iSean

email is important for just about anyone who works in an online world. many of us consider many email applications before settling on the best of the bunch but often a solution lacking all of what we’d want. the browser is another important application for internet geeks (e.g., is there really a choice beyond Firefox?). but for me, two of the more important uses of my computer are for scheduling needs and for my to do lists. i am a Macintosh user, so i am pretty happy with iCal — it comes free with the Mac OS. unfortunately, iCal is not great for a person who has to sync calendars with others and for a person who often uses lab computers, etc. so i switched to Google’s calendars back in April of ‘06. at the time, i noted that Google worked well with iCal. i was wrong. while Google’s calendar can import iCal calendars, it’s not a two way street and thus it is worthless to even try it. so i gave up on iCal. i missed the quickness of using iCal when i am on my main computer. i can make quick edits and additions when using iCal that take a bit longer on Google’s calendars. and Google is fast. however, i recently discovered Spanning Sync (SS). SS is a tool that will work on your Mac to automatically (or manually) sync Google’s calendars with your iCal calendars and visa versa. they have a demo here and it looks just beautiful. i have grabbed the public beta but unfortunately i just discovered that the DIGG effect is in full force. this little application had made the digg front page and the servers at SS couldn’t handle the load, so they closed down their beta offering for now. shucks. on the other hand, i find it interesting that the application will reside on your computer, yet it uses the SS servers to perform the sync. imagine the amount of data that SS will have access to (insert evil laugh here). ;~)

as far as my to do list . . . i’ll have to save that for another day, but suffice to say i’ve moved beyond a simple text document and i am still searching for the ideal solution.

Technorati Tags: iCal, calendar, scheduling, digg, Google, Spanning Sync

whether you think there is too much hype over web 2.0 or not, the fact is that there are some neat web-based applications that are emerging and have been emerging. i have been very busy with work and an article I was writing that I haven’t been posting much here lately. hopefully i am back on track now.

anyway, i came across a blog site last month that listed many web-based applications that are alternatives to desktop office applications. i bookmarked it using listmixer (my favorite social bookmarking site — even though i am not social about it; it keeps me synced between machines for websites i want to come back to) about a month ago and am just now getting around to reading it, but figured i’d share it since it is a continuation of some thinking i started on this blog earlier this year with regard to writely as an Microsoft Word replacement. here’s the link: http://www.solutionwatch.com/515/back-to-school-with-the-class-of-web-20-part-2/

Technorati Tags: education, web 2.0, web-based applications, spreadsheets, word processing

i have been fiddling with Google’s writely lately. i signed up before Google bought writely, but i wanted to see how Google was coming into play now that they’ve had the site for about a half of a year. my initial review is here. in fact, you can see my initial writely document with a quick update at this link. you won’t see the interface of writely, but you can see the document.

the biggest influence i notice from Google is that writely now has tagging enabled. if you are a blogger yourself, you know all about tagging. i think much of my traffic shows up because of the tags i use at the end of each blog post (via technorati, of course). Macintosh computers have tagging built in, though i think tagging is still something more likely to be used by geeks than the general public. but, wow is tagging powerful. everything i do with regard to an ED 205 course i teach is tagged each semester like this: 205_063. the 063 tells me it’s from 2006 and the 3rd semester (1st is winter, 2nd is spring/summer, and 3rd is fall). i also use tags for the content (e.g., digital divide). i can search for digital divide tags that also include 205_063 or from last semester 205_062. i no longer have to use folders like i used to do. i just make a dated folder every few weeks and drop everything on my desktop into the folder and move it out of the way. i can hit command-space bar and type a tag or two and have any file(s) in about 2 – 3 seconds. that’s power.

well, writely now has tagging built in (click to view larger version):

no more messy folders. if you use Gmail, you have an idea how this can play out. i have thousands of emails in gmail, but no folders. i can quickly search and narrow down emails i am seeking. writely appears headed in a similar direction. writely has more . . . for example, you can easily use writely to write blog entries and even save writely files straight to a blog:

i think writely is shaping up to be a nice cheap alternative to MS Office. i sure hope schools are able to find a way to save money and use something like writely. then again, how long will writely remain free? (sigh)

Technorati Tags: blogging, Google, writely.com, Word, word processing, writely

this semester, i have been using podcasting even more than previous semesters. i have also been using podcasts and video enhanced podcasts this semester (using ProfCast for the video enhanced versions). i place the video enhanced versions on my .Mac site with iWeb. however, when I use a plain audio podcast, i have been making an mp3 version and a smaller iTunes version and giving my students an option to download either one. i survey my students weekly and the results (see below — click image to view larger version) indicate that most choose to listen to the mp3 even though most have downloaded iTunes to view my video enhanced podcasts. i find this strange.

okay, i just met with a student in one of my online sections as i was writing this. i showed him the results above and asked him which version he listened to. he said he listened to the mp3 version. i asked if he had iTunes on his computer. he did. he said that he listened to the mp3 version because he knew what to expect from it. the iTunes version had an extension of m4a and that was new to him. he wasn’t sure if it would just open automatically in iTunes or whether he’d have to figure out how to get it to play in iTunes. i am glad i asked. frankly, i don’t know how this works on a PC. perhaps someone can fill me in if you’ve downloaded an m4a (iTunes) audio file or podcast previously. that way i can better explain it in the future.

Technorati Tags: iTunes, mp3, podcast, profcast, iWeb

this isn’t really ed tech, but it’s geeky enough that i had to point it out. i have been using a custom google page as my starting point on the internet. on this page, i have Digg headlines; NY TImes headlines; Wired News; Stock Market; Weather; Sports Illustrated; Inside Higher Ed; my Gmail account; etc. on this front page. i have a 23″ display so it all fits nicely. i have thought about adding more, but stuff that falls below the main screen tends to get ignored as i don’t like scrolling.

well, Google has added a new feature borrowed from tabbed browsing. they added the ability to use tabs on this customized page. i just added a new tab that i titled “ed tech” — obviously, i placed ed tech feeds on this page. the Google pages make it easy to add RSS feeds as content on the custom pages. i added, “Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes ~ OLDaily RSS 2.0” which contains hundreds of various ed tech blogs. i added a bunch of other RSS feeds as well. pretty nifty to have it all on one page. sure, i get it all using NetNewsWire (an RSS / Atom news reader that’s really good), but that’s a completely different application and sometimes i get stuck in the web browser.

just quickly, since i am touting something from Google, i figured i’d explain how i use my gmail account . . . my university uses Groupwise (no link; it’s crummy). i use a few different computers (my laptop and desktop). well, my sent mail often gets lost. if i send something on my desktop, i rarely can find it on my laptop even though all machines are using IMAP with everything stored on the server. well, with Thunderbird you can have every email you send also automatically blind carbon copied to any email address you choose. i do this to my gmail account and then use a filter to have every email from me labeled as such and removed from the main inbox into it’s own little hideaway. anytime i want to see my sent mail from any computer, it’s easily accessible.

Technorati Tags: Google, NetNewsWire, email, Thunderbird, RSS

so, i teach 2 online classes that have 24 students; though, both classes were missing a student last week (one on wednesday and one on thursday). that’s 23 students/class if you’re keeping track at home.

in both classes, i had students log into my drupal site and sign up and post a message. both times, a screen came up and said that i was locked out for a few minutes because my site was using too much of the CPU.

23 users? compared to most websites on the internet i am extremely small time, yet i overloaded the CPU?

i guess i am just a bit shocked!

i have been extremely happy with bluehost up to this point, but this just seems a bit pathetic to me. 23 users on my site and i am shut down. having 30 GB of space and fantastico and cPanel and all of that jazz is great, but there comes a point when just being able to access the stuff you have online is even more important and that’s while i am teaching.

bluehost made changes in the last month or so that have caused the errors i am getting. and, i also realize they quickly added a new account for heavy users, but i have two small classes . . . $20/month for an educator with 2 small classes is a bit steep considering i pay $6.95/month now. thank gosh my students are online and that they login at different times; however, i am looking ahead to the date of my midterm and i am worried that they’ll all want to access my drupal site where the class content is located and i’ll get overloaded again. this is the kind of thing that never entered my thinking when choosing an online host. i still have an account with iPowerWeb, but i kept getting database errors with my drupal installation on their site. i do use them for my phpBB installation and it’s gone well. perhaps i’ll figure out how to get drupal installed there and leave bluehost for just my blog. my blog doesn’t get too much traffic. ;~)

Tags: bluehost, drupal, overloaded, teaching, online, hosting

i have finally made a sample of what Quicktime 7 looks like using an enhanced podcast (video images added to the audio). in a previous blog entry, i mentioned that i was creating enhanced podcasts this semester for my students and Chris Conway asked for a sample, so that’s where this blog entry comes in. this is a very small file at 228 KB. i will provide a link to the file for anyone who wants to fiddle with it. here’s how it looks:

Click here to download the file (228 KB) — you might need to right-click and save the file to your computer first.

make sure you fiddle with the chapters (click on the Enhanced Podcast box on the lower right side of the QT interface).

Tags: Quicktime, podcast, enhanced podcast, videocast, m4b

i am not a web designer by training, nor have i have spent much time learning about the intricacies of design. heck, i didn’t even stay at a holiday inn express last night. that being said, i think all educators are responsible for making their online learning content as accessible as is possible and that includes the design of the online materials we use. in that vein, i have always thought that black text on a white background is necessary on the web. i made no exceptions for the longest time. but, i have slowly decided that black text on a white background can have a darker background off to the side as seen here on my upcoming Drupal class website:

notice how i have dark blue around the edges? not much i admit, but the text is still black on white. my blog follows this principal as well. i notice many blogs have light text on a dark background and i think i get slightly annoyed when i see it, but only because i have ingrained in my head that this is bad design; not for any practical reason.

i had a display go bad on me recently. i bought a new dell 20 LCD and went about setting the desktop background (this is my secondary display as my main apple display is 22″, just FYI). i started thinking about the color of background that i’d use on the desktop and decided that a very dark (e.g., black) background would be best for the display because that uses less light (if any at all). come to think of it, a white background is really like turning on a light behind the screen — that can’t be as good for the display in the long run. a screen is not like paper because a screen is illuminated. i wonder how pleasing that is to our eyes to stare all day at illuminated screens? that got me to pondering things.

further, i use a tool on my Mac called TextMate for my text editing needs (particularly Ruby and web programming). i have found that i particularly enjoy the inverted colors for my text documents as seen in this file i am working on:

now i obviously use multiple colors, which helps me to see various elements of the file more easily, but i really like staring at the darker screen for long periods of time and i tried a white background with colors as well.

i even came across a blog that discusses using dark backgrounds and states:

When reversing color out, e.g., white text on black, make sure you increase the leading, tracking and decrease your font-weight. This applies to all widths of Measure. White text on a black background is a higher contrast to the opposite, so the letterforms need to be wider apart, lighter in weight and have more space between the lines.

i am not sure i know how to decrease a font’s weight from the default . . . actually much of what is stated on that blog is pretty easy to do in MS Word, but not as easy on a website. but, at least that’s a guide to try and figure out.

i am not arguing that one style is better than another; rather, i am just noting that many tools we use these days have various themes that can be turned on and off and installed, etc. why not provide your users with some options for the theme that they most prefer? i’ll have to check through the literature to see whether i am off-base on this thinking.

Tags: web design, TextMate, typography, background, readability

unbelievable. here it is 2006 and installing a mySQL database is still not simple for the average joe (or sean in this case). i have the process down with my regular hosting company. it took me a while to figure out their intricacies, but once i did i was golden. and, bluehost (my preferred hosting company) also provide fantastico, which is an auto installer for many mySQL databases (e.g., WordPress, PHPBB forums, Drupal, Moodle, etc.). many folks in the know don’t recommend fantastico, but for people like me who like to experiment, fantastico is a fantastic way to fiddle with various tools very quickly.

anyway, i have various domain names. my ed205.com domain hosted by another popular company (iPowerWeb). they don’t make installing mySQL databases very easy compared to bluehost. maybe if i’d started with iPowerWeb then i’d think differently. hmmm. anyway, i’ve spent the last hour trying to get a Drupal installation to work and i am getting errors up the whazoo.

Warning: Table ‘ed205com_drupal.sessions’ doesn’t exist query: SELECT sid FROM sessions WHERE sid = ‘d796da670a79fd58aba93924eff2d6b0′ in /addresstoinstallonmysystem/drupal/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 120

Warning: Table ‘ed205com_drupal.users’ doesn’t exist query: SELECT u.* FROM users u WHERE u.uid = 0 in /addresstoinstallonmysystem/drupal/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 120

the warnings/errors continue for a few pages. i’ve dabbled that way and this way to no avail. i’ll now head off to the drupal forums looking for a solution to what i am doing wrong. when i installed this stuff on bluehost earlier this summer, i don’t even recall giving any part of the install a second thought. hmph!

i am just amazed that something so common is still something so difficult. yeah, fantastico is a step in the right direction, but as i mentioned earlier, folks in the know seem to think a fantastico install is not as secure and not as healthy in the long run.  i know nobody is purposefully making this stuff difficult, but when a guy like me has trouble like this, there is still a huge gap to overcome with regard to using this kind of technology. that’s unfortunate.

then again, i’ll probably post this and find my solution in the next 30 seconds . . . and, it’ll be something super simple. such is life. ;~)

the past year or more, i have been supplying my students with podcasts. my podcasts are typically a way to present lecture-type material in a different format than text. as most folks are aware, online classes tend to be more text heavy than not (of course there are exceptions). so, i provided my students with a choice between an mp3 or an iTunes mp4 (smaller file). well, about 1/2 choose each option. i tend to make the podcasts about 20 minutes. why 20 minutes, you ask? well, our campus is located about 11 miles from downtown Grand Rapids. the College of Education is located on the smaller downtown campus, but many of the students live out on or near the main campus. every so many minutes, a free shuttle bus runs between the 2 campuses. so, a student could grab my podcast and listen on the shuttle they ride to their downtown classes (or in their cars) and the podcast would fit neatly into that span. i even explain that this is what i’d do with the podcast(s). at the end of each week, i survey my students. one of the questions i ask is how they listened to my podcast. nearly every student responds that they listen on their computer. in fact, i think in the last year (maybe year and a half), i have had only 2 students listen on an mp3 player (e.g., iPod). now, i should mention that my podcasts tend to have visual aids that can accompany the podcasts, but i also make the podcast audio stand-alone. in other words, if i am referring to a website or a slide then i describe it well enough that the visual aid isn’t necessary. i do provide the supplementary visual aids to my students, but it’s more in an effort to help them not have to take extra notes.

so that brings me to a decision i am making this semester. i am going to switch to enhanced podcasts. my university just upgraded to Quicktime 7. QT 7 adds a new feature where you can have chapters in your podcast. i think this is the perfect feature to improve podcasting. and, i just recently bought a product for Macs called ProfCast (version 1.5). rather than explain it to you, here’s how the company describes their product:

ProfCast is the ideal tool for recording and publishing your live Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. All elements of your presentation, including slide timing and voice narration, are recorded. You can then publish your complete presentation on the Web as a Podcast, complete with RSS support.

• Live Presentation Recording
• Synchronized Slides with Audio
• RSS Generation for Podcasting
• Publishing support via FTP, SFTP and .Mac
• Integration with GarageBand 3
• Integration with iWeb
• Support for Audio Playthrough
• File Size Control

i don’t really like using PowerPoint, but i don’t want to avoid it when it can play a role and i think it can help to organize notes associated with a lecture, especially when pictures can be used more effectively than word descriptors. with ProfCast, i simply drag my presentation into the window and i can start recording. as i switch to a new slide, the chapter is automatically created.

Quicktime 7 will allow the chapters to be easily accessed. if a student is thumbing through the notes and wants a quick refresher, he/she doesn’t have to try and find it in the mp3 file since the chapter feature can quickly locate the audio associate with any particular slide.

one of the disadvantages of technology is how quickly things can get dated. my podcasts are going to fall by the wayside as i upgrade to enhanced podcasts. i’ve read how the development of an online course is the biggest hurdle. our university even provides money for folks to develop online courses; though, i’ve never taken any money for this (not until intellectual property rules get worked out anyway). but, folks who think the development ends when the class gets taught are really doing their students a disservice.

Tags: quicktime, profcast, podcast, e-learning, education, teaching