Each year students graduate with advanced degrees and faculty are required to attend those graduations. Thus students and faculty need a graduate robe, otherwise known as academic regalia. These regalia can be quite expensive. In fact at my alma mater, Penn State, the regalia costs $699. That is usually quite expensive for a student. It is also expensive for faculty who usually do not have nice plush salaries (who am I kidding none do). But there are cheaper options out there. There are tons of sites that offer them for $300 or so. But again, I felt this was too expensive for a piece of cloth that I felt I could sew together if I was motivated enough. So after an exhaustive search, I found a company that sells them for $100-$200 depending on what you want. I believe I got mine for a total of $150 with shipping and that included the gown, hat, and hood. It is really nice quality too and came with 3-4 days of ordering. I usually do not promote a brand or website but figured this was useful for faculty. I thought it was a scam at first because it was so much cheaper than other sites but after doing a google search found out they were legit and now can confirm that they are as I have my gown in hand. Well here is the site: http://www.economycapandgown.com/
Author Archives: admin
How to get a movie off of a DVD?
I just was asked by a colleague how to do this so I thought it would make a great blog post:
Assuming you have the rights to the DVD to do this, otherwise this is illegal, here is how to do it:
Download and install handbrake: http://handbrake.fr/
Handbrake allows you to rip the dvd onto your computer so that you can burn the dvd, play the dvd,, put it on your ipad, etc. without the disk. It is just now simple movie file on your computer.
If you want to then put that dvd back onto a dvd disk to be played on a dvd player you will use a program called burn (http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html) to burn the dvd on a blank dvd.
You can do this with any dvd, even netflix and redbox movies, however, it is illegal unless you have the rights to the disk.
Which video conferencing tools are you using?
There are many free and paid tools on the market now. So which do you use and why? I am going to review some of the more popular ones here:
Skype – Offers both free and paid service. Works on all computers, cell phones, and tablets. You can put up to 25 people on the same conference call for free and share a desktop. With the video feature you can only video conference with one person before you have to pay.
Google Hangout – Works on all computers through a google account, such as gmail and is also available as an app via apple/android. Can share desktop. Can call and video chat with up to 10 people for free.
Facetime – An apple product only. Allows 1 to 1 video conferencing. Is nice but only works with apple.
There are more but these seem to be the ones most people are using. I personally use Skype for everything. Having said that if a user is on another system I have accounts for most of them.
Doodle 4 Google Kids Contest
“Doodle 4 Google is an annual program that invites K-12 students in the United States to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign our homepage logo for millions to see.
This year, we ask students to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, “My Best Day Ever…” One talented student artist will see their artwork appear on the Google homepage, receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and a $50,000 technology grant for their school along with some other cool prizes!”
Technology is not just computers…
When I ask my students what are the best technologies for the classroom I always hear the same: smartboards, computers, ipads, etc. But never do I hear anything like robots. Well this christmas I got a small remote control helicopter. These small helicopters, which fit into the palm of your hand are less than $30 and are designed to be flown indoors. Not only that but while they have a remote control, they can be controlled with your mobile phone or iPad. As I was flying it, my 2 year old son was watching. I began to realize all of the things he was learning from just watching me fly it. I then started to think of all the cool things I could teach K-12 classes with something like this. There is so much involved from learning how a helicopter flies, physics, science, engineering, etc. So for less than $30, I could purchase one of these and use it in my class. What is an advantage? Well its really fun to fly. Anything that students can have fun with while learning is something I recommend. So today in my undergraduate class, I am going to begin class by flying a helicopter without saying a word to my students. Then I am going to ask them how this could be used in education. The point I am making is that when we think of technology in the classroom we need to get past the notion that it only means computers and ipads.
Here is a video of one of these helicopters:
Why are people still using CDs?
Check out this article from Mashable. Why are people using DVDs or CDs? Well its beyond me. I havent bought a CD since around 1998 and have not bought a DVD since around 2005. Its all about hard drives, the cloud, and streaming. To me disks just take up space in my office or my house and I hate clutter. This is an interesting stat from the article that just boggles my mind: Consumers bought 193 million CDs in 2012 vs. 118 million digitally downloaded albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan. If you do still love these tangible items, get ready to say goodbye because not too long from now computers will not have them.
Skyping to read
Here is a nice article in my local paper about an area school that is using Skype to promote reading in their schools. Its very cool and helps motivate the students. While not something new this technology is going to be seen more and more in our K-12 schools:
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130106/ARTICLES/130109844/1177?p=1&tc=pg
Spring 2013 Semester
My blog has been a little empty this month due to two things: Class prep and my reappointment binder.
For those that do not know, when a professor goes up for tenure, promotion, or reappointment they need to put together a huge binder that contains all of their publications, course materials, conference presentations, etc. Needless to say it takes a long time to find, print, and organize. Fortunately beginning tomorrow or thursday i will return to my regular posts:)
2013 Technology Wish List
Here are the top 30 tech gadgets and technologies I am looking forward to in 2013 or hoping are finally ready for prime time:
1. Unlocked smartphones that work with 4G. Right now the Nexus 4 is a good attempt but doesnt even work with Verizon. Lets hope the Nexus X (rumored phone) is just that.
2. Xbox 720
3. No more DVDs – streaming only
4. Tablets that are as powerful as computers
5. Opensource OS (i.e. Android) becomes mainstream for all devices
6. Free cloud storage for k-16 schools
7. Opensource online classroom similar to Webex
8. Skype goes opensource
9. Google hangout changes its interface and name
10. Google drive is called google docs again
11. Online calendars sync flawlessly
12. No new call of duty game
13. A good conversion product from flash to html5
14. A good html5 development tool (ie adobe edge)
15. Apple to open up their app store or create a business app store. Right now their app store is not developer friendly towards businesses that create apps that apple just denies.
16. A robot that watches kids and does house work
17. An invisibility cloak
18. Real life Halo Armor
19. A tv that knows what I want to watch and uses voice commands to change the channel
20. My car, tv, computer, phone, and tablet all synced together
21. Spotify that works for free on wifi on ipad
22. A MMORPG and FPS combined in one to make the ultimate video game
23. Netflix or amazon prime to get all the disney movies on instant play
24. Amazon prime to work on apple tv
25. PHPBB to include good spam protection in their builds
26. Phone carriers to stop charging the cost of your phone when your contract is up.
27. A phone carrier that competes with ATT and Verizon that is just as good that lowers prices, not keeps increasing them to make more money
28. No more cable tv. Let streaming internet take over finally
29. Video conferencing that allows for holograms instead of 2d/3d people so its like the person is really there in the room
30. virtual reality from the 90s that actually works
31. accessibility plugins software for me and my friends!
Bonus – Hover boards – I have been waiting for these since Back to the Future part II