ools of the Online Trade for the Economically Challenged
Educator. I am thrifty, stingy, cheap, call it what you will.
And it doesn't take long to spend money in online education.
Computer (with constant upgrades), printer, ISP provider, software
--the list is endless. Much of my experimentation with online
education has been from my home computer on my personal budget.
Like Tim the Toolman Taylor, I crave more computing power. My
current home computer, purchased two years ago with a few upgrades
since then, has a 686 Cyrix chip with 128 meg. of RAM, three hard
drives (one 13 gig,. and two 3 gig.), a 20X CDROM drive, two 3.5
inch floppy drives, a 19 inch monitor, and a 56K modem-arrhh arrhh
Arrhhh. I put the system together myself. I shop for the best buys
and bought most of the equipment for this computer at a local
computer show.
With software, my experience as a book club junkie (I have been
a member of nearly a dozen book clubs over the years) has taught
me how to sniff out a bargain. My addiction to freeware approaches
the legendary with our campus information technology staff. Below
are my top choices for useful sites, software, and services.
ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/swlib/, in my opinion, is the best
site for shareware and freeware. This site not only offers offers
access to virus-free shareware and freeware, but also provides a
wealth of information and resources, including product reviews of
hardware and software, JAVA and programming utilities, and
information technology information. Three programs I downloaded
from ZDNet that I find indispensable are Arachnophilia
http://www.arachnoid.com/, a full featured HTML/JAVA editor
(I use it standalone and as the internal HTML editor in
FrontPage 97); IrfanView http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e92274474/,
an image viewer/editor and multimedia player; and WS_FTP
http://www.ipswitch.com, a file transfer client.
For creating graphics, I use PaintShop Pro 4 (I received a
registered copy free with my XOOM modem, which tipped the scale
in my modem purchase). I also use two online graphics generators:
webGFX http://www.webgfx.ch/start.htm and CoolText.com
http://www.cooltext.com/. webGFX allows users to create a variety
of website graphics from logos to navigation graphics. CoolText.com
allows users to create logos, buttons, and bullets. Both sites are
worth a visit.
If you are looking to add full text search capabilities to your
website, FreeFind http://www.freefind.com/ is very attractive.
Once you have established an account, FreeFind will index your site,
allowing visitors to search every page using keywords or phrases.
FreeFind is customizable and supported by banner advertising (the
banners load quickly and are not intrusive).
One resource I only recently learned of and haven't yet used is
Response-O-Matic http://www.response-o-matic.com/. This site lets
webmasters create custom-designed forms for their websites.
Response-O-Matic handles the form processing, e-mailing the results
to any address.
In addition to these websites, I receive several e-newsletters that
keep me abreast of news, websites, software, and technology concerns.
Edupage and NewsScan offer short excerpts and summaries of news
related to technology and education. These short articles are taken
from a variety of news sources including Reuters, the Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Business Week.
To subscribe to Edupage, send an e-mail to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName. To subscribe to
NewsScan, send an e-mail message to NEWSSCAN@NEWSSCAN.COM with
'subscribe' in the subject line.
Premium Links describes itself as "A Newsletter for the
Discriminating Surfer." Distributed weekly, Premium Links features
brief descriptions of web sites in five areas: Education, Business,
The Arts, Home and Family, and Just for Fun, together with a few
short commentaries by the author. To subscribe to this free
newsletter, visit the website at http://premiumlinks.net or send
an e-mail message to NEWSLETTER@PREMIUMLINKS.NET with "subscribe"
(minus the quotes) in the body.
Lockergnome by Chris Pirillo of Des Moines, Iowa, is a daily
e-newsletter that features software, websites, and computer tips
for Windows 95/98/NT. To subscribe, visit http://www.lockergnome.com/.
Neat Net Tricks by Jack Teems is a bi-monthly e-newsletter providing
software and website reviews and computer tips. To subscribe, visit
http://www.neatnettricks.com/ or send an e-mail to
MAJORDOMO@NEATNETTRICKS.COM and state in the text "subscribe
neatnettricks" (all caps).
NetFuture, published by The Nature Institute, Ghent, New York, is an
e-newsletter dealing with technology and human responsibility.
Netfuture, which often discusses topics of interest to educators, is
distributed every few weeks. Editor Steve Talbott is the author of
The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst.
To subscribe to Netfuture, send the message "subscribe netfuture
yourfirstname yourlastname" to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
Current and past issues of Netfuture are available on the Web at
http://www.oreilly.com/~stevet/netfuture/.
Save a buck. There are plenty of valuable resources available at
little or no cost. Take advantage of these deals and set aside a few
dollars for your next, inevitable, upgrade.
Bill Stifler
Copy Editor