Academic Tech Tips

When you are reading articles on the Web, you are generally getting information from one source at a time. It can be a challenge to determine not only what is accurate but to also find evidence for alternative points of view.  Dispute Finder, a new free online tool, provides alternative sources to disputed claims on the Web.  The Dispute Finder Web page allows you to create a new disputed claim or see a listing of claims marked by other users.  The Dispute Finder Firefox Extension will highlight snippets of Web articles that contain disputed claims and provide alternative sources.  Visit the Dispute Finder page to learn more.

If you’ve recently upgraded to Office 2007, then you are most likely aware of the learning curve involved to adapt to the new version. If you are still learning the ropes or are planning on making the switch, it’s helpful to know that Microsoft offers free tutorials to help you with the transition. 

Guides to the New Office 2007 Interface are incredibly useful for learning where Office 2003 commands are located in the new interface. You can view the interactive tutorials directly from the Web page or download them to watch anytime. 

Also check out the Office 2007 System Training Courses , where you can find in-depth instructional tutorials on using Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word and more.

PictoBrowser is free slideshow creation tool that allows you to display pictures from your Flickr account on your website or blog.  The main advantage of using Pictobrowser is that you can embed a photo gallery of your images directly on your webpage, rather than linking to your Flickr account.   Once you’ve uploaded photos into a Flickr account, all that you have to do to create a slideshow is to provide your Flickr account name on the PictoBrowser website, select the group of images you want to display, then copy and paste the HTML code created by PictoBrowser onto your blog or webpage.

PictoBrowser also has a number of adjustments that can be made to your slideshow including modifying photo size and changing the player’s color, size and transparency.