I built my widget based off a project in GitHub by Trevor Burnham called the iBooks HTML Widget Boilerplate. To customize this widget for your needs, all you need is an HTML editor for the Mac (TextEdit works fine) and an image editor to create the widget image.

Here’s the steps I took to create my widget (Note: I kept all the filenames used in the boilerplate, replacing my own files for the examples (for, example, I renamed my widget icon “default.png,” replacing the default.png in the Widget Boilerplate folder and I did the same for the main.html file):

• I copied my pdf into the Widget Boilerplate folder
• I edited my widget image and renamed it default.png and copied and replaced the default image inside the folder
• I opened main.html in TextEdit (set your preferences to ignore rich text so you can edit this file in plain text)
• I deleted everything in the body and put this JavaScript in between the head tags (this is code for redirecting to a page or in this case, a file):<script type=”text/javascript”>
  <!–
  window.location = “my_pdf_file_name.pdf“
  //–>
  </script>
• Once you are finished editing the files, add the extension .wdgt to the entire folder. This will make the folder contents a widget.
• Open iBooks Author and drag and drop this widget into your iBook. To edit the size and text, use the iBooks Author Inspector and choose the widget section.

If you need to back and tweak your iBooks HTML widget, delete the .wdgt extension (go into the info of the widget (i+Command), and delete it in the name) and you’ll see your folder with all its files.

Also remember to optimize your pdfs so they balance legibility with the smallest possible file size. The more assets you add to an iBook, the bigger the file size, impacting load time on the device.

Neatline, a creation of the Scholars’s Lab, is a geo-temporal exhibit builder that uses archives and artifacts from an Omeka collection to create interactive timelines and maps.

Neatline imports collections created in Omeka and makes it possible to plot them on a map. Text, images, and timelines can be added to points of interest on the map, or a stand-alone timeline can be created. No special software is required to view completed Neatline “exhibits.”

There are many ways to navigate through an exhibit created with Neatline. A user can click on a point of interest on the map, a title, or click through the timeline. The simple layout of Neatline makes it a valuable visualization tool for digital humanists.

To learn more, visit the Neatline site.

Below is a screenshot of an exhibit I built in Neatline from an Omeka Collection.

Instreamia uses YouTube videos from recording artists, pop culture, TED lectures, and other entertainment resources created by native speakers in the language you’d like to learn. These videos are supplemented with listening exercises and flashcards. During listening exercises, you can simultaneously view a translation, gradually building your vocabulary. Questions are posted in a public forum, to be answered by other course members and/or course instructors so that everyone can benefit. Instreamia also has a social aspect, in that you can friend other course members and native speakers.

You can sign up for a course on the Instreamia website. 

ShowMe has basic whiteboard functions. You have the options to erase part or all of the whiteboard, add an image, undo an action, record your whiteboard session, and choose from 7 different pen colors. In the app, you have the ability to hide the menu at the top to give yourself more real estate to write on the whiteboard. To record a whiteboard session, you simply hit the record button at the top of the screen. (A counter at the bottom of the whiteboard lets you know how long you have been recording.) If you add an image from  your iPad (either from camera roll, from the web, or take a picture with the iPad), the app will pause the recording session so the import process is not recorded. You can pause and resume at anytime in a recording.

Once you are finished recording,you can click on the Save ShowMe button. You can preview your work to finish the save, or start again. After saving, you name your recording, tag it with a topic, and post it to the ShowMe website, which requires a free ShowMe account. Recordings can be public, private, or shared with users you select. Sharing groups can be created (all members need a free account on ShowMe); links mailed to others can be viewed without an account. Recordings can be downloaded and stored on your personal device.

To download this free app, visit the iTunes store.

You can download Soundflower for free here: http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/.

When using Soundflower, you will have to configure the output and input options for your audio to capture audio using Quicktime Player. When capturing audio, you will not hear the output of the audio through your normal speakers, but you can always open the Soundflower software to hear what you are capturing. This application will capture any sound on your computer, including notification sounds and audio adjustments you make on your computer, so just be aware what you are capturing when using this application. You may want to disable some sounds on your computer before capturing audio.

To see a comprehensive walk-through on how to use Soundflower with Quicktime Player, check out Christopher Breen’s Macworld post here: www.macworld.com/article/1159440/soundflower_capture.html

OpenScholar was developed, and continues to be developed, at Harvard University’s Institution of Quantitative Social Science as an open-source project.  The system is based on the very popular Drupal content management system.

OpenScholar websites at Princeton can be requested by contacting the Educational Technologies Center . OpenScholar websites are only available for Princeton faculty and graduate studentsand for special project sites.  You must have a valid Princeton e-mail address to request a website.

Once their site has been created, editing the website is done completely through the web browser. Pages on an OpenScholar website can be edited in two ways:  in-page editing and editing pages through the ‘Control Panel’. Features are tools that can be added or removed from a website, such as blogs, publications, or feeds. These features can be enabled and configured by going into the ‘Control Panel’ of your site after logging in to the system. The layout and design of your site can also be modified in the ‘Control Panel’.  The system includes fifteen different designs to choose from, some of which offer color variations.

During the process of completing this assignment, students were able to see other students’ postings and to leave comments. Dr. Recuber notes that although students did not choose to leave comments on the blog as much as he might have wished, active discussions occurred in class, centered around the work that had been done on the blog. Students also shared information about formatting their blog posts and embedding materials in their writing.

Students integrated many types of multimedia materials into their online memorials, including images, videos, and audio files. Dr. Recuber described a student project investigating the famous sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald that included the music written to commemorate the event. Dr. Recuber said that it was one thing to read about the disaster and experience the music related to the disaster, but it was quite another level to actually hear the music while reading the essay. It was also noted, that, given the subject matter, images included in the projects sometimes proved to be quite graphic.

Timothy Recuber reports that he had positive outcomes from the project, but that he learns more about these types of assignments each semester. The project allowed students, who may have struggled with other forms of writing during the semester, to find additional ways to express themselves. For many students however, the open-ended nature of the project was daunting and, for the instructor, a challenge to grade.

The use of WordPress for this assignment was as more of a ‘content management system’ than of a blog. Dr. Recuber expressed an interest in using WordPress in future semesters in more a more traditional blog format in which writings are displayed in a chronological sequence. Dr. Recuber also indicated that he might encourage the use of the commenting feature of the platform.

If you are interested in using WordPress for your course, you can always contact the ETC (Educational Technologies Center) to get you started. To view the video of the session, use the media player below.

The Google Chrome browser seemed to peak peoples’ interests back in March 2009. At that time, Google introduced a site called Chrome Experiments. The purpose of the experiments was to test how  Chrome could handle Javascript. To view the experiments back in 2009, you needed to download Chrome and open the experiments in Chrome. You can now view the experiment page in with other browsers like Firefox. This site demonstrates how HTML5, WebGL, Canvas, SVG, and CSS are rendered and used inside a browser without having to install extra plugins to view content like 2D images and 3D models.

A big advantage to using Google Chrome over another browser is the ability to sync your browser history, apps, and extensions across multiple devices using a Google account. Chrome allows you to log into the browser. As you create bookmarks and build a browsing history, you can sync this browser customization with other Chrome browsers running on different machines and Chrome devices (like an Android phone running the Chrome browser or a Chromebook). Google warns that you should only log in to the Chrome browser on personal machines, not public machines. The reason for this is that app data gets stored on the computer or device you log into and then others may be able to access your apps and extensions and bookmarks if they are using the same machine.

Chrome allows for Apps and Extensions to be installed in the browser. The difference between the two are that Apps usually link to a web service or web page and usually do not work offline. Extensions are not specific to a certain web page or web service and can work offline. Both Apps and Extensions can be downloaded from the Chrome App Store. Depending on the app or extension, you might be charged to install it on Chrome. The Apps and Extensions that were demo-ed where:

• Anatronica 3D Interactive Anatomy

• 3D Solar System Web

• Simple Whiteboard

• OWeb Voice Input

• Print Friendly and PDF

• Google Drive

• Share LaTeX

• Audiotool

A brief overview of safety features that are built into Chrome were discussed. Sandboxing is a safety feature that tries to contain malware that was executed on one tab inside that tab so it doesn’t spread to other tabs in the browser. It makes it easier to a process by closing just the infected tab. Other features like basic malware detection on a site and auto-updating where mentioned.

Incognito Mode inside Chrome allows for a user to not have their web history tracked and it deletes any stored cookies after the Incognito Mode session is closed. Google lets users know that Incognito mode does not mean a user is browsing the web anonymously. Any files you download will stay on your computer and if site is collecting data on you, this mode may not prevent that from happening.

Given the choices you have for web browsing, Chrome offers a Google Power user many features that help them work with their Google apps and devices. Even if you’re not a Google power user, the features and extensions that Chrome has to offer for education should be explored no matter what operating system an educator runs (Chrome runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows).

Please use the slideshow viewer below to view the slides for the presentation:

To view the audio and video of the presentation, please use the video player below:

NodeXL: A Microsoft Excel Template for Creating Network Graph Visualizations.

Network graphs have become a popular visualization in the past couple of years in not only the Mathematics and Computer Science, but in different fields such as the Humanities and Politics. It is one thing to read a piece of text and to be introduced to different characters and their relationship to each other in a novel, but it’s quite another thing to visually see the connects each character has with each other. These visual relationships can draw new conclusions or points of interest for research that were never discovered or approached before. This is in part why network graphs have gained popularity in the recent years.

In the Digital Humanities, network graphs are popular with sociologist to study social networks using these visualizations. The topic of bibliometrics, the study of patterns and relationships in the formal record of scholarly communication, has been given a refreshed look using visualizations via network graphs to help Humanists study the structure of academic disciplines through connections among scholars. There are a few tools out there that take the data and produce the network graph, but the ones that always stand out in this field for the Digital Humanities are Gephi (which has a big learning curve if you are starting from square one) and NodeXL (which uses Microsoft Excel to create a network graph).

I recently downloaded the NodeXL template to see how it worked. According to their site NodeXL is ” a free, open-source template for Microsoft® Excel® 2007 and 2010 that makes it easy to explore network graphs.  With NodeXL, you can enter a network edge list in a worksheet, click a button and see your graph, all in the familiar environment of the Excel window.” The advantage of using NodeXL over Gephi is, if you are very familiar with Excel, you might prefer this tool to create network graphs.

In the NodeXL template, there is a tab for the NodeXL tool. This is where you can import data (Pajek and GraphML files, and even Twitter, Filckr, and YouTube Networks) to create you network graph. You can control the color, size, and shape of the vertex and edges. The spreadsheet makes it easy to edit your network data and the convenience of having the visualization appear to the right of the spreadsheet (which you can manually update as you add or change data) makes it a useful tool. You are able to export the visualization and data into a number of files including a Pajek file, UCINET Full Matrix DL file, GEXF file, and GraphML file.

To download NodeXL, click here: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/

To see how other another Humanist (Lisa Marie Rhody) is using this tool in her latest project, Revising Ekphrasis, which uses advanced computational tools to explore connections between 4,500 English-language poems, click here: http://www.lisarhody.com/

The group that developed this tool is listed here: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/team/view