Pam's dashboard

Pam asked a question in Monarch Teaching Technologies on July 05, 2009 16:05:

What video file formats are compatible with VizZle?

I dread going through the process of downloading a video and then uploading it to vizzle, only to find that I am using an "unsupported" file format. What are the compatible extensions?

Pam shared an idea in Monarch Teaching Technologies on July 05, 2009 13:49:

New Autopop Feature Possible?

Like a lot of kids w/ autism, my daughter struggles with pronouns. So when I make a social story for her, I always talk about her in the 3rd person (eg "Morgan will put toothpaste on the toothbrush.") It avoids the whole story perspective issue, and since she refers to herself as Morgan, she gets it. (Many teachers use "I will put toothpaste on the toothbrush" for this kind of situation, which actually confuses it more for her--especially if the story is being read aloud to the child or text-to-speech is used.)

Especially since most of the stories I make for her could be easily adapted for other users in similar situations, I share them in the library. But I'd love to be able to put in an "autopop" in the text for the child's name, so teachers or parents using the story could enter the child's name once, and it would automatically insert into the correct spots in the story.

Even better would be if the "autopop" was customizable. For instance, if I was doing a story about learning my address, the autopop info requested would be the address. Or for learning phone number, social security number, name, parent's names etc etc--it could be used for any piece of personal information that is consistent through the story.
It would be kind of like in a mail merge on a word processor...

Pam replied on May 19, 2009 15:13 to the question "Renaming a picture in Image Edit" in Monarch Teaching Technologies:

Cool trick Jeff!
Can you do this with assets from the image library too (like the squares MP is working with)?

Pam replied on May 19, 2009 15:06 to the question "Renaming a picture in Image Edit" in Monarch Teaching Technologies:

Hi Mary Pat--
I've had the same issue (it's especially annoying when you are having to do progressions or stepping through a set of instructions that add a little something to each image). Unfortunately, you can not currently rename each edited image. The issue has been brought to the developers attention though, and is on the radar.

The good news is that the changed image will be automatically saved (with a duplicate of the original name) so the work is not lost. It will both be stored in the folder you are working from, and will appear when you run image searches. You just can't currently rename it.

Pam asked a question in Monarch Teaching Technologies on May 15, 2009 11:10:

Why are imported pictures blurry / fuzzy / impossible to read?

I spent some time uploading pictures for a lesson. When I put them in the book I was making, they got all blurry. It was difficult to even tell what the picture was of anymore! Why are the pictures I imported for a lesson blurry (to the point I can barely see the image)?

Pam replied on May 14, 2009 19:29 to the question "How do I make private images public again?" in Monarch Teaching Technologies:

Hi Jeff--
I uploaded pictures into a student folder. Those pictures, by default, become "private images". I didn't mean to do that! I want to be able to share them (as part of an activity or lesson) through the public library!

If I drag them into another folder (one that isn't by default "private"), will that work? Or do I have to go through the "upload" process again from scratch?

Thanks!
Pam

Pam asked a question in Monarch Teaching Technologies on May 14, 2009 17:26:

How do I make private images public again?

I tried to submit a lesson to the library, but it turns out that every image I used was marked as private. The pictures aren't really private--I found them online. I gather that they were made private by default because I saved them in a "student" folder rather than in one of my folders in my file cabinet.

How can I change the pictures' status from private back to public so they work in the lessons? Do I have to re-upload the images into one of my folders, or can I drag and drop them from the student folder into one of mine?

Thanks!

Pam asked a question in Monarch Teaching Technologies on April 12, 2009 15:35:

What does a search in the Library access?

When I'm in the Shared Library, does a search I run return lessons from everywhere in the program (including my own filecabinet folders) or just from the shared library's lessons?

Pam reported a problem in Monarch Teaching Technologies on April 12, 2009 14:50:

Creator email search in library only returned most recent submission, other searches also not returning results.

I'm pretty sure I have four bookbuilder lessons currently in the shared Library (ID 2353, ID 2568, ID1670 and ID 2800). I needed to double check which of my books were in the shared library for a highlight story. I ran a library search using creator email, and only one lesson returned in the results. But when I went back and got specific lesson id numbers and entered those into the library search, all the lessons came up. When I searched using just the lesson type (bookbuilder), only 2 of the four lessons returned in the search results. Yarks. I am confused. Help!

Pam replied on April 10, 2009 13:04 to the problem "I can't add a second e-mail address" in Get Satisfaction:

Thanks for the quick response! Looks good now.
Happy Easter !._.! (this is as close as my office-mate and I could get to a bunny ear emoticon lol. Kinda psychotic, robotic anime bunny... OK, OK, so then we found

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") but I like ours better.

Can you tell it's Friday morning?)

Cheers!
Pam

Pam replied on April 09, 2009 23:50 to the problem "I can't add a second e-mail address" in Get Satisfaction:

Hi Eric--
I had this problem too, and I did recently cancel an account with the email address I wanted to add to this one. So I reopened that old account, swapped out the email address, and was able to add it.
But now I want to make the address I just added primary, and the system is refusing to do it. I tried asking it to "verify" first, but got an "access denied" message. I tried deleting the current primary address, but it wouldn't cooperate with that either. Can you help?
Thanks!
Pam

A comment on the update "Help us review a new page design!" in Get Satisfaction:

Ok, OK--so I missed the whole description below the GIF that talked about the various levels of community... Sorry! I see now the point of "Official support"--but you could probably get away with the alternate wordings on all levels (and therefore save yourself some design work between levels when companies upgrade their usage)
--P – Pam, on April 09, 2009 23:29

Pam replied on April 09, 2009 23:19 to the update "Help us review a new page design!" in Get Satisfaction:

Hi Thor

I really like a lot of the choices on the new page, especially the variety of links and the company information available to customers. I think it will be more informative and a less jarring transition for our customers new to the GS forum. I think the pictures are actually a good idea--they humanize the space and make it less intimidating for newbies. It also does a better job (better at least from my perspective as your customer lol) of allowing your customer's branding to shine through.

Have you considered making the "recently active topics" a link choice rather than the default page? It would give you more room to work with (to avoid the cluttered feeling mentioned above). I would expect that the "recent topics" is generally of more interest to employees than necessarily customers, who generally enter to get a specific question answered. Yes, it removes the possibility that a top topic might possibly catch somebody's eye and draw them in, but the trade off might be worth it.

I would quibble with the wording "Go here for Official Support" as for some companies, this is a form of official support. How about "Contact Support Directly" instead? And instead of "Ask a Question of Cyberdyne Systems' Customers" (which makes it sound like employees aren't listening), how about "Query the Cyberdyne Community" (OK, OK "Query" might be too queer, but it is more accurate...)

One question: Is there someplace for companies to post or link to their own user guidelines on this new design?

All in all, I'm really glad you are moving this direction!
Cheers,
Pam

Pam started following the problem "I can't add a second e-mail address" in Get Satisfaction.

Pam gave praise in Get Satisfaction on April 06, 2009 13:00:

I really appreciate learning how to make GS work by your example!

I'm new to the web-service, public forum customer service idea. I feel lucky to have had the stellar example of the Get Satisfaction staff to model what I want our company to aspire to. My questions have been answered promptly, politely and warmly. I'm never made to feel like the pain-in-the-butt I know I'm being. Because of the delivery of the answer, I don't mind when the content of the answer to my query about some service or problem isn't what I was hoping for.
Amy, Wendy and Eric have all been extremely helpful, and having the president of the company respond to a query made me realize what a powerful pr tool that can be (our poor over-burdened CEO has that to live up to now lol).
We are a start-up that is (as all start-ups tend to be) perpetually understaffed. We can't afford the 24/7 live customer service we'd all love to offer our customers. I feel much better now about what we CAN offer. Many thanks GS for the service and the great example of how to make it work.
Cheers!
Pam

A comment on the question "Training video on how to use your system." in Get Satisfaction:

Thanks Wendy--I appreciate the info. And I'm really looking forward to Amy's next webcast. The first was well worth attending :-) – Pam, on April 02, 2009 20:44

A comment on the question "Training video on how to use your system." in Get Satisfaction:

Our company is really interested in this too! Especially question number 5. If you guys did a phone call, could you answer number 5 for us here? Thanks! – Pam, on April 02, 2009 12:46

Pam marked one of Amy Muller's replies in Get Satisfaction as useful. Amy Muller replied to the question "How do I promote Get Satisfaction on my company site?".

Pam started following the question "Best practices for engaging customers & GS?" in Get Satisfaction.

Pam replied on April 02, 2009 11:13 to the question "Can I combine two accounts?" in Get Satisfaction:

Can I migrate my personal one to become my employee account? I would prefer to axe the employee one (which has little history).

This brings up another question I had too (never short on those, lol): what is the correct way to continue a conversation? Is it better to "comment" or "reply"? "Reply" seems to be directed at the intial query only, but will "comment" get a response?
Thanks!