April 2008 Archives

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Learning in a Virtual Environment: Managing Emergency Preparedness and Health Security using Second Life as a Teaching Tool.

Anne Hewitt and Susan Spencer recently presented with Ramesh Ramloll from Play2Train at the TCC 2008 World Wide Online Conference regarding the integration of a virtual learning scenario in a Master in Healthcare Administration (MHA) course.

Industry is quickly discovering the advantages of virtual worlds. Hundreds of corporations are taking the plunge and creating a presence in Second Life. We recently stumbled across a portal, VBusiness, dedicated to supporting these efforts through an advertisement for an in world expo. The VBusiness expo is a "dedicated business focus entry into Second Life".

VBusiness Mission: Providing a dedicated resource and entry point for corporations in Second Life gives us all the opportunity to promote business in virtual worlds. Through content partners, corporate sponsors and educators, vBusiness Central will become an invaluable source of information for companies and play an important role in virtual worlds adoption in 2008.

For more information visit: http://cleverzebra.com/vbusiness/expo

There's been a lot of talk lately about all the technology changes occurring at Seton Hall in the next 9 months. This has caused some consternation amongst users especially concerning Z: drives and the Lotus Notes databases they now use. I'll try to clear it up as best I can.

The network Z: drives will be eliminated for everyone in May, 08. If you currently have files on that network drive, you should move them off as soon as possible. You have options as to where to move them. One would be to the My Documents folder on your personal computer. A better choice would be to move them to the My Content area of Blackboard. This is a protected, internet-based file storage area that can be accessed by you from anywhere in the world through an internet connection. If you need to work at home, there's no need to e-mail the file to yourself prior to leaving work. Just save a copy to the My Content area and then access it through Blackboard from your internet connection at home. My Content is a great place to save files that you just can't afford to lose.

There are classes available at the Computer Training Center to show you how to manage this area of Blackboard. The class is called "Blackboard: Course and File Management". Click here to see the schedule.

The other hot topic around campus is Lotus Notes and it's databases. You may have heard that Notes will be replaced by Microsoft Outlook Exchange during the coming year. The question being asked most frequently by users is what will happen to the Notes databases we currently use like the Phone Directory, the class Registration database, the Resource Request database, etc. The answer is that all the Lotus Notes databases will remain available to users until they can be converted to another database software. You will still have the Notes software, you just won't be using it for e-mail.

I hope that helps. Come join us at a class at the CTC and keep checking back to our blog for further updates.

With Microsoft Journal, users can create hand-written notes, diagrams, and mathematical equations as they would with a traditional paper notepad.

Microsoft Journal will also allow you to digitally annotate any document on your Tablet PC by utilizing the Journal Note Writer Virtual Printer.

From any application, such as Acrobat Reader, select the Journal Note Writer from the list of available printers.

Zotero (zoh-TAIR-oh), available as a free extension to the Firefox browser, provides a citation management tool within a web browser environment. Zotero allows for the collection and organization of recourses as well as providing citations in multiple formats, including APA, Chicago, and MLA.

On Monday, May 12, 2008 the Teaching, Learning, & Technology Center will carry out a master deletion of Blackboard courses listed with the University Registrar for the Spring 06, Summer 06 and Fall 06 semesters. Once the process is complete these courses will no longer be available on MyWeb.shu.edu.

If you would like to have access to your 2006 Blackboard course materials in the future you will need to archive or export your course(s) before the master deletion on Monday, May 12th. Click here for instructions on how to archive your Blackboard courses.

To assist you with this process we are offering training sessions called Course and File Management in the Computer Training Center. Please register by visiting http://tltc.shu.edu/register

The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center's Faculty Innovation Grant program, now in its 5th year, complements CDI in achieving the objectives of the TLT Center's internal grant programs by providing small short term (up to one year) grants to individual faculty to explore how technology can improve student learning in one particular course. This year we received a tremendous amount of proposals from a variety of departments. The faculty review committee had a difficult time narrowing down the pool of applicants to eight outstanding proposals.

We are pleased to announce the award winners, the titles of their projects and their department/colleges.

Once again the Spring semester is winding down and the Summer is upon us. The TLT Center will be hosting the Summer Series which starts on May 19th and runs through August 13th. During this time, full day sessions will be held once a week on various topics such as, Virtual Worlds, Electronic Survey Research, Digital Storytelling, and Web 2.0 to name a few. The Summer is the perfect time to take advantage of the workshops that you may not always be able to attend during the active semesters. Look for the full Summer Series schedule which will be available in early May. We look forward to seeing you there!

The Vista tip of the day is....... Don't Panic! With all the talk of change and whether or not this or that will work, the best thing to do is keep a clam head. As soon as you do that the answers will come your way. A major concern has been the different hardware you might be using for your machines, i.e. the printer. If your printer or other device is more than a year old chances are it was not designed for vista. You can go online to the companies website and search for the proper vista drivers for your device. However, this is a give and take scenario so you should be aware that some of the capabilities of your device(s) might not be fully accessible (for the time being).
As with every new technology that is built there is a necessity for patience so that other technologies can adapt. In the case of using Firefox or Safari as an alternative internet browser, the companies that made them are working to develop a version that will do its job. So, in the meantime, use an alternative program (similar programs that were designed for vista) or work around the situation as best you can and I will assure you that patience and understanding will make the time pass ever more quickly.

The start of the summer classes is just around the corner, and Windows Vista is now on campus! If you use a textbook that comes with bundled software, please contact the publisher to see if the software is compatible with Windows Vista.

If you would like to use software that has not been identified as Windows Vista compatible, it may still be possible to use the software by utilizing the Vista Compatibility Mode:

1. Right Click on the shortcut to the application

2. Select Properties

3. Select the Compatibility Tab

4. Check 'Run this program in compatibility mode'

5. Select 'Windows XP Service Pack 2' from the pull down menu

Additional information is available at:
http://windows.about.com/od/windowsvistatutorials/ss/run_compatibili.htm

On Thursday, April 17 the TLTC sponsored a technology showcase for students and faculty in the College of Education covering media services, training opportunities, 2007 Microsoft Office Preview and Google and web tools for pre-service teachers. One of the most interesting Google tools covered was Google Notebook by Joe Martinelli, faculty guest speaker from the College of Education. One of Google's many web based applications, Notebook allows for the creation of multiple online notebooks that can be accessed from any computer or mobile phone. Joe pointed out that one of best features of the programs was the ability of the user to add to their notebook clippings of text, images and links from web site, providing students with a way to gather information for a research paper. The user can also publish their notebooks.

One can take a tour through this Google applicaton to find out more about the individual features.

Lecture123 is a software tool that allows faculty to publish their lectures, presentations, and other classroom sessions and to synch these sessions with PowerPoint files and audio narration. These published lectures can then be downloaded to a computer, iPod, or even cell phone for viewing. Students can also ask questions and send comments by posting a note in the presentation file directly on the slide that needs clarification.

On Tuesday, April 29th, we hope you will join us for a hands-on workshop in the morning and a faculty panel in the afternoon! Lunch will be served! Click here to register for the day!

Dr. Cherubim Quizon, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, was awarded a FIG (Faculty Innovation Grant) from the TLTC for the 2007-2008 academic year. The title of the project was Digital Stories in the Teaching of Southeast Asian Peoples and Cultures. This project, implemented in Dr. Quizon's Southeast Asia Culture course this Spring, incorporated the pedagogical concept of collective knowledge gathering and research in an effort to develop student Web 2.0 technology skills while fostering the melding and combining of many different types of resources to create new artifacts.

Students were required to create digital stories that demonstrated the connection between various pieces of information as well as the application of critical thinking skills to identify, define, compare and relate seemingly discrete/bounded cultural identities for the purpose of better understanding the dynamic relationship between cultural change and cultural continuity.

Dr. Quizon's course project has also created a resource that can be used by the larger academic community by students, faculty and researchers of various disciplines. This resource has the ability to be enhanced by future classes, thus encouraging the collaborative construction of knowledge using shared spaces.

Below are two examples of the wonderful and inspiring work of Dr. Quizon's students. The first digital story, created by Gurvaneet Sahota, won first prize in the multimedia category of SHU's Annual Student Technology Showcase which was held on April 15, 2008.

The Today Show recently highlighted an educational web site that supports an important social cause. Freerice.com allows users to practice their vocabulary skills. Each time a user correctly matches a word with the definition 20 grains of rice are donated to support the World Food Programme. The freerice.com is a not for profit site, the rice is donated by various sponsors.

Be sure to test your vocabulary skills and support a worthwhile cause at the same time.

5th Annual Student Technology Showcase hosted by the Best Practices Committee of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable was held on April 15th, 2008. Each year, the technology showcase highlights student work and projects, this year in the following four categories Digital Images, Multimedia, Website Design and Presentation. From over 50 submissions, judges from the Best Practices Committee awarded prizes for first place and honorable mention in each category.

On April 3rd and April 4th, the TLTC participated in the online NMC Symposium on Mashups. The many presentations provided invaluable resources for the educational community. During a session entitled Information Visualization Using Mashups and Web 2.0 Tools, two great tools were demonstrated for creating Mashups:

LaGuardia Community College, located in Long Island City NY, hosted an ePortfolio conference this past Friday. Seton Hall presented two presentations, one was a hands-on session that replicated the Covey 7 Habits of Effective Students ePortfolio assignment adopted by Freshman Studies. Hezal Patel, Mary Zedeck and Danielle Mirliss facilitated the session. Participants expressed a lot of interest in the Freshman Studies program and how the ePortfolio is integrated into the curriculum. The last part of the presentation allowed participants to use Google Page Creator to create the start of their own ePortfolio. To find out more about the conference visit: http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/conference/

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While taking a Copyright Compliance for Online Educators course, I learned about something called "deep linking". Deep linking occurs when you directly link to an article (for example) located within a website while bypassing the homepage. My first thought was "what's the problem". After further research, I learned that by linking directly to an article within a site, the viewer is skipping valuable information such as advertisers, possible copyright information, legal and contact information. Currently, the law in this area is muddy but lawsuits regarding deep linking are possible and have been happening. How does this impact education? Luckily the majority of complaints so far involve commercial sites where the link bypasses strategically placed advertising and branding however it is important to be aware of this possible infringement.

For faculty and students, directly linking (deep linking) to an article is the easiest and most efficient way to get to the source. However, some publishers and news agencies are claiming that deep linking is a violation of United States copyright law. Fair-use tends to protect educators a bit more from these suits but deep linking could become problematic. So what are we to do? A safe practice would be to provide a link to the homepage followed by instructions to get to the article.

Seton Hall began distributing new laptops to sophomores this week and these machines are now running Microsoft Vista and Office 2007. Since we all work in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, when you get your copy of Office 2007, you're going to notice a new look to these products.

The first thing is that there are no longer any toolbars or menus. These have been replaced by what?'s called the "Ribbon. It's a graphic interface of tabs that offer you the programs features. In the upper left of the ribbon is the Officebutton. It's the Microsoft Office logo and it replaces the File option from the menu in office 2003. Click on it and you?'ll see all the options associated with a document like Open, Close, Print, Save, Save As, etc.

Next, you'll see a series of tabs. One of them is the Home tab and it will contain all the commonly used features of the program like, font size, styles, alignment, etc. this Home tab will be present in all of the Office 2007 products. As you select features from one of the tabs, you might see the tabs change as additional features are offered based on which tab you selected.

New features of Office 2007 include the Mini Toolbar, Galleries and Live Preview. The Mini Toolbar will automatically show up whenever you highlight text within a document. It allows you to change fonts or styles by simply pointing to the style you'd like. The text changes dynamically and you can either accept that look or move on to another one. Galleries are choices you can make about how you want things to look. All the respective choices are displayed in the Gallery and then through the use of Live Preview, you simply point to a choice and Office 2007 will change your item to that look.

Overviews of Office 2007 and MS Vista are currently scheduled on the CTC calendar at technology.shu.edu. Register for a class if you"d like to see more.

Students at DePauw University in Greencastle Indiana have produced the following video documenting some of the ways that Tablet PC's are being utilized to enhance teaching and learning.

One application that is highlighted in this video, DyKnow, is available at Seton Hall. For additional information, please contact your Instructional Designer.

As promised, a continuation of the Vista chronicles...

When everyone thinks about a computer now a days there is a worry as to what kind of security does it have. In truth, everyday, more and more people are exploring the online universe. People are making transactions, posting their livelihoods, and learning everything about the world around them. This has allowed for more virus makers and spam designers to exploit the common man... However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that MS Vista has the best defenses money can buy. It was so secure that it has been tested countless of times and was barely scratched, which is remarkable by industry standards. Yet, as with any perfect design there will be the potential for overlooked flaws and more advanced hacking techniques. So, with this is mind Microsoft has come up with their own reliability guarantee - A program called "One LiveCare" was specifically made for Vista. It has proven it's worth by being tested alongside with the other pre-existing anti-virus programs, i.e. Symantec, McAfee, etc. and it bashes the competition!!!

Windows One Live Care was created with the user in mind... The program does not downplay the Symantec Antivirus system we have on campus which is comprehensive for the corporate level, but it does give people, with their own personal machines a more affordable alternative. So, as I recommend to viewers everywhere, go for the program that will help you do, what you do, everyday without worry ---> http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm

The NMC (New Media Consortium) Syposium on Mashups took place April 1st - 3rd. If you were not able to attend the sessions or if you would like to review the content, the entire symposium was recorded and is available online at: http://www.nmc.org/2008-spring-symposium/program.

Is your cursor inches away from your stylus when you write on your Tablet PC? If so, the answer could be to calibrate!

Calibrating your Tablet PC screen is a quick method to increase the accuracy of your stylus with the cursor.

From the Control Panel, select the Tablet and Pen Settings icon and then click on the Calibrate button.

Microsoft Video (http://preview.microsoft.com/video) is a portal that launched on Monday March 31, 2008 as a single location to view a variety of content including keynote speeches, how-to instructions, and demo videos.

Based on the Microsoft Silverlight player, this portal has a number of community features, allowing users to rate and comment on the content.

Did you ever wish you could easily record your Skype conversations? Well, now you can. Call Graph is a new plugin for Skype that records calls and stores them as mp3s which could then be pretty handy for creating podcasts! Record Skype to Skype, SkypeIn, or SkypeOut calls. Cool.