Inking capabilities in Windows Journal on a Tablet PC are fluid and easier to manipulate than most inking applications. Import your Power Point slides into Windows Journal and ink away without stray lines that randomly appear and get in the way of clear communication.

1. Launch Windows Journal
2. Select File >> Import (A popup window will appear and inform you that Windows Journal will print a document image of the file into Windows Journal.  This may take a few seconds.)
   
3. Select Next. The slides will appear in a new Windows Journal file.  You may need to close the original file to see it.
4. Navigate to each slide by clicking on the sections displayed at the bottom of the screen.
5. Print to a PDF with Adobe PDF or PDF Creator.

CMAT is a new server intended for faculty use as a storage place for Course MATerials. These materials can include text files, videos, etc. and can be easily linked to in your iLearn course. To access your CMAT folder, open your favorite FTP program (I will be using FileZilla [download here]). From the ‘File’ menu, select ‘Site Manager…’:

In the Site Manager window, click on the button labeled ‘New Site’:

Now, in the pane on the right, under the ‘General’ tab, click on the pull-down menu labeled ‘Logontype’ and select ‘Normal’:

Make sure the ‘Servertype’ menu shows ‘FTP – File Transfer Protocol’ (it should default to this choice) and then fill in the ‘Host’ field with the server address–cmat.tntech.edu. Then, put your normal username (e.g., hkaller) in the ‘User’ field and your password in the ‘Password’ field. It should end up looking something like this:

Now, click on the button labeled ‘Connect,’ which is located at the bottom of the box:

Back in the main FileZilla window, you can navigate to your personal directory under the pane labeled ‘Remote site,’ where you can view, upload, download and otherwise manage your files:

eXe logo

This summer we found a very useful and affordable tool (because it is free!).  It is called eXe and it is for creating learning materials for your class.  It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux and even has a version that will run from a USB drive or CD.  This one runs on Windows only though.  You can download the program by going to http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/exe/wiki.

The more we use the tool, the more we like it.  You can create modules of content that can be exported into IMS content packages and put into Desire2Learn (or other Learning Management Systems like Moodle).  The best part is that you can also export it as a web page if you prefer to just put your content on a web server and it will create the navigation for you.  You can even add pictures and media.  I even embedded YouTube and Camtasia Relay videos into the page and it worked great!

eXe works by adding pages (which builds your module outline) and on those pages you add iDevices.  There are several pre-made iDevices that include Preknowledge, Objectives, Reading Activity, Case Study, Reflection, Wiki Article, External web site and Assessment questions like Multiple-Choice, True-False, and Multiple-Select.  There are more and you can even create your own if you like.  Each of these has a specific setup that might include a title and content or as the Reading Activity there are three sections that include What to Read, the Activity and Feedback.  To try the different iDevices just select them and see what they do.  If you like it, select the green check mark.  If you do not, select the red X.

View a short tutorial on using eXe.  Let us know what you think about the program!

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/

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.

If you have ever said “I need more hours in a day” then check out these time-saver apps for what can be tedious tasks.  They may not give you back hours in your day but every minute counts.  The sign-up alone for most applications is time consuming requiring specifically formatted passwords and account verifications with spam to follow in your in-box.  These apps are hit-and-run with no personal information required.

• HTML to PDF Converter
• Webresizer – optimize photos for web or email
• Picupine – free photo sharing
• 1link – combine multiple  links into one short link
• uSend.io – send files up to 100 mb to email recipients and share in drop.io
• Collab.io – setup a collaboration space quickly for file sharing, chatting, blogging in drop.io

Click here for all links

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!

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  (www.tntech.edu if you are managing a department site)

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

By Hunter Kaller

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).

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.