Podcast: Download (Duration: 20:00 — 18.5MB)

On this edition of the ITS Coffee Break hosts Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley take a look at NITLE Camp and Moodle Hack/Doc Fest, both occurring at DePauw University in June and then let new students know when they can expect to receive their Network IDs.

In Tech News they offer a hands-on report about the department’s new iPad, take a look at the anti-Facebook Diaspora project, and speculate on the arrival of the Steam game download service for Macs. Finally in Help News they explain how to get your newly-minted WordPress site linked to from the larger Lafayette web presence, and rundown a list of summer workshops.

Getting the Podcast

• Download the MP3 directly
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ITS News

• NITLE Camp at DePauw University: NITLE’s annual “Camp” event happens this June, including a day dedicated to Moodle.
  • Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana
  • Learn more.
• Moodle Hack/Doc Fest at DePauw University: The sixth Hack/Doc Fest takes place immediately after the Moodle component of NITLE Camp.
  • June  23-25, 2010 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana
  • Learn more.
• New Student IDs and information: Letters should be arriving from the Dean of the College office and include Network IDs and passwords as well as Lnumbers and PINs.
  • Additional information in the Technology Guide for New Students.

Tech News

• Diaspora Project: Building the Anti-Facebook: Four students at NYU are hoping to build an open source alternative to the social networking juggernaut.
  • Read the article.
• The iPad arrives: Our department iPad has arrived. It’s shiny … but is it useful?
  • Advantages: Text looks beautiful. Easy to read (most) PDFs with the right app, comics are beautiful, web browsing is easy (but social bookmarking is not).
  • App Suggestions
    • Apps we like: Goodreader. Marvel Comics. Pandora. Twitterific (lists are useful again!)
    • Apps we don’t like: Gdocs.
    • Apps we want: MLB At Bat
• Steam on the Mac
  • Valve has released Steam for the Mac. And while this may be of limited educational technology, it also allows you to download the excellent puzzle game Portal for free. Portal is a first person game in which you are given a gun that creates two kinds of portals: entrances and exits. This allows you to quickly and easily move around the map, but it also allows you to hack gravity (momemtum follows you through a portal, so if you “fall” into an entrance portal, but the exit portal is on a wall, you will shoot out across the room. Fun for the whole family.

Help News

• Getting your web site live and linked to from the college Web site
  • Academic and administrative web sites
  • For Student Organizations
• Upcoming Workshops
• Numerous workshops have been posted to the ITS web site on topics ranging from web editing to WordPress to Opinio. Check them out on the ITS web site:
• http://its.lafayette.edu/pages/calendar

Contacting the Show

• We’re always looking for feedback. You can send a comment to itsblog@lafayette.edu or post a comment below.