Ingredients

1 – A Computer with Internet Access

1 – A Flickr Account.

1 – The Picasa program.

1 – The Flickr Uploader tool.

1 – The Picasa2Flickr plugin for Picasa.

Directions

1. These directions will assume you have a Flickr account as well as the Picasa and Flickr Uploader tool already installed.
2. Visit the Picasa2Flickr page and click on the link labeled picasa2flickr button. The latest update is 20 January 2009.
3. If Picasa is not currently running, a small window should appear asking which application to launch. Choose Picasa and click OK.
4. When Picasa is running you should see a question “Launch Picasa and import buttons?” – Choose Yes.
5. You should now see the Configure Buttons window with a “Send To flickr” button under the Available Buttons.
6. Click Add>> to move it to the Current Buttons listing, and then click OK.
7. Now you can select a photo in Picasa and click the “Send To flickr” button in the bottom of the Picasa window.
8. Before you can upload photos to Flickr, you will need to Authorize the Flickr Uploader program. If you have already done this, you will see an Upload button. Fill in the fields provided and you can upload your photo or photos.
9. If you have not authorized the Flickr Uploader program, you will see a Sign In button. Click Sign In and a Flickr page will open in your web browser asking you to sign in, or if you are already signed in to Flickr, present you with the authorization page. Click Next in the box with the text “If you arrived at this page because you specifically asked Flickr Uploadr to connect to your Flickr account, click here:”
10. On the next page you will see “Flickr Uploadr wants to link to your Flickr account.” Choose “OK, I’ll authorize it”
11. Return to the Flickr Uploader program and click the Ready button. Now you can proceed with uploading photos.

Ingredients

1 – A Computer with Internet Access

1 – A WordPress blog hosted on a web server (this example uses a WordPress MultiUser installation).

1 – The Flickr Album plugin installed on the WordPress blog

Directions

1. These directions will assume you have a working WordPress installation with the Flickr Album Plugin already installed.
2. Login to the Dashboard for your WordPress site.
3. Click on the Plugins link on the left-hand menu.
4. Locate the Flickr Album Plugin in the list of plugins. Click the Activate link.
5. You should see a link to go configure the plugin.
6. To use the Flickr Album Plugin, you need to have what is known as a Flickr API key. Follow the links to apply for one.
7. Once you have obtained your Flickr API key (and Shared secret key), enter them into the appropriate fields and click the Next button.
8. On the next page there are two steps. Step 1 is to click the button to Retrieve Flickr Permissions. This tells Flickr that your site will use the API key.
9. The next step is to apply those permissions. Click the Apply Permissions button.
10. If all went well you should see the Flickr Settings area where you can choose how you want images and albums to behave on your blog. Below that you should see some of your photos and/or albums appear. Make any changes you wish and click the Save Settings button.
11. When you start a new blog post, you’ll see a new blue and magenta button above the editing window that allows you to add any Flickr images from your account. Basically you choose an image, select a size (medium works well), and click the button to “Insert Into Post”.

Ingredients

1 – A Macintosh Computer connected to the Internet (the Macintosh computer will come with the iLife software, including GarageBand)

1 – The Skype software

1 – The Soundflower software

1 – The LineIn software

Directions

1. Start by going into the System Preferences (Apple Menu>SystemPreferences…) Click on the Sound icon.
2. On the Sound Input tab, select the input you are recording with. In our case we have a USB headset with a microphone. On the Sound Output tab select “Soundflower (2ch)”
3. Open the Skype software and choose the Preferences (Skype Menu>Preferences). Click the Audio icon. Choose “Soundflower (2ch)” as both the audio input and audio output.
4. Open up the Garageband program and choose the Preferences (GarageBand>Preferences). Click the Audio/MIDI icon. Choose the audio output that you wish to hear the GarageBand output from, again, in our example we’re using the USB headset.
5. Finally open up the LineIn program. In the Input from field select the microphone you are using. Once again, we’re using the USB headset. In the Ouput to field select “Soundflower (2ch)” and then make sure to click the Pass Thru button.
6. You are now ready to record in GarageBand. Start a new Podcast project. Depending on your version of GarageBand the wording can be different, but in GarageBand ‘08, from the File Menu select New and choose Create New Podcast Episode.
7. Again, using GarageBand ‘08, you will be presented with four new tracks. A Podcast Track, a Male Voice track, A Female Voice track and a Jingles track. You will record your microphone and the Skype Call on the Male Voice track.
8. If you have all of the above settings correctly set, you should see the audio level indicators move when you speak into the microphone AND when people on your Skype call are talking. If that is the case then you just need to click the record button in GarageBand, and then begin your “show”.

Thanks to Ahmad Humeid’s blog post which was the inspiration for this screencast.

Ingredients

1 – An iPhone with access to the Internet (WiFi or 3G)

1 – A WordPress blog hosted on a web server (example uses Bluehost and has “Simple Script” installation script) with FTP access

1 – The FeedWordPress plugin installed on the WordPress blog

1 – The AudioBoo App for the iPhone

1 – An account at AudioBoo.fm

Directions

1. These directions will assume you have a working WordPress installation with the FeedWordPress plugin already installed, and also the AudioBoo app and site already configured.
2. Make a recording with your AudioBoo App on the iPhone. Start the app, click the Record icon then Start. Make you recording 5 minutes or less. Hit the Pause button to stop recording and then Publish when you’re ready to upload your file. You’ll need to fill out a few bits of information (a title, some tags, and a photo if you wish).
3. The file will begin to upload to the audioboo.fm website. Progress is shown on the iPhone.
4. When the AudioBoo app says it’s done uploading, your audio file should be available almost immediately at the AudioBoo website.
5. The FeedWordPress plugin is now used to transfer (syndicate) the files at the AudioBoo website to the WordPress blog that you have chosen. You can set the plugin to syndicate the files automatically, or manually.

Ingredients

1 – A Computer with Internet Access

1 – A WordPress blog hosted on a web server (example uses Bluehost and has “Simple Script” installation script).

1 – The FeedWordPress plugin installed on the WordPress blog

Directions

1. These directions will assume you have a working WordPress installation with the FeedWordPress plugin already installed.
2. Get the full RSS feed, category feed, or tag feed from another blog/website.
3. Login to the Dashboard for your WordPress site.
4. Click on the Syndication link on the left-hand menu (FeedWordPress provides this as part of the installation).
5. Paste the link to the feed you wish to use in the appropriate field and then click the Syndicate button.
6. You should get a preview of a post from the feed you are using. If the feed preview works, you can click the button to “Use This Feed”.
7. The FeedWordPress plugin is now used to transfer (syndicate) the posts from the WordPress blog that you have chosen. You can set the plugin to syndicate the files automatically, or manually.

Ingredients

1 – Computer with access to the Internet

1 – A WordPress blog hosted on a web server (example uses Bluehost and has “Simple Script” installation script) with FTP access

1 – The archive of the WordPress theme you want to test

1 – Theme Test Drive WordPress plugin – the plugin installation instructions are available on this site

Directions

1. These directions will assume you have a working WordPress installation on a server with FTP access. In order to test a new theme you will need to upload it (using FTP) to your wp-content/themes directory
2. Login to your WordPress dashboard
3. DO NOT activate the theme – instead go to the Appearance tab (Design tab if you are using WP 2.6 or earlier) and click Theme Test Drive
4. Note that Theme Test Drive has a theme uploader built in. Under the Usage area, select the theme you want to test from the drop-down menu
5. Click the Enable Theme Drive button. When the message appears that your theme has been enabled, you may view it by visiting the site. If you want other non-admin users to see the site, have them add ?theme=xxx (where xxx is the name of the theme – it’s case sensitive) to the end of your website URL. They can test out any theme as long as they know the name of the theme

Ingredients

1 – Computer with access to the Internet

1 – Instructor access to a Blackboard course (the screencast features BB Enterprise 8 )

1 – Optional – Accounts with YouTube and SlideShare to upload your own videos and presentations

Directions

1. You will need to obtain the “Embed code” from individual video pages from YouTube, or from individual presentation pages at SlideShare.net. On the web page that contains the media, next to each video or presentation is a field labeled “Embed Code”. That code is easily copied, and then can be pasted into the appropriate web page, blog, or Blackboard content area.
2. From the Control Panel, navigate to the area in your Blackboard course where you would like to place the RSS information.
3. Click on the Add (+) Item button to create a new content item.
4. Provide a name for the content item (required)
5. In the Text editor click on the “Toggle HTML Source Mode” button
6. Paste the Embed code from the YouTube video page or SlideShare page into the text field (you can overwrite anything that is initially in the text field)
7. Click on the Submit button

Ingredients

1 – Computer with access to the Internet

1 – Instructor access to a Blackboard course (the screencast features BB Enterprise 8 )

1 – The website at http://feed2js.org

1 – A website with an active RSS feed to be used in Blackboard

Directions

1. Navigate to the website that has an RSS feed.
2. Look for an icon on the page that looks like this:
3. If you don’t see that icon, look for some text that mentions “subscribe to feed” or “RSS“. Linked text that reads “Entries (RSS)” is a common way the feed for a WordPress blog is encountered, usually near the bottom of the screen.
4. You can right-click on the icon or text link and choose either Copy Link Location (Firefox), or Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
5. Alternatively, you can click on the icon or the text and it should lead you to a page with a few options to subscribe to the RSS feed. What’s important is that the feed URL is now in the web browser’s address bar. Copy the URL so that you can paste it into the appropriate field in the Feed2JS website.
6. Navigate to the Feed2JS website.
7. Click on the tab labeled “Build” and paste the RSS feed URL into the box labeled URL.
8. Optionally, you can change the options for how the feed is displayed.
9. Click on the button labeled “Generate Javascript”
10. This will display code in the field labeled “Get Your Code Here”
11. Copy the entire contents of this field. This is the code we’ll place in Blackboard.
12. Navigate to the area in your Blackboard course where you would like to place the RSS information.
13. Click on the Add (+) Item button to create a new content item.
14. Provide a name for the content item (required)
15. In the Text editor click on the “Toggle HTML Source Mode” button
16. Paste the code generated from the Feed2JS website into the text field (overwrite any existing text that’s in that field to start)
17. Click on the Submit button

Watch a screencast of this recipe.

Ingredients

1 – Computer (PC or Mac)

1 – Apple’s iTunes program (current version as of this post 8.0.2)  – download here

1 – An Internet website that has a podcast feed

Directions

1. Navigate to the website that has a podcast feed. This type of site would not be the norm, so this is likely a site that makes it very obvious that there is a podcast associated with it, or a site that was recommended by someone you know.
2. Look for an icon somewhere on the webpage (not the one in the web address field) that looks like this:
3. If you don’t see that icon, look for some text that mentions “subscribe to feed” or “RSS“. Linked text that reads “Entries (RSS)” is a common way the feed for a WordPress blog is encountered, usually near the bottom of the screen.
4. You can right-click on the icon or text link and choose either Copy Link Location (Firefox), or Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
5. Alternatively, you can click on the icon or the text and it should lead you to a page with a few options to subscribe to the RSS feed. What’s important is that the feed URL is now in the web browser’s address bar. Copy the URL so that you can paste it into iTunes.
6. Start the iTunes program.
7. Click on the Advanced menu and choose Subscribe to Podcast…
8. Paste the link shortcut into the box labeled URL:
9. Click the OK button. This will add the podcast to the iTunes Podcast library and will start to download the latest podcast from the site. If you wish to download other, earlier podcasts, you can click the Get button next to the podcast that you want.
10. Clicking the Refresh button while viewing the Podcast library will check the site for the most recent podcast.

Watch a screencast of this recipe.

Ingredients

1 – Computer (PC or Mac)

1 – Apple’s iTunes program (current version as of this post 8.0.2) – download here

1 – Any Audio CD that is playable in a standard CD player

Directions

1. Start the iTunes program.
2. Before you insert the audio CD, you want to make sure that files will be converted into MP3 audio files. Choose the Edit menu and select Preferences.
3. On the General tab, the area in the middle of the page that states “When you insert a CD”, make sure ”Ask to Import CD” is showing.
4. Click the Import Settings button.
5. For the ”Import Using” setting, select MP3 Encoder. You can also choose between Good, High, Higher, or Custom for the quality setting. Click OK, and then OK again to close the Preferences window.
6. Insert the audio CD into your CD-ROM drive.
7. After scanning the CD, iTunes will display the track or tracks found on the CD.
8. You will be asked if you would like to import the CD into your iTunes library. Click Yes to do so.
9. iTunes will now import each song on the audio CD. Importing the CD means converting each song to an MP3 audio file.
10. When the tracks have all been imported, a small green checkmark appears next to each file.
11. When you click on your Music Library, you should see that the tracks have been added.
12. If you wish to locate the MP3 file on your hard drive, right-click the file in the library and choose Show in Windows Explorer, or Show in Finder on the Mac.
13. Enjoy your music!