I'm the Technical Director @ j2e, and this is a technical account of what I'm doing and thinking. You're welcome to send me your thoughts and suggestions for j2e.
My blog is edited using j2e.
My blog is edited using j2e.
Feedback
Friday 5th December
j2e went live with version 2 this week. Some really nice features have been added, and the interface is cleaner, brighter and simpler. I am particularly pleased with grouping, which has meant we can add coloured shapes to the shapes library, and with texture fills. So, just in time for the lead up to Christmas, we have some Christmas clipart. For an idea of textures look here.
For a full list of changes, follow the release notes link from the about j2e window.
Friday 3rd October
Make your pages look better with tiled backgrounds. In the beta version now!
Tuesday 30th September
'my j2e files' is improved, especially for teachers. As well as seeing your own files, you can now list and search on all your schools files, or just a particular class. The default sort order is date saved, so it is really easy to see j2e activity from your pupils. I think this is a really powerful new feature, and should make it easy for you to show other staff why you are using j2e.
The easiest way to get to 'my j2e files' is from the link on the j2e.com home page.
Thursday 25th September
Askrigg Primary added the 'Google translate gadget' to some of their j2e pages. It's so great I've added it to my blog. Select a language, and the whole blog is translated, really cool! (If you add the translate gadget to your pages, you will need to use our beta version.)
We have also translated the beta version of j2e into 9 foreign languages. So if you are linked to schools abroad, or just teaching MFL, then start using a foreign version of j2e.
Saturday 6th September
Google's new browser Chrome is truly awesome. It provides a really clean and simple browser, which maximises the space available for the web page being viewed.
It also provides an 'application mode', where web applications can be run in a full window, without any browser tools. Running j2e in this application mode makes it just like a desktop application, with the whole screen available for your work.
Having been a Firefox user for the last few years, I am now totally bowled over by Chrome, after just 3 days!
j2e.com works within Chrome but there are some issues. See my forum entry http://www.just2easy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=95
Tuesday 2nd September
If you were worried not seeing regular updates to j2e, it’s because we are busy working on version 2. Take a peep.
Version 2 is evolving, and many areas are incomplete. However, what you can do is copy/paste and drag/drop j2e files into your j2e folders, for better file management.
We are also introducing ‘document types’, so you can say if your work is paper, or a blog, or a wiki, or a web page, and get helpful behaviour for that type of document.
Have a peep, and use feedback from the about window to let us know what you think.
Tuesday 22nd July
Block puzzles are a new and fun addition to jigsaws. They can be harder than you think!
We have added an option for moderation of pupils files. If a pupil wants a file to be public, it will appear in a teacher moderation area, before it is visible by the public. By default this is set off, to turn it on ‘my account’ -> ‘my details’ -> ‘school’. Every now and then you will need to check the ‘for moderation’ tab on your load file window.
Friday 11th July
just2Store just got even better! Click here! You see, you can now make links directly to your just2Store files. First you must put a file in your just2Store, so open your just2Store and drag a file into it, could be a Word file or anything. Now, that file can be accessed from any browser, just by typing in the url,
j2e.com/yourUserName/yourFileName.
Bit scary? it's OK, that file is private to you. But, you can share it, with friends, by password, or even make it public. In your just2Store, click on the menu for that file, and select ‘share’.
To create a link to your file on a web page, just create a link in the normal way, and point the link at that url!
Friday 4th July
LGfL and Just2easy have teamed up to offer every school in London a version of j2e that runs on the LGfL network. It is available to the London schools without charge, from now until July 2009.
Thursday 5th June
j2e Jigsaws are here! Add your chosen picture to the page, select it, and then ‘convert to jigsaw’. Save your page ‘as html’, and you will have created your own interactive web page. It's a wonderful end of term activity for use on whiteboards. Choose number of pieces, type of shape, you can even include a 'solve' button. Cast your eye on this!
Tuesday 3rd June
Coming soon, jigsaws!
Wednesday 28th May
Education Bradford are running a trial with the Asus Eee PC, a small robust PC with a screen size just 800 by 480 pixels. It's a great little machine for children to use, runs Java and therefore j2e. Today's release of j2e has been modified to run even better on the small screen, and it now runs beautifully on the Eee PC. The picture shows a new version of that My World favourite, Dress Teddy, redone in j2e, and running on the Eee PC.
Friday 16th May
Just2store - ‘on-line storage’. Double clicking on a file not only downloads it to your computer, but opens it. Edit the file, just save, and the changed file uploads back to your store. Works with Word, Excel and all those other ‘industry standard’ applications. Drag folders to and from the on-line store. Select multiple files to add tags, share etc.
It is all so good, that we have added a new link on the j2e home page, just2store. Try it out, and let me know any issues your find. Now you can throw away those USB memory sticks!
Wednesday 30th April
We have added 'on-line storage' where you can put things like Word or Powerpoint files, and then download them from anywhere, or share them with friends. See if you can find the 'on-line storage', have a play dragging and dropping files on. Let me know what you think. (I know some of you will want folders, but for now try using tags and sorting).
Thursday 17th April
Visited Cheswick Green Primary School today, to talk about how j2e is helping with their 'Creative Learning Project'. They are using j2e for their class blog, and for home work. See their showcase files here. (Follow some of the links on 'ablog' to see more j2e use by children). We are really pleased that Cheswick is providing us feedback to help to improve j2e's use in the classroom - a learning experience for us all.
Thursday 10th April
Great fun today, added drag copy to html pages and a bin.
Try to move the heart, it copies. You can litter my page with shapes. Drop them in the bin when you don't want them!
See if you can find how to create your own page that uses drag copy, great for use on whiteboards.
www.j2e.com/help/hotkeys
Wednesday 9th April
Forms have been improved. The form controls now pick up the style from the j2e page, and they no longer keep annoyingly changing their size! They only change size if you change the font size of the control, or of the style. (To change the style, click on a blank area of the page, and click 'styles' in the tools.)
If you haven't yet tried forms you should. They sound boring but are rather wonderful things to collect data with. I will do a tip of the day on forms later this week...
Monday 7th April
You can see which of your j2e pages Google lists, by typing in ‘j2e’ in the site search on our home page. They are slow in listing our files. Of 530 html files submitted, so far they have only listed a few, and are listing some that shouldn't be there. I'm told it could be a month or more before the listing is complete :-(
Files are listed by their file names, for example this file had a very dull title of ‘blog’. To improve listings and titles, you may now add a title to each j2e document. Just click on a blank part of your j2e page, and set the title in the tools to the right. This page has a new improved title of “Geoff’s j2e blog”!
Saturday 5th April
Just returned from a fantastic holiday in Antigua, West Indies. See picture of me, sailing!
Wednesday 26th March
Full of chocolate yum yum!
From today, we are telling Google and Yahoo about all your html pages. They should get listed, although it might take a while for G and Y to process them. If you don't want your page listed, then either add a password to it, (from the share window), or don't save it 'as html'.
Good Friday
Hope you like the new cleaner web site www.j2e.com
Built with j2e of course :-)
Thursday 20th March
Everyone is blogging, so I thought I better...
Today added code to tell Google et al not to index any edit pages. This means your work will be private, unless you save it as html. We can also tell Google which pages to list, and we will be doing this soon with all html pages. Then Google and our new site search facility will list your html pages, they will truly be web pages!
Each time you save a new page, j2e will now refresh the browser window. This might be a little annoying, but it is the only way to update the web page address to show the correct url. It was needed :-)
j2e went live with version 2 this week. Some really nice features have been added, and the interface is cleaner, brighter and simpler. I am particularly pleased with grouping, which has meant we can add coloured shapes to the shapes library, and with texture fills. So, just in time for the lead up to Christmas, we have some Christmas clipart. For an idea of textures look here.
For a full list of changes, follow the release notes link from the about j2e window.
Friday 3rd October
Make your pages look better with tiled backgrounds. In the beta version now!
Tuesday 30th September
'my j2e files' is improved, especially for teachers. As well as seeing your own files, you can now list and search on all your schools files, or just a particular class. The default sort order is date saved, so it is really easy to see j2e activity from your pupils. I think this is a really powerful new feature, and should make it easy for you to show other staff why you are using j2e.
The easiest way to get to 'my j2e files' is from the link on the j2e.com home page.
Thursday 25th September
Askrigg Primary added the 'Google translate gadget' to some of their j2e pages. It's so great I've added it to my blog. Select a language, and the whole blog is translated, really cool! (If you add the translate gadget to your pages, you will need to use our beta version.)
We have also translated the beta version of j2e into 9 foreign languages. So if you are linked to schools abroad, or just teaching MFL, then start using a foreign version of j2e.
Saturday 6th September
Google's new browser Chrome is truly awesome. It provides a really clean and simple browser, which maximises the space available for the web page being viewed.
It also provides an 'application mode', where web applications can be run in a full window, without any browser tools. Running j2e in this application mode makes it just like a desktop application, with the whole screen available for your work.
Having been a Firefox user for the last few years, I am now totally bowled over by Chrome, after just 3 days!
j2e.com works within Chrome but there are some issues. See my forum entry http://www.just2easy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=95
Tuesday 2nd September
If you were worried not seeing regular updates to j2e, it’s because we are busy working on version 2. Take a peep.
Version 2 is evolving, and many areas are incomplete. However, what you can do is copy/paste and drag/drop j2e files into your j2e folders, for better file management.
We are also introducing ‘document types’, so you can say if your work is paper, or a blog, or a wiki, or a web page, and get helpful behaviour for that type of document.
Have a peep, and use feedback from the about window to let us know what you think.
Tuesday 22nd July
Block puzzles are a new and fun addition to jigsaws. They can be harder than you think!
We have added an option for moderation of pupils files. If a pupil wants a file to be public, it will appear in a teacher moderation area, before it is visible by the public. By default this is set off, to turn it on ‘my account’ -> ‘my details’ -> ‘school’. Every now and then you will need to check the ‘for moderation’ tab on your load file window.
Friday 11th July
just2Store just got even better! Click here! You see, you can now make links directly to your just2Store files. First you must put a file in your just2Store, so open your just2Store and drag a file into it, could be a Word file or anything. Now, that file can be accessed from any browser, just by typing in the url,
j2e.com/yourUserName/yourFileName.
Bit scary? it's OK, that file is private to you. But, you can share it, with friends, by password, or even make it public. In your just2Store, click on the menu for that file, and select ‘share’.
To create a link to your file on a web page, just create a link in the normal way, and point the link at that url!
Friday 4th July
LGfL and Just2easy have teamed up to offer every school in London a version of j2e that runs on the LGfL network. It is available to the London schools without charge, from now until July 2009.
Thursday 5th June
j2e Jigsaws are here! Add your chosen picture to the page, select it, and then ‘convert to jigsaw’. Save your page ‘as html’, and you will have created your own interactive web page. It's a wonderful end of term activity for use on whiteboards. Choose number of pieces, type of shape, you can even include a 'solve' button. Cast your eye on this!
Tuesday 3rd June
Coming soon, jigsaws!
Wednesday 28th May
Education Bradford are running a trial with the Asus Eee PC, a small robust PC with a screen size just 800 by 480 pixels. It's a great little machine for children to use, runs Java and therefore j2e. Today's release of j2e has been modified to run even better on the small screen, and it now runs beautifully on the Eee PC. The picture shows a new version of that My World favourite, Dress Teddy, redone in j2e, and running on the Eee PC.
Friday 16th May
Just2store - ‘on-line storage’. Double clicking on a file not only downloads it to your computer, but opens it. Edit the file, just save, and the changed file uploads back to your store. Works with Word, Excel and all those other ‘industry standard’ applications. Drag folders to and from the on-line store. Select multiple files to add tags, share etc.
It is all so good, that we have added a new link on the j2e home page, just2store. Try it out, and let me know any issues your find. Now you can throw away those USB memory sticks!
Wednesday 30th April
We have added 'on-line storage' where you can put things like Word or Powerpoint files, and then download them from anywhere, or share them with friends. See if you can find the 'on-line storage', have a play dragging and dropping files on. Let me know what you think. (I know some of you will want folders, but for now try using tags and sorting).
Thursday 17th April
Visited Cheswick Green Primary School today, to talk about how j2e is helping with their 'Creative Learning Project'. They are using j2e for their class blog, and for home work. See their showcase files here. (Follow some of the links on 'ablog' to see more j2e use by children). We are really pleased that Cheswick is providing us feedback to help to improve j2e's use in the classroom - a learning experience for us all.
Thursday 10th April
Great fun today, added drag copy to html pages and a bin.
Try to move the heart, it copies. You can litter my page with shapes. Drop them in the bin when you don't want them!
See if you can find how to create your own page that uses drag copy, great for use on whiteboards.
www.j2e.com/help/hotkeys
Wednesday 9th April
Forms have been improved. The form controls now pick up the style from the j2e page, and they no longer keep annoyingly changing their size! They only change size if you change the font size of the control, or of the style. (To change the style, click on a blank area of the page, and click 'styles' in the tools.)
If you haven't yet tried forms you should. They sound boring but are rather wonderful things to collect data with. I will do a tip of the day on forms later this week...
Monday 7th April
You can see which of your j2e pages Google lists, by typing in ‘j2e’ in the site search on our home page. They are slow in listing our files. Of 530 html files submitted, so far they have only listed a few, and are listing some that shouldn't be there. I'm told it could be a month or more before the listing is complete :-(
Files are listed by their file names, for example this file had a very dull title of ‘blog’. To improve listings and titles, you may now add a title to each j2e document. Just click on a blank part of your j2e page, and set the title in the tools to the right. This page has a new improved title of “Geoff’s j2e blog”!
Saturday 5th April
Just returned from a fantastic holiday in Antigua, West Indies. See picture of me, sailing!
Wednesday 26th March
Full of chocolate yum yum!
From today, we are telling Google and Yahoo about all your html pages. They should get listed, although it might take a while for G and Y to process them. If you don't want your page listed, then either add a password to it, (from the share window), or don't save it 'as html'.
Good Friday
Hope you like the new cleaner web site www.j2e.com
Built with j2e of course :-)
Thursday 20th March
Everyone is blogging, so I thought I better...
Today added code to tell Google et al not to index any edit pages. This means your work will be private, unless you save it as html. We can also tell Google which pages to list, and we will be doing this soon with all html pages. Then Google and our new site search facility will list your html pages, they will truly be web pages!
Each time you save a new page, j2e will now refresh the browser window. This might be a little annoying, but it is the only way to update the web page address to show the correct url. It was needed :-)
