Texas Techie

Jing-a-ling

2008-08-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues recently introduced me to Jing Project. This is a free site that is coupled with a downloadable program for Mac or Windows. When you download the program you can use it to record images and video of your desktop to demonstrate software or web applications. You can save those videos or Jing will upload and create url's for you.

Here are some clips I made on how to use some of the google tools. First I talk about the site here.

And Google Groups here.

Google Docs here.

And Blogger here.

Finally, I tried to show how to create a customized iGoogle page with links to all of them here.

There are some limits. Each clip can be no more than five minutes. Still, it seems like a handy little tool.

Oh, even though she didn't want to name her, I want to give credit to my voice actress, Emily. She's one of my students who saved me the embarrassment of having to listen to my own voice on these clips.

Late to the party...

2008-06-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a few months since I missed out on the meetings in which you guys accomplished so much in San Marcos/Wimberley, but now that life has slowed down, I want to catch up and join the party! Colleen, your podcast page is awesome - we will definitely be borrowing if you don't mind.
Here is what is happening in San Marcos & Round Rock (CTWP): we have expanded to a 4 person tech team to better cover the needs of 2 locations. We've introduced the e-anthology and a wordpress blog that will be used for the daily log and other discussions. We will also have an advanced and open institute in August & July for digital storytelling led by Laise one of our tech team.
We've got some other project in the works, more details to come.

Audacity/Podcast

2008-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my podcast training. Here are some helpful links and ideas for podcasting.

If you have any more ideas for podcasting let me know and I'll add them to my list!

Publish on Demand

2008-06-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

As your Summer Institutes begins, one option to consider is jazzing up your anthology by using a Publish-on-Demand site. We tried this last year and were pretty happy with the results. Our anthology went from a spiral packet that looked very much like it was run off on a photocopy machine to a trade paper-back bound book with a glossy cover. Since last year, I've learned a few tricks (the main trick being actually using Acrobat) that I think will make this year's product even better by letting me export files form Apple's Pages program.

We used lulu.com to publish our anthology. The advantage to lulu is price. You can pay copy-by-copy and there are no set-up fees. You just upload a file (the document can even be in Word format) and viola! However, you can also spruce up the cover with an image of your own. Heck, you can go to full glossy photo pages inside too--but I doubt any of our sites have that sort of anthology budget.

You can check out the order page for ours at lulu:

WTWP 2007 Anthology by Richard Helmling, Alison Zapeda, Cheryl Patterson, Daniel Skertchly, Dory Munder, Gyneth Garrison, Jonna Perrillo, Joy Baggett, Manuel Aldaco, Melissa Madrid, Vivian Maguire (Book) in Literature & Fiction

By the way, I'm listed first because it's my lulu account, not because I'm a vainglorious fiend intent on robbing the spotlight from my fellows. No, really...I swear.

Summer Institute Beginnings!

2008-06-09T18:45:00.001-07:00

We started our SI today! I have our wiki all set up: http://northstaroftexas.wikispaces.com/
(Note the "2008 Summer Institute fun" under "Cool Links". I'm setting up play rooms to teach them how to use the wiki!)I really wanted to use Googlesites, but it has too many problems getting through the school filter. I also want to change our logo, so don't laugh at it!

The Wiki makes me feel like I've become an important historian who is documenting all that goes on at a Summer Institute. It's pretty cool.

Lesson ideas:
Instead of making everyone do every tech lesson, I'm going to try a new approach. I will still have them all learn how to use the wiki (although I set up their pages for them) and the E-Anthology, but the other lessons people will sign up for! I'm going to have break out sessions during research time each week to meet the needs of the fellows. My lessons are coming straight from the survey, they want help with blogs, wikis, photo story, etc. Fellows will sign up and come learn about what they are interested in. This way I'm not teaching someone who barely checks their email how to blog!

Do you think I'm enabling them too much?

C

Tech Tuesdays

2008-05-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

So, I want to start a Tech Matters day during the institute and I'm wondering what people have done before that worked. What kind of techie things do you think are the most important and useful for teachers to learn?

I really like movies/storytelling. What programs are the easiest to use? most accessible? (Photostory? Windows Movie maker?)

Thanks a Million!

2008-04-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Thank you for uploading your pics, guys. It does make it a whole lot easier to know just who I am communicating with. I look forward to collaborating and learning with y'all.

How to match a name to a face....

2008-04-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Add a picture to your Google profile!

Step by Step instructions for the technology challenged!

>Sign in to your google account

>Click “Profile” in the upper right hand corner of your screen. (Hint: It’s near your “Sign Out” link.)

>Once you are in click “edit” next to “My profile”

>Click “Select” Next to “My Picture”

>Click “Browse” and find a picture you have saved on your computer you want to use.

>Click “Upload Picture”

>Next you will be asked to crop your picture to make it square. Use your arrow to drag the corners out until your picture looks like you want it to.

>Click “Crop Picture”

> You did it! Now you can fill in the other info and we will be able to match names with faces!

Tech Survey

2008-04-13T19:28:00.001-07:00

Check out the Tech Survey results here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pwSBozytDpurIbagPBIloDA&hl=en

How to Integrate Technology into the Summer Institute

2008-04-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Techies are working on integrating technology in a fun and user friendly way. Right now we are currently working on a Googlesite for all the writing projects in the state of Texas! We believe that we should move into a collaborative group. Other techies will soon update this blog with ideas for integrating technology!

Check back soon!