jnthweb Consulting

SparkNotes Comes To Android, Makes Studying Literature A Little Bit Less Boring

Joan Vinall-Cox — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:16:37 +0000

http://www.scoop.it/t/the-history-and-future-of-reading/p/1554377933/sparknotes-comes-to-android-makes-studying-literature-a-little-bit-less-boring’ Back in 1999, a site called The Spark that aimed to help its users better understand literature hit the internet.

Rise in E-Book Readership Is Good News for Reading Over All, Report Says – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Joan Vinall-Cox — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:41:18 +0000

PEW research has found – “Readers of e-books like to read in all formats, they favor print books for sharing and to read to children, and on average they read more books over all than print-only readers do.” – http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/rise-in-e-book-readership-good-news-for-reading-over-all-report-says/35955′

Why reading feeds our brain

Joan Vinall-Cox — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:24:32 +0000

Fascinating information on how neuroscience sees our reading - http://printontheperiphery.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/why-reading-feeds-our-brain/

Go feds! E-books are way overpriced

Joan Vinall-Cox — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Now you can know why some e-books cost more than their paperback versions!

elearn Magazine: Moving From Paper to E-Book Reading

Joan Vinall-Cox — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:20:50 +0000

March 6, 2012

“Reading in the digital world has both similarities and differences from reading on paper. Books as tangible objects elicit powerful responses linked to the pleasures felt in reading them. Although our eyes scan differently when reading online, reading e-versions of books initially seems similar to reading on paper. However digital books have some significantly different aspects that will be especially powerful in academic work.”

Read the article:

http://elearnmagdev.acm.org/opinions.cfm?aid=2159560

gMail – Useful Features

Joan Vinall-Cox — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 17:17:01 +0000

gMail is my favorite mail application, as I have blogged about here previously:

There are other reasons in other posts, but here is an excellent succinct list of why and how gmail is useful:

http://www.thethinkingstick.com/5-gmail-tips-for-teachers

My Samsung Galaxy Tab

Joan Vinall-Cox — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:19:37 +0000

My Samsung Galaxy Tab Home Screen

Does it make me disloyal to my love for Apple? I love my MacBook Air, but I bought myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab. My friends say I’m betraying Mac, but here’s what I said to them:

Well I do feel a little disloyal, but I’ve always been deeply fond of Google, and the Tab has an Android OS which is Open Source and I try to be open-minded …

I love the size, about the same as a paperback so it fits easily into my purse. I’ve downloaded a Kindle app and I can read on it and an Audible app and I can listen to books. I’ve got Firefox on it, synced to my laptop’s Firefox, which is handy. I can email, txt, take photos, deal with my calendar, Facebook and Twitter, email photos or add them directly to Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Picasa and more, read the Bible, record sound, check the sound-level with a sound meter, and more. There’s lots I haven’t tried yet, like video, giving commands by speaking, etc. My friend got the same tablet so she could have lots to read when she travelled without carrying a lot of books. She has wifi only; I pay $20.00 a month (no contract) for 3G. In August my iPhone contract ends, and I plan to get a very cheap dumb phone, or bluetooth so I can use the Tab as a phone.

I do have a couple of quibbles – the ear-buds don’t work with Audible and I haven’t been able to figure out why, and it doesn’t have iTunes (duh!) and getting music on it is tricky but the ear buds work for the music apps!

And the price dropped substantially!

So I really like my new toy ;->

I wrote about it in another of my blogs – http://joanvinallcox.ca/galaxy-tab-starting/ and http://joanvinallcox.ca/galaxy-tab-quibble/ and I’m cross posting this there too.

Sending Audio Feedback: Audacity and gMail

Joan Vinall-Cox — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 04:14:42 +0000

Sometimes it quicker and/or more personal to send recorded audio messages. As a teacher, I’ve sent emails using audio apps on my iphone, but it takes a long time to send and it’s a bit tricky to add email addresses. Today I tried using the free, downloadable audio software, Audacity, and the free richly-featured web mail app, gmail. I’ve alread had a student email back that it was a “neat” way to get feedback. Here’s how it’s done.

Download Audacity (and LAME) – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Learn how to use it – http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial (There are lots of Audacity tutorials online – Google for them.)
Once you’ve set up Audacity and LAME, you can get away with knowing very little -
First, Save Project As before anything else

Second, Hit the red button and start talking. (You might want to have some notes or a script in front of you.)

Third, stop talking and hit either the Pause button, if you want to add more later, or the Stop button, if you’re finished.

Audacity Pause Edit

Fourth, Save the file somewhere easy to find again

Audacity Save Project

Fifth, Export As MP3
Sixth - go to your gmail account - set the address you want to send from (and gmail offers possible addresses that you can simply click on) and add the Subject (every time you start another email with the same subject, you will be prompted a few letters in) so it’s time-saving and easy

Sixth, attach the MP3 file (and write a message in the body or the email, if you wish)
And hit Send!

Once you have sent out a few dozen, you’ll have the hang of it, and you’ll discover that it (probably) takes less time than writing out the feedback and sending it.

Have fun!

Gmail Labs

Joan Vinall-Cox — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:28:30 +0000

I use most of the extensions in the video below. You might find them helpful too.

via @LuigiBenetton

Dropbox – A Wonderful Tool!

Joan Vinall-Cox — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:40:58 +0000

I use Dropbox everyday, many times everyday. When I presented on Social Media to the Toronto Branch of PWAC (Professional Writers Association of Canada) I had my PowerPoint on my laptop, on a usb stick, and in Dropbox, which I can access from any online computer, as it stores my files in the “cloud”. It’s not that I was worried, but when I present, I make sure I have what I need. Having my PowerPoint file in Dropbox was the ultimate assurance!

To learn more about Dropbox possibilities and why you might want to download the free version, check out these links:

It’s also handy for backing up important files.