Books, journals and other reference materials online and available for your immediate use

Out of print books? Journals that your local library doesn't carry?

Google Book Search has been scanning and making available out of print books for perusal. Apparently they settled a lawsuit where they will be able to offer some copyrighted material also. My earliest introduction to Google Books came after attending the Alice Workshop at Santa Clara University in summer 2008. After I purchased an older edition of the book, then was given a pre-release copy of the latest edition, by the end of the summer the entire book was available on Google Books, meaning as an educator I would have no cost to teach my students computer science using Alice.

As a student myself, another resource that previously required an expensive license is the ERIC articles database, which offers almost every article ever written, which definitely helps post-secondary scholars conduct research.

These technologies phenomenally reduce the amount of time I physically have to spend in a library, the amount of money I have to spend on books or copies of pages of books, allows me to asynchronously pursue research and curiosity questions, and reduces the amount of paper wasted. They also represent quite a paradigm shift between my undergraduate and graduate educations! Isn't that what using technology in education is all about?

Another impact of the state budget crisis, because it is a crisis

Common parlance says we're in a recession, some would say a depression, that has spread world wide. But resident students with proper qualifications have never been denied admission to California state colleges and universities, but instead of protecting our future we are cutting financing to educate our future.

Relating to technology, one has to wonder (1) the impact on technology spending as decision makers contend with this crisis and (2) how can technology be used to assist in the crisis?

For the first thought, I surmise that if an organization invested in their technical infrastructure with good decisions when times were flush, the organization should be able to weather this economic downturn with minimal investment. This fact is why computer manufacturers and resellers are also caught up in the economy's vortex for the most part. But having put more money after bad, some organizations still have to make investments in technical infrastructure in this economy.

For the second thought, there has been a world wide push for online learning centers and universities to reduce physical and overhead costs and provide any time access to students from all walks of life. The UC system had begun research into the idea in the 1990's, quick Google & Yahoo! searches reveal nothing about this initiative. Equally notable for me is that U.C. Merced is a thriving campus where 2700 students physically attend classes. I have to wonder what the impact of implementing the Cyber Campus instead of or in addition to would have on our current budget crisis and need to enroll qualified students at a U.C.

This ties my 2 thoughts together: that decision makers have to think long term about finances and students, not necessarily in that order. In the 1990's I had access to data that foresaw this current crisis of surging student enrollments, yet for various reasons unbeknownst to the public (and I can imagine the political, the ego of a large structure vs. an unseen entity) the cyber university was not implemented to alleviate this system strain. So now additional funds in a strained funding and economic environment should be found to ensure students are able to obtain educations. Fortunately other schools and universities have opened their cyber doors for the past 10 years. Though financial resources threaten their traditional enrollment, I encourage these schools to consider expanding their online course offerings as a way to accommodate more students.

And on a side note, what is the point of having a major research facility in the heart of our state's agricultural economy if the campus does not offer a major in agricultural sciences? This is a cutting edge research field in countries where food supplies are difficult or expensive to obtain and a way for a university of the U.C. caliber could make a contribution to the world.

More on Creating a Class Site with Google Sites

I define a class site as a repository for all the information you present to your students in class, information in addition to what you've taught, and things they may find *cool* to tie in to their learning. However because web page design started off as a very techy thing many people are still hesitant to put their classroom information online. I'm here to tell you Google Sites is the answer to their prayers.

Google Sites is very wysiwyg*, just like typing a document in Microsoft Office and saving as a web page, but you're typing directly into a web page. Depending on your computer comfort level you could sign up for a Google account and play your way through setting up a site or read basic information about Google Sites or tutorials on making a Google Site before venturing forth.

The easiest way to start using Google Sites is to create one (1) Web Page and just type your information in. Use the Insert menu to add interesting options to your pages (a photo, a class calendar, maybe). When you're ready to explore even further, read about the types of Pages you can create and add to your site.

By masking the coding and limiting page options to the most useful any teacher can create a great looking web site for their class.

*wysiwyg: what you see is what you get

Paradigm Shifts: Asynchronous learning

Have you heard of hulu.com? Maybe you've missed an episode of your favorite tv show or like me you gave up television for time management but exclusively watch these tv shows on the web? Maybe you have a cell phone plan with data and an iPhone or Blackberry to stay connected at all times?

There is a new paradigm shift on the horizon ... as pervasive and as ubiquitous as cellular technology ... and it's changing students' delivery expectations. I've noticed that students are not patient in waiting for the slow connection at school: they click and distract the browser's download whereas when I was their age with dial up internet, waiting was all you could do! Does having access to communication and information anytime and anyplace mean instructors have to think about providing similar access to learning?

Opening Microsoft Office 2007 documents in older versions of MS Office

By now you've probably heard, "I finished my paper at home but it won't open at school!" or "I can't print it!". Because Microsoft did not create a backwards compatible document file system you cannot open files created with Office 2007 with any of the older versions of Office without performing an extra step.

First read this list of what happens when you convert the file from Microsoft Office's update site. If you still have some editing affected by one of these features you may want to continue using Office 2007. If you just want to view and print, read below.

The best way is to remember to change the document type in Office 2007 so it ends in .doc instead of .docx. You can change the document type manually in the Save or Save As dialog, or via your Preferences: Tools -> Options -> Save tab -> Default format -> change to "Word Document (*.doc)" instead of "Word 2007 Document (*.docx)"

The next easiest way allows you to view and print .docx files:
"In case you just want to view a docx file, there is a simpler way: rename the extension of file from .docx to .zip then extract the contents. Docx is basically a set of xml files. When you unzip the file, you get a folder named Word and inside that you can see a file named document.xml. To view the contents of the document, open document.xml."

The following was inspired by an article titled 5 Ways to Open a Docx file from ToThePC.com that succinctly summarized what took me a few minutes of web searching to find how to open a student's homework file at the last minute of course :) I took the liberty of adding my own thoughts and re-arranging the order of the original list in my preferred order.

1. Convert files for free online: Initially I used Zamzar to convert a student's file: you browse to your file, select the format you want to convert to, and go for it! Anther options is docx-converter, of course a web search will find many more...
   Pros: no additional software on your computers
   Cons: not a good idea for sensitive or high security documents
2. Software specifically for converting files: this software does one job and does it right: drag your .docx file to the drop area and it's automatically converted and saved to the same location as the original file
   Pros: a small application that does one thing and does it right
   Cons: more software on our computers? even though it's really small
   
3. Free software that opens any document: To open .docx files in Open Office you'll need to install the Open XML Translator.
   Pros: You should have OpenOffice available for users anyway because it can open almost any document type and you can encourage students to use it at home since it's free.
   Cons: OO uses a lot of memory so if you're a heavy application user be ware.
   
4. Download more software from Microsoft: Microsoft provides what's called a compatibility pack that updates your current installation of Office to open .docx documents. The original one I downloaded was completely standalone and didn't require installing all other updates before installing it, but I can't find that online. The Mac version of the compatibility pack is called the Open XML File Format Converter.
   Pros: Installing allows users to independently complete their work instead of making your workstation special; integrates seamlessly with Office
   Cons: If you have an older computer you should check your hard drive's memory to ensure you have space for all the updates you may not have installed in the past
   
   In addition, why should we continue to financially support an inefficient system? Instead of using good software design principles and making the new file format backwards compatible and thus easier for end-users, they are forcing consumers to jump through all kinds of hoops and load more memory hogging updates on our computers. Now off my high horse, it is the most easily integrated option: once the compatibility pack is installed you can open any .docx file any time without any converting.
   

(Sources: ToThePC.com, LifeRocks 2.0)

Students blogging about their perspective of their education

Yes there are millions of us educators blogging about our experiences educating today's youth. But how often do we hear our "customers", our students discuss their perspective of the decisions we educators and administrators make about what they learn?

In today's news (online news of course...save trees!) I was introduced to a young woman named Katy Murphy who writes about educational issues in the Oakland Tribune. Her insightful article caught my attention from its catchy headline ("Oakland charter schools get high marks and skepticism"), and even more impressive was the thorough coverage of a divisive issue. Then I saw that in addition to reporting with this long time newspaper she also has a blog, The Education Report, where she discusses educational issues. I read that she is a high school senior and thought, how impressed are her college choices going to be that she already has so much professional experience?

Then I thought, how many teachers take advantage of the simple medium of blogging for academic exercise or creative writing to encourage future writers?

Creating a Computer Lab

When one thinks of creating a room full of computers I'm sure an astronomical cost comes to mind! Network infrastructure aside (that's all the cables, wires and network equipment to provide internet access) a class-sized computer lab doesn't have to come with a steep price tag. Here are some resources and considerations to creating your computer lab.

Finding Desktops

• Businesses change computers regularly. You can check with large companies in your area to see how they dispose of old technology.
• There are also organizations (usually non-profit) that collect used computers, refurbish them, then either give away or sell them at very economical cost to schools. We have OTX-West in Oakland USD.
• Consider a Mac lab. The upfront costs of purchasing these popular computers is more than made up for with the ease of maintenance. Include a server and with AppleTalk's built-in capabilities you can control every computer from the server. Once everything is working you decide how to manage the costs of upgrading (I'm of the opinion that once it's working you don't mess it up until you absolutely have to; others believe in immediately upgrading because of security risks.)

Finding Software

• Open Source and Freeware software is the way to minimize software costs. There are open source equivalents to almost every commercially available software package. Be sure to test the software for viruses, malware and advertisements.
• Shareware is just like freeware except the designers ask for a small nominal fee to cover some sort of costs.