ePirate

CircaVie is an exciting and interactive way to record a series of events. It allows you to attach photos and videos associated with dates, creating a flashy visual while navigating through time. Timelines can be made public or private, can be shared and commented on. The possibilities are endless!!

As a replacement for Microsoft FrontPage, the wed editing tool used to create and maintain many of the University webpages, Microsoft Expression Web is now available to be installed on your University owned laptop or desktop.

To have Microsoft Expression installed, you can visit the PC Support Consultation area ( lower level of Corrigan Hall) with your laptop or call the Technology Helpdesk @ ext. 2222 to have a field technician install the software on your desktop.

The folks over at the Online Education Database have compiled a list entitled "100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better". This is fast on the heels of their "100 Free Podcasts from the Best Colleges in the World" posting. I'm sensing a theme. If you have a few hours to kill I highly recommend checking out both lists.

Not to be outdone, the group at openculture.com have compiled a list of "University & College Podcasts" that reads like a who's who of the iTunes U set. If you don't feel like looking through each University's site, they've gone one step further and created a list called "Free Online Courses from Great Universities". The courses listed include topics ranging from from Archaeology to Urban Studies (what, no Yoga or Zoology?!?) Good stuff.

Lulu is web-based self-publishing service. Users can design, publish and print original material, including books, brochures, reports, calendars and posters. Users can also create digital content, such as audio files, videos, graphics, or e-books. EDUCAUSE recently published an article about Lulu and its application for education that you can read about here.

Google Earth is an amazing 3D tool that provides the benefit of traveling the globe without ever getting on a plane.You can search for any address or keyword and Google Earth will fly you to the location. Including your house!

Seton Hall University subscribes to RefWorks, a web-based citation management software tool. RefWorks allows you to:

• Create and manage a web-based bibliography


• Import references from text files


• Import references from online databases


• Automatically format your paper and bibliography

Have you ever wanted to save a webpage and its format for offline use at a later time? Use this service to convert html to pdf. You can convert from either a URL or you can enter the html code directly. Flash movies and website links from the webpage you are converting from will become active in your pdf if you choose those options.

There is also a bookmarklet that allows you to convert webpages directly from your browser - drag the Save Page as PDF link to your bookmarks toolbar and you will be ready to go. Enjoy!

Did you ever wish you could easily record your Skype conversations? Well, now you can. Call Graph is a new plugin for Skype that records calls and stores them as mp3s which could then be pretty handy for creating podcasts! Record Skype to Skype, SkypeIn, or SkypeOut calls. Cool.

As promised, a continuation of the Vista chronicles...

When everyone thinks about a computer now a days there is a worry as to what kind of security does it have. In truth, everyday, more and more people are exploring the online universe. People are making transactions, posting their livelihoods, and learning everything about the world around them. This has allowed for more virus makers and spam designers to exploit the common man... However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that MS Vista has the best defenses money can buy. It was so secure that it has been tested countless of times and was barely scratched, which is remarkable by industry standards. Yet, as with any perfect design there will be the potential for overlooked flaws and more advanced hacking techniques. So, with this is mind Microsoft has come up with their own reliability guarantee - A program called "One LiveCare" was specifically made for Vista. It has proven it's worth by being tested alongside with the other pre-existing anti-virus programs, i.e. Symantec, McAfee, etc. and it bashes the competition!!!

Windows One Live Care was created with the user in mind... The program does not downplay the Symantec Antivirus system we have on campus which is comprehensive for the corporate level, but it does give people, with their own personal machines a more affordable alternative. So, as I recommend to viewers everywhere, go for the program that will help you do, what you do, everyday without worry ---> http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm

Zotero (zoh-TAIR-oh), available as a free extension to the Firefox browser, provides a citation management tool within a web browser environment. Zotero allows for the collection and organization of recourses as well as providing citations in multiple formats, including APA, Chicago, and MLA.

Convert any media file format (Documents, Images, Audio, Video, Archives and even Units) without buying or installing anything on your PC. Great tool - and free!

Have you been wanting to try out a fresh and different approach to presenting your image, audio and video files? If the answer is yes, then Vuvox may be your solution.

There are three areas to explore within Vuvox:
Vuvox Express - Instantly create and publish from RSS feeds and web albums
Vuvox Collage - Create dynamic interactive story panoramas
Vuvox Studio - Contains tools to customize your video, music and photos (you need to create an account to use this feature)

This is an example of Vuvox Collage which addresses Writing in the 21st Century created by Barbara Ganley:

Two quick and easy online tools to explore: Text2MindMap and Forex Flower


Text2MindMap is an online application where you can create mind maps/graphic organizers by entering text in an outline that is then converted to a mind map. Maps can be customized and may also be saved to your computer as picture files (jpgs). Quick, fun, and easy...great for brainstorming a topic in class.

Forex Flower (sister site to Text2MindMap) is an online currency converter. Type in the number of US dollars you would like to convert and watch all the exchange rates pop up. The exchange rates are updated daily and are drawn from the US Federal Reserve Economic Data database.

Favthumbs is a great new tool that allows you to visualize your del.icio.us bookmarks. All you have to do is enter your del.icio.us username and sign in (your password is optional).

Once signed in, there are a few options. The default view is to show all of your bookmarks in grid view. Use the slider on the top right to zoom in and out of your visual bookmarks (click on image below to see detail).

Another option is carousel view which allows you to flip through your bookmarks so that you can see them one by one. As in the original del.icio.us view, you can always focus in on a particular topic by clicking on one of your tags that are listed on the right hand side of the screen (see graphic above). The graphic below is in carousel view after selecting the tag digitalstorytelling.


Check it out!

I am such a visual person ... always looking for the perfect image to go with a publication, handout, digital story, video or website. The first place I look anymore for photos is on FLICKR. The site contains amazing shots and I have had great luck with FLICKR photographers allowing me to use their photos for various educational purposes.

Given that, I was so excited to find this online image searching tool, Multicolor Search Lab - Flickr Set at the Idee Labs web site < http://labs.ideeinc.com/> which allows you to search for images that contain a particular color or color set on Flickr. In the example below, I was looking for images with a red/green combination.

Soooooooo cool! Check it out ... hope you find it as useful as I do!

Heidi Trotta

A new search engine launched this week: Cuil. Developed by Stanford professor Tom Costello and former Google search architect Anna Patterson, Cuil offers a new way to search.

Features of this new web browser include: Drilldown, Roll-over definitions, Tabs, and Navigation suggestions.

Diigo is a Web 2.0 tool that allows you to highlight and share your web references. This is a great research tool and makes it easier to retrieve specific information on web pages. With Diigo, you can go beyond bookmarking and saving favorites. To learn more, watch the following video:

At one of our recent Technology Summer Series days, Developing Critical Thinkers ... Chris Shamberg called my attention to a free tool that is a plug-in for Microsoft Office PowerPoint called authorPOINT LITE. This application will allow you to share your presentations online through a free online presentation sharing platform called authorSTREAM. Through this process, your PowerPoint presentation is converted to a Flash format. You have the options to make your presentation "public" or "private". The private option lets you share presentations securely with only registered users that you invite through a web link. Of course, registration is free.

Google has made public a beta release of their new web browser, Google Chrome!

Walter S. Mossberg, Personal Technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal reviews Google Chrome in the following video:

Photosynth from Microsoft Labs allows users to explore photographic images in 3-D!

Researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft have created software that allows users to upload 10, 100, or 1000 individual digital images to create a 3-D representation of a physical space.

Watch Richard Szeliski from Microsoft discuss Photosynth in the following video.

This will be my final thread on the wonderful world of Vista. I have described to you the benefits of the new system as well as how to make it work for you. The rest is now up to you and the best advice I can give you is... play with the system. I haven't nearly covered a good deal of Vista's capabilities because it all depends what you'll be looking for. But I can tell you, however, some of the things you'd be able to do... You can setup voice recognition so as to get the computer to recognize your voice and apply every command... Permissions can be created for every file/Parents Controls can be applied to every game so that you can have a sense of security and finally, you can automate the system so that everything that can be done to enhance your computer experience will be out of your hands through the power of Windows One LiveCare....!

As I wrap up my commentary on Vista I would like to provide you with some links that will help you understand Vista better, as well as a link to one of Microsoft's hidden deals...

VISTA

Microsoft Equipt

Happy Computing!

The TLT Center is offering instruction in using Web 2.0 tech tools in teaching and learning. You may be asking "what is Web 2.0 anyway...what is all the fuss about?" This very popular video created by Michael Wesch does a wonderful job of explaining the topic:



As the above video explains, Web 2.0 has produced an explosion of innovative and exciting online technology tools that can be implemented by both faculty and students. Register for our next class which is on Wednesday, September 24th from 12:00pm-1:30pm in the CTC. We hope to see you there!

These are the course objectives and the course website will always be in beta...