Cool Tools for You and the School, Volume II
Recommended Downloads, February 2006
By: Eric Durrand
New software tools are being released every day, all around the world. Some of them cater to a very specific audience, like gardeners, while others can help all of us work and play more efficiently. In this article we have collected a number of FREE useful tools we think you should know about:
Plaxo –
Have you ever called an acquaintance in your address book only to find that he had moves, or the number changed? Plaxo, an Outlook and Thunderbird plug-in, is here to make sure that it will never happen again. Plaxo sorts out duplicates in your address book, and automatically updates the details when another Plaxo user moves or changes jobs. Easy to use, and great to have! Link – www.plaxo.com
Net Snippets – If you do at least some of your research online, you’ll love Net Snippets. The tool allows you to cut and save clips and “snippets” of websites. It automatically saves the website information, date and time, and allows you to organize snippets into folders in an intuitive tree structure. You can also add your comments, use colored markers on the snippets, or capture entire web pages as they are. Link – www.netsnippets.com 
1-Click Answers – The Internet is one of the greatest resources of information, why not utilize it for our own continuing enlightenment? 1-Click Answers allows you to do just that. After you install this little tool, it will run quietly in the background. When you click Alt + Mouse Click on any specific word, phrase, or name, a window will open with information about it, from a Dictionary, an Encyclopedia, and various other references. Link – www.answers.com
Google Earth – This new amazing educational tool brings internet users for the first time a 3D satellite look at Earth, with amazing details! Navigate through buildings, streets, and continents, and see not only Central Park – but individual trees in the park, as well as individual cars on the street. You can use the arrows to move around, zoom in and out, or just type in an address and zoon right in to see it. Great for geography lessons, history lessons, and just for the plain wonder of it all! Link – http://earth.google.com
Skype 2.0 – The new version of the revolutionary Phone-over-IP tool can now do so much more: Instant messaging, international phone calls, and even video-chat! The basic service is free, but you have to pay to call regular phones, to enjoy the voice mail service, or to get your own unique phone number with Skype. The quality of conversation is excellent, and the tool is fun and easy to use. Link – www.skype.com 
RoboForm – Tired of filling in the same details again and again into online forms? Finding it hard to remember all your usernames and passwords, but don’t want to write them down on paper? RoboForm can help! This tool will remember all your passwords for you, as well as any personal details that are likely to appear on online forms. Once you feed it these details, it will automatically fill in web forms, saving you time. Passwords and credit card details are themselves password-protected, so that nobody but you can use RoboForm to discover personal information. Link – www.roboform.com
Your computer is only as useful as the software applications it carries. Keeping yourself updated with new tools will make using it more productive, more educational, and more fun!
Posted on February 23, 2006 at 01:57 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Is OpenOffice for You?
Why we think you should know about OpenOffice.org
By: Eric Durrand
The Office suite has long been Microsoft’s most successful line of products. Offering Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other tools that help manage various office productivity tasks – from creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, to managing incoming and outgoing mail. The company had recently announced another upgrade to be released soon: the new version, code named “Office 12”, is expected to include PDF support, a completely revamped 3D user interface, and many new features. The price of the current version (Office 2003), though not as high as some of the higher end application suites, is a decent amount: around $130 for the Teacher/Student edition, around $230 for the Standard edition, and around $400 for the Professional edition (online retail prices).
With so many features, and such a price tag, many begin to wonder – do we really need all that functionality? Can’t we find a simple solution that can handle the most common tasks, without all the flash? The guys at OpenOffice.org have long been developing just such a solution, and with version 2.0’s Stable Release coming out soon – we think they’ve got it right.
OpenOffice.org is an open-source office-productivity suite, which is based on Sun Microsystem’s StarOffice, a productivity suite that sells for about $70. OpenOffice, in contrast, is absolutely free for download. It is developed by a worldwide community of volunteers in cooperation with Sun, and is supported mostly by volunteers in online forums. Among its many benefits it offers a pretty good compatibility with MS Office documents – so you can open your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents using OpenOffice, as well as create documents with OpenOffice and have MS Office users open them in a virtually problem-free process.
OpenOffice does not compete with Microsoft Office in terms of functionality. But it does offer the basic capabilities most people need for much less. Included in the suite are:
Writer – The open source word processor is fully functional and compatible with multiple formats. Documents can be saved as Word Documents, Rich Text Format (RTF) documents, and as a standard OpenDocument Text (ODT). Writer offers different styles and formatting options, an autocorrect feature and dictionary, as well as ready made templates. It also supports many of Word’s advanced features such as tracking changes, comments, and more.
Impress – This is an open source tool for creating multimedia presentations. Whether lesson plans or business presentations – Impress lets you design a slideshow that powerfully delivers your message. The application includes graphic elements you can include in your presentations, as well as special effects and transitions between slides. It includes drawing tools, text effects, and more. In addition to that, it supports the PowerPoint format, as well as offers the ability to create HTML or Flash versions of your presentation, for web view.
Calc – This spreadsheet solution is similar to Microsoft Excel. Its simple interface allows even beginners to create spreadsheet and make calculations, while more advanced users can enjoy many of the built-in functions. Calc includes use of natural language formulas, intelligent summaries, and scenario manager, as well as many built-in banking and financial functions, and graph creation tools. You can open your Excel files with Calc, and save your spreadsheets in many different format, including Excel, PDF, and XML.
Other applications in the OpenOffice.org suite include Math, which allows you to create and export complex mathematical formulas; Draw, a vector graphics software that can be used to create compelling logos and drawings, and to incorporate them in your documents and presentations; and Base, a database solution that supports MS Access, MySQL, and many others.
OpenOffice is not set to compete with MS Office for heavy duty, professional use. It doesn’t offer online collaboration tools, smart tags, or grammar checking. Its advance features like tracking changes and outlining tools are somewhat limited – and so is the available clipart collection. But despite lacking many of the more advanced features of MS Office, OpenOffice does have some advantages over the current version: it supports new formats, including a native ability to save and export files to PDF, and support for XML-based open standards than any software vendor can use. It’s Find-and-Replace feature is simpler to use and more powerful, and its native format is an open standard that may be used by any other vendor.
So who should be interested in OpenOffice? Anyone who wants to allow basic productivity at a minimal cost. For no additional cost, an old PC can be installed with the open-source Linux operating system, a Firefox browser, and the OpenOffice suite – and thus provide a basic, but effective, workstation for students and others. The OpenOffice suite installation file is about 75MB, and it costs absolutely nothing. So what is there to lose?
Posted on October 13, 2005 at 02:15 PM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cool Tools for You and your School
By: Eric Durrand
Some software tools are widely used in schools, and barely need mentioning. Microsoft Office, specifically Microsoft Word, had become almost synonymous with word processing, and Windows, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer usually come pre-installed on any school computer.
Instant Messaging is a primary example of a technology that became indispensable for many internet users. Instant messaging (IM, in short), provides a real-time live connection with friends online using short text messages that appear instantly. Tools like ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, or AIM allow users to maintain a list of friends, be alerted when they become available online, and chat with them live. Text messages will pop instantly on the friend's monitor, and a whole conversation can ensue. Leading IMs also offer voice and video chats, requiring a microphone, a webcam, and a broadband connection.
While surfing the net with Internet Explorer is the most popular choice, there are other browsers worth consideration. Mozilla Firefox is a new browser, available for free download, which offers many benefits over Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It allows surfing multiple sites in the same window, is generally faster, more secure, and offers convenient benefits such as a pop-up ad blocker, an integral Google search field, and a sophisticated password manager and form filler. If you want to enjoy an integral Google search and form filler from within Internet Explorer, there is another option: Google Toolbar. Google Toolbar ads a new toolbar to your Internet Explorer, which includes a pop-up ad blocker, Google search, Form Filler, and the ability to highlight different words in a web-site while surfing the web.
Organizing your information and files is another way new tools can simplify the way you use your PC, and make both work and play more productive. Tools like MiniMinder will remind you your daily to-do list, and make sure you do them. Picasa will search and organize all your digital photos into easily accessed albums, watch them in full screen, share them with people online, easily edit them, and more. Microsoft Reader will organize all your e-books into a digital library, and allow you to read and make notes at your leisure. Perhaps one of the most amazing tools is the newly released Google Desktop Search BETA: once installed, it will index all your documents - and allow you to search them as if you were using Google on the web! Just type "Shakespeare", for example, and find every Word document, e-mail, website you've surfed, and even AIM chats you've had on the subject!
Whether the information is organized properly or not, it must always be protected. Besides antivirus programs, firewalls, and other protection software, it is important to install an anti-spyware program. Spyware is a hidden piece of software that is usually installed as a parasite with a legitimate tool, and can track a user's actions, slow down the computer, and send out personal information to its creator. Anti-spyware tools are many. Ad-Aware SE Personal is a free tool that scans, identifies, and removes unwanted spyware. Another great tool offered for free is Spybot Search & Destroy, which does, for the most part, the same thing. A new tool against spyware is Microsoft's AntiSpyware, allowing scan schedule option, and privacy protection tools in addition to scanning and removal.
Last, but not least, are the educational tools for your schools. Not all tools are free, and many of those that are free (like online reference or e-books) were covered in previous articlels however, one can find among them great offers such as: CueCard 1.4 - An easy to use cue card software; just type in what you want to learn and flash those cards until you've memorized their content. QuizFaber 2.6.1 – Make it easy for you to create multimedia quizzes, that students can access and answer online. Vocabulary Wizard 6.3 - Has a built-in dictionary of more than 6,000 carefully chosen words that are most likely to be asked in SAT, GRE, ACT, TOEFL, and other standardized tests, and will help you memorize them!
The internet offers a variety of software tools, many of them available for free, or for a token amount of money, on websites like Download.com or TUCows. They are updated on a regular basis, and new ones take the place of old ones. Finding the right tool for your need cannot be too hard and when you do you are likely to feel like you've discovered a whole new world of possibilities. Whether a new way to organize your documents and pictures, or a new way to surf the web, you'll find the web helpful in providing you with the right tool for the right job.
Posted on January 17, 2005 at 02:12 AM in Cool Tools | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Finding Your Terms with the Net
Online Reference for Students and Teachers
By: Eric Durrand
Years ago, when a student needed to research a paper, he had to physically get out of his home, walk to the library, and look for the right books. Then, he had to open the books and scan the index, table of contents, or alphabetical entries for the information he was looking for. Today, if he has internet access, he doesn't need to go further than his desk to have the best resources available to him. All he needs to do is type in his search query into a Google search form and he will be introduced to multiple resources of relevant information.
Online reference tools are fast, accurate, easy to use, and usually free. They offer easy comparison of various sources, and easily connect with each other (for example, with one click you move from a dictionary definition to a thesaurus entry for the same word). A teacher can easily use all of them from his home or office computer, while students can be enthusiastic about the new tools, which make research easier, and save precious time in preparing home assignments.
Online encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other online reference tools are no longer secondary information sources, but bring to your desktop the best and most respected names in publishing. Next time you need an encyclopedia for that paper, or that lesson plan, why go further than your computer? Websites like Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, and MSN Encarta will give you access to their entire collection of definition, articles, maps, atlases - and more. While most sources are free, the respected Britannica Online offers the entire repertoire of its printed brands with easy online search and research tools for as little as $11.95 a month and that includes not just encyclopedia, but also atlases, maps, photo gallery, dictionary, and yearly reviews.
Another
interesting resource to look at is Wikis. A Wiki, borrowed from "wiki
wiki", which means ''quick" in Hawaiian, is a collective website that
allows every visitor to add, change, or edit existing information
quickly and easily. Wikipedia,
one of the better known wikis, is a wide-ranging encyclopedia
maintained solely by contributing authors. Surprisingly enough, it
contains a lot of high-quality articles and is well referenced and
linked. Wikis are a growing trend, and you can find them forming around
many different specialties.
Trying to find a decent definition to a haunting word? The best of the best are here to help you. Be it Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, AskOxford, or the Cambridge Dictionaries Online,
you know you can find a full definition in seconds, just as if you were
looking at the actual printed edition, and sometimes with additional
features like correct pronunciation playbacks, and quick links to a
thesaurus or encyclopedia. Some internet-only dictionaries might prove
useful as well, and among them note Dictionary.com, YourDictionary.com, and AllWords - the last of which is a multi-language dictionary.
Technical terms are often an obstacle to the uninitiated, but you can easily find their explanations in plain English. Webopedia is an online encyclopedia of technical terms, and WhatIs
is another great tool - with definitions, explanations and links to
help you understand terms like XML, HTTP, or FTP. You can also try the
next trick: Go to Google,
and type "define thingamajig", with thingamajig replaced by a term you
want defined. If it finds it, Google will present a definition from one
of its online sources, just above the list of search results.
Among
the best opportunities that online reference offers is the chance to
compare what different resources have to say on the same term.
Multi-purpose reference sites will do that for you, quickly and easily.
OneLook offers an extensive comparative search through dozens of dictionaries and encyclopedias online, while InfoPlease will simultaneously search a term in a dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, almanacs, a thesaurus and various online biographies. Bartleby's Online Reference
search will bring up results from an extensive collection of
encyclopedia's and dictionaries, including the American Heritage
collection, and collections of famous quotes.
Teachers
who want to promote the use of online reference tools in the class,
beyond using them on their own, can do so in several ways. Whether in
class on the class computer, or on the library computer, a teacher can
make sure that useful reference websites are saved in the Favorites
list. He can include the web address for useful websites in assignment
papers, or on the class/school billboard. He can e-mail the best links
to students, or publish them in a blog.
The enormous benefits of online information are lost if students are not familiar, or are not encouraged to use, the right sources and the best tools. With just a little effort to sort those out and bring them to the attention of teachers and students, your students will join the circle of online researchers, and can improve both the quality and depth of their papers, and explore new venues on their own.
Posted on December 26, 2004 at 10:41 PM in Cool Tools, IT in Education, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An Educational Blogging Revolution
What Blogs Are and What They Can Do For Students
By: Eric Durrand
Leading dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster had recently announced the word "blog" was the most looked-up word of the year 2004. In a recent article BBC had gone so far as to deem 2004 "the year of the blog". Technorati, a blog analysis firm, estimated the current number of blogs at 4.8 million and said the number of blogs was doubled every 5.5 months for the past 18 months.
But what is a blog? To quote Merriam-Webster, it is: "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." Blog, a noun and shorthand for Web-log, is more than a kind of website. It is considered by many as nothing short of a cultural revolution, in which everyone gets to write and publish his own thoughts and ideas, and share them with others online. In schools, it can provide students with an audience and writing experience, and teachers with a platform to publish course-related materials and promote online debates.
The first weblog on record was probably that of Marc Andreesen, one of the "founding fathers" of the Internet, who invented the first web browser, called Mosaic - a precursor of both Netscape and Internet Explorer. His What's New list, which was launched on June 1993, covered new and interesting websites on the young World Wide Web, and used a format very similar to today's blogs.
The blog format didn't catch on very quickly, and up until 1998 blogs were few and scattered. The buzz began on August 1999, when a company called Pyra (recently purchased by Google) released Blogger.com, a free service that offered every internet user the opportunity to start his own personal journal on the web. Blogs soon grew in popularity, and became common among savvy internet users.
Services like TypePad, LiveJournal, BlogCity, and the new MSN Spaces have since sprung up, offering the laymen a set of friendly tools to manage their own online journal, together with photo albums, lists of favorite books, websites, and music. Visitors in most blogs can add their own comments, and engage in discussion with the blog's author and other readers. An advanced option like TrackBack allows a visitor to form a bi-directional link between an article in someone else's blog and a response in his own blog, and tools like XML or RSS allow users to syndicate their content to subscribers and to other websites.
So how can a blog contribute to a student's education? First and foremost, it provides an enormous incentive to write: "Often dismissed as merely 'vanity' websites, critics slate their simplicity", writes Peter Ford, a former teacher at the British School of Amsterdam and the founder of SchoolBlogs.com, "Yet it is precisely these two factors that are the keys to their potential. Children are vain, just like adults. They desire and require an audience for their thoughts and achievements. Every teaching college in the world extols the virtues of providing students with an audience."
Blogs allow students to express themselves in their own way, says Ford, which explains their growing popularity among teenagers. But not only students are finding the blogs useful - a recent article in the New York Times revealed a new and interesting trend - using blogs as a billboard for the class, a course, or even the school's library. Blogs make it a snap to post assignments, announcements, and topics for discussion, which every student can access simply by typing a web address.
Many nonprofit groups are also beginning to see the educational benefits of blogging. The Educational Bloggers Network (EBN), for instance, is a growing community of teachers and education professionals who use blogs for teaching. The network assists members to advance blog integration in education through advise, tools, and community support. EdBlogger Praxis is one of the member blogs of EBN, listing and promoting dozens of education-oriented blogs. An organization called INCSUB has even announced The EduBlog Award, an award for the best educational blog in each of several categories.
Like E-Mail, the blogging revolution is a cultural as well as technological revolution. And like E-Mail, it encourages millions of people to sit down and write, in their own words. There are, of course, many things a blog cannot do. It gives the student the incentive to write, but it does not provide him with knowledge of what he is writing about. It helps him reach a large audience, but does not teach him to captivate it through clear and insightful commentary. And it most certainly doesn't help him improve the grammar, syntax, or logical flow of his articles. For that, we still need good old-fashioned classes and teachers.
But even though a blog cannot and should not replace old fashioned class assignments, it is a lovely addition, and a tool that provides both students and teachers with an opportunity to develop their ideas and writings, and share them with others around the world.
Posted on December 12, 2004 at 01:15 AM in Cool Tools, IT in Education, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
