News of the launch of Lafayette's Moodle pilot program and the Leopard Shorts Digital Media Competition lead off the ITS Coffee Break this week. Tech news finds Blackboard pledging not to sue open source course management systems and those who use them for infringing on its patents, while Apple Inc. and the Beatles' Apple Corp. resolve their long running trademark dispute. Finally, Help News reviews the new Moodle, iTunes U and Word documentation that's been posted to the ITS web site, previews upcoming workshops, and offers a quick tip on working with the iTunes Music Store's FairPlay authorization system.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• Download the MP3 directly
• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes

Show Notes

ITS News

• Moodle Pilot Launches
  • Moodle went live with the start of the spring semester. All told, 8 faculty, 13 classes and 340 students are taking part in the spring pilot, which is aimed at testing out the software, finding the bugs, and seeing how it compares to blackboard.
  • Ken & Courtney recently went to a NERCOMP conference focusing on Moodle at liberal arts colleges, and it was great to hear from places like Smith College, which have successfully migrated away from Blackboard and are now running more active courses in Moodle than they were under Blackboard.
  • Also taking part in the NITLE Moodle Exchange, in which instructional technologists and web programmers from various liberal arts colleges talk about how to best deploy and use Moodle.
  • http://moodle.lafayette.edu
• Leopard Shorts Digital Media Competition and iTunes U Launches
  • Itching to work with audio or video, but were waiting for the right motivation? Wait no longer — the Leopard Shorts Lafayette Digital Media Competition is here. Being held in the spring semester, features audio and video created by folks at Lafayette and showcased on iTunes U, Lafayette's new digital media hosting service.
• Article in The Lafayette about iTunes U / Moodle
  • Read the article

Tech News

• Blackboard Open Source Software Patent Pledge
  
  • Blackboard recently pledged not to sue any open source or home-grown course management software providers or users. So Sakai and Moodle are safe, as are their various open source kin … but if a company bundles these products with its own proprietary software, then they're fair game. Or so says Blackboard.
  • Read Blackboard's Pledge.
  • Read EDUCAUSE's response (PDF).
  • Background on the case through No Education Patents.
• Apple Inc., Beatles' Apple Corp. Reach Trademark Agreement; iTunes Will Sell Beatles Music
  
  • Read the press release.
  • Read the Cult of Mac's report on the deal.

Help News

• New Help Documentation
  • How to use iTUnes U
  • iTunes U FAQ
  • Student Guide to Moodle
  • Moodle FAQ
  • Merging Microsoft Documents
• Upcoming Workshops
  
  • Audio editing with Audacity, late afternoon web design workshops.
• Quick Help: How to deauthorize computers within the iTunes Music Store
  
  1. Click iTunes Store in the Source pane.
  2. If you're not signed in to the store, click the Account button, then enter your account name and password.
  3. Click the Account button again (your ID appears on the button), enter your password, and then click View Account.
  4. In the Account Information window, click Deauthorize All

Contacting the Podcast

• Questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to itsblog@lafayette.edu.