Question: I use Twitter in my personal life but haven’t thought of a way to use it in my classroom.  Do you have any suggestions on how to use Twitter for educational purposes?

Answer: Twitter has all kinds of uses in the classroom.  And with the development of GroupTweet it has become even more useful.   GroupTweet allows you to create a group that you can send private tweets to.   As GroupTweet website states,

GroupTweet turns a standard Twitter account into a group communication hub where members can post updates to everyone in the group using direct messages. When the group account receives a direct message from a group member, GroupTweet converts it into a tweet that all followers can see.

Want to keep your updates private so that only your group members can see them? Simply protect your group account on Twitter.

So you can set up your classroom as a group, have your students follow the group or exchange information through the group, and only your group could see the tweets.

To learn more about ways of using Twitter in your classroom you could do a quick Google search using the keywords “Using Twitter in the classroom” and you will come across all kinds of great ideas.  Some pages that came up when I did search include:

• 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom
• How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom
• Tweet and Twitter in the Classroom
• Twitter in the Classroom? YouTube video
• Find Other Teachers on Twitter

Let me know if you find any of this helpful and begin to use Twitter with your students.  We would love to hear about how you find it useful in the classroom.

Question: I would like to create some screencast tutorials this year for my students.  I have heard that both Jing and Camtasia Studio are great options for doing this.  Do you have any opinion on which one is better?  Also since I’m just starting out in this area and haven’t created a screencast before do you have any tips that I would find helpful before beginning?  Thanks!

Answer: You heard right.  Camtasia Studio and Jing are both great options for creating screencasts.   As you may have discovered Camtasia Studio is approximately $300 ($179 for the education pricing) whereas Jing (made by the same company) is free.  It really depends on your budget and what you need the screencasting program to do.  For example Jing can only create swf files, has a 5 minute maximum, and doesn’t allow for editing.  On the other hand Camtasia Studio is loaded with lots of editing options.

So for short, quick tutorials that won’t need any editing then Jing would be a perfect choice.  However if you are interested in doing longer, more complex screencasts with the ability to add quizzes or other interactivity, then you would be better off with Camtasia Studio.

Recently a group of our MAET students conducted a Jing Off challenge.  The students were put into teams with the challenge of producing 9 screencasts in 10 minutes using the free tool, Jing.  You can read more about it and see examples of what can be created using Jing in the MAET News column of this newsletter or at the TechSmith Education Community blog or at the Jing blog .

Some other options that are available would be Wink or CamStudio.   Both of these options are also free and include a few more editing capabilities than Jing.  You may want to check them out if the $179 education price tag for Camtasia Studio is too much for your budget.

I’m glad to hear you are thinking ahead before creating the screencasts.  I just finished completing a video series using Camtasia Studio and jotted a few notes down to remember the next time I do another series to make the process a little easier and less time consuming.

Prior to Recording Your Screen

1. Clean off your desktop
2. Close any applications you don’t need, especially ones that have pop up reminders/notices  like Outlook
3. Prepare a script with designated places for pauses especially if you will be using the callouts and hotspots features in Camtasia Studio
4. Complete a dry run to make sure you don’t run into any snags and to help you finalize your script
5. Use an external microphone if possible and adjust the settings
6. Chunk information into smaller videos (helps both for updating later on and keeping people’s attention).  Try to stick to less than 10 minutes for reach video.

During the Recording Session

1. Make sure you are in a quiet room without any chance of interruptions (phones, doorbells, etc)
2. Record in a similar screen resolution that you will produce your video in
3. Try to get the recording right in order to avoid editing.  It will save you time in the long run.  It is very difficult to keep audio and video synced if you are editing the tracks separately
4. Keep the cursor of the mouse still while recording unless you are pointing to something

Editing and Publishing a Video

1. Choose project setting that is similar or the same as the production setting
2. Minimize the number of zoom and pans (time consuming and too distracting)
3. Zoom in on the timeline when trying to make specific edits to the video or audio.  The closer you zoom in the easier it is to make the edits
4. Publish in Flash when possible.  (.FLV for videos or .SWF for screencasts or videos with quizzes)

You can check out one of the videos of the video series I recently put together in Camtasia Studio and see many of the different features that Camtasia has to offer in action.  From clickable hotspots to quizzes at the end of each video, there is so much you can do to make your video more interactive for the user.  Keep in mind that this was the first video series so many of the things I listed above I learned firsthand from creating this series.  See how many items you can pick out from the list above that I didn’t do this first time around.  ;)

http://edutech.msu.edu/online/Internet/FTPLesson2Full/
FTPLesson2Full.html

Question: Is there an easy way to convert an audio and/or video file without having to download any special software?

Answer: Yes!  Zamzar.com offers a free online file conversion with a wide variety of image, document, audio and video formats.  You can convert files that are up to 100 MB and up to 5 files at a time for free but be forewarned that you will be bombarded with ads.  They do have paid versions with no ads and free online file storage but if you are only using it occasionally it won’t be worth the monthly price.

In addition ZamZar has a free download video feature.  This would also be helpful if you are presenting at an off-site location and are unsure of the stability of the Internet connection.  You can download the video prior to the presentation so that you can be sure to have it available.

When using the download video feature it is important to keep in mind copyright guidelines.  When using the video for educational purposes you will want to review the Four Factors of Fair Use at http://www.lib.umn.edu/copyright/fairuse.phtml#fourfactors.

Question: Do you have any suggestions for resources on making websites and online courses more accessible for those with disabilities?

Answer: Michigan State University is currently undergoing a process to make all of their websites and online courses more accessible.  They have provided quite a bit of training for their employees to learn more about accessibility and provided us with a checklist of things that we should be considering when retrofitting our websites and online courses. A checklist that you may find helpful can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html.

Another resource that they have provided us in our training is the Web Accessibility Toolbar for Internet Explorer.  You can add this toolbar to your Internet Explorer browser window by going to http://paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html and clicking on the download link at the bottom of the page.

Once this is installed on your Internet Explorer browser window you can use it to see if all of your images have alt tags, see what your website might look like for someone with color blindness, better understand the order that a screen reader will read your content, and many other accessibility items.

Firefox also has an accessibility extension that can be added to that browser.  It can be found at http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu/.  Read the instructions for installing the toolbar into your browser.

If you would like to test out how your site sounds using a screen reader you can install a free copy of SATOGO (System Access to Go) by going to http://www.satogo.com.  Once installed you can have the program read through the content in your website and make sure that it is being read appropriately.

Hopefully these tools will help get you started.  I’m glad to hear you are interested in making your websites and online courses accessible for everyone.

Question: I need a tool that will allow me and 10-12 participants to engage in video conferencing all at the same time before we meet in person at a conference. Now I don’t think there is anything out there in terms of freeware but I thought I would check.

Answer: We use Adobe Connect for our online classes and really like all the options that it provides us.  However it is not free or even cost effective if you would only be using it occasionally.  They do have a 15 day free trial if you would only be using it for a short two week period.

A free option is Vyew.  It has been recently highlighted in PCWorld and would enable you to connect the number of participants you require.  Participants just need to put up with ads. Since I haven’t used it I’m not sure how annoying the ads can be.  It is web-based so there is no need to download any software.  You can give presentations, host webinars, conduct team meetings, and share and collaborate on content.

Another free option is DimDim.  It allows up to 20 attendees as part of the free version.  If you end up having any more than that you need to sign up for the paid version.  It is web-based so there is no need to download any software.  You can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam.

Below are some additional programs that I haven’t tested or reviewed in detail.  I’d suggest trying to find some reviews on them and doing a test pilot prior to using them with a large group.  Also be sure to read the Terms of Service for whatever one you may choose.  It is important to know up front what you are agreeing to, especially with a free service.  Some of these options below only allow up to 5 people on the conference at a time so they may not meet your needs of having 10-12 people on at one time.

WebHuddle – https://www.webhuddle.com/
Yugma – https://www.yugma.com
Palbee – http://www.palbee.com/index.aspx
WengoMeeting – http://www.wengomeeting.com/index.php

Question: When I am presenting information from a website to my students I often have to write down the web address of the page that I’m going to in Word so that I can enlarge it on my screen for the students to see.  If I just go to the webpage, the address is so small that students generally can’t see it.  Do you have any ideas on how to address this?

Answer: One of our instructors, Sue Wright, recently showed us a new tool that she uses in her classroom and in our Ed Tech classes.  It is called ZoomIt and it is free to download and use.  I had the opportunity to use the tool while teaching in Plymouth, England this summer and found it very useful.  It remedies the issue of not being able to see the web address by allowing the presenter to zoom in to that particular part of the page.

In addition, it allows you to draw on the page to highlight a particular area that you want your students to view.  The pen width and color is customizable and can be used with or without the Zoom feature.

Lastly, it includes a Break Timer that will blank out your screen.  So if you are doing a presentation and part way through you want the students to get into groups or take a break you can set the timer for the appropriate number of minutes and have that displayed on your screen.

After downloading the program, it is important to read the ZoomIt options screen to learn how to utilize the program.  It runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys.  Once you set these hotkeys it is very easy to zoom in to any area on the screen.

The program is currently only available for Windows.  Both Mac and Windows operating systems have a built in function that you can use but this 3rd party application adds a bit more functionality and is easier to use.

You can learn more about the program as well as download it from the publisher’s website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx.  Please note that doing a search in Google for Zoom It may pull up applications/scripts that are different from this particular one, so read carefully before downloading.

Question: In last quarter’s issue you described a program that helps eliminate paper waste from printing pages off the web. Is there a similar program that allows you to take sections from different websites and put them all onto one page for printing? I often find a paragraph or two of information from a website and instead of printing the entire page would like to just print and/or save the paragraphs that I’m interested in.

Answer: Just recently the Program Coordinator for the Master’s program, Leigh Graves Wolf, passed along a great new tool created by Hewlett Packard. It is a free Internet application that you download and use right in your browser. According to HP, “HP Smart Web Printing lets you select, store and organize text and graphics from multiple web pages and then edit and print exactly what you see onscreen. It gives you the control you need to print meaningful information while minimizing waste.”

The other great feature of this tool is that you can clip information from many different websites and store them all in one document and save it as a PDF file that you can send to your friends or colleagues.

One drawback that I found is that it only works with web pages and not on PDF files. I even tried using the View PDF as HTML feature in Firefox to see if I might be able to use this tool to clip information from the PDF file but it didn’t work.

Visit HP Smart Web Printing to watch a video demonstration on how the tool works and to get your free download.

If you end up using this tool we would love to hear about it. Leave a comment below to tell us about your experience.

Question: I print a lot of information from the web so I can read it easier on paper rather than on the screen. Unfortunately I often get a last page that prints out with only the web address information which is wasting paper. In addition there are usually images that I could do without helping me to save both paper and ink. Do you know of a way that I can eliminate this problem and print only the information I need?

Answer: There are several options available. First you could use the Print Preview feature on your browser and determine if there is an unnecessary page at the end. If so you can select only the range of pages that you would like to print.

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Question:One of my friends recently shared with me a photo book that they created and had printed professionally. It looked fantastic. I was very impressed by the quality of the book. My friend said that he did it digitally and used a company called Photoworks to create the book. Do you know of other companies out there that create similar products and if so which one would you recommend?

Answer: With the holidays coming up in just a few weeks, a photo book may just be the gift to get the hard to buy for person on your list. On a recent trip to Germany I came back with some great photos that I thought would be great in a coffee table book so I decided to create my own. Before doing so I did some research to see which company best suited my project. In the end I ended up going with MyPublisher.com and was very happy with the results.Below is a brief summary of what I found while doing my research. (more…)

Question: I’m an amateur web designer and am always looking for great tips in this area. Could you highlight a few tips you may have in regards to web design?

Answer: Where to start? There are so many things that are out there in regards to web design that it is truly hard to know where to start. I will highlight two things that I have found very helpful in the last few months.

First, if you haven’t already, you should download the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox. You will need to download Firefox first if you don’t already have it and then go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60 to download the toolbar.

Some of the great features of this toolbar include easy viewing of CSS code and page elements like images and tables. It also has small screen rendering so you can get an idea of what your page may look like on a PDA or cell phone.

To learn more about the Web Developer toolbar add on go to Webmaster Tips at http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-developer-toolbar.htm.

Another cool tool that I find myself using quite a bit is a small program called Pixie. You can download Pixie at the Nattyware website at http://www.nattyware.com. Have you ever found yourself wanting to know what a particular color is on graphic or website? Well Pixie makes it easy to find out. Simply run the program and anytime you run your mouse over an area that has a color the program will display the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color. You can then use the values to reproduce the color in your other programs such as Dreamweaver or Photoshop. It also shows the current X and Y position of your mouse pointer.

There are so many great web design tools that are out there. These are just two that I selected to highlight. I hope you find them helpful!

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

The following question came from one of our graduate students working on the E3Link Project that connects students in Algeria with students in the United States. It is applicable to anyone that has tried to compare two versions of the same document.

Question: How can I tell what changes have been made between this document that you sent and the previous one that I was working on?

Answer: Word 2003 has included two new or updated features called Compare and Merge Documents and Compare Side By Side. Either of these tools is great for anyone that is working on documents as a team. If more than one team member sends you the same document with changes you can now compare them side by side or compare and merge these documents into one. Below are instructions on how to use both of these features.

Compare Documents:

1. Open the two versions of the document you want to compare and select Window > Compare Side by Side.
2. Word will fit both documents on the screen with each document fitting in one half of the screen. Scroll through one document and the other document will scroll as well, making it possible to browse through two documents at the same time.

Compare and Merge Documents:

1. Open the original document and go to Tools > Compare and Merge Documents
2. A dialog box will appear. Select the other version of the document you want to compare and merge. (Note: there is a drop down arrow on the Merge button. If you click the arrow you will get three choices: Merge, Merge into current document, or Merge into new document. The Merge option opens the other version of the document indicating the changes between the two versions. The Merge into current document option has the changes show up in the file you already have open. The last choice, Merge into new document, creates a new document that you can save leaving your original and modified documents untouched.)
3. Any changes between the two documents will be displayed. You can accept or delete each of the changes individually or as a whole using the Track Changes toolbar or by right clicking on each of the changes.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

The following question came from one of our teachers participating in the E3Link Project that connects students in Algeria with students in the United States. It is applicable to anyone that has tried to send a large attachment through email only to have it bounce back or the person not receive it.

Question: I am unable send the PowerPoint presentation to you via email. It gives me an error message saying that the file attachment is too large for your mailbox. Is there another way that I can send this presentation to you?

Answer: Unfortunately many email programs have a limit on the file size of an attachment that is either sent or received. This can be frustrating when you are trying to send a person an attachment for a required project. In addition, when adding photos, audio or video to PowerPoint presentations they can become quite large. Below are two suggestions with short tutorials to accompany them.

Compress Pictures in a Document or Presentation

In order to view the size of a document or presentation, open it up. Go to File and then Properties. In the dialog box that appears be sure the General tab is selected. Once the General tab is selected you can view the size of your file. If you file is over 10 MB (some emails the limit is even less) you will want to try to compress the file before sending it through email. If after compression your file size is still over 10 MB than you should upload your file to a web server and provide the person you are sending it to a link to access it. (See Uploading a File to MediaFire.com)

In Word and Microsoft PowerPoint there is a easy way to compress the pictures that are included in the document. Open the document or presentation and double click on any of the pictures. A dialog box will appear. Click on the Compress button at the bottom of the box. A second dialog box will appear. Choose All Pictures in document, Web/Screen and click on the Ok button. Another dialog box will appear asking if you want to apply picture optimization. Click the Apply button. Depending on the number of pictures you have it may take a few seconds to apply. Once it is done compressing click on the Ok button on the original dialog box.

If you go to File, Properties once again, you should notice a large difference in the file size of your document or presentation if it included a lot of pictures.

Uploading a file to MediaFire.com

If compressing your file does not bring the file size down enough, you do not have access to a web server and you find that you are unable to email an attachment, you can use several free file transfer services that are on the web. I will provide instructions for the one we are using for the e3Link Project called MediaFire.com. Other services include Files-upload.com, GigaSize.com, Pando.com and Xdrive.com.

MediaFire.com is a free file transfer service that allows you to upload a file to their web server, store it there and send it to someone else by sending them a link to the file. Per the MediaFire.com website you can :

• Share files with all of your friends and upload them only once
• Link to files from your MySpace page, your blog, or forums
• Keep frequently used documents online for easy access from any computer

Currently there is an unlimited disk space, no time limits on the files being stored, and you can upload up to 100 MB per file. All of this for FREE!

Visit Using MediaFire.com to Upload Large Files to open a short tutorial on how to upload and email a file to someone.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Question: In the last issue you highlighted a shortcut that can be used in Excel. I was wondering what types of shortcuts Microsoft Word has that you have found useful.

Answer: There are many shortcuts that I have come to use on a regular basis in Microsoft Word. From keyboard shortcuts to clicks of the mouse there are so many possiblilities. I will highlight a few of my favorites.

Selecting Text:

Instead of clicking and dragging with your mouse to select text there are some shortcuts you can use.

Drawing a line across the page:

In order to get a line across the page I use to do two things. One option was to hit the Shift key + the underscore key several times until I had a line all the way across the page. The second option was to use the Drawing Toolbar and draw a line using the Line Tool. Here are a few options that are a bit easier:

More File Options:

There are several choices you have when you select the File menu in Word. However one of the things that doesn’t show up is a Save All or Close All. When you have several documents open at once and want to close or save them all, you can click on each one to save and close it separately or you could use the following shortcut.

If you hold down the Shift key when selecting the File menu you will get a few new options on the menu, Save All and Close All. Microsoft Outlook also will display these options when creating a new message. Excel will only display the Close All option when using this shortcut.

Keyboard Shortcuts: (Many of these can be used in other Windows programs as well)

• Save the Current Document
  <Ctrl> + S
• Create a New Document
  <Ctrl> + N
• Open a Document
  <Ctrl> + O
• Undo the last thing you did
  <Ctrl> + Z
• Cut a selection and move it to the clipboard
  <Ctrl> + X
• Copy the selection to the clipboard
  <Ctrl> + C
• Paste the clipboard’s contents
  <Ctrl> + V
• Increase font size
  <Ctrl> + Shift + >
• Decrease font size
  <Ctrl> + Shift + <
• Center paragraph
  <Ctrl> + E
• Print document
  <Ctrl> + P
• Underline
  <Ctrl> + U
• Bold
  <Ctrl> + B
• Move the cursor to the beginning of a document
  <Ctrl> + <Home>
• Move the cursor to the end of a document
  <Ctrl> + <End>

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor