Technology Tip of the Week - November 8, 2005

Technology Tips of the Week - November 8, 2005

Create Instant Flash Cards

There is a quick and easy way to create flash cards for student review using Excel (even if you've never used Excel before). Just follow these quick steps:

1. Open Excel

2. In the first cell on the blank worksheet type your first word or term

3. Click on the Tab or Enter key to move out of the cell

4. Click back on the first cell to select it, and from the menu bar choose Insert - Comment

5. Type the definition of the word or term. Click anywhere outside the comment to close it.

Repeat this process for an entire vocabulary list for the week. You will notice that small red triangles will appear in the corner of each cell. When you move your cursor over a triangle the definition will pop up. Instant flashcards! These can be sent out via e-mail attachment to your students for review, added to your faculty web page, a Pipeline course or WebCT course. Although students will need Excel on their computer to view the flashcards there is a free viewer available for them to download if they don't have the program.

Print out more complete instructions with screen shots at: http://it.ccri.edu/Faculty/xlflashcard_steps.pdf

Watch a video demo of this process at http://it.ccri.edu/camtasia_tutorials/excel_flashcards/excelflashcards.html

Article of the Week

There's Something in the Air - Podcasting in Education

Podcasting is a way to automatically download and synchronize digital audio files from the Internet to iPods, Palm OS handhelds, Pocket PCs, your computer or other devices that play digital audio files. These audio files are usually in MP3 format and can be recorded and distributed by anyone. This week's article talks about current and potential uses of podcasting for higher education.

Read this article at: http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm05/erm0561.asp OR

Hear the podcast of this presentation (may take some minutes to download) and add your own two cents worth in the blog at http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=263

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu.