first things first

position titles to know:

• KyoJangNim
• KyoGam SeonSaengNim
• SeonSaengNim
• Saem (short for SeonSaengNim)

about breadcrumbs (website navigation)

This Home page doesn't have breadcrumbs, but other pages here do. Remember Hansel and Gretel? They followed breadcrumbs back home. You can too.

This website posts navigational breadcrumbs at the top of each page (except Home because Home is Home). You can click on the breadcrumbs to follow your way home. Here's a snapshot of breadcrumbs at the page for Evernote.

useful things to do

These are my recommendations for you. All of them either (1) directly enable making media presentations for the classroom or can save you time and are easy to do, or (2) they have the potential to do something extraordinary even though not easy or time-saving.

This page is so busy that I'll leave just a short representative list here.

• gather stuff with Evernote
• embed a swf into ppt
• sync lyrics in PPT like I did with Yesterday
• build a Master Layout in PPT
• make multizoomer plexed ppt
• make animated talking head with Baldie and CSLU tools
• more...

useful, free software

Evernote [TO-DO]

Evernote is a life and sanity saver. The green elephant is correctly expressive if you belong to a culture that says "elephants never forget."

The Ultimate Gathering Tool

• scrapbook of text, images, files, notes, webpages
• shareable
• drag images into powerpoint with ease

install desktop database

install evernote buttons into chrome firefox ie8

why not just use bookmarks

Audacity --090912

Audacity handles audio recording and mixing so well. I have recorded my own readings, cut up the readings from exams and inserted the audio clips on separate slides for review, remixed clips together, enhanced the volume of weak recordings, and, of course, gotten the timings for lyrics.

Picasa --090820

Google makes the Picasa software and offers free online photo storage called Picasa. Like other Google software, Picasa is clean and intuitive. There is very little clutter on the screen. Things work the way you guess they will. The free storage is generous. The upload and display response is quick.

Quick and easy solutions to imperfect photos and slideshows.

Many how-to's available [TO-DO] . More on the picasa page.

KMPlayer --090912

Once or twice even KMPlayer has failed to show an oddly encoded video file. But more often than not, it has succeeded where others have failed me.

The Best feature in an ESL classroom is the ability to show two sets of subtitles at once.

Tom Cobb's LexTutor website --090912

Tom Cobb is a professor up in Canada who offers advanced tools for language learners and teachers. There is much to see and try.

I could spend a couple of weeks to describe it all. And I should because concordancing is, compared to potential benefit for language learners, terribly underused.

Iowa IPA sounds --090820

This is the most polished Pronouncer of the International Phonetic Alphabet. A moving graphic cutaway of the speech production organs helps to illustrate exacts positions and movements of larynx, jaw, tongue, lips. A great way to introduce or review the IPA symbols used for English.

DVDSmith --090905

The first choice for the first step if you want to make a smaller, lighter AVI movie backing up from a DVD. See also DVD Decrypter.

wik.speak --090905

wik.speak shows the IPA spelling for a word and pronounces it. Another gift from open source programmers who host their software at sourceforge.net.

IPA Help 2.1 --090820

IPA Help from the language experts at SIL, Summer Institute of Language, is not quite as slick as the IOWA IPA sounds program, but is more comprehensive as an aid to understanding the IPA. The self-pronouncing IPA Chart is a picture with sound that is worth more than a thousand words.

NetSetMan --090912

You need this and will love this if you connect your PC to different networks (e.g. one at home, one at work) and the networks have different IP and DNS settings.

PowerPoint [TO-DO]

Okay, it is anything but free. Misused, abused, maligned, loved, and hated, it's powerpoint, still the most flexible and easy-to-use graphic tool I know.

Top

IrfanView [TO-DO]

Sometimes you need to resize or reformat a bunch of images. Irfanview can work on batches of files and save tons of time.

• Install
• Batch Transformations

Paint.NET [TO-DO]

Fanstastic software that is easier for me to use than older programs like Photoshop: for the ultimate in manipulating images.

• installing paint.NET
• using paint.NET to make backgrounds invisible
• using paint.NET to cut-paste cartoon frames into PPT

RocketDock [TO-DO]

This is downright cool. Kids will recognize the emulation of the enviable Apple Mac. You will like having a convenient way to start favorite programs.

Launchy [TO-DO]

Launchy is a faster way to start programs. We might say it's retro-cool because it uses the keyboard to find and start programs without touching the mouse.

Search Everything [TO-DO]

When searching for files, Search Everything offers quantum improvements in speed and convenience over the Windows equivalents.

VideoCacheView [TO-DO]

nirsoft's VideoCacheView is a one trick pony that may do, someday, just the trick you need. It shows all of the SWF and FLV files currently cached by Internet Explorer and Firefox. Some of these are movies, and some are fancy billboard things. You can watch them and save those that you like into another place where you can use them later.

JKDefragGUI [TO-DO]

Not a great name, but a great product. Emiel Wieldraaijer built a GUI [Graphical User Interface] for Jeroen Kessels' top-notch defragmenter, JKDefrag. The combination makes for superbly organized hard drives and registry files.

Version 1.08 is the final version of the series. Emiel is working on a new product to replace it.

Jing and CamStudio and Debut [TO-DO]

Suppose you want to make a video of your screen. Why?

Some of the demos on this site are video captures of a part of my screen. Geeks like to do that. There are several products, and a few are free.

Jing is the easiest to use--very, very simple. It produces a SWF video ready for upload.

Are you prepared to fiddle around a while? CamStudio offers more options and produces a lightweight SWF video. Debut Video Capture offers plenty of options and produces a heavyweight, well-detailed video in WMV format.

All three are the most troublefree ways I have found to capture a movie of what's happening on your computer screen.

DVD Sub Edit [TO-DO]

If you want to write subtitles for a movie, this is the one. Running DVD SubEdit is one of several steps in a longer task.

See DVD Decrypter and DVDSmith and Handbrake first if you don't already have a video file ready to go.

Handbrake [TO-DO]

Works well to handle the encoding and compression to make a good, solid AVI movie.

bubbl.us [TO-DO]

It's a great little bubble-chart maker. Maybe you call them mind-maps (see also Compendium and VUE). Bubbl.us is all online, simple, expressive, quick.

You can capture a screen shot with Evernote and paste that into a PowerPoint slide deck.

But check out the BETA version--it exports jpg or png images to your desktop.

It can energize brainstorming, reviews, explorations into the pieces and structure of anything with some complexity.

Explorer2 Lite [TO-DO]

When I am working with lots of files in lots of folders, I reach for Explorer2 Lite. It's a bit retro and thank goodness for that. It especially makes it easier to see two folders side by side when shifting things around, but it has other tricks that can't be found in Windows Explorer.

Geeky, but nice.

Google Sites [TO-DO]

I encourage you to try publishing your class schedule, lesson plans, and what not. But it may take me some time to publish or point to how-to's for google sites. Google Sites is a kind of cross between a full website and a wiki.

This website is a Google Sites website. Doing some simple things is easy enough.

And then it may take an inordinate amount of time to discover how-to do something or to discover that it can't be done.

See also PBworks (Peanut Butter wiki). It may feel a bit more comfortable.

Google Docs [TO-DO]

Google Docs is something many of you already use. Maybe you use something else to store and share documents online.

The coolest thing for an educator may be the unbelievably easy way to make a form that collects data and puts it into a spreadsheet for you.

I will probably document that feature first. The feedback form on epiktools homepage is one of these. I have also made some quizzes that worked out well.

Google Calendar [TO-DO]

Google Calendar, already a fine product, keeps improving. Six months ago it took me hours to figure out how to show several calendars on one webpage. As of August 2009, it is now a snap, almost totally point-and-click.

I use it to show my mixed up class schedule and to keep a running log of notes on each class session. That's what I should publish as soon as I can.

PBworks, the Peanut Butter wiki --090905

You must know wikipedia. PBworks used to be PBwiki. PBworks empowers you to make your own collaborative information sharing site.

I have spent months trying out various wiki's and CMS's [Content Management Systems]. PBworks is my winner because of its simple grace and intuitive ways. PBworks is very friendly to educators, and there are enthusiastic teachers in the PBworks community who like to share their tricks.