I bet you have heard about Google Buzz but do you know what it is? Or how you might use it? View this YouTube video to find out.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Search Commands for Office
Do you become frustrated when you can't find commands and features in Office 2007? If so, Search Commands is for you. This free add-in creates a new Search Commands tab in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. When clicked, users enter their own words to find commands for Office tasks. It’s easy to download and install and it works great.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Learn a New Language - Free!
Are you planning a trip and need to brush up on another language. Or, do you teach a foreign language? Or, do you have children struggling to learn a foreign language?
If you answered yes to any of these questions Livemocha is the site for you. You can register to learn not only Spanish, French, German, etc., but also Punjab, Zulu, Maltese, or any of the approximately 30 languages offered.
Audio pronunciations are included in the self-paces lessons. You can study the new words and then review with self-created flashcards, or use flashcards created by other students. There are many other learning options so check out Livemocha .
If you answered yes to any of these questions Livemocha is the site for you. You can register to learn not only Spanish, French, German, etc., but also Punjab, Zulu, Maltese, or any of the approximately 30 languages offered.
Audio pronunciations are included in the self-paces lessons. You can study the new words and then review with self-created flashcards, or use flashcards created by other students. There are many other learning options so check out Livemocha .
When do you close assignments?
Many online instructors choose the very end of the day - 11:55 or 11:59. This might make sense if you want to give them as much time within a day to get an assignment in.
However, I close mine at 10 p.m. Why? No matter how many times you tell students not to wait til the last minute, you bet that they will. No matter what time it is, the last hour or so is the ONLY time that a student can complete a test.
So statistically more problems and panic arise at the hour of closing that any other time. I figure I should be available at that hour, and I do not want to stay up til the wee hours waiting for a test to close.
Any thoughts or debate on this??
However, I close mine at 10 p.m. Why? No matter how many times you tell students not to wait til the last minute, you bet that they will. No matter what time it is, the last hour or so is the ONLY time that a student can complete a test.
So statistically more problems and panic arise at the hour of closing that any other time. I figure I should be available at that hour, and I do not want to stay up til the wee hours waiting for a test to close.
Any thoughts or debate on this??
Monday, April 19, 2010
Free Ning to Disappear
I am sure that most Ning users have heard that the free version of Ning is being discontinued. This means users will either have to upgrade to a paid account or move their content to another site. You can read the Ning announcement here.
Many educators use Ning because they felt it was more secure than Facebook. Education funds are already being cut drastically so money for Ning will be hard, if not impossible, to find.
One solution I found posted is to convert your Ning pages to Spruz, Spruz offers a Ning migration script to make the task simpler. On second thought, who knows how long Spruz will be free - or even available?
Many educators use Ning because they felt it was more secure than Facebook. Education funds are already being cut drastically so money for Ning will be hard, if not impossible, to find.
One solution I found posted is to convert your Ning pages to Spruz, Spruz offers a Ning migration script to make the task simpler. On second thought, who knows how long Spruz will be free - or even available?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
New G-Mail Features
Google announced today that they have added a drag-n-drop attachments feature to G-Mail. Instead of searching a list forever for that file you embedded within a couple of folders, you simply open the folder and drag the file to the email to attach. This requires a lot fewer clicks.
This is a great addition to the Unsend feature announced last month that gives you 5 seconds (you can up this to 10 seconds) to unsend that email "that should have been sent as a “reply,” not a “reply to all.”!
This is a great addition to the Unsend feature announced last month that gives you 5 seconds (you can up this to 10 seconds) to unsend that email "that should have been sent as a “reply,” not a “reply to all.”!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Video resource
Remember the old Annenberg media telecourses? While many companies will charge for DVDs or just let the old dated material die and never update it or move it to DVD, Annenberg has a site that streams their material for free.
I use portions of Art of the Western World in my own Art Appreciation course.
Anyway I checked today and they have a 12 episode series on Exploring the World of Music for college students. A quick survey tells me that these are about 30 minutes long and they cover the elements of music (timbre, melody, texture) themes and more, most of it seems to be non-Western and traditional (Western folk) sources.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series105.html?pop=yes&pid=1237
Some of the other college level subjects include: US History, Western Civilization, Geography, Ethics, Psychology, Physical Sciences, and the cinema. Sections on literature and statistics (batting averages, anyone?) could be enlightening too.
Happily these are not just old telecourse series digitized for online use, but some newer updated ones as well.
By the way, I don't use this material until the second half of the course, but I remind the students to check out the links well beforehand, to prevent the "I can't get it to work and the assignment is due tonight" complaints.
I use portions of Art of the Western World in my own Art Appreciation course.
Anyway I checked today and they have a 12 episode series on Exploring the World of Music for college students. A quick survey tells me that these are about 30 minutes long and they cover the elements of music (timbre, melody, texture) themes and more, most of it seems to be non-Western and traditional (Western folk) sources.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series105.html?pop=yes&pid=1237
Some of the other college level subjects include: US History, Western Civilization, Geography, Ethics, Psychology, Physical Sciences, and the cinema. Sections on literature and statistics (batting averages, anyone?) could be enlightening too.
Happily these are not just old telecourse series digitized for online use, but some newer updated ones as well.
By the way, I don't use this material until the second half of the course, but I remind the students to check out the links well beforehand, to prevent the "I can't get it to work and the assignment is due tonight" complaints.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The New Flip SlideHD
Today Cisco released its newest member of the Flip Video Camera Family - the Flip SlideHD. New features include:
- Record up to four hours of HD video
- 3-inch wide touchscreen to show your favorite videos instantly
- Store up to 12 hours of videos and photos in Space Saver format
- Headphone jack (headphones not included) to enjoy your videos in any setting
The Future of Work
This video demonstrates the changing landscape of work and the workforce across the globe. With statements like, "college is the new high school" and "there's no excuse for not knowing", viewers begin to realize that creativity and teamwork are keys to success in the future.
Thanks for sharing the link, Meg.
Thanks for sharing the link, Meg.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Notely Student Organizer
Notely is a collection of online tools designed to help busy students organize their hectic lives. Notely has the tools to help students get organized and achieve better grades.
http://notely.net/
http://notely.net/
ZDNet Readers' Top 25 Lightweight Apps
ZDNet readers ranked the free, lightweight applications they simply can't live without. After tallying the suggestions in the comments and via e-mail here are the 25 most popular. Hope you find some your can't live without!
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=5368
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=5368
Friday, April 9, 2010
Auslogics Duplicate File Finder
Do you have duplicate files saved on your computer? If you are like me, you do and it can take up a lot of disk space. I am sometimes not sure which is the most recent either. ZDNet suggests using Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, a free, handy tool that searches out all duplicate files by the criteria you designate. I just ran the program. It is fast and easy to use. Oh, and did I mention that it is free?
http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=1133707&tag=nl.e530
http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=1133707&tag=nl.e530
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wolframalpha
Eddie Andreo (Small Business Management & Business Ethics instructor) sent us an update on the Wolframalpha for Educators site. Thanks Eddie! This is a very cool site...you've got to give it a try!
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