Catch the Wave

Web 2.0 tools are fantastic, however on one of my pen drives I have a folder called ‘Software’ which contains the setup files of the PC freeware I think a teacher needs on his/her laptop and might not have. The list is pretty basic, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve used it. In the folder are:

Audacity An easy to use sound recorder which is so useful in the classroom.
Lame 3.97 Enables the export as MP3 function in Audacity. (Without Lame you can only export as a .wav)
uLead Gif Animator Makes a series of graphic files into one .Gif file. This version dates back to when it was freeware.
Image Resizer Powertoy A useful Windows add-on.
JPG4 Email This resizes photos in bulk. Great for adding photos to your blog.
Photo Filtre The free version. You can create some neat effects using the filters.
Umajin Creative You can blue screen and save as a .jpg using the trial version.
Picasa3 Try out the collage function.
Photo Story 3 A freebie and a goodie.
Switch Converts sound files in bulk e.g. wma to MP3.
Tux Paint A neat little drawing program for junior students.

Some of these are available on my website - the others you’ll track down easily on the Internet using Google.

Living in Whakatane I’m noticing how quickly the seasons change. We’re only 7 days into spring, but already the sky is bluer, the sun is warmer, the sea sparkles and everything looks greener. I even feel inspired to go for a walk.

Recently I’ve made several freeware discoveries. Teachers I work with needed a programme which would compress photos in bulk. ‘Jpeg 4 Email ‘ does this and it’s really easy to use. You just need to set the size you want, make multi-selections and drag the photos into the Jpeg for email window. You can then save the compressed photos into a new folder. It’s really useful for adding photos to a blog as well.

The second goodie is ‘Switch’, which converts sound files (e.g. .wma) to MP3. You can also multi-select.

Another discovery is the ‘vidtoMP3 website‘ which will save just the music from a video as an MP3. I know you’ll find a use for that one!

I also added the chroma key to Windows Movie maker so I can make blue screen movies. Follow the steps on this wikiHow page I think it’s better to use a green screen though because lots of people wear blue clothes. I ended up with an armless person in my underwater movie because she was wearing a long sleeved blue top!

Zoho Creator is one of the ‘Zoho Work Online’ applications and it really is fantastic! It’s an online data base and form creator and is so useful for easy data collection. If you need to collect any sort of information from your principals and teachers, why not walk the talk by using the Internet and online resources to do this? Zoho Creator has many uses and the extra bonus is that teachers are developing ICT confidence and skills at the same time.

Recently, in preparation for a cluster trip to Palmerston North, I added a trip registration form to the eBest ICT cluster website for the teachers who were going to add their details. I alerted the ICT Lead Teachers to this form by email. The first photo shows the form and the second is a part of the spreadsheet of collected data. I then exported it into Excel. It worked perfectly and saved me a lot of time. And no, I didn’t lose anything! Click on the graphics for a bigger view.

Zoho Creator is easy to use and free. (It has been so far!) You simply drag and drop the fields you require from the selection (see below) and add your questions or choices. The result looks really professional and has many uses for principals, teachers and students. Try it out.