Saturday, August 29, 2009

How to select the program to "launch for this action" for cameras in windows xp

In the past I've always copied pictures from my cannon S5 IS, by opening up Windows Explorer, navigating to the camera, copying the pics to my editing directory after opening it in explorer, then deleting the pictures from the camera. Today I just got sick of all the mindless clicking.
An automated way to do all that exists with just a few clicks in windows xp. Plug in your camera, select "start/Settings/" then left click on "Control Panel" and select "Explore". Click on "Scanners and Cameras".
A window like this pops up.
graphic
Right-click on your camera and select "Properties", then the "Events" tab.
graphic
Select the directory to copy the pictures and check "Delete Pictures From Camera after saving them" and you are good to go.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

A Dream for the Kindle in Education




We have all heard about textbooks being converted to be shown on the Kindle or other devices. They would have many benefits.
Students will not longer have to carry sagging backpacks of textbooks (and thereby enriching future generations of chiropractors).
Textbooks could be bought for only a year. I've heard teachers say, "The textbooks we use are really bad, the textbook committee made a bad recommendation, the district bought them, and we are stuck with the books until they wear out."
In electronic form, the textbooks can be swapped out yearly.

But the real opportunity with digital textbooks is something deeper - a chance to make textbooks better, really better.
eTextbooks have the advantage that different versions of the same chapter could be written and then tested objectively with test scores. A revised chapter detailing how to do factoring of polynomials could be written and then pushed to selected classroom's eTextbooks and tested. If it proves more effective than the previous version, the new one would make it into all the eTextbooks. Repeat the process over the nation and slowly a textbook could evolve into more effective way to transfer knowledge.
I know, I know, it's a pipe dream that in public education we would actually have scientific comparisons of teaching materials and methods, but won't you dream with me for a moment?