TTT19--Parting Tips!

Howdy, ya'll,

Over the past 20 weeks or so it's been my pleasure to provide weekly tech tips to ya via this podcast. Today's show is the last one I'll put up, at least until next school year, possibly forever.

As you may know, I produce another weekly podcast, Snacks4theBrain!, for the Vanderbilt University Center for Science Outreach. Over the summer (my germ of a) plan is to transform that weekly brief (~20 min.) podcast into a bi-weekly longer one (~40 min. to one hour) in a new format that will allow me to play complete podsafe songs of many genres, include a tips feature, and continue to interview cutting edge research scientists about the way they're connecting to K12 students worldwide. I will also be doing occasional "soundseeing tours" of the Nashville, Tennessee area for you poor folks who can't get here in the flesh. If you don't already subscribe to S4theB! I heartily encourage you to do so.

What I'd like to do here, by way of a sayanora, is to share links of sites that I've found to be veritable founts of tippery. Check these out as a way to continue learning and growing your tech skills:

Tammy's Technology Tips for Teachers:
I just like to TTTT thing she's got going on. Just kidding: Actually, Tammy--an Instructional Technology Specialist at ESSDACK, an educational service center in Kansas--has assembled a good working set of skills tips specifically for teachers.

Computer Geeks Tech-Tips:
Anybody who will call themselves a geek and smile about it earns a friendship entry in my book. These folks have done a cool job of compiling and archiving a great set of tips categorized under the headings Computer, Computer Parts, Consumer Electronics, Networking, and Other.

Technology Tips of the Month from Oregon State University:
Deborah Healey from the English Language Institute at the above-named institution of higher education has obviously done something like our WiredWednesday project, only on steroids. Here are her categories: Software, Email, Websearching, About the Web, Group discussion/projects, Content-based instruction, Skill areas, and Other.

Micro2000 TechTips:
Oh, those Brits. They have a tip for everything, or nearly, for a total of 91 as of this writing. This site is for the big kids, ya'll, with tech tips from simple Internet tricks to advanced data recovery for uber-geeks. You can download all of the tips in a big zipped file, too. Tasty!

TechTips 101 from Bob Bicknell
Tech Tips 101 and Web Picks are written, produced and voiced by Bob Bicknell. Bob reports on technology for KYW Newsradio 1060. His Tech Tips and Web Picks reports are syndicated nationally to more than 300 radio stations. For those of you who need an audio source for tips, visit the radio station link to hear individual shows. It doesn't seem to show up in iTunes. And also visit iTunes and browse the results from a podcast directory search for "tech tip." I like the One Minute Tip podcast, though it's not nearly as fun as TechTipTuesday has been!

Cheers to all!

Check out the final podcast here.

Photo is all my wonderful colleagues at University School of Nashville Lower School. I've been told it looks alot like something that should be called "Scott and his Posse!" Just an accident of placement and costume, but I sorta agree. One could wish for no better company...

TTT 18 -- Word Tabs

Hey, ya'll,

This week we're laying out the text of our Wired Wednesday card on Tabs in Microsoft Word (image at right, Tab Hunter, heeheehee, courtesy of the Meeker Museum online) . The card and its resulting podcast audio barely scratch the surface of this powerful formatting tool, and because of that I'm adding some links here to additional resources. The folks at VTC (Virtual Training Company) have been creating and delivering tutorials on a wealth of computer related programs for a decade. Many of their tutorials are free, and the quality of the free ones leads me to believe that if one is interested in a tutorial that requires purchase, it would be money well spent. Check these tutorials out at their website. The tutorial about the formatting toolbar is particularly appropriate this episode. Suffolk University's Paul T. Birtwell has some great tutorials of his own, including this one on tabs. Or how about Penn State's tabs tutorial! Heck, you don't need me: Just google "word tabs tutorial" or some other variant of the query.

Download TTT18 here, or browse all TTT's by clicking on "Feeds" in the sidebar. Music courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, a really nice piece from indie label BBE Records group Osunlade, called "Caseblanca of the Soul."

Cheers, all!