Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners and their teachers.

 

A big highlight of Closing the Gap for me was the opportunity to attend a presentation by David Davis, of the Florida Instructional Technology Training Resource Unit. David is actually the person who got me started on my quest for free resources. My colleague Jane Rondow, with whom I presented at Closing the Gap, brought me one of David’s CD’s from a conference she attended three years ago. I was inspired by what I found on the CD, and I’ve never looked back. It was great to meet David, and I told him he was one of my heroes. Today, I’m highlighting a resource that David used in his presentation, a versatile little utility with many applications. This is the first of numerous treasures from David’s presentation and from the latest version of his CD that I intend to share here.

Dragnifier illustrates the truth that even though wonderful new technology is arriving on the scene on a daily basis, some gems that have been around for a while continue to hold their value. Ed Halley, Dragnifier’s developer, describes it as a “quick dragging magnifier” for anything that’s on your computer screen. That sums it up nicely. A single click on its icon in the system tray brings Dragnifier to life, and another click puts it back to sleep. Alternatively, you can easily program a keyboard shortcut.

Dragnifier offers 3 magnification settings–2x, 4x or 8x. For the shape of your magnifier, you get 6 options–hand loupe, small rectangular lens, medium rectangular lens, large rectangular lens, round lens, or “handy reader”. These are illustrated below at 2x magnification.

At his presentation, David used Dragnifier to magnify his projected screen so that participants in the back of the room could read what was on his computer screen. There are occasions when any of us can make use of a handy screen magnifier like this , especially those of us who are over 45. Whether we’re working with finicky graphics or trying to read fine print on the screen, Dragnifier can help.