Tech Talk from Tona's Tidings

Advertisers Beware!

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:35:00 +0000

While browsing through one of my favorite lesson plans exchange sites today, a quick tour of the recent additions page, I noticed over half of the posts were from a particular educational software site. I clicked on one of their lesson plans and quickly discovered the instructions consisted of two lines.

1. Subscribe to their site
2. Check out this great resource, with a link to that lesson on their site

But not much more to tell you anything about it or how to integrate it into the classroom.

Please excuse this rant, but, when I log into a teacher exchange website, I'm expecting to see posts from other teachers, as opposed to spam. If I wanted spam, I could log into Facebook more often, or revisit an old chatroom I used to hang out in.

If you are an advertiser/software vendor, please post only a few posts in teacher exchange sites telling us a little about your site and ways it may be helpful to us as an educator, rather than dominating the site with useless posts of links to your site. These are not helpful to us, and I find these to be quite a turn off! I've learned much more by a month of two in Twitter communicating with other educator and learning from them about sites that I can really use, and ways they are useful. These are the sites that I repost in emails to my staff, and write about in this blog. Rest assured, if you are an advertiser that posts nothing more than links to subscribe to your site and a resource page on your site, I will avoid your site. An advertisement is supposed to entice the viewer to your product, not turn them off from it. So spend a few extra minutes telling us about your site and what it can do for us rather than simply posting links to pages in your site.

Just my thoughts. Who am I? I am the consumer you are targeting, and I am the consumer that can make or break your business through all of my contacts, and their contacts.

Create page flipping books with FlipSnack

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:29:00 +0000

I really wished I would have known about this site two years ago, or wished this site had been around a couple of years ago. A quick look at their registry tells me it wasn't around... This site would have saved me so much time, and my family so much aggravation in watching me spend more than two hair pulling weeks trying to create what this site can create for you in minutes. I'm talking about FlipSnack, part of the SnackTools site free site tools line, that takes your .pdf files and turns them into beautiful page turning digital books that you can share.

Creating an interactive page turning digital book with FlipSnack takes only a few minutes, and is pretty simple to do. When you log into the site (free registration), click the big yellow "Make a flipping book" button, or the Create a book link at the top to start creating your page flipping book. You are given options to either browse your computer for a .pdf file, or enter the URL to a .pdf file that you would like to turn into a book. Then allow it a minute or two to upload your .pdf file. From there it will take another few moments for it to compile your book. (Go check your email or Twitter feed for a minute or two while this is going on.) When its done, the fun begins. Click the Next button and you can easily customize your book. The interface gives you choices to customize the background color or texture behind your book, template styles, and size options for your book. You can view it in widget mode or full-screen view. There are also options for including sharing options for you book, so the viewer can share it in a number of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger. When you've achieved the look you like, click the Finished button and its done. You are given a link to your book, with other options for sharing, such as embedding.

There is a premium (VIP) version of the site for $24 a month that gives you access to all of the Snack Tools sites with premium embedding (no watermark), and downloading options, but for most uses, the free version will suite you just fine.

I created this page flipping book in about five minutes from a file I already had uploaded on my site of a photography weekend trip I took last summer.

However, my Creativity Portfolio book I created for my Creativity in the Classroom class I took a couple of years ago took me several weeks of searching through free and relatively inexpensive flash and javascript catalog and photo album page turning book scripts, and trying to figure out the code and integration myself. It was a maddening two weeks + around my house during that time. Yes, I learned a lot from that experience, and can say I know the technology behind this, but its not something I do everyday, nor have I repeated the experience since then. FlipSnack makes this process a whole lot simpler and quieter! I don't think any one else in the house knew I was creating the book this time around, at least not until they read this!

Imagine adding an extra dimension to those teaching portfolios with an interactive digital page flipping book, create exciting interactive story books for your students, or have your students work a math story then turn it into a beautiful book they can share.

Child-like Discoveries

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:01:00 +0000

"Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows." ~John Betjeman, Summoned by Bells
Children are a wonder. They have this natural curiosity about all things that allows them to explore and discover their surroundings. They lack the sense of danger that comes with age and experience that allows them to learn without hesitation through their explorations.

All too often as adult we are afraid to try new things for fear of failure or fear of breaking something (like ourselves - our bones, or the machines we are on). But what could we accomplish if we approach these opportunities with child-like optimism?

Many times I'm asked, "How did you learn how to do everything on the computer? Did you take classes?" Sometimes I do tell them of classes and training sessions I've had, but most of the time my response is simply, "I've learned from trying and not being afraid to push buttons." And then I see the look, that puzzling, timid, shocked, scared, well - what if I break something look. And here's the beauty of it all, and my reply, its only a machine and can be fixed or rebuilt.

Last week I got a new Android phone and have been trying to learn a new user-interface because I'm not familiar with Android OS. I think I gave the battery a pretty good workout this weekend on an photographic excursion to Naples (Florida). Although I brought my dslr and all its bulky lenses and equipment with me, sometimes it was just easier and more practical to slide out my handy cell phone and snap a picture or two. While I've been taking pictures and uploading them to Facebook and Google Plus, I've also been playing with the settings and seeing what each setting was capable of. Sure, I could have read manuals, blogs, and other articles about my phone; they all would have helped me learn about its capabilities. But I find the best way to learn something is to just play with it and see what it can do. Some may be saying, what if I broke my new phone? Well, my thinking to that is that I have all of my Contacts backed up elsewhere, and my pictures are all saved onto a memory card (and most have been uploaded to my computer), so if I really messed my phone up badly, I could always reset it as a LAST resort, so no harm in pushing buttons!

My mom has a smart phone and hates it. She says she doesn't understand it and doesn't know how to work it. On a recent visit, my children and I played with her phone for about five minutes. The interface was different than what I was used to, but I was still able to figure out a few things on her phone. We made her a video and showed her some things on her phone she never knew existed. She wanted to know how we knew how to do those things on there so quickly. My question to her was, well, have you played with it? She didn't understand the question.

When many adults think of the word "play" the word is interpreted as something children do. Yes, children do play - it's how they learn. When children play house, they are learning how to communicate with one another, and they are learning how adults do things in the real word. When children play games, they are learning about sportsmanship and strategies. Younger children love to learn, because to them, learning is fun. They have not, yet, equated learning to work. I think we as adults need to spend less time working at work, and more time playing at work. If nothing else, it would make work a more fun place to be. Have you played today? :)

Turning words into art with word clouds

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:30:00 +0000

I know I've blogged about using word clouds to create works of art earlier this year, but after participating in yesterday's webinar on word clouds, I decided to try out each of the reviewed sites and see what they could do. I think I also mentioned in my blog, yesterday, about the webinar that this post on word clouds was coming next.

I've also been told by some that my posts are WAY too long and I need to keep them shorter if anyone is ever going to read them. So here goes, 4 word cloud sites, the ins, outs, good, bad, and ugly, as short and sweet as I can get it.

I decided to use the same list of words for each of the 4 sites so I could get a better comparison of what each is capable of. I kept the list in a TextEdit page, copying and pasting the list each time into the 4 sites.

Since I've already written about Wordle before, let me share some things I've since learned about this site. You can increase the size of a particular word in your cloud by repeating the same word a time or two in your initial word list. You can also use sentences, phrases and word strings (or compound words) if you use a tilde (~) in between the words taking the place of a space. For example, "nuts and bolts" would be written out "nuts~and~bolts". (Only, no quotation marks.) I've discovered a good way to save your image, other than taking a screen shot, is to save it as a .pdf. Otherwise, Wordle does not provide a way of saving your images, other than posting them in their gallery and showing you a link to your word cloud.

Here's an example of my elementary engineering terminology - click on the image to see a larger image and close up of the words:

WordItOut:

Word It Out is a new site to me. I had not heard about this site until the webinar. That being said, WordItOut is pretty simple to use, and very straight forward. You simply type in (or copy/paste) your word list, and click the "word it out" button. The generator does the rest for you. The things you have control over include the color scheme, fonts, and target. Target is where you want your word cloud centered. You could move the target so the words move stemming from one of the corners, in the center, or off to one side. When your are done, push the "save" button, and the site emails you a link to your word cloud.

Here are the same words used in WordItOut - click the thumbnail image to see a larger image:

I chose to keep this one rather than customizing it futher because the color scheme and the font style reminded me of a chalkboard.

WordItOut provided some ideas for printing your word cloud on shirts, mugs, and other gift accessories. I don't think I noticed this capability in Wordle.

Tagul:

Tagul was the only site of the 4 that you needed to create a login for. However, its free and easy to create a login for this site. Only takes a minute or two, and then you are in. The thing I liked about Tagul was how dynamic the words in the cloud were. By default, all words in the word cloud are set to defer the person clicking on the word in the word cloud to a dictionary on Google. With Tagul, you could also set the word cloud to a defined shape, like circle/ellipse, diamond, heart, circle, cloud, and triangle. When you are done and you have your shape set up the way you like it, I recommend going to that site and downloading the picture image. Tagul also provides you with embed code to add your image as a flash object on your web page. And for iPad users, they provide an .svg version which allows for similar viewing as the shockwave-flash version. I think this is a great addition to the site and adds to the usefulness of the tool.

Another one of the nice things about Tagul is that you can save and download your images with a transparent background. This comes in handy when adding your word cloud to a site that does not have a white background.

Click on the word cloud image below to see it in Tagul. Run your mouse over the words to see it in action.

Tagxedo:
The last site I learned about is Tagxedo. The cool thing about Tagxedo is that you can form your word cloud into many different shapes, much more than the basic shapes Tagul provided. And if any of those shapes are not working for you, then upload your own shape to use. (I uploaded a gear to add my engineering words inside of.)

Tagxedo allows you to to take any website, blog, RSS feed, Twitter account, news article, pretty much anything on the web and turn it into a word cloud. Besides uploading your own image to use as a word cloud shape, you can also use your own local fonts. There are many different color themes to choose from, or you can create your own. Saving your word cloud in Tagxedo is easy with so many different ways to choose from. You can save as an image wiht a wide range of sizes and extensions, even thumbnails, share in gallery and get URL and the iFrame embed code (under the Web tab); you can print it, save as a thumbnail; or in the Advanced tab you can save the link to the full size image or download it as an .html page. And when you are done with your Tagxedo masterpiece, think about having it printed on a mug, t-shirt, totebag, mousepad, or many more gift items in their store.

One thing I did notice, being on a Mac, is that when I initially tried creating my word cloud in Tagxedo in Safari, it wanted to update and install my Microsoft Silverlight. When I switched to Firefox, I did not have any issues with the site.

You can view the word cloud below in Tagxedo and see the dynamics by clicking on the image below. The gray gear background is not there, but you can roll over the words and see them pop out.

And that's four word cloud sites, using the same word list, all done differently with the tools provided in each site. I hope you will take the time to play around in each site to see what it can do for you in your classroom. Special thanks to Kim Munoz for featuring these sites in a webinar, and to SimpleK12 for their webinar series. If you are looking for more ideas on how to use these sites, Kim has links in her blog on to different articles written about these sites.

SimpleK12 Webinars are a good investment of summer time

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:30:00 +0000

Today I participated in a wonderful webinar by SimpleK12 on using word clouds in the classroom. It was called "Tag, you're it! - Free Word Cloud tools" and was taught by Kim Munoz, part of the "Wonderful World of Web Tools" series. This was my first webinar from this group, but certainly not my first webinar. I had a little trouble getting in, especially from my technology room at school, but once I got in, I was fully engaged the entire time. By the way, if you are on a Mac, and trying to get into one of these webinars from behind a firewall, such as a school network, I highly recommend using Firefox over Safari. After multiple attempts to join the meeting (gotomeeting) on Safari, and having Safari go unresponsive on me, I switched to Firefox, and got in immediately.

The webinar was an engaging half an hour giving me an over view of four word cloud sites and tips for using each site. (Look for the word cloud site review coming soon!) I could see where she was going, what she was typing in, what buttons she was pushing, and also hear her explanation of the steps she was taking as she went along. There was also a chat window on the side that offered me the chance to ask questions along the way (or offer a suggestion) that was shared at the end of the webinar.

The webinar was short, only thirty minutes, but yet, gave me exactly what I needed about some helpful tools I cold use in my classroom. I'm signed up for two more this week, and a few next week as well. Looking forward to getting some more professional development in while I have the extra time during the summer. My son, who came to school with me today to help work on some of the computers, followed the webinar right along with me, and learned a thing or two about using word clouds.

SimpleK12 has many different webinars to choose from on technology that are offered free of charge. They are presented by leaders in educational technology, many of whom I follow on Twitter and in my PLN. Some of the webinars offer include using Skype with your students, 21st Century teaching tools, using mobile devices in education, virtual field trips, how to convince kids that writing is fun, using Google tools, and creating posters in Glogster, just to name a few. All you have to do is go to the site (http://simplek12.com/tlc/webinars/), select some webinars that interest you, sign up (name and email address), wait for the email, click the link on the email when its time, sit back and enjoy. Its that simple!

Now you could check out all these places and tools on your own or you can be actively engaged with others learning more about their potential with your students from other educators who already use them. Its only half an hour - that's the length of most sit-coms, and its summer time. You don't even have to drive anywhere to attend a workshop. You can participate right from the comforts of home, school, or wherever you are (with Internet, of course). What do you have to lose?

Timeout for Updates

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:19:00 +0000

A friend of mine told me I needed to take a technology timeout; and I'm wondering what's a timeout from technology? I read in a blog yesterday written by a man that was trying to take a time out from technology by spending a week on the beach. I thought it was a little ironic that he was taking the time to blog (I think, via his cell phone) while he was supposed to be relaxing on the beach. (But a well-written blog post, nonetheless!)

Yeah, okay, so you are writing about the irony of saying you are taking a break from technology then using technology to blog. What's your point? The point I am trying to say, and wonder, is Is there really such thing is a break from technology, aside from going Amish? Have we really become so attached to our high-tech devices as a society that we cannot let go, kick back and enjoy the beauty around us?

I think there is a happy medium, though. Sometimes we can get so caught up in trying to do day to day activities, such as work and home, and trying to keep up with our social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc) that we fail to take time out for some things that need to be done. And then we put those tasks off, procrastinating to the point where the tasks become to daunting that we feel overwhelmed.

Last night as I was waiting, rather impatiently to try to get into Google Plus, I pulled up some student podcasts from this past year that I have been needing to post to the website. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was redoing my teacher page that is attached to my school's website. The teacher site had been needing to be updated since the beginning of last year, and now it is time to update it once again for the coming year. Now, I know some would have said to just ditch the student work and forget adding it to the website, try for next year. But it was important for me to showcase them on our website for the students and the parents. This was something that needed to be done while school was still in session, I realize, but at least now they are up there. And I can find some comfort, or relaxation in the knowledge that I followed through with what I told my students.

After spending the night working on several pages for my teacher site and seeing that all shiny-new on the website today, I'm thinking maybe its time to stop procrastinating on other issues, and get to it! (We won't even talk about organizing my desk at home in this blog post! :) (Sorry, babe...) If you are a regular reader of this blog, and have been kind enough not to comment on the state of the rest of the website, I dearly appreciate it. However, it has been sadly neglected and desperately needs a make-over. Time to stop tossing around all those ideas in my head for what I want to change and put it to action! This is what I mean by taking time out for updates. Time to stop paying attention to what's happening on Twitter or Facebook - all those posts will be there for me to catch up on when I come back, the school's website is pretty well updated and everyone's happy (that I know of) with that. So, now its time to turn my attention to something that I'm actually paying hosting on, but am too embarrassed to show of in my ed tech circles. No more excuses, no more apologizing, just going to knuckle down over the next week or so and get it done. :)

What is it that you are needing to work on? Do you have a pile on your desk, or a folder in your computer that you have been collecting stuff, but never putting to use? How about taking a technology timeout for updates? At least a time out from the social media scene...

Can computers replace teachers?

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:17:00 +0000

Today's blog question comes from a topic I read about in LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Technology-Integration-in-Education-108447) - can computers replace teachers?

This is an interesting question, and something to think about as our technology becomes more and more advanced. Yesterday I was twittering as I sitting in my living room watching tv with my boyfriend. And as we were sitting there, him on the iPad, and me on the iPod, half watching an older movie/quoting lines from the movie together, and half sliding our fingers across the Twitter screens on our perspective iOS devices, we began to Tweet back and forth to each other. Mind you, we were only about 2-3 feet away from each other and could reach out and grab each other's hands if we wanted to. But there we were communicating to each other through Twitter.

This brought to mind another scene I've seen quite often in my own children, and at times, with my students, and that is texting to each other while standing next to each other. (Is texting the new talking?)

I bring these two scenarios up to show just how reliant we have become as a society on our digital devices. And, I'm sure Hollywood would like for us to believe that there is some possibility for computers to replace our teachers. After all, they've had a holographic program replace a doctor, a robot replace a boy, and an artificial intelligent man become a beloved member of a household, even to the point of becoming the great-granddaughter's husband.

This question also reminds me of a short story I wrote in one of my college English classes some years back about a day when technology failed in an elementary school and everyone had to revert back to battery powered lanterns to light the class, and books (actual hard covered paper books) to teach the class. This sounded very futuristic at the time that it was written, but with so many school districts moving forward in the next five years replacing textbooks with digital copies on tablets, some of those thoughts are not so far-fetched as they once were.

My thinking is that while we may be moving more towards a digital horizon where tablets replace textbooks, and biometrics built into OLED desktops take the place of old fashioned attendance records, students still need teachers. While it may seem like teachers are being replaced by computers with so many online classes are being offered, and students are able to work at their own pace rather than sitting in a physical classroom listening to a lecture by a flesh-and-blood instructor, teachers (certified teachers, at that) are still the ones responsible for planning the syllabus and course work offered in the online courses, and still may be providing the lectures, even if they are recorded.

Today's high schoolers, and some middle school students have the opportunity for acceleration (or remediation) through virtual schools, but the course work, curriculum road maps, tests, assessments, and even data collection, are still done, planned, and evaluated by certified teachers.

As a twenty-first century teacher, it is our duty to integrate technology into the classroom; however the integrated technology is by no means a replacement for our teaching, merely a tool or means of presentation. It is still our duty to evaluate and monitor student progress, measure the lessons according to benchmark standards, and differentiate instruction as we see fit to meet the needs of our students. Teachers make decisions everyday that affect their future lesson plans based on many aspects of his or her students' responses to an activity, some of which is read through body language, and the teacher's understanding of the student.

Sure computers are capable of evaluating and making decisions based on responses, but not to the level of complexity and humanity that a real, live, breathing teacher is capable of. A computer's decisions are based on a series of if-then clauses, zeroes and ones; opened and closed. No computer can evaluate the depth and richness of a student's artwork, or appreciate the complexity of creative dance move. If it could, my bet is that a teacher wrote the algorithm.

What's your take on this? Is it possible for computers to replace teachers? If yes, to what extent?

Default Printer Settings in iWork Pages

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Sat, 14 May 2011 13:48:00 +0000

This week I discovered something peculiar at school while using iWork Pages. Pages has its own default printer settings, and it doesn't necessarily go by what your computer has set for default printer. In a networked environment, like a school, or even a home with more than one printer, this can get a bit annoying. I thought it was just my computer being wacky, not that my macbook pro would ever behave in such a manner, until someone else noticed this and emailed me about it. So, as I often do when I don't know the answer to a troubleshooting problem on the computers, I "googled" it. (Isn't it funny words become added to our vernacular? I mean 20 years ago, if you used that as a verb, people would say - you did what?!) This is what I found:

Pages defaults its print settings to the first printer in your printer list. As I said, this could get a bit bothersome if you are in a networked environment, like a school setting, where every classroom has a network printer. You could end up printing to the other end of the school without even realizing it if you are quick to hit the print button.

Fortunately, there is a way to fix this. Create a new document in Pages. You don't even have to type anything in it really. Hit print, then browse your printer list to find the printer you would like Pages to default to. Print your new document to your preferred printer, then save your document. From this point forward, any new document you create in Pages will default to this printer when printed. (If you change the printer, though, to say, like, a color printer, and, then save the document after it is printed to the newly changed printer, the new printer will then be your default printer.)

However, this default printer setting does not apply to any documents that were previously created and saved. These will all have to be changed as you open and print them the first time through. If you save them again after you change the printer to your preferred printer, they will then be saved with the default printer setting being saved to your preferred printer.

Digital Scrapbooking with iWork Pages

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:38:00 +0000

While browsing through the children's book section of Border's books this weekend trying to decide how to spend my remaining gift cards before it was too late, I came across a book that was both intriguing and inspiring all in one. I was at first drawn to Melissa Sweets' illustrations resembling carefully constructed collages of various type styles cut from old newspapers, colored-pencil drawings, patterned wallpaper pieces, and leather bound journal pages. However, as I began to glance through the pages, poems and words and rhythms rushed off the pages and filled my mind with lesson plan ideas for a poetry unit with my intermediate students. Not knowing anything about William Carlos Williams (Yes, I admit it! I have never heard of his works until now.), but seeing magic the title "A River of Words", I decided the book was a worthy investment. And now I am so glad I bought the book! For those not familiar with William Carlos Williams poetry, or Jen Bryant's work, I highly recommend the book, "A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams" by Jen Bryant. His story is an inspiration and a true testament of the American spirit.

But, I didn't write this blog today to tell you his story. I'm writing to share a technical discovery that was inspired by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet's book. This is something I have been wondering about the possibility of doing for some time. But finding this book and seeing Melissa Sweet's creative illustrations inspired me to actually sit down and play with Pages in iWork to see if digital scrapbooking could be done.

As a long time fan of AppleWorks, I was skeptical when Apple first introduced Pages and Keynote some years ago (nearly 6). I tried Keynote with a trial version I picked up at FETC and liked it immediately, but it took me some time to really see the potential in Pages. I really liked the ease of designing in the drawing side of AppleWorks and liked having Apple's clipart at my fingertips, a feature missing in Pages. In fact, it wasn't until I began seriously writing college papers and needing a Mac replacement for Word that I began using Pages. (I've since fallen in love with the application in spite of the obvious lack of a vector clipart catalog. What it lacks in clipart, it makes up for in style and features, such as its masking ability with images.

The introductory image to this blog write up shows a small sampling of a digital scrapbook page I created in Pages today borrowing a poem I found on the Internet by Brishti Bandyopadhyay. I have to admit, though, that it helps to have a tidy stash of scrapbooking backgrounds, elements (clip art), trimmings and what-nots before beginning a project such as this. Kind of like scrapbooking with a paper album - you would want to make sure you are well stocked with a wide variety of materials just for that purpose before beginning, and that all of your tools (such as scissors, glue sticks, archive safe markers and tape) are close at hand. It also helps to be familiar with your tools, or in this case, Pages inspector palettes and tool menus.

One of the attractive features about most scrapbook pages is the layers - the depths of colors and patterns. Most of the fancier ones combine several different patterned papers within the same color palette or theme, rather than pictures neatly stuck on plain white pages with black corner brackets as in the photo albums of old. So get used to working in layers, if you are not already.

To start with, decide on your background layer. What kind of pattern, print, texture, and color do you want to base your page on? While there is no particular command to insert or modify the background, your background image can be inserted as a regular image and stretched to encompass the entire size of your page and then some. Don't worry about it going off the page as it will all be "cut off" when it prints out. By this, I mean, do not worry if you have to stretch it to the point where the edge of your image goes off the visible area of your page. I started with a blank page/blank canvas in the Page Layout part of the Chooser. Then went to Insert>Choose and searched my files for the selected background image. As I said above, once the background image was inserted, I had to stretch it and pull it until the whole sheet of paper was covered.

Next, I selected a lighter, more neutral color paper background to layer on top of the background. I set it so it was smaller than the background layer so that the background layer would show around the edges of the lighter shade paper on top of it. When Pages inserts one of your images, it locks the aspect ratio and keeps the proportions when you stretch and resize it. You may need to apply a mask to this new layer so that it looks like this paper is slightly smaller proportionately to the background layer. (Format>Mask). If you click on the image, you will see handles around the corners of the image allowing you to resize of edit the image. If you click at the bottom of the image, you can resize the mask, if you like. If you hold down the Command key and mouse over the corner of the image you will notice the arrow cursor turns from straight to curved. If you click the mouse button as you are holding down the Command key and moving the corner of the image one way or the other, you will be able to rotate the image. You can do this as many times as you like adding multiple images and layering them one on top of another. If you go up to Arrange you can move the layers forwards or backwards as you like.

The Inspector palette provides some added options to customize your scrapbook page, under the Graphic Inspector (looks like a green square with a blue circle stacked on top and to the right of the square). If you select Picture Frame under the Stroke section, you can add a torn paper edge or embossed edge to your "paper layer". You can also adjust the Shadow and Opacity of the layer in the Graphic Inspector tab.

Textboxes may also be added an layered like the background images. Select the Font palette to change the font style, color, and size. You can also color the background of the textbox adding even more depth to your scrapbook page. Then head back to the Graphic Inspector tab to stylize the textbox as you would an inserted graphic.

If you have a nice collection of transparent .png clipart images, those can also be added to your scrapbook page much in the way of decorating your paper scrapbook page using stickers, decals, and appliques.

Once you are done, print it out, or save it as a .pdf which can then be brought into a graphic editor such as Adobe Photoshop. The .pdfs can be attached to email documents for convenient sending to relatives and friends, say, like as a Christmas newsletter, or to mark a special occasion you want to share/show off. What are some of your creative ideas for this application of Pages?

Site review - adobetutorialz.com

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:28:00 +0000

I've recently discovered a new site, or new to me site, I should say judging from the whois registration information. (Why I am I just finding this site 5 years later?) I originally found the site as a great photoshop wallpaper tutorial site; that is, a great reference site for creating wallpapers using Adobe Photoshop. However, after a pretty thorough search of the website I see it as pretty much a one-stop shopping site of tutorials for any adobe product, including any of the acquired Macromedia design products such as those included in the Studio MX and MX2004 suites.

Judging by some of the comments in some of the tutorials I read, I would say it is most likely not a site for a newb, but it may be a site for a novice, especially if you are already somewhat acquainted with any of Adobe's design products. In the photoshop and flash tutorials (as in most of the tutorials in the site) there are pictures/screen captures that walk you through each step of the processes; however it will definitely be of help and a great time saver if you are well familiar with the tool palettes in the particular program/application that you are doing the tutorial on. I'm also a firm believer in twice reading a tutorial. One time through without the program being open reading through what you are going to be doing. This gives you somewhat of an idea of how tricky the techniques are going to be and allows you to plan idea and gather any extra materials or plugins that you will need. And then read it through a second time with the program/application being open following along with it, once you have determined you are able to follow along and have gathered the appropriate materials you will need.

At a first glance, the site is a confusing mess of ads, articles, tutorials, and banners. I recommend either typing in a keyword of a tutorial you would like to search for, or scrolling down to the very bottom of the page to find their navigation. There you will find a categorized menu of links breaking the site down into: Acrobat Family, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Technologies (which includes PDFs, JDFs, Metadata, Xara, PostScript, and printer drivers), Creative Suite Family, Design Software (which include Swish, CoffeeCup, Xara Xtreme, and font maker reviews), Digital Imaging, Digital Photography Software (reviews and firmware updates), Freebies, Macromedia Products, Photoshop Plugins (only one review in there at the moment - Alien Skin's Exposure), Print and Web Publishing, and Video & Audio (including some pointers in Premiere Pro). You can also subscribe via RSS, email updates, or follow them on Twitter.

When you are using the tutorials, you will definitely have to turn a blind eye to the advertisements or they will drive you bonky. Although I do have to admit I have not found any of the annoying and seizure-inducing blinky banners like on some sites. But, you will definitely have to know what to click on, what to read, and what is just purely advertisement, or you may end up getting very lost. I suppose this is what you will have to tolerate though for a reference site that is free without having any logins and hosted by Host Gator.

I have been using Photoshop since version 5.0.5 came out over 12 years ago, and although I am confident in my skills in photoshop, I would consider myself an amateur hobbyist at best in the program. I have three different versions ranging from CS to CS5 on my various computers, but I'm always happy to learn more about one of my favorite programs. I've been a fan of such photoshop sites as: Planet Photoshop, and Photoshop Cafe. And now I am definitely adding this site, Adobe Tutorials (with a Z!) to my list of Adobe reference sites.

Incidentally, the search that led me to this site initially, was "romantic valentine backgrounds" in a Google image search. I not only found a romantic Valentine background, I also found out how to make it and created my own. :)

I had this on my desktop at home on Valentine's Day while I was at school. My boyfriend loved it! He loved it even more when he learned that I made it.

Here is another one I did using a combination of a couple of tutorials I found in that site:

I must admit I have yet to find the fireworks brush set that I was shown in one of the tutorials, but I did find others, and I like the way mine turned out. In case you are looking, I could not find a tutorial for a wallpaper about Presidents' Day, but I did a search for "patriotic" and found a grunging background I liked, then did a search for "fireworks" and found another tutorial that worked for me.

What are your thoughts on adobetutorialz.com? Have you used this site before? Do you subscribe to the site? What way do you use this site?

The Five Senses of Winter

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:07:00 +0000

I went to lie down the other night after being up most of the night working on lesson plans and other projects I had been wanting to do on the computer, but never finding the time, and found that even though I was beyond exhausted-tired, my over-active creative brain would not let me sleep. Never mind the big log-sawing bear beside me, also making it difficult for sleep to overcome me. (The realization that I had to get up for school in a little more than an hour didn't help matters any, either.)

As I laid there listening to the vicious snoring behind me, my mind began to wander through crafting land with visions of words, clip art, and torn pages mingled and danced around my head. Words connected by a centralized theme twirled around every which way in an iridescent array of colors falling and stacking much like the blocks in Tetris. If I wasn't so exhausted I would have gotten up and gone right back on the computer to work on the ideas that tumbled around in my brain. The more I thought of them, the more I liked them. And then the more I felt I wouldn't be able to use the ideas with my students who were learning about the five senses and winter. And, the more I tossed and turned mulling over the idea.

The next night the idea was still at work in me, so I sat down at the computer to flesh it out and bring it to life.

Last month a colleague and I were fortunate enough to attend an all day Discovery Education workshop where she, my colleague, learned about some nifty word play sites. One of the sites was a site called "Wordle" that turned lists of words into a work of art.

I began to think about a lesson I had been planning for the Kindergartners where we would experience more of each of the seasons by relating the seasons to their senses. (What does winter smell like? What things do you see in the winter? And so on.) And I thought about "Wordle." Then I thought about them creating a journal, and the journal ended up looking something more like a scrapbook.

For those unfamiliar with "Wordle", the site is a "word cloud" generator. It allows you to type or paste in text which it then takes, jumbles up, and presents them in an array of directions and colors. You can also customize the color palette and the font of the words. You also can change the layout of the text and the background color. The word clouds end up looking something like this:

Then I started thinking about the students tearing the edges and decorating around it with pictures that relate to their words, and wondering what other technical elements I could have them add, or how else I could have them utilize the computer as a tool for their project. Before I knew it, I was in photoshop turning my "Wordle" into a digital scrapbook page.

Now, I'm thinking of trying to work it into an older grade level lesson...

Opening links in new windows

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 14:19:00 +0000

While searching through sites this weekend for ideas for my classroom, I'm finding it to be more than just a minor irritation how sites have links referring to another site but do NOT have the link open in a new window. Why open in a new window? you ask. Or this just adds another window to my task bar, you say.

I often find when I am surfing the web through a series of clicking on links from one site to another that I end up in the middle of nowhereville and can't find my way home. Sure the back button works just fine, but where was I? I feel I've lost my original train of thought when I click the back button trying to find the site I was headed for in the first place. I find myself more and more right clicking and choosing "Open link in new window", (or "Open link in new tab" to keep things on the same string, but then I forget and close my window. :)

Many of the articles I've read about this have been written 5 to 10 years ago arguing that it adds more clutter to the taskbar, or that it unnecessarily breaks the back button history. This is 2010, and bowsers and operating systems have advanced since then. Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X all have the nice feature of stacking or grouping your pages from your web browser on the taskbar or dock. No more cluttered taskbars!

Some novice web surfers feel that it is confusing to have windows open in a new window. (Some novice web surfers need to be taught the art of layers. :) I teach my students when they come to the tech lab how to use the Window menu at the top of their browser so they are not confused when the window they were working on suddenly goes behind their login window on a site. (That is one time I feel that a new window doesn't need to open, but that's for another blog!)

I feel it is a courtesy to visitors to have it open in a new browser window, rather than forcing them to stay on my page. Most web page building applications have a menu that easily allows you to set the link to open in a new window, or to set the target to "new" or "blank". This extra step takes but just a minute to set, but is very helpful to visitors on your site.

What's your opinion - new window or back button? I would be interested in seeing your comments.

Are your pages search friendly?

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:26:00 +0000

A few days ago a colleague and I were having a discussion about web systems and teacher pages along with a certain nameless Content Management System (CMS) when she mentioned that it was just as easy to create a page in Publisher or Word. I chose to remain quiet about the whole thing and just let it slide deciding to put that debate for another time or another conversation. Now, I've known for some time that Publisher or Word, both being desktop print publishing software was not the best choice for web design. But having spent the better part of the summer redoing websites that have been done with one of these two programs, I can truly say that I now know exactly why they are not the best choice to use for web design.

Here in the Tona-Roberts household, we use Dreamweaver for our web pages, and while some may argue that may not be the best for web design, either, we have learned to keep it on a short leash. Most of our time in Dreamweaver is spent in code view, anyway. One of the things I like about Dreamweaver is its ability to help remind you of tags or finish filling them in for you, if you forget them. Another feature I like about Dreamweaver is its time saving ability to clean up code, rather than rewriting it from scratch, which some may argue might be the best thing to do, and best done in notepad. Dreamweaver has some different options for cleaning up bad html or code, such as one command that can clean up Word html. I've spent a lot of time using this command this week while stripping code for my resident webdev guru.

One of the things about Word or Publisher that makes it such a poor choice is the fact that its code is horrible redundant when it is not necessary. Word has this incredible knack for taking 20-30 lines of code and stretching it to 200+ lines of code which ends up stuff the file size more than it needs to be. For one thing, Word, or Publisher likes to put everything in tables when it doesn't need to be. Tables are for eating off of, or at the most, organizing your data on a spread sheet, not for layout and design. They only add to your file size. For example, I've taken pages that were 106kb and stripped the code down while maintaining the same look of the page so that the end result is about 25kb, or about a quarter of the file size.

But we are talking kilobytes, here. Where's the harm in that? Well, I'll tell you. Every time you go to a website, you are actually bringing the website to you. Your computer or your browser is downloading everything that is on that page into your computer's temp files. Heavier file sizes means slower load times. And for someone on an older computer with an older browser, more kilobytes could mean several minutes worth of page load times. Think dial up internet slow... This could make the difference in whether they decide to keep browsing through your site or not, or if they would revisit your site again.

Another unfriendly MS habit found in these programs, and the main reason for the title of this blog, is their file naming system. When you create and save a file, you want to name it something that means something so it is easily remembered. However, a file name like index_Page_2721.html tells neither you the creator of the page or your visitor anything about what that page is about. When you go back to edit or update your site, how are you to know which page you need to edit while looking down a long list of files all beginning with "index_Page" and a series of numbers. And if you can't tell your pages apart, how is a visitor or a search engine spider supposed to be able to tell what is on your page from the name? (I apologize to some who may be reading this blog. This blog is in no way meant to single any one particular person out, but meant as a help to all. We are all learning, and as you can tell from the rest of my blog posts, I've made my share of mistakes and have learned from them. I write so that all who read them may benefit from what I have learned.)

Pictures are another item on pages that often take away from the user-friendliness of your pages or site. I've seen sites where the whole thing, each page, was a big image, or made up of a lot of little images pieced together to make a large image. Placing text in an image without having it repeated in the text on your page may not be the best for repeated business, especially when it is contact information like your name, address, and phone number. Some text included in an image such as a logo or in a banner is alright; however your entire page content should not be in an image. While they do have some search engine spiders that are capable of searching images for text now, there use and availability is still few and far between. Also, think accessibility - what if someone was using a screen reader, or a computer that did not have the ability to view images. They would then be unable to get any information from your image such as your contact information unless you had it in text somewhere else on your page. Using the alt tag is a way of adding important information about your image on your webpage in a way that can be viewed by everyone. A what tag, you ask? An alt tag, or really the alt attribute of the image tag. Now, I'm not expecting everyone who reads this to be able to understand or fluently read code enough to add this attribute into your page code, most software or applications designed for web development such as Dreamweaver or InDesign provide a place for you to enter alternate text in for an image that would appear if for some reason the image did not appear. Even my email client requests that I enter alternative text for an image when I go to insert an image in my email. This is why it asks for alternative text. Desktop publishing software such as Word and Publisher do not have a place for you to enter alternative image text. And, if you use MS clip art that is available with the software, the image file names will not give any information about what the image is if the image is missing. Their image names are a series of numbers and letters that doesn't make sense to the image, only their file system in their database. This brings me to my next thought.

Just as in naming your page file names something that make sense to you and your visitors, it is equally important to name your images something that make sense. To, again, borrow MS file naming system, for example, index_image5439.jpg does not give you or your visitors a clue what the picture is. Fortunately, we are able, most of the time, to preview the images in our explorer windows before we open an image so we know which image we are looking for and do not always have to rely on the file name. However, a person using a screen reader can not make heads or tails of what index_image5439.jpg could be. Neither can they tell what a picture is about if left with the standard digital camera names like DSC231.jpg. So, again, I say, give your images a proper sensible file name or rename your images from your digital camera before putting them in your web pages, and remember proper file naming conventions. Some people are still on older computers that have problems with spaces and funny characters other than dashes and underscores in the file names, or incredibly long file names. If you keep it limited to 30 characters or less, you will be keeping your file names within acceptable limits for everyone, even those on older systems. And, really, 30 characters is more than plenty to give your image a sensible name. If you need to add more information, use the alt attribute. I mean, would you name your kid something with longer than 30 characters? If you did, I bet you would shorten it to a nickname when you had to call their name or write it all the time.

Hyperlinks are yet another place on webpages where more information is sometimes needed. Have your link text make sense. Don't always just go with the URL of the link. Those may not alway be user friendly. Instead of placing the long address in your link text for all to see, why not give information about what they can expect to see on the page, such as Children's Books on Dinosaurs. Some of the URL include long database query strings that may take up several lines of text. This information is only useful to your browser window to locate that page, but not friendly enough for us humans that run on more than ones and zeroes to remember. If you need to add more information, use what is called a "title tag" or more correctly a title attribute. Again, for those that are not fluent in code, most user interfaces provide space for title text of a link in the application.

A word about some CMS applications such as the one used by my school district, there is a place you can enter alt and title attributes in there but they are not always called "alt" and "title". It may have another text box for you to fill in such as "screen tip". This is where you would add extra information about an image or a link. Desktop publishing software such as Word and Publisher do not provide a space for alt and title attributes, and yet another complaint against them for web design. Where on the page does the alt or title attribute show up? When you hover over an image with alternative text information or a link or button with title text, it shows up in a little block under your cursor. This is how that information gets on the page. This also gives the search engine spiders more keyword friendly information about your page and helps you in the rankings - but that is for a different blog...

One last word about making your pages search friendly for any educators to think about is this - Did you know we are required by law to make our webpages accessible to those with disabilities? Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires any electronic information produced by government agencies or those receiving funding from government agencies to be accessible to those with disabilities. This means, if the person needed to use a screen reader to see our pages, they would not see any images and would need to have the information as alternative text. Not that I'm trying to be "big brother" or anything. Just something to chew on while you are updating and changing your sites for the coming school year...

If you would like more information on the searchability of images, try Spider Market SEO's image search tips. For more information about 508 compliance for web sites, The US Government has a whole site dedicated to Section 508 Compliance.

Video tutorial site

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:11:00 +0000

Always on the look out for a good reference site to add to my favorites I found a new video site this week while searching Fireworks help. While Fireworks is no stranger to me, using Fireworks to help with the development of some features for the use on the web such as graphical animation is something I am somewhat of a novice at. While looking for help in this matter, I followed the advice I usually dish out in chat, I "Googled" the information I was looking for, and was not disappointed! In the process, I found a new favorite site: Best Tech Videos.

The site is a free site with thousands of technical tutorial videos on any subject within the realm of computer science. You don't even have to register to search and view videos, and from what I could tell, there isn't a limit to the number of videos you could view at any one time. Those that know me know I have been preaching about the benefits of Atomic Learning since our school board had licenses for all of us. When our licenses ran out, I paid for an additional year, I loved the site so much. However, Best Tech Videos takes the cake for computer related videos. Anyone can register on the site and view the videos; although, again, it is not necessary to register. After I found a very helpful, fully detailed video on Fireworks, I did a search of some other topics that I thought would generally come up in search terms and found tons of videos on Windows XP, Win 7, Mac OS X, and photoshop. The site is a D-I-Y designer's dream!

If you do register, again, totally free, you can log in and set up a customizable profile selecting topics and search tags that interest you. It then searches for the latest videos on your selected topics. Need help with Dreamweaver, Fireworks, or Photoshop? No problem - the videos are there! You can watch the video all at once, or pause it as you follow the steps in the program on your own computer. I watched the video all the through once, then watched it again as I followed along in Fireworks. There is also a forum, blog, and RSS feeder available. Looking for code? They have videos full of whatever kind of code you need. PHP, Ajax, javascript, jQuery, C+, asp.net - its all there!

I've found other video tutorial sites before but have always found them limited in the amount of videos you were allowed to watch at any one time, for free, or limited to specific programs or applications. Best Tech Videos has everything. Check it out!

Wall decorations - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:11:00 +0000

The students are all back to school, now, and the school year is officially in full swing. Things here have started getting back to their usual fast pace and hectic schedule. I had a request to work on some horses for another teacher's room, and finished them just in time for the students to return to school on Monday. Actually, I finished them on Thursday as I was running out the door trying to get my middle schooler, and my high schooler off to their own schools for Open Houses (both, at the same time).

The technique I described in my last blog was easy enough to follow that my friend ended up tracing some of the spots on the palomino I was making for her, and helping to finish the horse. I think after watching me trace two horses out for her this year from clip art I found in Appleworks, she will be able to work on her own bulletin board and wall decorations next year.

I managed to snap a few photos of the cows and pigs I wrote about in my last blog. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and the hallway lights had already been dimmed for the day. But, I think these will show enough detail to get the idea across.

The cows are about 4 to 5 feet in length and take up the majority of the wall in the hallway. Their hooves are starting to curl up from where I colored them black with a marker, instead of using black construction paper or bulletin board paper. This was a lesson learned. When I made the horses, I used scrap pieces of black butcher paper, tracing, cutting, and gluing in place.

The cows and the pigs are separated by a fire door but are on the same wall in the hallway outside the room. One of the aides in the room collects pigs, porcelain pigs, that is, so the idea of the pigs was for her. I found a clip art online of a cute cowboy riding the pig, which lends itself to the Wild West theme we have for our school this year.

Another hint I learned in the process of doing them was to disable to screen saver and sleep mode on the laptops. It can be quite frustrating as the screen suddenly goes black and then have the screen saver dance around on the board as you are trying to trace your animal.

I hope this helps to inspire some that feel they cannot draw or lack creativity. I did both of these wall decorations in a couple of afternoons. The horses were a little smaller and took me just a couple of hours. This also has other applications that can be useful in the classroom with the students, such as character studies in Language arts, and tracing maps of states and countries for social studies. The only limit to creativity with this is your resourcefulness in doing searches for clip art, drawings, and photographs.

New take on an old trick

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:26:00 +0000

I was helping a friend decorate her classroom today, or rather, the wall in the hallway outside her classroom, when I was shown a new trick (Thanks, Adriane!). Actually, its not really a new trick, but more of a new take on an old trick. For years teachers have been creating wonderful decorations for their wall or bulletin board by projecting an image on the wall and tracing it. The old way that I remember of doing this, and have used for years, has been to sort through books or coloring books for a picture you like and use an opaque projector, or an overhead projector. If using an overhead projector, you had to make a transparency of the picture you wanted to use. This took some time, not only in the actual creation of the decoration, but also in the prep work. Time was spent rifling through books and copying the image first onto a piece of acetate.

I was sort of expecting my friend to show me a file that had some cute images already copied onto transparency film, or books to use, when she instead opened up her Internet browser and Googled for cow clip art. I thought of printing the image out and using the ELMO (or other document camera), but she told me that wasn't necessary. All we needed to do was to hook the computer (ibook) up to the projector and voila! No printer was necessary! (Why waste more paper, right?)

After doing a "web search" on Google, we then decided to look through AppleWorks clip art instead and found just the cow we were looking for. She was using her laptop at the time, so I opened up AppleWorks on another ibook and found the same image. We made the image to fit a full standard size sheet of paper, hooked up the projector and I was in business. I also did another Google search, this time using the "image search" and found a perfect mate for the other cow. I had a blank page open in AppleWorks in the window right behind my browser window, so I just dragged the image onto my AW document and I was set to create the other cow.

For those that have never done this before, I taped a piece of brown bulletin board paper to the whiteboard which I was using as my drawing surface. It's hard and extremely smooth so it makes for a good tracing surface rather than a bumpy painted wall. I used brown because it was my base color. Once I had the outline of the cow, or bull, traced with a black marker (I chose to use a regular Crayola marker rather than a Sharpie so it didn't bleed through the thin paper and mark up her white board), I taped, or in some cases, held up pieces of other colors for the spots, nose, horns, and eyes and traced the details. Afterwards, I cut out those pieces and glued them in place while I still had the projected image up. (Glue sticks are such a marvelous invention! No mess or wrinkles in the paper. Now if only we can come up with an easier method for cutting these large figures out!)

Tomorrow I'm making pigs for her using the same method, and adding more grass around the cows that I hung in the hallway. I'll have to take some pictures of the completed scene and post them in here.

Resizing images for the web

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:58:00 +0000

Friends often ask me about resizing their images for the web. What size is a good size for the web? Or how can they go about resizing their images for the web?

First, let's start with some recommended image sizes for the web. For normal graphics on the web, not including a header or banner, I would not go above 400 pixels wide. This is a good medium-sized image for displaying group shots, class pictures (pictures from field trips, class projects, etc.). It is enough to see what is going on in the picture, but not large enough to be obtrusive, or take up most of the web page.

If you are on a Mac, and do not have access to Photoshop, you can resize your images using the Export settings (File>Export) in iPhoto. Set the image quality to medium, and then use the drop down menu under Size to go to Custom, and set your maximum width to 400px (or less). If you do not have iPhoto (part of iLife), you can use GIMP, which is a free download (open source) to resize, as well as touch up your images. Apple's website also has quite a few image editors that will also do the trick for you. Look under the Image & 3D section under Apple Downloads. Be sure to read the description of the one you want to download. Some of the apps available for download are Demo versions (or trial versions, meaning they will work for a limited amount of days, or limited in processes or allowed amount of edits). Some of the apps are shareware, which could mean there is a minimal price for the app, or it is a trial version of the app. If it is an app you want to use on a regular basis, and do not have the funds to pay for an app (as teachers we often spend more on items for the classroom, then we take home or to the bank), look for an app that says freeware.

GIMP is also available for Windows, if you are using Windows, and do not have access to Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or the likes.

Another thing to consider when sizing your images for the web, is the amount of images you have on a page. If you are doing a photo gallery type page, consider using thumbnail images to a larger image. Your visitors using older browsers, or older computers will appreciate not having to wait for long periods of time while your page loads a bunch of larger images. Size your thumbnails to 200px, or less.

iPhoto can create web pages for you with thumbnails that link to larger images. The larger images are shown one image per page. You can set your maximum widths for both the thumbnails and the larger images under the Export settings. (iPhoto will place the images and the thumbnails in separate folders for you, if you would like to use these images in other ways rather than on an image gallery.)

If you take an image from a digital camera, most cameras are set to either 96 dpi (Dots Per Inch), or 72 dpi, depending on your camera settings. (Raw image settings are considerably higher, set at 240 dpi or higher, designed for print.) 72 dpi is the recommended setting for images on the web. In iPhoto, you can only change the file type (.jpg, .png, or .tiff), and the image quality (low, medium, large, maximum). Changing the image quality in iPhoto does NOT change the resolution (dpi size) of an image. It only changes the file size through compression. You can also change the file type to .png (Portable Net Graphic) which will change the file size without too much of a loss to your image quality.

You can change the resolution in Photoshop, or Gimp, under the Image>Image size menu. (Check the box to "Constrain proportion", and remember to reset the image pixel size to your desired size for the web, if you change the resolution after resizing your image.) Changing the resolution of your image WILL resize your image! so be sure to check your image size, again.

Another setting that will help in Photoshop, or Gimp, is to "save image for web" (under the File menu) rather than the standard "Save As" option. If you click on the "4-up" tab in the "Save for web" window, you can see the original image and three other options, for comparison of file size and quality. You can also manually change the image quality by typing the percentage in the box on the right (or moving the slider up or down). (I normally save my images at a compression rate of 60 percent for .jpgs under the "Save for web" file setting.)

Again, if you do not have Photoshop, or Gimp, try one of the "staff picks" under the Images & 3D section in Apple Downloads. Graphic Converter, or XnViewMP, will also allow you to change your image resolution very nicely. Remember, 300 dpi is for print, but 72 dpi is for the web.

Customizing Blog background and images

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Whoohooo, I think I finally have this figured out after many attempts, and editing each and every page every time I posted something to the blog. I KNEW there had to be an easier way to do all this! (Not to mention, while it was easy enough to edit four to six pages, for now, in the future, there will not just be four to six pages to edit...) This is a case, where it is handy to be fluent and literate enough in html, css, and php coding. (See, Steven? I HAVE paid attention to all your squablings...)

If you click on Dashboard, and then on Template, you can go into the code and edit the code, thus customizing your template to match the looks of your site.

Beware, Facebook users

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Facebook users out there should beware of perils lurking in the guise of Facebook apps. Trojans, viruses, spyware, and adware await unsuspecting FB bloggers. And while the quizzes on FB can be entertaining, do you know the person that created the quiz you are taking? Some of the quizzes ask for your permission to allow information to be added to your wall, or taken from your profile. Some users will be shocked to discover though, that some of these quizzes, and other apps, are distractions for trojans that sneak in and take over your computer. My sister was the victim of one such attack. Fortunately for her, her husband is a trained computer tech and was able to clean her infected laptop, saving her a bundle of money on computer repair. It took him the better part of the day to wipe her computer of the infecting virus and restore her defaults. I bet she is more careful of the quizzes she takes on Facebook now.

Today, I made the mistake of clicking on one of the advertisements on the right side of my FB home page thinking I was going to upload or give an online link to a picture of mine and have a characature or cartoonization of me digitally drawn. I should have known better when it asked me to download its applet. My second clue should have been when it did NOT ask me to upload any pictures, but instead I was asked to pick and customize my facial features from choices provided to me from a javascript applet online. If all I had to do was pick out features from a javascript applet online, then why did it need me to download an applet?! After posting the personalized cartoon tattoo to my wall, I logged out of Facebook, closed my browser and continued to do things on my computer. The next time I opened my browser, however, I was slightly irked to find this app that I had downloaded changed my home page without my knowledge nor consent. (My teatimer usually asks my permission to change my home page. This time, it did not!) Not only did it change my starting home page, it also added a custom search bar to my browser. Okay, this is a bit much, I thought... And set about trying to uninstall this app.

The directions page the link on the tool bar took me to, to unistall this app told me to looking in my computer's control panel and remove it through the add/remove programs feature. Interestingly enough, this toolbar did not show up under the list of programs. Nor, did it show up in the programs under my Start>Programs menu. I finally had to use my browser's Tools menu to remove the toolbar from my browser. (Tools>Add-ons>Extensions)

After going through all this, and resetting my home page, I logged back in to Facebook and removed the tattoo from my wall so that any of my friends would NOT stumble upon this same problem from me.

The name of this app that gave me so much trouble, you ask? It's called "Tattoodle", and my history says its a Facebook app. (apps.facebook.com)

So, the next time you feel like taking a Facebook quiz, or trying out a cute new app, ask yourself this, "Do I really know the person that created this quiz?", and "Do I really need this app, or could I do without it, and save my computer?"

Customizing Blog

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:30:00 +0000

This is Day 3 of my blog and I am still learning more as I go along. I hope there never comes a day when I don't learn something about living on the Internet. Today I redid my dns pointing, again, and decided that it was better to not have the blog pointed to my domain and just upload it myself. This came after I discovered I was no longer able to see my main site as it kept being redirected to google for the hosting. Oops! I guess I didn't follow those directions very well that I was reading yesterday.

So, for now, going to try to use my own ftp and upload it myself. I've discovered that I can also add more of my own customizations to the blog this way, like the background, and typewriter image, so its all good.

I'm also changing the name from Tona's Tidings and Tidbits. I think Tech Talk is more suiting since most of the jargin will be technically speaking, anyway. I have so many ideas in my head right at the moment for things I would like to post in this blog, but I figure I will save them for a rainy day. For now I want to concentrate the blogs on setting up this blog. Maybe next week I will get into some other postings.

Along with this blog, while I have the time, I think I will be redoing my main site, freshening up the content, changing the dates, and perhaps working on my ESOL pages. Also in the works is a photogallery index page that will connect all of my photogallery pages for ease of viewing. I'm hoping to be able to showcase some of my photographs on the site for family and friends. I prefer this method to posting them on Facebook. I know that some would think its all the same because this is the Internet where everyone has access to it all, so what is the difference whether the photos are housed on this site, or on Facebook - but to me I feel more secure about posting my children's photos on my website, where the traffic is considerable lower than on Facebook, which has tons of traffic everyday.

Stay tuned for more changes to come to Tona's Tidings this week, and for more blogs in Tech Talk each day.

Day 2 - DNS trials and tribulations

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:01:00 +0000

After a few go rounds with the DNS manager I finally and successfully was able to add this blog to tonastidings.org. Although, like most things, it does help if you read the manual, and ALL of the manual.

Oh, well, live and learn... But, yippee! It works! I love it when a plan comes together.

Now I just need to work on reskinning the blog to fit with the scheme of my website. This, too, will be a new adventure for me. I chose this theme in blogger because it is the closest in color schemes to go along with my old time newspaper/Einstein skin.

So, for now, the adventure continues...

Welcome to my blog!

noreply@blogger.com (SonicGeekette) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:11:00 +0000

Welcome! This is a new feature to my website that I am hoping will add to the site's functionality and usefulness to you, as educators. In the weeks and months to come I will be using this blog to share ideas, tips, hints, and tricks I have learned for integrating technology into the classroom. Perhaps some lesson plan ideas or activities, or maybe even a simple modification to a lesson plan.

I will admit, I am not much of a blogger, and have never done well with daily journals, but hope to be able to keep this blog up as the school year progresses.

Today I discovered another great feature on Apple's website. I knew it had been there all along, I just never realized all of the wonderful apps that were in store for teachers in their downloads section. In the math and science section, for instance, are many great freeware and shareware downloads that can be used in the classroom, like their RPN scientific calculator, or the stop watch that actually records all of your trial times. There are graphing apps that accept equations from text files, and algebraic equation apps that let you create interactive practice pages for your students. Apple.com's download pages are definitely worth the looksey: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/