Finding free images: Flickr's Creative Commons

by Alan Regan

Flickr.com - Finding Images You Can Use in Presentations for FREE

As we know, a key to retention of information is audience attention. To capture attention, a strong visual can tap into emotion, story, or the unexpected to spark a memorable moment. But how do we find powerful images?

In an earlier blog entry, I shared about Google Images and how to use the advanced settings to find images that you can freely use. Another major image repository, Flickr.com, also offers a way for you to search for free images. Flickr.com supports Creative Commons licensing. As users upload their own photographs, they can choose a license to open or restrict reuse of those images. Many users offer their photographs for free, simply asking that you acknowledge them as the source of the image (this is known as "attribution").

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Which one's are okay to use?

License Label	Description
Attribution	All the artist asks is that you acknowledge the creator. You should at least offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You are free to create derivative works or use the image for commercial purposes. Learn more.
Attribution-NoDerivs	The artist asks that you acknowledge the creator and do not alter the image to create derivative works. You should offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You should not combine the photo with other imagery or use it in your own art. You may use it for commercial purposes. Learn more.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs	The artist asks that you acknowledge the creator, do not use the work for commercial purposes, and do not alter the image to create derivative works. You should offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You should not combine the photo with other imagery or use it in your own art. You should not use the imagery for your own business or commercial benefit; may be used in education and for non-profit. Learn more.
Attribution-NonCommercial	The artist asks that you acknowledge the creator and do not use the work for commercial purposes. You should offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You should not use the imagery for your own business or commercial benefit; may be used in education and for non-profit. Learn more.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike	The artist asks that you acknowledge the creator and do not use the work for commercial purposes. You may alter or create derivative works, but the resulting work must be shared with the same license for others. You should offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You can combine the photo with other imagery or use it in your own art to create something new. You must offer the resulting work with the same or similar license. Learn more.
Attribution-ShareAlike	The artist asks that you acknowledge the creator and post any derivative works with the same or similar license. You should offer a "Photo By" credit with the image and may also provide a full reference at the end of a presentation, similar to sourcing quotes or research. You are free to create derivative works and/or use the image for commercial purposes. Learn more.

Learn More:

• http://creativecommons.org/about
• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
• Attributing Creative Commons work FAQ
• Attributing Creative Commons work example

Mobile Development Options - Part 4: Titanium Appcelerator & Titanium Studio

by Mark Giglione

Mobile Development Options - Part 4: Titanium Appcelerator & Titanium Studio

The Titanium SDK from Appcelerator is open source (with optional “for pay” support plans available) and basically works by cross compiling Javascript & HTML to native mobile code (iOS XCode, Android & others).  In January 2011, Appcelerator acquired Aptana Studio (an Eclipse based integrated development environment optimized for web development) and the company now offers two (free) versions of the Aptana IDE: Aptana Studio and Titanium Studio (which is optimized for Titanium SDK projects).  Titanium SDK and Titanium Studio are free and open source but extended support is available on a paid subscription basis from Appcelerator.  

Cross compilation is the major difference between between Titanium and PhoneGap (see Part 3 for information concerning PhoneGap).  The PhoneGap approach is to embed a web application in a hosted native code shell which is then compiled.  The base web application code, however, remains a combination of JavaScript, HTML  and CSS which is hosted “as is” by the PhoneGap native code shell.  Titanium Appcelerator, on the other hand, cross compiles JavaScript into a native code programming language (e.g. Objective-C for iOS or Java for Android); a fully native code project is created and compiled.  In other words, a PhoneGap project hosts an unaltered web application where Titanium Appcelerator translates the Titanium JavaScript project into a standalone native code project.  Any changes or additions to the Titanium project are made to the Javascript code in the base project which is then cross compiled to produced updated native code source as needed.  In effect, the developer is using Javascript to create native code projects.

In addition to Titanium, the native code programming toolset for each target device needs to be installed; for iOS, Xcode would need to be installed and for Android, Java and the Android SDK are required.  Titanium, however, handles accessing the native code tools transparently; apps are either run on a desktop simulator that is included with each set of tools or the app is deployed to a physical mobile device.  Typically the developer only interacts with Titanium or the Titanium Studio interface which in turn transparently calls the native code tools behind the scenes.  (The developer, however, can optionally open and edit a native code project generated by Titanium directly if desired but this is not a common or recommended practice.)

In theory the fully native code project produced by Titanium should run faster than a PhoneGap project but actual comparative performance varies with each new release of each product.  Both products allow the user to create mobile applications using web development tools and technologies (i.e. Javascript, HTML and CSS).  As with PhoneGap, there are limitations to Titanium compared to developing directly in a native programming language but Titanium is suitable for a range of projects up to moderate levels of complexity.

Titanium also allows multiple deployment targets (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) to be managed from a single base project (though in practice Titanium’s support has historically tended to be more robust for iOS than for Android).  (Additionally, Titanium can also be used to build both standalone cross platform desktop applications and mobile web sites.)  

Titanium Mobile SDK

http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile-application-development/

Titanium Studio

http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-studio/

Checking Your Own Papers With Turnitin

by Alan Regan

Checking Your Own Work With Turnitin

Dotting the i's for your own academic integrity

A professor asked how he can check his own work for citation issues. The professor was working on a journal article with peers and students and wanted to be sure that everything was cited properly before it went to publication. He knows how to set up an assignment to check student work, but he wasn't sure how to check his own work using Turnitin.

It's easy to check your own work with Turnitin by following three simple steps:

1. Create a project site on Courses (powered by Sakai)
2. Create an assignment with Turnitin enabled
3. "Submit as student"

These steps will take about three (3) minutes to create and submit the assignment, plus the amount of time that Turnitin takes to generate the report.

STEP ONE: CREATE A PROJECT SITE

Every professor should have his/her own project site. These are private sites where you can draft content for your classes, collaborate with your peers, and experiment with the features of Courses (powered by Sakai) without impacting your official class sites.

Create a Project Site in Courses and be sure to add the "Assignments" tool.

Time to complete: Approximately one (1) minute.

STEP TWO: CREATE AN ASSIGNMENT WITH TURNITIN

Once you have your project site, you'll create an assignment. You can create a new assignment for each document you wish to check.

Create a Turnitin Assignment in Courses.

Time to complete: Approximately one (1) minute.

STEP THREE: "SUBMIT AS STUDENT"

Once your assignment has been saved, you now need to submit to the assignment yourself. The easiest way to accomplish this is to click the "Student View" button in the toolbar. This will change the view and enable a new link below the assignment, called "Submit as Student." This allows you, the professor, to submit a document to the Assignments tool as if your account was a student account instead of a professor account. This tool does not allow you to submit the document on behalf of a specific student; it simply allows you to take your own assignment and verify that it is working properly.  In this case, it also allows you to upload your document and submit the assignment for Turnitin OriginalityCheck.

1. Click "Student View"
2. Click "Submit as student"
3. Attach your document
4. Submit the assignment

Time to complete: Less than one (1) minute.

Now, you'll return to instructor view by clicking the blue reset arrows or clicking the "Assignment List" button in the Assignments toolbar. Wait the 10-30 minutes for Turnitin to process your document and then click "Grade" below the assignment title.  (Turnitin says that papers could take up to 24 hours, but it usually doesn't take that long.) Next to your own name in the grade roster will be the Turnitin column and the badge and link will appear once the report is ready. Review Reviewing Report Results for more details on interpreting the Turnitin report.

TIPS AND REMINDERS

• Keep the selection "None" under "Submit papers to the following repository." You don't want to accidentally save your own document permanently in Turnitin's paper database.
• Follow the guidelines for Turnitin submissions. For example, submit a Word document less than 10 MB in size for best results, and always include the file extension in the file name (e.g. mypaper.docx).

Mobile Development Options - Part 3: Mobile Web Development with Dreamweaver

By Mark Giglione

Mobile Development Options - Part 3: Mobile Web Development with Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver versions CS5.x thru CS6.x provide tools for creating and editing web sites targeted for mobile devices.  A mobile web site is styled and behaves as if it were a native mobile application but is actually a web site that can be viewed on different mobile devices. A mobile web site does not need to be downloaded but is viewable across mobile device platforms using each device’s mobile web browser.  

As an additional option, a standalone native mobile device ‘app’ (typically targeted for iOS or Android) can be created with Dreamweaver by embedding a mobile web site (or a mobile web application) within a pre-created “native code” wrapper which is then compiled into a native application.  The compiled application can then be deployed using a channel such as iTunes or the Android marketplace.  

A major advantage of building a web site or web application optimized for mobile devices is that development is accomplished using HTML, Javascript and CSS rather than with a compiled native code language such as Objective-C or Java.  While not required, typically a mobile web browser optimized Javascript library is used to simplify the creation of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) elements and behaviors.  While there are limitations to this approach compared to natively coded applications, web tool based development is quite suitable for a wide range of projects and may be easier to master for novice mobile developers.

Dreamweaver currently supports jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap directly (though PhoneGap will work with other mobile Javascript libraries as well).  jQuery Mobile is a Javascript framework for developing mobile device optimized web applications and web sites. PhoneGap works by embedding a mobile web application (which can be built with jQuery Mobile) in a native (PhoneGap API supporting) project shell tailored for each target mobile platform. The latest versions of Adobe Dreamweaver provide integrated tools that can be used to create jQuery Mobile and/or PhoneGap based projects. However, both PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile are Open Source and can be used independently of Dreamweaver.  

Getting started with jQuery Mobile and Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5
http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/inspire/may2011/articles/article4/index.html?trackingid=IOZGV

Building a mobile app with PhoneGap and Dreamweaver (7 part series)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/phonegap-mobile-app-pt1.html   

Build mobile apps and websites with Dreamweaver (CS5.5)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/dreamweaver-mobile.html

Enhanced jQuery mobile support (CS6)
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-dreamweaver-cs6/enhanced-jquery-mobile-support/

PhoneGap
http://phonegap.com/

jQuery Mobile
http://jquerymobile.com/

Scripting the Web - Part 1: Introduction to JavaScript
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/introduction-to-javascript.html

Scripting the Web - Part 2: Introduction to jQuery
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/introduction-to-jquery.html