Q:How do you import mp3 files to your ipod for free legally? - Brian, 8th Grade
A: It's easy. Just put the MP3 file into iTunes, and from there, send it to your iPod.
Follow these steps:
- Open iTunes.
- From the menubar, choose File...Add to Library.
- Navigate to the MP3 file on your computer.
- Click the Open button at the bottom right.
- The MP3 file will appear in the Music list in iTunes.
- Connect your iPod to the computer.
- Drag the MP3 song from the Music list in iTunes to the iPod icon.
This works best if you turn off automatic synching in iTunes.
Q: I am a middle school teacher searching for a chart suitable to post in my classroom to aid my students in self-checking theri URLs for common errors. Are you aware of any that may be purchased? If not, what do you feel is most important to include in one should I need to make it?
- Opal
, 6th Grade Teacher
A: I know of no such chart, but here are some things to check:
Protocol
Every URL begins with three or four letters that define the protocol that the online resource uses to send its information to you. Most common is the hypertext transport protocol, HTTP, used for standard web pages. Other protocols include RTSP (real-time streaming protocol, used for audio and video) and FTP (file transfer protocol, used to send files back and forth between computers). Make sure your URL starts with a standard protocol.
Punctuation
After the protocol comes a colon (:). It's easy to type a semicolon instead, and sometimes hard to see the difference on your screen.
Slashes
Most URLs follow the colon with two forward-slashes (//). Don't forget these, and don't confuse them with backslashes (\\). It's always forward slashes on the web. Other characters from the keyboard that might get confused with slashes are vertical lines (|), the lowercase letter L (l), square brackets [, and parentheses (.
Spaces
If you URL has a space in it, it's probably wrong. Good URLs contain no spaces. Maybe you mistook an underscore _ for a space, especially if the URL was underlined.
Uppercase
Some web servers and some browsers make you get the case correct -- no capitals allowed if the URL is all in lower-case letters. Double check your upper- and lower-case exactly.
Top-level domain
Watch those last three letters -- the .com or the .edu or .net. They are not created equal. http://nytimes.net takes you to a different place than http://nytimes.com or http://nytimes .edu. And with the new top-level domains such as .biz and .info, you've go to make sure you copy it exactly.
Copy, don't type
Try not to enter URLs from the keyboard. It's safer to copy and paste them from another document on your computer.
Q: I am not a student rather at the other end of the age scale. I received these beautiful Power Point Slides at Xmas and would like to do those myself. Which Microsoft ppt version would I need to produce these with the file ending .pps". Could you advise me? Thank you. - Lou Lubensky
A: What you saw, Lou, was a Power Point Show -- a self-running slide show made up solely of images. To make your own, construct a Power Point slide show with screen-filling images on each slide. Choose a transition such as a dissolve between each slide. When you are finished, choose from the menubar File --> Save As. Then under Format choose Power Point Show. This will save the file as a self-running slide show with the file extension .pps.
Q: Its my first for teaching application software like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and ect. I want to know to how to start and how to go about it...Thank you, Sir - KWAME, 1st Grade Teacher
A: First of all, these kinds of productivity software programs are best taught in an applied setting: it's better to teach a lesson on "analyzing data from a science experiment," than to teach a lesson on "using formulas in Excel." The first is a purposeful task that's linked to the curriculum and solves a concrete problem; the second is a theoretical exercise with no direct link to understanding the world around us. So for every feature of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint you want them to learn, design a lesson that applies that feature to an actual curriculum situation in science, social studies, literature, art, or mathematics.
Second, take a look at some of the articles in this series that relate to your question:
Can I Present That?
How to Make a Slide Show with PowerPoint
Animation with PowerPoint
PowerPoint Interactive
Beyond Words: Using Tables and Diagrams in Microsoft Word
Data, Analysis, and Excel
Sorting Data with Excel
Q: I am not a student rather at the other end of the age scale. I received these beautiful Power Point Slides at Xmas and would like to do those myself. Which Microsoft ppt version would I need to produce these with the file ending .pps". Could you advise me? Thank you. - Lou Lubensky
A: What you saw, Lou, was a Power Point Show -- a self-running slide show made up solely of images. To make your own, construct a Power Point slide show with screen-filling images on each slide. Choose a transition such as a dissolve between each slide. When you are finished, choose from the menubar File --> Save As. Then under Format choose Power Point Show. This will save the file as a self-running slide show with the file extension .pps.
Q: How do I set up video conferencing between two laptops, one in the US and one in England? - Louis
A: You need three things for international (or national) videoconferencing over the internet:
- A computer with video and audio capabiity at each end.
- Compatible videoconferencing software at each end.
- A robust internet connection at each end.
By far the easiest way is with an Apple MacBook laptop with built-in camera, microphone, and iChat software. Get one of these at each end, connect to the internet, get an AIM account (free) and click video chat. Next best is to get AIM instant messenger or Yahoo video software at each end, along with a compatible account and the proper hardware. You initiate the videoconference by launching he software and sending a video chat request to the name of your correspondent's accont. It works like instant messenger with video and audio added.
Q: What resolution should pictures be for a powerpoint presentation that needs to get shown on a large screen? - Beverly, 12th Grade Student from Hudson Valley
A: Pictures for a PowerPoint or Keynote slide show should be saved at a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, and at a size appropriate to their position on the slide. So a picture that will fill one-quarter of the slide should be saved at about 400 pixels wide and 300 pixels high, at 72 pixels per inch. A picture that will fill the slide should be saved at 1000 pixels wide and 750 pixels high at 72 pixels per inch.
Saving at any higher resolution will not increase the quality of what's projected; it will only make the presentation file bigger.
Q: What's the difference between creating a web page from notepad with HTML and creating a web page on word with save as web page? - 10th Grade Student
A: Quite a bit of difference. First, it's much easier for most people to create a simple Web page with Word than with HTML. That's because most people are familiar with Word, and few people are familiar with HTML. What Word does when you choose Save as Web Page... is to convert what you typed into Word into HTML code. Word saves an HTML document, with the filename extension .htm. To see what this looks like, save a web page from word, then open the resultant document with NotePad -- you'll see the HTML code. Very complex. Most of this complexity derives from the text style, formatting, centering, columns, and paragraphs that you typed into the Word document.
Q: I am trying to insert a movie clip (QuickTime) into a PowerPoint. Do you have any suggestions? I can hyperlink it, but I really wanted to open when the slide opened. - Student
A: This is not hard to do. First, create a QuickTime movie -- keep it short -- and save it in CD-ROM format, which is 320 by 240 pixels, so it will fit onto the PowerPoint Slide. Make sure you save it in the same folder as the PowerPoint slide show. Then in PowerPoint, go to the slide you want the movie to be on. From the menubar, choose Insert --> Movie or Sound. Navigate to the QuickTime movie you just saved, and choose it. PowerPoint will ask you whether you want the movie to play automatically, or only when clicked. Make your choice. You will see the movie rectangle on the slide. (You can move this around the slide, but don't stretch or shrink it.) To test the movie, show the slide.
Q: I have photoshop images that are huge tifs. They seem to take forever to open in powerpoint. Should I be doing something to them before opening them in powerpoint? - Simone, 12th Grader
A: Simone --
Yes, the images will work better in PowerPoint if you prepare them in advance with a program such as Photoshop. Here's what you need to do:
- Open each image in Photoshop (or iPhoto, or Photoshop Elements)
- Change the resolution of the image to 72 pixels per inch. Use Image --> Image Size from the menubar.
- Change the size of the image to something less than 800x600 pixels. Use Image --> Image Size from the menubar
- Save the image in compressed JPEG format. Use File --> Save for Web from the menubar.
You will find that this image is much smaller in file size, and will open much faster in PowerPoint.
Editor's Note: You can also find out more about free photo editors on this site in an article called Image Magic That's Free for the Downloading
Q: I have a question about the PDA. How do you download music onto it for your MP3 player? And is a credit card required for the purchase of the music? - 10th Grader
A: If you want to download music for your PDA, you need to make sure that you are downloading a format that your music-playing software understands. Most music-playing software can understand the MP3 format, but some commercial music ad audiobooks are only recorded in special formats. These special formats can only be played with software like Windows Media Player or RealPlayer.
You can find music many places on the Internet, and some of them are even free. Commercial music sites will charge a monthly subscription fee or by the downloaded song. If you have a Windows-based PDA, then you can use any of the music sites that participate in the Microsoft PlaysforSure network (http://www.playsforsure.com). Palm users are also able to use music from members of the Playsforsure network if they purchase software for their PDAs like PocketTunes (http://www.pocket-tunes.com). Both types of PDAs are also able to use music from RealNetworks including their Rhapsody service for mobile devices.
Most of these services do require a credit or debit card, but you can purchase prepaid cards for some of the Playsforsure music stores like Napster in stores. Just remember that your PDA, no matter the brand, cannot play music from Apple's iTunes music store. Even though you will see the prepaid iTunes cards in every location from bookstores to supermarkets, it will only work with an iPod.
After you have downloaded your music, just follow the instructions that came with your PDA to move the music to your PDA.
Q: I have created a slide show using power point and I would like to add music....help is this possible?
- Jessica, 9th Grader
A: Yes, Jessica, it is possible to add music to a PowerPoint slide show. Here's how:
- Save your music on your computer as an MP3 or QuickTime (.mov) or Windows Media (.wmv) file.
- On your first PowerPoint slide, choose from the menubar Insert --> Movies and Sounds --> Sound from File.
- Navigate to the music file you saved earlier, and click OK.
- Choose to play the sound automatically, or when you click it.
Try it. Make sure you have speakers or headphones connected.
Q: I'm very much interested expanding internet use in our district and am trying to find info concerning photos of students. I would really like to promote our schools' activities, and the good work that our teachers and PTA do. When I did a search, there doesn't appear to be a concrete definition regarding photos. As a general rule, and I mean general, since the photos are not being used for "commercial" purposes, is there really a requirement for a "signed release"? - Grace, from Long Island
A: Hi Grace, Schools handle the problem of posting student photos on Websites in different ways. There are some schools that get a release each time a student's photo is sent to the newspapers or placed on the Web. Other schools have forms that parents fill out before the school year begins. I went to a Communications conference about a year ago where this topic was discussed by a group of tech leaders. There seemed to be no consensus on what to do.
This doesn't mean that you should forget about permissions. Getting permission to publish student photos is very important and without it you could have legal issues. Once you compile your list of students whose photos cannot appear on the Website, keep the list where you can find it every time you post photos. The list, I'm guessing, will not be long if you explain when you send the forms or releases home that you will not post names under photos, nor will you make available any identifying information about your students.
Often you'll find that parents are more afraid of having their child's photo on the Web than they are of having it sent to the newspapers, even though the newspapers print the child's full name and sometimes the parents' names and the town where the child lives.
I've discovered that even if parents say no to the Web or newspapers that if you call them saying something like this, "I have this great shot of a group of students and your child is in the photo. I'd like to put it on the Web," they'll say fine. Of course, you'll remind them that their child will not be identified.
Sometimes parents will say to me, "My child is wondering why her photo is never in the newspapers or on the Web. It seems that all of her friends have been in the papers or on the school Webpage." That's when I smile and remind the parents that they didn't give us permission to use their child's image. "Oh," they reply, "I forgot I signed that. Must have been after reading about the dangers of the Web in the newspapers."
If you are using student images for sites other than your own or if a commercial group comes to your school for filming/photography, you'll need different releases for these types of publishing. Often companies will provide their own releases, but sometimes you'll need to make up one of your own that includes a release form and explains to parents why these photos are being taken and where they may appear in the future.
I'd suggest talking this over with the school administration. Find out if there are any school or school district policies about publishing of student images. You might want to find out how the PTA or Parents' Association leaders feel about posting images.
School sites would, of course, be very boring without student images. You just have to figure out what will work best for your school, your students and your parents.
Q: Hello I am from England and have found the information on your website very useful. I have been trying to insert video footage into dreamweaver. Our students have to do this as part of a new qualification. I have tried doing this but just get a grey square. Is the only way to do without doing stuff on the server to import it into flash or perhaps insert it into microsoft powerpoint and create a link fromt the students web page to the ppt file? very confused. Thanks for your time - Tina, 10th Grade Teacher
A: The answer to the question:
Preparing Your Video
If you are a beginner, I suggest you use Windows Movie Maker or Apple
iMovie. Both of these video editors follow this sequence of work:
Import the video. Video from a DV camera is already in digital form,
and can be used directly by the video editing software. Video from an
analog camera needs first to be digitized, or captured, before it can
be edited.
Adjust and edit the video. Most video editing programs allow video
sequences to be cut, copied, pasted, combined, shortened, and
interspersed with still images, music, and sound. Most provide tracks
into which video and audio can be placed on a timeline.
Add titles, transitions, and effects. These can be created with the
tools in the editing software, and applied to the video, audio, and
still images that make up the video. The ease and flexibility of such
tools distinguishes the various brands of video editors.
Compress and save the video. With most editors, the video is
compressed as it is saved. For a web site interface, save at a size no
bigger than 320 by 240 pixels, at a frame rate of 12 frames per second
or less.
Inserting Video
Dreamweaver makes it easy to embed a video into a Web page. Follow
these steps:
- Place the cursor at the spot on the page where you want the video
to appear. This can be on a new line of text, or inside of a cell of a
table.
- Choose Insert Media Plug-in from the menubar. There is no listing
in the menu for video per se; video is considered by Dreamweaver to be
a medium that requires a plug-in.
- Watch the video appear on the page as a small gray square with a
plug-in icon.
- Expand the icon to match the pixel size of your video image. If you
plan to include a controller, add 16 pixels to the vertical dimension.
- Test the video by previewing the page in the browser.
Linking to a Video
You can also link a video to a Web page, so that it opens in its own
separate video player window. Follow these steps:
- Create something to link from on the Web page. This may be a word
or phrase in the text, or an image.
- Select the item you want to link from.
- Choose Modify Make Link from the menubar.
- Browse to the video file (if it's in your Web folder), or enter the
URL of the video (if it's on a Web server.)
- Click OK.
- Check the link by previewing the Web page in the browser.
Warning: Plug-in
If you browser does not have the right plug-in or player, you won't
see the video. Each system of video requires its own plug-in.
Controlling Video
Dreamweaver lets you exert a measure of control over how the embedded
video appears, and what the user can do with it. You use the
Properties Window to set the parameters for the video. If you follow
the directions above, the video will appear on the page and begin
playing automatically without user intervention.
To change the playback parameters for a video, select the video
rectangle on the Web page, then click the Parameters button in the
Properties Window. In the dialog box that appears, enter the name of
the parameter in the left column, and its desired value in the right.
Some of the parameters that can be set are shown here:
| Parameter |
Values |
Result |
| Autoplay |
True or false |
Makes the video begin playing as soon as the
page is viewed. |
| Controller |
True or false |
Shows a slider that lets the user stop,
start, advance, or rewind the video. |
| Height |
Measurement in pixels |
Sets the height of the video including
its controller. |
| Loop |
True or false |
Plays the video over and over again. |
| Width |
Measurement in pixels |
Sets the width of the video. |
Test the results of your parameter setting by previewing the page in
the browser.
Q: What does the word function mean in Microsoft excell? - Teacher
A: A "function" in Excel is a formula. A mathematical formula, such as "= SUM(A1:A5)". Such a formula would add up the values in cells A1 through A5, and place the result in the cell where the formula appeared. Another formula might be "=AVERAGE(A1:A5)", or "=B5*3". You may also enter logical functions, such as
"=IF(A1>50,large,small)", which means "if the value in cell A1 is greater than 50, then put the word 'large' here, or else put the word 'small'." Excel allows dozens of different functions like these, which you can see by choosing Insert -- Function from the menubar.
Q: How do you tranlate words in Microsoft Word?. - Sylvy
A: You don't. Word is a word processor. It cannot translate words from one language to another. But you can find software that will translate for you. For instance, go to the Systran site at http://www.systransoft.com. Type in a word or phrase, and ask for a translation into the language of your choice. Should you want to use that word in a document that you are preparing in Microsoft Word, you may copy it from the browser, and then paste it into Word. If you have a new Apple Macintosh computer, this capability is built in to the "Sherlock" system software. Open Sherlock, load the translations, and try it.
Q: I am at Northern Illinois University and was wondering if technolgy would allow me to do
one hour of training per day for 15 weeks from Chicago to India for a training project? It would have to be live and have both quality audio and video. - Jim Leon of Northern Illinois University
A: And I respond, yes, you can work with live audio and video an hour a day from Chicago to India. There are a variety of technologies that can enable you to do this:
- television by satellite;
- ISDN videoconference;
- audio and video over the Internet.
Television by satellite is what the big boys use for live broadcasts
from abroad. You can get the same quality you see on your television
at home. But for this you need a studio in Chicago to film the
event, a satellite uplink dish nearby to send it to the satellite,
time on the satellite channels, a downlink dish in India, connected
to a television. As they say in the street, this is big bucks.
ISDN videoconference is what many global businesses use to conduct
meetings among distant offices. For this you'd need to rent a
videoconference room in Chicago, with the cameras and receivers and
special modem installed. The people in India would locate and rent a
similar room that was compatible with yours. And you'd have to pay
per minute for the special ISDN telephone line to connect the two.
Quality is excellent. All this would cost you, I estimate, $1000 per
hour of work.
Audio and video over the Internet offers somewhat lower quality but
very little cost. In fact, we have conducted many such hour-long
training sessions this way at no cost. You need a computer at each
end with a videocamera, and you need a reliable Internet connection
with at least 500 kilobits per second of bandwidth. A solid DSL,
cable modem, or LAN connection is sufficient. If you want lots of
people to see and hear at one end, just connect the computer to a
projector.
For this last and least expensive option, you need good software. I
can highly recommend two products: iChat
AV(http://www.apple.com/ichat), and Marratech
(http://www.marratech.com). Both allow point-to-point video and audio and text conferencing using standard Internet protocols, without a server. Both work easily and right out of the box. Both are free or inexpensive. The quality you get will depend on the
bandwidth of your connection, but between Chicago and India you'll most likely only be able to achieve medium quality (unless Northern Illinois is part of the Internet2 consortium, in which case you may
be able to work out some higher-bandwidth connections.)
We have conducted hour-long sessions between France and the U.S. several times this way, and it has been convenient and comfortable. A piece of advice: good microphones make for a much better experience. In these kinds of sessions, audio quality is much more important than video quality. Get a good directional microphone with an on-off switch, at both ends.
Let me know if you need further information.
Q: How do I assess effectively young children's literacy learning? - Kindergarten Teacher from New Jersey
A: If you mean computer literacy, then the best way to assess them is
to see what they can do -- open a file, write from the keyboard,
draw a picture, use the mouse. Give them a little project to do, or
a common task to accomplish, and see how well they are able to
apply the tools.
If you mean literacy as reading and writing, the answer is the same:
see what they can do. Can they listen to a story and then answer
questions about it? Can they look at a picture and tell a story from
it? Can they read a story on their own and understand it? Can they
read it out loud? Can they write letters, words, names, sentences,
and stories? Can they write from dictation, and can they compose
their own stories?
You don't need a computer for any of this, though for many students
-- even those just learning -- the task of writing is greatly
simplified with a keyboard. The appropriate and most important
technology for literacy among young children is the book. Certainly,
many stories are now available on the computer, with text-to-speech
and other devices that help a student to read; and writing can be
spurred with some of the story-starter software designed especially
for youngsters. But without a collection of solid, proven stories in
print literacy will be difficult to develop and assess.
Q: How has technology changed the teachng industry? - Terri, Teacher
A: In some places, technology hasn't changed teaching at all. People go
about their life in schools as if the computer, the Internet, and
the World Wide Web did not exist and the information revolution
never happened. And I suspect that in many of these places, school
is becoming less useful to the needs of its students and the society
in which they will live and work.
But in most of the United States, teaching and learning is adapting
to the ready access to information and ideas from any place at any
time, and to the new tools for solving problems and working with
information. A teacher today without a connected computer and the
skills to use it is like an auto mechanic without a wrench or a
screwdriver.
No longer are the books and the teacher the only sources of
information and ideas. No longer are the tools for learning
restricted to the pencil, paper, and chalkboard. The array of
information is wider, and the tools to work with it are more
powerful and more accessible to students. So education is changing
to put more focus on the evaluating and analysis of information,
than on its collection; more time spent thinking and reasoning about
ideas and less spent copying and and recording them; more work at
the level of comparison and conclusion, and less at the level of
searching and regurgitating.
But schools are conservative organizations, and this change is
happening more slowly there than in other industries.
Q: How do you write in cursive letters? - Teacher from Long Island
A: Why would you want to? Cursive letters are much harder to read than normal typeset letters of the type you are reading here. But if you must use cursive characters, for a logo, for scrapbooking, to teach handwriting or to show a graphic process, for example, then you have two choices:
- Use a cursive font. Most computers today come with a wide range of fonts, at least one of which looks like cursive writing. On my computer I find that the fonts Chancery, Brush Script, and Lucida Handwriting all resemble cursive writing. If you are looking for D'Nealian or Zaner Bloser styles for teaching handwriting try a site like http://www.schoolfonts.com where you can purchase and download those fonts or even better yet a great piece of software like Stationery Studio from Fablevision (http://www.fablevision.com) that allows pre-school and elementary teachers to design sheets for students to use for writing exercises with fun borders that can help stimulate their writing.
- Draw the letters as images. Use the drawing tools in Microsoft Word, or use a graphics program such as Photoshop or Illustrator, and use the pen or pencil tools to draw the letters by hand.
Q: How do you make a slide show on Microsoft Word XP - Robert - 7th Grade Teacher
A: The best tool from the Microsoft Office suite for making a slide show is PowerPoint. So use PowerPoint, and insert a picture on each slide. The slide show is made automatically.
If you don't have PowerPoint, you may create a Word document with several pages, set the Page Setup to Landscape mode, and then insert a picture on each page. But this will not be nearly attractive as the same show made in PowerPoint.
For help in creating a PowerPoint Slide Show see my how-to article How to Make a Slide Show with PowerPoint in the archive of the Teaching with Technology section of the Power to Learn site in the For Teachers section. For more help in making a slide show in either Word or PowerPoint try the Microsoft Office Help Center at http://office.microsoft.com/home/default.aspx?CTT=6&Origin=EC790020111033
Q: I am beginning to incorporate more lessons with the use of digital cameras into my curriculum with the fourth and fifth grade classes. I have been researching various cameras for the school to purchase and need some help. Could you tell me which cameras take great quality picture, have good picture storage capacity, and are not extremely expensive? Thank You! - 4th and 5th Grade Teacher
A: This is a fast-moving technology, with intense competition among the major players and a volatile marketplace. Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus and the other solid camera and electronics manufacturers all make excellent cameras that take wonderful pictures. You can buy a digital camera for $100 or $1000 or more. The more expensive ones have more options and (in the hands of a good photographer) can take better pictures.
You need to, in addition, decide how you are going to use the photos. If, for example, you are only going to use them on a web site or in email, you don't need the most expensive cameras. Most pictures on web sites are rather low in resolution. If you plan to print your photos, you'll want to be able to print them in an acceptable size and resolution. Usually what is called a 3-megapixel camera will do this for you. There are higher-level cameras, but you probably won't need them for Grades 4 and 5.
Instead of recommending a specific camera to you, I'd suggest that you pick a major brand that has a zoom lens and is of the 3 megapixel level. You'll also want to decide how you want to get the photos into your computer and what type of storage you want in your camera.
The best way to choose is to connect to the respectable consumer-product review providers (such as Consumer's Union), and see what they recommend in your price range. Then, armed with the model number, go to your local photo store, electronics store, or web store, and see who has that model in stock, and how much.
C/Net is one of the places you can search for the camera you want: http://shopper.cnet.com
If you subscribe to Consumer Reports, you can also get information on digital cameras on that site.
Q: I would like to order a good scanner with excellent Optical Character Recognition. Any advice? - Ben, 9th Grade teacher
A: From you question I assume you are mainly interested in scanning text. You need to know that it's not the scanner that recognizes the text, it's the OCR software in your computer that does this. Just about any modern scanner will capture an image -- from a nicely-printed original -- that's adequate for OCR. From this image, the OCR software does its work. It "looks" at the characters on the scanned image, and determines which letter it is, and then records it as computer text the same as if you'd typed it from the keyboard. Some widely-used OCR software includes Readiris (http://www.irisusa.com/products/index.html), or OmniPage (http://www.scansoft.com). These work on both Macintosh and Windows, and with most brands of scanners.
The text produced by these OCR programs can be imported or pasted into most standard productivity applications, such as Word or Excel. But they are not 100% accurate -- you'll find and error or two on every page. So you'll have to edit your OCR'd work carefully before you publish it. And the scanning in most cases will be done page-by-page, feeding each page into the machine and scanning each one.
It's much easier to get the document in digital form, than to scan it. So before you invest in a scanner, check first to see if the documents you need exist as word-processing or HTML formats that can be copied and pasted as well as scanned.
For the latest reviews of scanners look in the most recent issues of PC Magazine or MacWorld. Pay attention to what those reviews say about character recognition if that is what you are mainly interested in using your scanner for.
Q: I am looking for a program that will enable me to take my Advance Placement APUS History tests that are in WORD and upload them to website...I would like to be able to have a program that enables me to have selection circles (like the ones below this box) for students to pick choices A through E. I would then want the program to score the test. My plan is to have the students take their exams on line in our mobile computer lab. The real deal would then be to have those scores recorded in their excell grade books...can you provide me information on any software that we can purchase to accomplish this???Thank You. - 11th Grade teacher
A: You may upload the AP US History tests as Word documents to your web server. Students would be able to download them, and print them, directly from the site. But the tests would not be interactive -- Word would not score the tests automatically. To score the tests, you'd need a program such as Hot Potatoes (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/) . The results are posted on the web, and can be made self-correcting. According to the authors, Hot Potatoes is designed to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web.
Q: I am interested in obtaining a historical atlas on CD ROM
for our History department. I have done some research, but have
not found a particularly good solution to their carrying around
tripods full of maps. Can you assist me in finding something? - Gregory Orcutt, 12th Grade teacher
A: You may purchase an existing historical map collection on CD-ROM, or
make your own.
A valuable resource for many of our history profs has been the History Pictures collections
(http://www.historypictures.com/home_ah_cd.htm). They have CD's for America, Western, and other history, maps plus photos and other images.
You can find collections of European historical maps on CD at http://www.weltchronik.de/maps/maps01eng.htm and
http://www.euratlas.com/buy.htm
You can find 159 historical maps on the Culture 4.0 CD, along with
other valuable historical materials.
http://www.culturalresources.com
Coherent publishes its interactive historiical map collection on
CD-ROM. See http://www.cohsoft.com.au/cohsoft/gene/maps/mapinfo.html
Facts on File publishes a collection of historical maps on CD. More
information can be found at http://www.factsonfile.com/newfacts/FactsDetail.asp?SIDText=0816046808&PageValue=CDs
If none of these fit your needs, consider building your own collection and publishing it on CD-ROM. Go to the online historical map collection at the University of Texas (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html), find the maps you need, download them, organize them, and copy them to a CD-ROM. Most of the maps in this collection are in the public
domain, as explained by the UT map curator:
"Are the maps copyrighted?
Most of the maps scanned by the General Libraries and served from this web site are in the public domain. No permissions are needed to copy them. You may download them and use them as you wish.A few maps are copyrighted, and are clearly marked as such. Any that are copyrighted by The University of Texas are subject to our
Materials Usage Guidelines. A few maps include the official seal of a U.S. Government agency. Federal law prohibits use of these seals in connection with any merchandise, impersonation, solicitation, or commercial activity in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the agency. We do appreciate hearing from you about your uses of these materials and we would also appreciate your giving this site credit when it is referred to in anything you publish. Other sites may link to our site or to individual maps without our permission."
Q: If I were to try to impress upon others to use technology
in the classroom, which application would I start the staff off
with. I am thinking of Inspiration, which does not have a steep
learning curve (easy to learn). I also thought of a multimedia
application other than PowerPoint. Maybe Flash, but that isn't
quite simple to learn under the time restrictions for a staff
development like environment. Any suggestions? - Keith Fiore, 9th Grade, from New York City
A: It's not easy to run a successful staff development session on
technology -- the audience often teaches very different subjects,
under varied conditions; some have computers in their classrooms
while others do not; some have been using the computer for years
while others remain neophytes. So there's very little chance that a
single program or demonstration will meet everyone's needs.
Somehow, you need to inspire them to think about how various
technologies might be applied to what they and their students do in
the classroom each day. Inspiration is a good starting point, since
it can be used in almost every subject, at all grade levels. And
you can demonstrate how the program encourages creative and
organized thinking, by letting the group brainstorm with you a
variety of subjects -- from an environmental science issue to a
character in literature to redecorating the faculty lounge. Let
them have fun with the process, but show how the result can be
saved, printed, and otherwise used as the basis for further study.
Other programs with a general application across subjects and grades
include Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and the Web browser. Check out
these articles for some very specific ideas on using these programs
with teachers. Any of these might be used as the basis of a faculty
development workshop.
Beyond Words: Using Tables and Diagrams in Microsoft Word
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/ using_tables_and_diagrams_in_microsoft_word.shtml
An Internet Briefing
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
an_internet_briefing.shtml
An Educational Startup Page
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
educational_startup_page.shtml
How to Make Graphs with Excel
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
how_to_make_graphs_with_excel.shtml
How to Make a Slide Show with PowerPoint
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
how_to_make_a_slide_show_with_powerpoint.shtml
Building a Web Assignment
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
building_a_web_assignment.shtml
And yes, you are correct, creating Flash animation is not for
beginners. But if you'd like to try it, check out:
Creating Animation with Flash
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/
creating_animation_with_flash.shtml
Q: Prof. Lengel, I'm an elementary teacher in Taiwan. I have tried to
incorporate technology into my teaching for 3 years and have
encountered many difficulties regarding of the S/W and the H/W
facilities. Since you are an expertise in this area, please kindly
advice the S/W and H/W that can best address to the teaching needs.
And I also like to know if there's any seminar regarding of this
subject? I hope I would be able to learn from other experienced
teachers, too.
A: You are correct - without the proper hardware and software, and the
support to keep it working, it's very difficult to use technology in
teaching. We have recently purchased new hardware and software for
our teaching lab at Boston University, and making the choice was a
complex process. We started by listing the things we needed to do in
the lab (e.g., edit video and audio, prepare Web sites, develop
interactive animations, etc.), and then selected the software
programs that would do this the best (e.g., Final Cut Express,
Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.). Then we looked for the
hardware that would run these applications most smoothly. Not
necessarily the most powerful hardware, but the computers that would
work reliably for the software we needed, with the students we
taught.
Notice that this decision-making process runs backwards from the
usual process used by schools: we did not decide on the hardware
first, and then try to find software that would run on it, and then
determine what we could teach with that software. So my first advice
is to decide first what you want to accomplish educationally, and
then find the software that best meets those needs, and then find
the hardware that most efficiently runs that software.
We ended up choosing the iMac computer with 17" monitor, 512 MB of
RAM, 80 gig hard drive, and full complement of multimedia devices
including DV-R, which cost less than $2000 each. One reason we chose
the Apple products is that they demand far less technical support --
we run two identical labs, one Windows and one Apple, and the
Windows labs needs about twice as much attention from the tech
support people (even though it's used much less by students and
teachers.)
And once you acquire the hardware and software, it needs to be
configured carefully to fit the needs of the people using it.
You can find teachers asking these same questions, and discussing
these topics, at the Apple learning Interchange at
http://ali.apple.com
Q: How would palm pilots be useful for students in a classroom? - Lisa Ward, 10th Grade, from Long Island
A: Hi Lisa,
It would be helpful to know what you teach so I could make some specific suggestions about Palm Pilots and other PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Since I don't know I'm going to give a couple of general suggestions and refer you to other resources.
Obviously PDAs are great for keeping students organized. With the built-in calendar and notepad students can keep all their information about assignments and when they are due all in one place. They can also upload and download documents on them so that they can digitally transport papers and other assignments back and forth from home and school and even edit them right on the PDA. Additional software like Documents to Go from DataWiz can be very helpful in this regard especially in handling Microsoft Office applications. The built calculator function is also very useful.
As suggested in our Computers and You column on this site for high school students, entire books can also be loaded onto PDAs and read anywhere, anytime with the backlite feature of most PDAs. The advantage here is that with a built-in dictionary on the PDA students can instantly look up words they are unfamiliar with or make notes on certain pages or features of the book all without the detriment of writing in a book. Books carried this way are also very light weight and can be pulled up to be read most anywhere. For a selection of books available for PDAs see http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/home.cgi . You might also be interested in the 250 of the Greatest E-books for Palm OS by Michael Schneider that includes many of the classics read in classrooms all for $19.95. See http://software.palm.com for more details or email mike@250ebooks.com
For more content area specific suggestions I suggest looking at the education portion of the Palm site at http://www.palm.com/education/. There you'll find a full listing of software applications complete with reviews. Also take a look at the success stories about using PDAs as part of mobile writing labs, for teaching about using databases and more. ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education) also has a new book out called Palm Held Computers - A Complete Resource for Classroom Teachers that you should find helpful. You can read more about it at http://www.iste.org.
Q: I have two Macintosh computers in my home (G4 and iMac, both in the same room) and am planning to get a cable connection to replace my dial-up modem connection. What equipment do I need, if any, to enable me to connect the two computers to the cable? - Student, from Hudson Valley
A: Editor's Note: Before doing any routing check you contract with your cable company as you may be contractually prohibited from utilizing a single modem for more than one computer.
If you want to use the Internet from computers at the same time, you need an Ethernet router. One end of the router connects to your cable modem; into the other end you connect your two computers, each with an Ethernet cable. The router comes with instructions on how to set it up for the two computers to share a single IP address. An example of such a router is the Netgear RT311, which costs about $100.
If you plan to use only one computer at a time with the cable modem, you can use an Ethernet hub (such as the Netgear EN104TP) that costs about $25.
The responses and opinions contained herein are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Power to Learn or Cablevision.
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