As we found out we have to set up 100 flash drives tomorrow, I sought out ways to make this task easier. I instantly though: macros! Since macros record whatever we do on the screen, it would make our job much more efficient. All we would have to do is type in a username and password, and then press enter. We tried a couple of programs, and then I hit it, AutoHotkey. We had some difficulty at first creating a perfect macro…there seemed to be some glitch, but after some toying wth it we now have a macro that will complete most of the work for us…and now it will take us about 25 seconds to set up a flash drive. We were hoping to do this in the library circle, so we could set up 14 at a time.

The macro itself will do the following, run the TravelerSafe+.exe, and go through clicking next where necessary. It will then move the partitioning slider midway…so half the drive will be secure, and the other half will not be. It will then move the cursor to where we have to input the username.

There are two wikis, which I feel are perfect for teachers. The first one is Wikispaces, and it has a special offer for teachers here http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers. The second one is Wetpaint, http://wetpaint.com. I prefer these, mainly because they are just easy to use. In both, you just hit the edit button at the top, and whatever, and however you type things in the box, is exactly how it is going to show up on your page (not true for many other services). Also, both allow you to set permissions; do you want the entire world to be able to modify your page, just people you select, or members of the site. It is completely up to you. Both have been used by teachers or in the academic environment, see these examples. One is from Wikispaces http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Westwood+wikilinks+page, and one from Wetpaint http://scienceeducation.wetpaint.com.

Click on the following link http://www.4shared.com/file/2965309/587c7ca9/hck-3_simple_tutorial.html, scroll to the bottom where it will say “Please Wait 10 seconds”, when it is done, it will turn into a Download button, click that. This is a simple and easy tutorial for creating a page in HCK-3.

We feel wikis are more befitting to the challenge you proposed.  You stated that you wanted something so students and teachers can collaborate. We felt that blogs were more of a personal journal, and wikis allowed more of what we wanted. In fact, we felt wikis could also be used to eliminate the need for a website. Teachers would be able to post the assignment sheet online, for instance, and add whatever they would have added to their website. Now, however, teachers would be able to post an article, a poem, an essay…whatever they choose. Students would then be able to comment. It works the other way as well. Students can post some of their work, and have that peer edited along with comments by the teacher as well. Students can also collaborate on a group project; it is much easier to do all this on a wiki. There were some issues that we dealt with.

An issue was the actual writing of the text. Some use a different format, in which you would have to insert symbols before a word which would determine its size, or whether it was bolded or italicized. As this would be more difficult, we decided that WYSIWYG would be easier on the teachers. We found many good ones, including one powered by MediaWiki which had a familiar Wikipedia type interface, however it was not WYSIWYG and therefore it was dropped. In addition we narrowed down to wikis that were free. Many of these free wikis were intended for collaboration.  In a blog, it is harder to collaborate. As long as the teacher trusts the students, the wiki may remain open, so students can contribute. In a blog, the teacher would have to manually create a writing privilege for all the students, or the students would have to collaborate though the comments area. However, this exposes a flaw with wikis; anyone can change the material on a page. Permissions can be set; however, they are up to the teacher. Blogs were more of a journal we found, and any way of collaboration was an afterthought.   

All day yesterday we researched wikis, testing each one. Our main source was TechCrunch http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=196, http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/06/wetpaint-best-wiki-software-so-far/, and a wikibook on Wikipedia http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki. We tested the following wikis,

1.      Atwiki

2.      BluWiki

3.      Cospire

4.      EditThis.info

5.      ElWiki

6.      MemeBot

7.      OddWiki

8.      PBwiki

9.      Riters

10.  Schtuff

11.  SeedWiki

12.  ServerSideWiki

13.  Wikia

14.  Wikihost

15.  XWiki

16.  JotSpot

17.  Stikipad

18.  Wikifido, ended up being a wiki for dogs

19.  Wikispaces

20.  Wetpaint         

The last two, Wikispaces, and Wetpaint are the ones we consider to fit our needs. Both are WYSIWYG, and are easy to use. More on these on my next post, that will be better for teachers interested in this concept.   

My task at hand today was to find an online word processor, spreadsheet creator, and slide show creator…alternatives to Office. Here is my report:

Google has everything, and I have already signed up for many betas, many of which I have been accepted to. (Note: I actually found out about some of them through Digg). So, I went to Google first. Then, I went to Ask.com, and did a simple search, online word processor. This is what I turned up, along with a small description.

Word Substitutes

- Writely (www.writely.com) is an online word processor that allows you to upload or save documents as html, or even as a Word document. You can keep it saved online, and it even backs up your data every 10 seconds. Since it is online, you can edit your documents on any computer with an internet connection. Plus, you don’t have to worry about forgetting to e-mail it to yourself, or forgetting to put it on your flash drive (as long as you do save it online). It has a simple interface, and is easy to use.

o However, you have to sign up for the beta, and the people at Writely plan to distribute accounts for people on the waiting list in July. I have 6 accounts on the list, so I can technically invite 300 people once I get my accounts. However, this can be done by advisee group; I send all the advisors an invite, and they give an invite to all their advisees.

- gOFFICE Word Processing (www.goffice.com) Once you sign up, which is very easy, you can login to a very simple word processor. It has an array of backgrounds you can select from- note: you cannot see them while you are editing the document, you have to go to view finished document at the top of the page. It does not seem to have a choice of fonts; they are predetermined by the background you choose. As of now you cannot modify or save documents in gOFFICE as Word documents. However, that is going to change soon, and it will be an option. Right now, you can save documents as a pdf, meaning you can see it in Adobe. You can e-mail it to people, print, and even fax and mail it. You do all of the above in “view finished document”. Once the ability of saving and opening Word documents is in place, this will be a beneficial alternative to Word. Plus, you can even create tables in the document.

- Zoho Writer (www.zohowriter.com). Again, once you sign up, it is very easy to use. All you do is enter your email address and a password of your choosing, and select I am a new user, and it will automatically create an account for you. To log in, just do the same, but don’t check I am a new user. It features an easy to use interface, with a small variety of basic fonts. To save files as Word Documents, select export, as Word Document. You can also e-mail the document.

For something like Excel, I turned to Google once again, as I already have access to Google Spreadsheet. Then, I realized the websites that feature the above apps must also include a spreadsheet creator….I was right.

Excel Substitutes

- Google Spreadsheets (spreadsheet.google.com) This is a plain and simple to use spreadsheet creator, if you ever have to create one. There is a catch however; you have to sign up to be able to use it. If you don’t have a Gmail account (you don’t if you don’t know what I am talking about) you have to click on Create an Account now (under where it says, Don’t have a Google Account?) Follow the instructions, then come back to the spreadsheets main page, and sign in. To save your file as an Excel Document, select file (the one next to where it says Google Spreadsheets), and select Download .xls. Or, you can just press save, and save it online.

- gOFFICE Spreadsheets (www.goffice.com) As with gOFFICE Word Processing, this is a very simple spreadsheet solution shall you ever require one. Once you have created an account, you can create a spreadsheet. You can save the sheets as an Excel sheet, and also upload Excel sheets. Therefore, technically, you can save the file as an Excel file, and upload it as an Excel file…all without ever needing Excel.

- Zoho Sheet (www.zohosheet.com) As with Zoho Writer, there is a pleasant interface, with easy access to sheets you can save in Zoho (on the internet) on the side, and the ability to download them to your computer, and edit sheets on your computer as well.

For a PowerPoint replacement, I turned to the websites above. Only gOFFICE has plans to create a presentation maker that is like PowerPoint, so that is something to check on. I figure Google will have something soon, as they want to challenge Microsoft eventually. Nevertheless, I went to Digg, and simply typed in Powerpoint. The second result actually provided a name for a company that Google may acquire. It features an application similar to that of PowerPoint. It is called Thumbstacks.

- Thumbstacks (www.thumbstacks.com) A very easy and simple presentation maker. You sign up for the service, confirm your email address, and you are ready to go. It is even simpler than PowerPoint. However, you can only save it and view it online, unless you go to My Presentations in the top right corner, and export it as html. You will not be able to edit it however when it is exported as html. You can only edit it online.

In addition to all I have found above, I found something interesting. It is supposed to be almost exactly like Office 2003, online. It is also completely compatible, and there is no learning curve, as the software will already be familiar. It comes with a word processor, spreadsheet solution, and a slide show creator. It is called ThinkFree. I have high hopes for ThinkFree, and think that that may be all needed. However, I was not able to create an account today, there seems to be some error. I will try again tomorrow, but it seems to be the best solution.

http://jaymin.wordpress.com/2006/08/03/the-long-tail-my-say/

See the spreadsheet here http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=12493. Just a note, here is Iomega’s stock http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/msnbc/newsnap.asp?Symbol=iom. A major resource I used was Techcrunch. and in particular the article by Michael Arrington, http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang.

I apologize for not posting for a long time. Brian and I have both been very busy, tackling a couple projects at once. Nevertheless, here is a list of what we have accomplished. First off, we tested every usb port in the library, and we drew up a map. See it here http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=12334. We also tested many of the computers in Rudder South, namely the ones on the island.  (I will post the map tomorrow). We also conducted tests on the flash drives, on each type of computer. I will post that spreadsheet tomorrow as well. In addition to all of this, we researched file hosting solutions for Mr. Carreras. Here is a list of the ones we did not choose, and why. http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=12415. The finalists are Box.net, Strongspace, and an Iomega storage solution. We will post a spreadsheet comparing them tomorrow. Plus, we also finished the HCK tutorials.

In regards to the challenge we were given, we found two possible, and easy to use solutions. After searching for a while for picture and video hosting, I found a site with a list of Web 2.0 sites, http://web2.0dot.org. Then it struck me, instead of just focusing on video and picture hosting, I should think broader….file hosting would fix the problem more easily, and would fit all the requirements. My solution was box.net. It is very easy to use; you can browse for a file you want to upload, or you can open a Java Applet to drag and drop. The interface reminds one of Windows Explorer. Here is a link to the pricing http://www.box.net/info/pricing-plans, and here is a link stating why Box is better than others. http://www.box.net/info/service-comparison. It is also very easy to privately share, and I feel this is an excellent solution to the teacher’s problem. Brian also found one solution, on his blog.

So, we have some great drives…my favorites being the Kingston ones. However, students would need admin access to their computer to use the drive. Though, there may be a way to bypass the admin access, and it goes by the name of Nonadmin. Nonadmin, once installed on a machine by an administrator will allow anyone to securely use the drive on any school computer. To test this, we will need an actual school computer, and we will need admin rights to it.