Celebrating a Decade of the Arts at Seniors College

Seniors College of PEI announced an exciting new project at its Christmas Get Together held on December 6th at the Jack Blanchard Family Centre. With funding from a Government of Canada

New Horizons Leadership grant, the project will celebrate the accomplishments of its member artists, writers, musicians, photographers and actors who have developed their skills in courses taken at Seniors College over the past ten years.

Seniors College will mount an exhibition of paintings, drawings and digital photographs by students of art classes held throughout the Island. Their work will appear in a gallery exhibition and will continue to appear in a virtual gallery on-line.

In addition, the College will publish a journal of creative writings by the students of the creative writing classes, both in hard copy and on-line.

The choral music class will produce a CD of their music from the past several years and share it with the community on-line.

Finally, the most ambitious part of the project will be the launch of The Venerables, a play that ran for over 20 years and helped focus attention on issues and societal views on aging. This will be a live production with a web based version also available.

“This is an important and exciting community project,”says Ian Scott, Past President of Seniors College and Chair of the New Horizons Project. “For everyone learning new skills in retirement, having their work publicly displayed or aired recognizes the value and enrichment that their creative efforts give to our own communities and worldwide on the Internet.”

Julie Dowling, President of Seniors College, says, “After a decade of developing creative arts programs for hundreds of PEI seniors all across the Island, we wanted to celebrate these contributions by sharing their work with the broader community. Now, with the help of the New Horizons grant, all four components of the project will come together at a celebration event in the fall of 2011.”

Seniors College is a dynamic and rapidly growing organization devoted to providing learning opportunities for seniors on Prince Edward Island. The College offers a wide range of stimulating courses in three regions of PEI from October to May.

How to Make a Photo Greeting Card within Windows XP using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

How to Make a Photo Greeting Card within Windows XP using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

1. Right click on start button at bottom left corner

2. Select Explore

3. In Window Explorer, navigate to you the My Pictures folder - and locate a picture that you wish to use for a card.

4. Double click on that image to open it within Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (assuming it is your default viewer – if not - right click on the file and select the option ‘Open With’ and then open it within Windows Picture and Fax Viewer)

5. Rotate the picture so that it is upside down on the screen

6. Click on the Printer icon

7. The Photo Printing Wizard will open follow the steps

• Place card stock in the hand feed port of your printer
• Follow the steps of the wizard selecting the Picture - the Printer - etc.
• Select the ‘13x18 cm cutout prints’ option by clicking on that option
• The picture will print ready to be folded into a card.

Creating a Slide Show with Music in Picasa

You can combine photos from multiple folders into a single album in Picasa. Photos that you include in an album remain in their original folder locations on your computer, even if you reorganize or delete photos from the album. To create an album, you can follow these instructions:

1. Select the photos you wish to include in the album and put them in the Photo Tray in the lower-left corner of the window. (drag photo down to the Photo Tray)
2. Once all your selections are in the Photo Tray, click the Add Selected Items to an Album button on the Photo Tray.
3. Select New album. You can also choose to add the photos to an existing album in the menu.
4. In the 'Album Properties' window, name the album.
5. Click the OK button.

You can edit the properties of a folder or album using the following steps:

1. Select the folder or album you'd like to edit.
2. Click the Folder menu or the Album menu in Picasa.
3. Select Edit Description.
4. Make your edits. Please note the following:

* Date: You can manually choose a date that should be associated with the folder. Alternatively, Picasa can analyze the timestamp of your photos in the folder or album and determine a date for you if you select the 'Automatic Date' checkbox.

* Background music: Select the 'Use Music for Slideshow and Movie presentation' option if you want music to accompany the display of the photos in that particular folder or album, while in slideshow or movie mode. Click the Browse button and select the MP3 music file you'd like to use.
5. Click the OK button.

Other options -

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer presentation software can create slideshows - at the same time that Windows Media Player is playing music in the background

Other options - presentation software can create slideshows with music - three example:

• Microsoft - Powerpoint
• Open Office - Impress
• Corel WordPerfect - Presentations

Web based Slide shows - with images and music
http://www.smilebox.com
http://www.slideroll.com/

Windows Movie Maker - Windows XP or earlier

Windows Live Movie Maker – Windows Vista and Windows 7

Tutorials - Graphic Software

Tutorials are available for GIMP - the free image manipulation program, or graphic software. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

The tutorials are a good introduction to this powerful software.

Basic image manipulation is also possible with image storage and indexing software like Picasa. - which calls itself free photo editing software. There are also videos and tutorials on the use of Picasa.

Handy Tips -- Trouble Shooting Problems

• Search onboard help installed within the program you are using – under Help on menu – or try F 1

• Use Internet to help find solutions - Google the problem for on-line help if you can’t find solution in the onboard Help menu – be specific to software “add images to Picasa collage” so that results will be specific to the software you are using

• If all else fails for printers try unplugging the printer and plugging it back in again


Recommended Approaches to Software

• Check to see what software that comes pre-installed or bundled on your computer. Graphic software is often already bundled with other software on new computers. Windows Media Player and Windows Movie Maker are pre-installed on computers running on a Windows based operating system - if not the most recent try downloading the current version to your computer.

• Consider downloading and using Picassa for managing images on your computer and basic graphic functions.

▸ Try Open Source software if you don’t already have software for multimedia functions -
1. Open Office for general computer software -
2. GIMP, for graphics/images and
3. Audacity for sound editing and recording
4. Firefox web browser

Free Software
1. AVG - security software
2. COMODO internet security


Increasing your skill level

Typing lessons - increases accuracy and speed
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gtypist/
http://www.learn2type.com
http://www.freetypinggame.net/
http://www.powertyping.com/

Tutorials specific to software you wish to learn - examples:

Microsoft Office Suite
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx
Open Office Suite
http://documentation.openoffice.org/
Picasa
http://www.learningelectric.com/picasa2
GIMP graphic software
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/
Audacity Audio Software
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html

Dragging and Dropping

Dragging and Dropping
Moving and copying files using Windows Explorer
From a Source Location to a Destination Location

1. Right Click on Start button (left hand side of screen at bottom)

2. Choose Explore > which opens Windows Explorer

3. Go to the location you want to place the document - going up or down the folder directory on left portion of this screen

4. We will refer to this now as Window #1 - it is the Destination Location.

5. Move this window if necessary by placing cursor on the status bar and dragging it to an appropriate location on the screen at the right hand side of the screen. Resize so it is about half the size of the screen.

6. Again Right Click on the Start button

7. Choose Explore > which opens a 2nd Windows Explorer window which will be our Source Location. We will refer to this now as Window #2

8. Move this window if necessary by placing cursor on the status bar and dragging it to an appropriate location on the screen at the left hand side of the screen. Resize so it is about half the size of the screen.

9. You should now have two windows in front of you the Source on the left and the Destination on the right.

10. Starting now with the Source (on the left) Go to the location of the originating document - going up or down the folder directory on the left portion of this screen. Select the document by clicking the mouse (left click) on the file.

11. Now we will select the Destination by clicking anywhere inside the window on the right. When you have located the right folder click on the folder to open the folder by double clicking on the folder.

12. Return to the Source window (at Left of screen)

13. Drag the selected file to the location you want it to be in the Destination Window

14. Release the file in the Destination Window

15. Close Window #1 and Window #2

Alternate ways to move and copy files (using the Right Button on Mouse)

• Right Click on the file in the source window and then select COPY

• Locate the Destination where you want the file copied to – and then Right Click at that location and choose PASTE

• A copy of the file will now exist at the new location as well as at the original location

• If you want to move the file and not produce a duplicate select CUT instead of Copy in the first step

Audio Visual Links

Music --

Audacity - free, open source software for recording and editing sounds
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Nero - data burning and copying capabilities for CDs and DVDs - basic version is free
http://www.nero.com/eng/index.html

6,000 + internet radio streams
http://www.live365.com

35,000 internet radio streams
http://www.shoutcast.com

CBC 2 - online music channels
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/channels/

CBC 2 - 650 concerts on demand
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/

Jukebox style - top hits from each year 1950-1990
http://www.tropicalglen.com/

Graphics

Free open-source graphic (image manipulation) software GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/
Tutorials for using GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/


Picasa - free photo indexing and organizing software - with basic fixing capability
http://picasa.google.com/

30 day free trial graphic software - PaintShop Photo Pro X3
Corel.com

Video

You Tube - videos
http://www.youtube.com/

Metacafe - videos
http://www.metacafe.com/

On-line Video Guide
http://www.ovguide.com/

Windows Movie Maker - how to use
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx

Neat Stuff

Google Image Search
http://images.google.com/

Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=il

3D model of Sistine Chapel
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

3D model of St. Peter's - Rome
http://www.virtualsweden.se/panorama/st-peters-basilica-chapel-pieta?set=173

Seniors College of PEI - storm closure policy

Seniors College storm closures are not announced through the media. The policy is to follow the announced closure decisions of the school districts that we operate in.

Charlottetown and Montague follow Eastern District School Board and Summerside follows the Western School Board

If schools are closed for the day - so is Seniors College.

If schools have a 1 hour delay in opening, (to clear parking lots etc.) Seniors College goes ahead as normal, since we typically start between 9 and 9:30 anyway.

School cancellations are usually made by 8 AM and are announced through the media.

As well CBC has a good web listing.

http://www.cbc.ca/stormcentre/pei/

Great Books Programs in Canada

There are a variety of programs - mostly at universities that are mentioned in this Wikipedia entry on the Great Books Programs in Canada.

The entries on Great Books and Great Books Foundation are also helpful.

Great Books Foundation

I recently I discovered a set of books from the Great Books Program. While I was aware of the program it was the first time I had explored their approach.

Founded in 1947 it was as a grassroots movement to promote continuing liberal education for the general public. In 1960 it extended its mission to children with the introduction of Junior Great Books.

Backed by the Great Books Foundation the program encourages people to begin their own discussion groups in schools, libraries, and community centers.

Here is what they say about their collaborative approach.

http://www.greatbooks.org/

Shared Inquiry™ is a powerful and transferable method of learning through discussion that transforms both leaders and participants. In Shared Inquiry, readers of all ages collaborate to explore ideas and experiences in some of the world's greatest literature. To improve student performance in reading and critical thinking, make Shared Inquiry an integral part of your classroom instruction. Learn how with the Great Books Program of Professional Development.