Have a Picnic with Picnik

Previously I have mentioned Adobe's Photoshop Express and Google's Picasa for photo editing. One problem with Picasa is that you need to download the software to your computer and it seems to take over all you digital images. I found this frustrating since I also use Photoshop CS4 for editing and didn't want the Picasa logo on my images. Flickr, a Yahoo application, does not require any download (by the way, neither does Adobe's Photoshop Express) and does a nice job in photo editing. But recently I discovered an application I like better than these three and there is no download required and, like the others, it's a FREE registration. Yea!

 

This application for photo editing that I recently discovered, and really like, is 

Picnik (http://www.picnik.com/). This application will allow you to do the usual editing things like crop, rotate, resize, make color corrections and remove red-eye. But it will also let you do a lot more. For example you can add effects to your photos. Like adding vibrance, vignettes, mattes and making color changes. You can also turn your image into a pencil sketch, increase film grain and posterize them. You can add stickers, text and frames. All these are done with easy clicks of your mouse.

 

Above is an an image I edited with a few mouse clicks using Picnik. The results can be seen in the image below. As you can see, its been cropped, text added and it has been sharpened and posterized and had a frame added. Give it a try--after all it's free, what do you have to lose?

Abbreviating URL's

Did you know that you can abbreviate URL's? Well, not actually abbreviate them, but you can shorten them.

 

Have you ever run across a URL filled with percent signs and underscores and equal signs? Something that looks like this:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=0D1ceB_DfBIC&dq=krugman+wells&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=QB-DZ-Yp5z&sig=9i-ysw8CWcJl8UkRF3T-iTIpXQ4&hl=en&ei=sbOdSZPwNJzgM9e3xI0F&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result

 

This could be copied and pasted in a browser, but what if it had to be typed? Here's a solution that is (say it with me) FREE! Go to TinyURL.com and paste in this long URL and it will be converted to something much more manageable, in this case it would be: http://tinyurl.com/aaqu4s Either URL will take you to the same place but isn't http://tinyurl.com/aaqa4s a lot easier to use?

 

So join the movement to stamp out the use of &'s and %'s in URL's and make them tiny.

Old Technology--The Chalkboard

Did you know that there are "thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars" available on the Internet?

That's right, on Academic Earth there are educators from places like Stanford, Yale, Harvard and MIT that have placed full lectures online and, in some cases, full courses. Do you need to refresh your teaching topics? Want to assign a special lecture on Milton? Need help falling asleep?

 

The lectures are referenced by Subject, University, and Instructor. And each lecture is graded! That's right--grades are assigned. There is also a list of Top Rated Courses, Lectures, and Playlists.

 

Not only are they available, but they are FREE! We not only look for exciting and helpful applications to share with you, we try to find free things. There is a place to register, but even the registration is free.

 

So click on Academic Earth, or go to http://www.academicearth.org/, and see if Alan Binder can help you understand the "Origins of the Financial Mess," or if Gilbert Strang can help you with "Linear Algebra," or if Amy Hungerford can explain "The American Novel Since 1945."

Applications for Google Earth

Did you know that you can use Google Earth for more than looking at your home from a  satellite?

 

That's right, Google Earth can give you a lot of information. If, for example, you click the little "+" next to Gallery, under the Layers frame you will see several options. Clicking on one of them, like New York Times, will place icons showing every location where there is a story in the Times. Under 

Geographic Web you can select places where there are Wikipedia

articles.

 

But there is still an even more exciting application that can be used. From the Google Earth website (not the Google Earth program but the website (http://earth.google.com/), you select Gallery from the menu on the left and choose from several topic areas, one of which is Educational. Each topic has applications that can be opened in Google Earth. When you click on the "Open in Google Earth" link the application is transferred to your Google Earth program and can be found under the Temporary Places folder in the Places frame.

 

There are some excellent educational applications that can be used in the classroom. Things like "World Population Density," "Darfur--Destruction of 1,000 Villages," and "Age of Exploration: Magellan's Circumnavigation of the World," can enhance a lecture or discussion with information that visually enhances learning. 

Click here for a short video on adding these applications to your Google Earth program.

Creating Screen Captures

TechSmith, who produces Camtasia Studio and Snagit, also provide a free screen capture program (available for both PC and Mac) that will allow you to create short (5 minutes or less, but should a screeen capture really be longer than that?) videos. 

This product is called Jing. Today, Jing is offering an expanded set of features in Jing Pro, which costs $14.95 a year. For this price you get a better quality of movie (an MPEG-4 AVC), smaller video files, a link to upload directly to YouTube (you can still upload to other video sharing applications like Facebook), and the Jing branding is gone from the final product. 

I've attached a sample video I created using the free Jing. This file was uploaded to Screencast.com, which has some free space for Jing users and clicking on the link will take you to Screencast where you can view it.  The movie gives instructions on adding photos to Office 2007's PowerPoint.

addingPicturePPT

Finding Quick and Helpful Videos for Topics

Have you ever wanted someone to explain Wikis in Plain English, or how about Twitter in Plain English? Maybe you want to have someone explain why you should use the new "twisty" light bulbs in plain English. Well someone has done this. Common Craft has created a series of videos that can be found on YouTube. These explain in simple terms a wide variety of web applications as well as some other topics (like Electing a US President in Plain English).

 

You can find these short movies (around 3 minutes long) by clicking here or search on YouTube for the words "Plain English." There are several other individuals who have created "in plain English" videos. Some are pretty good, some are funny, and some are--well, not everything on the web is worth while.

Watching these won't make you an expert but at least you won't be in the dark. As always, call us if we can help you.

ChaCha is more than a dance

Did you know that you can get a question answered on your cell phone. That's right, as they describe it,

ChaCha is like having a smart friend you can call or text for answers on your cell phone anytime for free! ChaCha works with virtually every provider and allows people with any mobile phone device - from basic flip phones to advanced smart phones - to ask any question in conversational English and receive an accurate answer as a text message in just a few minutes.

All you have to do is text your question to 242242 (ChaCha) or call 800-2ChaCha and ask your question. You'll receive the answer by a text message in a few minutes. You can get the weather, stock info (who wants that now!), scores or answers to general questions in a matter of minutes. Give it a try. Remember two things:

1. Any charges for text messaging on your phone may apply.
2. Students may already know about ChaCha, so watch out for cell phone texting during exams!

As always, please let us know in ITDE if we can help.