 2) I plan to post this e-course online here and share with teachers; and 3) to share the incredible options that Firefox Add-ons give you for classroom integration.  I might say there are 4 reasons because I’m also learning more about Mentormob.

To get an idea of what Mentormob does, watch this video:

It was easy to set up today and I didn’t have any trouble establishing my Playlist which is what Mentormob calls their virtual learning centers that users can establish.  I had previously used MentorMob to create a visual playlist of my favorite five resouces in the core content areas but this is different because I will be using Mentormob as the learning environment that the learners will use to complete their training.

What many users of Mentormob may not know at first glance of their website is that they offer more than just a curation type of playlist where you add links and others use the links to view websites.  Mentormob has a service called MentorMob Pro that  allows you to invite users to a playlist, manage those users, and view related analytics.  I’ll be incorporating the MentorMob Pro features into this workshop that I’m preparing and reporting on the experience here.

As for today, I started by simply creating my Playlist.  I began by setting up my introduction “step.”  The “steps” look like tiles in the Mentormob playlist.  I was thrilled to see that I could add a create an outline of my workshop first before creating my steps.   Initially this didn’t work for me but I contacted MentorMob and it is not working effortlessly.  It makes creating your Playlist easy. I simply used my outline for the workshop and designated my steps.  Once added, the steps can be manipulated by a drag-and-drop process which is very easy and very helpful.  You can also edit your outline after creating it.

I then began my workshop by uploading a PowerPoint to Step 1.  However, I encountered a problem.  Mentormob provides a great interface for the learner who is taking the course.  They click on the step and the content opens in the window keeping students safe and secure in their learning experience.  This is especially important for K-12 students.  I couldn’t wait to preview the step (another great feature) and I was very disappointed that it didn’t come up.  Instead, I received a message that I would have to use it as an external download.  The learners would still get the PowerPoint, of course, but I really, really want them to be able to stay within the Mentormob learning environment window. 

To try to address this, I uploaded my PowerPoint to SlideShare and then added the link to the uploaded Slideshare presentation in Step 1.  This absolutely worked.  However, I really would like the PowerPoint to work instead.  If I know the Mentormob folks, they will address this immediately and I don’t expect it will be very long before it is working seamlessly.  As a note, Mentormob also didn’t want to display within the learning environment if I was in Internet Explorer.  Since I’m predominantly a Firefox user, that was fine but it didn’t work in Firefox either.

However, overall, the first step in my MentorMob workshop was, for the most part, a breeze and I’m very excited about what lies ahead.  I really think Mentormob is on to something here.  I’ve given them a small wishlist and I’ll share that here.  I’ve added one more item to my wishlist:

1. Create a bookmarklet to add links to a MentorMob playlist.
2. Allow users to add a “Step” icon image of their own choice.  The choices I was given were not very appropriate.
3. Fix the issue with the PowerPoint upload so that it works in all browsers.

Most of all, MentorMob, keep up the incredibly good work.  I hope you’ll post your comments below to share with readers! This, along with the collaborative abilities that I’ll talk about later, is an amazing educational tool!

UPDATED:  I’ve learned that MentorMob works best in certain browsers, specifically Google Chrome!  If you use this browser, there’s no problem uploading the PowerPoint presentation directly to the Step.  Also, MentorMob has developed a Google Chrome bookmarklet to make adding steps very easy!  However, “Preview” of the step did not work for me providing me a blank page.

Here you’ll find a Symbaloo webmix of over 75 online and interactive resources for high school (secondary) English Language Arts (ELA).  Please share your favorite sites with us and I’ll add them to the webmix!

I had an interesting experience yesterday and thanks to a very helpful Twitter friend, I learned something awesome.  You see, I had been to a workshop where some iPad apps had been recommended.  However, all I had from the workshop was a picture of the icons representing the apps.  I knew that the presenter had said that he couldn’t live without them but I could not recognize them from just these icons.  So, I turned to my digital friends for help.  I posted the picture of the icons on Twitter and Facebook and waited.  I didn’t have to wait very long at all before the response came rolling in. 

But one response did more than just let me know which apps they represented.  This tweeter let me know that I could do a search by image.  It was a perfect solution.  All I had to do was go to http://images.google.com/ and click on the small camera in the search field.  I’ve added a screenshot here to show you: 

After adding the image and clicking enter, in a matter of seconds I received the information I wanted.  Give it a try and see what happens?  Here’s an image you can use if you don’t have one:  

I think you’ll be as pleased as I was to learn this easy-to-use feature.  And, thanks to all my Twitter and Facebook friends for the support and tips!