This evening I updated 33 pages of my web site. Using the Site Management tool in Macromedia Dreamweaver is quite easy. I was able to alter the various pages quite quickly and ftp the updated pages to the server. My hosting is provided by ICDSoft and I am using their servers in Hong Kong as opposed to the USA. They are on a similar time zone and the occasional email for advice or support is always responded to within minutes. I have been with them for over two years now and the service has been excellent.

I also upgraded the security on the wireless network here at home. I upgraded the base station and the two satellite stations linked to the printer and the two stereos. I reset the wireless access on the MacBook Pro, my wife’s Toshiba Satellite (Windows Vista) as well as the two PC laptops (Windows XP) that belong to our two overseas students. Their laptops use the Chinese Language Kit however that presented no problem. Everything is running smoothly and it is good that the network is now more secure.

I feel a little chuffed that I was able to do all this. Not bad for a history teacher.

Voice Thread is an interesting online app that allows you to annotate your photographs with voice and text. Multiple users can annotate a selection of images or a single image. The demo on the web site employs a sequence of historical photographs and drawings by students. As a teacher of history this registered a chord within me. It is a great tool that allows students, and adults too, to record oral histories and to simply tell stories. It is always useful to experiment with alternative forms of expression.

The interface is simple to use. Comments can be moderated. It is very freindly tool to use.

Merlin Mann presents a practical and down to earth presentation on maintaining an email In Box with zero messages. He speaks of how email can dominate one’s life and he presents a commonsense approach to managing your email. He has a web page dedicated to the issue as well with resources that may interest you if you are keen to eliminate, reduce or manage email more effectively.

You may like to investigate this web based tool…

“Trackstar is your starting point for online lessons and activities. Simply collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track. Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators. Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity. There is a fun Track already made for each day of the year, too!”

I have used a nifty little free mind mapping tool called Freemind lately. The download link is further down the page. Mac and Windows.

The other day I posted about the Cosmopod plug-in for Safari that allowed you to easily download and convert embedded video files in a web page. There is a similar solution for Firefox although the video files are downloaded as is, for example, .flv files. It is a Firefox add-on called Download Helper. It will allow you to easily download video files from YouTube.

Now, if you would like to view the files using Quicktime Player I suggest that you download and install the Perian Quicktime plug-in. As their opening screen states… “Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats”.