Icecream Apps - Free Software
Over the weekend, I was contacted by Yuriy, the CTO for Icecream Apps. Icecream Apps is a new team of developers that publish freeware (free software) for Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X.
The current lineup of software includes:
- PDF Converter
- Media Converter
- eBook Reader
- PDF Split & Merge
- Screen Recorder
- Image Resizer
- Slideshow Maker
I have not tested the software yet, but there is plenty for faculty and students to look at.
TagClouds
http://sites.duke.edu/lit80s_02_f2013_augrealities/text-visualization-see-more-than-texts/
The resource lists several ways of presenting text visualization (graph, chart, map, network, timeline, word cloud). Some good advice and examples there.
For those interested in working with Tag Clouds, TagCloud is a good choice for those working with short documents:
then this will be your easiest/free option:
http://tagcrowd.com
Wordle does much the same:
http://www.wordle.net/create
However, Timur would like to use lengthy PDF documents as his source material. The process of taking something directly from a PDF is a little more complicated. This site explains the process in which someone created a tool:
http://www.digitalallee.com/pdf-extraction-tag-cloud/
There would be some work setting this up, but this could be worthwhile.
Adobe Creative Cloud Resources
Josh Luttig, my colleague in Information Services, just shared these Adobe Creative Cloud resources with me:
- Adobe Education Exchange (free tutorials and professional development): http://edex.adobe.com
- Adobe TV (tons of free videos) http://tv.adobe.com
- More learning tutorials: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/learn/tutorials.html
DePaul has a great deal, where staff and faculty can use Adobe CC on home machines for only $10 a year. Work computers have Adobe CC installed for free. More information can be found here:
software.depaul.edu
Article of The Future?
Beth Rubin shared a great article/video/demonstration with me today. “Article of The Future” demonstrates a new way to format and share academic research. The Article of The Future site showcases a few prototypes (including Business Management) which demonstrate a structure similar to the three-column webpage design. Each pane is independent, and facilitates navigation within the article.
I am impressed. Wondering what authoring software would be used for faculty to create similar documents.