Technology for Travel

Let's go travelling

There is a wonderful collection of tools for the traveller available online. Here are some of the multipurpose and specialist sites for planning and organising your travel. Find out how to make your own free travel guide to access offline throughout your trip. Learn about apps for a wide range of mobile devices designed to enhance your travel and for managing your data and photos while travelling. View a range of methods for preserving the memories upon your return home.
This presentation was prepared for a Friends of Noosa Library event held on 17th April in the Noosa branch of the Sunshine Coast Libraries.

Tech for travel from Carmel Galvin

More sites are being added daily Follow Travel apps and tips to keep up to date with the latest offerings.

Related posts: Making Readlists Use a Readlist to compile all those pages you want to take with you.

Making your own travel guide using WikiVoyage

Which of your favourite travel tools have I omitted?

Easy video downloads for presentations

Tube downloader with Dropbox

The inclusion of a short video clip in any presentation can lighten the mood, bring emphasis to or illustrate a point and certainly provides for variety from the presenter's voice. When using video in presentations it is important to remember to seek the owner's permission to  use it and to include any copyright information attached to the video. Here's the simplest method I have found for ssaving and using short video clips.

A range of apps can perform this function on a mobile device but this is a simple method that uses Tube downloader and Dropbox to get the video from the web to your presentation in a few easy steps.

The app is available for iPhones, iPads and Androids. It downloads video from a wide range of sites including YouTube, Vimeo, and Flixxy. If you can play a video in a web browser, this app will enable you to download it. There is both a free and paid version.


1.Open the browser window of the Tube downloader app and paste the URL of the video
2. Select play and then choose download from the pop-up menu. If this is not enabled, select save to cache.
3. When video  is finished locate it in either the Files or Cache menu depending on your  previous choice..
4. Choose Open in Dropbox, this will save the file to your folder of choice.
5. From presentation interface choose Insert Video from file, get it from your Dropbox, adjust size and you're done. Easy!

Remember to delete the video from your Dropbox once inserted into your presentation.

Recipe for inspiration - Pecha Kucha style

1. Research finished, mandatory document and Powerpoint completed for assessment, disinterested students.
2. Introduce one Pecha Kucha 5 slide presentation, 20 seconds on each slide to explain the process.
3. Set challenge - who can revisit finished work and repackage their content?
4. Result - motivated students, buzz of discussion and endeavour.

Here's my very simple presentation explaining the process. This was enough to set the class buzzing. I look forward to their presentations next week.

Pecha Kucha

View more presentations from Carmel Galvin

Slide 1: Pecha Kucha (pe-chak-cha) refers to the Japanese sound for chit chat. It is used to describe a method of presenting a talk with uncluttered images and limited timings. This helps the audience concentrate on the speaker, with each slide appearing on the screen for only 20 seconds.

Slide 2: Slides are usually images only and their automatic progression after 20 seconds allows the presenter to fly smoothly through their talk rather than be entangled in a web of words appearing on the screen. The audience is relieved of the need to read the text. The image selected should reinforce the message.

Slide 3: It is important to get to the point, focus on facts and delivery, only what is important. The audience should not be distracted with transitions and effects unless they add to the message being delivered.. Text on screen is kept to 5 words or less. Original Pecha Kucha presentations use images only.

Slide 4: When done well, your classes and teachers will never be bored by presentations again. Creative Commons images must be used and image sources acknowledged on the last slide. Good places to start searching for high quality images are the advanced search options in either Flickr or Google.

Slide 5: Let's give it a spin and see if you can present your research via the Pecha Kucha method. Remember, you have only 5 slides and 20 seconds for each slide. Choose content then some inspiring images and wow the class next week. Are you ready for the challenge?