SoundSource

This is a great little utility that allows you to quickly change your sound input or output on the Mac.  I’m always switching between my headphones and the built-in sound on my iMac.  Using SoundSource makes the task much easier.  The application sits in the menu bar, right next to the date, etc.  A pulldown menu allows you to switch either the input or output with just one click (no need to open the System Preferences).

Link

New version of Picasa

I usually write only about Mac applications, but since a lot of people have dual boot machines (or have two machines), I thought I would mention that one of my favorite Windows programs just got even better.  Picasa (as close to iPhoto as you can get on the PC), has added a bunch of new features:

• Labels are now called Albums.  They work the same way, but there is an album called screensaver that is automatically created for you.  Any images you drag to that album will become part of your Windows screensaver.  Nothing spectacular (the Mac has been able to do this for a while), but a nice addition to the program.
• You can create a movie with a bunch of photos and Picasa will use the Album title and description as the title of the movie.  The movie includes the “Ken Burns effect” a la iMovie, but you don’t have as much control over it.  I hope they continue to improve on this feature.
• You can now geotag images with Google Earth from within Picasa.  I will be using this feature quite a bit to add location information to my images.
• I have not had a chance to test this out yet, but it looks like you can send images from your PC to a Tivo using Picasa.  I have the Tivo Desktop installed already, so maybe I’ll give this a shot later this week.

Link of the week

Need to create a quick map with markers and notes?  Then TinyMap is the way the go.  You can easily add waypoints (markers) and points of interest (notes) to your map, then when you click on Save you get a URL you can use to share the maps.

This can be used in history classes to have students trace historical events (Columbus’s travels, Crusades, etc. are just a few ideas that come to mind).

iPod as a testing device

I recently helped one of our students design a test for special education students to be delivered using iPods. The idea was inspired by the Louisa Muscatine iPod Project, even though my approach is a little bit different than theirs. Today, I finally had a chance to look at their site, where they had a short video explaining how they created their tests. I have to commend them on this creative use of the iPod in the classroom. As a visually impaired person, I am always looking for ways that this wonderful device can be used as an assistive technology.

I think their approach has two key advantages:

• It is very easy for teachers to create the test items. They can use Keynote or PowerPoint to create slides that are exported as images, and these slides can include other images such as simple graphs or tables. My approach, which uses the notes feature of the iPod, involves a little more work because each individual test item is an individual note on the ipod and these notes are linked through hyperlinks. I fear that as soon as you mention that hyperlinks and HTML are involved (even if it’s only two tags) this may turn off many teachers from wanting to implement this kind of technology. To get around this, you can provide a template for teachers to follow, as I did with the student I worked with.
• It is also very easy for the students to navigate through the questions once they are on the iPod. They just have to click on the back or forward button to navigate, whereas with my approach they must scroll to a link until it changes color to indicate that it is active, then click on the center button to move to the next note. For younger students, this may be too difficult.

For elementary school students, I would say that their approach is ideal. However, for older students I think my approach has some advantages:

• The notes feature has an advantage when it comes to text. You are not limited by what can be displayed on the screen at one time. For questions where students have to read a short passage (FCAT reading review, etc), the notes method would be ideal because you can scroll to see more content. The text is also more legible when you use notes. This is a limitation of the movie size created by Garageband, which will hopefully be addressed in the next release of the program.
• The use of hyperlinks gives you more flexibility in the types of exhibits you can use with the test items. You can easily link to video clips and images in the same test. When you create the test using the podcast track in Garageband, you can only include still images or video, but not both (unless you create the whole thing as a movie in iMovie and then import into Garageband–but now you’re introducing another program into the equation). This is another limitation that will hopefully be addressed in the next version of iLife.
• The use of “museum mode” allows you to lock down the iPod so that students are not distracted by other content on the iPod. They only have access to the content in the notes folder, which would be your test and any instructions. Obviously, you would not have any music or other content on the iPod before administering a test, but the temptation to click on other things (even if it’s just the settings) is too much of a distraction.

For older students I think the use of the notes is fine. They probably already have some experience with the iPod, so learning the navigation is probably not too much of a problem.  And as I said before, once you create a test once, you can continue to reuse it as a template.  All you have to do is substitute the text for the new items and link to new exhibits.

I can see combining the two approaches as well.  That is, I would have the iPod set to notes mode to “lock it down”, then include a menu for each section of the test (using a .linx note)  and use a podcast (created with Garageband) for each section.  This would work well for a test where you only have text and the items are short.

As they say, there is “more than one way to skin a cat”.  The way in which we both developed a successful iPod test demonstrates that there are several ways to get this done, each with advantages and disadvantages.  The method you choose will depend on the tech savvy of the teachers and the needs of the audience as well as the requirements of the test.

Great screencast site

I found this site called Murphy Mac that has some great screencasts. They are all very short and easy to follow (the site’s owner calls them snippets). I like that they are created in Flash so they are very small. Some great tips for all ability levels. The way he has them set up, each day of the week the tips get more advanced.

I highly recommend this site.

New guide

I have just uploaded a new guide to iDVD. The guide is available in the support section of the Laptop Lounge site.

Cool little photo app

This is a neat program to add a little visual appeal to a blog or wiki. Thumbscrew allows you to quickly rotate an image and add a drop shadow or border. The only controls you have are in the preferences (you can change the rotation angle, etc.) but a nice thing is that you can drop a folder of images and it will go through all of them and create thumbnails. By default, the thumbnails are saved in the same folder as the originals. This is similar to the rotate effect in iWeb.

Interesting Mapping Tool

Maplib.net is an interesting application of the Google Maps API. The idea is that you can upload any image (the larger the better) and then use Google Map controls to navigate it by zooming, panning, etc. just as you would with a Google Map. I already thought of a good idea for how to use this: create an annotated screenshot of any application’s interface, with each section labeled.

Maplib is a little rough (it’s in serious beta…I had a hard time placing and removing markers). The interface to the people viewing the image will be familiar, and you can copy some code on the site and post it to a blog or another website.

Web 2.0 Presentation tool

Spresent is going to be one of my favotire web 2.0 apps.  This flash interface allows you to create a presentation completely online (with images, audio, tables, charts, etc.)   It’s like having access to PowerPoint from any computer.

One thing I like is that it can add credits at the end for any media you want to add to a presentation (and Flickr images are supported).  It can be used with audio to create a much better enhanced podcast (with bigger slides).

Get it here.

Enhanced Podcast on Windows

Yes, it is possible to do it.  I tried it yesterday.  You have to download Windows Media Encoder, then use one of the components called Windows File Editor (WME is a suite of the encoder and a couple of tools, one of which is the file editor).  You can then open your file and play it back.  You can pause at different points and add a marker.  You can also add a script that will open a website, but I did not like the way this worked.  First of all, the person viewing the file has to change their preferences for the scripts to work (Tools > Options > Security > Allow scripts).  Second, the scripts are activated without user intervention in a way that is a little abrupt.  It would be better if the links showed up on the screen while the file is playing so you then had an option.  I don’t know if the new WMP supports this or if it works differently under Vista with the new WMP.

Once you’re finished setting markers, do a File > Save and Index and save your file with a new file name.  To use the markers, open it with Windows Media Player and then go to File > Markers and select the marker you want to skip to.

I tried to convert the file into iPod format using Videora, but the markers were gone.  What you can do is save two versions (one for the computer that can be viewed using WMP, and one for the iPod that has been converted using Videora).  If you don’t have Videora, go out and grab it.  This is a great little program that allows you to do a one-click conversion of any .wmv file to .mp4, which can be played on the iPod.