Teachnology+Tips+4

PART 1

iTunes If you haven't used iTunes yet, you are missing out on a lot! iTunes is much more than a music player and song organiser. The current version is iTunes 7 and you can use it to can do all of the following ... EASILY!


 * Play music
 * Download music legally (both paid and free)
 * Convert most common audio files to just about any other type of audio file (e.g. MP3 MP4 ACC AIFF WAV MIDI)
 * Burn music CDs
 * Find the track names and details of almost any CD you insert
 * Watch video clips
 * Subscribe to podcasts (iTunes will download the latest episode when you are connected to the Internet)
 * Download and watch some ABC TV programs
 * Listen to audiobooks
 * Listen to Internet Radio
 * Store and read the lyrics of your favourite songs

In the last few days a new service has appeared: iTunes University!

16 prominent US universities are offering course materials, public lectures and other academic content via iTunes - for free. MIT, Penn State, Duke, Stanford and UC Berkeley are some of the better-known universities to join iTunes, and more are likely to follow. Here's what MIT (Massachusets Institute of Technology) offers:

MIT offers a selection of video and audio from several of our groundbreaking projects. OpenCourseWare shares free lecture notes, exams, and other course materials from virtually all of MIT's curriculum. MIT world provides free, open access to the most significant public events at MIT, including the most recent speakers and guests from across the campus and round the world. Visualizing cultures is a gateway to seeing history through images that once had wide circulation among peoples of different times and places. It has been designed to offer viewers ready access to previously inaccessible materials, as well as guides to their careful analysis and use.

There are already more than 700 audio tracks in MIT's OpenCourseWare section, 26 public lectures, and almost 100 tracks in Visualising Cultures. The lectures include a discussion on Creativity by Michael Resnick, the founder of Lego Mindstorms; and Noam Chomsky gives his views on the Middle East conflict in the International Affairs section.

There is a staggering amount of material available through iTunes - much if it is FREE and EASY TO FIND.

PART 2

Keyboard Shortcuts These work in almost every Mac program, as well as in the Finder. The official name for the APPLE key is "Command" or CMD but I've used APPLE here because CMD isn't written on most keyboards! APPLE-S means to hold the APPLE key then press S. SHIFT-APPLE-4 means to hold both the SHIFT and APPLE keys then press 4

APPLE-SHIFT-4 Take a picture of part of your screen (screenshot). The cursor turns into cross-hairs then you drag across the area you want to capture The image is saved to a file (called Picture 1.png etc) on your desktop It is very handy for making simple instruction pages for your students or recording info from web pages that might change over time

APPLE-SHIFT-3 Take a picture of entire screen

APPLE-TAB Switch between applications (like ALT-TAB in Windows) Shows all running applications in a panel - Hold APPLE key while tapping TAB to choose other applications

APPLE-H Hide the current application Doesn't work in Adobe programs (Photoshop etc)

APPLE-OPTION-ESC Brings up the Force Quit menu (to close a frozen program)

APPLE-N Open a new document in the current program

APPLE-K Opens Connect-to-Server dialog

APPLE-[ In Finder: Go back to previous window In Safari: Go to previous page/site APPLE-] Go forward again

APPLE-drag Rearrange toolbar icons (in most programs)

APPLE-Q Quit the current program

APPLE-SHIFT-Q Logout

ESC (Stands for