CloudConvert “supports the conversion between more than 100 different audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet and presentation formats.”

Navigate through your folder system to the file you want to covert. Click once on the file’s icon and drag it onto the CloudConvert webpage. Or if your file lives in Dropbox or Google Drive, click the “Select files” button to find the file you want to convert.

When you click “Select format” CloudConvert detects what kind of file it is to determine your options for what kind of file you can convert it to. Here I uploaded a docx file, so CloudConvert has given me two main choices: Document and ebook. When I mouse over ebook, I get a dropdown menu of the 8 file types that can work with ebook software.

I chose epub. In the last step, “convert it,” I can choose to have CloudConvert email when the conversion is complete, or I can have the file saved directly to Dropbox or Google Drive. If you choose the email option, CloudConvert will ask for your email address. If you choose Dropbox or Google Drive, a popup window will ask for your permission to use your chosen service and to add a folder inside of that service called CloudConvert.

Finally click the big red “Start Conversion” button.

If you chose email as your notification option, you will get an email with a download link.

If you chose Dropbox as your file save location, the CloudConvert folder will be inside of your Apps folder. If you don’t already have an Apps folder, one will automatically be created. Dropbox folder -> Apps folder -> CloudConvert folder -> YourConvertedFile.

If you choose Google Drive as your file save location, the converted file will be saved in your root folder. Google Drive -> YourConvertedFile.

After the file has been converted, CloudConvert marks the file with a green “Finished” icon with a message about what they did with the file (“Sent file into your Dropbox). To the far right is a green “Download” button. You can manually download the converted file here, or more interestingly, you can convert either the input file (Pocket.docx in this example) or the output file (Pocket.epub) into another file format without having to upload the file again. You can even get a QR code for quick downloading to your smartphone or tablet.

Limitations

You are welcome to use CloudConvert as a guest. If you register for a free account, you are allowed more conversions per day and a bigger maximum file size. CloudConvert is currently in beta, so perhaps there will be a pay-for version that will give you even more power. You can see the difference between what guests and registered users can do in the chart below.

The “storage time of converted files” only matters if you choose the “email me” notification option. If you asked that the converted file be saved to Dropbox or Google Drive, it will be saved in that location as soon as CloudConvert does the conversion; it doesn’t matter how long CloudConvert keeps a copy.

Compare to Zamzar

My go-to file conversion service has been Zamzar, but CloudConvert is a compelling alternative. The ability to have files automatically saved to Dropbox or Google Drive is reason enough to try CloudConvert.

“So find something new to try, something to change. Count how often you succeed and how often you fail. Write about it. Ask people what they think. See if you can keep the conversation going.”

This is the final paragraph in Atul Gawande’s 2007 book, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. While his advice is directed at newly-minted physicians, it’s more broadly applicable. In our case, let’s talk higher education.

1. “Find something new to try, something to change.”

You’re reading this blog. That puts you solidly in the camp of people who are interested in trying new things. Not all new things are better, of course. What works for me may not work for you. But if you don’t try new things, how will you know?

2. “Count how often you succeed and how often you fail.”

Gawande writes about Virginia Apgar, a physician (anesthesiologist) who created a scoring system (rubric) for evaluating the health of newborns, now known as the Apgar score. “Published in 1953 to revolutionary effect, the score turned an intangible and impressionistic clinical concept – the condition of new babies – into numbers that people could collect and compare. Using it required more careful observations and documentation of the true condition of every baby. Moreover, even if only because doctors are competitive, it drove them to want to produce better scores – and therefore better outcomes – for the newborns they delivered.”

The Apgar score improved neonatal care. The act of measuring was enough to prompt changes that resulted in better outcomes. The behavioral change research tells us that’s exactly what we should expect to happen. If you want to change a behavior, the first thing you need to do is track how often you do/don’t do it. Want to exercise more? Track how often you exercise. Want to eat better? Track what you eat.

This is what the push for assessment in higher education is about. What outcomes are important to us? Let’s measure those outcomes; think of these as Apgar scores for each of our students. If we’re not happy with those scores, we can see which parts of the rubric are bringing our scores down, and then refer back to #1, “Find something new to try, something to change.” And this is why I strongly advocate for classroom level assessments as opposed to something at the college level. I can change something I’m doing with my students. If the college learns that our students are scoring in the 60^th percentile on a standardized test, say on critical thinking, I don’t know what to do with that information. My students might be improving over the course of a term on critical thinking, but when assessed at the college level I can’t see that.

We need to share what we learn, where you share doesn’t much matter. Present at a conference. Write for a newsletter. Create your own blog. Send what you learn to your professional listservs. Sharing gives others something to try. I’ve also found that writing helps me sort through my thoughts and disentangle the mess that they often create.

There’s a movement afoot to get more people involved in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL – pronounced sew-toll). A lot of us are doing #1 (find something to change) and #2 (counting how often we succeed/fail), but we need to do more #3, sharing what we’re learning.

4. “Ask people what they think. See if you can keep the conversation going.”

Gawande brings this up in the context of making a connection with others, e.g., patients, nurses, other hospital employees by asking “unscripted” questions – “Where did you grow up?”, “What made you move to Boston?” Anything, really. While we all have our roles, it’s nice to remember that we’re all people first and foremost. Chat with your students before class. I know you’re busy. I know you’re rushed. But is it time to rethink priorities? That email you want to get sent off before you go to class will still be there when you get back. It’s not life and death. It’s just higher education. Email can wait. In fact, that’s what email was designed for – something that can wait until you have time to get to it.

The value of unscripted conversations also applies to our colleagues. I work in a very collegial department, but our collegiality is not an accident. Like any relationship, collegiality needs to be tended to. We meet, on average, every couple weeks – on Fridays, and our meetings typically last 2 to 3 hours. It’s not because we have that much official business to cover – generally we don’t get through our modest agenda as it is – but because we all value the camaraderie. We talk about our week’s trials and tribulations both in and out of the classroom. We seek and share advice on dealing with particularly difficult students. We discuss how we approach different topics in our courses. We discuss new assignments we’re trying and how those seem to be going. Yes, of course, we’re not working in utopia. Sometimes we get irritated with each other, but our frequent meetings let us work through those rough spots quickly.

Finally, #5. This is my suggestion, not Gawande’s. Read widely.

You never know where you’ll find inspiration.

As we begin a new academic year, what are you going to do to get better?

It’s time to clean up the graphics you use in your presentations or on your website/course management system. Remove the content you don’t want; only keep what you do want.

Clipping Magic makes it about as easy as you can imagine for removing content, say, the background, from photos. Drag and drop the photo you want to edit. Mark green for what you want to keep. Mark red for what you want deleted. Zoom in or use a smaller brush size to get in the corners.

You can change the background. I’ve chosen transparent for my example, but you can choose from a small palette of solid colors.

When you have your photo looking nice and pretty, click the “Download” button. That’s it.

Here’s the final result from my project – I don’t think it took me much longer than 5 minutes.

Clipping Magic is currently in Alpha (that means it’s really in the beginning stages of development) and free (because it’s in Alpha). While you can use it without a log in, sign up now to “get freebies when the service comes out of alpha!”

[Photo: This is my lovely wife, a Wisconsin native, during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.]

So now you’re using an RSS feed reader, such as Feedly, to keep up with what’s new, right? (If not, see this blog post.) SubToMe is a browser tool that will make subscribing to new feeds a breeze. With a few mouse clicks, you can start getting content sent to you from your new source.

On the SubToMe webpage, click on “Settings”.

There are two ways you can use SubToMe to subscribe to a new feed. 1.) Drag the “Subscribe” button to your browser’s bookmark bar. Any time you want to start getting content from a site you’re visiting, click the button in your bookmark bar.

Or 2.) Install the SubToMe browser extension. For Chrome, I visited the Chrome Store, and searched for SubToMe. Once installed, the green SubToMe icon appears next to the rest of my browser extensions in the top right corner of my browser. (Go directly to the extension in the Chrome Store.) To add a new feed from the webpage I’m visiting, I just click the icon.

Connecting SubToMe to your RSS reader

On the settings page, click on “suggested apps”.

Here are the RSS readers they support (as of this writing). Since I just use Feedly, I clicked “Install” to, well, install it.

Ready to roll!

That’s it. To subscribe to a site – such as this one, just to pick one at random – click the SubToMe button. You’ll see this little popup. Click “Feedly” – or whatever RSS feed reader you chose.

Your RSS feed reader will load giving you a preview of what the feed will look like. If you want to subscribe, in Feedly’s case, click “+add to my feedly”.

Feedly then asks where you’d like to put the new feed. Click the appropriate box or boxes – or create a new category. Click the “Add” button at the bottom.

Done!

Remember, your RSS feed reader, e.g., Feedly, is creating a personalized newspaper for you. Just like any other newspaper, don’t feel compelled to read everything. Some of my categories have content that are weeks old. I’ll read the newest content, and then for the rest “mark as read.”

I have been a LastPass advocate for some time, however I’ve been remiss in not dedicating an entire blog post to it. It’s time to remedy that. I have usernames and passwords to over 400 websites. Each of those passwords should be complex and unique. How often do you reuse your passwords?

LastPass is a password manager – and a vault for saving other kinds of data, like credit card information. Use it for free, or pay them $12 a year for the mobile app; if you have a smartphone, it’s well worth the price. By letting LastPass manage your passwords, you can get rid of all of your sticky notes/little black book – and stop letting your browser save your passwords. Let LastPass generate random passwords for you. Share your passwords with trusted LastPass users, like your spouse; if one of you changes a shared password, it’s automatically changed for the other person. Store your credit card information in LastPass.

What it can do.

When I visit a website where I need to enter my username and password, LastPass automatically enters it for me. I have LastPass installed on the three major browsers I use (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer), so my passwords seamlessly follow me regardless of which browser I’m using.

When you first install LastPass, the program will pull your usernames and logins from your browser. Anything you have saved there will automatically be moved into LastPass.

This is the menu from the LastPass web browser extension. From here I can go to my “vault” which holds all of the data I have saved in LastPass. “Recently Used” gives me a list of websites LastPass has recently accessed. Clicking on the links takes me to those sites. “Sites” gives me clickable links to all of the websites I have LastPass passwords for arranged by categories (folders) I’ve created. “Secure Notes” lets me save any kind of text I’d like, like my home WiFi access code. “Fill Forms” has my saved personal data, like phone number, address, and credit cards. I have different form profiles for my address, such as one with my home contact information and another with my work contact information. I have different form profiles for each of my credit cards. That means that when I’m ordering something online, I don’t have to search for my wallet. I just select the credit card I want to use, and, BAM, the information is entered.

Because I have LastPass installed on my laptop, in “Preferences” I have chosen to have LastPass “logoff when all browsers are closed and Chrome has been closed for” 10 minutes. Honestly, if my computer were stolen, the very first thing I would do is hop on the internet, say, with my smartphone, and change my LastPass password. If I’m traveling where the risk of losing my computer is greater (although I’ve never lost one yet!), I turn on multifactor authentication. (See below for more on this!)

When you need to create a new password, use “Generate Secure Password.” You decide the parameters, and LastPass will generate a password. If the bar is in the green, you have a strong password. LastPass will automatically paste it into the web form you’re using, and it will automatically save the password.

When I’m away from my computer, I can access all of my LastPass data through the LastPass mobile app or by logging into my account at LastPass.com.

Now you’re getting nervous, right?

“That’s a lot of private data you’re giving them. Do you really trust them?” Yes, yes I do. Because LastPass doesn’t actually have my data. They don’t even have my LastPass master password – if I forget my password, they can send me the hint I used when I created my account, but they can’t send me my master password because they don’t have it.

The short version. LastPass encrypts all of the data you have stored in LastPass on your local machine. Your LastPass master password is the key to decryption. If someone were to break into the LastPass servers, all they would get is gibberish. They can’t decrypt your passwords without your master password.

You can read more about LastPass security. Want to learn even more? Here is what Steve Gibson had to say about LastPass in 2010 on the Security Now podcast (watch below).

For those who want extra security, enable LastPass’ multifactor authentication. With this, you need two keys – one key is something you know (your master password) and the other is something you have (e.g., your smartphone). I use Google Authenticator, but there are others. On my phone I installed the Google Authenticator app. When I log into LastPass, I enter my password, and then I’m prompted to enter a code. I run the Google Authenticator app on my phone, and there will be a code for LastPass. The code is only good for 30 seconds, and then a new code will appear. Once I enter the correct code, then I will be logged into LastPass. Even if someone did get my master password, they would need to have my phone, too, to get into my secure data.

Now think about how many usernames and passwords you have saved in your browser. All someone has to do is open your browser…

It’s July!

Remember how you said back in January that you wanted to try out some new things when you finally had the time for it?

Your challenge for the month of July: Pick two of these to try out. The first of your picks is #1; we’re not even going to debate that. Your second pick is your choice.

1. Stop talking on your phone while driving. This one is the easiest since it’s about not doing something instead of doing something. Watch this 55-min video of David Strayer from the University of Utah discussing his researching on multitasking while driving. This was a talk he gave earlier this year at the Association for Psychological Science convention.
2. LastPass. This is a password manager. Remember one password and have access to all of your passwords – even on your smartphone. LastPass will generate random passwords for you – and remember them for you. You can even share a password with someone else, say, the person you share a bank account with. If you are already using a password manager and are happy with it, by all means keep using it.
3. Cel.ly. Text all of your students at once or just texts individuals without getting their phone numbers or revealing yours. Send out a multiple choice question, and Cel.ly will tally the results for you. Read more here.
4. YouCanBook.Me. Let others schedule themselves into your Google Calendar – and automatically send them a reminder notice. Read more here.
5. Feedly. Create your own personalized newspaper courtesy of the internet. When new information is posted to sources you’re interested in, that information will come to you. Ask your favorite librarian about how to get information from the library databases (search results, tables of contents) sent to your newspaper. Feedly is one of many tools in the RSS feed reader genre, but it’s a good one to start with. Read more here.
6. OneNote. You have this on your computer now. Look in your Microsoft Office folder. In there you’ll find OneNote, an incredibly useful note-taking/organization/task management program. It’s even more useful now that they have a nice mobile app. Read more here.
7. Akindi. Print test bubble sheets instead of purchasing them. Scan the answer sheet and the student exams into one big pdf, then upload to Akindi. The tests are graded automatically, and all of the data pulled into a spreadsheet. If you attach your student learning outcomes to each of your questions, you have yourself a very easy and very powerful assessment tool. Download the scored tests for printing or sending electronically to your students. Read more here.

8. IFTTT. “Automatically have your gmail attachments saved to Dropbox. Tweet Feedly articles you’ve tagged. Text new appointments to Google calendar. Making these kinds of automated connections is the power of today’s internet. And you know what? It’s ridiculously easy to do.” Read more here.

You’re in class (or creating a video for your class), and you want to write on the screen to bring attention to some important point. Sometimes you’re in PowerPoint. Sometimes you’re showing a PDF. Sometimes you’re on a website. Epic Pen will write on your Windows screen (XP and later), regardless of what program you happen to be running.  Use your mouse to draw, or if you have a touch screen PC, your stylus.

Here I’ve written on a webpage.

This is the Epic Pen toolbar.

Using Epic Pen is just like writing on a transparency. Even when the content underneath changes, the transparency is still there. Here I minimized my browser, but the marks I made on the screen haven’t gone away.

As you move from window to window, remember to erase your “transparency” by clicking on the icon on the bottom right of the Epic Pen toolbar – or use the keyboard short, CTRL+6.

Automatically have your Gmail attachments saved to Dropbox. Tweet Feedly articles you’ve tagged. Text new appointments to Google calendar. Making these kinds of automated connections is the power of today’s internet. And you know what? It’s ridiculously easy to do.

IFTTT stands for “If This Then That.” You can connect any one of 65 “channels” to any other one of their “channels.” A channel is web service, such as Dropbox, Gmail, Google Calendar, LinkedIn, Facebook, SkyDrive, Instapaper, Feedly, and Pocket. It includes being able to use text messaging or even phone calls. For the channels you want to use, “recipes” are the connections you make between those services. There are plenty of recipes that you can browse through, or you can create your own.

One recipe I found will let you automatically save all of your Gmail attachments to Dropbox.

Overview of how IFTTT works

Services that operate via the web can choose to have an API (Application Programming Interface). Any service that has this code can be connected to any other service that uses that code. If you have services connected to Facebook or your Google account, those services are using an API. With IFTTT, you give them permission to access certain aspects of whichever services you’d like.

A specific example

After setting up an account at IFTTT, click on “Browse” then in the search box, enter Gmail as a search term. The recipe we’re interested in is fourth on the list.

Clicking on “Save all your Gmail Attachments to Dropbox” generates this page.

Since I haven’t given IFTTT permission to use my Gmail and Dropbox accounts, I need to do that first. When I click the “Activate” button under “Gmail Channel,” I’m directed to Google where I’m asked if I want to grant access to IFTTT. Since I do, I click the “Grant Access” button. And then I repeat the process for Dropbox.

Now I need to decide where in Dropbox I want to save the attachments coming in from Gmail. With the default, IFTTT will create a folder called IFTTT, and within that it will create another folder called Gmail Attachments. I’m good with that, so I just click the big blue “Use Recipe” button.

At the very top of the page click “My Recipes.” You’ll see that it’s been added.

I told you it was ridiculously easy.

Use the icons to the right of the recipe the turn it off, delete it altogether, share it, or edit it.

[Updated 7/2/2013: Recipes run every 15 minutes, unless they have a lightning bolt. Lightning bolt recipes don’t have this wait time.  If you want to check a recipe without waiting, click the edit icon next to the recipe.  On the resulting screen, click “Check.”  The recipe will run immediately.  How do you get a lightning bolt?  Only some channels have lightning bolt capability, like email and Google.  IFTTT reports that they’re working on rolling this out to other channels.]

Creating a new recipe

Let’s create a new recipe where we have any Gmail messages labeled Dropbox saved in a Dropbox folder called “Important Messages.”

Click “Create” in the top menu bar. On the new screen, click the “this” link to tell IFTTT what you want the trigger to be.

For step 1, you are asked what you want the trigger channel to be. Click on Gmail.

In step 2, choose a trigger. Choose “New email labeled.”

Step 3, enter dropbox as the label, and click “Create Trigger.”

With the “this” portion done, we’re ready for the “that.”

In step 4, you’re given that same list of channels. This time, choose Dropbox.

Step 5, tell IFTTT what you want it to do with Dropbox. Let’s go with “Create a text file.”

In step 6, IFTTT said that it would create a folder called IFTTT (if one doesn’t already exist by that name), and then it would put my Gmail messages in a subfolder called “Gmail.” I’m okay with the IFTTT folder, but I want the subfolder called “Important Messages,” so I typed that it.

Next, we need to decide what we want the filename called. IFTTT defaults to what you see here, but we can change this to whatever we’d like using the “ingredients” list given.

I decided that I want the filename to be the sender’s email address – subject line from the message – date the email was received.

When it looks good, click the big blue “Create Action” button.

Last step, add a short description.

Click “Create Recipe.”

Now, let’s test it!

In Gmail, choose a message; right above the message is an icon menu. Click on the label icon, and type in dropbox. Gmail will ask if you want to create that as a new label. Assure it that that is indeed what you want to do.

Give it a few minutes, then check your Dropbox folder. There will be a new folder called “IFTTT”, and within that folder is one called “Important Messages.”

Now do a celebratory dance!

What to do next

Browse the recipes others have created. Take a look at the list of channels to see what services you’re currently using and how you might want to connect them. For the services you’re unfamiliar with, check them out.

Happy cooking!

Earlier this year Google announced it was pulling the plug on Google Reader July 1, 2013. I recommended trying Old Reader or Feedly. Personally, I’ve settled on Feedly; their responsiveness to the demand following Google’s announcement and to the feature requests coming from their new clients has been admirable.

Feedly was originally built to use Google Reader in the backend, repackaging the content into a different format. Short version: Feedly said we’ll make some changes so we don’t need to rely on Google Reader. The day is here. They’re calling it the Feedly Cloud.

If you are using Feedly, follow the easy-to-follow directions on their blog to make sure that all of your feeds really are coming through Feedly, not Google Reader.

A year ago, I wrote about how the ability to tell time on an analog clock was going the way of the slide rule. Watches, digital and analog, have largely disappeared. Why wear one when you have a cell phone to tell you the time? While watches do seem to be making a comeback as a fashion accessory, that particular trend hasn’t hit my campus yet judging by my students’ bare wrists.

For a student who doesn’t have a watch and can’t tell time using the analog clock in the back of my classroom, pacing oneself during a test in my classroom is a tricky business.

I project the time using my classroom’s computer.

After much looking around, I’ve settled on time.is as my time website of choice. This is what it looks like to my students.

The screenshot below is what Time.is looks like when I first visit the site. It correctly identifies my location as the Seattle area. The information provides is a little much for displaying during a test. Most of my students don’t use a 24-hour clock. Displaying the seconds might actually increase anxiety (“Oh no! Time is going really fast!”). My students don’t need to know that my computer’s time is exact (but good for my computer!). They also, while taking a test, don’t need to know the time in Beijing.

Let’s customize.

First, clicking on the time strips away everything except for the “Time.is” logo in the top left corner and the big bold time in the center; you get a screen that looks like the screenshot that led off this blog post. Click on the time again to go back to the default view that shows all the extras.

Let’s change the display to a 12-hour clock and ditch the seconds.

At the very top of the Time.is screen, click “more.” Then select “customize.”

That generates this customization screen. Uncheck “24 hours” and “show seconds.” Then click “Back to the front page.”

Ta da! You now have a 12-hour clock and the seconds are gone.

Click on the time to show just the time. Done!