Rainie, L. (2011). Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/E-readers-and-tablets.aspx
If you have any feedback, or suggestions for future topics, please add your comments below.
You may have seen posts on facebook referencing collections (recipes, home goods, clothing, etc) on pinterest. If you are not familiar with this new site, pinterest allows you to collect images from the web and organize them into digital “pin boards”. When you “pin” content from a web site to your pinterest account you can categorize it and the original web address is included in the “pin” description.
Mashableclaims that there is evidence that Pinterest “has cracked the current list of top social networks” and it is still by invite only (I requested an invited and received one fairly quickly). The current user base is made up of mostly women and upon visiting the site this is apparent in the vast number of fashion, art, food and home related images. I started using the site to keep a collection of “wish list” items for the house or cute clothes for the kids.
In addition to personal interest, pinterest is a fun and visually inspiring way to share a collection (any collection) of digital content. For example, teachers can share content related to lesson plans, materials for the classroom, images for class discussion (with other teachers, parents or students) as well as other educational content. A great example is Kids Learning for Life, a personal pin board created by a mother (and blogger, artist and crafter), which serves as a model for what others can do and share.
For information on how to get started visit Pinterest to request an account. Instructions on how to get started are provided by Mashable at A Beginner’s Guide and 13 Tips for Cutting Edge Users. Happy pinning!!
Reposted from Jennifer Demski at Campus Technology
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5 Tips for Blogging
- Have a clear pedagogical purpose for incorporating blogs into the instruction, and clearly state the purpose and requirements of student blogging on the class syllabus. “Students need to see a purpose for the blog, and they need guidelines for entries and comments,” explains Stuart Glogoff, senior consultant in the Office of Instruction and Assessment at the University of Arizona. “In the cases where faculty have incorporated blogs without establishing their purpose, student participation has been uniformly low.”
- Blog contributions and comments should be a graded element of the course. “Your grade is your currency for your course,” explains Ruth Reynard, associate professor of education and the director of the Center for Instructional Technology at Trevecca Nazarene University (TN). “If you don’t assign a score to blogging, students aren’t going to take it seriously or treat it as a priority because they’re too busy doing the work that they’re earning scores for.”
- Don’t assume that students are familiar with the practical aspects of blogging. Exercises on uploading images and videos, embedding text links, and writing constructive comments on peer blogs should be required before content-specific blog entries are due.
- Model best practices by contributing to your own blog and commenting on students’ blogs. “There’s no shortcut to this,” advises Reynard. “If you don’t comment, then students feel as if they’re talking to the air. Commenting gives you the opportunity to connect directly with each student, and makes students feel as though they’re getting direct tutoring, which is actually the best way to teach.”
- Simplify navigation between student blogs by having students subscribe to each other’s blogs via RSS feeds, dividing students into small groups to comment on each other’s work, or building a mother blog–a front page for the course that aggregates recent blog posts, comments, updates from course-related websites, and social-networking feeds. “I like the mother blog because it’s a great lesson in how to make the web work for you,” explains Gardner Campbell, director of professional development and innovative initiatives in the Division of Learning Technologies at Virginia Tech. “Understanding how to create a site where chosen content is aggregated onto a single page is a best practice, not just for the classroom but for living on the web in general.”
Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet?
As we begin 2012, why not expand your technical knowledge by attending a few classes. The TLTC is offering some of our most popular classes for faculty and administrators. Please click on the appropriate Register button to see a course description and register. All classes are held in the Computer Training Lab located on the lower level of the Walsh Library.
Hope to see you in 2012!
Microsoft Office
Introduction to PowerPoint
Monday, 1/9/12, 1:00pm Register
PowerPoint Presentations: Advanced Techniques
Friday, 1/6/12, 11:00am Register
Thursday, 1/19/12, 3:00pm Register
Tuesday, 1/24/12, 11:00am Register
Introduction to Excel
Thursday, 1/19/12, 11:00am Register
Using Formulas in Excel
Friday, 1/6/12, 9:30am Register
Monday, 1/23/12, 1:00pm Register
Using Database Functions in Excel
Tuesday, 1/10/12, 11:00am Register
Monday, 1/30/12, 11:00am Register
Creating and Designing Excel Charts
Tuesday, 1/10/12, 9:30am Register
Friday, 1/27/12, 1:00pm Register
Creating a Mail Merge in Word
Friday, 1/6/12, 2:30pm Register
Wednesday, 1/25/12, 1:00pm Register
Format Professional Looking Documents in Word
Tuesday, 1/10/12, 2:30pm Register
Thursday, 1/26/12, 11:00am Register
Managing Your E-Mail
Friday, 1/13/12, 9:30am Register
Organizing and Managing Your Computer Files
Thursday, 1/5/12, 2:30pm Register
Friday, 1/13/12, 11:30am Register
Working in the Cloud!
Thursday, 1/5/12, 1:00pm Register
Tuesday, 1/10/12, 1:00pm Register
Social Media
Let’s Collaborate
Friday, 1/6/12, 1:00pm Register
Using Twitter to Make Connections
Friday, 1/13/12, 1:00pm Register
Blackboard
Getting Started with Blackboard
Monday, 1/9/12, 9:30am Register
Friday, 1/20/12, 11:00am Register
Tuesday, 1/24/12, 3:00pm Register
Blackboard Assessment Tools
Monday, 1/9/12, 11:00am Register
Friday, 1/20/12, 2:30pm Register
Blackboard Grade Center I
Friday, 1/20/12, 1:00pm Register
Thursday, 1/26/12, 3:00pm Register
Blackboard Grade Center II
Friday, 1/27/12, 9:30am Register
Archiving or Copying a Blackboard Course (Webinars)
Friday, 1/20/12, 9:30am Register
Wednesday, 1/25/12, 4:00pm Register
Friday, 1/27/12, 11:30am Register
Monday, 1/30/12, 4:00pm Register
You can use your phone or table to manage your WordPress blog with Automatic’s WordPress apps. WordPress for Android can be downloaded and installed from the Android Market, and WordPress for BlackBerry, WordPress for iOS and WordPress for Nokia are also available.
Once you’ve got it, use the simple setup instructions to point it at the URL of your blog, put in your username and password, and connect. You can add as many blogs as you have, whether they’re in WordPress.com, self-hosted, or hosted here at TLTC.
Automatic’s WordPress apps let you can post and edit pages, work with categories and tags. What I found to be the coolest feature was it integrates with the device’s built-in camera. So in addition to be able to upload or link to an image or video, you can just take a new one, and it all happens seamlessly. For blogging on the go, what could be better?
It also gives you the usual top-bar notice when there’s a comment to be moderated, which is helpful. You can do it all from one place.
The Teaching, Learning, Technology Center (TLTC) presents its 2011 Faculty Boot Camp starting on Monday, September 19, 2011 and running through Friday, September 30. Workshops will cover a variety of topics including Facebook, Twitter, Blackboard, Images, Wikis, Blogs, Dropbox, Evernote, DyKnow, QR Codes, Google and the new Android Tablets. Each participant will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win prizes at the end of Faculty Boot Camp. The drawing will be held on September 30, 2011. For more information, times, and dates of sessions click here.
If you are looking for a way to enliven your classes, introduce current events, or use real-world examples to bring subjects to life, we have a new resource for you! NBC LEARN is a collection of videos, documents, and images that you can access and use right in Blackboard.
In NBC LEARN, you will have access to:
Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News anchor, discusses the NBC LEARN archive (3 mins): http://www.nbclearn.com/promo
Learn how to embed NBC video in Blackboard:
http://ondemand.blackboard.com/r91/movies/bb91_course_content_NBC_TOC.htm
If you would like to learn more about this exciting new tool, we will be hosting a webinar offered by NBC Learn on Thursday, July 21, 2011 from 10AM – 11AM in the ITV Room on the ground floor of Walsh Library. No registration is required. We hope to see you there!
It has become easier than ever to share your PowerPoints with others, wherever they might be located. This session will cover different options available, techniques to protect your content, embedding your presentations into a blog or website and decreasing the file size of your presentation.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
10:00 am – 11:00 am
CTC Classroom
~ This session is part of the TLTC Visual Media Series – Summer 2011
Presentation:
sharing_powerpoints_summer2011
CTC: Working with Images (Flickr/Google)
Images can be utilized for a wide variety of purposes, including enhancing presentations, starting a discussion, documenting a project or event, or advertizing a resource or an event.
This workshop will cover popular methods for locating images – Flickr and Google Images. With each tool we will cover filtering searches to display content that is either in the public domain or labeled for reuse. We will also explore the Flickr Commons – a collection of images in the public domain from a variety of sources including The U.S. National Archives, The Library of Congress, George Eastman House, and The National Archives UK.
Please see below for a copy of the presentation and handout materials. As always, please contact your Instructional Designer for additional information on this or any other topic.
The TLTC Summer Series event – Developing and Using Multimedia in Your Class – was held on June 15th 2011. This session focused on the following:
The access to a variety of multimedia, either preexisitng or self-created, is growing exponentially. Using such visuals can positively impact teaching and learning by presenting concepts in different ways and to reinforce skills. Conversely, improper use of these materials can impede learning by adding a distraction or excess information therefore causing confusion. This session will demonstrate various multimedia tools and their place in teaching and learning. Best practices for integrating preexisting media as well as best practices for self-created materials will be discussed.
Please see below for a copy of the presentation and handout materials. As always, please contact your Instructional Designer for additional information on this or any other topic.
Presentation
Resources
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