I try to keep as little paper around as possible. Paper piles up and becomes messy very quickly for me and you can’t always carry all your paper with you everywhere – i.e. then I find myself in a situation where I need a document that I don’t have. Most of the documents that I need to access on a regular basis are stored in my Microsoft SkyDrive account. But despite most documents I need being available online these days, I’ve still seem to collect a massive amount of paper on a weekly basis. I started looking for a solution to this and came up with the Handyscan app. Handyscan, developed by JDB Pocketware for  Windows Phone 7, enables you to scan documents using the camera on your Windows Phone 7 and then save or share your image or document in multiple ways.

 

The app is designed in a very simple and clean manner. Once you run the app and tap ”Scan”, the app gives you a few tips for how to have the best scan - you can check the “Don’t show again” in the lower left-hand corner if you just want to go straight to scanning. I have it set to still display, so I click “Start” to begin my scan.

Hold your phone above what you’d like to scan and Handyscan provides a 3 second count down before scanning.

Once it’s scanned your image or document, you then use the selection handles to select as closely to your scanned image or document as possible – i.e. I wanted to try not to show the carpet in the final image. (Note – I scanned one of my business cards on a bit of an angle, which made it trickier to select, but I was still able to get pretty close as the selection tool can be dragged at any angle – i.e. you aren’t limited to a square or rectangle selection). Once you’ve selected your image or document the way you like, tap the “Check” to continue.

On the following screen, Handyscan presents you with three optimization options. I’ve found that that my final scans tend to be slightly darker that I’d expect, so I pick an optimization that is one brighter than what I want. In this example, I chose the top choice by tapping the “Check” to the right of the first choice.

Once you have selected your optimization, you have several options for saving or sharing. This is also the screen where you could add additional pages/images by scanning again. You can save simply to your phone, upload to a cloud service – both SkyDrive and Dropbox are supported - or send your scan to someone by email. I linked my SkyDrive account to Handyscan so it defaults to saving it there when I tap “upload to cloud”.

Uploading to the cloud services of SkyDrive or Dropbox is simple. You have the option to pick your file dimensions (Small, Moderate, or Original) and your image quality (Draft, Fair, Good, or Best). The larger the dimensions you select and/or the better the image quality you choose, the larger the size of your file. You can also choose whether you want to save your scan as an image (JPG) or a document (PDF). Once you have made your selections, tap the Cloud image at the bottom of the screen.

Finally, you are directed to give your image a file name. When you tap “Ok”, your image is automatically uploaded to your cloud service – in my case – SkyDrive. Your image or document  is now available in your cloud service!

App Details

Name of App: Handyscan

Published by: JDB Pocketware

Platform: Windows Phone

Cost: There is a free version and a paid version. The paid version is only 99 cents and is well worth it as it offers PDF conversion, emailing options, and the ability to restore backups!

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Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad

by Monica Rysavy on May 11, 2012

I’m the proud new owner of the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. This makes me very happy because I’m able to type easily on my iPad now.

I love how simple the packaging is – no extra plastic to cut away when unpacking.

Traditional docks have to be lined up in order to connect an iPad to the keyboard dock, but this keyboard has a magnetic connection – very much like Apple’s Smart Cover connection, so all I have to do is hold the iPad above the white strip on the keyboard and it locks slips into place!

The keyboard, although small, is perfect for small hands like mine! Typing is smooth and quiet.

I think my favorite thing about it is that it looks like a mini laptop when docked!

Attaching my iPad to the keyboard for travel is easy too. Just hold the iPad next to the edge of the keyboard and the magnetic clip connects to the iPad.

When the keyboard case is attached to the iPad, it’s almost a perfect match!

I’ve only noticed one thing I don’t like about it – the case doesn’t securely clip or fasten to the iPad. This means I still have to keep it in my slipcover. That’s ok as I’d do that anyway to avoid scratches, but it seems like Logitech could have designed something to keep the case securely attached to the iPad.

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I’ve started following a system that has changed my life in terms of organizing, finding, and working with academic research articles. I created this infographic to show you how I work with research each day. I’ll follow up later this week with a more detailed post that will show you step-by-step how to set up each part of my system. Please post your comments and questions below and I’ll make sure to address them in my detailed upcoming post!


Logo Credits: Dropbox, Mendeley, and iAnnotate

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Tech Finds | Coming Soon: GoSoapBox

by Monica Rysavy on February 11, 2012

I’m interested in trying out GoSoapBox when it launches sometime in February. According to their website,  ”Soapbox provides a platform for audience member input, while letting speakers facilitate discussion, organize feedback, and gauge audience sentiment — all in real time. Here are some of the features:

Image Source: http://gosoapbox.com/tour/

I’m thinking about trying this tool with my undergraduate students later this semester.

I teach Microsoft Office courses (typically Word and Excel) and it can be difficult to judge how quickly to progress students through a lesson because they are sometimes reluctant to speak up if they don’t understand something. It would be very helpful for me to know if a particular concept or skill was especially challenging for students (and for what percentage of the class!) so I would know to slow things done and/or reteach the skill. I think the “Confusion Barometer” sounds like it would be useful for this.

I’m also curious about using the “Student Conversation” component as I provide lab time during each class for students to work on activities. In the past, students have worked primarily alone, although I do encourage helping and working together, so perhaps this might increase collaboration?

I’m excited for this to be available!

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Tech Finds | Resumes: re.vu

by Monica Rysavy on February 10, 2012

I haven’t created a resume from scratch in a very long time. I keep a couple of versions updated (teaching, administration, and general) and have done so for several years now. It’s made it really easy to apply for various opportunities because I just had to change a few things (sometimes not at all), and was ready to submit.

Recently, I’ve noticed that more and more academic-related positions are looking for job applicants to have an online presence in the way of a portfolio or resume website. Despite having multiple blogs, I don’t have a portfolio site (something that I should probably make). One of my hesitations in creating such a site was the need to keep it updated. It would be ‘one more thing’ to update and really should be a priority since it would be my professional presence on the web, but I always had a feeling that I wouldn’t update as quickly as I should so I held off. That’s why I was so excited when I came across re.vu.

re.vu describes itself as a site that gives users the capability to “design a dynamic, interactive, and visual resume that is significantly more effective at representing the whole person than a common resume alone” (http://re.vu/about). Here’s the number one thing that I love about re.vu:

  • It pulls content to complete your site from your LinkedIn account

This means that if you update LinkedIn, you’ve updated your re.vu site. How awesome is that? I signed up right away.

You have the ability to change how your content appears (i.e. add or remove text), as well as add additional content (in addition to adding logos from your institutions – love this!), but the bulk of my content, was added automatically for me. You even have the option to attach a “traditional” resume to your site as well.

After signing up, I was presented with this screen which gave me the option to connect my site to my LinkedIn account

I agreed to link my account

and less than a minute later, I was informed that the import was successful!

I made a few minor changes, uploaded logos of my academic institutions, a profile picture for myself, and chose a background. I was done!

I still have a few changes I’d like to make. I think I’m going to choose a photo background instead of using this stock photo, but it works for now, and I really like it!

I think this would be a wonderful resource with students. Did I mention it’s FREE?

I’ve helped many create and edit resumes over the years and this, by far, is the most interesting looking resume I have ever made! Ease of use, combined with the fact that it updates automatically because of its connection with LinkedIn, makes it something that I would love to share with students.

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I learned about a new tool tonight that I’m really excited to try using when I begin teaching at the college again later this semester. It’s called “Microsoft Interactive Classroom“.  It’s an add-in for PowerPoint 2007 & 2010 and OneNote 2007 & 2010 that gives teachers a new way to quickly check for understanding with their students during a lesson.

Teachers can use the tool to add questions to their PowerPoint presentations (Multiple Choice, Yes/No, or True/False). This tool links the teacher’s PowerPoint presentation to the students’ individual OneNote notebooks. Students answer the teacher’s questions from within their notebook and their results can then be immediately displayed in the teacher’s presentation for quick feedback. My favorite part about this is that students can save the presentation and any notes they create in OneNote (along with the polling questions) to review later.

Check out this video to learn more:

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Tech Shortcuts: OneNote 2010

by Monica Rysavy on November 29, 2011

I saw a tweet tonight from Microsoft Office that talked about OneNote 2010 shortcuts. I absolutely love OneNote, and have been using it for years, so I had to check it out.

I was amazed by how many shortcuts the article suggests! I’m embarrassed to admit that I only knew a handful of shortcuts, but now there are plenty for me to try out with my notebooks. I use OneNote to take notes for my classes, keep track of work projects, organize travel plans, and even to make our weekly grocery lists! Here’s a quick look at my main notebooks:

Make sure to check the shortcuts out!

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Geekery Lists: Prints and Posters

by Monica Rysavy on November 19, 2011


Images are linked to their listings!

Credits (from left to right):

Row 1: Society 6, handzEncorePrints

Row 2: Flowtown, GraySparrow, The Wallaroo

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I learned about an online game for students called Biblio Bouts from a fellow student in my Design Studio class last night. It’s called Biblio Bouts.

Image from Bibliobouts.org

This game teaches students the process of finding high quality information while they complete their assignments. A few tools are required to get started:

  1. Firefox – this free browser can be downloaded here
  2. Zotero - free citation management software which can be downloaded here

Once you’ve installed both Firefox and Zotero, you are ready to register your Biblio Bouts account and get started!

For more information, watch the general overview video on their main website or  watch their demo video about setting up Biblio Bouts here.

Thoughts on Classroom Use

  • It was always challenging for me to teach students how to, in a reasonable amount of time, find high quality research sources for their projects and papers. Their first inclination was to search for the topic in Google.
  • This looks like a great way to teach students about the research process in a fun way!
  • The game, and required tools, are free!

Have you used Biblio Bouts? What age group of students did you use it with? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Thanks for reading!

 

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I’ve been interested in digital literacy for several years now. Little known fact – it was one of the ideas that I bounced around for my first dissertation topic. A fellow student mentioned the topic of teaching digital literacy through video games tonight and I was intrigued.

A quick search in our library catalogue brought back four articles I plan to read soon:

 

I’m looking for a topic for my final paper for my Design-based Research class – this just might be it!

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