Podcast: Download (25.2MB)

Summer is upon us, and to celebrate, hosts Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley run down their summer reading lists. In additon, they have news about a new faculty blogger on Soapbox and the upcoming NITLE Moodle Users Group Meeting, discuss an interesting example of classroom journalism using blogging and Google Maps, and cheer the return of venerable web development web site WebMonkey.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• 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

• Blogging at Soapbox
  • Peter A Zani’s blogging from out West: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~soapbox
    
• NITLE Moodle Users Group Meeting
  
  • Tacoma Here We Come! Courtney and Ken will be presenting at the Nitle Moodle Users Group Meeting at the University of Puget Sound in June; Courtney has three sessions, Ken has two.
• Blackboard will be retired July 1, 2008
  
  • Lafayette will be switching to Moodle fulltime as of July 2008. If you need help getting your stuff out of Blackboard contact Courtney Bentley at bentleyc@lafayette.edu.
• First-Year Students: Welcome online!
  
  • New students should have received their orientation CDs by now.

Tech News

• Summer Reading Lists
  • On Ken’s List:
    • John Scalzi’s The Last Colony – intergalactic war novel
    • Neil Stephenson’s Quicksilver – adventures in science during the Age of
      Enlightenment
    • John
      Varley‘s The Golden Globe –
      Humans get kicked off Earth by aliens and are forced to live at the edge
      of the solar system.
    • Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven – A man’s dreams can reshape
      reality.
    • J.C. Hutchins’ 7th Son – Seven clones have to hunt down their
      progenitor, John Alpha who’s hellbent on destruction.
  • Courtney’s List
    • Distinctively American: The residential liberal arts college – Koblik
      and Graudard
    • Rethinking University Teaching: a framework for the effective use of
      learning technologies – Diana Laurillard
    • Reframing organizations – Lee Bolman
    • Certain Girls – Jennifer Weiner
• 
  Digital Journalism: Google Maps and Blogging in San Francisco
  • 
    http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2008/05/digital-journalism.html
    
• 
  Mac OS 10.5.3 now syncs Address Book with Google Contacts
  • But that may not be a good thing (as Google Contacts has EVERYONE you ever
    e-mailed, which can make a mess of you local address book). Only works for
    those with iPhones and iPod touches.
  • http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1141
    

Help News

• 
  Webmonkey Returns
  • The venerable web development web site is back in wiki/blog form. Back in
    the day, it was a great resource for learning about web development,
    including everything from CSS to JavaScript to HTML. It’s back in a new
    form, but looks to have lots of good content (e.g. downloadable reference
    guides, user-contributed/editable tutorials, and a blog).
  • 
    http://www.webmonkey.com/
    
• Workshops
  • MS Publisher, June 3
  • Moodle Quickstart, June 5
  • Recording Audio & Podcasts, June 10
  • Moodle for Depts & Orgs, July 12

Contact Us

• itsblog@lafayette.edu