Electronic distribution of texts in class

What bothers the hell out of me about QQ is the download sites for the software ring up all sorts of alarm bells for me. CNET? yeah, that used to be fine, but now they package everything into their own personal installers, and I don't know what that does. And the sites offered on blog.imqq.com?

China Mainland Server
Hongkong Server
brothersoft.com
Download 3K
downloadnew.org
primetime Freeware
Soft82
softpedia.com
Software Informer

Yeah, they all read as suspicious. (By "suspicious", I don't - necessarily - mean viruses. I mean adware and toolbars.)

I get mine through the Mac App Store for the Mac version; through iTunes for the iPhone/iPad versions. Apple screens apps before they can make it to the App stores for such things. Yet another reason to go Mac. 

Phones, as a rule, don't have file browsers. As a rule, they don't have Word document viewers either. As a rule, the only tool you can count on everyone having is a web browser. How are students viewing documents?

Turns out to be relatively easy to save a Word doc as html. But your formatting becomes whatever Word chooses for you. Perhaps the doc could be prepared from scratch as html. Are there straightforward HTML templates out there into which I could slot text and a picture?

And it'd be super if there were some kind of html could bundle all the support files with the main html document. I mean, a "single file web page". Word claims they exist and offers them as a Save As option, but they haven't worked for me yet.




NB: I'll be putting that accursed QQ on the Windows 10 computer. If it does anything funny, I can burn the whole thing to the ground.

Phones, as a rule, don't have file browsers. As a rule, they don't have Word document viewers either. As a rule, the only tool you can count on everyone having is a web browser. How are students viewing documents?

Again, I don't know Android phones; I have an iPhone as do, I'd say 50% of my trainees. Believe it or not, Microsoft now offers Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote apps for iOS iPhones FREE through the iTunes App store, so, in fact I and the others have those apps on our iPhones and the files download smoothly into those apps and open. I prefer to use Apple's own apps: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers and I'm given the option of opening the files in those, because, unlike the Microsoft apps, the Apple apps can convert the files to and fro (Import/Export) seamlessly, plus I can have the files sync from my phone to my Macbook and iMac by wifi. So no matter which device I use to download the file, even if it's in Microsoft format, I'm synced on all devices. Plus iOS and Mac have built in PDF read and sync support so if I have a p d f document, I can read it from within my Mac or iPhone or iPad no matter where I downloaded it from. The Mac productivity apps Pages, Keynote and Numbers also offer the option of exporting a document to PDF format built-in which helps in creating PDF versions of stuff when you want to lock in the format, pictures and fonts.

All this stuff you want to do, you can do, and much easier and with less angst and wasted time (e.g. fiddling with cleaning USB drives) if you'd just re-consider your allergic-to-Apple stance. For the most part, this stuff really does work, and work seamlessly across devices. I, too, was weaned on PCs, starting in 1988 (DOS). self taught using books from the local Library. Then learned Windows in the early days. Came to China with an IBM Thinkpad in 98. Bought a custom built-desktop running Windows 2000 in 2001. Suffered the USB virus issues you mentioned when using the lessons I wrote on my desktop on the classroom computer...all the way back in 2003. Decided to get a new laptop in 2004 so I could just use my own laptop in class. Got a Compaq (pirated windows XP) but still had problems, and couldn't keep my stuff straight between my desktop and laptop. Finally, in 2007 I got my airfare bonus at Christmas time and decided that rather than go home in the dead of winter, I'd try out these Apple things. I got a white Macbook. There is a slight learning curve (no backspace key for example, and the mouse scrolls the opposite of a Windows mouse), but it took about a day and a half to get used to. After that, i've never looked back. I later got an iMac for the 1 TB hard drive as I do a lot of video editing and need the HD space. I'm now on my 3rd Macbook, and each upgrade was done for the sake of getting the higher specced versions and the additional HD space. in both cases I was able to sell my previous Macbook to a willing buyer which helped defray the cost of the upgrade. I still have the original Thinkpad I came here with and the Compaq I bought later. They make good door stops and their power packs themselves also make good door stops.

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into an Apple Ad, but I read of these woes and questions you have (good: you're a reflective teacher ), and I just want to tear your eyes out: "open your eyes, can you not see how more productive and creative you could be with a new way of doing things? Took me almost 20 years to go from Microsoft to Apple. Been only* years since i switched but can't imagine why I didn't do it sooner.

Turns out to be relatively easy to save a Word doc as html. But your formatting becomes whatever Word chooses for you. Perhaps the doc could be prepared from scratch as html. Are there straightforward HTML templates out there into which I could slot text and a picture?{/quote]

You're right that Word can save as an html and it will mess with your format, but don't worry. Microsoft apps are available for phones (free on IPhone-not sure on Android). So read the above. My students can download directly into the MS app. No browser needed. I don't have to worry about how it's formatted. I just give it to them in docx and PDF formats (both of which I can easily export to from Pages whether on my Macs, iPhone or iPad because they're all synced.) They get the file in whichever format they choose and figure out the rest (i.e. how too see it on their device, how to adjust the display, etc. etc.) You are way overthinking the issue. These kids are pretty bright and know how to use their devices. You're not building website where such issues might matter, you're simply transferring content by file transfer.

Quote

And it'd be super if there were some kind of html could bundle all the support files with the main html document. I mean, a "single file web page". Word claims they exist and offers them as a Save As option, but they haven't worked for me yet.

A few years ago, when using Apple's Pages or Keynote to export a file to doc or ppt format (which both programs can do), I would end up with this. A doc file or  ppt file along with another separate directory containing the media files from within the doc or ppt file. Recently, and I'm not sure when this happened, the Export function for Pages and Keynote (and Numbers) offer docx, pptx and xlsx file formats and everything is self contained in one file. which has the additional benefit of making everything sync across devices easier.

I guess it's the latest versions of Word, PPT and Excel that support the docx, pptx, and xlsx formats as "flat files" and you may need to upgrade to the latest versions of Word, PPT and Excel to get that feature.

Quote

NB: I'll be putting that accursed QQ on the Windows 10 computer. If it does anything funny, I can burn the whole thing to the ground.

Including the Windows 10? in that case, QQ would have served an admirable purpose.

Phones, while endlessly entertaining, are not as accessible as a piece of paper. They are a great deal more functional, but not as accessible. Since I propose to replace paper with phones, I'm hoping to screw around with all that background functionality and possibly recover some of that accessibility.

Then again, from what you're saying, that accessibility is there anyway. I suppose I should just give it a try and see what happens.

I let the students decide how they want their content. if they want to try it on their devices, fine. They can download it and figure it out. Some prefer to see it on paper, and that's fine, too. Better, actually because I don't have to spend time/effort having copies made for them. They get the file through their QQ and they decide how they want to handle it - at their expense.

If you want each student in class to have a hard copy in front of them, that's one thing. 17 years ago, in my first year here, and before devices and whatnot, I was the local printers favorite customer because I had them running off so many copies of articles, tests, etc. My first school had told me
; "Go to this print shop and they'll handle it. Just fill in your nam and class. Later, students from my classes came to me and asked me to please go easy on the copies because they were being charged back to their respective classes. Too, the department asked me to please reduce the font-size and borders ob my tests so they could be squeezes onto less pages.

About 6 years ago, I went totally digital on handouts and resources. I kill no trees these days-nor have to deal with print issues for classes,

What's your practice when you have comprehension questions associated with your texts? If you're going to work on aspects of comprehension in class, do you put the questions in with the texts or keep them back until class time?

I suppose an appropriate practice is to include the questions with the text. But over the years my assumption in class has been that in-the-moment novelty (within an established framework) promotes in-the-moment attention. So my practice with texts has always been to make them a surprise. I do some whizzbang "create interest" - often a picture or a did-you-know story - then hand out texts and say read this. Students pretty much always put their heads down and read, which seems like a successful operation. But if I'm handing out texts a day or so before class....

It seems sort of obvious that a question stuck on the end of a text will focus attention and make reading a (relatively) compelling activity as compared to just reading some thing the teacher sent to QQ that requires no obvious response. But I am just now wondering if there are alternative theories.

Rough and ready html, feather dusters:

<html>
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
<h1>Your Text's Heading Here</h1>
<center>
<IMG SRC="image.jpg" ALT="some text">
</center>
<p>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<font face="Calibri" size="5">Your Text's text here
<p>
<b>Question</b>
<br>Your Text's question here
</font>
    </body>
</html>


The effect is

Left Justified: "Your Text's Heading Here"
Centered Image
Left Justified:  "Your Text's text here"

Left Justified: "Question"
Left Justified: "Your Text's question here"


All presented in possibly overlarge Calibri font and wordwrapped exactly as your device requires. That's to say, no lines wandering off the right of the screen. Works in HTMl Viewer and Chrome. (Amateur tip: edit your text in Notepad, but name your file "whateverthehell.html")

Thank you internet for this opportunity to publish ugly code.

Rough and ready html, feather dusters:

Code: [Select]

<html>
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
<h1>Your Text's Heading Here</h1>
<center>
<IMG SRC="image.jpg" ALT="some text">
</center>
<p>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<font face="Calibri" size="5">Your Text's text here
<p>
<b>Question</b>
<br>Your Text's question here
</font>
    </body>
</html>


The effect is

Left Justified: "Your Text's Heading Here"
Centered Image
Left Justified:  "Your Text's text here"

Left Justified: "Question"
Left Justified: "Your Text's question here"


All presented in possibly overlarge Calibri font and wordwrapped exactly as your device requires. That's to say, no lines wandering off the right of the screen. Works in HTMl Viewer and Chrome. (Amateur tip: edit your text in Notepad, but name your file "whateverthehell.html")

Thank you internet for this opportunity to publish ugly code.

I'm no html expert; I use Mac Apps to handle website code.

But looking at your code, I think I see two problems, and of course, I may be wrong:

 1. The IMG SRC tag needs to be specific to the jpg file, and that file on a Windows machine, as I recall, needs to be pointed to in the tag. (yet one more reason why Mac apps excel, they keep track of where everything is and automagically insert the correct link to the jpg file when you drag-and-drop it into the html code page.

 2. <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">. What does this mean, and where is this meta name defined? Somewhere in the CSS subdirectory, I'm guessing. Which presupposes a CSS directory in the first place.

Again, I don't worry about format sizes when I create stuff for class. Knowing that 99% of my students (and you) don't use Macs, I write them using Pages or Keynote, and I export them to MS docx or pptx format and PDF format (to keep the formatting, fonts, and styles that I prefer). They download them and fiddle with any issues of viewing them on their various-sized devices themselves. I've never heard a complaint yet-lots of thank you messages for up loading materials/resources to the QQ groups.

I've never exported any of this stuff to html format (though it's one available option in Mac) because i've never found the need, to. Again, you're overthinking the issues involved. Get a Mac and simplify your life, teaching, and workflow.

I'm no html expert; I use Mac Apps to handle website code.

Nor I. I'm cutting and pasting.

1. The IMG SRC tag needs to be specific to the jpg file, and that file on a Windows machine, as I recall, needs to be pointed to in the tag. (yet one more reason why Mac apps excel, they keep track of where everything is and automagically insert the correct link to the jpg file when you drag-and-drop it into the html code page.

Yeah, the name needs to be the name of the file as it appears in your filesystem, complete with directory structure. But if the file is in the same location as the html document, then all you need in place of "image.jpg" is "whateverthehell.jpg" - and of course, send the jpg to the students along with the html.

/roughnready

2. <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">. What does this mean, and where is this meta name defined? Somewhere in the CSS subdirectory, I'm guessing. Which presupposes a CSS directory in the first place.

Copied that from Google Developers. And I put it in the wrong place too. It should be in "the head" (between <head> and </head>). No CSS required. The effect is whatever size screen you have, the displayed text breaks for a new line at the edge of it. No more horizontal swiping.

What I also wanted was for the text to reflow if the page were to be resized (that is, if the reader zooms, the text should re-wordwrap), but that DOES require style sheets and/or CSS, as far as I can tell. So no luck there.

Again, I don't worry about format sizes when I create stuff for class. Knowing that 99% of my students (and you) don't use Macs, I write them using Pages or Keynote, and I export them to MS docx or pptx format and PDF format (to keep the formatting, fonts, and styles that I prefer). They download them and fiddle with any issues of viewing them on their various-sized devices themselves. I've never heard a complaint yet-lots of thank you messages for up loading materials/resources to the QQ groups.

Yeah, screwing around with html isn't truly necessary. Given pretty much any document viewer, docx will likely work fine. My humble estimation is a phone will do webview better than it'll do document views, so I'm seeing if it's easy to make happen. When I try this out, with luck next week, I'll send out html, docx, and pdf versions (and have some paper on hand in case it all goes to hell), and ask afterward which they prefer.

I've never exported any of this stuff to html format (though it's one available option in Mac) because i've never found the need, to. Again, you're overthinking the issues involved. Get a Mac and simplify your life, teaching, and workflow.

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN MY FRIEND

What I might alter, is this:

<IMG SRC="image.jpg" ALT="some text">

to this:

<IMG SRC="image.jpg" width="50%" ALT="some text">


The effect is the image is always 50% as wide as your screen.
Which might be kinda huge on a tablet, but will be somewhat sensible on a phone.

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Operation Communicapocalypse - Day 1

Laptop #2 took one for the team and accepted to be invaded by QQ international. As yet, nothing has begun to burn. Ads have yet to bombard. Latterly, a wechat group message was launched upon unsuspecting monitors. 25% success. Two monitors failed to reply. One announced she was no longer monitor. The fourth, who may or may not be the actual monitor, burst into action. 100% success. A QQ group meant eventually to link less than 100 people was created. ("Less than 100 people" is the nature of this class - I did once ask the dean how many people I would be teaching, and he said "less than 100" - and indeed, 98 people is less than 100.) I chatted back and forth with the 25% and laid out the plan as I see it. (Including a group name change because I originally claim it was for one subject, when in fact it is for another - it's all the same students anyway.) All seems well.

Presently, I have retreated from the field. Potentially I should communicate more but too much social media is making my head spin. Nonetheless, the invention of the group seems to have occurred promptly and I have other things to do. Tomorrow I will attempt the File Distribution phase of Communicapocalypse.

May god have mercy on our files

Holy cow! Apparently I'm an administrator of this group now. I knew that because I saw the notification when the group was set up. But on a whim I signed in just now and KABLAM! Notification after notification for me to accept or decline of people wanting to sign up. I accepted them all. I presume they are the students from the classes (and that I only saw about 15 such notifications because the other administrators handled all the others until they went went to supper or whatever else led them to sign off - and that hopefully I will not see a poopload more notifications tomorrow morning....)

Holy cow! Apparently I'm an administrator of this group now. I knew that because I saw the notification when the group was set up. But on a whim I signed in just now and KABLAM! Notification after notification for me to accept or decline of people wanting to sign up. I accepted them all. I presume they are the students from the classes (and that I only saw about 15 such notifications because the other administrators handled all the others until they went went to supper or whatever else led them to sign off - and that hopefully I will not see a poopload more notifications tomorrow morning....)

It's a sign of respect from the student you asked to create the QQ group for you. They can designate multiple admins. I'm a nominal admin on about half of the 25 or so QQ groups that have been set up by my students for my classes.

I've never had to exercise admin duties, ever.

Even if they designate you as an admin (as a sign of respect), they still get all the ADD messages and can handle it themselves.