Archive for category EdTech
Adding Pictures to WordPress using the Gallery feature
Add a bunch of photos to your WordPress blog! Here’s one way to do it.
First, you’ll need the photos to be small. Small here refers to the file size, not the dimensions so much. There are many ways to do this, but here are two good options: (1) on the web, try Web Resizer to quickly resize your photos; (2) download Picasa (free software) from Google. Picasa works on Windows and newer Macs, and it’s a great way to view photos or even upload them to the Web for free. You can export a folder of pictures and it’ll resize them too (dimensions and file size) and they’ll still look really good on a computer.
Once you have a bunch of smallish photos (somewhere near 100-200 KB is a great size, nothing with MB), have a look at this a 30-second video from WordPress or follow the steps below:
- In your Dashboard, add a new page or post.
- Type in the title and below that click on the Add media star.
- On the From Computer tab, click on the Select Files button.
- Find your photos on your computer, flash drive, CD…
- Click on the first one and then hold down the Ctrl key (in Windows) and click on all the others you’d like to include. This selects multiple photos.
- Now click on the Open button and watch WordPress crunch them up.
- When it’s done, click on the Save all changes button at the bottom. At the top, click on the Gallery tab that appears.
- The default settings are probably fine, so at the bottom click on the Insert gallery button.
- You won’t be able to see your photos until you publish your post, so do that now by clicking on the blue Publish button.
- You can add captions to photos by editing them in the Media Library. Add your caption in Caption for each photo and Update.
Click on View post or Visit Site to see the final result. You’ll see a cropped version of each photo. Click on the photo to see the full-size image.
Notes:
- The Gallery is available only when you add new photos. There doesn’t seem to be a way to add photos already in the Media Library to a new Gallery.
- The Gallery looks better if you add this line of code to your custom style sheet (custom.css):
#gallery-1 .gallery-item {width:auto !important;}
Facebook Privacy
If you’re using Facebook and interacting with your students there, it’s best to know how much information you’re sharing. You can create lists so that you can accept students as friends but control what they see (photos, friends’ comments, news, birthday, and more). You can turn the Chat function off completely, or turn it off for certain lists (your students, for example).
Privacy Changes on Facebook
Facebook has added more levels of privacy control recently. Their goal may be different from your goal in using FB. They would like you to share more and you may already be sharing more than you like. My goal is to give you a secure profile to start. From there, you can choose to open up parts of your profile as you see fit.
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Free Tunes (Creative Commons Music)
Creative Commons (free licences promoting sharing) lists a bunch of music sites under the heading “Legal Music For Videos“. If you need a song for a photostory or video project, the first two are pretty good. The others weren’t as easy to use, but might be worth a look if these don’t work for you.
Jamendo is nicely divided into genres using tags. You can limit your search by country too. Lots of great tunes from all over the world available without need to sign up. Nice.
ccMixter has remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons. You can remix the samples or create mash-ups from song samples. For example, you can download the acoustic guitar track from a song and you’ll hear only the guitar. Or, you could mash-up all the tracks except the vocals to create an instrumental version of a song. Fun but way too easy to get sucked in if all you need is a song for your student’s photostory.
WordCamp Victoria 2009
This Saturday, 9 spots left. http://meetup.wordcampvictoria.ca/
Make your presentations online
If your students like to make PowerPoint presentations a part of their class presentations and would like a simpler alternative to PowerPoint, look no further than 280 Slides.com. 280Slides is a web-based application that looks like a PowerPoint or Key Note, but it’s easier to use. It’s free and presentations can be stored on the web, so they’re accessible from any computer. Download your presentation in PowerPoint format, as a PDF, or present it online using SlideShare. The built-in media search lets you find pictures on Flickr and videos on YouTube as well. It’s pretty slick.
On Kim Cofino’s Always Learning blog, Kim tells us how to make our presentations Zen-tastic! She provides strategies to locate the right images (copyright-free too), integrate a video, and use a minimum of text to create “eye-popping” presentations.
Find Free Photos (and more)
Photos and Music
Photos for your class blog or website and music for your classroom video projects can be found easily using the Creative Commons search. The content is free to use without asking permission as long as you follow the simple conditions. Conditions vary, but usually it’s as simple as crediting the creator of the work.
Clipart
Microsoft Office Online has lots of clipart available to educational users with MS Office installed on their computers. Microsoft’s Clip Organizer is cumbersome, so instead, preview the clipart, click on “Bigger Preview”, and then use a very handy Firefox extension called Screengrab! to download the image.
These tricks aren’t just for kids
Even long-time web users may find a trick or two in Clint’s list of tips for web surfing. Tapping the spacebar will move down one page in most browsers. That’s handy. And Google does math! Who knew? And sports scores, and more (including the dictionary definitions that I’ve already explained).
Study Zone renovations
Posted by Byron in EdTech, Language learning on October 23, 2008
My life is renovations. We’ve been renovating our kitchen for months now. And though we had a basic plan, the plan evolved as the project progressed. Much the same can be said for re-designing and updating the ELC Study Zone. As with the kitchen, design improvments are often rooted in the feedback we’ve received. So if you have a minute or two, please try out the new Study Zone and let me know if it is straightforward to navigate and use. I’m working on Level 200 now, but will move on to 330 soon. Once I finish the many, many changes that are needed, we’ll be ready to add new lessons and exercises that apply to our classes and hopefully yours. Then we’ll be cookin’!
Word processors and your WordPress blog
The situation: You have stuff in Word documents that you’d like on your blog. So, you copy some of the text and tables from your document and paste them into your blog post.
The problem: Your blog post turned into a mess of code and mixed-up characters. What happened? Word processors and web pages have very different ways of formatting your text and tables. The two just don’t mix; they’re like oil and water … or is it vinegar? Well, oil and vinegar are nice together on bruschetta. But this isn’t a cooking blog, and I’m not Jamie Oliver.
The solution: Nothing that easy here. But there are a couple of workarounds.
- Attach the Word doc to your blog: For example, if it’s a handout for students, leave it in Word format and insert it into the blog post (as below) using the Add media button.
- Clean up the code: Click on the Kitchen Sink button
to show the advanced toolbar and then click on the Paste from Word button 
. Paste your Word document stuff in there and then click on Insert. Highlight and delete all the /* Style Definitions */ (this is a big block of code). You’ll be left with your copied stuff minus some of the formatting. Now you can use the toolbar to add some style to your post.
It’s best practice to write posts in your blog and keep the formatting simple. With all the different browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) working on different operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) and inside mobile devices too, simple is better.
Websites of the day
Posted by Byron in EdTech, Language learning on May 2, 2008
If you’re looking for great ideas related to technology and English language learning, look no further than Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day. Larry’s an ESL teacher in the States who finds and uses websites and web technologies (like blogs) with his students. I subscribe to his blog and enjoy his prolific lists of interesting websites and his suggestions for the use of technology with English language learners.
Speaking of lists, Larry has over 8000 categorized links for English language learners on his English Website! It’s a bit overwhelming to sift through 8000 links, so my advice is subscribe to his blog and try out the links he finds as he categorizes them.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/larry-ferlazzos-english-website/
