Raoul's China Saloon (V5.0) Beta
The Teachers' Lounge => Teacher's Tips (ON-TOPIC) => Topic started by: Calach Pfeffer on June 19, 2015, 02:51:15 PM
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Ideally you have a textbook and everything's in there. Or if you have several paragraphs of text you need everyone to read and it's not in the textbook, there's always the photocopy option. But for my situation next semester that's going to mean maybe thirty pages of photocopying each week. So then I look out over my classes these days and notice everyone has a phone or a tablet...
Normal practice for me is to whip up some basic article-style half page - text plus a picture - then make lots of photocopies. I cut up the photocopies, one complete text plus a picture per cutting. These I had out. Sometimes, if I'm being cheap, and teaching the same content in different classes, I'll ask for the papers back at the end of class. Otherwise, the students keep the paper. They make notes. They underline as they read. They pull out their phones for word meaning checks. Etc. I would prefer not to have to do all that next semester but I wonder if electronic texts will work as well as paper in class.
Has anyone tried electronic texts in class?
What formats work best? Word, PDF?
What delivery system? Website, social media groups, everyone copies from the machine at the front of class?
Basically, for teaching, does electronic work as well as paper?
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One reason I'm thinking about this is students' actual practice. This last semester there was a textbook, and each week there was a text to work on in class, but each week fewer and fewer students would bring the actual textbook to class. Instead, they'd lean over to someone who did have the book and say "pai yi sha". Someone would then hover their phone over the textbook, at about eye height, it was funny watching them try to manage the focus while sitting down, and take a snap. They'd send the pic to everyone else in the class and viola, everyone has the text. They seemed okay with using their screens to do the reading.
Incidental side note: sophomores have smaller phones than juniors. Sophomores also more often bring their textbooks to class.
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I really hope someone who has done this replies with respect to the efficacy of this idea.
I was hoping to to have my classes, 40 in each class, read and discuss certain points in a story of 12 pages, for their last class of semester - Eeyore has a Birthday - making copies would be ridiculous, having someone read it out loud equally so, I was trying to photograph the book myself and make it fit onto ppt slides, nightmarish, and besides the shortsighted ones that won't wear glasses wouldn't be able to read it on the Big Screen. They take photos of ppts with their phones and say reading on their phone is easier.
Bulk phone mail yeah!
Rx
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I use QQ groups a lot for my classes. have someone in the class set up QQ Group for the class, invite you to join, and they can distribute the QQ Group number to the rest of the class so they can join. The QQ group will have an upload area where files, Word docs, PDFs, video, PPTs, etc. can be uploaded. You access the area from the QQ app on your computer and click the icon at the top right of the app that looks like a folder with an arrow inside pointing up. That kicks you over to your browser and should log you into the QQ Groups website from which you can upload a file from your computer (like the ones previously mentioned) into the QQ group's file area. Students will get a QQ message that a file has been uploaded, and they can go to the Group and download the file either on their computer or onto their phone from the QQ phone app. Currently a group gets 2GB of disk space so lots of room for uploads.
I'm currently handling 3 groups of Chinese teacher trainees, each with a QQ group and we're passing around a lot of stuff including documents, PPTs, video and audio clips. Very efficient.
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Does one need a QQ number?
Another aspect I'm concerned about is, I guess, showmanship. My practice to date has always been to make the text a surprise. I use a standard ppt slide with a picture and a title to introduce the segment, and this I follow with some large image, often these days with moving parts that allow some narrative to be generated. This is used to introduce the text, which is then handed out. In theory, I'm creating interest.
I suppose I could rely on the likely fact that few students will voluntarily read the text ahead of time.
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Does one need a QQ number?
Another aspect I'm concerned about is, I guess, showmanship. My practice to date has always been to make the text a surprise. I use a standard ppt slide with a picture and a title to introduce the segment, and this I follow with some large image, often these days with moving parts that allow some narrative to be generated. This is used to introduce the text, which is then handed out. In theory, I'm creating interest.
I suppose I could rely on the likely fact that few students will voluntarily read the text ahead of time.
Yes you need a QQ number. (I got mine about 14 years ago and it only has 8 digits and the students "ooh and ah" when I give it to them. FWIW. And in fact it's worth something as one of them told me last month...I could sell my 8 digit number on Taobao, she told me, because it's "valuable". Chinese and numbers and value/worth. the endless cultural stream here. But I've digressed.)
Back on topic: I also don't like to pre-supply the content of my lesson, unless I feel it necessary...like an article I want them to read in prep. for the next class. Then they can download it or save it to their phones or go to the printshop with the file on their USB and get their own damn printing done, thank you very much. However they prefer their media delivered and displayed, I leave it up to them now. Every student has QQ on their 'puters and smartphones so every student will join whatever QQ Group you have set up for them. 100% coverage of the class.
I usually upload the good stuff (copies of PPts, etc. after I've delivered the lesson, which, during the lesson, I tell them I will do so as to limit the photo-snapping of slides during the lesson.
An unmentioned benefit of QQ here (yet) is that I use it to transfer large files between myself and others. I write some training manuals which I save in PDF format and need to transfer to other trainers or the Home office" for printing and we all rely on QQ File transfer for large file transfers. In the QQ App you click on a person's name in your contact list and then click the icon that looks like a folder with a sideways arrow. A box pops up giving you a choice whether that person is currently online, or not. One of the options is "Send Offline". Always choose that. Then choose the file you want to send, and quicker than you can say "Bob's your uncle" 5 times, the file will be uploaded to the QQ servers and the next time that person logs in, they'll get a message that there's a file waiting for them. They click it and quicker than they can say "Bob's your uncle" 3 times, they've downloaded the file. It's all just that easy.
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Not to sound churlish, but do you know if there are Weixin equivalents? Latest platform and all that. And in either case, does one end up with a lot of "hello teacher ,can we friends ? ><"" messaging?
But platform choices aside, electronic texts work out okay in class? Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper?
That thing students do where they underline as they read on paper - does that actually have any utility? Do they miss it on e-texts?
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Does one need a QQ number?
Yes. That's why you have a student set it up...so they get all the Join messages. Plus you have to have a certain number of QQ status posts (stars and moons and whatnot to be able to create new group...one amongst them will have that, and be happy that you delegated them that duty
Another aspect I'm concerned about is, I guess, showmanship. My practice to date has always been to make the text a surprise. I use a standard ppt slide with a picture and a title to introduce the segment, and this I follow with some large image, often these days with moving parts that allow some narrative to be generated. This is used to introduce the text, which is then handed out. In theory, I'm creating interest.
I suppose I could rely on the likely fact that few students will voluntarily read the text ahead of time.
Yes you need a QQ number. (I got mine about 14 years ago and it only has 8 digits and the students "ooh and ah" when I give it to them. FWIW. And in fact it's worth something as one of them told me last month...I could sell my 8 digit number on Taobao, she told me, because it's "valuable". Chinese and numbers and value/worth. the endless cultural stream here. But I've digressed.)
Back on topic: I also don't like to pre-supply the content of my lesson, unless I feel it necessary...like an article I want them to read in prep. for the next class. Then they can download it or save it to their phones or go to the printshop with the file on their USB and get their own damn printing done, thank you very much. However they prefer their media delivered and displayed, I leave it up to them now. Every student has QQ on their 'puters and smartphones so every student will join whatever QQ Group you have set up for them. 100% coverage of the class.
I usually upload the good stuff (copies of PPts, etc. after I've delivered the lesson, which, during the lesson, I tell them I will do so as to limit the photo-snapping of slides during the lesson.
An unmentioned benefit of QQ here (yet) is that I use it to transfer large files between myself and others. I write some training manuals which I save in PDF format and need to transfer to other trainers or the Home office" for printing and we all rely on QQ File transfer for large file transfers. In the QQ App you click on a person's name in your contact list and then click the icon that looks like a folder with a sideways arrow. A box pops up giving you a choice whether that person is currently online, or not. One of the options is "Send Offline". Always choose that. Then choose the file you want to send, and quicker than you can say "Bob's your uncle" 5 times, the file will be uploaded to the QQ servers and the next time that person logs in, they'll get a message that there's a file waiting for them. They click it and quicker than they can say "Bob's your uncle" 3 times, they've downloaded the file. It's all just that easy.
But platform choices aside, electronic texts work out okay in class? Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper? You upload the stuff in whatever format you decide (*doc or *docx or PDF)
Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper? }Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper? [/quote}
Whatever format you upload them in is what they get. How they want to read, use, print or even smell it is entirely up to them
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Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper? }Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper? [/quote}
I run on Mac OS X and iOS exclusively. Both have built-in PDF reading-ability built-in. Their built-in apps ( Pages, Keynote and Numbers) are all, both able to convert and read (respectively)
MS Office Word, Powerpoint and Excel files, as well as Exporting to those formats, as well as PDF. since no one here (yet) uses those Apple formats, I convert my work product to .docx, or pptx, or xlsx or PDF before I upload them to the QQ group folder. takes two mouse clicks to accomplish this from within the Mac. and no one has ever complained that they couldn't read the file. It just works, and has worked well for me and my classes and students.
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Does one need a QQ number?
Yes. That's why you have a student set it up...so they get all the Join messages. Plus you have to have a certain number of QQ status posts (stars and moons and whatnot to be able to create new group...one amongst them will have that, and be happy that you delegated them that duty
Are there any constraints in, say, formatting the materials that apply? Are there any, I don't know, students pining for the texture and smell of cheap photocopy paper?
I run on Mac OS X and iOS exclusively. Both have built-in PDF reading-ability built-in. Their built-in apps ( Pages, Keynote and Numbers) are all, both able to convert and read (respectively)
MS Office Word, Powerpoint and Excel files, as well as Exporting to those formats, as well as PDF. since no one here (yet) uses those Apple formats, I convert my work product to .docx, or pptx, or xlsx or PDF before I upload them to the QQ group folder. takes two mouse clicks to accomplish this from within the Mac. and no one has ever complained that they couldn't read the file. It just works, and has worked well for me and my classes and students.
Okey doke. Sounds good. I shall now contemplate on whether or not I can support the technological overhead. I had the same problem with the Edmodo experiment a year or so back. It was a great idea, but, seems to me, because there was very little I was actually using the technology for, it turned out more complicated than just handing out paper.
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Okey doke. Sounds good. I shall now contemplate on whether or not I can support the technological overhead. I had the same problem with the Edmodo experiment a year or so back. It was a great idea, but, seems to me, because there was very little I was actually using the technology for, it turned out more complicated than just handing out paper.
I was an early adopter of Edmodo, and even recommended it here in the Teacher Tips sub-forum. I still like it, but admit it does have a steep learning curve. But I've abandoned using it for my classes in favor of QQ groups primarily because it's difficult to get all students to sign up and use it on a regular basis. and even though there is an Edmodo app for smartphones, that's an extra step Ss have to take, whereas QQ apps and registrations are all but ubiquitous here in China with a 99.9% adoption rate and installed base, so it's just easier for them to manage and use.
I now use QQ groups exclusively for distributing class content and for communicating to and with a class.
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Thanks for starting this thread. It hooks onto a difficulty I've been having, getting Ss to do even elementary prep for classes. I want to talk with some of my Chinese colleagues, pick their brains, but I've a strong hunch I'm going to try to go the QQ route next semester. This despite the fact that I distrust social media. But if I can get it to work for me, to achieve the desired outcomes, why not?
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So I have wechat ids for the monitors of the various classes I'm teaching this semester. The plan is I send them documents before class and they distribute them in whatever way they choose. (I haven't tested this yet, but I'm led to believe I can send files to a wechat contact provided I use the web wechat interface to do it.)
Now, there'll be a few students with tablets in the classes, but most will be using smartphones. In my experience, by third year students in university have or have access to relatively large screen smartphones. But these guys are newly minted and they may still be clinging to their dinky sophomore phones.
But anyway, begs the questions: what's a good e-text format?
I'll assume they can probably handle common document forms - word document, pdf, plain text, html. But if I want readability and pretty pictures for interest and discussion, what size document and what format? Anyone have experiences, good or bad?
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I've been using a combination of WeChat and QQ groups for the last 8 months. I teach groups of Chinese English teaches who will go abroad for further training. We have them for one month before they go. A new group comes through about every three weeks, so there's some overlap.
Each new group sets up both a WeChat group and a QQ group. We use both for messaging, but the QQ group primarily for file transfers and uploading study materials to the QQ group library which each group automatically gets when it's set up. Most trainees access both QQ and WeChat primarily through their smartphones. I don't know anyone who accesses WeChat through the web. I never knew there was a file transfer function in WeChat and certainly not through the phone App. AKAIK you can only send and receive audio and picture files through the WeChat phone app. The QQ phone app CAN download uploaded files directly to the device.
I go to QQ through my Mac app (English version), log in, find the group and there is a small "Share" icon. click on that and it opens the web browser and takes you to the group's page. That part's all in Chinese-but primarily icon-driven so it's esay to figure out. Click the file icon and see a list of files in the library. Click the "+" button (Add file) and Window pops up showing the files on your hard drive. Find the file you want to upload and click it. The file name appears in the box. Enter the Capcha code and click the upload button (上）and the upload begins. It's usually pretty fast.
When it's finished a checkmark appears and you'll see the file now in the group files list. Everyone in the group will get a message on their phone that a file has been uploaded and they can go through their phone app directly to the group. It will show the file and type. They just click it and it downloads to their phone. No need for them to go through a browser to access it.
This workflow seems much simpler than attempting a file transfer through WeChat as I'm still not sure there's a way for them to access the file through their phone. And you can handle the upload to QQ yourself once you've been added as a member to the group. Everyone will be notified automatically. No need to rely on the monitors to distribute your materials.
Just a recommendation from someone who's been there-done that.
In brief: use WeChat for messaging and QQ for file transfers.
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Okay fine, I'll bite the damn qq bullet...
1. get QQ International for computer & a QQ number for me
2. for each new group of students, have a representative student set up a QQ group
3. get invited to that group
4. log in, upload texts, log out
5. profit.
That's the process in a nutshell?
What I'd like on top of that is a document format that works with the limitations of a small screen. Ideally, I'd like it to render like those minimal webpages you see in webview inside apps. No bells, nor whistles - just text and a picture. I can cope with dumping docx on them, but if there were some format that required less swiping....
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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.)
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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. :wtf:
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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 (https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/layouts/rwd-fundamentals/set-the-viewport?hl=en). 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
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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
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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....)
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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.
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Boom, files uploaded. That was easy. As I recall, it went: Open QQ > go to groups window > Open the group > open Group Sharing (toolbar icon) > some other stuff which is sort of obvious once you see it. I'm using QQ International 2.11, and the whole interface is in English.
One of the first messages back was "do we need to print this?" bibibibibi
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So I've been going at this a bit ad hoc. I downloaded QQ on Saturday. Signed up on Sunday. Got a group created around the same time. And so far 87 of the 98 have joined. Which is lucky, and probably a sign of how popular QQ is and how well organized classes are already at using it together, because I didn't explain this to anyone before yesterday. I literally just now sent a message saying what the uploaded files are....
Anyway. So QQ allows Temporary or Permanent uploads. Temporary turns out to mean they expire after ten days. Also, it's occurred to me there's a relatively simple way to handle the html. or any file the students download. If the files don't open automagically, or if the receivers can't find the file after it downloaded, then there's always the Downloads app. The Downloads app is part of Android, and likely has an obvious equivalent on an iphone too. Literally just open it, and the last thing you downloaded should be the first thing in the list. Tap to view.
So I've uploaded the same text in three version - doc, pdf, and html - and also uploaded an image file that goes with the html - and I've just now sent a group message telling everyone what they are and that we'll be looking at the article in class tomorrow. Day 2 of Operation Communicapocalypse - "Files To The Ether!" - appears to have been successful.
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Good to hear that it seems to be working out for you, and that it was easier than you thought it would be. bfbfbfbfbf bfbfbfbfbf bfbfbfbfbf
Now about Macs and Mac OS X...... :wtf:
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Yup - QQ, while worm ridden and festering, is a widely adopted program amongst the younger populace. Super easy to share documents.
Now how your computer will run after installing it :wtf:
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I have the QQ on the number 2 machine, the Windows 10 test laptop. And curiously, every time I log in it requires I input a verification code. It says verification codes are required when "Unusual sign-in location is detected" or "Suspicious network condition is detected". Wild guess: it's doing that because I'm using QQ International and the sign-in location is China.
Don't know if this is a pro-tip or not, but I signed up for a QQ number with an ancient email address I use kind of as a last resort for everything, and by default QQ displayed it in my contact info. That is, when I do any messaging in QQ or someone looks at my QQ name, there is that email address, plain as day. That's relatively easy to change, via "Change the display ID", but since that routes you through id.qq.com, you're looking at a website in Chinese. Easy enough to guess what to do, but there it is.
Currently running a full Windows Defender scan of laptop #2, and not expecting anything to pop up, but you never know...
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I'll be having class in a couple of hours and I'll find out then which format works for these students, but what I discovered just now is you can convert the html to epub and edit it in Calibre! Too late to try it this week, but I reckon I might offer an epub format next week and see how that goes too.
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Or, as also seems to work, and which is technically easier, they can view the html in their ebook reader. It worked on mine. I use Moon+ Reader Pro.
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Operation Communicapocalypse - Day 3 - "Files! Files Everywhere!'
The triumphal march continues. Class was had and all teams appeared to have availed themselves of copies of the text. The two sessions looked and seemed to function just as any previous year's classes with paper would have. A straw poll of all four classes indicates doc is the default acceptable format. Actual use backs this up. I saw exactly one person using the pdf form, and another said she wanted to try the html but didn't know how. Everyone else was using doc. Really, really tiny doc. I had to tell the classes about Page View and Reading View.
For most any and probably all document viewers, Page View and Reading View exist. Page View shows you the doc as it would appear in print. More or less everyone in class was using this. On a phone screen that means tiny, tiny letters. Which you can zoom, of course, but which you then have to do a lot of horizontal swiping to read. Reading View, which everyone switched to once they discovered, is, well, it's reading view - the text is resized to be readable on a small screen, and the document is made to render vertically, no horizontal swiping required.
Why I've been going on about html is, that's how html renders in the first place. It appears on the screen just like doc format files in Reading View, but with better image options and more authorial control over the format. Also, you can jazz up your text with links. For next week I believe I shall skip the pdf offering and try educating the downloaders on how to handle downloaded html. I'll also provide doc format. Maybe also take a shot at epub too and see how that works out.
In short, no one complained and the lessons went without a hitch. The method is simple and workable and worth keep up for the semester.
Thanks, Professor Old34.
bfbfbfbfbf
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......
Thanks, Professor Old34.
bfbfbfbfbf
没关系
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For those wondering, and I know you are, actual screenshots:
(http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh35/calachpfeffer/banger02.jpg)
They all have slightly different origins, with the pdf being obviously different (and also in Page View), but that's what they look like.
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Does anyone know what app is popular for documents in China on Android? The official Microsoft "Office" app exists for Android but seems to require a cloud login to work, so screw that. Beyond that, and in English, there's a wide-ish range (http://lifehacker.com/5868343/the-best-office-suite-for-android). Personally, I still use Quick Office, which I like, but which technically has been deprecated (Google bought it, and the most recent "update" they issued would replace it with Google Docs). I don't know what the students use.
Thing with doc or docx is, whatever fancy typesetting you do on your computer, it's all going to turn into the same left-justified script the Reader view makes of everything. And your images become either tiny or too big for the screen. Offends my presentation senses.
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New basic html template:
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<script language="JavaScript">
function ImageLoadFailed() {
window.event.srcElement.style.display = "None";
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<font face="Calibri" size=3>
<h1>Your heading here</h1>
<center>
<img
src="YourImageHere.jpg" width="90%"
OnError="ImageLoadFailed()">
</center>
<p>
Your text here
<p>
<b>Your question here?</b>
<p>
</font>
</body>
</html>
Includes:
(1) font size is "3", which is the html default anyway
(2) "viewport" is set automatically according to your device screen - ie. text wraps at the edge of the screen
(3) "ImageLoadFailed" is a javascript function for when your image file is not available - for instance, not downloaded with the html by the students, or lost somehow. The function removes the big empty square that would otherwise appear in your document. (Caveat: see the NB below.)
(4) If your image is present and does load, it will appear centered, and taking up 90% of the screen - good for phones in portrait mode, a bit huge in other cases.
NB: that javascript function ImageLoadFailed works in Chrome and IE but does NOT work in Firefox nor in the default HTML Viewer on Android. There is some better html jiggery pokery (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1891300/window-event-srcelement-options-not-work-on-ff) that can be done, but I have no friggen idea how to understand and implement it. If someone could change the weird words in that link to some particular instance of less weird words that would work just like ImageLoadFailed, that would be super duper.
Why HTML?
Relative to a doc file, it's tiny. Also, even with the merely modest typesetting and display capabilities, the screen result is potentially more attractive than a doc in a doc viewer. Also, every phone has a browser.
Why not HTML?
Add in an image and the total file size might be bigger than a doc with the same image included. Also, the image file is a separate download, so the student-side procedure is automatically more complex than finding a single doc. Also, not all doc viewers are shit, sluggish, and ugly.
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Simplified
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
</head>
<body>
<font face="Calibri" size=3>
<h1>Your Heading Here</h1>
<center>
<object data="YourImageHere.jpg" width="90%" type="image/jpg">
<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs=" width="0" height="0"/>
</object>
</center>
<p>
Your text here
<p>
<b>Your question here?</b>
<p>
</font>
</body>
</html>
The effect of that weird line:
<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs=" width="0" height="0"/>
Is if the image src - "YourImageHere.jpg" - from the line above is not found, then the weird line creates in its place a transparent gif of zero height and width. Or so I am told.
In any case, it works. Works in Chrome, IE, Firefox, and the Android HTML Viewer. It does leave a noticeable gap - like two blank lines - between your heading and the beginning of your text. But two blank lines is no gigantic blank square of missing image, so pfft.
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I've been playing/experimenting?learning to use Ulysses III for creating content. It seems useable for both short-form content (blog posts, 1-2 page things like quizzes, handouts, etc.) and long-form stuff (like novels, journal articles, research papers). I like the organizing functions it offers, especially for the long-form stuff where you can create short bits of a longer piece and then re-arrange them from within the app without having to cut-and-paste. Too you can group related pieces together (they call them Sheets) and these too can be moved around. The app keeps track of everything as each are contained in separate files. You can add images and such to each piece and it will be inserted into the file.
Finally, when you've written all you want, you can view it all and then add the formatting you prefer. Ulysses promotes the idea of get it all down first, then worry about the formatting. When you're happy with the content, you can export it to the following formats:
Text
HTML
ePub,
PDF
DOCX
I don't know if there's a Windows version. I got it on the Mac App Store for 283 RMB.
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Here's a good review of the App and how it works:
http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/writing-longform-content-on-a-mac-with-ulysses-iii--cms-24628
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Oops, just checked the Ulysses website and found it's only available on Mac and i Pad:
http://www.ulyssesapp.com/mac/
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Calach,
You can file those suggestions under SDHAA.
Sorry Doesn't Help At All
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For those of us un-enMacened, it raises again the question of Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php). Last time I trialed that, I didn't make it past the learning curve. Might give it a second look. (One of my ulterior motives in looking at html for e-texts in class, aside from thinking they're better than doc on a phone, is I eventually want to put together novel-sized epubs, and html might count as practice.)
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Communicapocalypse - Week 2 - "The Reorientation"
Pains me to say it, but html won't make the cut. There's the objective weakness that the full html experience cannot be delivered in a single file. (It can, actually. There's a format called mhtml, or mime html, which combines the html and support files into a single mime document. But it's unclear it'd actually work, even if I could find a way to encode it properly.) The more telling objection, however, is that no one cares. My subjective impression after asking the four classes is no one's having problems with doc format - they recognise it and know how to use it - and while there may be some who are curious about the html, they're finding no special reward in going there, and most aren't anyway. So, doc wins.
In other news, the classes continue to look and feel the same as classes from years past that used paper. Most phones in use are large screen models. Most teams have more than one. There is a measure of flexibility lost in using phones, even when most of the teams are using various kinds of large screen model, but I'm not hearing any complaints. Nor am I seeing any frustration. (I might dig a little deeper next time and see if there's any under the surface.)
Thus, I shall continue serving up doc and/or docx. To entertain myself, I shall continue trying other formats too. I believe I shall experiment with epub for a while and see how that goes.
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One added advantage of the QQ group is when you post the docs the day before class and the students tell you but we have a sports meeting, you can know right then that no one will be in class tomorrow. You don't have to turn up the next day and wonder where everyone is.
In other news. the groups are working well. We have had a couple of incidents. One was a student (or a student's hijacked account) advertising "codes" of some kind - software crack stuff, I guess. The other was a student's hijacked account (or a student) advertising a ponzi scheme. But that's it. Otherwise, everyone seems to be using the files as downloaded each week and the QQ hasn't infected anything on my computer that I know about. Booyah.
Still using only doc. Gave up the html. Haven't looked into other formats yet. Might not either.