4 Easy (and Free) Ways to Convert Doc to Docx

Microsoft has made some mind-boggling product decisions in the past few years. While many of you are thinking specifically about the Vista operating system debacle, I’m referring to the seemingly unexplainable choice to change the default file extension in Word 2007 to the docx format.

This has added some degree of difficulty to the student practice of typing up work at home and then bringing it in to school to finish. Not all online conversion sites support the new format, and some that do have tried to capitalize on Microsoft’s inability to make their own proprietary format backwards compatible.

Here are several quick and cost free ways to convert docx to doc.

Shortly after the release of Word 2007, Microsoft figured out that it had become its own worst enemy, so it released a compatibility pack allowing older versions to play nice with the docx format. Click here for information on installing the service pack.

OpenOffice is the free productivity suite of applications that rival Microsoft Office in features and capabilities. OpenOffice 3.1 and higher can open docx files. There are plenty of advantages to OpenOffice beyond this one (here is a previous blog post on the subject), So I encourage you to give it a spin.

Zamzar is a ad-supported service where a file can be uploaded and converted. A direct link is then sent via email. This works well, however, there is usually a delay between when the file is uploaded, and when the email arrives to the inbox.

If you have a following on Twitter, chances are very good that someone will have access to Word 2007. Email them the file and they will save it as a doc file and then send back to you. I tweeted for help on a conversion, and I had the correct file in about 10 minutes. This is less time that it would have taken to install the service pack or OpenOffice, or to wait for an email from Zamzar!

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Knowledge is Obsolete

When I was about 15 years old I was the proud frontman and guitarist in a small-town rock band. In addition to these duties, I also took it upon myself to wear the hat of webmaster. This was in 1997 - before the days of Myspace and Facebook. Instead, I turned to free web hosting sites like the now useless Geocities and Angelfire. WYSIWYG editors were still fairly uncommon at the time so I printed off some tutorials and started hard coding my site. This is how I learned HTML.

More than a decade later, and I’m still up to my old tricks. I recently started another band, and knowing the importance of a web presence, decided to create a website for the project. After looking through some links saved to my Delicious account, I realized something very important. All my coding skills from 1997 mean almost nothing in 2010.

Knowledge is obsolete.

Instead of HTML body tags, it’s CSS now. Instead of fancy Flash menus, it’s all about jQuery. And what the hell is AJAX?!

Fortunately for me, I know where to go for help, and how to practice and master new skills on my own. At some point in my formal education, I learned how to learn.

This is what teachers need to impress on students. Knowledge becomes worthless surprisingly fast, but the ability to acquire new knowledge is essential.

Don’t teach knowledge. Teach learning.

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Amazing New Teaching Resource

I found a new resource for teachers. After reading this impressive list, any teacher would be crazy not to want to use this as a teaching tool in their classroom.

Here are the highlights:

• It’s a medium many students are very familiar with despite the obvious disapproval of parents.

• It’s a world of fantasy where students use their imaginations to draw themselves into the action. 
  

• Students learn to interpret a distinct language and dialogue. Social interaction and understanding body language is also extremely important. 
  

• This resource is also highly differentiated. It caters to students’ needs, preferences, and interests. 
  

• This resource is already a major part of society. Your students practically live and breathe is, so you may as well take advantage and use it in your classroom.

Do you want to know what this incredible resource is? After reading all the attributes listed above, did you think this was about using video games in the classroom? If so, then you were dead wrong. I was describing pornography.

Looked at in the right light, anything can become an instrument of instruction. But that doesn’t mean it’s meant to be used as one. I thought about this while reading an article this morning from The Guardian, titled “Why playing in the virtual world has an awful lot to teach children.” It speaks highly of students interacting in a virtual environment and learning skills similar to those in the real world. Does this sound like an oxymoron to anyone else?

Why would I simulate a real world encounter when they can experience the real thing first-hand? Obviously, I’m not referring to opportunities like virtual field trips and Skype conferencing. I talking about the pedagogy of sticking a group of students in a computer lab and then holding a discussion with them using something like Second Life. This just doesn’t make sense to me.

I wouldn’t suggest showing a film illustrating tantric sex to introduce a phys ed unit on yoga, and I wouldn’t recommend to a science teacher that he/she show Ron Jeremy clips to spark discussion on Darwin’s natural selection and survival of the fittest. Why would I ever think to use a virtual world to encourage students to interact with each other?!

Just because the shoe fits, doesn't mean it's ever meant to be worn. 

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5 Similes

How can teachers use technology in their classrooms when their access to it is so restricted?!

It's like asking a bricklayer to build a house with a $0 brick budget.

It's like criticizing a baker's bland cookies when he has a 1/2 cup sugar ration.

It's like making a race car driver jog the Daytona 500.

It's like auditioning for the philharmonic with a kazoo.

It's like eating spaghetti with chopsticks.

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New Year's Reflection 2009

2009 marked the birth of this blog, and it’s one of my goals to continue using it into the new decade. I didn’t want to set a quantitative resolution because a good blog has a natural ebb and flow. I don’t want to post just for the sake of posting. I’d rather have quality instead of quantity. Instead, I thought it would be a good first post of 2010 if I were to choose my favorite posts from 2009. My resolution is to do the same thing next year and hopefully have an even better crop of posts to choose from.

Classroom in the Cloud’s best blog posts of 2009

• 10 Things New Teachers Need to Know
• 9 Concessions Teachers Must Make
• Confessions of a Bad Blogger
• Damming the River
• Dear Former Teachers, I Turned out Okay
• Eat Dinner with your Family!
• Grammar Enthusiasts VS. Dunkin Donuts
• There's No Place Like Home
• Things Students say (And what they Really Mean)
• My First Typecast

New Year’s resolutions are great (and I make/break them annually), but there’s another practice that I think more people should take part in – New Year’s Reflections. It’s okay that you’re four days late; take a few minutes today to think about what you did well last year and what didn’t go exactly as planned. 2010 is your chance.

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