This is Hendron’s Digest, a weblog devoted to the intersection of education & technology.
In the book RSS for Educators, I mention using a WordPress blog plugin called PodPress. Today I created a video that covers its basic use.
Publishing a Podcast with PodPress WP Plugin from John Hendron on Vimeo.
This video was produced in a series of 5 instructional videos for introducing our new blogging installation to teachers next month and throughout August.
In this video tutorial, I explore how (easy it is) to use drop.io a free “storage locker” for your media. Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication), it allows you to easily publish podcasts or documents to your friends, students, or colleagues.
drop.io and RSS from John Hendron on Vimeo.
I will be presenting at the Virginia Society for Technology in Education this year in the Washington Lecture Hall on Monday at 4 PM. My talk is on how we can use podcast project-based lessons in the classroom, and tailor them to students who exhibit the traits of digital native learners.
Podcasting for Digital Natives from John Hendron on Vimeo.
I encourage viewers of this presentation, or live attendees of the conference, to post questions/comments to this blog post! Thanks!
Instructional Resources
Noteworthy Podcasts
This is a presentation/workshop I am giving at the Maggie Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, VA.
Using Found Multimedia for Instruction from John Hendron on Vimeo.
I recently found via SlideShare Christopher Pappas’s site for Moodle Tutorials. Looks like a great resource. He’s also created several good groups at Slideshare worth checking out!
Today, NewsGator, creator of several RSS aggregators for Windows, NetNewsWire for Macintosh, and an online aggregation service, has released all of their desktop applications for free.
This came too late for my book, where I recommended these products, but noted their cost. I’d recommend everyone to consider these (now) free tools alongside other choices that they may be using.
I’d begun using Vienna for Macintosh, but now I think I’ll check out what’s up with NNW3–I stopped using it at version 2.
Introduction to NetNews Wire for Macintosh from John Hendron on Vimeo.
Are you an educator who uses a Macintosh? This new Vimeo channel is for you!
I partnered with Deb Cross to produce some videos (some of the same ones you’ve seen me post here, individually), and I’ve put them together all in one place–a “channel.”
You provide the popcorn.
Yet another video… this one is on calling-up Oxford dictionary definitions on any word in Mac “Cocoa” apps, including: Mail, TextEdit, Keynote, Safari, and Pages.
Using OS X Built-in Dictionary Services from John Hendron on Vimeo.
Safari Trackback from John Hendron on Vimeo.
Changing Themes in Keynote from John Hendron on Vimeo.
This video is on YouTube; I was less-impressed with the quality for an instructional screencast.
Deb Cross and I look at simple copy and paste. But how do you make the text take on new style attributes?
Deb Cross and I explore the printing options unique to Apple’s Keynote.
Printing Options in Apple Keynote from John Hendron on Vimeo.
On Monday, February 26, 2007, John will be presenting on
The following links support GoogleEarth and
Placemarks: One interesting thing you can do with GE is to embed placemarks that include links, styled text, and pictures.
Don’t want to bother moving a graphic to the Web? No problem! KMZ files can hold graphics! Use the img tag in HTML to point to a local graphics file. In Windows, it would be referenced from the C:\ drive. On a Mac, reference it from the root (/). When you save the place, the graphic becomes embedded.
Tools You can make measurements in miles using the path tool in GE.
Paths Paths are a great way to mark a route. You can raise paths above the surface, and color them. You can even add descriptions, which can include graphics and styled text.
You can also animate in GoogleEarth, or “travel.” Create a folder of “places,” then click the “Play” button. GE takes you from one place to another. To change the perspective (N/S/E/W direction, viewpoint), set the view point in the placemark’s information (Get Info > View > Snapshot Current View).
You can also animate along a path. Draw a path, save it, and press “play.” GE follows the path you drew in all its 3D glory.
Want more? GE features special content in the form of links, overlays, and more. Let’s start with the excellent Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Turn it on, under “Featured Content” in the Layers area.
What better way to study colonial times?
The “Geographic Web” area combines embedded links to the Wikipedia and great digital images.
Among the other collections are links from National Geographic Magazine.
GE now features three-dimensional content in the form of terrain and buildings. Now with Google Sketchup, you can add your own 3D content, or load content from the 3D Warehouse into GEarth.
This is my “online handout” for the
Links
Quotes
Our Rationale
Activities that encourage participation through the creative process are the ones we ought to be trying when using
technology . Theread-write web (blogs, wikis, podcasts) offer a creative experience.
Our Theme
Our “success” is measured by teacher involvement in using these technologies: podcasting, blogging, and use of Wikis. It continues to develop as they include students in the use of these technologies to encourage higher-order skills, responsibility, ethics, 21st century skills, and a creative outlet.
Developing designers for print and web need to understand the components involved in managing color in design. Having previously taught courses in design and web design, I’ve been helping a colleague develop some content for her courses. Available for free is an elementary guide to color management and issues with OS X and Photoshop.
Concepts covered include:
Blogging allows us to quickly get content on the Web.
Some weblogs support podcast publishing without “help” from FeedBurner. If your blog does not support RSS attachments, this method will convert Atom and RSS 1.0 feeds into the RSS 2.0-flavor required for podcasting. Publishing using Blogger and
<a href="…">Listen to this podcast</a>), or use the link button in the Blogger blog composition toolbar. The title of your blog post should be the title of your podcast episode. Publish the blog entry.While we went through several steps to get started with publishing podcasts through a blog, in the future, you will go through two primary steps in publishing new podcasts. First, upload the podcast file to a server, and second, write a new blog post that includes a link to the podcast file. The RSS
Alternatively, for a fee, there are easier solutions for publishing your podcast files. Libsyn Pro (http://libsynpro.com/) is a subscription service that hosts your podcast files and creates RSS feeds. This is a good solution for a school where access to space on a Web server for publishing podcasts does not exist.
Adobe Photoshop is an image manipulation program design for professionals in print and web design. Because of the appeal of the program, and the fun in working with visual images, Adobe began, years ago, in cross-marketing leaner versions of Photoshop with lighter price tags, including Photoshop LE and Photoshop Elements. The techniques covered here will apply to many, if not all, versions of Photoshop, beginning with version 5, and upward.
Because Photoshop is a professional-quality, high-end program, it is impossible to become an expert overnight. It’s also impossible for me to provide every detail of what this application can do in one webpage’s worth of space. There are countless tutorials online for using Photoshop, and books on Photoshop continue to be best sellers. Anyone seriously interested in Photoshop should consult these sources. I’d recommend the series published by Adobe, as well as the “Wow!” series of books.
Photoshop produces a variety of file formats for graphics. Among the most popular are:
Photoshop also allows us to edit images in two color modes: RGB and CMYK. Other color modes available include:
The native format for Photoshop files is PSD. I always recommend saving your work in PSD format, until it is time for publication, at which time, you can re-save a copy of your work in an appropriate format. JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs are good for the web, JPEGs being superior for photographs. The benefit of the PSD file is no compression artifacts, and the ability to save in layers and a variety of color modes. On a Mac, PSD files can now be natively opened and used in OS X, including in applications such as Preview, Keynote, and Final Cut Pro.
Most often, you will want to edit graphics in RGB color mode, which provides 24-bit color. Reserve CMYK for printing only–printing to press. Most inkjet printers, while they print in CMYK, are built to accommodate RGB-mode images for the accurate reproduction of color.
Because color photographs are made up of three color channels, red, green, and blue, simply telling Photoshop to make a grayscale version of a color photograph (go to Mode - Grayscale), compromises the photograph. Each color channel introduces noise artifacts, some more than others. This can leave us with a muddy-looking grayscale image. One of the best ways to get a clean, better-looking grayscale image is to use the Channel Mixer.
Alternatively, you can add an adjustment layer, and choose Channel Mixer as the type, from the Layers palette. Either way, I tend to favor the green channel with a higher percentage: it offers the best contrast. In low-light images, the blue channel tends to have the most noise. There is no magic formula, but I tend to gravitate towards percentages such as: 35%R, 50%G, 20%B. Your eye should be the final judge, and that’s why we leave the Preview feature on.
While most of us think of pictures in sizes such as 3×5, 8×10, etc., web designers must think in pixels: the tiny dots that make up text and graphics on our computer monitors. I promise, it’s easier to think in pixels than it is thinking in metric! While the true resolution of our monitors differ from machine to machine, and platform vs. platform, the theoretical “screen” resolution for images on the web is 72—72 pixels per inch. Because this screen resolution is fixed, Photoshop can only show us one true resolution–72 PPI. Still, Photoshop files can have any resolution: 180-300 for printing, and even as high as 1200 PPI if we choose. Working with images with high resolution (300 PPI and higher) demands a lot of memory and hard disk resources from your computer. Remember this rule: start big, and get smaller; avoid the reverse.
Downsampling (going from a high-resolution image down to a smaller resolution image) shrinks the file size, and the apparent size of the graphic on the screen. Keep in mind, Photoshop makes images look bigger when they are higher resolution, because our screens can only show so many pixels per square inch. When working for the web, always scale down your images to 72 PPI. In fact, unless you plan on doing high-resolution printing, 72 is a good resolution for a lot of work.
Another measure of resolution is screen dimensions. 1024×768 is the resolution of many 15 inch monitors. This means that your monitor can display 1024 individual pixels horizontally, and 768 pixels vertically. This is the grid, then, that displays everything you see. Larger monitor sizes, like a 21 inch monitor, can display 1600×1200 pixels, which means you have more screen real estate to have fun in.
Knowing that many screens out there can fit 1024 pixels across the screen gives you some feel for the size of a pixel. Images destined for the web should be large enough to make out what you want to see clearly, but also, small enough to reduce download times, and small enough not to dominate a web page. One way to avoid huge sizes is to produce thumbnail images: when clicked upon, they reveal a larger, high-resolution version of the image you’ve posted.
JPEG Image, 600×400 pixels (120 KB)
JPEG Image, 400×237 pixels (100 KB)
JPEG Image, 200×134 pixels (88 KB)
Notice the differences between these three images. More detail is obviously available in the large version, but the file size for the large version is overwhelming, compared to the smallest. Switching to a lower quality setting and a grayscale color mode would have saved us significant size for all three images, as well.
When preparing images for the web, I recommend not just resizing to smaller version of a file, but also cropping-in to the most important subject, or element, within the picture. This does two things: focuses the viewer’s interest, and also maximizes the size ratio for a quicker download time.
Let’s start with an original photograph of the author, and his mother. It’s too big for inclusion in a webpage, and the size would offend modem-users visiting our site.
JPEG, RGB-color, (164 KB)
By using the crop tool, and setting our target resolution, I can accomplish two steps at once: reduce my physical dimensions, and retain the focus of interest in comparable size.
Cropping to Size in Photoshop. Make sure the target resolution is 72, and you have specified your dimensions in pixels (px).
The author, with mom, both cropped and resized (104 KB).
When significantly reducing the file size, as I have done here, it wouldn’t hurt to apply some Sharpening (use the Unsharp Mask option under Filters if you have the time, it’s more precise) to increase contrast around hard edges. This will give the photo a little tighter "focus" after downsampling.
When saving your JPEG file, you have several options with regard to file size and quality.
The quality setting is how much lossy compression is applied to the image. The higher the quality, the better your picture, and larger the filesize. The true filesize is shown at the bottom (my filesizes listed here are much higher, because Photoshop adds a "preview" icon to the picture for OS X, and this inflates the filesize). I save most JPEGs for the web between quality 5-7. Remember to save the originals, large size, in PSD format for editing later!
A web photo album is a great way to show-off your digital pictures. There are a lot of packages now that can help you with this. Dreamweaver and Fireworks offer this option, as does Apple’s iPhoto. Photoshop does it, too, and it’s easier to do than you might think.
First, collect large, full-size versions of your photographs in one directory. Have a second, empty directory ready for placing the web pages and resized graphics in, once Photoshop starts its handywork.
Choose "Web Photo Gallery…" under the File - Automate menu.
You can view my web photo album here, created using Photoshop 7. I like the Javascript option that automatically advances the pictures in a quasi-slide show fashion.
By far, the most powerful aspect of Photoshop is its ability to work in layers. One popular technique is to separate the subject of a photograph, and use the subject against an alternate background. In this example, I’m using a picture of a statue from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Open your picture, and choose Filter - Extract.
Using the paintbrush, draw around the perimeter of your subject. Next, fill the interior with the paint bucket. You should see something like the example above. Next, click on Preview, and then OK, if you are happy with the result.
Seen above, the background has been eliminated. The checkerboard pattern is Photoshop’s way of showing us that there is transparency in our image. Next, I find a new background by opening a new image. I drag this background layer from the new document, into the original document with the statue. Then, by swapping the layer order, I have a new, composite image:
A whole world of great fun with images awaits! You can download a final version of the composite, after color correction was applied to the statue, and the background blurred to give the effect of distance between the subject and background.
Both tinting and hand coloring are techniques borrowed from traditional photography roots, but take on new possibilities in Photoshop’s digital darkroom. Both techniques start with a grayscale image in RGB mode, exactly the type of image we’d end up with after going through the first technique in this set of tutorials.
If all you want is a grayscale image, change your Image - Mode - Grayscale, and save it. However, to do tinting and handcoloring, remain in RGB color mode.
Samples of our original, both in color, and in grayscale.
Next, go to the Hue/Saturation adjustment (Apple/Command-U) and turn on the colorize option. Next, dial up your favorite hue to be applied to the image. This is called tinting. This is the technique used to attain sepia-tone images.
Another, related technique is to apply a gradient, and map it across the 256 different grayscale shades to create, what’s called, a gradient map. In Photoshop 7, it’s located in Image - Adjustments - Gradient Map.
When just two colors are used, the effect approaches what’s called a duotone—when just two ink colors are used to reproduce a continuous-tone image. This is not a true duotone, but Photoshop can produce those too. Both using a Gradient Map and Tinting are easy, quick ways to add some significant difference to your digital pictures.
Hand coloring takes more creativity on your part—it’s time to get out the paint brush. First, start with your grayscale image in RGB mode. Next, create as many new layers as you need for the color you want to apply in the layers palette.
Notice here, how I’ve changed the color blending mode for my purple layer to Color. Do this for all three color layers you have created.
Hand coloring takes patience, but can add a whimsical touch to otherwise ordinary
photographs. What’s fun is that you don’t have to stick to the "real" colors.
Use the opacity control on the layers palette to control how much color
is added. Old black and white photographs used to be colored before color photography
had become feasible; with a digital paint brush, you can add artistic touches
to your photographs by overpainting color, giving your documents an "electric"
feel to them.
Check out my video tutorials online for Photoshop Elements 2.0
Download the picture archive for this training at VSTE 2007.
I have created a tutorial for Garage Band. It is intended for a wide audience, from students in middle through high schools, and also adults wanting to learn Garage Band. While I used GB 2, 95% applies to the first version of Garage Band as well.
There is also another tutorial online from the ComTech Lab.
I recently wrote a whitepaper on security issues with Mac OS X: using keychains, encrypted disk images, PGP for encrypted e-mail and files, and disc burning and USB flash drives. It’s intended audience is advanced teachers and administrators who wish to take advantage of the built-in and freely-available security measures available for OS X 10.3 and later.
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