KompoZer

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

kompozer.pngToday I went looking for a free WYSIWYG HTML editor that was good enough that my students could use it instead of purchasing FrontPage or DreamWeaver.  I found KompoZer.  It was everything I was looking for and more. 

From what I understand, KompoZer is an update to Nvu.  Both are open source programs, but Nvu is no longer being updated.

I was looking for a program that could switch between HTML and WYSIWYG modes while editing.  I have tried to use the HTML mode in OpenOffice, but have found it to be more of a “convert your Word document to a web page” instead of a program that can be used to create a series of pages for a more complex project.  KompoZer can handle a complex project complete with cascading style sheets.

I only played around with the program long enough to show it to my class.  In less than half an hour I was able to figure out most of the features of the program.  I was able to format text, drag and drop images into my pages and complete advanced table manipulates.

I have used DreamWeaver for more than seven years and don’t plan on switching to something new, but it is good to know that a robust program like KompoZer is available for free.

Posted in edtech | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

DonorsChoose and Blogger Challenge

Posted on October 2, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

If you teach and need money for a project or work outside of education and want to help fund a specific project, DonorsChoose may be the site you need to visit.

The site has two purposes:

1 – Give public school teachers a chance to get money for classroom projects that otherwise would not be funded.

2 – Give prospective donors a chance to learning about and fund specific classroom projects.

When you create an account on the site, you are asked to categorize yourself as a public school teacher or a prospective donor. Teachers can propose projects that require funding and donors can select projects and donate money to them.

The site has also started what it calls a Blogger Challenge. If you have a blog, you can challenge the readers of your blog to donate a certain amount money during a specific time period. DonorsChoose keeps track of how much money that is donated through your blogger challenge. Tomato Nation (at the top of the leader board) has raised $35,000 impacting over 3000 students.

In the end, everyone wins.

Posted in edtech | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on DonorsChoose and Blogger Challenge

WiZiQ

Posted on October 1, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

If you don’t have money to spend and still want to have an interactive online class with audio, video and a shared whiteboard, take a look at WiZIQ.

Membership is free and there is no software to install.  Once you have an account, you can invite other members to your sessions.  Each session can be archived for future review.

Another nice feature is the “public session”.  This is a session open to anyone interested in joining.  All sessions (public or private) are tagged with key words.  You can search for archived sessions from other users based on these tags. 

Over time, these archives could be a great resource in and of themselves.

Posted in edtech | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Happy 25th Mazza Museum

Posted on September 30, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

Today was the 25 year celebration for the Mazza Museum the world’s first and largest teaching museum devoted to literacy and the art of children’s picture books.  The featured presenters were pop-up book artists Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart.

Here is one of the pictures (Reinhart on left, Sabuda on right) from their presentation showing how the art of pop-up books is created.

Today was the first day Star Wars – A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy was available to the public.  They also announced (and showed pictures) of The Chronicles of Narnia which will be available in the next month or two.

Pop-up books offer a unique artist/engineering experience.  Watching the process from conception to mass assembly was intriguing.  If you haven’t seen their work, check out their web site.  There are many educational titles available.

Tagged | Comments Off on Happy 25th Mazza Museum

PhET

Posted on September 29, 2007 by Alvin Trusty

I was helping one of my kids with some physics homework today and needed a simulation of projectile motion.  I remembered a nice set of physics simulations I had used a few years ago.  I typed “physics simulations” into Google and the site was at the top of the list.

Physics Education Technology (PhET) is a set of simulations created by the University of Colorado.  I first used the Circuit Construction simulator to show a student how to setup a wheatstone bridge.  This isn’t the most complicated circuit in the world, but it requires half a dozen different parts.  One of the resisters needs to be adjusted in real time and that is where the simulator was invaluable.

Tonight I needed a ball traveling at 10 m/s straight off the edge of a table 1.0 m tall.  I could have setup a video camera (recording at 30 frames per second) recording a tennis ball rolling off the edge of the kitchen table, but I would have never been able to get the ball going exactly 10 m/s.  Plus, I would have had to dump the video to the computer before we could do any real analysis.

The projectile motion simulator at PhET was perfect.  We were stuck with using a cannon, but could adjust to the starting height and angle to match our needs.  We could also project a golf ball, baseball, bowling ball, pumpkin… even an old Buick.  The sim includes a tape measure to make measurements after the experiment.

All the extra tools were great, but I really only needed to show that the X and Y components of motion are independent.  We shot the ball at 10 m/s and 1 m/s.  Both times the ball took the same amount of time to fall to the ground.  The faster shot went out farther, but still took the same time to drop from the table to the ground.  After using the simulation with different settings, I could tell the light had come on.

Physics is more fun with you blow things up, but this simulator did the trick today.

Posted in edtech | Tagged , , | Comments Off on PhET