Connection,Curation, Connection #9

Last week's Connection, Curation, Connection #8 can be accessed by following this link.  More than three years ago I began to list and talk about resources, book trailer links and fun tweets I discovered on Twitter specifically for persons in my PLN who either were not on Twitter or who might have missed something exciting during the week.  The first post had only four items in it.  Over the course of those years it evolved into Twitterville Talk numbering one hundred forty-four weeks of curation and sharing.  In March of this year due to personal commitments beyond my control Twitterville Talk went on hiatus.  In June I brought it back in another form using Storify to create weekly collections.

The number of views have gradually been dropping either because more people are on Twitter seeing the tweets or the interest is not there.  For these reasons plus additional demands on my time, this will be the last Connection, Curation, Connection.  It has been a pleasure gathering tweets for all of you each week since June of 2011.  Have a great week.  Remember to take time for reading.

Connection, Curation, Connection #8

Last week's Connection, Curation, Connection #7 can be accessed here.  It was the final week for updating all the other eight collections as the number of people viewing them was significantly limited.  School is in high gear for many people in my PLN.  Others are excitedly making preparations.  Enjoy this weeks gathered tweets.  Take time for reading.  Have a great week.

Connection, Curation, Connection #7

During my screen free week from Tuesday July 29th through Saturday August 2nd,  I avoided all social networks, Goodreads, Facebook, etc. and curation tools such as Pinterest, Learni.st and Scoop.it with the exception of popping in and out of Twitter, rarely engaging in any conversations.  I have discovered while the benefits of connecting online are without measure, I need to find a balance.  I have found those who are benefiting from my Storify collections, other than the weekly Save These Tweets, are limited.  So this will be the last update of the eight collections below.  I will gladly continue my weekly gathering of tweets as long as they are of value to others.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Take time for reading.

Walter Dean Myers---These are the collected tweets and conversations beginning on July 2, 2014 as word of this wonderful man's passing was spread.


Xena's Wooferlicious Tweets---These are gathered tweets that feature dogs or cats...yes cats; many from authors, illustrators and treasured friends.


Readying Our Spaces, Creating Warmth, Inviting In Our Students---This is a collection of tweets which members of my PLN on Twitter are sharing about the spaces they are designing for their students.  It highlights the extras.


The Household Habitat of Julie---Julie Falatko is an author whose family life is uplifting and joyous.


Author Tips on Writing---This is a collection of tweets about blog posts by authors helping others with their writing.  It is my thought that this can be used in classrooms.


The Wit and Humor of Ame Dyckman II---The author of Boy+ Bot and Tea Party Rules,  Ame Dyckman, provides quirky views, one liners, laced liberally with humor each and every day on Twitter, keeping her followers in stitches and filled with positive vibes. Here is the second collection.


Cyber-Sleuth---Mr. Schu---John Schumacher, teacher librarian, 2011 Library Journal Movers & Shakers, member of the 2014 Newbery Award committee and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. is the King of gathering resources for his followers' benefit.  This is a collection of his tweets.


Ivan-A Gorilla-A Mighty Silverback---January 2012 welcomed a new book by Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan.  A work of fiction, based upon the real Ivan living in Zoo Atlanta, impacted the reading community as only a powerful story can. On Monday August 21, 2012 Ivan passed away. This is what happened on Twitter then and now.

Connection, Curation, Connection #6

It's been a busy week as educators across the country are gearing up for a new school year.  In fact #titletalk on Twitter this evening will focus on getting students excited about reading in our classrooms.  Archives of missed chats are listed as well as new book trailers.  In case you need an extra dose of cuteness authors, illustrators and members of my PLN are always eager to share pet pictures.  Xena is pretty fond of these.  New items have been added to making our classrooms inviting for our students.  Authors Julie Falatko and Ame Dyckman continue to entertain us with their observations about life.  John Schumacher, the teacher librarian dynamo, provides us with even more resources.  Be sure to check out the newest posts on writing from writers and authors.  Take time for reading.  Have a great week.
Note: I will be taking a screen free week for the next seven days so there will be no post next Sunday. 

Walter Dean Myers---These are the collected tweets and conversations beginning on July 2, 2014 as word of this wonderful man's passing was spread.


Xena's Wooferlicious Tweets---These are gathered tweets that feature dogs or cats...yes cats; many from authors, illustrators and treasured friends.


Readying Our Spaces, Creating Warmth, Inviting In Our Students---This is a collection of tweets which members of my PLN on Twitter are sharing about the spaces they are designing for their students.  It highlights the extras.


The Household Habitat of Julie---Julie Falatko is an author whose family life is uplifting and joyous.


Author Tips on Writing---This is a collection of tweets about blog posts by authors helping others with their writing.  It is my thought that this can be used in classrooms.


The Wit and Humor of Ame Dyckman II---The author of Boy+ Bot and Tea Party Rules,  Ame Dyckman, provides quirky views, one liners, laced liberally with humor each and every day on Twitter, keeping her followers in stitches and filled with positive vibes. Here is the second collection.


Cyber-Sleuth---Mr. Schu---John Schumacher, teacher librarian, 2011 Library Journal Movers & Shakers, member of the 2014 Newbery Award committee and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. is the King of gathering resources for his followers' benefit.  This is a collection of his tweets.


Ivan-A Gorilla-A Mighty Silverback---January 2012 welcomed a new book by Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan.  A work of fiction, based upon the real Ivan living in Zoo Atlanta, impacted the reading community as only a powerful story can. On Monday August 21, 2012 Ivan passed away. This is what happened on Twitter then and now.

Connection, Curation, Connection #5

Teachers all across the country are continuing to participate in PD to make the classroom experiences even better for their students in the upcoming year.  Several Twitter chats were a highlight this week with another coming up on Wednesday. Several more tributes to the unforgettable Walter Dean Myers were posted.  Authors, illustrators and people in my PLN continue to post smile-worthy pictures of their pets or pets of others.  If you are looking for laugh-out loud comments catch up on the latest from authors, Julie Falatko and Ame Dyckman.  There is a virtual writing class being mentored by some amazing people.  Stop by to see their challenges.  John Schumacher continues to be a endless fountain of information.  Enjoy these collections.  Have a great week. Take time for reading.

 Walter Dean Myers---These are the collected tweets and conversations beginning on July 2, 2014 as word of this wonderful man's passing was spread.


Xena's Wooferlicious Tweets---These are gathered tweets that feature dogs or cats...yes cats; many from authors, illustrators and treasured friends.


Readying Our Spaces, Creating Warmth, Inviting In Our Students---This is a collection of tweets which members of my PLN on Twitter are sharing about the spaces they are designing for their students.  It highlights the extras.


The Household Habitat of Julie---Julie Falatko is an author whose family life is uplifting and joyous.


Author Tips on Writing---This is a collection of tweets about blog posts by authors helping others with their writing.  It is my thought that this can be used in classrooms.


The Wit and Humor of Ame Dyckman II---The author of Boy+ Bot and Tea Party Rules,  Ame Dyckman, provides quirky views, one liners, laced liberally with humor each and every day on Twitter, keeping her followers in stitches and filled with positive vibes. Here is the second collection.


Cyber-Sleuth---Mr. Schu---John Schumacher, teacher librarian, 2011 Library Journal Movers & Shakers, member of the 2014 Newbery Award committee and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. is the King of gathering resources for his followers' benefit.  This is a collection of his tweets.


Ivan-A Gorilla-A Mighty Silverback---January 2012 welcomed a new book by Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan.  A work of fiction, based upon the real Ivan living in Zoo Atlanta, impacted the reading community as only a powerful story can. On Monday August 21, 2012 Ivan passed away. This is what happened on Twitter then and now.

Connection, Curation, Connection #4

Certainly a highlight of this week was reading all the tweets filling our collective feeds with news of the second annual #nErDcampMI held in Parma, Michigan this year.  Don't miss the links so you can share in this day of learning and celebrating the best things being done in education, books and reading.  Also people are reading up a storm posting all those books they love by using the #bookaday hashtag.  Enjoy the collected tweets and updated collections below.  Take time for reading.  Have a great week.

Walter Dean Myers---These are the collected tweets and conversations beginning on July 2, 2014 as word of this wonderful man's passing was spread.


Xena's Wooferlicious Tweets---These are gathered tweets that feature dogs or cats...yes cats; many from authors, illustrators and treasured friends.


Readying Our Spaces, Creating Warmth, Inviting In Our Students---This is a collection of tweets which members of my PLN on Twitter are sharing about the spaces they are designing for their students.  It highlights the extras.


The Household Habitat of Julie---Julie Falatko is an author whose family life is uplifting and joyous.


Author Tips on Writing---This is a collection of tweets about blog posts by authors helping others with their writing.  It is my thought that this can be used in classrooms.


The Wit and Humor of Ame Dyckman II---The author of Boy+ Bot and Tea Party Rules,  Ame Dyckman, provides quirky views, one liners, laced liberally with humor each and every day on Twitter, keeping her followers in stitches and filled with positive vibes. Here is the second collection.


Cyber-Sleuth---Mr. Schu---John Schumacher, teacher librarian, 2011 Library Journal Movers & Shakers, member of the 2014 Newbery Award committee and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. is the King of gathering resources for his followers' benefit.  This is a collection of his tweets.


Ivan-A Gorilla-A Mighty Silverback---January 2012 welcomed a new book by Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan.  A work of fiction, based upon the real Ivan living in Zoo Atlanta, impacted the reading community as only a powerful story can. On Monday August 21, 2012 Ivan passed away. This is what happened on Twitter then and now.

Connection, Curation, Connection #3

The summer days have been swiftly passing by in a flurry of conferences, opportunities for professional development and virtual friends meeting in person.  Authors and illustrators converse with readers freely sharing their works in progress.  It's been an interesting and engaging week on Twitter. It's also been a week filled with sadness for the loss of Walter Dean Myers.  As long as people send out tweets in his honor I will collect them.  My previous Connection, Curation, Connection post is linked here. Have a good week.

Xena's Wooferlicious Tweets---These are gathered tweets that feature dogs or cats...yes cats; many from authors, illustrators and treasured friends.


Readying Our Spaces, Creating Warmth, Inviting In Our Students---This is a collection of tweets which members of my PLN on Twitter are sharing about the spaces they are designing for their students.  It highlights the extras.


The Household Habitat of Julie---Julie Falatko is an author whose family life is uplifting and joyous.


Author Tips on Writing---This is a collection of tweets about blog posts by authors helping others with their writing.  It is my thought that this can be used in classrooms.


The Wit and Humor of Ame Dyckman II---The author of Boy+ Bot and Tea Party Rules,  Ame Dyckman, provides quirky views, one liners, laced liberally with humor each and every day on Twitter, keeping her followers in stitches and filled with positive vibes. Here is the second collection.


Cyber-Sleuth---Mr. Schu---John Schumacher, teacher librarian, 2011 Library Journal Movers & Shakers, member of the 2014 Newbery Award committee and blogger at Watch. Connect. Read. is the King of gathering resources for his followers' benefit.  This is a collection of his tweets.


Ivan-A Gorilla-A Mighty Silverback---January 2012 welcomed a new book by Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan.  A work of fiction, based upon the real Ivan living in Zoo Atlanta, impacted the reading community as only a powerful story can. On Monday August 21, 2012 Ivan passed away. This is what happened on Twitter then and now.

Create And Collaborate---Scrawlar

When a website draws the attention of three technology-minded people, it's time to visit.  On March 24, 2014 Larry Ferlazzo (Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...) posted this article, "Scrawlar" Will Certainly Be One Of The Top Web 2.0 Tools Of The Year...  It was followed by a tweet on Twitter by Heather Moorefield, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson for the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning on March 28, 2014, giving it her recommendation.  Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) wrote a post on April 1, 2014, Scrawlar-Share Documents and Drawings Without Using Email. 

Designed by Brian Aspinall Scrawlar has these features (as stated at the site):

• cloud-based word processing for schools
• write, edit, collaborate, save and share work on any tablet, phone or computer 
• no app, plug-in or installation required and
• no student sign up.

Beneath the features section and three notes for educators, there is a Word Processor Demo, Whiteboard Demo, and a nine page Tutorial. Scrawlar is specifically for teachers and their students.  

To sign up enter in your email address, a password and a code for your students to use.  You also need to agree to the Terms of Service.  Even though students do not need to register to use the site, on the side of caution, I would make sure parents/guardians are aware of the website's use in your classroom by having a written acknowledgement on file for students under the age of thirteen.

After clicking on Sign Up you are taken to your home page.  The tool bar along the top and on the left side are nearly identical with the exception of New Doc, New Sketch and Settings (changing your password). Per the "invitation" I next selected Create One Now!

At the next window your cursor appears in the text box.  Along the top from left to right using the tool bar, you can make your text bold or in italics, add an unordered and ordered list, insert a URL link or an image, add two size headings, change the color of your text, insert speech or view the HTML code. To insert an image use a URL link. Make sure to save frequently.

On my document in progress I used a designated heading (1), inserted a link (2), changed the color of the text and added italics (3) and included an image (4).  When you are finished, after you have saved your work, click on Return Home. 

Back at your home page, your document is listed where it can be edited at any time (1).  It can also be shared or deleted (2)(3).  When you choose the Share option your student(s) will be listed.  You can choose to have them not share, view it only or edit.  

To continue I next clicked on New Sketch. When using this function the tool bar is located at the bottom of the screen.  Left to right the icons represent a pencil, an eraser, drawing lines, drawing four-sided shapes, add text in three fonts types in regular, bold or italics, move elements on the screen, and color fill.  Below these icons are two color options; the left is the line color, the right is the fill color.  You can choose from a range of hues.  On the right are your management tools.

One click saves your sketch.  Upon returning home you have options. A completed sketch can be edited, shared or deleted.  

As an explanation the Class Feed is where messages can be posted.  Manage Students is the page allowing the addition of students.  Each time a student's name is entered a password is assigned for them to use.  Students can be deleted with a simple click. When students log in they need to include the class code as well as their password.

After using Scrawlar for several hours, I can honestly understand the enthusiasm of those who have previously viewed it.  Younger students will find it very easy to use.  The most obvious plus is the no registration feature.  To be able to create and collaborate safely is fantastic.  Be sure to test this website yourself as soon as possible.   You'll be glad you did. 

Jack And The Giant Would Be Surprised---Been for Education

Six weeks ago Heather Moorefield, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson for the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning mentioned on Twitter (this woman is tireless in her efforts to provide her followers with the most up-to-date news) about a newly launched application.  This free service allows users to create collections of web-based information.  When I initially looked at the site I felt it might not be appropriate in an educational setting.  Imagine my surprise when looking at it last week to see a new sister site for K-12 educators.  It was released on March 18, 2014!

In Been for Education (to shorten the features' section):

• a safe, dynamic way for your students to discover and share in collaborative learning is provided
• classes become social networks...wrapped in its own protective "bubble"
• Beens are unique based upon the creator(s) or collaborators, teacher(s) and students
• Beens are instantly adaptable to a single user or multiple classrooms; you decide how many will participate and
• you choose the right form of collaboration; a student can go at their own pace, multiple students can chat together or by using the Surfing Together option students can go to the same page at the same time.

When going to the home page you can first view four short video introductions about Been, This is a Been, Create a Been, Gather Together and Surf Together.

Beneath these videos you can access even more information in the form of Tour, Get Started, About, Blog, Get Been, FAQ, Contact, Privacy Policy and Terms.  At this point I would like to note the excellent support given by the Been team, particularly Dave Yoon.  I had several questions during my exploration of the site. Through a series of emails all my queries received replies in mere minutes.  This is a huge plus!  The FAQ section is extremely beneficial.

To begin using the application click on Sign Up Now located in the upper right-hand corner of the home page. This brings you to the registration window.  If you are signing up as an educator, make sure to select that button.  It will take you to another window. All the fields (5) plus the two check boxes need to be filled-in.  My account was quickly activated.

The next step is to acquire the Been add-on for the browser of your choice.  I use Google Chrome exclusively at this time.  A tiny icon, Been, appeared in the upper right-hand corner of my tool bar and in the lower right-hand area of any web page I access.

Each generated Been can be for your own use, to use with colleagues or to use with students.  When you log in you are taken to your profile (home) page. At this page you can (1) view your account, (2) view your Beens, (3) go to other created Beens, searching by keyword, nineteen categories and sort by members, pages and age, (4) search Been, (5) check messages (this takes you to your account page) and (6) add a new Been.  I like the note which popped up advising me I could drag and drop pages from one Been to another.

Before creating a Been let's look over the Account page.  It's where you can manage your Beens and activities related to them.  Any of your Messages can be deleted by clicking on Actions.  You have the choice to make your Comment public or not.  For each comment it shows From, To, Page, Comment and Date. (Comments are added to pages in your Been.) In the Contact section you list their username, first and last name, educator status and whether they can initiate a surf together action. (You control your students' ability to do this.) There is also a tab to Create/Add Students. Within Settings you control the basics of your account. At this point I am not sure what the Cookie Been is.  

When you click on the Add New Been icon an additional smaller screen appears.  This asks you to give your Been a name, select a Been design, import (upload) student files and create your Been.  Your new Been is shown above the Add New Been icon. My newest Been is titled Mock Caldecott 2015 Illustrators.

Begin adding pages to your Been by going to websites.  A green Been hovers in all your accessed websites. (It's a faint gray with a question mark if you are not logged in.)  Click on it to see all your Beens.  Mousing over a particular Been will give you the option to see any pages in that Been (arrow on top) or to go to the management page for that particular Been (tiny magnifying glass). You can enable other members to add pages to this Been. (Invite)  If invited members are on the same page at the same time they can comment as if they are chatting.  When you do this, the icon changes to little people.  (The title of your Been also appears.) 

Management page for my Mock Caldecott 2015 Illustrators Been

When I selected my Been for Mock Caldecott 2015 Illustrators at a web page I wanted to add, a comment window appeared.  After typing in the comment, choose the enter key to complete the task.  A small yellow square indicates comments are available.

These next two images show (1) all the web pages added to my Been and (2) the newly added comments on the Been's management page. When you mouse over the pages (1) the URL and comment can be viewed.  You can also delete the page here.  From the comments page (2) you can access any of the web pages or delete the comment. 

In addition to inviting others to comment along with you on the same page, Been for Education allows members to Surf Together.  This is an amazing feature.  It is best explained by this video created by the developers.  

After a Been is made the portal page also shows thumbnails of each added web page, allows someone to comment (write a note) about the entire Been by choosing About (1) or you can send your Been to someone via email (2). Here is the link to my Been, Mock Caldecott 2015 Illustrators.  

Been for Education is a very impressive website.  The services available for educators are outstanding in every respect.  The past six hours have flown by as I tried all the elements.  I highly recommend this website.  

Not Monkeying Around

Several times on Twitter, Heather Moorefield-Lang, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and current chairperson of the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning committee has mentioned a curation tool with which she has been experimenting.  I decided to give it a try myself today.  This tool is called Gibbon.

Gibbon currently can be used without cost.  When accessing the home page, you can join, log in or view the menu on the left side.  When you scroll down the page further you are provided with explanations about the site.  There are two main functions, playlists and learning flows.  Beneath this are featured learning flows.  Let's join the site first.

You can join using your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ account.  I choose to enter in a username, my email and a password.  Due to providing this information, I would recommend that students who use this application as a curation tool be over the age of thirteen. 

As soon as you select the Join button, another screen opens.  This welcomes you and asks a couple of questions.  Not knowing what to expect I chose 10 minutes per week along with the Gibbon User Manual.  You can skip this or browse through more learning flows.  If you select the browsing button you can search with a keyword or by the categories, Featured, Popular, New, Design, Programming, Startups and Marketing.  When you are browsing and see a learning flow you would like to view, mouse over it.  In the upper right-hand corner click on the plus sign.  It will be added to your profile menu.

After I choose the Gibbon User Manual the window below opened.  When you select the Start Learning button, the button title changes to Learning.  On the  right a marker indicates your spot next to an icon showing the type of learning.  You can also see the amount of time necessary to complete the chapter and the number of people who have used it.

Basically this page is a learning flow or a textbook with chapters.  Chapters can be an article, a blog, or a video; anything chosen by the creator or teacher.  A playlist is a collection of chapters from learning flows.

When you select a chapter the following window is opened.  You can Start Learning, Mark As Learned or go back to the learning flow.  When you have finished with all the chapters the next image is displayed.  I like the celebration that is provided for learners.

To start designing a learning flow go to your profile by clicking on the menu icon in the upper left-hand corner.  You can also see which learning flows you have visited.  At the bottom the tools section offers a Chrome Extension and a bookmarklet for Gibbon on your browser toolbar.  I selected Create Flow.

At the next screen you are asked to give your learning flow a title, a brief description of who would benefit from it and three tags to assist in searching for your learning flow.  At the following window, when this is done, you can begin.  

The first thing to note is you can at edit your learning flow at any time (1).  Next they invite you to install the extension or bookmarklet (2).  Then you are ready to start adding chapters to your textbook (3).

All you need to do is copy and paste a URL into the provided space or find an item and click on the +Gibbon bookmarklet on your browser toolbar.  When you add a URL a box opens beneath it asking you to explain the purpose of this chapter.  When it has been added it looks like the second image below.  The information you provide about the chapter can be edited or the entire item can be deleted.  Another nice feature is chapters can be dragged and dropped into new positions in the flow.

When you have finished adding chapters to your learning flow, you can invite students by sending them an email.  You can also share your learning flow on Facebook or Twitter.  Here is the link to my learning flow titled Iditarod.  The race will begin the first Saturday in March. 

Gibbon is a very new curation tool based in The Netherlands.  I spent quite a bit of time exploring the site today and trading emails with one of the developers.  You could not ask for better support; it's outstanding.  Tomorrow morning the site will be updated.  A new release is also in the works for this week. 

I am already thinking of other uses for this in the classroom setting.  A learning flow could be designed around a Mock Caldecott unit containing author/illustrator websites.  When a subject is introduced a learning flow could be generated to introduce it or to offer a more in-depth explanation.  I remember reading about an educator who used it to make an Internet scavenger hunt.  I really like the idea that when each chapter is completed (item is read or viewed), the student feels a sense of accomplishment when checking the box.  I think Gibbon is definitely an application you will want to explore and use.  I'll be adding it to my virtual toolbox. 

Virtual Post-It Boards-Spaaze

All day yesterday, Twitter was literally exploding with news about the American Library Association Youth Media Awards.  Around the world those of us not able to attend the announcements in person were glued to our screens, watching the live streaming of the event.  As I watched, read, commented on and favorited tweets, I knew I wanted to save some of these memories if I could.

As I looked through my favorites last night I saw a tweet from Heather Moorefield-Lang, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and current chairperson of the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning committee.  She mentioned a web 2.0 application called Spaaze.  As far as I could discover Spaaze is not new but it's new to me.  I thought I might be able to use it to gather websites and tweets.

At the site Spaaze states:

Spaaze is an infinite virtual corkboard, and you can use it to do almost everything.

Beneath their header, left to right, you can learn more about the site, the pricing (it works on a point system, ninety-nine points are free), the extensive help section and their blog which keeps users informed on the latest news about the application.  As you can see from the image above, Spaaze can be used to collect bookmarks, to group together ideas, to create task lists, to work together on projects or brainstorm, to post information for research in the classroom or as a basic web page.  As you click on each of those "uses", the board to the right changes backgrounds and example information.  If you click on any of those boards a new window opens so you can begin to create your own Spaaze.

I decided to sign up for Spaaze before creating a board.  Simply go to the small black box in the upper right-hand corner.  You can sign in using a Spaaze, Google, Yahoo or OpenId account or create one using an email address.  For this reason I recommend this service for students over the age of thirteen.

After you click the Sign up button, a new window opens with a blank board.  In the center you will notice you can go to the Spaaze blog or a quick Getting started section.  If either of these are selected a new window opens so you can toggle back and forth between them and your board.  You can also edit each of them (choose the wrench icon) or open them up on top of your board (choose the magnifying icon).

To begin designing a board, go to the upper left-hand corner, selecting the plus sign.  A drop down menu gives you the option of adding a bookmark, label, note, YouTube or Vimeo video, an image, file or HTML snippet.  These are called items. Items can be edited, moved or deleted.   When you move an item to the bottom of the board, a menu of choices pops up.  You can drag the item to the trash can, share it by selecting the swooping arrow or move it to a hot spot.

When adding a bookmark you enter in the URL for the site, a title, a short description and whether you want it to be in a new window or the same window.  I would recommend a new window.  Click Ok to continue adding items.

The addition of labels, notes, a YouTube or Vimeo video and a file are very simple. (Please note the URL of the video in your browser needs to be entered in, not the share link URL.)  If you choose to include an image, you can do so by uploading one from your computer or by using a URL link.  If you upload one from your computer it costs you four points. Four types of file formats are acceptable.

To include an HTML snippet, add it to your board.  Then click on the wrench icon.  Copy and paste the HTML code into the space provided.  When I placed the embed code from tweets into the space and it worked I was thrilled. (I'm surprised I did not "break" Spaaze by adding so many tweets.)  Spaaze does state this also works for widgets and gadgets.

When you have collected a number of items they can be arranged, besides dragging them into position, by using the star on the tool bar.  Selecting the star creates hot spots where like information can be gathered.  (I also want to point out that as your screen fills with items the board moves up and down so more and more items can be added.)  When you choose Jump to...  you can move to those named hot spots.

When you are done with your board for the time being, click on Default board.  A drop down menu allows you to alter the board settings (change background and name the board), publish or collaborate on the board, export the board or create a new board.  To collaborate enter in the email address of those you wish to invite.  When you publish the board it will appear in a read-only format. You are given a URL link to your board when it is published.  Here is the link to my board titled American Library Association Youth Media Awards.  Place your mouse on the board to move it around to view all the content.

At any time you can install a Spaaze bookmarklet to assist you in gathering items for your board.  You can manage your account or read the Getting started post again by clicking on the small gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.  If you click on the house icon you are taken back to the initial home page but if you are still logged in you can navigate around the site as shown in the image below.

As near as I can tell Spaaze has been available for at least three years.  It's another great option for creating virtual post-it boards.  My favorite part is being able to copy and paste in HTML codes.  Allowing collaboration is another good feature.  I really love that I can read tweets, watch videos and scroll through web pages on the same board.  I recommend placing this web 2.0 application in your virtual toolbox.