Technology Institute @ TTU Weblog

Resize My Digital Pictures Please

07Jul09

Here is another great web app that will do just that.

webresizer.com

“This free online image Web Resizer helps you optimize photos for web or email. Easy to use. Amazing results!

The pictures that come out of a digital camera are too big for use on the web. Whether you want to use your pictures on a social networking site like Myspace, Facebook, on auction site such as eBay, on your own web site or blog, or sending via email, you’ll need to reduce the size of the picture.

Web sites often have two requirements for uploaded pictures: a maximum height and width and a maximum file size. Webresizer helps you with both of these by displaying the dimensions of your picture and the file size. You can adjust the image size and the quality setting to ensure that the resulting picture meets your requirements.” Retrieved 7/6/09 from http://webresizer.com/

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Free Tools for Malware Removal and Data Recovery

05May09

Lifehacker.com, a great productivity blog, has done a couple of really useful posts in the last week or so regarding some free utilities for malware removal and data recovery.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with these terms, malware–often called spyware–consists of tiny, sneaky programs that usually install themselves without your knowledge and are often difficult to get rid of (but less so than viruses). They usually track certain user behaviors, such as Web sites visited, and may even report sensitive information, such as passwords and bank information, so it’s a good idea to check for malware regularly. I can personally vouch for their first recommendation, Spybot Search & Destroy, as an indispensable utility.

Read the entire post on malware removal here.

As for data recovery, if you’ve ever plugged your camera’s memory card into your computer and all you got out of it is an error message, such as “There is no data on the disk. Would you like to format it now?”, even though you just took a bunch of pictures with it, then you could use one of these tools to try and salvage some or all of the pictures. This strategy will also sometimes work for recovering files on faulty USB flash drives or failing hard drives.

Read the entire post on data recovery here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Confessions of an IT Poser by Jessie Daniels

09Apr09

Jessie Daniels (Distance MBA Productions Manager) recently presented at the MTSU IT Conference. Her presentation, titled “Confessions of an IT Poser” focuses on tools, tricks and tips to help you achieve your distance education goals. She looks at different open source, free and fee-based software options that are available. This presentation covers some great tools that anyone can use in their classroom. (Thank you Jessie for sharing!)

Our mission in the Technology Institute is “to foster the effective and innovative use of technology supporting excellence in the educational mission of the faculty of TTU“. Something we like to do is try out new software to see how it can be a solution in the classroom. Faculty will come to us with an issue (or just a wish list) and we look for a way to solve it (or make it happen) at the lowest cost and, of course, the easiest solution we can find. We do not use technology because it is new, we experiment and try to find the best use and sometimes we just find it is “cool” but not useful. However, many times we find software that does help provide a solution. All of the software mentioned in Jessie’s presentation is great for the classroom (on-ground, online or hybrid) and just might fit a need of yours.

Look at her presentation online: http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dd5pj94c_214ghj66nhh&skipauth=true

What software have you found that can be used for education purposes effectively? In these times of budget crunches we are always looking to see what we can do within our realistic constraints. Post a comment!

Filed under: Software, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: open source, Software

Website Server Connect thru Dreamweaver

06Mar09

by Stacey Plant

Select Site from the top menu bar….select New Site

Select the Advanced tab

Under the Local Info Category give the name of the site.

Ex: MyiWeb

Dreamweaver Site Definition screen capture

(You are setting up a file structure for the same website files on your local computer that will be on the live server. You will work on the files here and then publish updated files to the server for display on the Web.)

Local root folder: Select the folder on your computer you wish to store these files

Select Remote Info under the category column on the left

Select the drop-down menu next to Access and choose FTP

dreamweaver site definition advanced tab screen capture

FTP host: iweb.tntech.edu

Login: ttu\username

Password: ******

Select the Test button and you should receive a message saying this was successful

Dreamweaver connection verification screen capture

Select OK

Select the Done button

Connect to the server under the files area on the right

dreamweaver file panel screen capture

Highlight the root folder /username/

Select the green down arrow to download the entire site onto your computer.

Select the drop-down menu that says Remote view and change to Local view

You can work on any of these files (notice they are green, green is for local files) and then Put Files by highlighting the file and selecting the blue up arrow

dreamweaver file panel put operation screen capture

this puts the updated file on the server and is live on the Web.

Test the Webpage through several different browsers. Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari

Filed under: Server Connect, Website Development | Leave a Comment
Tags: connection, Dreamweaver, FTP, Site Definition, webpage, website

Microsoft Office or OpenOffice for Faculty and Students?

26Feb09

By Hunter Kaller

MS Office or OpenOffice?

In general, Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice.org v3.1 have similar features and capabilities, and either office package may be recommended to faculty and students with confidence that it will adequately meet their academic needs. However, there are some differences between the products that potential users should be aware of.*

Overall, OpenOffice has the clear advantage of cost between the two products, insofar as it is free to download and use for any purpose, while Office 2007 carries a cost of between $400 and $679 (or approximately ~~$150~~ $100 with a student discount). Likewise, MS Office 2007 only supports use on Windows and Apple’s OS X, while OpenOffice supports alternative operating systems, such as GNU/Linux, Irix, and Sun’s Solaris, in addition to Windows and OS X.

Similarly, OpenOffice has the advantage of greater support for “open” formats relative to Office 2007, in addition to support for MS’ proprietary office formats (.doc, .docx, etc.). However, this difference will be eliminated in late May 2009 when MS releases its Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, which will introduce support for OpenOffice’s native Open Document Formats. In the meantime, to minimize the risk of file incompatibilities, documents intended for distribution or submission should be saved/exported in established and well-supported formats, such as rich text format (.rtf), portable document format (.pdf), and html, when using either office suite.

One last thing to consider when selecting an office package is familiarity and ease of use. For the most part, MS Office is considered to be the industry standard for office applications and, as such, most users will be familiar with its interface and layout. However, with Office 2007, MS introduced a new interface and menu layout (known as ‘the ribbon’) that some users find awkward to use. These users may prefer the interface and layout of OpenOffice because they more closely resemble those of prior versions of MS Office.

If you would like to learn more about the differences between the two products, follow these links:

http://www.linux.com/feature/119546

http://www.linux.com/feature/118986

http://www.linux.com/feature/119513

http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors/PresentationDifferences.pdf

http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0606MG-DifferencesInUseCalcExcel.pdf

http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors/TextDocumentDifferences.pdf

Download OpenOffice.org

*With respect to individual components of the office suites, MS Powerpoint has a number of multimedia functions, such as support for voiceovers and mouseover actions, that are missing from OO.org’s presentation tool Impress, while OO.org’s Writer offers predictive word completion, which is not offered in MS Word (though this is admittedly a minor and little-used feature). In contrast, both office suites’ spreadsheet programs (MS Excel and OO.org’s Calc) have similar functionality for most uses (though Excel may have certain advantages for very advanced users).

Filed under: Content Creation | 2 Comments
Tags: office, open source, OpenOffice, Software

Creating Content for the web (and D2L) using MS Word

10Feb09

Many of us use MS Word to create our handouts, content and resources for instruction but when we move our content online it is not always the best way for students. Yes, this might be the easiest way for us but we need to consider that not all students have Microsoft Office at home. Many of them have MS Works which unfortunately doesn’t always work well with MS Word documents.

The issue we have run into lately is that if you save your Word file as an HTML file (WebPage) then if you look at the HTML editor in D2L it has added a lot of characters and things that should not be there. It also takes the efficiency out of the equation by doing this because you can no longer edit the file directly in D2L without messing up the content so you still have to download the file to edit.

When you create an HTML file from a Word file you will have some formatting issues at times especially if you use spaces instead of tabs or tables. The spaces will not transfer properly to HTML because it is an incorrect way to format (even in Word).

To deal with this issue, you can save your Word files as a Web Page but with a couple extra steps make the file editable too.

Go to File – Save As.
Select Web Page (*.htm; *.html) in the Save as type: drop-down box.
You can change the title by select the Change Title button (this just gives the document a title that would be listed in D2L).
Select the Tools button to the left and choose Web Options.
Choose the Encoding tab.
Select from the Save this document as: drop-down box Unicode ( UTF-8 )
Click OK

Once you have saved the document as an HTML file then you can go into D2L and import the file in whatever tool you are using or directly into the Manage Files area. If you use this file in the Content tool you will be able to edit the file directly in the HTML editor if necessary.

Filed under: Content Creation, iLearn | Leave a Comment
Tags: Content Creation, D2L, HTML

Webpage Email with Graphics

23Jan09

Problem Solving aka work-around

by Stacey Plant

I do not want to depend on a third party to deliver my html emails so here is what I did. I went to the html stationary that Microsoft Outlook uses and added my custom webpage to that same directory. Now I can pull up my own “stationary”, newsletter or special announcement and hit send like any other email. There are a few tricks so pay close attention and don’t stop reading yet.
You will need a basic understanding of HTML code. A great place to start learning HTML is: http://www.w3schools.com/

Differences between webpage development for websites and email.

All links including image links should be referenced through an absolute path containing the root directory and all other sub directories required. You cannot “attach” an image in an HTML email. They must be hosted on a web server somewhere like iWeb at TTU. Example: <img src=”http://www.tntech.edu/institute/images/banner.jpg width=”550″ height=”429″>
Tables with minimal widths must be used to accommodate the average email client preview pane. 500-600 pixels is the maximum width you should use. Use a simple layout like two column with one row across the top and one row across the bottom. Spanning columns to merge cells for rows does not play nice in the Lotus Notes email client. No more than one or two please.
Major tags like <HTML> and <BODY> cannot be styled with fonts, colors or background images. Web email clients like gmail and yahoo will strip out the major html tags so they do not interfere with their pages. You will need to create one large table with 100% width to wrap around all parts of your email and specify the background color there.
CSS must be embedded inside the body tag, not the head tag for the same reason as above.
Your email should also be mirrored on your own website as an alternative method to viewing it’s contents.

Where do I begin?…………………………………

We will use Dreamweaver for developing but you can use a simple text editor for pure HTML coding if you like.

Download the email templates zip folder from MailChimp http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/templates/. Extract all files to a folder on your site. Example: My Documents/Websites/HtmlEmail/
Open html_email_basic_template.html in the split pane view of Dreamweaver.

Notice the CSS styles are nested inside the body tag. This is usually put within the <head> tag of most WebPages but must be placed with the <body> tag. Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, for example, will strip out <html>, <head> and <body> tags to insert their own. Everything must be defined after the <body> tag to insure proper display.

Notice the green background color is defined in the outside table with a width of 100% as bgcolor=‘#99CC00’

To change the background color replace the hexadecimal code in the code view pane. In Dreamweaver you can delete =‘#99CC00’ and begin retyping =‘ and a color chart will automatically pop up for you to choose a color.
Make sure you make the same change inside the <body> tag and the first <table> tag.

Create your own banner image making sure that it is exactly 550 pixels wide. It can be any height and must be in the format of .jpg or .gif. Replace the current Acme Bananas image by double-clicking on the image in the design view pane. You must add the absolute path to this image.
Example: http://iweb.tntech/facultyName/images/banner.jpg.

Headers and subtitles are formatted with <span> tags around the text. Font-size, font-weight, color, font-family and line-height can be changed to fit your scheme in the code view pane. Highlight and replace the text in either the design view pane or the code view pane.

Make your email available to view in a web browser by linking to the identical page on your website attached to the phrase “View it in your browser” at the top.

Now for the work-around using Microsoft Outlook……..

Locate the stationery folder for Microsoft Outlook. This is usually
located in the following file directory:

My Computer >> Local Disk C: >> Program Files >> Common Files >> Microsoft Shared >> Stationery

Copy your html document to this folder.

Open Microsoft Outlook and select the Actions Menu on the top toolbar

Select New Mail Message Using and then select More Stationery

Browse to locate your file by name and send yourself an email as a test. Test this email in as many email clients as you can find before sending a mass email to your audience.

Make sure you have also uploaded the same page to an accessible website which is linked to in this document.

That’s it. To html email or not to html email, that is the question. The choice is yours.

Filed under: Email, Software, Workshops | 1 Comment
Tags: Graphic Design, HTML, HTML email, web

Student Engagement Roundtable

13Dec08

I am really late with this “update” but better late than never!

A few weeks ago I attended the Student Engagement Roundtable that Dr. Alice Camuti put together. She invited students and faculty who were interested to come and discuss using things like text messaging, social networking, social bookmarking, blogs, wikis and other widely-used technologies by the latest generation of college students in a classroom. About a dozen people showed up from several different disciplines (Chemical Engineering, English, Art, Business, Biology and others) and discussed the use of of these technologies.

Andy Smith, an Instructor in English here at TTU, came with one of his previous students and presented on how he has embraced some of this technology in his class. Here is a summary about the presentation Andy Smith and his student Sarah presented to help jumpstart the discussion.

“OMG Prof”: YouTubing, Facebooking, and Blogging in the Writing Classroom

Today, most students enter college already fluent in various forms of new media. While the essay itself remains a vigorous venue for creative expression, this genre every day responds to the collapsing of boundaries between genres and mediums.

Life in the world of hypermedia involves immersion in interactive arts that invoke immediacy. How might we fashion the composition classroom as a site that engages with new media while still inspiring the integrity of the essay as a valid form?

This collaborative presentation emerges from tentative experiments with these ideas in a first year writing classroom. Over the course of one semester, an instructor and student investigated the practical (and often playful) incorporation of such web-based realities as YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, and LiveJournal into the classroom.

The student’s projects included composing an essay about a YouTube commercial and utilizing YouTube as a source for research, employing Facebook as an alternative to email or course web tools for planning and networking, and completing an anti-essay in blog form. Web realities can be interpreted and analyzed as texts (as with YouTube) or they can be utilized as tools for composing, publishing, and networking (as with Facebook or blogs).

Through a multi-modal presentation about their discoveries, the co-presenters (an instructor and student) will provide a theoretical framework for hypermedia practices in the classroom based on current studies of online networking, share online examples of their work, and offer practical suggestions for incorporating YouTube, Facebook, and blogs into our classroom practice at the university.

The people that were there really were interested in how they could get the students involved using some of the technology they already use now. We talked about different ideas and ways to implement using different technologies.

Clickers vs Cell Phones:

We have standardized on clickers here on campus, but another idea that was discussed was using software that allows students to use their cell phones to text answers for in class polls and things. Dr. Camuti used a USB drive that she bought from telecommunications that is from Verizon Wireless that allows you to collect the data. Another way is using www.polleverywhere.com. Try it out, you can use it for free for small classes. If you have larger classes you might have to get more creative and perhaps have questions that can be discussed and answered by small groups. Janet Coonce has used this in her large Chemistry class and has liked it. It gives you the ability to download a PowerPoint slide to just insert into your presentation if you would like to. There is a free version that has some limitations, but using that creativity we could figure something out.

Another faculty member, Ward Doubet, mentioned about a project he has his students do. They have to map out a road trip that has points of interest dealing with art. Some of the tools like blogs, wikis or other software that can be shared with others could be perfect for this. How fun and interesting that would be to read those! It would be even more fun to go on one!

Some other points of discussion were:

Peer evaluations and peer reviews by using blogs that are public
Supplementing face-to-face with new communication and technology
Options for assignments like a written paper OR an mp3 audio presentation
Including a better communication area on your syllabus that lets students know the best ways to communicate with you using different tools, specifying timeframes and such
Facebook and whether faculty want to allow students to see their “real-self” vs their “digital-self”, personal vs professional.

Filed under: Social Media | Leave a Comment
Tags: Social Media, Student Engagement

Communication Tools That Help Students and Faculty Work Collaboratively

03Dec08

Our last installment of the Afternoon Dessert series was just before Thanksgiving so I am trying to catch up now.

Nowadays students are not always living in the dorms or even in the same town when they are attending classes and with online classes, really they could be anywhere. We talked about several software programs that are available to faculty and students to bridge the communication gap and help with collaboration when email is not the answer.

Some of the tools we demonstrated and/or discussed were:

Instant Messaging (IM): There are lots of IM out there (Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, MSN Messenger and more). These programs allow you to chat with others in a real-time text based environment. Some of these programs also give you the ability to send files or talk via video and voice chat but many of them are only two-way (for only two people). If you have multiple accounts with different IM systems and you don’t want to have to log into each of them separately you can use programs like Trillian and Pidgin for a Windows and Adium for Mac OS. Just setup the program to access the different IM accounts you have and access all of them from one program.

Elluminate Live (vClass): This software gives you the ability to have a video, chat, share applications, transfer files, two-way audio and an interactive whiteboard. The free vRoom can only have three people participate at a time and it cannot be recorded. This is a great way to have office hours or encourage small groups to use it when working on a project. To get a free vRoom go to http://www.elluminate.com.

TTU has purchased a license to use the full version of Elluminate Live for courses on campus also. This version allows you to record your class sessions and you can even poll the class on certain questions inside the software. We have a limited classroom size of 30 seats (this includes the instructor). You can find out more or reserve seats for a class by going to http://www.tntech.edu/institute/elluminate.asp.

Dimdim: Free web conferencing that allows you to share you desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and use video with no download for the attendee. The free version allows you to have a room with up to 20 people participating. This program also gives you a phone number to call in case someone doesn’t have the ability to join in using a microphone on a computer. (www.dimdim.com)

Skype: Allows you to make calls from your computer to someone else’s computer for free. You can send files, have two-way video and multiple people talking as well as a chat window. It allows you to have two people with video feeds, but once more than two people are involved in the call the video feed will turn off. You can pay a small fee to call a landline or cell phone anywhere in the world. (www.skype.com)

OoVoo: Similar to skype in that you can call other computers or phone numbers but it also allows you to have multiple video feeds and you can record the call. (www.oovoo.com)

Scriblink: A free digital whiteboard that can be shared with others with no registration required. You can have private whiteboards, save the whiteboard, upload images, in-screen chat, VOIP conferencing and file transfer. (www.scriblink.com)

Zoho Meeting: A free version is only for one-on-one and includes web conferencing, remote assistance and online meetings. (www.zoho.com)

Any of these tools can be useful for students and faculty who are working on projects, research and anything else that requires collaboration of any kind. These are even helpful for a quick one-on-one meeting with a student or faculty member or just holding a help session online. The software that you will want to use depends on what you want to accomplish though. If you want multiple people to participate with video you will want to choose something that can support that like OoVoo. If you want to just share a PowerPoint presentation and you are not worried about video, then something like Elluminate or Dimdim would work just fine. If you use Gmail chat already, just download the newest plug-in for the google chat tool to allow voice and video.

If you find another program that we should let people know about, please comment on this post.

Filed under: Collaboration, Software | 1 Comment
Tags: Collaboration, Communication, Software

Resize My Digital Pictures Please

Free Tools for Malware Removal and Data Recovery

Confessions of an IT Poser by Jessie Daniels

Website Server Connect thru Dreamweaver

Microsoft Office or OpenOffice for Faculty and Students?

Creating Content for the web (and D2L) using MS Word

Webpage Email with Graphics

Communication Tools That Help Students and Faculty Work Collaboratively

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