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ITS Coffee Break for 10/18: EDUCAUSE, Google News, Second Life Reuters Bureau

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Courtney Bentley reports on her recent trip to Educause, the education technology conference, including news about Duke's Digital Initiative, work on collaborative learning spaces, podcasting, and a Flash-based economics course. In tech news, Google's acquisition of YouTube and its release of its “web office” product Google Docs and Spreadsheets take center stage. In Help News there's a slew of workshop announcements, including details about the upcoming administrative computer training workshops.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

Show Notes

ITS News

  • Things Courtney heard about at Educause:
    • Duke Digital initiative
      • Let the technology drive the project and innovation
      • Add mic adapter to iPods to do student projects, interviews, record service learning, foreign language exercises
      • About moving special projects to phased support
    • Strategic moves
      • Collaborative learning spaces
        • Digital video
        • Podcasting
      • Video conferencing
      • Mobile computing – tablets
      • Clickers
    • Univ of North Carolina at Greensboro – econ 201 an online game for college credit
      • 8 week, Flash-based game that is for Principles of Microeconomics credit
      • Development guided by Dr Jeff Sarbaum, prof of econ
      • The game has eight levels, each focusing on a fundamental economic concept–  there are three main “quests” in each level. Students will be required to ‘pass” a series of skill assessments before being allowed to move to the next level.
      • http://econ201.uncg.edu/dcl/econ201/

Tech news

Help News

ITS Coffee Break: 10/9/2006: Gamer Survey, Teaching & Learning, Course Podcasting, Web Surveys

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This week's edition of the Coffee Break announces the ITS Gamer Server Survey, which looks at ways to improve network speed for gamers and non-gamers by deploying a game server on campus and then discusses the proposed Center for Teaching and Learning at Lafayette. In Tech News, Ken and Courtney look at Kansas State University's new podcasting initiative that plans to make 6,000 class podcasts available to students. In Help News, they discuss the upcoming "Design and Administer Effective Web Surveys" workshop being given via web conference by Stephen Porter, Director, Institutional Research, Wesleyan University.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

Show Notes

ITS News

  • Gamer Server Survey:
  • Center for Teaching and Learning:
    • Lafayette is discussing establishing a Center for Teaching and Learning — Courtney Bentley offers some thoughts on instructional technology tie-ins. You can find a class setup to discuss the Center in Blackboard:
    • http://class.lafayette.edu

Tech News

  • Kansas State University Launches World's Largest Course Podcasting Initiative

    • The Kansas City InfoZine reports: "
      Kansas State University announced today its use of Tegrity Campus to convert an unprecedented 6,000 recorded classes to enhanced podcasts. K-State plans to have all 6,000 class podcasts available to its students this year, making it by far the education realm's largest podcasting implementation worldwide."
    • http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/18027/

Help News

  • Workshop: Design and Administer Effective Web Surveys
    • Time: 1-2:30 p.m.
    • Location: Kirby 10
    • Instructor: Stephen Porter, Director, Institutional Research, Wesleyan University
    • Register for the workshop: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~its/help/workshop/registration?workshop=129
    • As the need for inexpensive, accurate information increases, so too will the reliance on properly designed web surveys. Join us to review the fundamentals behind effective online surveys from both a technological and methodological perspective. This workshop is designed for those interested in moving from paper to web surveys, and will review the many aspects of designing and successfully administering a web survey with a high response rate.

ITS Coffee Break for 10/2/2006: Information Literacy, Alternative Publishing, CSS, eReader

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The information literacy brown bag to be hosted by Skillman Library on October 6 leads off this week's ITS Coffee Break. A look at tech news beyond Lafayette's campus finds science fiction author Cory Doctorw trying out some alternative methods of publishing fiction, lessons for those afraid of cascading style sheets, news about Sony's new Reader product for viewing digital books, and a list of higher education podcast feeds. Finally, hosts Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley look at ITS' upcoming workshop schedule, which includes “Acrobat I: Creating PDF Documents” and a host of training sessions for staff and administrators receiving new Lafayette computers.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

Show Notes

ITS News

  • Discussion on information literacy led by information literacy grant recipients Paul Barclay (history) and Jim Dearworth (biology)
    • Location: Gendebien Room, Skillman Library
    • Date: Friday, October 6, 12 noon. Lunch provided.
  • Tweaks to the ITS web site

Tech News

Help

  • Workshops
    • Monday, October 2, 2006 – PowerPoint I: Introduction to PowerPoint
    • Thursday, October 5, 2006 – Acrobat I: Creating PDF Documents
    • Rollout training
  • Workshop Schedule:

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