How-To Technology Tips

OU email and Gmail

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:24:00 +0000

I work for the University of Oklahoma, which uses an Exchange-based email system. As a Mac user, this is very frustrating for me; the Microsoft email client is definitely not something I want to install on my computer. I've had very good luck with Gmail, though. I use Gmail to collect my OU email, leaving a copy on the server, and I can send my outgoing email through the OU email server, so that as far as anyone is concerned my email comes from OU - in fact, it DOES come from OU, via the OU email server. Gmail uses the account information I provide to access that server.

Why this is better than just having OU email forward my email to Gmail:

1) I have a back-up copy of my incoming email on the OU server, just in case.
2) I get the benefit of OU's spam email filters, PLUS the Gmail spam filters - a double spam filter whammy!
3) I can configure my outgoing email so that it comes from OU, and people reply to me at OU.

Here's how it works:

FIRST STEP: OU Inbox. Get your OU email inbox under control. If you are not in the habit of cleaning out your inbox, do so now. Everything that is in your OU email inbox will be pulled over into Gmail when you follow these steps - but not any of your other folders. So, move stuff out of your inbox if you do not want to pull it over, and if you have emails in folders that you want to bring over to Gmail, move those items to your inbox.

SECOND STEP: Cancel forwarding. If you are already forwarding your email to Gmail, you will want to cancel the forwarding, so that the email will stay in your OU inbox, and Gmail can collect it, while also leaving a copy on the server. So, if you have a forwarding order in place, go to account.ou.edu and cancel your forward (you can also use this as an opportunity to check on your OU spam filters; I have mine set at "normal").

THIRD STEP: Configure Gmail to to SEND your outgoing email using the OU email server and to COLLECT mail from your OU inbox.

Click on Settings along the top of your Gmail page, then choose Accounts.

In the Send Mail As section, click the button that says "Send Mail From Another Address" and when prompted enter the email address. For example, I enter laura-gibbs@ou.edu, since that is my OU email address.

Then, I select to have my outgoing email actually sent by the OU email server. To do that, I have to specify the name of the OU email server, which is asmtp.ou.edu. I select the server port, which is 587 - and do NOT check the secure option below. You also need to enter your username (your OU 4x4) and password. (Note that the name of the server is not what Gmail expects: it is asmtp.ou.edu - with a letter "a" before "smtp" - so you need to make sure you enter the server name correctly.)

Then, after you have saved this outgoing email option, you can choose it as your DEFAULT option if you want your outgoing email from Gmail to always come from this address. (You can choose your Gmail outgoing address for any email you want to come from Gmail directly instead.) Just click the "make default" link to choose the default outgoing email address:

Then, when it is the default, it will appear like this:

To have Gmail also collect the email from your OU account, go to the Check Mail Using POP3 section and click on the button that says "Add POP3 Email Account" - you will then be prompted to enter the email address you want to collect, so again I enter laura-gibbs@ou.edu, which is my OU email address.

Next, you will have to specify the server, exchange.ou.edu, and the port is 995. You also need to enter your username (your OU 4x4) and password. This time you DO need to check the SSL security box. Optionally, you can leave a copy on the server, which is what I always do - that gives me a handy backup in case something goes wrong with Gmail. Admittedly, OU email is down more often than Gmail is - but this way you have your inbox in two places, just in case.

Gmail will check your other email accounts quite often, but if you ever want it to force it to go check your email right away, just click on Check Email Now next to the account you want to check.

HAVE FUN! This ability to use the smtp server of your business or school is something Google just released in August, and it has been working great for me - now there is no reason at all for me to log directly onto my school email account. Gmail is managing all of that for me - both incoming and outgoing email! Nice!

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GoogleSites: Sidebar and Site Navigation

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:23:00 +0000

By default, the GoogleSites Sidebar contains links to the pages you have created in your GoogleSite. If you click on Edit Sidebar, you have various options for customizing how the sidebar is displayed. You will find the Edit Sidebar link down at the bottom of your Sidebar (if you do not see that, it means you are probably not logged on to your Google account; log on, and then you will see the link):

Sidebar Width and Position. You can change the width and/or the position of the sidebar by clicking on Change Site Layout.

After you click on Change Site Layout, you will see a variety of options. You even have the option to hide the sidebar if you want by clicking on "No sidebar."

When you are done making changes to the size and position of the Sidebar, make sure you click OK to save your changes. This will close the Site Layout dialog window.

Sidebar Navigation. By default, navigation links to the pages in your site are included in the Sidebar. To change the ORDER of the links, un-check the box that says "Automatically organize my navigation."

Customize the Navigation. When you un-check the automatic navigation box, you will see a list of pages pop up, with up and down arrows to let you organize the order in which they are listed. There is also an "X" which lets you delete an item from the navigation listing. The left and right arrows allow you to indent the pages to create something like a Table of Contents with sections and subsections.

You cannot change the name of a page here, but you can get around that by using the Add URL option; just add the URL of your GoogleSite page with the Text you want to display.

After you click OK, you will see the Text that you added in the list of pages, which you can move up and down just like the other pages in your site.

Add Text to the Sidebar. You can add additional text to your Sidebar. To add a text box, click on Add a Sidebar Item, a scrolling menu will come up; choose Text as the option.

After you choose Text, a Text Box will appear; to add context to the Text Box, click Edit:

You will then see the Text Box Editor which allows you to include formatted text and links.

Although it does not have an image icon to make it easy to add images, you can do that by remote linking to an image. Just click on the HTML edit button, and then enter the image tag directly, using IMG SRC.

(To do this, you will need to understand the basics of HTML code.)

SAVE CHANGES. If you have made changes, don't forget to click on Save Changes at the top (or bottom) of the page when you are done. You can then click on Return To Site to see how the changes look.

GoogleSites: Adding a YouTube video to your page

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:00:00 +0000

It's easy to add a YouTube video to your GoogleSite page. Here's an example of a GoogleSite page with an embedded video.

Find video at YouTube. All you need is the YouTube address for the video that you want to use. So, before you get started, open YouTube in another browser tab and find the video you want to put on your page. Leave that browser tab open; you will need the address later.

Edit a page. So, go to Sites.Google.com, and you should see a list of the sites you have created. Click on the site you are going to be working with. Then, you need to either go to an already existing page in that site, or you need to add a new page (here are instructions for adding a new page). Click on the Edit button in the upper right-hand corner.

Insert video. Place the cursor wherever it is on the page that you want to insert the video. Then, go to the Insert menu, and select Insert: Video, and then choose YouTube as the source.

Paste in the video address. Now, go to the browser tab where you have the YouTube video you want to use, and copy the complete address, including the http part. Then, paste in that address in the space provided. You might also want to give a title for the video, which will be displayed on a text bar just above the video as it plays. Click Save when you are done.

Placement on page. You will see a formatting bar above the video which allows you to select Left, Center or Right justification (L-C-R), along with other formatting options:

Save. When you are done, make sure you click on the Save button in the upper right-hand corner to save your work!

GoogleSites: Creating a new page

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:00:00 +0000

After you have created your site and added some content to your homepage (instructions), you can add additional pages to your site.

Create a page. So, go to Sites.Google.com, and you should see a list of the sites you have created. Click on the link to the site to which you want to add a page. Then, when you see the homepage of the site, click on the Create page button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Template and location. In addition to the basic webpage (which is probably what you want to choose), GoogleSites offers some other kinds of pages that you can build. In addition, you can also choose what kind of address you want. By default, GoogleSites will create a webpage in the same directory as your homepage ("Put page at the top level"). Unless you have a specific reason for changing this option, just leave it the way it is.

Page name. You can type in the page name with upper- and lower-case letters, spaces, and so on, and Google will adjust the page name so that it will function as a web address (all lower-case letters, no spaces). You can force the address to be something else, but you will probably just want to use the address that Google suggests. When you are done, click on the Create Page button at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Edit and save your new page. You can now edit your page following the same instructions as for editing the homepage - adding text, links, images, etc. Make sure to use the Save button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to save your work when you are done!

Site navigation: It's automatic! Notice that your new page is automatically added to the navigation sidebar on your homepage! That's a big advantage of the GoogleSites editor: you can go in and make changes if you want, but by default it builds the simple site navigation for you!

GoogleSites: Creating your first page

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:36:00 +0000

After a long wait, there is finally a Google wiki and web publishing tool: GoogleSites. This replaces and extends Google's earlier effort at online web publishing (the old system was called GooglePages). I'm guessing that GoogleSites is going to be a very useful tool for some of my online students, particularly those folks who are either living abroad or who might be doing their work on multiple computers and/or in Internet cafes. So, I'll be writing up some tips here, explaining some of the nice features available with GoogleSites.

To get started, you will need a Gmail account which gives you a log-on you can use for all the Google services online, including GoogleSites.

Then, go to the GoogleSites address: Sites.Google.com

Create new site. You will start by clicking on the Create New Site button.

Name your site. Next you will be prompted to give your site a name. You can type the name you want (with upper- and lower-case letters, spaces, etc.) in the box, and then Google will try to guess what you want the website address to be (eliminating spaces, punctuation, etc.). You can make changes to the website address, or accept the suggestion that Google gives you. Optionally, you can add a brief description to the website. Then, you can choose a template - but don't worry: you can always change the template later. When you are done, fill in the "captcha" challenge at the bottom (to prove you are not a spambot!), and Google will then create your site for you.

Editing and adding pages. You should now see the homepage of your site, ready to fill in. To start editing the page, you will click on the Edit button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. To add pages to the site, use the Create Page button which is next to the Edit button.

Edit the page. When you click on the Edit page button, you will be able to edit the two different portions of your page: the Title Bar, and the Contents area. The editor gives you the standard features you expect, such as the ability to format your text with bold or italics, change the font, insert links, etc.

Creating links. In the spirit of being a "wiki," the Google Sites editor expects that you are going to be making links from one page of your website to another. So, when you highlight a piece of text and click on the link icon, you will be prompted to create a link to some other page in your website:

So, in order to create a link to an external website, you need to first click where it says Web address:

This will change the editing screen, giving you an option to insert the address of the page you want to link to, along with an option to open the webpage in a new tab of the browser.

Inserting images. To insert an image, click on the Insert menu on the left side of the screen, and choose the Insert Image option from the drop-down menu:

You will then be prompted to browse for and upload an image. This is definitely the best option to choose! Although it is possible to remote link to an image on someone else's page, it is much better to save a copy of the image to your computer, and then upload it here to GoogleSites. That way, even if the other person's webpage disappears from the web, your image will not be affected. Just make sure you also include Image Information to credit your original web source!

Save. When you are done, make sure you click on the Save button in the upper right-hand corner to save your work!

Webinar: Latin 2.0 - Personal Learning Networks

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Last week I did a "webinar" (ugh, terrible word!) for Latin teachers, providing an overview of my favorite web2.0 tools, along with some attempt to explain just what web2.0 means to me.

So... here is my question: what are YOUR favorite web2.0 tools these days, and is the buzzword web2.0 important to you in your work?

For more on my perspective, here are the three slideshows I used as part of the webinar - there's a link to the full-sized screen version for each one:

PART ONE: LATIN 2.0 PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORKS. Here is a link to the FULL-SIZED screen version.

PART TWO: WEB 2.0 TERMINOLOGY. Here is a link to the FULL-SIZED screen version.

PART THREE: WEB 2.0 TOOLS. Here is a link to the FULL-SIZED screen version.

Embed a Ning.com Video

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:04:00 +0000

If your Ning.com website allows members to upload videos, you can grab those videos and display them in your own webpage or blog by using the embed code. Here's how:

Video tab. Click on the Video tab to see what videos are available at the Ning. Here are the videos at the Aesopus Ning, for example.

Click on the video you want to use. Below the video, you will see a link that says Embed Code; click on that link.

Copy the HTML Embed Code, and insert it into your webpage or wiki or blog - wherever embedding is allowed... like here at Blogger.com! To make it fit, I changed the width to 400 and the height to 301.

Find more videos like this on LATIN VIA FABLES: AESOPUS

Sharing what you read at Google Reader

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Google Reader is an RSS reader that allows you to share what you are reading with others and/or to republish the contents of the feeds in your own webpage or blog.

Here's how it works: You can organize your subscriptions into folders, and then optionally make those folders public. When a folder is public, other people can access the contents of the folder either via a webpage (a bit clunky), or in a widget that shows a list of the feeds you are subscribed to, or the latest items in the folder. This is very cool! Using this option, you can instantly add a blogroll to your own blog, or a widget that displays the latest items in the blogs you are reading. See below for examples of what the blogroll and clippings widgets look like.

Feeds and Folders. First, you need to set up your GoogleReader service and organize your subscriptions in folders. To add a subscription to a folder, just click on a feed, then click on the Feed Settings button and select the folder(s) to add the feed to a folder. To remove a feed from a folder, just click on the folder and it will be deselected.

Share a Folder. To share a folder, click on Settings in the upper right-hand corner.

Then click on the Folders tab in order to access the folder the sharing options.

To adjust the privacy setting of a folder, select the folder, and then use the Change Sharing menu to choose public or private.

Ways to Share. After you make a folder public, you will see various options off to the right which are the links you need in order to share the contents of the folder as a webpage, as a clip of the latest items, or as a blogroll listing the subscriptions!

So here is the a blogroll of all the feeds in my Latin folder - are there other Latin- and Classics-related blogs I should be reading??? Let me know!

Plus, here is a clip of the latest items (I've chosen to list just 7 items, but you can configure the widget to list even more if you want) - cool!

Combination Scripts for Random Widgets

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:52:00 +0000

One of the fascinating things about the RotateContent.com tool for creating widgets with randomized content is that you can actually do a meta-widget, where what is being randomized is the widgets themselves!

It works like this: First you create the individual widgets, which are available separately. Then, create another widget, and in the individual cells, put the javascript call for the other widgets. This new "meta-widget" will then run in two stages: to begin, it will randomly choose from one of the widgets, and then it will run that other widget. How cool!

So, for example, here is a "Random Greco-Roman Image" widget which randomly selects from these individual widgets: Greek Gods and Goddesses, Greek Beasts, and Roman Emperors.

Embed a Google Slideshow

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:59:00 +0000

My favorite feature of Google Slideshows - a.k.a. Presentations, in the GoogleDocuments system - is that they can be emdedded in other webpages.

Grab code from embedded slideshow. If you are viewing an embedded slideshow, you can get the code directly from that show - just click on the Menu button, and you will see a slide pop up that gives you the embed code which you can cut and paste directly - it's so easy!

Here are the instructions to follow if you want to share and distribute your Google Presentations in this way - embedding them in your own webpages, and also allowing other people to take the shows and embed them in their webpages. It's easy!

1. Share. To get started click on the Share tab in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and then choose Publish/Embed from the drop-down menu.

2. Publish. You will then need to click on the Publish button to publish your slideshow so that others can see it.

3. Get embed code. You can configure the size and features of your slideshow, and then get the embed code which is displayed.

4. Cut-and-paste embed code. The specific instructions for how to add the HTML code will vary based on where you are publishing your content. For Blogger.com blogs, you can switch to the "Edit HTML" tab and insert the code.

4. Sizing for Blogger.com. I like to make the player even a little bit smaller than 410 pixels in width so that it will fit nicely in a blog post. To do this, I manually change the embed code after I paste it into the blog post - choosing 400 for the width and 333 for the height. Here are the results:

Some dynamic content may not display if you are reading this blog via RSS or through an email subscription. You can always visit the How-To Tech Tips blog to see the full content, and to find out how to subscribe to the latest posts.

Embed a Google Calendar

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:18:00 +0000

One of the best features of Google Calendar is that you can embed it in other websites. For example, I embed a Google Calendar of my class assignments INSIDE the Desire2Learn course management system for my classes. Here are step by step instructions for embedding a Google Calendar in a blog or other webpage.

To embed a GoogleCalendar you will need the "embed code" (some scary-looking HTML). The embed code is only available for calendars you have chosen to share publicly. So, go to your panel of Google Calendars, and click on Settings to share a calendar and get the embed code.

1. Access Settings. Click on Settings in the lower left-hand calendar of the panel that lists all your Google Calendars.

2. Select Calendar. You will see a listing of ALL your Calendars. Find the calendar you want to embed, with a column that shows whether the calendar is shared.

3. Share calendar. Click on the share settings link for the individual calendar you want to embed:

To embed the calendar, it needs to be publicly shared:

4. Calendar detail. Next, click on the Calendar Details tab that you should see across the top of the screen. Change from Share this calendar:

By clicking on the Calendar Details tab instead:

5. Default embed code. There is a default embed code you can see on the Calendar Details screen - but what you really want to do is click on the link that says Customize, so you can change the height, width and other display options.

6. Customize embed code. It is important to change the height and width to what you want - and you can also select whether default view is Agenda, Weekly or Monthly, along with other options. You can then copy and paste the resulting HTML embed code that shows up in the box as you make your choices.

7. Cut-and-paste embed code. The specific instructions for how to add the HTML code will vary based on where you are publishing your content. For Blogger.com blogs, you can switch to the "Edit HTML" tab and insert the code.

Don't worry if it looks a little weird - sometimes the content will not display until you actually publish the webpage online and view it in a browser. For example, in Blogger.com, the embedded calendar does not display until you publish the blog page; what you will see instead is this (below). Don't worry: ou can use the Preview mode to check and make sure everything really is okay!

8. Publish the page. You can see the results of my embedded Roman Calendar below! :-)

Backing up with Delicious

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Although it's not content in exactly the same way as a wiki or blog, I have two Del.icio.us accounts with thousands of bookmarks in them, so I also back those up once a month. Again, I don't expect anything to have to Del.icio.us in the foreseeable future, but I've invested a lot of time and effort in collecting and tagging online resources, and it's worth a couple of minutes to me each month to back that up to my hard drive!

To do a backup in Delicious, log in to your account, and then go to Settings, and then choose Backup/Export. You will then be given the option to download an HTML file containing all your bookmarks - just click the Export button. The backup file will not reflect your username so if you are backing up multiple Delicious accounts (as I am), you will probably want to rename each backup file to reflect which Delicious account it contains!

Backing up with Blogger.com and PBWiki.com

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:56:00 +0000

I was extremely pleased to see that Blogger.com is now offering a way to back-up the contents of your blog to your hard drive. Although I don't expect Blogger.com to be going away in the near future, it is very reassuring to me to be able to have a backup copy of my blogs, just in case. I develop a lot of content in my blogs (Blogger.com) and in my wikis (PBWiki.com), and now both services offer a backup option. I make a backup copy of my blogs and my wikis every month, just in case.

For Blogger.com, just go to Settings:

Then click on Export Blog:

It will save an XML file containing the contents of your blog to your hard drive. Notice that it does not specific which blog you have saved - so you will probably want to change the file name, replacing "blog" with the name of your blog (especially if you are backing up multiple blogs on your hard drive, as I do). Although the XML format is not something easy to edit, it is a good standard format that you could use to recreate the blog in case of emergency.

At PBWiki.com, go to Settings, and then look down in the Advanced Settings area; you will see Backup listed as an option there. Click on Backup, and you will then be given the option to download a zipped copy of your wiki's contents!

The PBWiki zip file reflects both the name of your wiki and the date of the backup, so you probably won't need to do any renaming of your files.

I try to back up my active blogs and wikis every month, and I just delete the older backup files. It's easy to do... and I think it's a good idea... just in case! :-)

Create an audio slideshow with iPhoto

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:25:00 +0000

Create a new folder in iPhoto to hold the images for the slideshow. Then use File-Import to import the files; you can highlight all the images in a folder and import them all at once. After the images have been imported into iPhoto, they are already selected as a group, so just click on one of the images in the group (you will see they are all bordered with blue), and drag it into the new folder you created, pulling all the images in the group with it.

Now you can arrange the images in the order that you want them for the slideshow by dragging and dropping them in the right location.

When you have them in the order you want, click the Slideshow icon at the bottom.

To add the audio, I click on the Music tab, and then browse through iTunes to find the audio file (if you need to add the file to iTunes, open iTunes, and click File - Add to Library to import an audio file into iTunes).

Then, I go to Settings, where I choose to have the slideshow not repeat, and I turn off all the effects. Then, I choose to fit the slideshow to the music. Then I click OK.

I then choose File-Export and export the slideshow as a .mov file, large format. This process may take a few minutes, depending on many images are involved, and how long the audio is.

I am then able to go to the Video section of my Ning, and upload the .mov file! Now it is available at the Ning, which also gives you an embed code so that you can display the video on any webpage you want.

Find more videos like this on Latin Via Fables: Aesopus

Audio Slideshow with Yahoo's JumpCut.com. If you don't have iPhoto, a GREAT alternative is Yahoo's web-based service, JumpCut.com. With JumpCut you can upload a folder of photos, upload audio, and create a video with the audio synched to the slides - you cannot download the resulting movie, but JumpCut gives you an "embed" code, just as Ning does, so that you can display your video on any webpage.

Ning: Creating a Photo Album

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:05:00 +0000

If your Ning has an images area available, you can add "photo" to the end of your Ning address in order to access the photo area - http://XXX.ning.com/photo

To add an album, first you have to upload photos, then you can collect the photos into an album. It will be much easier if you use a naming convention for the images so that you can collect them easily for the album later. To add tags while you upload the images, use the Bulk Photo Uploader.

To add photos, click on the My Photos link, then click on Add Photos, and then click on Bulk Photo Uploader. This allows you to select all the images in a folder and upload them all at once, while adding a "tag" to each image for later sorting. (It takes a few minutes for the bulk uploader to get started, but it saves time in the end!)

After the bulk uploader loads, ou just highlight the photos you want and drag them into the upload area. Then click Next.

You can add titles to the images all at once here, prompted by the thumbnail, and you can also add tags. If you add a tag now to all the images, it will make it easier to create the Album afterwards. You can type in a tag to use for all the images; just make sure you click the "Apply this info to the photos below" button to make sure the tag is copied to all the images. When you are done giving titles and tags to the images, click Upload.

After the images have been uploaded, they will be part of your overall Photo collection. To create an Album of this specific set of images, click on My Albums. Then, click on the Add an Album link. You can Filter by the tag you created to get just those pictures in the left window, and then drag them in the order you want them in the album to the right window. You can drag an image up to be the Album cover, and also give the Album a name. When you are done, click Save.

Book Exchange with Google Docs

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:31:00 +0000

One of the courses I teach has four required books, the same four books every semester. This semester, I am trying a new experiment: making a simple "Book Exchange" using Google Documents.

Here is how I did this:

1. Create page. Using Google Documents, I created a page where students can add their names to the list as sellers. Here's what it looks like:
2. Invite current students. Then, I clicked on "Share: With Others" and invited my CURRENT students to be "collaborators" in the document. To invite them, all I had to do was paste in the list of email addresses; you can paste in a list of addresses separated with commas. (I got the list of email addresses from Desire2Learn, our course management system.) This generates an email invitation that goes out to the email addresses that I listed, containing a clickable link that gives each person on the list access to the GoogleDoc page with the ability to edit it.

IMPORTANT: The students need a GoogleDocs account - either a Gmail account, or a GoogleDocs account linked to another email address - to edit the document. I checked "invitations may be used by anyone" so that it doesn't matter what email address the students use to log on to their GoogleDocs account. When they click on the link in the email, if they are not logged in to GoogleDocs already, they receive a prompt that tells them to log in, and allows them to create an account if they do not have one already. They can use any email address precisely because I checked the "invitations may be used by anyone" option.

3. Announce to future students. Then, I clicked on "Share: Publish as web page" so that I could publish this as a webpage that anyone can view online (you only need the invitation in order to edit the page, not to view it). This gave me a webpage address that I could send to the students in my FUTURE semester class, so that if they want to buy their books from someone who is currently enrolled, they can make arrangements to do that. So, using our course management system, I sent out an email to the FUTURE semester's students, giving them the address of the page where they could look to see which students are selling which books, prices, etc. (Anybody can view the document who knows the address; no GoogleDocs account is required to view a GoogleDocs page as a webpage after it's published - but I am publicizing that address only with students enrolled in the future semester.)

That's all! It took me just ten minutes to get it set up - and now the students can manage it for themselves (although just out of curiosity I'll be checking in to see how it is working - one student signed up to sell her books instantly). Since I promote the use of GoogleDocuments in my classes already, many of the students will be familiar with editing a GoogleDocument already from doing that as part of their class work.

Fingers crossed: I would really like a way for students who want to sell their books to be able to do so directly, without having to go through a middle-man, like the OU Bookstore, which is obviously going to take a chunk of the profit. There's also an online marketplace through our campus newspaper, but it's clunky to use at best - I've tried promoting its use in the past with little success. I'm hoping this GoogleDocs will be an easy solution so that students can hand on books from one semester to the next without having to go to a lot of trouble!

The students need to have their books in hand by around January 20, when classes start. After that date, I'll "unpublish" the page so that it doesn't remain online... but I'll have it read to go again at the end of the next semester (assuming this little experiment works). Fingers crossed!

Internet Bumper Stickers: My 15 minutes of fame

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:48:00 +0000

As promised by Andy Warhol to all, my 15 minutes of fame has arrived! The chimp at Internet Bumper Stickers has chosen Technology Tips as the sticky site of the day! Ha ha.

It's because of the post I did a while back about how to use the RotateContent.com tool to create an image randomizer. I use random Internet Bumper Stickers to liven up my online classes!

(Random Internet bumper stickers)

Firefox: Clearing the Browser Cache

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:16:00 +0000

When you run into a problem with a website, the first thing to do is to try Reloading the page. If that doesn't work, sometimes just restarting your computer will do the trick. If you are still having trouble, it can sometimes help to clear your browser cache, removing any copies of the webpage that your browser has stored in your computer's memory for quick access.

Here is how to clear your browser cache in Firefox (you will find similar options for Internet Explorer, Safari, and any other web browser, although the specific instructions will vary - see the comments section for this post where you will find a link to an article about clearing the Firefox cache on a Windows computer):

Go to the Firefox menu, and choose Preferences.

From Preferences, choose the Privacy option.

In the Private Data section, click on the Settings button.

This will allow you to choose exactly what you want to clear. To clear the saved copies of webpages in the cache, just choose cache. You also have the option to remove information about cookies, browsing history, etc.

When you are done, click OK. This will return you to the main Privacy screen, so that you can click on the Clear Now button in the Private Data section.

You be prompted to confirm your choice - and that's it! You can close the Preferences window now and continue browsing; there is no need to restart your browser.

Ning: Your Ning Settings

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:11:00 +0000

After you log on to Ning (see this earlier post for what to do if you are having trouble logging on), you can change your settings. Just click on the My Settings link in the upper-right hand corner box:

Here are some of the settings you might want to change:

Email Address: This is how you log on to Ning. If you created your account with one email address and want to change it to a different email address, you can do that. Just click the Change link, and enter the email address you want to use.

Name: This is the name that is displayed for all your posts and comments at the Ning. Please feel free to use your nickname here! So, if you are officially Anthony but everybody calls you Tony, then put Tony in the name field - and please include your last name, since there may very well be other folks in the Ning who have the same first name.

Photo: You can use a photograph as your profile photo, or you can use any kind of image you prefer (a graphic design, cartoon character, etc.). To change your photo, just click on the photo icon, and follow the instructions for uploading a photo:

Email Notifications: You can change your email notifications by clicking on the Email link under the Settings menu on the left. By default, you get email notifications when people leave comments for you, but you can also choose to turn off those email notifications.

Firefox Add-On: Screengrab

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:01:00 +0000

In teaching my online courses, I find it very handy for my students to be able to take a screenshot and send it to me via email. If they run into technical problems, this can be really helpful - a picture's worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, so if they can show me what they are seeing on their computer screen, instead of trying to describe it in words, I can usually identify the problem much more quickly.

The difficulty I've run into in the past is that while some of my students are Mac users (so that they can easily do a screenshot), most of the students use Windows. In Windows XP, taking a screenshot was clunky and awkward at best; there's a "snipping tool" in Windows Vista, but since I am using a Mac, I've never actually used the snipping tool and cannot give my students any help in learning how to use it.

The solution: Screengrab, a Firefox add-on, that works perfectly well for both Windows AND Mac users (although, as I said, the Mac users have such an easy time of it to begin with, they don't really need an extra tool).

Here's how the Screengrab tool works:

After you install the Screengrab add-on, you will see a little Screengrab icon in your status bar at the bottom of the Firefox screen (if you do not see the Status bar, turn it on using the View menu in Firefox). Here is what the icon looks like:

Just click on the Screengrab icon, and choose Save - Complete Page. You will be prompted to give the file a name and to save it to a location on your computer. Save the file with the name screenshot.png (make sure you include the .png extension if your computer does not do that automatically for you).

There are additional options you can configure. Just go to the Firefox Tools menu, select Add-Ons, and configure your Screengrab preferences. For most purposes, however, you can just go with the default options - it's ready to go and conveniently waiting in your status bar whenever you need to use it.

Ning: RSS Feed Box

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:34:00 +0000

RSS is a way to get content from another blog or website to appear on your own webpage. In your Ning Profile page, you have an RSS box, where you can add an RSS feed. Here's how:

First, get the address of a feed that you want to include. Pretty much any blog has a feed, as do many online news sources and other content-intensive websites. (For example, I've created a list of some feeds related to my classes, and to the University of Oklahoma in general.)

Then, go to the RSS box in your My Page Profile and click on Edit:

You will then be given the option to supply a title for the box, together with the feed address. You need to decide if you just want the titles to appear (that's usually best) or if you want the entire content of the feed to be displayed. You also give to pick the number of items to display.

If you are displaying just the titles, you can choose a large number; if you are displaying the detailed content, you should choose a small number. When you are done, click on Save.

That's it! The content will refresh automatically - you don't have to do anything. If you want to change to a different feed, you can click on Edit to enter new information.

Want more than one feed? You can use YahooPipes to create a combined feed, and then enter the combined feed here in your Ning box.

Javascript in a Mozilla Seamonkey Composer page

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:28:00 +0000

When you are creating a webpage using Mozilla Seamonkey Composer, you can insert javascripts into the page in order to create dynamic content. Here are some sources you might use for dynamic javascripts and other forms of embedded HTML:

PollDaddy.com polls
SchoolhouseWidget.com widgets
RotatingContent.com widgets (widgets that you create yourself)
Feed2JS or Feedburner Buzzboost (convert RSS to javascript)
embedded YouTube video code
embedded Picasa slideshow code
embedded GoogleCalendar code

For the example in this tutorial, I'll be using the javascript from a PollDaddy.com poll. To add the javascript to your page, follow these instructions:

Create a page and type some kind of text to accompany the script, along with an XXX that marks the spot where you want to place the script results on the page:

Next, click on the HTML Source button at the bottom of the page:

Now paste the javascript (it maybe a big chunk of stuff!) into the place where you had your XXX before - in place of the XXX, you should now see the javascript code:

Now, click on Normal down at the bottom of the page to go back to your normal editing view:

Don't worry if the screen looks really weird - sometimes javascript will show up a bit oddly in this view. Here's a typical example of what you might see:

To see if your script really is working, what you need to do is SAVE YOUR WORK, and then click on the Browser Preview:

This will allow you to see if the script really is working - and in this case it is! Here's what I see when I actually preview this page in a browser window:

Close down the browser window, and you can now make any final changes you want to your webpage, and then hit Publish. As always with Seamonkey Composer, MAKE SURE YOU CLOSE THE COMPOSER WINDOW after you have published the file. If you want to keep working on the page, that's fine - just make sure you CLOSE THE COMPOSER WINDOW after publishing, and then open the page again. This is very important: if you don't close the window after you publish, you will be editing the remote copy of the page, and your local changes will be lost. So, be careful: always close the window after you publish!

Creating a Poll with PollDaddy.com

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:23:00 +0000

PollDaddy.com is a fantastic free service that allows you to create polls which you can link to directly or embed in your blog or in your webpages. Here are instructions on how to create a PollDaddy account and start making your own polls.

Create your free account. First, go to the PollDaddy.com website and click on the Signup tab:

There are a variety of types of accounts, but you want to click on the option for a Free Account (scroll down to the bottom of the free column to create your account):

Fill out the information requested (name, email address, and password).

Go to Account Home. After your account is created, click on the Home Tab to go to your PollDaddy account home page. To the right, in My Latest Polls, you should see a list of any polls you have created, along with a link to create a new poll:

Create a poll. When you create a poll, you will need to ask a question. Then, list the possible answers. Remember to use the RED MINUS SIGN on the right to remove any blank answer spaces that you don't want to use. On the left, you can find UP/DOWN ARROWS to rearrange your answers in the order you think is best.

Select a Poll Style. You can choose a style for your poll down below where you entered the question and answers. Use the arrows to page through the different style options.

Save and Continue. When you are done with the poll questions and answers and have selected a style, click the Save and Continue button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

Publishing your poll. You will see several options for publishing your poll. By default, the javascript widget appears first. You can use javascript in most webpages and blogs. If you want to send someone a link to your poll via the email, you need to choose Direct Link Method from the right-hand column.

This will give you the webpage address for your poll:

You can also use the javascript option to include the poll inside a blog post or webpage! Here's a sample:

Ning: Managing Your Blog

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:38:00 +0000

To get to your blog, click on the My Page link on the Ning navigation bar, and then click on the My Blog link which you see below it.

Then, on the right, you will see the Add New Blog Post link:

Down the left, you will see the opening sentences of your most recent blog posts in order. To get to the actual post, click on the Title of the post, or click on the word Continue link:

When you are looking at a blog post, you will see your Administrative Options listed on the right:

You can Edit the post, or you can choose to Delete the post (but be careful: if you delete a post, it cannot be retrieved). If you click on Manage Blog, you will see a listing of ALL your blog posts, with editing options for each one.

GoogleDocs: Spellcheck and Word Count

laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Google Documents is a great system for creating documents that you can access online from any computer. Fast, easy - and free!

To get started, you need a Google account (for example, a Gmail address). If you don't have a Google account, it just takes a few seconds to set one up. You can either get a Gmail address, or get a Google account based on any email address you want to use.

Create new document. When you log on to Google Documents, you will have the option of creating a new document (or spreadsheet, or presentation, etc.)

By default, your document is untitled. You can give it a title by clicking where it says Untitled and typing the title you want in the dialog box that opens up:

You can type as in a regular word processor. If you will be cutting-and-pasting what you type into a blog or other web-based program, don't do any formatting here. Just type your text.

Spellcheck. When you are ready to spellcheck, you will find the spellcheck icon is at the right-hand end of the toolbar, or you can choose Check Spelling from the Tools menu:

Any words that are not correct English spelling will be highlighted in yellow.

When you correct the spelling, the yellow highlight will disappear. To get hints about the spelling, LEFT mouse click on the highlighted word. You will see some possible corrections, and you will also have the option to add the word to the spellcheck dictionary.

When you are done making any correctins you want to make, just click the Spellcheck icon again to turn off any of the yellow highlighting that is still left on the page.

Word count. To do a word count, select Word Count from the Tools menu.

There will be a variety of statistics displayed, with simple word count being the first item:

To close the Word Count box, just click on the small X in the upper right-hand corner.

Save your work. Google Docs has an auto-save feature, but you can also choose to Save your work, or Save & Close, at any time, using the buttons in the upper right-hand corner of the page:

So, while you are typing, auto-save will be saving your work periodically, but you can use Save & Close to make sure you save the latest version of your document when you are done working. You can then access your document any time from any computer using a web browser, simply by logging in to Google Documents on that computer. Very handy for people on the go!