EdTech @ ADW

I commented previously on the discovery (well, it was a discovery for me at the time) of RSS feeds, and now have my daily fix of news, sport, finance and culture feeds stashed away on Google Reader.  However, with the increasing use of blogs as a workspace tool (principally the one you’re reading now), I wanted a way of setting up a similar stash of work related RSS feeds in an application other than a browser/Google Reader.

You will have noticed the RSS Feeds folder in your Outlook bar.  I’ve set this as my default RSS reader for SharePoint sites, so that whenever anyone edits a site, web part, or item I specify, I get a notification.  It’s very easy - well it’s easy with Padraig’s help - to put any RSS feed into that folder.  Simply copy the RSS feed address (which doesn’t necessarily have to end with .xml), right click on the RSS Feeds folder in Outlook, select ‘Add a new RSS feed…’ and paste in the url.  Ideal for work related RSS feeds.

Yes, SPAUT (SharePoint Advanced User Training) is back.  ‘Make up’ sessions have been scheduled over Ramadhan, the SharePoint Advanced User Training site has been updated, certification competencies have been circulated to trainees, and the race for the first ADWC staff member to become a certified Advanced User is on.

Recently Google celebrated its 10th anniversary and there were numerous blogs and articles about the progress they have made over the years. Today I found a very interesting blog which looks into next 10 years of Google. Although, it is all fiction but makes an interesting read.

The author makes some amusing assumptions like Microsoft going Open Source with Windows and Office suite, Chinese search engines competing and overtaking Google, Microsoft buying Yahoo (which might actually become true), Gmail User Account Privacy Vulnerability Scandal when people were able to read any one’s email for 12 hours ;-) and Sergey/Matt leaving Google plus many other. For a moment you might actually get scared of the future depicted in the blog but interesting nevertheless.

Read the blog here.

From The National.

This one gets a bit tech-ie, so bear with me.

You may have noticed that the ADWC SharePoint site has its own calendar which displays important events at the college.  It’s easy to set up a calendar in SharePoint and link it to Outlook so you can enter events either through SharePoint or through the Outlook interface, and the two synchronize automatically.  All fine and dandy.

However, this being a dynamic site, and with events being added and moved at short notice, it’s no use displaying all past and future events.  We want to display only those events which occur today or in the future.  Furthermore, because space on the page is limited (and it seems our capacity for events isn’t), we want to show only the next ten events in the future.

The calendar is displayed in summary view on the home page.  By selecting ‘modify shared web part’, we have the option of ‘editing the current view’.  In theory, we should then be able to filter by start time to show only those items which ‘are greater than or equal to [today]‘, in SharePoint language.  Except Microsoft have helpfully made ‘Start Time’ a non-filterable field.  Which means you can’t do it.  (Why did they think this was a good idea?)  The solution is to create a ‘dummy’ column called ‘Start Time Filter’, and give it a calculated value of [Start Time].  We don’t display the new dummy field, and we don’t add it to the default view.  Whatever is entered in the regular start time field is passed to the new dummy column.  We can then use it filter our view of the calendar, with the criterion ‘is greater than or equal to [today]‘.  Set an item limit of ten items, and Bob’s your uncle.

Here’s a neat solution, prompted by a question from Marlene of the Business Department. How can we get a PowerPoint displayed on a Promethean board/ActivStudio flipchart. The first option was to open a new flipchart, right click on the flipchart and choose ‘insert’. You can then insert your PowerPoint as text or a file.

However, Padraig, on the ball as ever, spotted the ‘convert to PowerPoint’ option in the ActivStudio toolbox. Just browse to your Power Point file and it will be converted with one PowerPoint slide being converted to one page of the flipchart. You can then annotate on top of the slides and export the completed file when you’re finished.

Microsoft OneNote is available to HCT faculty as part of the Office 2007 suite. It is a program that is used to create an electronic version of all those files and folders that teachers have at their desks.

The program allows users create Notebooks which can be saved locally on the users PC or on a server (SharePoint or network share). I will go into Shared Notebooks later. Each notebook is organised into Sections (which correspond to dividers in a paper file) Pages are then placed into the sections which creates a very organised electronic information management system. (Click on the image for a larger version)

Now that you have some idea about what OneNote looks like, lets look at how it can reduce the amount of pages that you need to print.

1. Think of all the emails that you print out because you need some information for class. Send the email to OneNote instead and save it in a section where you keep class information items. They will be much easier to find than sheets of paper!

2. Class lists / attendance - if you print these pages out to keep notes on during class and then throw them away afterwords, try copying and pasting the class list into OneNote. Then use your tablet pen to make the notes you want. Its easier than you think!

3. Think of all the exercises you give your students that you have to photocopy. Send the exercise to OneNote using ‘Insert - Files as Printouts’ This will place your exercise into a OneNote page where students can use their tablets to complete the work.

Can you think of other ways OneNote can reduce the amount of pages you print. It has certainly reduced my trips to the printer!

Microsoft released beta 2 version if its latest browers about a week ago. It claims to have some new and interesting features such as Accelerators, Web Slices and Tab Grouping to name a few.

Read more at the browser homepage.

To my surprise, it was very easy to get an internet connection installed in our house in Ireland. One call to the company, an appointment was arranged and can you believe it, it was completed on time. There was also no minimum contract so a 2 month rental was no problem. No connection fees, no modem purchase. In fact, Cablevision in Dungarvan, Co Waterford can’t be recommended highly enough.

I noticed that the internet speed was much faster that what I was used to here in Abu Dhabi so I did a speed test.

This meant that a 30 min tv episode could be downloaded in 5-6 mins. Also, streamed TV worked perfectly. It really opened new possibilities for the merging of TV and the Internet. The olympics were available on demand as were other sporting events. It meant that the programs hadn’t to be recorded or I hadn’t to be stuck infront of the TV while the games were on. All in all an excellent solution for TV viewing.

On my return to Abu Dhabi, I couldn’t help but notice that things weren’t as fast using the Internet (but I knew that). I dod another speed test.

The speed in Abu Dhabi is more that 10 times slower so streaming video doesn’t work well and downloads are quite a lot slower. However, the most surprising part is the price. In Ireland I was paying about 260 Dhs per month (unlimited usage) for the faster speeds. Here in Abu Dhabi I pay 189 Dhs. Hopefully, speeds in Abu Dhabi will increase and prices won’t. Am I hoping for too much?

I’ve been using Xobni for Outlook. It helps you organize, search, and navigate your email. Excellent for finding conversations you have had with anyone and files exchanged in emails. I thought you’d find it useful. Here’s an invite to download it.

Xobni has:

1) Lightning fast email search
2) Threaded conversations
3) Useful social networking features
4) Quick attachment discovery
5) Automatic phone number extraction

To download a free copy, click here:

http://www.xobni.com/download/6576656265702A75717661776C6D446C67702A65672A6561/6575717661776C6D35446C67702A65672A6561/38

Enjoy!