EDUCAUSE Live! Spotlight is a series of monthly Web seminars providing in-depth coverage of topics of interest to the EDUCAUSE community. The next seminar on Teaching with Digital Collections in the Undergraduate Curriculum is March 25 at 12:00pm CST.
The description of the seminar: Teaching with digital collections means collection development that is driven by faculty needs, flexible presentation tools, and web interfaces that help students understand visual resources in context.
For those of us teach or take online classes, the digital library collections can be a critical factor in developing syllabus and coursework. I'm excited because this session is led by a web services person and a technical reference librarian.
View the Archives of Past Seminars or Register Now!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Online campus gossips hide their faces.
Juicy Campus is a website founded in August 2007 which has "the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses."
So you could visit Juicy Campus and post whatever you want about whomever you want at your campus AND shield your identity.
From the CNN Story...
----
Juicy Campus and similar Web sites are protected under Communications Decency Act of 1996. The Act aims to shield Web publishers from liability for libelous comments posted by third parties. The section states "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
----
Right now the Juicy Campus site is down...but even if it wasn't I wouldn't have linked to it.
The site was started by a frat boy from Duke who will not reveal his identity. His parents must be so proud.
So you could visit Juicy Campus and post whatever you want about whomever you want at your campus AND shield your identity.
From the CNN Story...
----
Juicy Campus and similar Web sites are protected under Communications Decency Act of 1996. The Act aims to shield Web publishers from liability for libelous comments posted by third parties. The section states "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
----
Right now the Juicy Campus site is down...but even if it wasn't I wouldn't have linked to it.
The site was started by a frat boy from Duke who will not reveal his identity. His parents must be so proud.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Free Software Editor - Google Docs
Thanks to Ephrem Rabin for reminding me about Google Docs. Using Google Docs you can create and store documents, spreadsheets and presentations online and control others' access to them.
The programs you use to edit the documents are all browser based, but the look and feel is so similar to the Office Suite that you will think you are still using Office.
Ephrem suggested this to faculty members who wanted to allow students to edit documents, I suspect, because not all students have the Microsoft Office Suite.
Another alternative I suggested to him was to save Word docs as RTF (Rich Text Format). RTF will retain much of the formatting when a student opens the doc in Word, but a student can use Notepad or Wordpad (both included in Windows Operating System) to edit the doc as well.
The programs you use to edit the documents are all browser based, but the look and feel is so similar to the Office Suite that you will think you are still using Office.
Ephrem suggested this to faculty members who wanted to allow students to edit documents, I suspect, because not all students have the Microsoft Office Suite.
Another alternative I suggested to him was to save Word docs as RTF (Rich Text Format). RTF will retain much of the formatting when a student opens the doc in Word, but a student can use Notepad or Wordpad (both included in Windows Operating System) to edit the doc as well.
What Other Schools are Doing with Peoplesoft
Forgive my absence, I've been attending the HEUG Convention (Peoplesoft/Oracle Higher Education User Group) in Las Vegas. Although this year the Wheel of Fortune slot machine was kind to me, I miss last year's rush of presenting at the conference.
Very soon we will start the project to upgrade our Student Registration System, so it was great to see what version 9.0 looks like via presentations from other schools. I also learned that my alma mater, Northwestern University, has implemented the Oracle Portal (there are a bunch of different portals to choose from). They've done some cool things with it, but they haven't yet integrated it with their Student Registration System or HR Self Service System.
That's the stuff I'm looking to do!
Very soon we will start the project to upgrade our Student Registration System, so it was great to see what version 9.0 looks like via presentations from other schools. I also learned that my alma mater, Northwestern University, has implemented the Oracle Portal (there are a bunch of different portals to choose from). They've done some cool things with it, but they haven't yet integrated it with their Student Registration System or HR Self Service System.
That's the stuff I'm looking to do!
Monday, March 10, 2008
College Admissions Frenzy To Slow Down
From today's New York Times:
"Projections show that by next year or the year after, the annual number of high school graduates in the United States will peak at about 2.9 million after a 15-year climb. The number is then expected to decline until about 2015. Most universities expect this to translate into fewer applications and less selectivity, with most students probably finding it easier to get into college."
"Experts anticipate, for example, a decline in affluent high school graduates, and an increase in poor and working-class ones. In response, colleges and universities are already increasing their recruitment of students in high-growth states and expanding their financial-aid offerings to low-income students with academic potential."
This seems like a win for students. Who knows what it will be for college staff, though.
"Projections show that by next year or the year after, the annual number of high school graduates in the United States will peak at about 2.9 million after a 15-year climb. The number is then expected to decline until about 2015. Most universities expect this to translate into fewer applications and less selectivity, with most students probably finding it easier to get into college."
"Experts anticipate, for example, a decline in affluent high school graduates, and an increase in poor and working-class ones. In response, colleges and universities are already increasing their recruitment of students in high-growth states and expanding their financial-aid offerings to low-income students with academic potential."
This seems like a win for students. Who knows what it will be for college staff, though.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Free Fridays: Take Free Classes at MIT
I can't guarantee you a free MIT degree, but I can guarantee that you'll enjoy 100's of lectures and lessons from MIT's OpenCourseWare Program. Developed by MIT faculty in 2001, OpenCourseWare allows any visitor to the website to watch lectures and download course materials just as MIT students would. It would be as if we launched our Blackboard Server for all the world to view all courses.
MIT and their faculty are "paying it forward". In just 6 short years they have amassed a library of over 1800 courses in 33 disciplines- the entire MIT curriculum.
Some courses have audio and video (Computer System Engineering), some syllabus and reading assignments (Godzilla and the Bullet Train: Technology and Culture in Modern Japan).
As a faculty member, I would be very interested in who ones the intellectual property of the courses. Their FAQ states that faculty retain ownership of most materials prepared for MIT OpenCourseWare.
Anyway, in case you are bored tonight, take some classes MIT. You'll feel like a college kid all over again!
MIT and their faculty are "paying it forward". In just 6 short years they have amassed a library of over 1800 courses in 33 disciplines- the entire MIT curriculum.
Some courses have audio and video (Computer System Engineering), some syllabus and reading assignments (Godzilla and the Bullet Train: Technology and Culture in Modern Japan).
As a faculty member, I would be very interested in who ones the intellectual property of the courses. Their FAQ states that faculty retain ownership of most materials prepared for MIT OpenCourseWare.
Anyway, in case you are bored tonight, take some classes MIT. You'll feel like a college kid all over again!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Free Image Shrinker
A friend of mine often asks me to shrink hi-res photos down for her. The original files are usually several MGs, print quality, and she usually wants to use them in an email newsletter, or on the web.
Tonight I found
http://www.shrinkpictures.com/
which did a great job of shrinking an image that was 2800kbs to 34kbs when I selected the default settings.
In case you ever need to shrink an image but aren't an image editor (PSD) user. If you want to learn more about hi res/low res, here's a tutorial.
Tonight I found
http://www.shrinkpictures.com/
which did a great job of shrinking an image that was 2800kbs to 34kbs when I selected the default settings.
In case you ever need to shrink an image but aren't an image editor (PSD) user. If you want to learn more about hi res/low res, here's a tutorial.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Using Songs to Teach Percentages and Flow Charting
If you are looking for a new way to teach flow charting and/or percentages and/or geography to your students, might I suggest these techniques?
When Wal-mart Experts Blog
After seeing The High Cost of Low Price and doing some research on my own, I don't shop at Wal-mart. But I was drawn to their new "experts" blog, Check Out Blog . The blog experts are in Gaming, Sustainability, Gadgets, Lawn and Garden and Movies.
Some of the recent posts:
$500 Laptops
Hot Toys for Christmas 2008
Wal-mart Chooses a Hi-Def Platform
I liked reading this blog. I learned stuff.
Because Wal-mart is so huge, I feel as if (Wal-mart or) this blog might be able to wag the dog. If the Wal-mart buyers/experts think the new Elmo will be the new hot toy, does that it mean will be? And if it is, is it because the Wal-mart expert picked it or because it really is the new hot toy? If Wal-mart picks Blu-ray as their Hi-def choice...does that mean Blu-ray will survive and HD will cease to exist?
I might not be explaining myself properly...I'm *supposed* to be memorizing lines for the musical NINE...but I'm clearly blogging.
Some of the recent posts:
$500 Laptops
Hot Toys for Christmas 2008
Wal-mart Chooses a Hi-Def Platform
I liked reading this blog. I learned stuff.
Because Wal-mart is so huge, I feel as if (Wal-mart or) this blog might be able to wag the dog. If the Wal-mart buyers/experts think the new Elmo will be the new hot toy, does that it mean will be? And if it is, is it because the Wal-mart expert picked it or because it really is the new hot toy? If Wal-mart picks Blu-ray as their Hi-def choice...does that mean Blu-ray will survive and HD will cease to exist?
I might not be explaining myself properly...I'm *supposed* to be memorizing lines for the musical NINE...but I'm clearly blogging.
Monday, March 3, 2008
You've Got Your Face In My Book
According to Youth Trends, Facebook is again the top web site visited by both male and female college students.Note that the college students they polled are ages 18-24. The average age of our (meaning CCC's) students is 27.
But we do have 3800 members of our Facebook Organization...in case you want to join.
Be my friend. Come on. Everyone's doing it.
My High School Transcript
I'm applying for a grant that requires me to submit my ACT score. If you've ever tried to get an ACT score from the dark ages, you'll know that it costs $30.00 and, at a minimum, takes 4 days to be received.So instead I headed down to my old high school in Oak Lawn (which is now a daycare facility!) to fetch my high school transcript.
Please note the rather large list of after school activities. Please also note that I was NEVER on the bowling team. That's just a lie. Chess Club, yes. Show Choir, yes. Bowling Team?! No.
Makes me wonder what else on my transcript is wrong. I'm glad that we now have transcripts in databases... because computers never make mistakes. No computer would ever accuse me of being on the bowling team, because computers know better.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Free Downloadable College Textbooks
At Freeload Press textbooks are free for students. Before they download the textbook, students complete a short survey and then advertisements within the textbooks pay for the cost. The publishers still get paid and students get their textbook at no cost.
There are only 50 books listed (lots of math and science) now, but hopefully the list will grow. I would guess lots of students are accustomed to reading on screen.
There are only 50 books listed (lots of math and science) now, but hopefully the list will grow. I would guess lots of students are accustomed to reading on screen.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Free Friday - Resources from the Government
Today's free Friday is about the Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) website.
FREE makes it easier to find teaching and learning resources from the federal government. More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly.
I'm impressed that FREE has managed to create such a thorough cataloging of the sites that the Federal Government has funded.
The complete subject map is extensive. Included: 37 Women's History websites, in case you want to get a jump start on Women's History Month (March).
The FREE site itself is well organized. Some of the FREE resource sites have lousy interfaces, but usually the quality of the content makes up for it. For example one rather low-end interface site has over 200 songs (?) written about Abe Lincoln and the Civil War, including his funeral march as it was originally printed.
But I don't want to leave you on a somber note, so here is Abe's 1964 Campaign song, in four part harmony for the big finale!
FREE makes it easier to find teaching and learning resources from the federal government. More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly.
I'm impressed that FREE has managed to create such a thorough cataloging of the sites that the Federal Government has funded.
The complete subject map is extensive. Included: 37 Women's History websites, in case you want to get a jump start on Women's History Month (March).
The FREE site itself is well organized. Some of the FREE resource sites have lousy interfaces, but usually the quality of the content makes up for it. For example one rather low-end interface site has over 200 songs (?) written about Abe Lincoln and the Civil War, including his funeral march as it was originally printed.
But I don't want to leave you on a somber note, so here is Abe's 1964 Campaign song, in four part harmony for the big finale!
More Dollars for Prisons, Less Dollars for College
According to a report published by the Pew Charitable Trusts on Thursday, five states are spending more money on prisons than they are on colleges.
Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware
Other states aren't far behind, attributed mostly to mandatory state sentencing that creates overpopulation in prisons.
Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and Delaware
Other states aren't far behind, attributed mostly to mandatory state sentencing that creates overpopulation in prisons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)