If there is one commonality distance educators share it is that we all use a computer to teach. And we also strive to deliver quality teaching, a positive learning experience, and indefatigable enthusiasm while also embracing any trick, tip, suggestion, idea, or information that can allow us to accomplish all this in a more organized, timely, and creative manner. This bag of teaching aids can come from many sources, but one that can prove very helpful—and is often overlooked—is the computer itself: software, hardware, configurations, and tools that can offer tremendous assistance to any course we teach.
Packed with varied items, you are sure to find at least one or two that can make your overall teaching efforts just a tad more enjoyable. This will be an annual column, coming at the beginning of each year, but when I find something that screams “Ya gotta share me with your teaching brethren!” I will include it in a column that publishes sooner. Obviously there are many other teaching aids of which I have no knowledge, and so I reach out to you, my readers: please send me (erroldistancelearning@gmail.com) any computer helpmates you’ve come across. I’ll happily share them in future columns. For now, however, here is my first collection for you.
Organize all for a more efficient course. Google Calendar (calendar.google.com) is a big help in keeping all areas of your life organized, which makes for an easier time in managing your course. You can create events and tasks, establish parameters (such as date, time, and location), request reminders (e-mail, pop-up, or text message), and more. What’s especially helpful with Google Calendar is you can sync it with Outlook, Mozilla Sunbird, or Apple iCal, as well as your iPhone or iPod Touch, Blackberry, or Windows mobile device. You need an active Google account, but that’s free, and this calendar can help you get all class e-mails, announcements, grade postings, and other dated material done on time.
Understand all phrases, including regional ones. Deciphering colloquialisms, phrases, or idioms can be difficult and time consuming in an online class, especially since students can live just about anywhere in the world, and you may not be familiar with what a student has written because the language is so regionalized. Enter Phrases.net (www.phrases.net), the most comprehensive Internet listing of phrases obscure and common. Be sure to also bookmark Abbreviations.com, Synonym.com, and Dictionary.com, as well as Wordcounter (http://www.wordcounter.com), a site that lets you quickly ascertain what words are being used most often in a written piece.)
Keep abreast of the latest teaching materials. TeacherStorehouse.com (www.teacherstorehouse.com) is for all teachers—online or face-to-face classes —but it offers a wealth of useful materials, books, software, and other items, either to purchase or from which to simply get ideas to use in your class. What is also especially useful are the Links and Teachers’ Lounge links: the former offer a wide variety of useful web teaching sites and the latter is a great place to share ideas and info with other teachers. And a quick suggestion: there is a ton of online teaching forums that exist to specifically discuss all aspects of online teaching: participate in at least one—you’ll come away a much more informed distance educator!
Always have that passed-up-yet-inter-esting article available for later reading. We often come across an article or essay that looks oh-so-interesting but we have to pass it be because reading it just won’t fit into our schedule at the moment. And while we may promise to go back and read it, we often forget. To help us with this—there is so much valuable info we accidentally stumble across that can help us be better online instructors in so many ways—two exceptional sites exist that can capture and keep track of every interesting page you come across for reading at a later time: Read It Later (readitlaterlist.com) and Instapaper (www.instapaper.com). Each site offers something slightly different from the other, but both can be valuable in helping you to expand your resources of ideas and info for online teaching.
A tip to help keep you from landing in Sent E-mail Doo-Doo. We have all done it: sent an e-mail we wish we could unsend, and seldom can this be done. And with so many items that need our focus it is often impossible to concentrate only on the e-mail we are writing—even though we know we should. Okay, so try this to give you one more hurdle your e-mail needs to cross before others read it: configure your e-mail to have your computer force a spell check before it is sent, then always purposefully misspell a word in the e-mail. The spell checker will stop at the misspelled word, preventing the e-mail from being sent—and also serve as a reminder to you for one more thorough read before sending the e-mail off to its intended reader(s).
While Office 2007 does not allow document to be saved as PDF files, you can do it. There are times when we need to save files—from students, administrators, colleagues, others, ourselves—in a .pdf (Portable Document Format) file, but Word 2007 is not configured to do that. However, there is an add-on from Microsoft’s website that will add this option to the Word Save As menu (it also allows you to send files in .pdf formats). Simply log onto www.microsoft.com/downloads, then type in 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS in the search box at the top. Once you locate it, click the Download link in the blue box and save the file to your hard drive; when the download is complete, double click it to start the installation. Now you can save your work as a PDF file by clicking the Office button: mouse over Save As and choose PDF or XPS (similar to PDF, but Microsoft’s version) —and instead of a Save button you will see a Publish button.
Be prepared when traveling with your computer. Whether it be another city or a coffee shop down the street, sometimes you need a USB cable and an Ethernet cable. Be sure you have one of each handy. Also good to have: an extension cord, if an outlet is not nearby and you need to use your battery pack; contact phone numbers for any Inter-net-related provider in case of an emergency; the latest antivirus software on your computer—many public locations do not encrypt their internet connections, opening an easier path for online viruses; for especially long or long-dis-tance trips carry a set of boot disks, as well as the registration number(s) should you need to reinstall programs; extra batteries and a phone cord (for an Internet connection) or your wireless data access card; passwords you will need (write them down in a small notebook, not on your computer, as in case it crashes you will need use another computer).
Keep your computer clean for greatest efficiency. It is there, and it works, and we expect it to work: our computer does its job, day in and day out, but to maximize its abilities all components need be regularly cleaned; before you do this, always first shut down and unplug your computer—you don’t want to accidentally change any settings. Once this is done you are ready. Keyboard: turn it upside down and gently shake it, then use a can of compressed air and a PCspecific scrub brush to clean between and on the keys. Mouse: for a trackball, wash the ball with soap and water, then let it air dry or dry it with a lint-free cloth; use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to thoroughly clean the rollers. If your mouse is wireless remove the batteries, then flip it on its back and use a cotton swab to swab out any dust built up inside the small light hole; if your mouse has small, flat feet to help it glide be sure to swab them with rubbing alcohol. Monitor: use a dry-lint-free cloth or a foam paint brush to wipe the monitor; you can use a bit of liquid to help but wipe it off immediately. Tower: use compressed air regularly to clean inside and outside the hardware tower—dust builds up quickly and you do not want it clogging any part of your hardware, as this can slow or damage components.
Label your PC’s cables. The more addons we have on our computer the more cables exist—and unless something goes wrong or we have a Monk-like cleaning obsession chances are we lose track of how many cables we do have “lurking down below.” But when we find the need to disconnect one or more of the cables it can take some time knowing (a) the purpose of the cable(s) and (b) where to reconnect the end(s) of the cable(s). To keep this straight, type out the info on labels, cover each with clear sealing tape, punch a small hole near the end of each label, and attach each to its respective cable. This way you will always know the purpose of each cable and to where it connects—and save much time and frustration in the process.
Send large e-mails, not having to worry about an e-mail service supporting the size. There are times when we want to send our class an e-mail that has attachments—pictures, graphs, articles, and so on—but the size is so large our e-mail service says, in essence, “Sorry, no can do. It’s breaking my back!” However, using the site 2Large2Email (2large2Email.com) will send the recipient of your e-mail a download link instead of multiple megabytes of data than can overload the person’s inbox or present your e-mail from going out. The free version of this service has a 200 MB max file size and a limit of 100 downloads.
Clean up your office workspace to keep your teaching efforts more efficient. There are so many items that just seem to grow in our office workplace, around our computer—and the more of these we have the less efficient we become, as we spend more time searching for this, looking for that, and overlooking the other thing. Uncluttering and organizing our office workspace has so many advantages, and a site called Unclutterer (www.unclutterer.com) offers tips and advice on how to maintain a clutterfree and organized office workspace (as well as household). There are also forums and discussions where readers offer additional tips.
Test your PC for online threats. Often, it is only when it is too late that we learn our PC has not been fully protected against an online attack. But using an outside testing service, such as Shields Up! from Gibson Research (www.grc.com), can test your PC for file-sharing, port, messaging, and browser vulnerabilities, as well as providing detailed info about the vulnerabilities.
Some fun and interesting sites. There are—as of November 2009—269 million websites on the Internet; obviously, we can only be familiar with a small fraction of these. And for our courses we tend to accumulate only those that relate directly to the subject we are teaching, how to become a better teacher, and trends in distance learning. Yet it is crucial to look at sites that are simply interesting or just plain fun; they help give us a breather, they help to rejuvenate us, and sometimes provide us with info we can also share with our classes. Some recent ones I’ve come across: 100 Most Mispronounced Words (tinyurl.com/3b2jf). About Big Numbers (pages.prodigy.net/jhonig/bignum). Academic Earth (www.academicearth.org)—view thousands of video lectures from top scholars at major universities. Contact Help (www.contacthelp.com)—locate customer service numbers that will connect you with real folks. MonkeySee (www.monkeysee.com)—a huge collection of how-to videos. World Clock (http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf)—a large number of interesting categories, such as World Time, Population, Illness, Death, Environment, Energy, US Crimes, Food, and others. TypeRacer (play.typeracer.com)—pit your typing skills against other players to see just how good you are.
Be aware of Wi-Fi spots in your destination. Having Wi-Fi access has become so important that many hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and other spots advertise it. But to be safe, call ahead and ask—it can save you from the panic mode you’ll surely fall into when you arrive and find no Internet connectivity available. There are also many master lists of Wi-Fi hotspots available on the Internet; here are the ones I consider the best:
US airports (free and for-a-fee Wi-Fi): http://www.travelpost.com /airport-wireless-internet.aspx
US airports (free Wi-Fi): http://www.wififreespot.com/airport.html
Worldwide (bars, marinas, shops, etc.): http://www.ezgoal.com/hotspots
Worldwide airports: (free and for-a-fee Wi-Fi): http://usatoday.jiwire.com/hotspots-hot-spot-airport-directory-browse-by-country.htm
Keep all user’s manuals handy. One of the easiest items to lose with a new com-puter-related purchase is the user’s manual, and often it is only when we need it that we realize it’s not around. Three tips to help with this problem: (a) Once you’ve purchased the item, go online, find it, and save it to a file called User’s Manuals; (b) Create a file in a file cabinet called User’s Manuals and keep all manuals there—if your computer crashes you will still have all manuals; (c) for vintage computer manuals visit http://www.vintagecomputermanuals.com/ and read Smart Computing’s article “How to Find Computer Manuals Online: http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?guid=&bJumpto=true&Isfrm=IN&article=articles/webonly/techsupport/06w10/06w10.asp&ArticleID=31062
A ready source for mouse feet. Most of us use them with our computer and they are often taken for granted, but when mouse feet are lost or need be replaced, just where do you find them? Rarely are they found in computer stores and computer manufacturers can make you jump through hoops to get new ones. Enter Slicksurf.com, an online shop that sells only mouse feet and for just about every brand. I found them to be reliable and very quick to deliver orders.
Get more productivity from your mouse. A great way to extend the productivity of your mouse’s efforts, KatMouse (http://ehiti.de/katmouse/), lets you keep your keyboard focused on a specific window while allowing your mouse to scroll other open windows. It can also send the window on which your pointer rests to the back of a group, which can make locating a hidden window easier (especially helpful when looking over more than one student assignment simultaneously).
Find your I.P. address and host name. Some forms and programs require you to enter your I.P. (Internet Protocol) address, unique for your computer (it’s how computers “talk” with one another); also, you may need to know your “official” host name for programs, tech support, or forms. One site that immediately provides you with both is KnowMyIP.com (http://www.knowmyip.com/)—it’s a helpful site to bookmark.
Visit distance listening listservs for a wealth of information. Type in “distance learning listserv” and you will get a plethora of links, divided into two categories: generic (for anyone interested in distance learning) and specific (for specific job titles, genres, schools, subjects, etc.). Take the time to visit some of these, and definitely become a member of at least one: sharing distance learning info, problems, insights, suggestions, and concerns with others in the same profession can be very helpful in improving your efforts as a distance learning educator—and this equates to a better online learning experience for the students.
A fun site to help build vocabulary and feed the world. It is nice when a website comes along that is engaging, is helpful in a charitable sense, and can improve our mind. Such a site is Free Rice (http://freerice.com). In a colorful and informative website a vocabulary test is given; for each right answer the sponsor of the site will donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
REMEMBER: The more we fertilize our plants, work the soil, and weed the yard the brighter the flowers, the tastier the vegetables, the sweeter the fruits.
