Virtual Office

Notes on a minimal set of tools to handle ones office-on-the-computer and enhance teaching/learning interactions in a sustainable way
(last update 2/10)

Preamble

Work towards an OHIO office -- Only Handle It Once.

Although there may be more sophisticated software available to undertake the tasks below, you need to consider whether you have $$, computer memory, teachers, or learning time to equip yourself to use it.

You are invited to work through these notes step by step, visit each website mentioned, search for a Windows equivalent if MAC software is cited, and record questions and make notes in the margins of a printout.

Synchronize files

After turning on computer and plugging in my flashdrive/”memory stick”, update files that have been changed while working on other computers. On MACs use Synchronize! available from http://www.qdea.com/. Synchronization requires the different computers you use to have the same arrangement of folders or directories and folders within folders, etc. This also means that all files must be saved within some folder, not left loose on the desktop.

Synchronization onto your other computers and a flash drive is also a form of backup. At any time, you can have three copies of files -- at home, at work, and on the flash drive. You do not have time to deal with loss of files after the inevitable hard drive crash.

Email

I check email, reply, and file into folders using Eudora (http://www.eudora.com/). (As long as you can establish the POP or IMAP server address for your email service, you can use Eudora with any kind of email service.) With Eudora I download all my mail and get off line so I can read and reply to messages without the pressure of being on-line. For the same reason, I store my email on my own computer rather than leave mail on the server. (When I am away from my home computer, I use http://email.umb.edu to access my new email. I can only access old email away from home when I carry it on my laptop.) Except for messages that I can reply to immediately, I dispatch incoming messages into 5 or 6 separate In folders (e.g., InTeaching) and respond when I have made time to respond with the kind of attention appropriate to each specific kind of email. After replying to a message I trash or file it into an appropriate folder.

Lists of many users can be combined under one alias or nickname. [See also Email group maintenance below.]

Messages can be sent to many people using the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field, thus avoiding long headers before the message starts.

Email messages and attachments can take up a lot of space so every new year I transfer the contents of my folders to a similarly named folder with the year as a prefix. (I backup these on a CD only for email.) Eudora allows me to search quickly for anything I have stored (back to 1992).

E-etiquette -- An evolving set of guidelines for our email-mediated interactions

Websites and wikis

Creation and Testing of Webpages

I create my own non-flashy, informational webpages by creating a page on a wiki (see below) and exporting it to html. I make any further changes by hand using the “view html” option in Word. I check my coding before I upload the file onto the website by viewing it in a browser.

I sometimes link files to a webpage that are not in html format, such as handouts for students as .doc files, or .ppt powerpoint presentations, or .xls excel spreadsheet. Browsers give the viewer the choice of viewing in the browser or downloading onto your computer. Similarly, browsers know what to do with .mp3 audio files.

In my homepage I have incorporated a search box (free from google via license to UMass) to help viewers (and myself) locate information in my website as a whole.

My syllabi are now only in online versions. I create style sheets that make my c.v. and syllabus webpages look very close to a corresponding Word file. (For an example of the style sheets, see http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/stylesyl.css. A line in the header of the webpage is needed to activate this style sheet, <LINK REL=stylesheet TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesyl.css">)

Website update

I upload webfiles I have changed onto my website (using Fetch on a MAC, available for free for users affiliated with educational institutions). (Although I have web pages divided into separate folders on my computer, I upload them into one folder on my website, http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/. This means all references among my webpages need only refer to the file's name, e.g., 610-01F.html, without the path to that file, e.g., http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/610-01Fp.html.) [See also creation and testing of webfiles below.]

Compilations of webfiles into a PDF file

For related material in the form of webpages and word (.doc) or PDF (.pdf) files linked to webpages, I periodically compile them into one PDF document, which I upload onto the server to give viewers a chance to download the document as a whole, rather than browsing the individual pages on-line (e.g., http://www.cct.umb.edu/handbook.pdf).

Steps:

• 1. I use the print as pdf command in Word to save a .pdf version of any .doc files. (Sometimes I create an html file using Word, but Word doesn't not preserve formatting well.)
• 2. I create a webpage that is a table of contents for the compilation (e.g., http://www.cct.umb.edu/handbook.html).
• 3. I use "open web page" in Adobe Acrobat [not Acrobat Reader], specifying "2 levels" (i.e., the level of the table of contents page and the level of any sites linked to it, but not any sites linked within those pages). (Options allow me to set margins and include/exclude headers and footer.) This generates a PDF file that combines all the webpages and pdf files that were linked to the table of contents page from step 2. (An error file lists all the links that Acrobat could not find.)
• 4. If this has not already happened automatically, I use the command under "Locate web addresses" to make the links in the document active. (If the link is to a page incorporated in the document, the resulting active link moves you there; if it is to a page outside the document, it moves you there if you are on-line, just as a browser would.)

Wikis

More and more I use wikis created on http://www.wikispaces.umb.edu or http://www.wikispaces.com to share uptodate information with colleagues (e.g., background updates to prepare for meetings) and students (e.g., available office hours slots), and to make notes for myself (e.g., a to-do list). If the information has a longer shelf-life, I export it from the wiki to html, then upload it to my website. (I replace the wikispaces style sheet [see above] with my own.)

Email group maintenance

To set up and manage my own email groups or listservs I use http://googlegroups.com. (I prefer googlegroups over yahoogroups because it allows me to add students directly to a listserv and because I get less spam.)

Shared web bookmarks and annotations

I used to set up an email group for students to post clippings from the web or create a space on a course wiki for this. I have begun to use http://diigo.com, where I establish a group. Students have to joiin diigo, then join the group, then remember to make any bookmark they create available to the group. Tags (keywords) help a group member search the bookmarked sites (which may be the publishers' sites for the abstracts for a journal article).

Assessment

Although I input student names and contact info into a spreadsheet, I use an on-paper check-list for each student to keep track of assignments submitted and completed. (Students also keep their own copy of this check-list so they don't have to ask me what they have completed.)

I also use an old-fashioned technology, namely, carbon paper, so I can write comments on student work by hand and keep a copy. I keep these comments in a binder with a separate sleeve for each student. (My handwriting is more or less legible and I can write away from a computer, e.g., on the subway to work.)

Bibliographies

I use Endnote to input the full citation for any new article or section of a book I am reading (including newspaper articles, which I no longer clip because know I can access them via the web). Endnote creates bibliographies in any format I specify, with minor editing needed to brush up the result. I input my own two letter keyword codes to help retrieve relevant references. Endnote can be downloaded for a 30 day trial from http://www.endnote.com/.

Filemaker databases

I use filemaker to keep records of people associated with my program. I can print information from the database a) according to different layouts I create or b) by generating customized outputs using the output command followed by some formatting, either in Excel or Word, to make the information easy to read.

Social network

For my program and for workshops I establish online social networks on ning, "to extend the experiences that we value in face-to-face and person-to-person interactions and to spark other kinds of generative interactions that hadn't been happening off-line."

Conference calls

I use skype for conference calls, which can bring in people by phone, i.e., even if they are not on a skype account. (I set up a payment system that can be automatically recharged when it runs down. At 2c/minute, it's not a big deal.)

Recording events

Call recorder can record skype calls, as can talkshoe, which also serves as a repository of podcasts (e.g., http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16894. If you use the download option instead of the listen option you'll be able to fastforward when you want. Use of headphones to listen is recommended.) Talkshoe, like skype, can bring in parties from afar (see audio tips). I record talks with x.recorder head on my laptop or audacity.