The OLD Top Shelf

In this session, we learned about some of the new features of Office 2007. This release of Office is very different from previous versions. If you are thinking of upgrading, there are some things you will want to know.

MS Office 2007 has what is termed a “fluent user interface.” It uses new terminology, such as: ribbons, Office button, mini toolbar, contextual tabs, fluent galleries and live preview. There are lots of ways to learn about Office 2007. Office Online offers support, of course, but Atomic Learning also has very good tutorials. There are some great Getting Started plug-ins available for download, too. These integrate with Office 2007 and put a Get Started tab right within the software.

There are some issues with Office 2007. For example, it is not backwards compatible – meaning that you cannot open documents made with 2007 with previous versions of the software, unless they have been saved for versions 97-2003. Another problem presented by the speaker is that the program uses quite a bit of memory on your computer.

There are some neat, new features as well. The live preview allows you to see font, color, and style changes immediately. PowerPoint features a Smart Art gallery that lets users create art for their slides that look like they were professionally created.

Presenter: Dr. David Thornburg, Thornburg Center

Dr. Thornburg looked into his crystal ball and discussed things that he believes will be commonplace in the next 10 years:

User interfaces flexible – they can and will change. For example, the One Laptop Per Child program from MIT uses a new type of interface, called Sugar, which was designed specifically for children using educational theory.

Androids – The Fed Ex Institute of Technology in Memphis is building very human-like andoids that can understand natural language and respond. Dr. Thornburg described an experience he had visiting with an android version of author Philip K. Dick, who died in 1982. He said that after 5 minutes it seemed as if he was talking to the author himself. Based on this experience, Thornburg predicts that in the future schools will have access to androids of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, or other historical figures. These androids would be able to give lectures and talk with students.

Cisco is developing a product called TelePresence, which uses hi-def video and audio to put people in various places virtually. Watch the video below to see this in action. You won’t believe it!

Researchers at MIT have developed I/O Brush, a paintbrush program that lets you pick up colors and patterns from real life on a brush and paint with them. Here’s a video that shows how it works. Pretty cool.iSkia is a new hardware interface developed by iMatte that goes between your computer and projector and can do several things. It can createa shadow on a presenter standing in front of a projected image, so that the image is not projected on the person. It also allows the presenter to draw on screen with a finger or hand, manipulate projected images on software and move them around. It was invented by the person who invented the green screen that is commonly used in television news for weather. Watch the video to see a demonstration.

Heliodisplay is a way of projecting a computer image in mid-air with no screen and shows images in 3D. Click here to see video and images of heliodisplay at work.

Jeff Han from NYU presented a new multi-touch interface at the TED Conference in Feb. 2006. Many people believe that this technology may be the end of the point and click mouse interface. See his demo here. One of the important comments that Jeff makes is that there is no longer any reason to be confined by the computer’s interface. He believes that the interface should conform to us.

Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon has also created a multi-touch system more affordably by using a Wii remote and a pen with an LED light on the end. See the video below:

Some overall trends Dr. Thornburg predicts are technology users using gestures, not a mouse and the user interface morphing into something more compatible with users’ needs.

Presenter Patrick Crispin

The Powerpoint for this presentation is online at netsquirrel.com

Hardware
The Polaroid is not dead! They own a new spinoff company that has developed ZINK, which stands for “zero ink”. It is a polaroid thermal printer that uses Zink paper to print  color images and photos without ribbons or toner. The paper has dye cristals embedded in a protective layer that and are set to pop at a certain temperature. This new photo printer will be coming out Christmas 2008 for $149 and 30 cents a print.

Solid state hard drives are now available in high end laptops, but are still very expensive. The benefit of these drives is that they have no moving parts to break, are faster and consume less power than conventional hard drives. Patrick predicts that within 5 years they will be in every laptop.

USB 3.o will be out in 2008. It will be 10 times faster than current USB technology due to the use of fiber optic cable.

Wireless USB will allow a computer and  its peripherals to connect with no cables. It  requires the components to be in proximity with each other. Belkin has wireless USB hub available now.

The Eye-Fi is a wireless SD memory card for  your digital camera. It will automatically upload your pictures to your computer and to your favorite photo sharing, blogging, or social networking sites. It is available now for $99 at Walmart and other places that sell memory cards.

802.11 is the current set of standards for wireless network communication. 802.11n is an update of those standards that will significantly increase the speed and range of wireless networks.

WiMAX is another develping networking standard that will provide wireless access over long distances. It uses microwave and access will be similar to cell phone access – available pretty much everywhere.

RFID is a tag/chip that carries encrypted information and can be read by a reader. Currently toll tags use RFID technology and RFID chips are now included in all US passports. Patrick thinks this technology will likely replace traditional barcodes and barcode readers.

LED (light emitting diode) Patrick predicts that the filament light bulb will be replaced by LED lights within 11-20  years.

Recordable Media
Until recently, the DVD has had two competing standards: HD-DVD and Blu-ray. In Jan. 2008, Warner Brothers decided to release all of its movies in Blu-Ray only, so Blu-Ray is the new standard.

AACS (Advanced Access Content System) is a standard for content distribution and digital rights management that is being added to Blu-Ray disks to prevent unlawful copying. AACS provides a unique decryption code to each type of Blu-Ray player. If the decryption code is hacked and published, that code will be revoked, essentially rendering all players of that type unable to play disks. See the Wikipedia article for more info.

Utilization 
IP version 6 solves the problem of running out of IP addresses.

Presentations 2.0 refers to a new movement in developing PowerPoint presentations. This method goes beyond bullet points to incorporate less text and more visual representations. The powerpoint is a support for the presentation instead of being the whole presentation. Patrick’s slides for this session are an example of this type of presentation.

HDTV – On Feb 17, 2009 high definition television becomes the standard. Televisions that are not using cable or satellite will require a converter. This is something to consider if the TVs in your school are not HD compatible. Budget funds for converters will need to be set aside.

OLED  (organic light emitting diodes) technologies are used in small screens for mobile phones and mp3 players. They have high readability in sunlight and low power needs. It is also used in the Optimus Maximus keyboard. Each key on the keyboard is a display and can change the function of the keys based on the software that is running.

This session was fast and furious and I’m not sure that I fully understand all of the new things that were discussed. Hopefully the links I’ve provided will give you more information in the things that peak your interest.

Presenter: Tammy Worcester

Tammy has some great web tools for teachers and librarians to use. See her list here.  Some of her favorites are del.icio.us, iGoogle, a cool newspaper clipping generator that puts your text into an actual newspaper clipping, an online timer and a random word picker that will let you enter students’ names and choose them at random. Click on the list for links to these and more.

Trick #1 – Use Google advanced search to find powerpoint presentations that have been posted online. Enter .ppt in the Extensions box.

Time-saving shortcuts for MS Office, Firefox, and Mac OS X are here. These are keyboard shortcuts that make use of the CTRL (PC) or Command/Option (Mac) keys.

Trick #2 – You can set up shortcuts to favorite web sites in Firefox and include search terms in the location box. This will take you to the site and do your search all at once. To do this, go to a favorite site, save it as a bookmark, then choose properties. For more detailed directions go here.

Trick #3 – On a Mac, two fingers on the trackpad will scroll up and down. Tapping with two fingers is the same as a right click on the PC.

Tammy’s Favorite Computer Activities
has PowerPoint, Excel, and other projects for students.

Trick #4 – In Excel, you can filter and just look at one set of data at a time. From the Data Menu, choose AutoFilter…

Trick #5 – Change color photos to Black and White in PowerPoint by using the Show Picture toolbar and choosing grayscale.

Battery low – more later!

Presenter: Patrick Crispen, NetSquirrel.com

This presentation available here.

Googlebots are the spiders that crawl the web and make a copy of websites they find.

Keeping up with Google is a daunting task. They are always inventing something new.  Here’s the latest:

Google on the Road – free business directory assistance from Google on your cell phone
1-800-GOOG-411

Google Mobile Maps – Google Maps on your cell phone with real time traffic and GPS capability to get driving directions.

Google Research Tools – Google Book Search lets you search inside books by title or phrase. They are scanning in books from major public libraries and universities.  The goal is not to let you get books for free. The goal is to help you find what you are looking for inside a book and tell you where to get it, library or bookstore. Public domain books are available in full text PDF and can be downloaded.

Google Scholar searches peer-reviewed journals, these, books, abstracts and articles. A great tool for scholarly information.

News Archive Search – lets you search through more than 200 years of news articles. The results will tell you where you can get the full-text of the article you want.

Google Notebook – free research tool that lets you create an online notebook of things you have found on the web. It’s the web 2.0 version of a 3 x 5 index card. Requires a Google account and a brower plug-in to use. Copy and paste pictures and text and save them in your notebook. It can also be shared with others.

Google for Educators – web site assembled specifically for teachers. Includes lesson plans, videos from Discovery Education, etc.

Google Search Tools

Google Advanced Search allows you to search for CreativeCommons resources. (CreativeCommons allows a copyright holder to give users permission to use, modify, or sell their work.)

Google Q&A – answers to plain-text CIA World Factbook type questions now appear at the top of your search results.

Alternative Query Types – Google can be used as a calculator by typing an equation in the search box. It will also do conversions, for example 1 mile in kilometers. Google is also a dictionary by using this syntax: define: term. Get weather information with this query: weather: and the city, state or zip. Get movie information with this query: movie: zip code. Get world time information by typing “what time is is in [city name] – no question mark.

Google Productivity Tools

Google tools require an account which require an e-mail address. You can get safe, free e-mail accounts for students at gaggle.net.

Google Page Creator allows you to create and host your own web site.

Google Docs is an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. Docs can be shared and edited by multiple people.

Google Custom Search Engine – You can create your own custom search engine that only searches the sites you have selected.

iGoogle is a personalized Google home page.

To learn more about new developments at Google, visit Google Labs, Google Press Center, Google Blog, Google Blogoscope.

Live blogged – please forgive any errors! 

The wiki appears to be the presentation tool of choice at TCEA this year. This session also featured a wiki to point you toward its resources.

Presenters: Dr. Mary Ann Bell, Dr. Holly Weimar, Sam Houston State University

Many teachers and librarians have not had time to explore web 2.o tools. Blogs are familiar, but other tools are not.

Web 1.0 = presented information to users

Web 2.0 = users can add their own information

ABCs of Web 2.0
gives a little more detail into what Web 2.0 is. My favorites are P -participation required and U – users are what drive the web!

How can librarians in teachers learn about Web 2.o in a filtered environment? Districts are starting to allow access to some Web 2.0 tools and using them with students.

Start out by being a blog reader. Can subscribe to blogs via e-mail, but a better way is to use a blog aggregator.

Before starting a blog, know what you will do with it and be able to commit time to it. Regular posts are required.

Another way to start is by opening a Google account and using all of the tools they have to offer.

When you’re comfortable with blogs, you might move on to wikis or join a ning, which is a community of like-minded people.

Try out a web 2.0 tutorial, like MISD’s Learning Through Play.

Some great new tools are VoiceThread and Twitter. Twitter is like blogging meets instant messaging. You can follow other Twitter users and keep up with their new ideas. Twitter posts can be no longer than 140 characters.

Other fun and free web 2.0 sites are featured at Knock Your Socks Off.

Web 2.0 organizational tools:
Ta-da list
43 Things
Remember the Milk

Coming to you from TCEA in Austin. As DS and I attend sessions this week, I’ll post the information I get, so it will almost be like you’re here with us!

Our first session this morning was called “Using Wikis to Create, Collaborate and Communicate. The presenters were a HS librarian and two teachers from Eanes ISD. They showed wikis that they had used for various class projects using pbwiki. The presentation materials are located at the Connected Libraries wiki. 

One wiki presented was for an AP Government class project on various governmental policies. The students used the wiki collaborate with each other to share resources on each policy. Take a look at it here.

Another wiki project highlighted was for an English class. This teacher used the Discussion feature of pbwiki to have students comment on and discuss each other’s writings. It can be found here. (Tip: You’ll have to login to see the comments.)

These are great ideas for using wikis and there are other examples on the Connected Libraries wiki. There are many ways these ideas could be adapted for use in our district. For example, I could see the 8th grade ICT classes using a wiki  similar to the AP Government to share resources for their class search project. What ideas do these projects give you? Please share in the comments.