Teach [+] Tech [=] Nexus

Listserv - Old Fashion Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Laura Leek (ESL) contacted us asking for a listserv for a special project with colleagues. Listservs work well for classes, student clubs or when your team includes members of the community (non-Los Rios participants). We often overlook some bedrock technologies of the Internet - tools that were used before the World Wide Web became so easy to use. Majordomo (circa 1992) is a tool to collect and manage email addresses and to forward messages sent to the list to all enrolled participants.

At SCC, Listserv requests are made through email to District Office. Here is the web page URL and the details mentioned on that page. You just need to use your campus email to send the request.

http://www.losrios.edu/services/technology/listserv.htm

To request a listserv (mailing list) email the help desk with the following information:

* List name (please include a first and second choice, in case your first choice is already in use)
* List maintainer's e-mail address
* Maintenance password
* Description
* Introductory message
* Forwarded mail footer (text that is automatically added to the end of the body of every message sent via the list)
* Moderated list? Yes or No
* Moderator's address: Same as maintainer or different e-mail address

Web Accessibility - Podcast Link

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Paul McIntyre, SCC student, is on several shared governance committees on campus. Just today he introduced me to a podcast site targeted at blind users - http://blindcooltech.com and I've subscribed to it in iTunes.

The website also allows episodes to be played in your web browser. Here are some teaching related highlights:

TV And Courses Accessibility
8/23/2008 Michelle Dyer educates with the hope of drumming up some positive action, on the subject of accessibility to TV for blind consumers and accessibility to online college courses as it relates to blind students. 4.9 MB

Accessible Math
3/27/2006 John Gardner of ViewPlus Technologies is joined by Neal Soiffer of Design Science and Masakazu Suzuki of Kyushu University in this panel discussion entitled Emerging Computer Technologies for Accessible Math. This panel presents technologies and software that make mathematical documents accessible to people with print disabilities and explores The state-of-the-are for reading, writing, and manipulating math on a computer. 42.2 MB

Free Book Share Accounts For US Students
7/31/2008 Jose Tamayo received a free bookshare.org account as a blind U. S. student through a grant from the Department of Education, and he explains how to qualify, apply, and use this service that contains over 30,000 books in its collection. 23.0 MB

Dspeech
4/22/2008 Michael Michaelson discusses this fast, high quality text-to-speech engine and associated programs. http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ 40.8 MB

Adobe 7
5/17/2007 Marrisa Manzino demonstrates the auto read feature in this version of the popular software to read PDF documents. 43.4 MB

Global Culture Awareness
11/13/2006 Mary Emerson (retired IBM employee) emphasizes the importance of accommodating individual cultural differences among people both in our business and personal lives. 8.3 MB

Podcast Publishing
Part 2 6/7/2006 Larry Skutchan describes the steps you need to publish your own podcast. He begins with the content and the media and finishes up the discussion with a description of many of the popular methods for getting that content syndicated. This is the 2nd part of a presentation for Talking Communities on June 19, 2006 at 8:00 PM EDT. 35.3 MB

Finding And Listening To Podcasts
Part 1 6/7/2006 Larry Skutchan discusses what makes a podcast a podcast, different types of podcasts, where to find them, and how to try them out before installing any software. He then takes you through the process of installing a podcatching program and describes the process of finding feeds, subscribing to feeds, deleting feeds, and setting the schedule. This is part of a presentation for www.talkingcommunities.com on June 19, 2006 at 8:00 PM EDT. 31.4 MB

File Organization
5/31/2006 Monica Willyard presents a system she uses that allows her to access almost every file she needs in a matter of seconds, even if she doesn't remember the exact file name.

Podcasting Interpretation
5/19/2006 Sarah Alawami reflects about the fact that podcasting-'s audio nature is more appealing to blind people than web blogs are. 7.0 MB

USB Portable Applications

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:03:00 +0000

Pat Hogarty (Real Estate & CIS) stopped by to demo his latest web video project. But then he talked about running applications designed for USB thumb drives. Go to http://portableapps.com/apps and check out the list for yourself. Under the Education list you will find Stellarium Portable - portable planetarium, under Music and Video Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder ... oh so much more.

Rent Your Textbook ??

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Today is the first day of the rest of my textbook life. Ok, I went to City Cafe to get an iced latte (it is 101 degrees today) and while in line the gal in front of me told other students about ... renting her textbooks this semester.

"Excuse me, what are you saying about 'renting textbooks?'" Her response included a comment about renting a book & planting a tree. The URL did not make sense to me but a Google search for "rent a textbook" came throught with the http://www.chegg.com/ site. I like that this organization is "thinking green."

Google Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:42:00 +0000

Stuart Graybill (History) introduced Google Earth in a Fall 2006 flex presentation. He uses it to add "the Wow factor" to his lectures. Yes, it is that and more!

Are you interested in being an astronaut or maybe Tinkerbell? You can "fly" anywhere on the planet. This application is a free download from http://earth.google.com/.

If you have extra time, checkout Google Mars and Google Moon.

How to Study - Blog with Student Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:33:00 +0000

Do you find yourself encouraging students to study with innovative techniques? Do you teach Chemistry, Math, Nursing, Reading or other subjects? (OK, that covers everyone!) This site comes from Lucy Tribble MacDonald (retired from Chemeketa Community College in Salem,Oregon) with many resources and links. I met Lucy when she was the keynote speaker for a Northern California Community College Computer Consortium conference years ago. She is an innovator and I think her work will inspire your students as well.

The How to Study web site has a blog you will want to explore: http://www.howtostudy.org/blog/ - the Chemistry videos are a gas (pun intended) and there is so much more to explore.

7 Things You Should Know ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:46:00 +0000

Technology changes daily and it is hard to keep up with the next wave. But there is help out there - "EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology."

"The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:

* What it is
* How it works
* Where it is going
* Why it matters to teaching and learning"

Checkout the issue on Google Earth. Some of you may remember the Fall 2006 flex activity when Stuart Graybill (History) introduced us to how he uses GE to motivate his students. Wow!

YouTube in YourClass

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:35:00 +0000

Have you noticed the wonderful instructional content posted to YouTube? Are you frustrated that at home you can view this material but in a smart classroom or computer lab on campus it is funky (jerky and slow)?

Kurt Shiflet (Music) stopped by with several Blackboard questions and then asked if other folks are using YouTube? I've got the $15 solution, TubeSock!" he said. "It works great with my Mac and iPod Video." Actually Kurt mentioned that Rob Gore (Theatre) was his inspiration for this purchase.

Another YouTube video capture tool for Macintosh is Videobox (formerly known as FLVR), a stand alone application that works with various web browsers and many online video sites.

There are trial versions of these products for you to sample how you might enhance lectures with downloaded videos.

XO - One Laptop Per Child Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:22:00 +0000

The XOs are coming. The goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The vision: Create a laptop computer for children that costs $100. More importantly, this laptop is designed to work in rural areas, even hostile climates. They run open-source software and can connect to the Internet or each other through a mesh network. It is user-powered or plugs into a solar adapter or AC.

In the beginning, the laptops cost more, but we can get involved.

Give 1 Get 1

Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. To give a laptop today or to sign up for a reminder about our upcoming Give 1 Get 1 program starting November 12, visit xogiving.org.

Features

Video camera, microphone, headphone jack, speakers, flash hard drive, integrated 802.11b/g wireless Internet, USB ports and an SD card slot. Check out the XO's specifications.

The estimated product lifetime is at least five years. To help ensure such durability, the machines are being subjected to factory testing to destruction, as well as in situ field testing by children.

I've signed up to participate in the first release. I hope that other SCC staff will be interested as well. Wouldn't it be fun to gather on the quad and mesh for a flex activity?

3AM on November 12, 2007 - I've placed my order for 'give one get one.' The OLPC offer closes on November 26th.

Info Literacy Skill Deficits

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:50:00 +0000

Barbara Davis-Lyman (Psychology/Sociology) stopped by today to brush up on word processing and email skills. While we were talking, she mentioned comments shared from Marybeth Buechner (Biology @ CRC) regarding tech savvy students might lack the evaluation and analysis skills from online resources. Here is the message Barbara passed on:

A recent article from the Faculty Resource Network notes that the ubiquitous use of technological tools by our "millennial" students doesn't mean that they have the intellectual tools to analyze data or judge the validity or reliability of the information that they obtain from the sources on the Internet (1).

Over 90 % of US school children under 17 who use the Internet use it for schoolwork and many say it is the major source of research information for school reports. The millennial college students have been using the computer since they were very young; 20% have been computer users since they were 8 years old or younger. Nearly three-fourths of today's college students use e-mail every day. (2) There can be little doubt that we have a technology focused student population, at least in some senses.

In spite of integration of technology into their everyday lives, the evidence suggests that high school and college students aren't particularly good at evaluating the information that they find on the Internet. Trail and Gutierrez note that "With information bombarding them from all sides, students have little basis on which to judge the value of what they find nor have most of them formed the habit of critical evaluation. Many students equate typing a broad topic into a Web browser with doing research." (1). There seems to be a substantial gap between the ability of students to access information and their ability to evaluate its accuracy or significance.

Betsy Barefoot wrote in the Jan 2006 Chronicle of Education that "few first year college students can easily distinguish fact from fiction in online and print sources, and even fewer have ever been exposed to the scholarly resources that can be found in a college or university library." (3). A survey of California professors noted that incoming college students "cannot adequately analyze information or arguments and cannot synthesize information from multiple sources. Only a minority can evaluate online resources". The same study found that professors indicate that only about 1/3 of entering students are sufficiently prepared to analyze or synthesize information (4).

References:
(1) Trail MA and R Stockton, 2006, Familiarity Breeds Misconceptions? Information Technology Savvy Millennials Show Surprising Information Literacy Skill Deficits, Network: A Journal of Faculty Development, http://www.nyu.edu/frn/publications/

(2) Rainie, L, Kalchoff M, and Hess 0, (2005) Pew Internet & American Life Project Data Memo [Online]. Cited in Trail and Gutierrez (see above)

(3) Barefoot, Betsy, 2006 "Bridging the Chasm: First-Year Students and the Library" Chronicle of Higher Education 52(20) 816.

(4) Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California's Public Colleges and Universities. 2002. Intersegmental committee of the CCC Academic Senate, CSU, and UC. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/reports/acadlit.pdf 88 pages

Hope you get a chance to read the online articles.

SlideShare - Free Service for Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Here is a Web 2.0 application that might thrill you, visit SlideShare to experience "the world's largest community for sharing presentations on the web". This is for presentations what YouTube is for videos. The site accepts Powerpoint, OpenOffice and Keynote presentations as ppt, pps, pdf and odp formatted files. At this time, presentations with transitions, audio or video are not supported. Other upload option include by URL, by email and through browser plug-ins. Membership is free if you provide an email account.

Anyone can search for presentations on any topic. Members can upload, comment, tag, post on a blog or share presentations. Some authors allow the downloading of presentation source files (TurnItIn - watch out!). Once you find an author that shares your interests, you can add them to your Contacts for easy review of their presentations. Why not use RSS to automatically keep up with an author, a tag or "most viewed."

Reading the FAQ, I am shocked that they consider a 30 MB presentation OK. On campus, I would be working with faculty to significantly trim down that file size before posting to our web servers due to download time and bandwidth concerns.

Have you attended a conference lately? Maybe the presentations were uploaded here!

What does this community of presenters change textbook publishing?

Remember our convocation speaker, and her very visual (less text) presentation. "Death By Powerpoint" by Alexei Kapterev is an important reminder of the appropriate use of technology shared on this blog post from SlideShare.

MESA Students & Podcast Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:28:00 +0000

Mai Gemu Johnonn (Mathematics) invited me to share how students can search for audio podcast lectures for the classes they are taking at SCC. Well, we will discover many podcasts and not many originate at Sac City. Our destinations will include UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, Texas A & M, Duke and many more.

Through iTunesU, Mai Gemu's students will see "campus life" in the lectures and events covered at these colleges and universities.

Why don't you explore podcasts and iTunesU by downloading iTunes from http://apple.com/itunes. This application is FREE and available for Windows and Macintosh computers.

iTunes will play podcasts on your computer, a mobile MP3 player is optional. Some podcasts are enhanced and you will see video, text notes or Acrobat documents attached to the episode.

Respondus - Renew your license code

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:07:00 +0000

Our campus site license for Respondus (test generating software - Windows) renews each summer – the info page I maintain includes a link to the download page from
Instructional Development .. http://web.scc.losrios.edu/instrdev/respondus/handouts

The Respondus Download page is at http://it.scc.losrios.edu/Secure/Respondus/Respondus.htm and it requires you to type in your email account and network passphrase (the new one!)

Please share this message with other staff/faculty as needed.

Install Firefox Browser & Subscribe to Feeds

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:35:00 +0000

We are recommending that SCC employees install Firefox as an additional web browser on your computer. Firefox is available for free for Windows and Macintosh computers.

Why do you need an additional browser? I can think of two reasons (more will come to me later I'm sure!):
1) to test that your web content is compatible with other systems and browsers
2) so you can easily read RSS feeds any time you are online

Both Windows and Macintosh users can download the Firefox from http://firefox.com - note that the URL will change but you are in the right place!

Mac users will have an easier install, so I will focus here on the steps for Windows users to install Firefox on their campus computer:

Use Internet Explorer to download the setup file:

The setup file is a small application and you will need to create a new folder inside My Documents to hold both the setup and full application. I'd recommend creating a folder called Local Programs then a folder inside that called Firefox.

As the installation runs, you will be asked if you want to import the Favorites and History from IE. This is your option, saying Yes does not delete them from IE.

Another question will be presented regarding using Firefox as your default browser. This will take effect if you are reading email in the Outlook client and click on a web address, your "default browser" will go to that URL. On the desktop you will still see icons for either IE or Firefox.

Info for both Macintosh and Windows users:

Launch Firefox and set the home page to http://scc.losrios.edu or a better sub-site for your needs. The home page is set using the Tools > Options ... Main tab. Click OK after typing the SCC Home page URL.

The SCC home site will need the Adobe Flash Player installed and Firefox gives you a message about the missing plug-in needed for the content on this page. Click the button to install missing plugins and click the agree radio button to finish this task. Done! Success!

Get the News you Need Now! RSS will become more important to you as this semester progresses. RSS will forever change the way you recieve information. For a preview, view the movie on How to Use Firefox to Read RSS Feeds.

Now you can subscribe to a news feed - how about the SCC Blackboard Blog! First open a new window to the blog site by holding down the Shift key and click to view the BB Status page. On the right side are several links, click the Blackboard Blog link. You are at a new site! Notice the Address Bar (URL) for this site. There is a new orange icon indicating a news subscription is available for this site. Move the mouse over the orange icon and click to bring up the subscription options page. The default option is Live Bookmarks and this is what we want to use. Click the Subscribe Now button. Look for the Bookmarks toolbar under the Address Bar of Firefox. If it is not visible, use the View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar to enable it.

Remember the movie I suggested watching a couple paragraphs ago? You will find this blog headline "Add RSS feeds to Firefox" on your SCC Blackboard Blog Live Bookmarks list.

Now, no matter where you are surfing, you have easy access to current Blackboard news from your SCC Blackboard Team (Melissa Green & Jory Hadsell).

Google Docs & Home Page + Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:55:00 +0000

Oh my goodness - I'm experiencing Pop Rocks for the Mind. I've just found a tutorial on using Google Docs and Spreadsheets delivered as a WINK movie with audio narrations (Pop Rock #1). Then to see how easy it is to import Word, edit and format text, view past revisions, invite others as editor, AND get an RSS feed of edits (Pop Rock #2).

One of tasks I dread each year is to develop the Instructional Development Unit Plan. I'm thinking that by keeping an online document based on a Unit Plan Word Template, then the last processing of the document would be easy (Pop Rock #3).

I am looking forward to Fall 2007 as a time of renewal and dynamic communication with students, staff and community at Sac City. Wow!

Oh, if you want to see Angel Brady (Rider University) Google Docs tutorial Part 1 and don't miss her blog for many other references on Blackboard or Turn-It-In. I'll be referring to her work for my own professional development.

Blogging, Web 2.0 and more

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:23:00 +0000

SCC has several bloggers ... people keeping online journals. Pam Posz (Library), Nick Miller (Sociology) and Jory Hadsell (Distance Education/LRC) come to mind. Now I'm on the bandwagon.

In 2003 when SCC adopted the Manila server, it is capable of blogging but we have just used it to easily manage personal, department and service websites (because we didn't need Dreamweaver or FrontPage, just a web browser). I have been looking for a partner to help me understand the subscription features of Manila and to plot out a direction for SCC. When Jory Hadsell was hired as our Distance Education Coordinator, he took an active interest in Manila and what it could do for podcasting and the underlying technolgy RSS (real simple syndication). To see what's up with SCC Podcasts, visit http://web.scc.losrios.edu/podcasts.

Fast forward to 2007 and the campus has adopted Ingeniux as a content management system that will move our institutional content under a new server. We are looking forward to using packaged Web 2.0 features to better communicate with students, staff and community.

Jory and I have initiated a pilot project for iGoogle, details coming soon. We are using Blogger to manage the blogs hosted on our campus webserver.

As we explore this new way to communicate, we'll be looking for your ideas on how blogging can be the technology powering the marketplace of ideas between students and between students and teachers. Drop by my office to share how you are using blogs with your students.

Pushing the buttons in a Smart Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:41:00 +0000

Not just any buttons, but the right buttons in the proper sequence will make all the difference in a smart classroom. Carol McKenzie (English) stopped by to reduce the confusion of multimedia by practicing in LRC 121. This is an older "smart classroom" and your mileage may vary when using other multimedia carts or classrooms.

First, identify all the available remote controls. For the projector, the remote has a Source button to switch between videotape, DVD and the computer. The remote for the DVD player will probably be different that your home remotes, so look for the Menu, Play and Fast Forward buttons.

Some DVDs have extra resources that are not available when playing the disc on a television with a DVD player. When you play the disc on a computer then live links to web sites or documents might also be available. Usually the back of the package indicates these special online features.

Classroom Videos on DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:33:00 +0000

Frank Zamora (Art Department) has received a sabbatical to prepare a video textbook for his drawing class. He is working with Rob Gore (Theatre) and Bob Bickley (Media Productions) to plan his approach to this project. Over the Spring and Summer 2007 semesters the team has tested the production and editing process. The final product will be five or six DVDs and the electronic textbook will be an Adobe Acrobat document.

The goal of the project is to create an affordable textbook for his students. But in using video and etext, Frank is creating a rich multimedia project.

Exploring Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:52:00 +0000

Before the 1985, we could count on two constants: "death and taxes". Now we have to include a third: "technology upgrades."

Some of the most exciting upgrades are rolled together into the "Web 2.0" moniker. Where the first generation of the web was a "read-only" medium, the current web is now a "read-write" medium. Some of the tools your colleagues are beginning to explore include: web logs (blogs), video web logs (vlogs), news subscriptions (rss), podcasts, video podcasts (vodcasts), wikis and social networking.

Some of the Web 2.0 tools include del.icio.us, YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, iTunes and wikipedia.

Sac City is currently re-designing our campus web site and some of the Web 2.0 technologies will be included to improve our communication to students, community and staff.

Interactive Lectures - Clickers

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:06:00 +0000

Bill Doonan (Anthropology) stopped by with an old flyer describing Clickers - hand-held infra-red keypads - for student input during a Powerpoint lecture. His textb0ok publisher offered this interactive technology and he has made the leap for Fall 2007. The clicker will be bundled with the textbook for his classes.

The instructor will create and embed survey slides with several possible answers into Powerpoint lectures. In class, students will use their Clicker to respond with the best answer. In realtime, student responses are displayed on the survey slide.

JoinIn - Turning Point is offered by Thomson publishing.

Just found another site featuring Clickers, the Library at the University of Iowa's Arcade Classroom has two sets. They use the Quizdom system with ActionPoint software.