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While not an exhaustive list of software, this page represents
some of the best and most common utilities for those working within
educational technologies. More specifically, these software programs
have been used extensively by CITES EdTech staffers who are ready
to consult with instructors on getting started with these programs.
While we do not offer formal training for these programs, we are
happy to discuss with instructors how these tools might assist them
with their electronic work flow, online teaching strategies, and
managing student electronic work. This page provides a short description
for each software utility as well as links to tutorials, help documents,
and downloads.
Robert Baird 8/19/05
Audio
Instructors who want to incorporate audio
into their online course components are encouraged to use Audacity,
a free, easy-to-use software program that lets you record, edit,
and export sound files into various formats. Audacity works on
both Windows and Mac platforms.
Robert Baird 8|16|05
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iTunes  
iTunes, of iPod fame, is free Mac/Windows software that goes
far beyond being the premier tool for organizing and performing
your digital audio collection. The most recent version has built-in
support for receiving pod casts, which has great potential for
simplifying the delivery of online lectures or supplementary audio
material.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
Files
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CITES NetFiles
CITES
NetFiles is an online service that allows University faculty,
staff, and students to access their files from anywhere in the
world. Every faculty, staff, and student have 100MB of
online file storage. Documents can be uploaded to NetFiles and accessed from any computer with Internet access and a web browser.
NetFiles can also be used to host web pages. Access
can be restricted to specific individuals or open to the world.
It’s your choice.
Rick Langlois 8/18/05
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WinZip
is a program that takes a collection of computer files and bundles
them into a single package generically known as a “zip
archive.” Microsoft includes a form of “zip”
utility with its OS (operating system), but you may wish
to download the WinZip brand archive software from the CITES
CITES Software
WebStore. Generally zipping a collection of files makes
the total smaller than the sum of its parts. Also, if
you use Illinois Compass you can only upload one file at a time;
if you have lots of files to upload, as well as nested folders,
you can use WinZip to zip together as many files as you like,
and then upload that one zip file and "expand” the
archive, which is a much faster option.
Rick Langlois 8/18/05
HTML
Blogger is
Google's free, browser-based service that lets anyone (with 10
minutes to spare) create an account and post text and images to
the world through their "web log" or blog. Blogger has
just recently given their users the ability to post up to 300MB
of images on their Blogger pages. Blogger is so easy that faculty
should consider introducing it to their students as a mechanism
for publishing student work, whether for organizing the ideas
and plans of a student project group, developing online journals,
sharing field notes, or for publishing polished, final reports
and papers.
Robert Baird 8|16|05
Macromedia Dreamweaver is a web page editor and tool for managing
web sites. This means that you can create and edit web pages and
structure groups of files into a whole web site without knowing
HTML. Dreamweaver has become standard equipment for most webmasters
just as Microsoft Word is standard equipment in most offices.
Most web professionals would say they couldn’t live without
it, and it will make even a web novice’s life so much easier
that it is worth the purchase price. It also offers useful templates
and “snippets” of pre-written HTML to make creating
web pages faster and easier.
Alan Bilansky 8/18/05
For many PC users, Microsoft FrontPage was their first web editor
and web site management tool. Still a popular program, FrontPage
is a great way for anyone comfortable with Microsoft Office software
to create web pages and manage web sites. Over the years, Macromedia's
Dreamweaver has solidified its place as the industry standard
for web publishing, whether by amateurs or pros. Yet, FrontPage
remains a useful tool and possibly easier system to learn for
those diehard PC users familiar with Microsoft software. (This
program used to come bundled with Microsoft Office. However, starting
with Office 2003, FrontPage must be purchased separately.)
Robert Baird 8|16|05
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Nvu
That’s pronounced “en-view.” Nvu is an open-source
web editing program and can be downloaded for free. The basis of Nvu used to be Composer, a component
of the old Netscape Navigator web browser, but it is now a stand-alone
program. As a web editor, Nvu is almost as good as Microsoft FrontPage,
not nearly as good as Macromedia Dreamweaver, but beats the pants
off both of them when it comes to price. It’s missing templates
and some other functions, and doesn’t always run as smoothly,
but does allow people to do the most basic tasks of creating simple
web pages.
Alan Bilansky 8/18/05
Images
Adobe Photoshop is the image editing software used by most web
and desktop publishing professionals the world over. While learning
Photoshop can be a daunting task, adeptness with the program allows
users to enhance and/or alter digital images in a seemingly infinite
number of ways.
Al Weiss 8/18/05
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iPhoto
Part of Apple’s iLife software that comes installed
on all new Macs or can be bought separately, iPhoto is an excellent
way to manage and present your digital image collection. In
addition to its elegantly simple interface and powerful options
for publishing/sharing your photos, the most recent version,
iPhoto 05, includes robust image editing tools as well –
a big improvement over the more limited editing tools of earlier
versions.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
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Picassa
is Google's free image manager and editor that quickly and smartly
modifies digital images, offering a smart interface and a sense
of fun, with "warmify" and "I'm feeling lucky"
being two of the image effect options. Picassa makes it easy to
turn one's images into collages, posters, movies, and other goodies.
For anyone who wants to quickly view, manage, and edit the 100s
and 1000s of pictures one can generate with a digital camera,
Picassa is the best solution.
Robert Baird 8|16|05
XnView is a free utility that can be used for viewing and converting
graphic files. You may wish to use XnView
to add images to your course web site, or to create custom icons
for your site.
Rick Langlois 8/12/05
Movies
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iMovie
iMovie, part of Apple’s iLife software that comes installed
on all new Macs or can be bought separately, is the tool that
has set the standard for ease and power in capturing and editing
digital video, including special effects and titling. Seamless
integration with iPhoto, iTunes, and iDVD provides for an unparalleled
ability to incorporate audio and still images into your digital
video project and publish to DVD. Other publishing options include
email, web, CD, or any of the options provided by QuickTime.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
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iDVD
iDVD, another component of the Apple iLife software, provides
a straightforward yet surprisingly flexible means of authoring
DVDs, allowing anyone to create DVD menus in the style of those
seen in professionally produced motion picture DVDs. iDVD integrates
multimedia resources from iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and other
Apple tools.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
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QuickTime Pro
Purchasing a $29.99 key upgrades the free QuickTime Player to an inexpensive yet powerful utility for converting digital
video formats or adding interactivity to QuickTime movies, such
as HREF tracks, chapter tracks, alternate audio, or video tracks.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
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Windows Movie Maker
Windows
Movie Maker comes free with the Windows operating system and
provides PC users with the famous ease-of-use introduced by Apple's
iMovie. If you’re a Windows user and you want to get started
with video editing (or you are an old pro but want to do a small
job quickly) give Windows Movie Maker a try. You may like it.
On your computer look for it in Start > Programs > Accessories
> Entertainment.
Rick Langlois 8/12/05
Browsers
We strongly encourage our users to load and use at least two browsers
to provide alternatives to problematic web pages. Of the many
"alternative" browsers, Firefox,
available from www.mozilla.org,
is likely the most popular and useful. Firefox offers unique features
not found in Internet Explorer, such as tabbed
browsing and the ability to increase or decrease font size
of any web page with simple keyboard commands. Many hold that
Firefox confirms more closely to international web standards and
accessibility concerns than does Internet Explorer. Most University
of Illinois campus computer labs now offer Firefox to students.
Rick Langlois 8/12/05
Opera is
another free web browser that has become popular as an alternative
to Internet Explorer, providing security improvements, accessibility
options, and user
features that the more common Microsoft browser has been slow
to offer. With tabbed browsing, zooming control of web pages,
a choice of "skins" to change look and feel, and built-in
email and searching tools, Opera is worth downloading.
Kostas Yfantis 8/18/05
Desktop Media
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The Illinois Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office provides
a simple way for instructors, administrators, students, staff,
and web developers to create
compliant web versions of Office documents without having any
knowledge of the details of web accessibility standards. Accessible
documents can be put on the web, emailed to colleagues, and read with any web browser. If you want to
make sure that your message gets to everyone, and not just broadband
users, this Wizard is the tool for you.
Kostas Yfantis 8/18/05
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Adobe acrobat allows users to create and edit PDF files, files
that will be faithfully reproduced on almost any computer and
platform. Because they will look the same on all computers, PDF
files are the preferred means to distribute documents where consistent
formatting and printing are important.
Al Weiss 8/18/05
Excel is a convenient and powerful tool for manipulating data
of various sorts. Most instructors would benefit from having at
least a passing acquaintance with Excel. Instructors who use Illinois
Compass can export a variety of reports regarding student work
and student performance in text delimited format. Excel has built
in functions for manipulating text data, such as generating a
list of student emails from just their NetIDs. Excel also has
built in graphing tools to analyze numeric data, such as producing
a bar graph of a histogram of exam scores, and a host of numeric
functions for manipulating numeric data, such as converting raw
scores to Z scores.
Lanny Arvan 8/18/05
In recent years, PowerPoint has become almost as common in the
classroom as in the boardroom. Just because everyone uses PowerPoint
doesn't mean they use it well or that they take advantage of its
educational potential. At CITES EdTech, we can
help you develop more interactive and media rich presentations
and discuss improved strategies and methods for moving your presentations
online.
Al Weiss 8/18/05
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Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Flash is the professional standard for creating interactive
multimedia for the web with maximum cross-platform compatibility.
Common uses include complex animations and interactive menus,
but the potential for other pedagogical uses is virtually unlimited.
Doug Mills 8/18/05
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