It’s mystifying why teachers have become the target of attacks.   John Stewart sums it up nicely in this piece.

Note: If you mispell Jon Stewart’s name, a bot on Twitter will contact your Twitter account, telling you messed up.  Classic.

Looks like they changed up the Google Documents interface. At school, I thought my browser wasn’t working, and Google Docs wasn’t loading fully. But when I got home, and the same perspective showed up, I knew it was a revamp.

I always thought the Google Documents file manager seemed a bit clunky, and I’m not sure if this new listing with actions on the mouseover, and a preview pane on the right is the right direction. We will have to see.

I really think that services like Google and Facebook, etc. should give people warning before they make changes to their user interfaces. Often times, they just do it as if change is always a good thing. But sometimes we rely on these services in our jobs, and when we have to find something or get something done, a sudden interface change can be a real nuisance. When I searched Twitter for Google Documents, it clearly shows that I’m not the only one to be surprised by the change. There is a button at the top to return to the old version.

In my job, I’m asking a variety of questions on a daily basis regarding computers and technology.  I’d say most of them I’ve heard before and have some pat answers.  Others, I’ve never heard before and a Google search is all I needed to appear like I knew the answer:

1. Websites appear too small on my laptop screen.

Keywords: internet explorer zoom level keep it on permanently.

Internet Explorer allows you to change the zoom level and in the Advanced options, there is check mark where you can make it keep that zoom level every time you open IE.

2. Every time I open Word 2007, it asks me about Office Live, even if I check Do not show again.

Keywords: word 2007 office live opens every time

There is a bug in Office 2007, where it opens even if check the mark.  You have to go into the Options and remote the plug in to make it go away.

3. The website where I’m supposed to download the practice files for this book on Office 2010 doesn’t work.

Keywords: practice files

I tried the website and it showed a dead link with a search page.  I just searched for Practice Files and found a forum post with the same link in it and a complaint that it doesn’t exist and response with the correct link.

4. I want to keep a budget, but don’t really know Microsoft Excel very well.

Youtube Search: budget

Found a simple template for budgeting for Excel and a video tutorial.

5. My laptop with Windows 7 takes forever to log off.

Keywords: windows 7 takes forever to log off

I found a post that you have to uncheck a setting in Internet Explorer to clear the Temporary Files when you close the browser.

In conclusion, I don’t know where we would be if it wasn’t for an Internet search.  I wouldn’t look quite as smart.  I think anyone can solve their own problems if they learn the keywords to answer their own questions.

We had a day off on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I have gathered a number of websites and online resources celebrating our upcoming holidays and the significance surrounding these dates.  Take what you will from these sites and tweak to your heart’s content.

Martin Luther King Jr.
King Center:
King Institute Home:
Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech:
Martin Luther King Jr. Online
Teaching With Documents: Court Documents Related to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers

Presidents’ Day

American Rhetoric:
Lincoln Memorial Interactive
Gettysburg Address Revisited
Studying the U.S. Constitution through Documents
Who Wants to be President? Infographic
9 Resources about Learning about U.S. Presidents
Get a free American Presidents Poster

Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year: Moon Phases and Zodiac
Chinese New Year Lessons Plans: Science Heroes
Chinese Dragon Puppets

Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson’s Official Website
Teaching with Documents – Beyond the Playing Field with Jackie Robinson

Other sites worth exploring:
DocsTeach – Use documents to teach history
Vote Easy – Great website on voting and politics
Picturing America – Exploring the connection between the arts and history

If you’ve taken a look at the reading experience online, it’s embarrassing.  Sure, there are many free books available online, but the reading experience in the browser is so ad-congested, it’s clearly not worth your time.  The reading experience is best in its original book format, without pop-outs and advertisements.  If you journey to www.readprint.com or the literaturepage.com or online-literature.com, you will sorely disappointed by the experience.

You’d think with how much is spent on libraries, that we, as taxpayers, could pay for a favorable reading experience of public domain online.

Even GooReader, a free download for reading Google Books, forces you to either install Search Toolbar powered by Bing or set Bing as your search provider.  There is no other way to install it.  This is bizarre considering I want to read Google Books, but I have to use Microsoft’s search engine.

In the end, Project Gutenberg appears the best place to get your free public domain books online.  I didn’t see any ads on the front page and the reading experience is pretty basic and functional, HTML or text, with options to download.