From the French Side: Zotero to Idiko by way of Tiki-Toki!
Among the articles and real-life stories appearing in our French service over the last month are a number of great reads not available in our English edition. There has been a new addition to our French Digital Tools section about Zotero, as well as a real-life story on using this software, both pieces by Dany Thibault, a Social Science teacher at Collège Montmorency. Caroline Villeneuve, Profweb’s coordinator, posts an article summarizing important points at the recent IT Representatives’ Network semi-annual meeting in Quebec City. As well, French editor Marc-André Laflamme writes an article about a graphic design resource video series called Idiko.
Dany Thibault, a Human sciences teacher at Collège Maisonneuve, talks about the bookmarking software Zotero. In his real-life story Zotero : comment séduire en méthodologie? (Zotero – How does one make methodology seductive?), Thibault explains how he used the software in his methodology course for the Human Sciences. The article delves into the mechanics of how to use the software, provides a number of tips for the most effective results and reports that students’ citation skills definitely improved.
An article about Zotero also appeared in the digital tools section. Once your interest in Zotero has been whetted by the real-life story described above, the digital tools article gives you detailed information to help you decide whether or not to go further with Zotero. First, this article explains what Zotero can do to facilitate the citation process particularly in terms of time saved, and then it explains the advantages particular to the program, as well as its problems. The article concludes providing helpful tips for use in an academic context.
Meanwhile, Caroline Villeneuve, Profweb’s coordinator, provides an update of events transpiring at the recent IT Representatives’ Network meeting in Quebec City. These meetings are a great way to stay informed about developments happening in the Francophone schools of the network as well as with the IT Partners. The CDC invited users to profit from free access to the resource EdITLib which has over 100,000 articles about IT in Education. And, the articles are only available in English. Another resource discussed was Tiki-toki, which can be used to create three dimensional timelines.
Lastly, Marc-André Laflamme, a member of our dynamic Francophone editorial team, presents Idiko, an extremely useful collection of 35 video capsules on graphic design to the Quebec college network. A joint project between Cégep de Sainte-Foy and Université Laval, the collection targets students in graphic design, but certainly does not exclude students in other disciplines looking to grasp the fundamentals of graphic design technology. The capsules’ content ranges from that appropriate for beginners to expert level. Although the graphics are extremely helpful, this resource is in French only in a field that is rich in a terminology that does not always resemble its English equivalent. If you are in Graphic Design, this is your opportunity to plunge into your field’s French lexicon.
Both Zotero and Tiki-toki have English editions. Our English service may soon run articles on one or both of them. Until then, Bonne lecture!
