On February 25th the TLT Center will be offering a half-day session entitled "Wiki Day". During this workshop, attendees will learn what a wiki is, explore examples of wikis in higher education, learn how to request a Media Wiki through the TLT Center for a course, hear from faculty members who have successfully integrated wikis, and participate in hands-on excercises. If you are interested in attending this workshop, it will take place in the CTC Computer Lab (ground floor of Walsh) on Wednesday, February 25th from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm. Breakfast will be served. Click HERE to register today!
January 2009 Archives
Website design does not have a long history however it has gone through many changes over the years. To begin with, web design was basic html allowing for text, headings and links to other sites. Of course, as the Internet grew, so did the demands for more complicated web sites to support graphics, multimedia and user input. New languages such as CSS (cascading style sheets) became available to handle the growing needs in form and function. Web creation programs with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interfaces (i.e. Front Page, Web Expressions, Dreamweaver) were developed to facilitate the creation of web sites, making the process easier for non-programmer types. Word Processing, Desktop Publishing, and Photo Editing Software added additional capabilities to their software offering yet another option of creating web content. Finally, with the event of Web 2.0 tools, creating your own web "presence" has become as simple as drag and drop.
Continue reading Creating Your Own Professional Web Site - Part One.
Learn SPSS!
Enrollment is now open for a new series of courses being offered through the TLT Center's Computer Training Services. Ms. Wendiann Sethi, Director of Developmental Math at Seton Hall University, will be hosting three levels of SPSS courses. Space is limited so be sure to reserve your seat today.
Level 1 SPSS: Descriptive Statistics and Coding
This course will cover the first stages of using SPSS which includes creating a data set and then describing the data. We will be discussing data and best practices of creating a database within SPSS. Then we will cover the ways that we would describe the data through numerical and graphical representations. Level 1 SPSS is offered on the following dates:
February 13th 1-3 pm
Level 2 SPSS: Data Analysis
This course will cover data analysis, the second stage of using SPSS. We will review descriptive statistics and then move onto other methods of data exploration using Crosstabulations, Inferences on the mean, Regression and ANOVA. Participants are encouraged to bring data that they are analyzing in class or projects to discuss what methods would be best to use. Level 2 SPSS is offered on the following dates:
February 20th 1-3pm
Level 3 SPSS: Advanced Techniques
This session will cover some of the more advanced techniques used for survey research such as factor analysis, validity analysis, and multiple factorial designs. Prerequisite: SPSS 2 or prior know of using SPSS
February 27th 1-3pm
Intended for faculty, students and administrators.
To register please click on the following link: http://tltc.shu.edu/register
Social bookmarking is not new. People have been using web services such as Delicious, Furl and Digg to tag, organize and share bookmarks online. In fact, social bookmarking activity (though it has evolved over time) has been going on for many years (see history of social bookmarking here).
What IS new is a web service that was recently launched called Brainify which is targeted for higher education. On the About page, the folks at Brainify say:
"Brainify is academic social bookmarking and networking for college and university students. If you are looking for the best sites and a great community to help with your courses, this is the place for you. It's for Students and your Professors: Brainify is only for you: University and College students and your Professors to help you with one thing - do well in your courses..."
On this same About page, there is a seven minute video that will provide you with an overview of Brainify. The video is located on YouTube as well and I have embedded it below:
Brainify was also written about in today's Chronicle of Higher Education with both the positives and negatives to using this type of service presented in the article. You can take a look at the article here.
What do you think about Brainify? Do you think the concept will fly? Do you think the idea is too specialized and should be opened up to people without academic email addresses? I'm interested in your thoughts...please feel free to email me at mary.zedeck@shu.edu.
As everyone has just started getting familiar with Vista/Office 2007 and all of its quirks we have so come to understand, Microsoft is steaming ahead with there next latest and greatest Operating System/Office Suite, Windows 7 and Office 14, respectively. This has come as quite a shock to those uninitiated in the tech community as many people are trying to come to grips as to WHY is there another one coming out?!?
The truth is behind how Microsoft likes to give people a taste of whats going to change the face of computing world. Just look back 7-9 years ago when Windows Me/XP came out roughly a year apart. That short timespan between Me and XP was so that Windows could be made to exactly what people needed Operating Systems to be at the time, and so, we are reliving those memories once again.
Windows 7/Office 14 offers a full array of necessities that indivuals will come to enjoy and appreciate. The most influential of these being that it requires less computer resources without comprising enhanced useability or performance, thereby making a computer purchase much lighter to bear.
Microsoft has just released a beta version of Windows 7 for trial users to make use of and I have procurred a copy. So, for the next few entries I will keep you apprised of my finding and the potential benefits to you.
Here is a link to see it for yourself-> Windows 7
Notice anything new about the Grade Book? Well for starters, it is now called the Grade Center! If you are eager to learn all there is to know about the big change in the newest edition of Blackboard 8.0, then come one come all to the training session held on Thursday, January 29th from 12:00-1:00pm in the new CTC Classroom Iocated in the Walsh Library. Accessible through the control panel, the Grade Center takes its name from the previous Grade Book available to instructors on Blackboard. However, the name isn't the only new thing; in fact the entire Grade Center has been revamped to make it not only easier to navigate, but also more manageable and comprehensive. During this course, you will be able to manipulate your own courses in Blackboard, learning how to enter grades for assignments and tests, manage/ weight grades, e-mail students, generate reports, create smart views, return assignments with feedback, create grading schemes, and etc. Registration is simple! Just click on the link below:
Some useful handouts are attached below. Hope to see you there!
Outline_for_Blackboard_Mastering_the_Grade_Center_Session.doc
Are you fairly savvy with Blackboard but would like some more advanced instructional training? Participants having some previous knowledge of Blackboard would greatly benefit from attending the Blackboard Advanced Training Session on January 27th from 10:30-11:30am in the CTC Classroom of the Walsh Library. Some topics that will be covered include managing your courses; creating, deploying and reviewing tests and surveys; creating accountability and monitoring performance; sharing and collaboration content, and etc.
This instructor-led workshop provides intensive, hands-on instruction covering the teaching and learning functions in Blackboard for both web-enhanced and distance education environments. Registration is simple! Just click the link below:
Some useful handouts are attached below. Hope to see you there!
Outline_for_Blackboard_Advanced_Training_Session.doc
A new and exciting course entitled Blackboard Essentials Training is being offered on Thursday, January 22nd from 9:30-10:30am in the CTC Training Room on the first floor of the Walsh Library. Get a taste of the abundant plethora of options available to enhance and manage any course on Blackboard. Some areas that will be covered include file management capabilities, communications tools, announcements, assignments and discussion board, organization tools, and an overview of the Grade Center. Bring your syllabus and learn how to upload documents, create forums for discussion, add assignments, save content, add announcements, and etc. If you have a basic idea of how to use Blackboard, want to review some skills, or are just starting from scratch, then this is the course for you.
If you are unable to attend this class, it is also being offered on Tuesday, January 27th from 4:30-5:30pm. Registration is simple! Just click the link below:
Some useful handouts are attached below. Hope to see you there!
Each year the TLT Center and the Teaching, Best Practices Committee of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable, hold a showcase to highlight projects awarded through the Faculty Innovation Grant Program and the Curriculum Development Initiatives. These funding opportunities provide faculty additional support for innovative and collaborative ideas to enhance technology in the classroom.
This years event will be held on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. the Beck Rooms, Walsh Library. Our presenters include
- Kelly Shea, Department of English
- Kurt Rotthoff, School of Business (FIG)
- Catherine Maher & Genevieve Zipp, School of Health and Medical Sciences (FIG)
- Abe Zakhem, Department of Philosophy (FIG)
- Donald McKenna, Department of Communication (A&S Online/CDI)
Don't miss this years awards gala!
The following video illustrates how DyKnow can be used to display class attendance. As a record-keeping function, this can be sent to a virtual printer such as Primo PDF Writer or Adobe PDF Writer.
If you have any questions regarding DyKnow, please contact Riad Twal at riad.twal@shu.edu or 973.313.6043
On Wednesday, January 7, 2009, a Digital Storytelling Workshop was conducted by the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center. Although the weather prevented many people from attending, the participants who were able to come learned about several aspects of digital storytelling. We discussed the 7 elements of a good story, defined what a digital story is, viewed examples of a variety of types of digital stories, learned how to use Microsoft MovieMaker, and discussed storyboarding and citing resources. All workshop materials can be found on our digital storytelling wiki at http://tltc.shu.edu/digitalstorytelling/wiki/. We plan to conduct the same workshop soon for those who were unable to make it to this session due to weather. We hope you can join us then!
Each year, the College of Arts and Sciences and the TLT Center hold a meeting with faculty teaching online as part of the large course redesign project. The goal of the meeting is to share best practices and to hear from the subject matter experts themselves regarding their online course development and teaching experiences. Through this roundtable, the TLT Center finds ways to support faculty needs and requests such as a sample course that met Quality Matters standards.
To support online course initiatives of other schools at SHU, we invited representatives from departments within the Stillman School of Business, College of Education and Human Services as well as SetonWorldWide, Seton Hall's online degree program, who have inquired as to developing online courses based on the Arts and Sciences model. The event held on November 25, 2008 and was attended by over a dozen faculty and several deans. Discussions on quality assurance and the evaluation of online initiatives were had during the meeting. If you are interested in becoming part of the online teaching roundtable, please email Renee M. Cicchino.
