Yet another reason to use only IE when reading SharePoint (it gieves me to say it). When you’re uploading files to a document library, the ‘upload multiple documents’ option is only available when using IE. Apparently this command relies on an ActiveX control only available in IE.
Here’s a nice little article that might prove useful for the language teachers in our faculty. It provides 10 tips regarding behaviors and attitudes you require to learn a foreign language quickly and effectively. Here’s a brief summary:
1. Immerse yourself
It’s almost impossible to learn a new language, or at least to learn it rapidly, unless you begin thinking in that language. But how do you think in a new language you can’t yet speak? The answer is to simply immerse yourself in it.
2. Forget translating: think like a baby!
Through imitation, repetition of sounds, and above all, by not being shy or self-conscious.
3. How do you say?
Besides common greetings, the one phrase you should memorize and always have at the ready is the phrase is “How do you say that / what is that called?”
4. Write it
After having conversations, jot down the things you remembered hearing but didn’t quite understand.
5. Use cognates and draw links
Unlocking the usage of cognates instantly gives you several hundred more words to your vocabulary. For example, most words ending in “ion” in the Latin languages are the same in English. For example: information / información, donation / donación
6. Local TV, movies, music
Watch movies, listen to music, sing songs, and browse newspapers and magazines. It’s fun and helps improve your pronunciation and comprehension.
7. Non-verbal cues
Beyond words, observe locals when they talk. Be it the Gaelic shrug or a slight tilt of the head, combining body language with a new tongue helps you communicate better.
8. Get emotional!
Emotive experiences often etch impressions onto our memory. Make full use of embarrassing / funny / angry experiences by linking them to the new language.
9. A world of friends / then going solo.
Having a friend to practice with helps you get better, and you can also learn from the different mistakes different people make.
10. Practice at every opportunity before and after you travel.
The internet, in addition to allowing us easy access to business documents, research papers, free encyclopedias and some great books, also provides us with tutorials to absolutely anything.
Want to learn how to grill a great hamburger, or how to program in PHP?
This web page posted on dumblittleman.com details 15 such super-useful sites, which aim to provide you with all the tutorials you’d ever need.
Here’s a site called teachingtips.com, which lists some great blogs written by teachers for teachers. Click here to read.
These blogs are categorized under the following headings:
General
These blogs cover a wide range of subjects from current events to ideas for lessons and instruction.
Subject Specific
Secondary school teachers and others who are focused on one subject can find some interesting reading related to their work in these blogs.
Tips and Tools
Find supplements to your lessons and helpful tips on teaching in these blogs.
International
If you are teaching abroad, or have ever dreamed of doing it, these blogs can give you some fun and informative reading material.
Technology
These days technology and teaching are nearly inseparable, so stay on the cutting edge with some help from these blogs.
Here’s a nice little article from PCMag.com that outlines some little-known but powerful features of Microsoft Word 2007. Click here to read this article.
Here’s a brief overview of the 8 features it presents:
Recently I was looking for an animated loader icon/gif for an ajax application. I found these 2 very useful sites which have a good collection of icons free to download. Anyone who needs an animated loader icon will find them very handy.
The most useful SharePoint site I’ve found.
One of the big challenges in encouraging SharePoint use at the College has been the question of moving documents from a shared drive (usually the ‘H:’ drive) to SharePoint document libraries. This is partly because document libraries are one of the most visible and powerful tools in SharePoint, and also one of the features which differentiates SP from a traditional website.
A particular problem has been the question of setting up folders in a SharePoint document library. Teams understandably want to know how to create a folder structure, and in what specific ways they can improve the (often chaotic) structure of their H: drive folders. Unfortunately, this isn’t something I’ve always been able to give much advice on other than limiting the folder levels. The answer depends on how you expect your users to navigate to a file. Unfortunately, any solution using folders assumes that the user will approach finding a file in the same way as the person who set up the folders (i.e. I’ll make ’skill’ the top level folder, so everyone goes there first, then ‘theme’ my second level folder and so on.) As we know, brains don’t work like that (but wouldn’t it be easier if they did?)
Unperturbed, I turned to Google for an answer. To my surprise, almost every guru I read came up with the same answer, which was to ditch folders in document libraries and use content types instead. A content type is a collection of ‘tags’ you can specify and add to an item. If that sounds like jargon, consider this. Think of your Windows Explorer interface. Have you ever though just how un-useful the default column titles are? File size, created on, etc. Yes, they might be useful in some circumstances, but think how cool it would be for a language teacher to replace them with things like ’skill’, ‘theme’, ‘grammatical function’, or ‘level of difficulty’. That’s exactly what a content type does for you.
With content types you’re liberated from having to drill down through folders in a pre-defined sequence. Want to find all the ‘reading’ exercises which practice the past simple tense? 2 clicks and you’re done. Finding the right materials for a specified lesson aim (which we all do don’t we?) becomes a doddle. It also solves the problem of where to put a file which fulfills more than one folder criteria. For example if my learning object allows my class to practice speaking and reading, do I put it in the speaking folder or the reading folder (or worse create two copies)?
So why doesn’t everyone use them? Well, firstly, they’re (gasp) new. Enough said. Secondly, you can’t use folders in a content type document library (well, you can, but in doing so you negate all its benefits). The result is that you end up with a long list of files which appear disorganised (until you filter your search) because they’re not in folders. Thirdly, people are just used to seeing and using folders, and tend to assume that not using folders is a sign of poor planning on the part of the designer.
What solutions are there? Like any change, it will take time. We need to promote use by showcasing exemplar sites, and create a critical mass of users who are comfortable with them and recognise the benefits. This will then carry over to other sites which those users have access to. Any other suggestions, on a postcard please….
Probably one of the best features of Windows XP was the introduction of ClearType display. Enabled by default on Vista but it needs to be enabled and configured on Windows XP.
With Windows XP, ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be somewhat improved.
I found a very useful free application (from Microsoft) called ClearType Tuner. It enables and configures ClearType display on your Windows XP system. If you are thinking how to do that, worry not, as there is also an online application ClearType Tuner Setup which will do all the job for you. I found the tool to be very easy to use and helpful.
The best thing about the tool is that it will configure ClearType so that it looks pleasing to the eye and according to your own preferences rather then making your display a bit blurry. If configured correctly, you will find the display a lot better then before.
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