A Chinese software developer has developed one of the most useful freeware programs: OfficeTab. I work with multiple documents at once and hate having to go to the minimize tray and search for the document I need. OfficeTab enables me to see them all at once and simply click-Tab to the one I want. Cool and productive!
Check it out here.
If you don't read Chinese, check out the translated page to download.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Video Tutorials: "Can I see that again?"
One of the reasons I set up this site was to answer questions more efficiently. After all, there is a reason why some computer geeks wear t-shirts that say "No, I will NOT help you with your computer!"
I might give a short tutorial on how to use a time-saving teaching/learning digital tool but users really need a resource to "see it again" on their own.
Enter the "podcast" tutorial. Many software developers offer video podcasts (also known as "screencasts") to show how their program works. For example, yesterday I had 45 minutes to run through a variety of Firefox add-ons that students and teachers will find useful. But how much of this will people retain?
Here are some podcast tutorials of Firefox add-ons that I discussed in a rush. Elsewhere on this web site, you will find my discussions of how to use various tools. If a podcast tutorial is not available on the Internet, then the second-best thing is a FAQ list (Frequently Asked Questions), such as this one for Firefox extension "Downthemall!"
Selected podcast tutorials:
Zotero NOTE: Expand this to full screen for better viewing. For more Zotero tutorials going into greater detail, click here
Outwit Images
Video Downloadhelper: IMPORTANT:
1. Expand to full screen (little square icon bottom LH corner, next to the HD icon);
2. Click on the HD icon (bottom LH corner) to get a really clear video tutorial):
I might give a short tutorial on how to use a time-saving teaching/learning digital tool but users really need a resource to "see it again" on their own.
Enter the "podcast" tutorial. Many software developers offer video podcasts (also known as "screencasts") to show how their program works. For example, yesterday I had 45 minutes to run through a variety of Firefox add-ons that students and teachers will find useful. But how much of this will people retain?
Here are some podcast tutorials of Firefox add-ons that I discussed in a rush. Elsewhere on this web site, you will find my discussions of how to use various tools. If a podcast tutorial is not available on the Internet, then the second-best thing is a FAQ list (Frequently Asked Questions), such as this one for Firefox extension "Downthemall!"
Selected podcast tutorials:
Zotero NOTE: Expand this to full screen for better viewing. For more Zotero tutorials going into greater detail, click here
Outwit Images
Video Downloadhelper: IMPORTANT:
1. Expand to full screen (little square icon bottom LH corner, next to the HD icon);
2. Click on the HD icon (bottom LH corner) to get a really clear video tutorial):
Friday, August 14, 2009
Top Secret! Declassified Documents for Cheap
There are two commercial sites that sell CD's and DVD's of historical media, including scans of top-secret documents that have been declassified. In most cases, each DVD or CD costs only $10! I have built a huge collection of
MULTIMEDIA: from Earthstation1.com Much of it is pop culture but when teaching the Great Depression, where else can I get
*DVDs full of political cartoons on Hoover, FDR, Huey Long, etc. for $10?
*Audio of Hitler, FDR, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill
*Radio shows
*Film reels: propaganda on all sides, Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons showing the racist side of America at the time.
PRINT SOURCES (declassified documents): Paperlessarchives.com
Paperlessarchives takes some searching but there are FBI and CIA files on just about any significant individual or event (even Eleanor Roosevelt's FBI file!). Do search for Martin Luther King, Jr. and you get over 3,000 pages:
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/mlk.html
MULTIMEDIA: from Earthstation1.com Much of it is pop culture but when teaching the Great Depression, where else can I get
*DVDs full of political cartoons on Hoover, FDR, Huey Long, etc. for $10?
*Audio of Hitler, FDR, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill
*Radio shows
*Film reels: propaganda on all sides, Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons showing the racist side of America at the time.
PRINT SOURCES (declassified documents): Paperlessarchives.com
Paperlessarchives takes some searching but there are FBI and CIA files on just about any significant individual or event (even Eleanor Roosevelt's FBI file!). Do search for Martin Luther King, Jr. and you get over 3,000 pages:
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/mlk.html
Monday, August 10, 2009
Steal this Book: Students and Textbooks
One of my favorite technology sites, http://lifehacker.com has an article on "how to save money on textbooks." The comments are more illuminating than the article. Students discuss how they scan (and share) textbooks, download them via torrent sites, and so on. Apparently this doesn't work too well with high school students because the illegal e-book crowd gets busted when the teacher asks to see their textbook. Oops.
As for me, I'm adopting a free e-book developed by the University of Houston. The site is rich and a PDF reprinting is a lot easier than stealing books or waiting to see if the prof is really going to use it. I make it a point to assign questions from the textbook, along with questions from lecture material and supplemental readings. If I were a student (I'm on the evil teacher side), I'd be teed after buying a $150 book that the professor didn't use.
As for me, I'm adopting a free e-book developed by the University of Houston. The site is rich and a PDF reprinting is a lot easier than stealing books or waiting to see if the prof is really going to use it. I make it a point to assign questions from the textbook, along with questions from lecture material and supplemental readings. If I were a student (I'm on the evil teacher side), I'd be teed after buying a $150 book that the professor didn't use.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Email Grabber: A Tool with Lots of Potential
http://www.emailgrabber.net/
This $17 program is a great resource for people who are trying to compile lists of addresses from web pages (directories, databases, etc.). Student groups, authors, others may find this very useful.
For example:
I went to http://policyexperts.org/us_experts/us_experts_issues.cfm and clicked "American History" box. A list of all policy experts in "American History" popped up (including me!). I copied that web address to Email Grabber 2 and -- presto! -- all the email addresses appeared in a preview pane. You then have the option of exporting to text, CSV, and options to separate by line, semi-colon or comma.
NOTE: If you use the trial version, it will grab all the emails but scramble the part before the @ symbol. That is a trial limitation. I can attest that the $17 full version does cough up unscrambled email addresses!
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
This $17 program is a great resource for people who are trying to compile lists of addresses from web pages (directories, databases, etc.). Student groups, authors, others may find this very useful.
For example:
I went to http://policyexperts.org/us_experts/us_experts_issues.cfm and clicked "American History" box. A list of all policy experts in "American History" popped up (including me!). I copied that web address to Email Grabber 2 and -- presto! -- all the email addresses appeared in a preview pane. You then have the option of exporting to text, CSV, and options to separate by line, semi-colon or comma.
NOTE: If you use the trial version, it will grab all the emails but scramble the part before the @ symbol. That is a trial limitation. I can attest that the $17 full version does cough up unscrambled email addresses!
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Kindle DX Reader: Not Ready for Prime Time
My university purchased me a Kindle DX Reader ($500) to assess this mode of book distribution. Amazon, the maker of Kindle, is targeting the textbook market with this third-generation model.
More generally, there is growing interest among publishers in e-books but no reader yet to make the choice truly palatable. The first Kindle Readers were "gee-whiz" show-off devices with severe limitations. Was the Kindle DX different? Here is my experience and review:
The product started burning images into the screen by day 3 and then just froze (I returned it). But here is my assessment:
STRENGTHS:
*9.7" screen (diagonal) is right for a tradebook
*Rotation of page: rotate to landscape and it adjusts accordingly
*Highlighting and note taking ability
*Reads well in sunshine
*Wireless works on regular wi-fi
WEAKNESSES:
*Price
*Limited selection of titles
*Slow loading of pages
*No color (black, white, gray)
*Clumsy 5-way controller -- a single button the size of a small ant is used for almost all commands. It drove me crazy trying to navigate, highlight, etc. One tiny slip and off you are to some other category.
*Notetaking and highlighting: I downloaded a book and loaded it. I then highlighted (very difficult) and took notes (a bit less difficult). HOWEVER, the closed-system model makes it difficult to get the notes ("My Clippings") to a computer or flash key. It converts to plain .TXT -- can you imagine?? Zotero in Firefox is far, far superior (see zotero.org). You can carry over the highlighted book but can only read it on the Kindle.
*No touch screen function: THIS is essential for the way people interact with books. What I really want is a tablet PC reduced to this size and thinness with ability to touch screen and make notes. Like a very large iPhone or Tablet PC with electronic ink. (Why doesn't some computer company do it? I hear Fujitsu has a $1,000 model that is much better but only available in Japan).
*File conversion: I planned on using Kindle to read all sorts of documents. It uploads PDFs easily from a PC but any other format must be emailed to your kindle address and then converted FOR A FEE!! A simple .doc might cost you several bucks.
*Complexity: The quick start guide wasn't enough. I had to download the 100 page manual to really understand how to get around.
*Audiobooks: ONLY available from -- you got it -- an Amazon site named Audible.com with a proprietary format (AAX).
*Search function: you can search across all of your stored items BUT ONLY THE META DATA (author, title, ISBN). Useless. With advanced desktop search engines, I was very disappointed in being able to locate content.
BOTTOM LINE:
Amazon is attempting a "closed" eco-system much like Apple products. That is one reason why I never became a Mac user--too many restrictions. However, Amazon's Kindle makes Mac look open-source friendly and Apple's design is far superior. No wonder people are speculating that Apple, not Amazon, will deliver on the promise of a worthwhile e-book reader (even though Steve Jobs infamously mocked books by saying that "people don't read anymore"). Let's hope that someone delivers on that promise because the technology is available.
GRADE: F
More generally, there is growing interest among publishers in e-books but no reader yet to make the choice truly palatable. The first Kindle Readers were "gee-whiz" show-off devices with severe limitations. Was the Kindle DX different? Here is my experience and review:
The product started burning images into the screen by day 3 and then just froze (I returned it). But here is my assessment:
STRENGTHS:
*9.7" screen (diagonal) is right for a tradebook
*Rotation of page: rotate to landscape and it adjusts accordingly
*Highlighting and note taking ability
*Reads well in sunshine
*Wireless works on regular wi-fi
WEAKNESSES:
*Price
*Limited selection of titles
*Slow loading of pages
*No color (black, white, gray)
*Clumsy 5-way controller -- a single button the size of a small ant is used for almost all commands. It drove me crazy trying to navigate, highlight, etc. One tiny slip and off you are to some other category.
*Notetaking and highlighting: I downloaded a book and loaded it. I then highlighted (very difficult) and took notes (a bit less difficult). HOWEVER, the closed-system model makes it difficult to get the notes ("My Clippings") to a computer or flash key. It converts to plain .TXT -- can you imagine?? Zotero in Firefox is far, far superior (see zotero.org). You can carry over the highlighted book but can only read it on the Kindle.
*No touch screen function: THIS is essential for the way people interact with books. What I really want is a tablet PC reduced to this size and thinness with ability to touch screen and make notes. Like a very large iPhone or Tablet PC with electronic ink. (Why doesn't some computer company do it? I hear Fujitsu has a $1,000 model that is much better but only available in Japan).
*File conversion: I planned on using Kindle to read all sorts of documents. It uploads PDFs easily from a PC but any other format must be emailed to your kindle address and then converted FOR A FEE!! A simple .doc might cost you several bucks.
*Complexity: The quick start guide wasn't enough. I had to download the 100 page manual to really understand how to get around.
*Audiobooks: ONLY available from -- you got it -- an Amazon site named Audible.com with a proprietary format (AAX).
*Search function: you can search across all of your stored items BUT ONLY THE META DATA (author, title, ISBN). Useless. With advanced desktop search engines, I was very disappointed in being able to locate content.
BOTTOM LINE:
Amazon is attempting a "closed" eco-system much like Apple products. That is one reason why I never became a Mac user--too many restrictions. However, Amazon's Kindle makes Mac look open-source friendly and Apple's design is far superior. No wonder people are speculating that Apple, not Amazon, will deliver on the promise of a worthwhile e-book reader (even though Steve Jobs infamously mocked books by saying that "people don't read anymore"). Let's hope that someone delivers on that promise because the technology is available.
GRADE: F
Free Textbooks in Our Future?
California is taking the lead on free digital textbooks for high school. Commercial providers (like the one listed below) are also offering free online books in fields like business or science, with $19.95 print-on-demand copies available. That is called the "freemium" business model.
Is this the future? I must admit that the U.S. history text at "Digital History" (University of Houston) is good. Not great but good.
Or will students ignore even the free textbooks? A few complain of the price but they all complain of the TIME. "You mean we have to read the whole thing? That is so lame!"
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/13/california-eyes-digital-textbooks/
http://www.clrn.org/FDTI/
Commercial provider (free online, $20 for a printed version):
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/product-kit/6000
A good U.S. history textbook is available at
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/hyper_titles.cfm
The second, revised edition (due for final release in January) is even better:
http://www.digitalhistory2.uh.edu/
Beyond the textbook, there is a rich collection of contemporary music and much more for teachers and students to use.
Is this the future? I must admit that the U.S. history text at "Digital History" (University of Houston) is good. Not great but good.
Or will students ignore even the free textbooks? A few complain of the price but they all complain of the TIME. "You mean we have to read the whole thing? That is so lame!"
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/13/california-eyes-digital-textbooks/
http://www.clrn.org/FDTI/
Commercial provider (free online, $20 for a printed version):
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/product-kit/6000
A good U.S. history textbook is available at
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/hyper_titles.cfm
The second, revised edition (due for final release in January) is even better:
http://www.digitalhistory2.uh.edu/
Beyond the textbook, there is a rich collection of contemporary music and much more for teachers and students to use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)