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I’ve seen a lot of faculty desktops – both computer desktops and actual desk tops. It seems that for many of you, your approach to organization is to just toss it all on your desktop (or desk top) and hope for the best. And you swear that you’ll get both cleaned up over the summer, the same promise you’ve made to yourself (and the fire marshal) for the last 10 years. I can’t help with your desk top – actually I can. Just put it all in the trash and call it good. Really afraid you’ll need something that’s in that mess? Put it allRead More →

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I use Phrase Express for all of my canned response needs (see this post, for example), but for those of you who just want canned responses in Gmail, check out this Google Labs option. Enabling Canned Responses In Gmail, go to settings by clicking on the cog icon on the far right, and select “Settings”. Click on the “Labs” tab. Scroll down to “Canned Responses” and check “Enable”. Creating a Canned Response Compose a new email. Type up whatever you’d like to save as a response. Click on “Canned responses”. Add a “New canned response…”. Selecting it generates a popup that asks you to nameRead More →

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I’m often asked about the easiest way to set up a website. While the course management systems are fine for, well, managing courses, if you want students to access information before or after the course a personal website is a logical way to go. Last week I was at the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP), the best psychology-focused teaching conference. During a participant idea exchange on favorite tech tools, one person suggested Weebly.com. (I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name! If you read this, please email me. I want to give you proper credit.) Go to Weebly.com, and set up an account.Read More →

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Print Friendly lets you print what you’d like from a webpage. For example, let’s say that you wanted to print a post from my blog. If you used the print capability of your web browser, you’d get something like this. In addition to the content that you want, you’d also get the header, menu tabs, and the right navigation bar. Using Print Friendly, you get the name of the website, the URL, and the content of the blog post. That’s it. Try it out yourself. At the bottom of this post, there is a Print Friendly button. Click on it to print this article. HowRead More →

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For some of my assignments, students are asked to write them in a word processor and email them to me as an attachment. In the most recent batch of student papers, one arrived with a .pages extension. Since I don’t have a program that can read that file format, I went to Zamzar and converted the file. In step 1, I clicked “choose file” and navigated to the file I wanted to convert. In step 2, from the dropdown menu I selected .doc. In step 3, I entered my email address. In step 4, I clicked convert. In less than 30 seconds, Zamzar had sentRead More →

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I visit a lot of faculty offices and view a lot of computer desktops. If you pretty much only see your computer screen(s), check out this NPR story on a photographer whose chosen subject is the computer desktop. Do you use your desktop as a dumping ground for anything and everything new? Or do you only use if for what you are currently working on? Do you store files and folders there, or just program icons? Do you wish you had multiple screens, like your smartphone does? I recently started using Fences (30-day free trial; $9.99) [for Windows; Mac users try Desktop Groups] . I should haveRead More →

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I’ve written before about the utility of PhraseExpress. PhraseExpress (Windows; Mac users try TextExpander) allows you to create text shortcuts. For example, when I type #IV it automatically expands to independent variable; #slo will expand to student learning outcome; #entry generates a paragraph of text explaining why I won’t give an entry code to a student who doesn’t meet the prerequisite for my course. These programs work anywhere you can type, such as your email, your word processing program, your browser. LifeHacker has a nice use for it. Create a shortcut, say #rude, that generates a canned response to rude or hostile email messages. TheRead More →

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Dropbox recently enabled two-step verification. With two-step verification, when you log on using a new device, you need both your password and a code from your phone. (Use it for your Google account, too.) If someone does get hold of your password, they won’t be able to get into your account without this second code. How it works. When I log into my Dropbox account from a new computer or mobile device, I first enter my Dropbox password, and then I am asked for a verification code. I run the Google Authenticator app (Android/iOS/Blackberry) on my phone. (Download the app from wherever you get yourRead More →