WordPress @ ScienceGeek.net

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past fourteen years using freeware applications for classroom instruction, or in many cases to develop resources for classroom instruction and this website. Here are some of my favorites.

Hot Potatoes – This is the program that I use to create most of my interactive review activities for Chemistry, AP Chemistry, and Biology.

Quandary – This is a companion program to Hot Potatoes. It creates “Logic Mazes” that are essentially educational games with “decision points” that can change one’s direction through a series of questions. The learning curve for this is much steeper than for Hot Potatoes.

ISpring Free – My experience with exporting Powerpoint presentations to the web is that the Microsoft format is proprietary, and often fails to display properly, even in Microsoft’s own browsers. To get around that limitation, I now use the ISpring Free converter to export my Powerpoint presentations to streaming Flash format. The result is a presentation that renders well in all browsers provided that your Flash plugin in up-to-date. You can even add new slides with YouTube video embedded in the presentation. I use the converter for my Chemistry, AP Chemistry, and Biology Powerpoints.

Jing – I just started using Jing in the past month to create audio/video capture of problem solving methods used in chemistry. Like ISpring, it creates a Flash file which is easily embedded in web pages.

Cool Timer – With the emphasis on using Kagan strategies in class, the need for a good, free timer application became obvious to me. The ideal solution would be that Kagan would give us their timer considering the huge $$$ they are making off of our district. But, they are a commercial endeavor and they aren’t going to give away anything. That is where this timer comes in. It works great in Windows, and you can customize colors and add your own alarm noises. I especially like that I can set countdown times without being at the keyboard.

Inkscape – Finding quality, free graphics for education can be a challenge. There is a wealth of cheap clipart, but that is useless for teaching science (or just about anything else, for that matter). I’ve found a great graphics resource at WikiMedia Commons, and many of the best graphics are in SVG (scalable vector graphic) format. This means that they can be opened and edited in the Inkscape, an incredible freeware vector graphics tool.

Chemsketch – This tool is specific to science, but what an amazing tool it is. Rapidly draw chemical structures, and incorporate images of them into Word and Powerpoint files. Or, use the built in templates – they may be all you ever need. The images of lab equipment save a lot of time when doing lab documents.

When I wrote my first web page 13 years ago, I did it by “viewing source” on some pages I visited. My nephew set me up with Fetch, an ftp client that would run on the Mac I owned at the time. After a lot of trial and error, I figured out the basics of coding html and organizing a small site, and I was hooked.

In short order, I began using some rudimentary programs to assist with the coding. The WYSIWYG editors hadn’t arrived yet, and even when they did I found that I was often able to produce a superior product by working with just the code.

Several years ago I moved to a new hosting service, Bluehost. My old service, which will go unnamed, was too expensive and provided no web interface to assist with site management. Bluehost offered the excellent cPanel as well as far more space and bandwidth, for about 1/3 the cost of my old hosting service. They also offered the ability to install many useful scripts/apps using Fantastico, which eliminated the need to configure and install them myself. About a year ago, they began to offer installation of select apps using Simple Scripts.

This summer I dove in and installed WordPress using Simple Scripts. The experience has been an eye-opener. From the simplicity of having the MySQL backend configured for me, to the availability of so many plug-ins and themes, I see that the web is not what it once was. WordPress and many other web applications are high-end, professional software. Updates and backups are easily accomplished. Rather than spending days configuring and installing cgi scripts, I can instead invest my time on improving content and dabbling with new scripts.

In many ways, this summer has been every bit as revolutionary for me as that summer thirteen years ago. One no longer needs to be a code warrior to make use of these tools (but it helps!)

I remember fondly the early days of the graphic web browser. I especially recall the excitement associated with coming home from work knowing that a new version of the NetScape browser would be ready for download. Of course, the giant known as Microsoft joined the browser wars late, and poorly. But, with the tenacity of a pit bull, they hung on and improved their product until it seemed that IE was the only browser out there.

And, I must admit, I went along. I think it was probably about Internet Explorer 5 that I was totally onboard with Microsoft. For the most part, I stayed there – until now.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is the most unstable piece of software that I have had the misfortune to install since Windows ME. It has brought back the days of the dreaded BSOD.

I cannot count how many times this new incarnation of IE has frozen in the weeks since I installed it. Now I find myself wondering why I have continued to brainlessly click the IE desktop icon when I have the vastly superior Firefox installed. I guess that I have become a creature of habit. But IE is one habit that I am leaving behind.