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Brainstorming some educational uses of Twitter
June 30, 2007
June 27, 2007
Philmont Hymn Lyrics
My wife and I surfed the web last night searching for lyrics for camp fire songs that we used to know earlier in life. This one is truly a blast from the past.
Philmont Hymn Lyrics
Philmont Hymn
Silver on the sage,
Starlit skies above,
Aspen covered hills,
Country that I love.
Philmont Here’s thee,
Scouting Paradise,
Out in God’s country, tonightWind in whispering pines,
Eagles soaring high,
Purple mountains rise,
Against an azure sky.
Philmont here’s to the,
Scouting Paradise,
Out in God’s country Tonight.
Philmont Scout Ranch, a great memory.
links for 2007-06-28
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Interesting post on socio-economic divide regarding teen use of two social networking sites.
June 26, 2007
links for 2007-06-27
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A post from EduTechie.com on Google Reader. It provides an overview and resources of ways that google reader can be used in academic situations.
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The daily news page for the Allegheny community is built around a blog.
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All of Allegheny’s sports and recreation pages are blogs. This allows more frequent updating and dispersal of posting responibilities
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TechNOcool that was developed to provide forum to discuss new technology as people in computing comes across it.
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Students in the study abroad program blog their experience over seas.
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A project blog being used to evaluate new learning management programs and track the Sakai Pilot
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Pete Gifford blogs about the progress (and set backs) of upgrading to Datatel Release 18.
June 24, 2007
June 22, 2007
links for 2007-06-23
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This is a blog about pedagogy and English studies. It is a space to share resources, stories, successes, and failures.
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This paper talks about the types of blogs, the blogging process, and the pedagogical uses of blogs. Also, through this article, the author tries to answer a few questions that emerge in the first-time users of blogs.
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thought you jmight want to keep an eye for the LaTeX videos on Google Video incase they could be reused by folks in Math Here.
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An Alternative to Footprints
User Services – Tracking Workflow
In developing User Services it is clear that we need a new workflow tracking software. Fortunately, there has been a group of folks working on a solution for the past year.
It seems that the group found a clear leader in the field in a product from Numara called Footprints. The fact that Footprints is flexible, web-based and fairly smart in the automated tasks are what puts it ahead of other products the group looked at through the last year.
In recent weeks the another product has come to our attention, Parature. This is also a web-based product. It doesn’t seem to have the asset tracking piece that we need/want to inventory and track the technology deployed across campus.
Fortunately, the group has a well documented needs list that I hope with a quick demonstration it will be clear if Parature is a viable option. Hopefully, my technorati tags will provide resources for me to widen my understanding of the nuances by finding related posts and others involved in this decision.
Need to Get Back to Blogging or A Forced Post to Return to a Good Habit
In the last month, my role (and the roles of many of my colleagues) has changed. I am now the Director of User Services, thus there is much to get up to speed on and blogging about educational technology things seems a little unnatural. (I assume I will return to that topic in the future but we’ll have to wait and see.)
In the meantime, I have felt drawn to blogging as it has been a great avenue for working out things before going live but have not found the right thing (or voice) to write. For some reason I haven’t felt comfortable working through the ideas publicly, even though I know that doing so would produce clarity. Anyways, I’m over that (or forcing myself to be over that) and blogging again as to minimize my stammering in meeting I must now attend.
How all the changes came to be was through a reorganization that redistributed the Office of Educational Technology staff to meet the needs of the new organization. Two instructional Technologists moved to the library to assist with the library becoming the center for teaching and learning on campus and the other two instructional technologist (me being one of them) joined with the Help Desk Manager, a Senior Technician and a User Support Specialist to form the User Services Group. While it is unclear exactly what will become of it I do know that for our group to be successful we need to share our expertise and help educate the college community to become more self-sufficient in their technology use. Fortunately, this group consists of a great group of professionals with the right skill sets in hardware support, project management, instructional design, needs assessment, and providing front-line technology support not to mention a sincere commitment to excellent customer services.
I know that many of you that follow my posts are much more entrenched in teaching and learning than what I will be in my new position but I hope that you will continue to follow and challenge me to bring good teaching/learning practices to the support structures I will develop with my new colleagues. If you know of people in user support or help desk management would you mind pointing me towards them, their blog, or them to my blog.
June 15, 2007
links for 2007-06-16
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Educational uses of the iPhone?
NITLE workshop on Visual Literacy
Weeks ago I started a category to post ideas of ways to connect the web2.0y technologies and mindsets with the liberal arts philosophy. In particular how such technologies can be incorporated into Allegheny’s First Seminar program that’s focused on writing, communication, and research. My first post was pretty much a mind fart of the ideas floating in my head as I drove to work. With my new role (more on that later, maybe much later) at the college I have not had the time nor the inspiration to think more deeply about these ideas.
Today I came across a NITLE workshop on Visual Literacy. I think incorporating visual literacy into the liberal arts curriculum is appropriate as much of the information we receive in this day and age is not merely text or spoken but images (or moving images).
Have others at liberal arts colleges started to incorporate such competencies into their liberal arts/general education courses? If so links to examples would be appreciated.
