ITS Coffee Break: Teaching & Audio, Hack/Doc Fest, Droid, DARPA

On this episode of the ITS Coffee Break hosts Courtney Bentley and Ken Newquist discuss Chris Phillips’ essay “I Hear America Reading: Using Digital Audio to Teach American Poetry”, which appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Teaching American Literature and announce Moodle Hack/Doc Fest V, which will be held at Lafayette College.

In Tech News they talk about Windows 7 testing, the new Droid smartphone, and DARPA’s new $40,000 balloon hunting challenge. Finally in Help News they take a look at the Powerpress plugin for WordPress and announce a new smartboard workshop being held in just-renovated Scott Hall.

Getting the Podcast

ITS News

  • Chris Phillips’ essay “I Hear America Reading: Using Digital Audio to Teach American Poetry” appeared in the Summer 2009 (Volume 3, Issue 1) of Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice.
  • Moodle Hack/Doc Fest V at Lafayette College
    • January 5-7, 2009
    • The event will feature programmers and instructional technologists coming together to improve Moodle. We expect to continue work on CLAMP’s Moodle: Liberal Arts Edition project, fix outstanding Moodle bugs, and craft new training materials. We also hope to test drive Moodle 2.0, which is scheduled for a beta release at the end of 2009.
  • Windows 7 evaluation [Read the story]
    • ITS is currently evaluating the Windows 7 operating system to make sure it is fully compatible with common campus applications and network services. Results of that evaluation will be reported here.

Technology News

  • We have Wave!
  • Register.com: DARPA issues balloon-hunting challenge [Read the story]
    • To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA’s issued a challenge: find 10 red balloons hidden around the United States and win $40,000.
    • They expect social media to play a big role role in finding the balloons.
  • Google Droid
    • Featuring Android 2.0, the new Droid phones are expected to make a serious run at the iPhone’s functionality.

Help News

  • WordPress at a Glance: Powerpress
    • Powerpress is a plugin by Blubrry that supports audio and video podcasting.
    • Inserts an audio or video flash player on to the page so that people can listen to the podcast on your web site.
    • Tailors your podcast’s RSS feed to meet Apple’s standards for the iTunes Podcast Directory.
    • Incorporates stat tracking for downloads (but you need to sign up for a Bluberry account; note that Google Analytics can also track downloads.
    • We use Powerpress for the ITS Coffee break.
    • Visit the Powerpress home page.
  • New Smart Board sessions in Scott Hall 104 – Check the ITS Calendar for session times and details.
  • WordPress workshops continue

2 thoughts on “ITS Coffee Break: Teaching & Audio, Hack/Doc Fest, Droid, DARPA

  1. Pingback: Foundation's Edge » More Coffee Please!

  2. Pingback: ITS Coffee Break for 11/4 – Sites at Lafayette

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