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James Thurber |
The tension is beginning to build as we approach
end of semester. The labs are full of
students, taking time off from MySpace.com to get
their papers done. (At least, one hopes so).
Our show today features a remote segment
from Haydn, adding more to his ideas on engaging the
online learner--from Palm Springs, or at least so he
says. David is not doing a remote this week.
He'll be back to work next Tuesday, so this is his
last Friday off for some time. I report on
news and events from campus, upcoming training, a
brief talk on the Wimba voice tools, and the gizmo
of the week. We've got the usual great music
from magnatune between segments.
Campus Tech News
- IE7 beta is out. Not IE7 beta preview,
but the real IE7 beta. Does it still hang
on exit for me? Yep. But here it is
in its final (I think) official beta form for
all to test. DO NOT depend on it as your
production version. DO uninstall IE7 beta
preview before installing it. Backup
everything before installing it. Enough
said.
Click here to download.
- Blackboard App Pack 1 for version 7 was
released this week. The big change is a
completely redesigned discussion board. We
will be installing it over the summer, with
accompanying training materials.
- The library catalog application, webcat,
from SIRSI inc., has been upgraded and has a new
look.
Click here to see it.
- CCC Confer announced this week a free
webinar by Bob Bramucci, Dean of the Open Campus
at Riverside CC, who will speak on "What you
really need to know about Distance Education."
The webinar will be on May 17 from 2-3pm.
Click here for more information,
here to register, or call CCC Confer at
(760) 744-1150 ext. 1537.
- The
fifth annual arboretum beautification day will
occur Saturday, April 29, hosted by the Cabinet
and Furniture Technology program. For
details on the arboretum see its
web site, and the outstanding site created
by prof. Wayne Armstrong detailing
the plants of the arboretum. For more
information,
click here.
-
The Concert Hour
for MAY 4 will be the Palomar
Computer Music Ensemble, Madelyn Byrne,
Director, 12:30pm room D-10, or live on the web.
Upcoming Training Workshops
- Next week we will present two workshops:
- Wednesday, 5/3, "Introduction to Blackboard"
from 11am-1pm in room SU-30, facilitated by
Hadyn Davis and David Gray;
- Thursday 5/4 "Rip/Download/Burn/Sync - your
music (and podcasts) and the Windows media
player," from 8-9am in room LL-111. Terry
Gray will be facilitating.
-
@ONE and
FCCC have free online eLearning.
Microsoft and
Adobe both have excellent free training
materials online.
- Go to our
training schedule to get the details
of future training.
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
Dave is off this week.
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Haydn continues his series on engaging the online
learner. This week he talks about "reciprocal
peer tutoring" in the online environment, and
personal RF polling devices, something we discussed
in an earlier podcast (episode
10), and have actually ordered for the campus.
Listen to this segment
[mp3 - Play time
= 6:58]
Tech-Talk-Topic
Wimba Voice Tools
Horizon Wimba is the platform that runs CCC
Confer, and the Wimba voice tools are audio
tools that work as a building block within
Blackboard. I spoke this week with their
sales rep, at the urging of Blaine Morrow,
director of CCC Confer and CCC SAT. Blaine
is going to fund voice tools for us to try in
our Blackboard implementation, and they offer a
lot of potential. They include tools to:
- Easily leave an embedded voice message from
the professor to the student in any Blackboard
content area;
- To conduct a discussion board audibly (which
can include typed comments too, of course;
- To leave voice emails from professor to
students or students to professors;
- To export audio files from Blackboard in
order to create a podcast, or import podcasts as
audio presentations within Blackboard;
- To track usage statistics by students using
the voice tools.
The up side, they actually work well, and are
integrated fully in Blackboard, so there is no
external configuration. The achieve
maximum convenience. The down side
(maybe), the audio files are hosted by Wimba at
an offsite location, which means Internet has to
be up all the time (as it usually is) to hear
voice content.
To test them out within Blackboard, go to the
Horizon Wimba web site and click on Demos,
then "Try the Horizon Wimba building block for
Blackboard."
Links
Listen to this segment
[mp3 - Play time
= 4:39]
Gizmo of the week
The
Tankchair. "Tank
Chair is a Custom off-road wheelchair that can go
anywhere outdoors. Conquers Streams, Mud, Snow,
Sand, and Gravel, allowing you to get back to
nature, and can also climb up and down stairs."
From the Tankchair web site: “It
took me 2 years and I tried everything I could think
of. Pneumatic tires, bigger wheels, stronger motors,
and my favorite, a hellish jet ski/snowmobile
looking thing with wheels. The last one was ugly,
expensive, and will make someone a strong anchor. My
father-in-law was in my garage one day and I was
complaining about my latest plight and he said,
“Wouldn’t it be neat if you could put some tracks on
it? Like a tank?”
(Source:
Fosfor gadgets)
Music
The
music for today's show was provided by
Magnatune.com, and is used through their
Creative Commons license for podcasts. Today's
album was
File In Rhythm by
Beight.
The album is described as "...eleven indie pop gems
driven by catchy melodies and quiet ardor."
We
used tracks 1: "File in Rhythm;" 2: "Parallels;" 11:
"Ghostly Feeling;" 8: "In the Middle;" 3: "Fill Me
up;" 10: "Invisible City."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"Tradition is
what you resort to when you don't have the time
or the money to do it right.” --Kurt Alder
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Podcast
for April 28, 2006 - Episode 15
