Curious

Converting Multimedia Files

2011-12-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

More faculty and students are making movies and recording audio files. It seems like our Flip cameras and audio recorders are constantly checked out of the library, and the circulation desk is asking for more recording devices.

One of the biggest problems in dealing with video and audio files when it comes to editing is the size and the format of the file. You record a movie with a Flip camera, which creates an mp4 movie file. You want to edit it in Windows Movie Maker, but the editing program doesn't recognize mp4 files.

Let's say you want to use VoiceThread to share a movie and have a discussion around it. The upload size limit in Voice Thread is 25MB but your movie is a 100MB, mp4 file created with a Flip camera. Here is a movie where I show you how we got around the problem in one class. It took three programs to resize and upload the movie to the web.

However, there is a simpler solution. My clever work study student Cory E, found Freemake, a free software that allows you to easily convert media files and re-size them as needed. Watch Cory explain how to do this.

What's the catch with free online texbooks?

2011-05-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Textbooks are expensive. So why would online textbooks be offered for free? It has to do with convenience and you see it all over on the internet. For example, Box.net offers you a few GB of free storage space, but if you want more security or more server space, you sign up for a paid account. Many other free web based services such as Surveymonkey, Flickr, NYT, Jing, etc. do the same, they hook you with their useful application and once you try it out and like it, you can opt to buy a more convenient (Pro) version.

So with free textbooks, it often works like this - you can read the text on your computer for free. You can also read some of the text and then decide that the convenience of being able to print it or buy the hard copy or get an eBook to put on your reader is worth the money and so you upgrade. The texts still tend to be cheaper because there is no upfront publishing cost.

Take this Writing for Success book on Flatworld, for example. Browse through all of the chapters on the left panel or buy the other versions. There is even a study guide. And you can choose between black & white or color printed textbooks, priced accordingly.

But not all textbooks offer the paid upgrade. Some just make you suffer through poor formatting or advertising. Bookboon.com, for example, offers free downloadable PDF files of textbooks. Most of the books focus on business, science and engineering, but here is one on Media and Cultural Studies. Jaques Lacan, Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Laura Mulvey, Edward Said -- not a bad looking table of contents. The price? You get advertisements on every three pages of the "book". But hey, it's free Cultural Studies!

Other online publishers, like Project Gutenberg, are non-profits and only ask for a donation. Those, however, are more likely to have books for a literature class than textbooks.

Curriki has a list of 10 sources for free textbooks. Take a look.

Free Books

2011-02-15T16:34:00.000-08:00

The SMU library is getting ready to put a Kindle into circulation. I've played around with it and downloaded about 150 titles that sounded interesting to me. All of the readings that are required in a current Shakespeare course were available for download, for free.

I downloaded a collection of poetry books by authors such as Emily Dickinson, William Blake and Walt Whitman and a number of other classics that are in the public domain, such as Moby Dick and The Odyssey.

The deeper I dug, the more amazed I became at the variety of free books that are available. I found books on just about any subject ranging from engineering, math, religion, philosophy, business, politics and folklore.

There was a decent selection of more current titles, not just the classics with expired copyright. For example, Anthony DePalma's City of Dust: Illness, Arrogance, and 9/11 was available for free compared to $25 for a hard copy. Other modern titles turned up, such as The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age by the MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning and a 2010 publication of Green Careers and Energy. And there were some pop fiction novels too.

There were also interesting obscure readings from various countries and cultures. I was especially intrigued by the Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen by A. Chodsko.

Here is a sampling of about 150 books that got loaded onto the SMU Kindle for free. Click on the image to make it bigger.

You can browse the Amazon Kindle store for the free books. It's not that easy to find them. There is no clear way to browse the entire collection of free books. I finally went to the Kindle store and filtered the books by lowest price first. The free ones came up on top.

There is also Manybooks.net. Check out their foreign language section.

And of course there is Project Gutenberg. The mobi format is compatible with Kindle.

Check out this post on more free ebook sites.

The SMU Kindle is now loaded with books and will go in circulation shortly. It will be interesting to see if students and faculty find it useful.

Wikipedia Assignments

2011-01-21T14:18:00.001-08:00

I just came across an article in Wikipedia which suggests Googling the words "Syllabus 'no wikipedia' ". I tried it and turned up over 4,270 entries. Most of those entries seems to be online syllabi that forbid the use of Wikipedia.

I am not going to try and convince anyone that Wikipedia is the new bible of collective knowledge, but it can be a pretty cool tool for learning. Assignments that incorporate Wikipedia can help students learn the concepts of public scholarship, collaboration, author credibility and of course, some healthy skepticism when it comes to using Wikipedia as a research tool.

Here are some resources that I have compiled if you are considering using Wikipedia in class:

This page talks about Wikipedia's Public Policy Initiative . I blogged about this a few posts below.

Here is a sample of the courses that are being created through the Public Policy Initiative.

And some other examples of assignments, not necessarily policy related.

Wikipedia’s 10 Steps For Using Wikipedia In Your Course.

And some best practices.

And here is Jon Udell's Heavy Metal Umlaut movie that you might consider showing in class. It uses a fun example to explain how collaborative editing works in Wikipedia

What is Dropbox?

2011-01-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a nice video created by Common Craft for Dropbox. It explains the cloud computing concept in non-technical terms. Basically, Dropbox lets you store files and synchronize folders on your computer with the Dropbox server. You can then share your folders across multiple computers, mobile devices and with other people.

I posted about the various file storage/sharing web applications a while ago. Each one has it's own perks. The biggest perk for Dropbox is that desktop folder that makes it really easy to place files for sharing without having to log in and upload anything. Another benefit is that there is no file size upload limit aside from the 2GB storage limit. This is a limitation that I came across with Box.net, which caps each individual file upload at 25MB on the free account, even though they offer 5GB of free storage space.

The other file sharing app that I wrote about was Google Docs. It works great for sharing Word, Excel and PPT files but I have had some trouble sharing video files. However, according to Vaughan-Nichols from ZDnet, it seems that Dropbox and Google Docs might join forces. Let's hope this will bring us something spectacular.

In my classes, Dropbox is especially handy when I want students to record audio or video files and share them with the class or to collaborate on projects where students need to share or exchange large files with one another.

Free Documentaries

2010-12-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for a documentary film to show in class? Take a look at SnagFilms.com. This is a site that helps filmmakers distributes their films online. These aren't just YouTube clips, but full feature films that have aired at film festivals and come from known sources such as PBS and National Geographic.

You can view the films on the site or "snag" the film for your own blog or a social networking site. This is easily done without any technical knowledge. If you are wondering what the catch is, there are some ads. Documentary filmmakers usually struggle to distribute their content and this is a pretty ingenuous way to distribute films. The filmmakers and SnagFilms.com split the revenue from advertising.Filmmakers also get a chance to sell DVDs of their films from SnagFilms.com .

Take a look at the Top Rated films on the site. These include such titles as The Times of Harvey Milk, The Future of Food and Refrigerator Mothers. All highly rated films on the Internet Movie Database.

You can either link directly to the film and watch it on the SnagFilm website. Here is the one about a search for the infamous Afghan girl who appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1984.

Search for the Afghan Girl - Watch the Documentary Film for Free | Watch Free Documentaries Online | SnagFilms

Or you can snag it and watch it on your own social media site. Here is how a snagged film looks like on my blog. All I had to do was copy the code and paste it into the blog.

Watch more free documentaries

Note the "Create one" link at the bottom of the window. It allows you to create your own playlist of multiple documentaries in three easy steps. Here is my list below. You can scroll through all of the documentaries that I have selected to watch by sliding the blue button to the right, at the bottom of the screen.

Watch more free documentaries

Trip to Wikimedia - the culture of sharing

2010-11-18T15:11:00.001-08:00

This Tuesday, my friend and colleague David Silver invited me to a meeting held in San Francisco's downtown offices of Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia is the non-profit organization that supports the creation and delivery of free digital media content. Its most famous project is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

The purpose of the meeting was for us to get a peek behind the curtain and to discuss ways that wiki-folks might support professors and students in creating public projects to be shared through the Wikimedia platform. I had the pleasure of spending my morning talking about teaching and technology with Wikimedia campus coordinator Annie Lin and professors Melissa Meade, Crispin Thurlow and David Silver.

We discussed several things that students (and faculty) need to understand when working with such a platform.
1. the technical aspects of publishing,
2. media literacy and accuracy, and
3. the culture of Wikimedia: co-creating and sharing media.

From the technical standpoint, publishing to a platform such as Wikipedia presents a barrier. Die-hard Wikipedians may bulk at this idea, but this is a real issue that prevents professors from using the tool in class when we don't want to spend too much class time on learning and troubleshooting the technology.

To help overcome the technology barrier, Wikimedia folks treated us to an excellent printed guide that is also available on the wiki bookshelf for a free download.

In addition to technical help, the guide addresses issues of media literacy also valued in academic writing. The twenty page booklet offers useful tips on what makes a quality article and answers the questions such as, what is the typical structure of a Wikipedia article? What content should be included to give the article credibility? What footnotes, bibliographies and references should the author include?

But even if students overcome the technology and literacy barrier, there is another force to be reckoned with and that is the Wikipedians themselves, who can be...as Wikipedia describes "less agreeable" than most people. J. M. Reagle's recently published book Good Faith Collaboration looks like a very interesting ethnography of Wikipedia culture and may be a good read if you are considering using this platform in class.

During our meeting, everyone in the room seemed sincerely excited about the potential of Wikipedia based assignments. We embrace the idea of encouraging students to contribute to collective knowledge, to collaborate across space with students on other campuses and to become more critical consumers of information.

Wikipedia publishing still feels like quite an undertaking, but it is encouraging to know that the folks at Wikimedia are interested in supporting those of us who are willing to explore this platform for public scholarship.

David with his daughter, talking about teaching in the Wikimedia office.

Exploring Controversy at the Library

2010-09-22T11:40:00.001-07:00

This September, the Digital Journalism class at Saint Martin's University explored the controversy surrounding Olympia Food Co-op's decision to boycott Israeli products. Over the span of several weeks, the class conducted research and designed Power Point slides that represent various perspectives on the issue.

SMU's O'Grady library displayed the slides on a digital monitor in the library alcove. Close by, the librarians set up a display of books for visitors inspired to further investigate the topic of Israeli and Palestinian relations.

The library was pleased to see that the ALA's American Libraries magazine took note of the project in an article by Greg Landgraf . In addition to the library installation, the class also published an online version of the slide show posted above.

Using the slide show as material for their own class assignment, students from PHIL 301, Ethics: Theory and Practice reviewed the slides and wrote responses to the project, which they plan to share with the Digital Journalism students later in the semester.

This installation was inspired by the The September Project. For more details about the assignment, see the post below.

An Assignment in the Library

2010-09-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

This year, students in the Digital Journalism class co-taught by myself and Prof. Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis, are participating in the September Project. The September Project is a grassroots effort among libraries all over the world to organize events that explore and exercise freedom, justice, democracy, and community.

Journalism students are researching multiple perspectives about a controversial topic and then creating an installation of those perspectives in the campus library.

Here is the assignment:

ENG 302/SOC 395: Digital Journalism
Exploring Controversy: The Olympia Food Co-op Boycott of Israeli Products
Co-taught by: Professors Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis and Irina Gendelman

You will create a visual display for The September Project. The project will be jointly and publicly presented at the O’Grady Library during the last week of September in the form of rotating slides on digital monitors.

For this assignment, you will explore a controversial topic using library resources and digital tools. You will research the controversy surrounding the Olympia Food Co-op’s decision to boycott Israeli products (on a local scale) and the related issues surrounding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (on a global scale).

As you do this, you should ask yourself the following questions: Why has the Olympia Food Co-op's decision been so controversial? What are the possible perspectives that exist about the topic? What are the research resources that are available to journalists today? How can journalists explore and represent multiple perspectives? Which sources are legitimate? Are there biases that you encounter as you conduct your research? Do modern journalists succeed as agents of the democratic process?

Your tasks:

1. A librarian will visit our class on Thursday Sept 9, to talk about the different ways that we can research a controversial topic. Come to class prepared to ask questions.

2. Find at least 10 credible sources about the topic (online and in the library). Your collection of sources should represent multiple perspectives related to the Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott of Israeli products. You must find a minimum of the following types of sources:

6 online articles (such as: credible online versions of print papers, blogs, websites, etc.)
2 books
2 database articles

3. If you need research help outside of class, ask the reference librarians at O’Grady Library to help you research the topic. Likewise, if you are not sure which sources are credible, ask a reference librarian.

4. Create 10 slides in Power Point. Each slide must represent one source and include the following:

headline
lede
quote from the article
citation of the source
you may also include an image (optional)

5. Bring a sample slide for class discussion on Sept 14. We will review the slides, agree on some standards and decide on the final look of our slide show.

6. The final project must be submitted in digital format (uploaded to class forum) in class on Sept 16. Selected slides will be displayed as a digital slide installation in the O'Grady Library by September 20.

First Assignment in the Garden

2010-07-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

This was the first in-class assignment in my Digital Ethnography class.

The goal of this assignment is to develop your skills in observation and description. These are key skills in ethnographic research.

1. Bring a notebook. leave all other distractions in the class, including your cell phone and other digital devices.

2. Go to the campus garden.

3. Spend 30 minutes in the garden. Observe, pay attention to all of your five senses and describe the space in terms of how it feels, smells, sounds, looks and perhaps even tastes. What evidence of human culture do you see there? What are the signs of human organization and interaction in that space? In your notes, describe the space in as much detail as possible from a physical perspective as well as from a social one.

4. Come back to class and type up your notes.

5. Reflect on how you felt completing this assignment. Did you feel anxiety over not being able to be near your digital tools? Was it difficult to observe the space that had so little activity? Was it difficult to take notes? What did you learn while doing this?

6. Submit your notes via Moodle.

7. We will discuss your observations in class.

Creativity and Generosity

2010-06-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Internet theorist Clay Shirky talks on TED about the phenomenon of creativity and generosity on the Internet. He argues that this comes from a "cognitive surplus" that the web affords us and in this 13 minute lecture, he makes a connection between LOL Cats and civic engagement.

Blog Assignment

2010-05-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Writing in a journal is a fun kind of writing. In part, this is because a journal gives legitimacy to our own voice and frees us from the tyranny of formality. Most of us who are teachers now, probably wrote our journal entries in personal notebooks when we were college students. Today, most college students spend their creative, journal writing energy on social networking sites, writing in a much more public way. College professors assign journals to help students engage critically and creatively with course material and to practice writing. Last semester, we experimented with creating an assignment that makes use of the journal-like nature of a Blog and allows students to think critically about their writing that is also public.

Dr. Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis and I designed this assignment for a research and writing course - English 102:

Prepare
1.Assign students to write a draft that can be used in a blog post. We asked students to document and describe an experience at a restaurant. See the full assignment here.

2.Have the students share their writing with one another. We use the course management system, Moodle at SMU and had students post their writing in a Moodle forum.

3.Sign up for a blogging service (we chose Blogger, which is very easy for beginners) and follow Blogger's prompts to setup a class blog. Then invite students to be authors on the class blog.

4. Remind students to accept the invitation (they will get an email from you) and sign up for the blog service before they come to class. Most students will have no problem doing this but they will need several reminders.

Have a Discussion
Discuss and establish guidelines for students going public with their writing. Suggested readings, A false wikipidea ‘biography’ by John Seigenthaler or a handout on online reporting and law and ethics from Tim Harrower's Inside Reporting .

Example discussion points:
1)Who is John Seigenthaler and why and how is his story problematic?

2)What do you know about the wikipidea and why is this a controversial site?
What issues does Seigenthaler raise about the wikipidea?

3)According to Harrower, what is a blog? How does he define it?

4)What’s our relationship to an audience and what are our rights?

5)According to Harrower, what should we consider when it comes to libel, copyright and privacy?

Model blogging
Discuss criteria for blogs. What makes a good blog?

1)Bring examples of effective and ineffective blogs to class. Here are some:
Froggie’s Lilypad
The very official best worst blog ever
Damn I’m cute
Pie of the tiger
silver in sf
my life in food

2)Ask students to study blogs in relation to the following:
Audience
Content
Message
Visual

Recap with students on fundamentals of blogging
1)Ask students to edit and then copy and paste their original blog drafts to the new class blog

2)Have students add images to their post

3)Show students how to add links to text

3)Discuss the virtues of tagging content for organization

4)Ask students to leave comments on the posts of their classmates

What we learned from the blog assignment

1. Strengths of the assignment

It created a focus to the writing assignment

It was a familiar medium, practical and relevant to students. Students got to think critically about writing publicly.

Students really enjoyed it

2. What we would do next time

Create more of an accountability system and build this into the assignment. The blog is collaborative and so everyone's post affects the collective blog. So, if the post is riddled with spelling errors or is not complete, we will remove it until it is finished.

Talk more about copyright issues and sites like creativecommons.org, where students can access content that is not copyrighted

This post was written in collaboration with Dr. Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis

You Can't Read this Blog from China

2010-05-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Censorship in China means that much of what we take for granted is not available to internet users there. For example, since this blog is hosted by Blogger, which is owned by Google, if you are in China right now, you won't be able to read it.

Here is a chart that shows which Google owned services are blocked in China. Click on it to make it bigger.

This brings me to some wisdom gleaned this morning at breakfast, while reading The Stranger's Last Days piece about the R-71 controversy of whether names on a signed petition should be protected political speech or public documents.

Justice Antonin Scalia: "You can't run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known... The fact is that running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage, and the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate or to take part in the legislative process."

Scalia's statement rings true. Democracy relies on public debate and we should not be afraid to express our political views publicly. Civic engagement is our right and privilege. Relating back to all of the discussions about Facebook and privacy on the Internet, we should not forget about the benefits of publishing publicly. Sometimes it seems that we get overly protective of our content, acting as our own censors, worrying about ways to block people from seeing it. So I guess, the question to ask is what of our content could really serve as a contribution to the public sphere?

No Privacy on the Internet

2010-05-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Today's news bring more grievances of Facebook privacy bugs. Not too long ago, you might have read the story about a sociology professor who misunderstood her privacy settings and inadvertently posted some careless (and obvious to most of us, facetious) comments about looking for a hit-man. As a result, she was put on administrative leave.

A recent article in Inside Higher Ed, titled Professors and Social Media points out that professors are increasingly turning to social media to supplement their teaching and mentions a Pearson report that "suggest[s] that 80 percent of professors...have at least one account with either Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, Slideshare, or Google Wave."

Social Media is a whole new form of communication that is increasingly integrated into our social lives. It is approaching, if not already there, the primacy of a phone or email for communication. However, unlike a phone or even email, it is much more public...or as the Facebook example illustrates, we have much less control over what we publish via Social Media. That's the whole point -- these media are social.

When I was a kid in the Soviet Union, my parents couldn't speak freely about politics in our home unless they turned the dial and stuck a pencil in it on the rotary phone. There was always fear of the KGB listening in, and for good reason. My aunt, Luba, went to a gulag for poking fun of Stalin. Maybe I am a little paranoid as a result, but I always assume that whatever I put on the Internet may be used against me, no matter how private it seems.

So when I hear professors discuss whether to friend students, I say YES! friend them...or at least friend some and always act as if your students can see and read whatever you post. The internet is inherently not private, and any sense of privacy is only an illusion. It is only sensible that we should always act as if all of our musings on the internet are public and only post stuff that we don't mind anyone reading, be it students, parents, friends, bosses, the Man, etc. Don't be surprised if a potential employer finds your blog post on the internet or if Facebook suddenly decides to make your "interests" public for the sake of targeted advertising. This is a capitalist country after all and Facebook is a business, not a social service.

Having said that, we live in a relatively free country and have the luxury of speaking freely. I am proud of the fact that I can participate in the public discourse about culture and politics without being afraid to say what I think...for the most part. The Internet is an awesome public forum. If you want privacy, just buy a notebook and keep a journal. But be sure to put it somewhere safe.

Rubric for Online Instruction

2010-03-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

Want to see what a good online course should look like? Take a look at the Rubric for Online Instruction created by faculty, staff, administrator and student led committee at California State University, Chico.

The rubric is broken down into six categories:
1. Learner Support & Resources
2. Online Organization & Design
3. Instructional Design & Delivery
4. Assessment & Evaluation of Student Learning
5. Innovative Teaching with Technology
6. Faculty Use of Student Feedback

This is an excellent online course evaluation resource. The various assessment forms, including the self-assessment ones are especially useful. All materials are made available for use through the Creative Commons License. Well done CSU and thanks for sharing!

5 Free Computer Applications for College Students

2010-03-01T11:55:00.001-08:00

Do you remember a time when you didn't have to write anything down? Tasks just lingered somewhere in your pre-frontal lobe until the they got done? But then life got more complicated with classes, meetings, plans with friends, shows, appointments, work, due dates. Luckily this led to the discovery of writing lists on scraps of paper. Then you got a planner. Then there were multiple planners and lists and calendars. Then writing things down and remembering where to look became just as confusing.

Rather than giving you 5 specific tools that can potentially simplify your life, I am outlining 5 specific types of tools and giving you a few examples. Read about a couple and pick the one that sounds best. I'll admit, the examples are some of my favorites and if they existed when I was in college...well, I would have finished a lot more papers on time, I swear.

The great thing about many of these applications is that they are increasingly interconnected. For instance, Remember The Milk is an online application that allows you to create lists of tasks, but it also lets you set up the program to send reminders about tasks via various other modes such as through your mobile phone, email, instant messenger or iCal.

Two main challenges for college students today are staying organized and sharing content. The applications below address these challenges. They are easy to learn and free. If what you are doing now isn't working, some of these might help.

Organizing
1. References, bibliographies, citations (Word, Zotero)
(okay, Word is not a free application but is there a university in the U.S. that does not provide students with Word?) If you are pretty new to college, Microsoft Word 2007 should be sufficient. When your teacher asks you to create a bibliography citing at least 5 outside sources, the References tab in Word is where you can go to create citations and bibliographies. Click here to see instructions. On the other hand, for more advanced research such as thesis writing where you need to save articles, links to websites, take notes, etc., I recommend Zotero.

2. Bookmarks (Delicious, Google Reader)
In my opinion, Delicious is pretty much the best way to bookmark everything that you find online. Google Reader is also great if you want to keep up with specific journals, newspapers, blogs, etc. It feeds most currently published information to you and then lets you bookmark articles that you want to keep for later.

3. Calendars (Google, Outlook/iCal, Remember the Milk)
Google calendar is nice because you can create multiple calendars and share them with friends. I have Outlook (iCal on a Mac) at work and it syncs with my iTouch (iCal and Outlook are not free but universities typically provide one or the other for free to students). I mentioned Remember the Milk earlier and this is more of a task list than a calendar. It's great for keeping track of deadlines and tasks in a list kind of way and for getting reminders on your mobile device. The ability and necessity to synchronize calendars with mobile devices is going to be huge (if it isn't already) and all of these applications do that in one way or another.

Another key part of college life is sharing. Presentations are a common requirement in classes. Collaboration with classmates is also a big one. A number of applications make it easy to exchange, edit and publish documents online.

Sharing
4. Files (Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net)
In the post below, I wrote about Dropbox and Box.net. A few days later, I noticed that Google Docs came out with its own version of a file sharing application. One of my favorite features is that you can email links of your uploaded documents and allow people to either just look or even edit without requiring them to have an account in Google. This really lowers the participation barrier.

5. Creating (Flickr, Creative Commons)
Flickr is a way to organize, store and share images. I wrote more about image sharing a few posts down. The Creative Commons allows users to share their content with others by offering an alternative to a restrictive copyright. For instance, I use the Creative Commons License to share my Flickr images. Anyone can use my photographs as long as they don't use them to make money, they attribute my work to me and also share. Creative Commons is the dreamy, idealistic side of the internet where creative content is shared and collaboration thrives. If you want to learn more about CC, take a look at some of these videos.

Sharing Files and Collaborating Across Computers

2010-02-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

Do you need to share large files across computers? Say for example, you have Power Point files that are too large to send through your work email. You want to get to them from home and from work. Or you are collaborating with someone who lives far away and you want to share and work on the files with them. Sending drafts back and forth can get pretty confusing when you are doing it through email.

There are several web based applications that allow you to share files across computers through the web without having to save them to a flash drive or on a CD. I've looked at two such applications - Dropbox.com and Box.net. Here is what I found so far:

1. Dropbox.com

Install a Dropbox folder to your computer and you can just drag and drop files into it and they will automatically be uploaded to the Dropbox server.
You can also use the web-based Dropbox without downloading anything. Just go to the website, create an account and start uploading files.
You get 2GB of space for free and can pay to upgrade.

Dropbox keeps the history of all changes made and allows you to restore deleted files or delete completely.

Dropbox uses SSL encryption. You will see that their URL reads https instead of http. This is what banks use to transmit data.

There is also an iPhone app. for retrieving the files and it can be accessed via other mobile devices.

One drawback is that you can only create links to individual files from your public folder. You can send a link to a file and the receiver can access that file by clicking on the link. However, you can't create a link to a folder full of content, as you can with Box.net. This means that when you want someone to see the contents of your folder, they have to sign up for Dropbox. This creates a slight obstacle to sharing content.

2. Box.net

You can create links to both files and folders. This allows you to share the content without requiring the receiver to join Box.net. All they have to do is click on the link and the file or a folder with multiple files will be visible to them.

It's all web based, so all uploading and downloading is done through a web interface.

You get 1GB of free space and can pay to upgrade.

The free version has a file size limit of 25 MB, which means if your file is over 25MB you're out of luck.

If you want others to upload and edit files in your folder, they have to join Box.net as well (as with Dropbox).

You can email files and folders directly from Box.net.

You can add comments and tags to your files for easy searching later.

You can also save bookmarks to webpages.
It allows you to create an online document with word processing and formatting abilities that can be shared via a link, sort of like a web page.

There is capability to create discussion areas.
Files are accessible through various mobile devices.

Encrypted storage and transfer comes with a paid subscription only. The free version is still secured with passwords.

One drawback is that there does not seem to be a history area where changes are tracked. Also the 1GB limit together with 25MB file size limit for the free version, is more restrictive than Dropbox.

In comparing the two free versions - they both have their own advantages. Dropbox gives you more space, security and history of actions. Box.net allows more content annotation, discussion and sharing, but is limited in size and security options. Depending on your needs, they are both worth exploring further.

Macs and podcasting

2010-02-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

I've had several people ask me about Macs and podcasting. Since we don't have Macs on campus, I am a little out of touch on the subject but I do have an older Powerbook at home and even my 5+ yr. old Mac makes podcasting very easy. I use Garage Band and iMovie, which are very simple and user friendly for editing audio and video. I am sure that the software on newer Macs is a lot more advanced and even better.

One SMU faculty recommends Lynda.com for training videos. Here is one on how to use Garage Band and one on iMovie.

Flip cameras seem really easy to use with Macs since the file format is already Mp4, which means that you can edit audio and video without any extra plug-ins or converters. They connect with a USB plug that flips right out of the camera. No wires! They also come with internal memory (up to 120min of recording), so you don't have to worry about memory cards or tapes. And even though the cameras are pretty small, they also come with a tripod mount, in case you are not going for the hand held look.

Made with web sharing in mind, Flip cameras allow direct uploading to YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. So the video is optimized for the web and for social networking sites.

My concern would be quality of the video if you wanted it for something other than web sharing. The lens is pretty small and there is only so much a small lens can capture, especially at a distance. 2x digital zoom is kind of a joke. Also, if you plan to travel with it, you'll have to figure out how to clear up memory space when you run out of your 120 minute limit. If you have access to a computer once in a while, you can load your videos onto YouTube or some other free server and delete them from the camera.

Editing and sharing audio/visual content

2010-01-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Do you want to learn about what makes a rainbow? Watch a lecture from an MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin. These days many universities are making educational videos available for viewing online. MIT, for example distributes hundreds of educational videos through Video at MIT.

But you don't have to be a mighty institute of technology to produce your own movies. There are a number of free and easy to use resources available at your fingertips. We are not talking about sure-to-go-to-Sundance material. Just a simple DIY recording that is reasonably visible and audible. Here are a few tools to start with (again, this post is Windows PC centric because that is the platform that SMU supports):

Recording Tools

Audio recording

For basic recording, get something easy to use. Consider the ease with which you get the files from the recorder onto your computer, into your editing system and online for sharing. Many audio recorders will allow you to easily transfer audio files through a USB cable. make sure that your recorder creates common file formats - WMA, Mp3 or WAV. For example, an Mp3 will make it easy to edit and upload to iTunes U.

If you have an iPod or an iTouch, you can buy a small plug-in mic to record good quality audio. You can also use a headset with a mic to record directly into your audio editing system on the computer.

Video recording

For basic video, you can use a mini-dv camcorder or even a digital photo camera as long as you have enough memory on the memory card. If you just want to record a head shot of yourself speaking, you can also use a web cam directly on your computer.

For our camcorders at SMU, we also have a wireless camcorder microphone. It has a receiver that hooks up to the camera and a wireless mic that can be hooked up across the room to the source of sound. This cuts down on ambient noise, automatically synchronizes the audio with video and produces a better quality sound in the movie.

SMU's O'Grady Library has a number of audio and video recorders for check-out.

Editing

Audio
Audacity is a free audio editing program that is available for download onto your PC. It does simple audio editing functions, such as cutting and pasting audio clips, adding multiple audio tracks. Audacity can import WAV and Mp3 files. To export Mp3 files from Audacity, you need to download Lame Mp3.

Video
Windows comes with a simple video editing program called Windows Movie Maker. If you have Windows 7, you will need to download the free program. The program comes with online tutorials and a manual.

Broadcasting
My Podcast offers free hosting and publishing of Mp3 audio files.

iTunes U is available for free hosting of audio and video files for higher ed. Your university has to join iTunes U before you can upload your files here. iTunes U accepts only Mp3 or Mp4 file formats.

Internet Archive also hosts audio and video files. It is a free internet library that is operated under the Creative Commons License. You can upload Mp3, Mp4, WAV, WMA and a few other formats. One of the nice features of this site is that users can stream video without having to wait for a download of large files.

Content
If you need background music for your movie, try Music Alley. It is a collection of music that is the property of the artist and is also under the Creative Commons License, making it safe for you to use in your movie without violating copyright laws.

For more content available under the Creative Commons License, take a look at the Creative Commons Directory.

Students Talk About Visual Learning

2010-01-20T12:28:00.001-08:00

This was made by students at the University of Nottingham. It was based on interviews conducted with other university students. There are some helpful comments by students about visual tools such as Power Point, video, etc. They give examples and give other great ideas to engage students.

Image Editing, Organizing and Sharing

2010-01-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some notes on select applications for an image workshop. There are more applications out there, but I am focusing on the few most popular. This post is split into two parts, 1. Editing and 2. Organizing/Sharing images. Though, as you see below, some web based applications do both.

Editing

Microsoft Office Picture Manager is included with the standard Windows software. Does not require downloads. It is likely already loaded on your PC.
1. Click on an image on your computer
2. It will open in Microsoft Photo Viewer
3. Click on “Open” button at the top of the page
4. Select Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Gimp
You will need to download and install Gimp on your computer. This is a free application that is similar to Photoshop (an image editing program used by professionals). Gimp has more advanced functions than Microsoft Office Picture Manager or any other free image editing programs. Read the Gimp intro here.

Picnik
This is a free web application that works with various social networking websites such as Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, MySpace, etc. It does not require a download. Allows for simple editing similar to Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Can be accessed and used on any computer with an Internet connection. You can edit images that are already loaded into your social networking applications. For example, if you have a Flickr account, click on the “edit photo” button above any image.

Picasa
Free web based and desktop application. Allows for basic editing. Must be downloaded onto your PC. Combines image editing and organization on your PC with uploading to the Internet for image sharing. Learn more about Picasa 3 here.

Organizing and Sharing

Flickr
Online photo management and sharing. No downloads. Owned by Yahoo. Take a Flickr Tour here.

Picasa
Online photo management and sharing. Requires download. Allows you to manage your photo collection on your PC, by organizing images by photo and date. Owned by Google.

Facebook
If you have a Facebook account, you can upload and share images directly in Facebook. There is no image editing tool. Facebook also allows you to share your images from Flickr or Picasa.

What to do with texting in class?

2010-01-06T12:22:00.001-08:00

If you talk to college professors about modern US students, you will hear a lot of complaints about short attention spans, laziness and indifference. A recent article in the Chronicle got its readers' pulse rate up by asking Are American Students Lazy? Many people agreed, others defended the students and found flaws in the author's argument. But blaming aside, it's still up to us to figure out how to be effective teachers in the modern times. Here is an interesting article Designing Choreographies for the "New Economy of Attention" that explores what we as teachers can do to direct student attention towards learning.

"Rather than banning laptops and phones from the lecture hall and the classroom, we aim to ask what precisely they have on offer for these settings understood as performative sites, as well as for a culture that equates individual attentional behavior with intellectual and moral aptitude."

Gordon, Eric and David Bogen, “Designing Choreographies for the ‘New Economy of Attention,’ Digital Humanities Quarterly, 3.2 (2009)

Digital Tools for Writing Math

2009-11-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

Here are a few ideas on how to write math equations on your computer and how to distribute them to your students.

If you prefer writing equations by hand, you will appreciate a graphics pen tablet.

1. I like the Wacom Bamboo Tablet, it costs about $70, does not require software installation and plugs into a USB port.

Write out an equation by hand using the pen tablet and Microsoft Paint (no Macs at SMU). Save as a .gif image file. Microsoft Paint is located in Start> All Program > Accessories.

Once you create the image of the equation, you can add it into your webiste, text editor or Course Management System. We use Moodle at SMU, so I will refer to Moodle from now on.

2. Sketchcast is a free web based application that allows you to create an animated movie of your sketch, record audio and publish online. Write out a solution and record a movie of it using Sketchcast. Distribute the movie through Moodle either by providing a link to the movie or embed it directly into Moodle by copying the embed code and pasting it into the text editor.

Here is an example of a sketchcast embedded directly into the Moodle course content area.

Be sure to click on HTML mode in the Moodle text editor when you paste the embed code (click figure below to enlarge).

Sketchcast allows you to record audio as well, so you can do a voice-over explaining the solution.

If you prefer your equations in type, try the tools below.

3. At SMU, DragMath is integrated with Moodle. You can use it by clicking on this icon in any Moodle text editor. DragMath allows you to drag and drop equations into the text editor. This way you can add equations to quizzes and assignments directly in Moodle.

4. MathType, available in Microsoft Word as a tab at the top of the page, lets you type out and insert math equations into a Word document. You can also save a MathType equation as a .gif image file.

5. If you have Windows 7, Math Input Panel lets you write out equations by hand, turns them into typed text and inserts them into documents (such as Word or PPT). Math Input Panel is located in Start>All Programs>Accessories.

Write an equation by hand with Math Input Panel and insert typed text into Word or Power Point. You can then upload the documents into Moodle for easy distribution. You can also copy and paste your equation directly into Moodle, just make sure that the text editor is set to HTML mode (as above in #2).

DIY Cartography

2009-11-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

View SMU in a larger map

A while ago, I posted a local map that SMU students and I have been building up with images and stories about the Olympia/Lacey area.

DIY Maps are becoming increasingly popular. This article in the NYT describes some interesting mapping projects.

Here is how we created our map using Google MyMaps and Flickr.

1. Create a map in Google MyMaps.
2. Upload some photos to Flickr.
3. Go to your myMaps in google and click on the map that you created
4. Click on the Edit button
5. Click on one of the pins that you've added to your map
6. Click on Edit HTML in the window that pops up

7. Now open a new browser window or tab and go to Flickr
8. Find an image in Flickr that you want to embed into your Map
9. Click on Share This and then copy the code in Grab the HTML
10. Go back to your map and paste the code into the pin pop-up window that you had opened. Make sure you are still in Edit HTML mode, otherwise it won't work.

11.If you want that image to also act as a link, switch to Rich Text mode, select the image and then click on the chain link icon at the top of the window. Paste a URL into the prompt that pops up.

12. Be sure to hit Done and Save in Google myMaps.

Now the pin in your Google Map will have the image from Flickr. To embed the map into your webiste or blog:

13. Click on Link on top right of your map, then copy code from Paste HTML to embed in website and paste it into your blog or website HTML. Notice the customize and preview option. You can select the size and exact view of the map to be embedded.

Berlin Twitter Wall

2009-11-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

I promise that this won't turn out to be a blog all about Twitter, but I must share this interesting project that involves Twitter - The Berlin Twitter Wall.

On this interactive site, anyone can share their thoughts on the historic Fall of the Wall and post a wish for the future. If you Tweet, use the hashtag #fotw on twitter and after a while your message will appear on the twitterwall.

By clicking "stop" and "play", you can see older messages (tweets). A click on the cameras up on the wall show a selection of the domino-artwork that will fall in a symbolic act on November 9th 2009 (TODAY!) at the "Fest der Freiheit" (festival of freedom) at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Real Time in Action

2009-10-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

CNN points out how the entire world was watching a runaway balloon float through the sky today as the 6yr old boy named Falcon was believed to be on it somehow. He turned out to be hiding in the attic, but the social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, allowed people from all over the world not only to watch this story but also to talk about it as it was happening.

Real Time Web

2009-10-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was waiting for an oil change on my car and instead of looking at those mind numbing magazines and drinking mechanic shop coffee, I went to the nearby B&B cafe. It has wireless, so I answered work email, chatted with a colleague and played a word game with about 50 strangers (all 50 at once) all on a device that fits in my pocket.

My work calendar, folders, email accounts all sync so that I have upto date information wherever there is wireless. I can also check my geo-location, the world clock, the stock market, the weather report, etc. I can work, talk and play with others, all in "real time," immediately and publicly. In a coffee shop.

Technology blog ReadWriteWeb, (syndicated by the NYT) is hosting a Real-Time Web Summit. Today! Many industry leaders are there (Google, Yahoo!, etc). They are streaming some sessions live and also have a Twitter feed on their website. This is about stuff like video conferencing, chatting, interactive apps, things that allow users to interact online at the same time, to be co-present, and to have immediate and shared data.

Here is a blurb about the keynote address by Marshall Kirkpatrick:

"Marshall stressed the fact that real time doesn't just mean speed but also creates value by including presence data, flow and data syncing. All of this, according to Marshall, will lead to radical changes in how users will experience the Web in the near future."

read more about the keynote on ReadWriteWeb

Group Video Chat Part 2

2009-10-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

I just leaned about TokBox, which seems equally as promising as Tinychat. Watch the video on their website to see how it works. This is another free program that does not require any downloads, allows for multiple person video chats and is very intuitive.

Medical iPhone apps

2009-10-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

See the Mobile Libraries' blogpost that describes various iPhone apps for visualizing the body.

Press Release > Oct. 8, 2009 - University of Utah researchers created new iPhone programs - known as applications or "apps" - to help scientists, students, doctors and patients study the human body, evaluate medical problems and analyze other three-dimensional images.

ImageVis3D
AnatomyLab
My Body

Group Video Chat

2009-10-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

One of our online instructors asked about being able to have a video conference with her students. She wanted multiple people to log in from home with web cams and be able to see one another and talk. After doing some research and finding out that Skype only does one-to-one video chats, I found Mebeam and Tinychat. Tinychat seems most promising so far. Read this review of it. If you have a web cam and a mic, you can start a meeting, invite friends, see them all on video (if they have web cams too), hear them talk (if they have a mic), record the meeting, share your computer screen and text chat as well.

Just be careful and don't log in with your Twitter account because you will end up posting the chat room URL on Twitter. Then anyone can come into your chat room and start text chatting with you and all of your chats will post on Twitter. Moreover, if you feed your Tweets to Facebook, the chats will post to Facebook as well. That's what happened to me when I tried out the program for the first time. That's the danger of all these social networking crossovers. But also the cool part, if you do it intentionally.

Recording Phone Interviews with Skype

2009-10-13T14:48:00.001-07:00

Are you interested in recording high quality phone interviews? Watch this video from the The Conversations Network. It explains how to use Skype for recording. The person that you are talking to can have any type of phone or also be on Skype and you can call anywhere in the world to do this.

Skype for Interviews

View more documents from dkaye.

New to iTouch

2009-10-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

I just got an iTouch to learn how all those apps and mobile technologies in general are being used for education. An iTouch is like an iPhone but without the phone part. It connects through free wireless wherever it is available and is much cheaper than the iPhone because it doesn't require a subscription with AT&T. Its allure are the "apps" (applications) that users download through iTunes. Many of them are free, others cost money. For example, one GPS mapping app costs $1.99. It allows you to track your travel path, map it and share it online. Another app that's completely free(!), Carbon Tracker, allows you to track your personal carbon footprint. The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers a free app that recommends up-to-date and location specific safe seafood. Potentially great tools for a class that deals with environmental issues.

So far, learning how to work the machine has been very intuitive. It is really possible to learn how to navigate the iTouch without ever reading the manual as long as you are comfortable pushing buttons over and over again to see what they do. Navigating the iTouch is different than using a computer or a phone. Yet, there are just enough affordances and references to what most computer users already know from other technologies, that allow quick mastery of the system. I was able to add some apps, set up my email and connect to wireless networks within minutes of turning the iTouch on for the first time. The apps pretty much make up the entire interface. Each of those icons is an application that does something. There are the usual suspect like a calculator, browser, calendar and email which are already installed. All new apps that you download, come with their own icon that shows up on the screen when you turn on your iTouch.

I am really intrigued by this process of intuitively figuring out a new digital technology. I can see how the problem solving skills from playing games come in handy. Periodically, I get flashbacks from my brief addiction to the computer game Myst. Years ago I spent hours on end trying to make my way through various puzzles as a digital explorer. I am convinced that this experience was key in teaching me the skills that are so often required of us today: learning through exploring, making mistakes, persevering, and constantly figuring out new puzzles.

So far, I've tried out a few apps. The map is pretty exciting. It allows you to locate yourself wherever you are as long as there is a wireless connection. I've also uploaded a Facebook app and tried out blogging. The screen and the typing are still a bit too small for comfortable writing, but I am getting better at it and you can zoom in by dragging your fingers apart on the screen.

This website recommends 50 apps for teaching, such as Atom in a Box, that helps visualize the Hydrogenic atomic orbitals; iPresident, which provides details on all of the Presidents of the United States of America; Classics, which gets you access to some of the classics of literature, and allows you to read them just like a real book; and School of Rock, which teaches students the fundamentals of music. In my view, this has exciting potential for learning and engaging students long distance as well as in the classroom. I am looking forward to trying out these apps.

Twitter Teaching

2009-09-16T14:49:00.001-07:00

We had a great turn out of students, staff and faculty for the Twitter talk last night. Guest speaker, Kathy E. Gill was kind enough to share her slide show with us.

And speaking of Twitter, take a look at a Twitter assignment posted by Prof. David Silver for a digital media production class at USF.

O'Grady Library

2009-09-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

We just started a library blog at O'Grady Library. Take a look and also see the schedule of events for The September Project posted there.

Upcoming Workshop and Talk at SMU

2009-09-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

Upload movies to YouTube and link to Moodle

2009-08-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

Last spring Amanda, my undergraduate research and technology assistant, mastered Jing and created some helpful tutorials on how to add quiz questions to Moodle.

For a tutorial on how to upload your movies to YouTube and then link to them on your Moodle course page, check out this movie.

Make sure to turn on your speakers.

Maps

2009-07-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Strange Maps is a blog that documents interesting maps including a Japanese world map circa 1850 that places Japan in the center of the map, as opposed to Europe. There is also "the world's largest map," maps on Afgani rugs, a map of the Portuguese empire (pre 1974 Carnation Revolution), a map of known ship wrecks in the Atlantic, a map that presents global levels of wine consumption by displaying countries as a grape cluster, a highly detailed map that conflates human anatomy with the American transportation system and oh, too many fun maps to mention. Just take a look.

New and Old Media - Going to the Moon

2009-07-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

We Choose the Moon is an mazing use of Flash animation and multimedia to show the sequences of Apollo 11 going to the Moon. This site combines digital imaging and animation with archival audio, images and video of every stage of the travel. Click buttons at the bottom of the page to move through the stages. Such combination of new and old media gives a fascinating perspective on what it was like to complete this trip and what it was like to be on earth at that time.

The site is a joint collaboration between the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA"), and AOL.

moon image borrowed from here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/ / CC BY 2.0

2009-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot of the informal survey that I took in my class. I asked students about the technologies that they use. The most used Web 2.0 tool? Facebook. The portable technology most students owned? Digital camera (besides a cell phone of course). I was surprised that only one of the students had ever heard of Flickr. Only one person blogs.

Lynda Barry On Writing

2009-05-14T10:57:00.001-07:00

What it Is

E-text books

2009-05-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

well looks like, in California, schools are looking more seriously at e-text books as alternatives to printed books..

Senate approves software as an alternative to textbooks
L.A. Unified supports the bill, which moves to the Assembly.
By Patrick McGreevy
May 12, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-school-books12-2009may12,0,3863262.story
Reporting from Sacramento -- California teenagers may be spared having to lug back-breaking loads of textbooks to school under a proposal that would make it easier for campuses to use electronic instructional more

Real Time

2009-05-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

What's so great about Facebook, Twitter and the like? It's "real time" communication. These applications allow you to post to the web quickly and easily. Within a matter of seconds, you can post a thought or an idea and make it public (or public among your selected group only). These apps require no technical knowledge and they aggregate posts from other people, whose ideas you care about enough to follow.

So now Wordpress Blog is doing it too. Easier and quicker blogging. You can post short or long posts instantly. You can make them public or private. You can also tag your posts, which is a bonus that (as far as I know) neither Twitter or Facebook offer. Tagging allows you to organize your posts with bookmarks, so that you can find them easily later.

Learn more about it here.

Digital Ethnography class

2009-04-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

See Michael Wesch's description of how he teaches the way he teaches his class. Also, here is an archived session of the interview with Michael Wesch and students that the NMC put on last week. See my post about it below.

E-Text "books"

2009-04-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here’s an article from yesterday’s Chronicle of Higher Ed. The discussion in the comments is interesting. Electronic textbooks are still a new thing and it seems unclear if it will work or not. Of course there are pros and cons of having a digital text over a hard copy…

other universities are starting to offer e-texts. here are blog posts from Cal State and Bowling Green:

Will students like it? No one is really sure yet...I do not like to read on my computer, but then again, if the price is right, I might rather print out the parts I need and read the rest on the screen than pay $100+ for a hard copy of a book I will only need for a few months. Also, being able to do word searches is a bonus.

Thanks to Alita (our Electronic Service Librarian) for the references.

Online with Michael Wesch

2009-03-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

Check out the New Media Consortium's free online lectures. The next speaker is Dr Michael Wesch of Kansas State University. I've posted his an anthropological introduction to YouTube video on this blog. He creates digital video projects with his anthropology students and makes the projects available on YouTube.

This is a virtual meeting type lecture where you are able to ask questions by texting and interact with other participants during the talk. This Connect@NMC session is scheduled for April 23, 2009 at 12:45PM Pacific Time. Go here to find more info. and learn how to connect to the session. You can also see videos of past sessions to get an idea of how this works. The latest session video is about geo-mapping 3D images in Google Earth.

2009-03-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

HASTAC's Digital Media & Learning Winners' Websites

2009-03-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

This video offers some statistics about technology use in the past, present and future. The nature of a quickly evolving technology poses some interesting questions about how we should be preparing students for the future. Considering how fast new digital tools become obsolete, this work nicely underscores the importance of teaching students how to be problem solvers and creative, critical thinkers.

2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome Th - The best video clips are right here

2009-02-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Henry Jenkins talks about the social dynamics of the ways that ideas and messages spread within/with digital media .

Tinkering

2008-12-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

Recently Carnegie hosted a conference called "Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production in a Digital Age."

They brought together educators, "tinkerers," curators, artists, performers and "makers" to grapple with questions that address the relationship of tinkering to learning in a digital age, and the relationship between tinkering and other modes of knowledge production.

Take a look at some of the video casts of interviews with participants here.

With an overwhelming plethora of new and emerging technologies, tinkering is an excellent word to explain how one might approach learning and creating at this time. It is a reminder not to fetishize any particular tool but to move with the flow, to experiment and to adapt the new technologies to our projects. In the end, it's about creativity and experimentation, not the technologies themselves.

Lately, I have been tinkering with Facebook. I have been watching the Update Status feature in FB and am completely fascinated with it. At our pre-conference meeting, Eric Gordon noted that with Web 2.0 and mobile technologies, we are now able to have a perpetual presence. We can be constantly in touch, visible, piping in our daily routines/random thoughts and linking interesting media into the collective consciousness of FB. We can participate in a continuous group chatter with people in different locations, time zones and friend degrees. Increasingly, we can do it away from sitting at our desktop computers.

My Conference Trip

2008-11-25T14:29:00.001-08:00

I just came back from the National Communication Association convention where I participated in the Urban Communication pre-conference and presented on Ethnographic Spaces: Urban, Suburban, And Virtual Communication Pedagogies panel.

One of my favorite presentations on the panel was by Daniel Makagon from DePaul University. Here is how he describes his presentation:

This paper critically examines the use of qualitative research methods in the context of experiential learning and service-learning excursions and assignments. The paper will focus on a ten-week communication class that meets from 10pm-1am, and highlight the ways in which the important intersections among cultural practices, time, and urban space help shape how students learn about the city more generally and Chicago more specifically. The course content is designed to introduce students to an alternative temporal understanding of the city, focusing on the lives of people who are on the streets when many of the city’s inhabitants are sleeping. Special attention is paid to dominant narratives about crime and violence at night; the production of fear in the metropolis; and assessing risk when observing, interviewing, and doing participant observation in urban communication contexts.

Giorgia Aiello and I presented examples of the ways the we use digital photography in teaching. Photography as Pedagogy: Fieldwork, Archival Documentation, and Critical Analysis in the Urban Archives Project

Both the pre-conference and the panel explored ways to study cities and places around us. Many presenters talked about technology as a tool to understanding the physical world. This was refreshing as people tend to default to talking about digital in opposition to physical.

These conversations inspired me to continue to brainstorm about an SMU Garden project. Here are some ideas so far.

Drawing on Screen

2008-11-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

Testing out the new Genius Pensketch.

And also in combination with the Virtual Meeting in Dim Dim.

New Mediascape

2008-11-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Take a look at Michael Wesch's video An anthropological introduction to YouTube. He and his students presented it at the Library of Congress in June 23rd 2008. Wesch explains how YouTube is interconnected with other Web 2.0 tools and argues that we live in a new mediascape that has changed human relationships.

Wesch is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University.

How to complete online evaluations

2008-10-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of instructional videos for using Moodle. I created the movies with Jing.

For teachers
how to add evaluations to your course

For students
how to fill out your course evaluations

Explaining Wikipedia

2008-09-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a good way to explain the collective knowledge and the collaborative nature of Wikipedia, take a look at this great 8 minute screencast that was created by John Udell. It's fun because it uses a page in Wikipedia that talks about the use of an umlaut in Heavy Metal band names. It's educational because it shows the evolution of the information that has been posted on the page by going back and forth in the page history. The creator talks about the changes in typography, factual information and "vandalism." Great example of how Wikipedia works!

Stepping into Literature

2008-08-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Last month Irina wrote about a conference on Stepping into Literature which was sponsored by Alliance Library Systems and LearningTimes. I didn’t know anything about those folks, but I love Second Life (and have a button to prove it) so I immediately signed up. The conference began early. I was late, but technical problems caused a delay “in world” so I was right on time. I love SL but technical problems are common and they were prepared. I arrived just in time to walk now the hall to a new classroom. Start was only ten minutes late as opposed to 15 for the Real Life – RL conference I attended last month.
Desi Stockton (Beth Ritter-Guth in RL) creator of Literature Alive! in Second Life (an academic project aimed at collecting and distributing resources for the development of literary projects of collegiate worth in SL) and a real legend among educators in SL gave the opening address which was, as openings are supposed to be, inspiring and motivational and short. The sciences are well represented in SL, but the humanities and social sciences are only beginning to flourish and Desi was among the very first.
Then we broke into groups for "virtual book discussion". Sonja Morgwain (Sonja Plummer in RL) from Maine led our discussion on “Diary of a Bad Year” by J.M. Coetzee. The discussion was enjoyable and demonstrated the value of having a book club with people from all over the world. Sonja manages the garden readers book club and library in SL and is a librarian in Maine in RL
Third on the agenda were visits to literature sites. We went “Through the Looking Glass” with Alice and an incredible library built by a private patron - the Library of the Second Life Literary Foundation - by Xinoxi Han. It includes thousands of titles to read there or “check out” in ebook form and it was a beautiful “sim”.
The keynote speech was "Using Virtual Worlds to Make Literature Come Alive" - Kim Anubis who has written several books on SL including a couple in the “Dummy” series.
The panel discussion included Bryan Carter, an assistant professor of literature at Central Missouri State University. He specializes in African American literature of the 20 th Century with a primary focus on the Harlem Renaissance. Carter has been working on developing Virtual Harlem in Second Life. Desi Stockton said he was her inspiration when she first arrived. Sonja and Desi were also on the panel and they gave us many more ideas about how to use SL to bring literature alive.
The day ended with a social hour, dancing and a literary characters costume contest.
I understand blogs are to be short so that it all you get. It was well worth the time and trouble. I am sorry I missed the one on history last month.
Jarrad Voom

3D Literary Worlds

2008-07-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get sucked into a book and feel like every time that you go back to it, you're entering another world? You can be doing something mundane like riding a bus, for example, and then open a book and get transported into some other universe. I always look forward to those moments and feel sad when the book is over, like I just got excommunicated from a secret place.

Well, Stepping into Literature is a conference that explores how this experience can be extended through virtual worlds. Virtual Worlds can allow the reader to interact with the place and the characters beyond the book's end. On one hand, I prefer to see the story that I read in my own imagination. On the other hand, it seems like an intriguing idea to enter a collective imagination of sorts.

Here's a blurb:
The "Stepping into Literature" Conference will take place on August 4th, 2008 and again on August 6th. During this conference, we will talk about and actually visit some of the best and most creative work being done in promoting a love of literature in a virtual world environment. It will be held entirely in the virtual world of Second Life. read more here...

Another interesting project is led by Bryan Carter, an assistant professor of literature at Central Missouri State University. He specializes in African American literature of the 20 th Century with a primary focus on the Harlem Renaissance. Carter has been working on developing Virtual Harlem in Second Life.

Experiments with Google MyMaps

2008-07-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

During the summer term, I was teaching a course called Urban Visual Anthropology. The students and I studied the cities of Olympia and Lacey. We focused on specific expressions of urban culture (such as nature, graffiti, religion, signage, etc.) and social spaces (street corners, aquifer, coffee shops, parks etc.). Using photography as a research tool, we then experimented with creating visual essays in Flickr and mapped them into Google MyMaps.

Flickr has its own map, but Google Maps are easier to access and also the map can be viewed in Google Earth so I decided that we should map the projects onto Google instead of Flickr map. Flickr provided a great way to 1. organize, 2. annotate and 3. present the data. We were able to arrange the images into categories through sets and by tagging. This was an important part of data analysis as we began to make sense of the images that we've collected. Then we added titles and descriptions to each image. The description included a discussion that related to the course readings and was analytical. Finally, students created slide shows of their visual essays and presented them in class. The last step was to map the visual essays into Google MyMaps, for public scholarship.

Click on the map to see how it worked out. Students selected one favorite image from their visual esay and mapped it into the location where they took the photograph. They also added a link to the visual essays that they created in Flickr. Click on the individual icons on the map to see examples of their projects.

Digital Essay about Freedom

2008-06-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center website reads:

To raise awareness of the importance of freedom, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, in cooperation with Apple Inc., is asking college students across the United States to participate in a national video essay competition on the subject of “Freedom Is . . .” read more here

Great topic and a great opportunity to engage students in a public collaborative project.

Faculty Development

2008-06-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a great workshop on designing writing assignments and using Moodle. We talked about the role of technology in teaching in general and did some hands on designing.

David Silver visited SMU from University of San Francisco and gave an inspiring talk about the work that he has been doing with students. He described his teaching projects, such as taking students to a farm and then having them write about their experiences through blogging. On a side note, he is also blogging chapters of his book about web studies.

We had a great discussion following David's presentation.

SMU faculty shared their work as well.

Nathalie gave a very helpful talk about questions to ask when designing writing assignments and demonstrated the assignments that she designed in Moodle.

Belinda talked about her experiences and showed us her Moodle courses. She is one of the early adopters of the tool and was experimenting and designing classes with the system before most of us knew what Moodle was.

Scot showed off the many layers of Moodle library resources.

Kathleen has been using another online technology in an innovative way in her French class. She talked about how she does online dictation with VoiceThread.

This was the "act normal" group shot.

Good for Students Good for Cats

2008-05-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks of the semester are usually stressful for everyone. So last week on April 30th, SMU's Office of Campus Life, the Counseling Center, and ASSMU sponsored a brilliant event - Stress Reduction Day. One of my favorite stress reducers were the kittens that were brought in from the pound to be socialized. Anyone could come by and play with the kittens in the student activities building. It is pretty much impossible to remain stressed around playing kittens.

Science Experiments Visualization

2008-05-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wish that you had better access to multimedia in teaching life science?

Visualization can improve student understanding and help them reproduce experiments more accurately. These are some of the reasons that the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) was created by leading scientists. It is a peer reviewed, open access, online journal devoted to the publication of biological research in a video format.

Here is one example where a published article includes a video demonstrating an experiment with leeches:
Localized RNAi and Ectopic Gene Expression in the Medicinal Leech

In this screen shot of the video, scientists are extracting leeches from a leech cocoon.

To find more visualized experiments go here

2008-04-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

I have been looking lately for interesting ways to use Flickr to tell stories. This example popped up on The Editors Weblog. Robb Montgomery, the author of the post, writes:

"Sometimes the hardest pictures a newspaper journalist makes are the ones they take of themselves during hard times. San Jose Mercury News designer Martin Gee has posted a photo documentary of the effects of several rounds of layoffs and buyouts in his California newsroom. You can feel his heart breaking in captions as he recalls former colleagues and the spirit they brought to the newsroom." more here..

GimpGirl Community

2008-03-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's another great use of Moodle to create an online community. GimpGirl Community is a site for women with various disabilities. Their welcome page reads:

"Since early 1998, GimpGirl Community has been supporting women with various disabilities from all walks of life via assorted on-line methods, such as mailing lists, chats, surveys, journals and information referral."

GimpGirl uses various web 2.0 tools such as Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Second Life to network, share and exchange resources.

They link directly from Moodle to their location in Second Life using a tool called Slurl. On March 30th, they are hosting the following exciting international event in Second Life.

GimpGirl Community and the Avatar Identity Research Center present:

"Avatars, Identity, and the Expression of Disability"

Rivka Rau is the director of the Avatar Identity Research Center, and a professor of sociology in real life. The AV-ID Center is the home of the Editing Appearances project, an interview study of avatar embodiment and selfhood in SL. Rivka Rau has conducted over 200 hours of interviews for this project. In addition, through AV-ID she offers a seminar series on topics related to identity and the SL body. She will be presenting on our current topic of the month, disability identity on-line, at our Second Life parcel. There will be time for Q & A as well as general discussion.

Open to the public.

When:
Sunday, March 30th, 2008 from 12:00 - 1:30 PM SLT/Pacific Time

Second Life location:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/3DE/139/61/22

IF YOU DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO SECOND LIFE:
You can still attend this presentation online via IRC. To visit our IRC/Second Life chatroom, go to:
http://chat.on.quickfox.net/GimpGirl

...and choose the option that works best for you.

(If you'd like more information on how IRC works, you can go to:
http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/new2irc.html)

What should our SMU Moodle site look like?

2008-03-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a few examples of other colleges and universities that are using Moodle.

Smith College moved from Blackboard to Moodle in 2006. They have some tutorials available on their main page and a guide for students and faculty.

Lafayette College moved from Blackboard to Moodle. They have a helpful faculty start page and they have integrated Moodle with iTunesU.

Humboldt State published their Blackboard vs. Moodle study online. They also have a great online instructors' manual.

Amherst has a Power Point presentation of their students' responses to Moodle.

UCLA has a Knowledge Base site with articles about Moodle and also an extensive Help site and public forums. There is also a published interview about UCLA's decision to select Moodle, in two parts - Part I and Part II.

University of Minnesota has some good documentation including ideas for teaching with Moodle. They also have forums and allow visitors outside of UMN to log in with a guest account.

DePauW University has great tutorials and resources available on its Moodle front page. You can search the library catalog directly from the Moodle page. There is also an option to select a language for the site, though that feature is not quite useful yet since it translates only a small part of the page. Looks like they are also using Blackboard.

University of Washington makes Moodle available to the UW community but they don't offer tech support.

Lycoming College switched from WebCT to Moodle. Their Moodle site seems to be completely closed to outsiders.

The following are some other very basic examples
UW Tacoma
UW Tacoma Institute of Technology
Antioch College
University of New Mexico

Moodle at SMU

2008-03-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

We are currently setting up Moodle as our course management system at SMU. There are a number of really exciting things about this system. Moodle is easy to use and easy to learn. Approximately 1,835,557 teachers all over the world are using the system as of today.

Moodle is also open source and free, which means that there is a huge international community of users invested in developing and improving it. There is also a huge international user support network. You can quickly get your questions answered through the Moodle discussion forum or get ideas and see examples from Moodle's teacher documentation articles, for example. Moodle forums are not just for technical issues, but also for sharing teaching ideas!

Another way to learn about Moodle is through the multitude of online videos and screencasts that users create and share online. For example, YouTube lists hundreds of Moodle tutorials created by educators from all over the world. I added a select few to the right sidebar of this blog, under the Tutorials heading.

MOODLE is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.

Let's break this down into simple terms.

Modular Object-Oriented means that an instructor can customize their Moodle course site by selecting from a variety of modules. A module can be any kind of an online tool such as a discussion forum, a wiki, a blog, a web page, a survey, a chat, a calendar, a grade sheet, a quiz and more*. In designing a Moodle course page, an instructor can combine any of these online teaching tools based on their teaching goals and their students' needs. Moodle's graphic interface means that there is no tech savvy required. To create a course site, you simply select modules from drop down menus and intuitive icons.

Dynamic means that in addition to enabling instructors to publish materials (such as word documents, embedded video, Power Point slides, etc.), Moodle also encourages collaboration, interaction and exploration. For example, students can discuss classroom readings, share notes, comment on one another's work, ask and answer questions, chat, share files, etc. Moodle is a system specifically developed following a Social Constructivist Pedagogy theory. It is based on the idea that people learn best when they can engage with the material through interacting with it, constructing new material and interacting about the material with others.

Learning Environment means that a Moodle "page" looks like a website but it's different because it can be easily customized by the instructor and it can be made as static or as dynamic and interactive as needed.

*To see examples of Moodle features go to the Moodle demo site (you can either register or just log in as a guest user).

Online Classes and Diversity

2008-02-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

There is an article published today in Inside Higher Ed about how online classes seem to be attracting students who might have previously not been able to have access to higher education. The article talks about students of color who are more likely to come from working class backgrounds and have schedules that are restricted by jobs. Online education seems to offer these students a new opportunity to complete college degrees. Read the article here.

Some thoughts about class projects that require students to use technology

2008-02-08T17:24:00.000-08:00

How to help students use digital media effectively is an ongoing question that I have had when working with undergraduate researchers on building the Urban Archives. Students are often eager to learn, but I find that there is a delicate balance between nurturing their creativity and making sure that they don’t get frustrated with information overload or too many technology problems.

My personal approach to learning digital technologies is much like playing a game. I have to make mistakes in order to find out what works and what doesn’t work. I recently learned how to play Jacks (we didn’t have those in Russia). At first, the ball and the jacks were flying all over the place. By trying variations of the force I used to bounce the ball and the timing between the bounce and grabbing those little metal things, I got better and better. But I had to do it wrong first. Making mistakes is all part of learning how to do something new. The main question in my own teaching is how do I give students an opportunity to learn from mistakes?

Here are a few strategies that I use when employing digital technologies in teaching:

Assessing student’s skills and access to technology at the start of the course(before if possible) is important for understanding what tools the students will be able to use. This can be done with a survey before or at the beginning of the class. Technologies and students are constantly changing, so I try to keep my survey updated.

Experimenting – many students are not used to experimentation in the classroom. They are often required to provide “the best answer” rather then asked to try things out without being judged for making mistakes. Students' anxiety about getting a good grade can squelch their creativity or inspiration to try something for the sake of seeing if it works. Experimentation allows students to find potential problems and to learn from mistakes. After all, when a problem occurs we have to come up with a solution. Problem solving is the key skill when dealing with any technology.

Focusing - after experimenting for a while and becoming comfortable with making mistakes and learning how to solve problems, it is time to focus. Now that we know what problems might occur (for example software compatibility or broadband issues), we can think about how to avoid them. Focusing on a few of the technologies that worked well will help. There are a lot of tools out there (free software, Creative Commons content, portable devices to use, etc.) and it is a good idea to pick a specific project at this point and identify a limited amount of tools that will be used.

Learning by doing – once the students set a reasonable goal for their project, I find it helpful to begin with a small, low stakes task that will again allow us to experiment and to make mistakes, but this time working on a particular project. This is similar to a pilot study that senior scholars employ before jumping into the research. This initial test will allow students to work out the kinks before they fully dive into gathering their data. At this point, students might also find new glitches in their plan. Again, I have found it helpful to remind students that glitches are part of the process and that they should be seen as an opportunity to learn and to get creative. This often happens to artists, when a limitation or a mistake leads to a “happy accident.”

Being open – this last point above, leads me to the value of staying open to new directions. When something is not working, it may be helpful to think creatively about how to get around the problem rather than to keep trying to make something work when it clearly doesn’t.

Setting clear goals – here I am back to that fine balance. On one hand I would like to encourage creativity and a mindset of exploration, on the other hand I want to keep students form trying to do too much or being too “all over the place.” Some instructors recommend creating small assignments that build on one another and sometimes it is helpful to place specific limitations on student projects. For example,

a. Selecting a limited number of projects that students can work on (this may result from an initial brainstorming session with the students).

b. Asking students to select the specific technologies that they will use and to stick with them.

c. Asking students to produce a low stakes prototype and several iterations of drafts of their final project.

d. Instructing students about the methodology beyond just how to use the technology. For example, if they are recording interviews – the students will need to know what makes a good interview question, the ethical way to conduct interviews, how to properly document the interview, etc.

e. Telling students about the tech. specifications. For example, if students are collecting digital photographs they will need to know the best resolution, size file, file format, etc.

There is more, I am sure. These are just some thoughts to build on.

2008-01-29T16:02:00.000-08:00

The 2008 Horizon Report is out. Put together by the New Media Consortium (in collaboration with EDUCAUSE) it is one of the series of annual reports on key emerging technologies that are likely to impact teaching, learning or creative expression in higher education.

The report identifies a number of key emerging technologies:
*Grassroots video (fast and easy to make and distribute)
*Collaboration webs (free and easy to use applications)
*Mobile Broadband (cell phones as computers)
*Data Mashups (combining data from various applications, such as maps and images)
*Collective Intelligence (Wikipedia, Tagging)
*Social Operating Systems (network organized around people not content)

The report also talks about the challenges that this brings to the academy, such as renewed interest in collaboration that will require new forms of interaction and assessment. It also addresses significant trends, such as changes in the way that we conduct scholarship, in the way that we work and our access to content. You can download the report from the NMC website
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2008-01-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

Take a look at the way this 3 grader (!) used Flickr to explain her model of Jane Goodall's camp.

Jing

2008-01-23T15:48:00.001-08:00

Click here to see it
This is a screencast created with Jing about how to get to my bookmarks in Del.icio.us. Jing is useful in walking people through something that is being done online.

2008-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Click here to see it
This is a mapping project created by one of my students, Jordan. We were interested in the politics of street names and what names are used to name streets in Seattle's Central District. Jordan documented the streets names, conducted archival research for images and biographies and then mapped the images and parts of the biographies into this public map in Google's MyMaps.

Practice Pronouncing French

2008-01-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

Here is one idea about a way to practice pronunciation. The instructor can record their own voice and annotate the passage as they read, pointing out the sections to pay attention to. The students can then listen and record themselves or ask questions. They can also listen to others as sometimes it is helpful to hear mistakes as well as the correct way to speak.

Online Slide Presentations

2008-01-11T17:29:00.001-08:00

There are some tools out there, like this one, that allow you to upload a Power Point presentation. The program then turns it into an online slide show like the one below. You can also sync and audio file with the slide presentation. This is useful if you already prepared a PPT for a class lecture and may want to share the slides with the students. You can easily embed the presentation into your blog or website. This makes it easier for students to view the slide show, since some people might not have a way to view a PPT file. You can also have students share their presentations online and if they embedded in a blog (like this one), then people can leave comments about the presentations, etc.

Many Ways To Tell A Story

From: irooshka, 55 seconds ago

| View | Upload your own

A PPT about using online tools to tell a story.

SlideShare Link

Voicethread

2008-01-09T15:57:00.000-08:00

Voicethread can be used to present images (import from Flickr, Facebook, your computer, etc.) and to share documents (Word, PDF, Power Point, etc.). You can then annotate these documents by drawing directly on them. Voicethread allows the presenter and others to record audio/video, type text or even record a message by phone to leave comments in discussing the image. You have to sign up for a free account to be able to do this.

Some instructional benefits:

1. Students, instructor and others can discuss various media by annotating them with drawings, audio/video recording and by writing.
2. A group discussion can take place in one shared place from anywhere in the world.
3. A collaboration on a project can be facilitated with this tool.

Here is one example of how it can be used in a Social Science class. Turn on your sound to hear the audio.

here is another example of the way that Voicethread can be used in an Art class. This one was made by an Art History instructor and it has comments by others.

Sketchcast

2008-01-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

Here is one way that an instructor can show students how to solve a math problem. While solving math problems on the board in the classroom is extremely helpful, I can think of at least three additional benefits of recording and posting the process of problem solving online:

1. Posting this online allows students to look up the demonstration even after the class is over.

2. Students can replay the sketchcast several times and pause it if necessary, to better understand the solution.

3. Students can engage in a discussion about the problem by posting comments, questions and answers or drawing their own ways to solve math problems.

Sketchcast allows you to draw, erase and record your voice while you sketch.