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Windows 7 for Los Rios Faculty, Staff and Students

From IT Supervisor Augustine Chavez:

You may or may not be aware about computer discounts for Los Rios employees and students. Listed below are the two most recent offerings for Windows 7.

JourneyEd
Windows 7 Professional Edition Upgrade - $39.98
Offer valid through December 31, 2009 for employees and students. Be sure your PC can run the upgrade by downloading the Windows Upgrade Advisor at www.windows.com/upgradeadvisor <http://www.windows.com/upgradeadvisor> . The JourneyEd website also sells Adobe, Inspiration and more.
To purchase visit http://www.journeyed.com/fccc and select the Sacramento City College campus

Select Microsoft titles through the Foundation CCC Campus Agreement
Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Upgrade - $45.00
Office Enterprise 2007 - $45.00
Office 2008 for MAC - $45.00
Offer valid for Los Rios employees and requires losrios.edu e-mail address verification. Be sure your PC can run the upgrade by downloading the Windows Upgrade Advisor at www.windows.com/upgradeadvisor <http://www.windows.com/upgradeadvisor> .
To purchase visit https://collegebuys.foundationccc.org/Default.aspx and create an account.

Firefox - Add-on Speed

Speed Dial is a way to visually organize web sites you visit often. 

In the lab we have just installed a new add-on to Firefox called Speed Dial. This utility let's you customize the display of multiple sites in tabs. You have got to see this to appreciate it.  Here is the process to install the Speed Dial Add-on: 

1. Launch Firefox web browser (update to current version if appropriate)
2. Go to Tools > Add-Ons menu
3. Click the Get Add-Ons button/tab
4. In the Search box, type speed dial
5. Click Speed Dial from the search results
6. Click the Add to Firefox... button
7. Click Install Now button
8. Restart Firefox
9. Confirm that Speed Dial is in the browser toolbar and available from Bookmarks menu

A demonstration would be helpful to jumpstart your Speed Dialing:

• Download our D2L SpeedDial collection -- for Windows or Macintosh. 
  
• Import our D2L & LMS Resources SpeedDial settings: 
  

1. If SpeedDial is on your toolbar, click the side triangle to access SpeedDial Options
   
2. In this dialog box click the Settings button > Import Settings...
   
3. Locate and click the D2L-SCC-LR.speeddial file and click Open button
   
4. Approve the import settings message
   
5. Now our tab of resources is available to you
   

Customize with your own Groups (aka tabs): 

1. Click the side triangle to access SpeedDial Options dialog box
   
2. On the Main page, click the Organize Groups button
   
3. Click the New button and then give your group a Title (how are the sites related), click OK
   
4. On the blank group page click any box and type a URL to have the page load as a clickable thumbnail image
   
5. Experiment! 
   

If you are using Speed Dial - Export your settings as a backup. 

The look of D2L - LMS Resources Speed Dial and the SCC - LRCCD Speed Dial groups. Our organization keeps all the sites you need for Desire2Learn handy and the SCC set keeps Outlook OWA, Employee Self Service and other sites at your finger tips. 

Macintosh Tips & Tutorials

Visit the Find out how site at Apple to view tutorials on basic Mac tips, photo, web, music and more. I like how the site is organized with a few topics for each category and the navigation is very easy to follow. In the Photos area, tutorials are listed for the current iPhoto '09 and for iPhoto '08 (and Aperature 2).

Acrobat to the Rescue

This story is about adding digital images to a Word document to be posted in an LMS - Blackboard then D2L. Originally the Word doc was exported as a PDF (Acrobat) file and posted to Bb. One of the documents was only 34 pages but 77 MB in size - WOW.

Using Acrobat Pro's Advanced > PDf Optimizer menu, the file slimmed down to only 2.1 MB. Now students can easily access the file online or quickly download it.

Video File Converter

Jim Hill (Media Services) described a program that converts video files from one format to another. StreamClip. This is free for Windows and Mac and is conversion video software. I'll be looking to install StreamClip in the lab for testing and use. Drop by with your video clips on a USB Thumb Drive and we will convert them as needed.

http://www.squared5.com/ Supported input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AVR, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3, ...

Adobe Connect - Virtual Classes

Here is my list of topics covered in the University of Washington - Department of Nursing Connect demo. The session audience is media support staff.

Must have an adobe login to see these on-demand archives.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=set_registered&id=1474214&loc=en_us

Big ideas for me are the Wacom Cintiq display/tablet, mobile Connect carts, USB light snake

Fast forward to
3:56 for the agenda – video conferencing – traditional to Connect (audio)
4:38 - 2 electronic classrooms for nursing
5:18 – campus infrastructure funding used to upgrade video-based
6:58 – our tech eval process & solution review
Goals - Screen sharing, share documents, give presentation rights, ease of use +
9:35 – Connect supports dial-up for worldwide audience (14.4Kbs) so this audience stops video and syncs the PPT slides
10:50 – remote service – end users upload files then UW doctor reviews in common session
11:40 – screen sharing – two video feeds – operations center for multi-cameras in classroom PLUS presenter feed
12:55 – multiple audio mic sources (PCM mics for audience)
14:29 – classroom shot – small – 20 students
15:02 – presenter’s monitor to a feed (mirroring effect not typical) - no visual
15:38 - screen sharing with whiteboard tools over top , move mouse around – no visual
16:28 – Wacom Cintiq display is a monitor and graphics tablet (SMART CLASSROOM & ITV CLASSROOMS)
18:00 – more on Cintiq display — see http://www.wacom.com/index2.php for details
18:45 – funding for classroom tech
19:40 – location of control room – be
19:58 – mobile capture cart details – classroom or remote locations, multi mics, Canon GL2 camcorder
21:00 – immediate release of event by URL without post production work
21: 16 – classroom camera shot (audio on another topic)
21:38 – control room operator skill set
23:19 – connect prefers digital audio input- xlr to shure not as good
23:47 – convert analog audio to digital with USB light snake (???) makes for superior Connect audio
24:29 – more than using just a web cam for audio

And more, but this much covers the big ideas, next steps and conversations I need to have with Media Services.

Cintiq display - http://www.wacom.com/index2.php