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Technology Tips

Each week you can do one Technology Tip assignment for extra credit. You may choose whichever assignment looks most interesting and/or valuable to you. You may declare a total of 15 Technology Tips for extra credit during the semester, one per week.

Yes, you can work ahead! If you want, you can complete as many Technology Tips as you want early in the semester, and then just declare the points you have accumulated each week.

Special note for repeat students: Those of you who took classes with me in the past may have done many of these Tips already. To get credit for this semester, please try to choose NEW tips that you did not complete in the past - although if you want to repeat a tip because you don't remember the details, feel free to do that, too! Since there are now 30 tips, that is enough for two semesters. If you are taking a third class with me, you can go ahead and repeat any previous tips you want... and maybe someday I will decide to expand the list to 45 tips for you third-semester students! :-)

GETTING STARTED:

After you have completed Tip 1 and Tip 2, you can do the tips in any order you want, based on what you think is most useful and/or interesting to you. For extra credit purposes, remember that the maximum number of Tips you can declare in a single semester is 15 (one per week). I've marked with *** the Tips that are especially useful for these online courses.

REQUIRED: Tip 1 and Tip 2.

1. ***Gmail Account. Create a Gmail account. You are not required to use Gmail for your email - but having a Gmail account log-in gives you access to all the other free Google services, such as GoogleDocuments.
2. ***Google Documents. Learn how to use Google Documents to create online documents, access them from any computer, and share those documents with others.

More Google Services

3. ***Google Calendar. Subscribe to the class calendar using Google Calendar (you can even get notifications by cell phone for homework reminders!)
4. Blogger.com. Learn how to use Google's Blogger.com blogging service to create your own blog(s) for personal and/or professional use.
5. Blogger.com: Widgets. Learn how to include dynamic content in your blog by adding widgets (gadgets) to your blog template sidebar.
6. GoogleBooks Library. Save some FREE online books from GoogleBooks to your Library Bookshelf, and share that Library with others.
7. GoogleTranslator. You can use Google Translator to get at least a rough idea of the contents of a webpage written in a foreign language.
8. iGoogle. Create a customized Google Homepage, adding gadgets that are both useful and fun (dangerously fun, in fact: add Tetris to your iGoogle page at your own risk!).

Firefox

9. ***Firefox. Firefox is a great browser for BOTH Windows AND Mac, so I highly recommend it. Even if you already use another browser already, having multiple browsers on your computer can be handy!
10. ***Firefox Word Count Plus. You can add the Word Count Plus utilitiy to Firefox so that you can quickly check the word count of anything you are viewing in your browser - blog posts, webpage, etc.
11. ***Firefox Dict. This add-on allows you to right-mouse click on any word on a webpage and look it up in several online dictionaries at once.
12. ***FireFTP. You can use FireFTP to manage your OU webspace, or any other webspace that you can access using FTP (alternatively, you can use any other FTP program you want for this tip).
13. Foxmarks. You can use Foxmarks to organize your bookmarks and also to access them from any computer.
14. Firefox Themes. You can choose a custom "look and feel" for your Firefox browser.

Image Tools and Services

15. ***Resize Images. Learn how to take giant-sized images and make them smaller, for use in your webpages, blog posts, etc.
16. ***Google Images. Use Google Images to search for images online and find the webpages on which those images are displayed.
17. Picasa. Set up an image sharing account online with Google's Picasa image service (alternatively, you can use any other photosharing website, such as Flickr or Photobucket, that you want for this tip).

Ning Tips

18. ***Ning Profile Clean-Up. Make more room on your Profile page by hiding features you do not need, such as Latest Activity or duplicate Blog listings.
19. ***Ning Profile Theme. Choose your own look for your Profile page - Ning keeps adding new themes to choose from!
20. ***Add a You-Tube Video to your Ning Profile. You can add a YouTube video (or a video from any other embedded video service) to your Ning Profile page.
21. ***Add an RSS Feed to your Ning Profile. You can add an RSS feed (from an online news source, from a blog, etc.) to your Ning Profile page.

Desire2Learn and OU Online Tips

21. ***Desire2Learn Font Size. Learn how to choose the font size you prefer when working with Desire2Learn (this is especially useful if you would like the font to be bigger).
22. ***Desire2Learn Homepage Layout. Learn how to open and close the boxes on your D2L course homepages so you can focus in on what is useful to you.
23. ***Online Course Announcements Email List. You can sign up to receive the online course announcements for this class via email.
24. OU Library Homepage. Learn how to customize your OU Library homepage so that the Library references and services you use the most are just one click away.

Other Handy Online Tools

25. ***TinyURL. Learn how to convert long, awkward webpage addresses into short little addresses using the TinyURL website.
26. PollDaddy. Add a dynamic, interactive poll to your blog or webpage for free, using PollDaddy.com.
27. Del.icio.us. Create a del.icio.us account to save all your bookmarks, access them from any computer, and share them with others.
28. Twitter. You can use Twitter to make quick posts to the web and share them with your friends.
29. Ning. You, too, can create your own Ning, just like the Ning we are using for class. You can set it up for private family communication, for example, or you could create a public Ning for any group or club you belong to.
30. Bloglines. You can use Bloglines to subscribe to RSS feeds from news websites and all kinds of other online sources.