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ATRC Podcast Notes

Podcast for May 25, 2007 - Episode 61

» Direct mp3 download  |  » Streamed version [wma]  |  Subscribe

Play time 47 minutes  - Program Notes

"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them."  ~John von Neumann

John von Neumann

Tech news: Fall 2007 Blackboard courses are ready to use; Microsoft releases Popfly, and the Vista Beta is due to expire; Google Book Search takes on Indian literature, they ban paper writing advertising, they buy Feedburner, and they want to know everything about you; the US wants Vietnam to stop pirating software; and Dells will be sold at Wal-Marts.  David's Blackboard Feature of the Week is titled  "You've got mail," where you will learn all about email address and sending email from Blackboard. Haydn's "Teaching with Technology" topic this week is "Get a Life--A Second Life." My Tech Talk Topic this week is "Using Google Notebook." Our gizmo this week has to do with a reefer you are really going to like.

Technology News Briefs

  • Blackboard reminders:  The Fall 2007 Blackboard course shells are now available for faculty use.
     
  • If you are teaching at another institution, you can easily export your Palomar Blackboard course and import it to another institution's Blackboard implementation.  However, remember that links to videos on Palomar servers must not be used to teach courses at other institutions.  There are two reasons for this:  1) correct application of copyright laws; and 2) use of Palomar paid bandwidth.  Each institution must insure correct observation of copyright laws and proprietary use of bandwidth.  If you are looking for a multi-institutional approach to streaming video, contact  CCCSAT.  They manage a server on which streaming content can be placed so that it will be accessible from various institutions.
     
  • Microsoft is offering, in alpha release (and a closed, private beta), Popfly, a "...new application creation, mashup enabling tool and social networking software for nonprogrammers" (eWeek).  "There's an obvious desire or need for people to want to create online applications, but it's too difficult today. So our goal is to democratize development," said Dan Fernandez, Microsoft's lead project manager for Visual Studio Express, of the Popfly project."  Think of it as Microsoft's campaign to win over the MySpace generation.  Popfly is written in Microsoft's new Silverlight authoring system (Silverlight is Microsoft's new challenge to Adobe's Flash), and is meant to complete directly with Yahoo's Pipes service. 
     
  • In other news from Microsoft, the Windows Vista Beta 2, RC1 and RC2 are set to expire on May 31.  You know this, if you have been paying attention, because you have been receiving notifications since May 18 from your OS.  Click here for instructions on what to do.
     
  • Google has agreed to scan/digitize over 800,000 texts from the University of Mysore in India in their effort to expand the scope of Google Book Search.  "Written in both papers and palm leaves, there are around 100,000 manuscripts in our library, some dating back to the eighth century," said the vice chancellor of Mysore. "The effort is to restore and preserve this cultural heritage for effective dissemination of knowledge" (ars technica).
     
  • Google this week banned essay writing advertisements from across all their services.  They have informed companies that purchase these ads that they will no longer be accepted.  "Google's forthcoming ban on adverts for academic paper-writing services and the sale of pre-written essays, theses, and dissertations" means that essay websites join a blacklist of 'unacceptable content" including adverts for weapons, prostitution, drugs, tobacco, fake documents and "miracle cures'" (BBC). 
     
  • It was revealed this week that Google is now purchasing FeedBurner for $100,000 in cash.  Small potatoes for a Google purchase (they purchased doubleclick.com in April for 3.3 billion in cash, and YouTube last year for 1.65 billion) but very significant for those who use FeedBurner to distribute their blogs, podcasts and vodcasts.  The purchase is expected to be finalized within 3 weeks (Podcasting News).  The name Google is starting to provoke the same sorts reactions that the name Microsoft used to.  For instance, in an interview given by Google CEO Eric Schmidt to the Financial Times, he said, "We are very early in the total information we have within Google," Schmidt is quoted as saying. "We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don't know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google's expansion."   Ominous, but in a non-evil sort of way.
     
  • Remember when the U.S. wanted to bomb Vietnam into the stone age?  The U.S. now wants them to move into the 21st century by signing an anti-piracy agreement requiring all Vietnamese government offices to use licensed computer software, curbing rampant piracy in that country (The Sydney Morning Herald).  The software piracy rate in Vietnam is about 90%, one of the world's highest.  Microsoft CE) Steve Ballmer witnessed the signing.  It is a sign of the times that we are now fighting over intellectual property, rather than hearts and minds.
     
  • According to walmartfacts.com Dell will be selling desktop computers in all 3500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico beginning June 10.  The computers will run under $700 and be exclusive to Wal-Mart.
     
  • Featured Safari Tech Book Online: ActionScript 3.0 Programming: Overview, Getting Started, and Examples of New Concepts by Bill Sanders.  "ActionScript 3.0 Programming: Overview, Getting Started, and Examples of New Concepts is a 76-page document designed to introduce those familiar with general programming principles to ActionScript 3.0."  Palomar maintains a subscription to Tech Books Online, and the books can be accessed from any computer on the campus network, or from off the network with a password obtainable from the library. 

  Listen to the news [mp3 - 10:05]

Training Opportunities

  • Academic Technology Training
    • We have completed our training schedule for Spring 07.  We will announce the new schedule in this space in a couple of weeks.
       
  • Palomar Office 2007 Training
    • The Information Services department will be offering training in several of the Office 2007 products (Word, Excel and Outlook).  Training will occur on various days in June.  Conact the help desk at ext 2140 or helpdesk@palomar.edu for details.

Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray

You’ve Got Mail?

As mentioned last week, Blackboard Announcements can be sent out as email quite easily. But what about non-Announcement Email?

Blackboard does have a system in place to send email to other users, typically instructors sending to students and vice versa. Blackboard can send out email, but it makes no provision for reading email; to read your email you have to go to your own email system, such as a Gmail account, Palomar Webmail, or the email that comes with your Internet Service Provider.

But, wait; how does Blackboard know what your email address is? Well, email address information is part of your Blackboard account, just like your name and ID number; this information all comes out of Palomar’s eServices system. For employees the assumed email is the Palomar provided one, for students the address would be whatever they provided on their application for admissions. However, folks want to change their email addresses, but to get the email address in Blackboard changed you have to go to the eServices system. Instructions for changing your email address in eServices may be found online for faculty bl clicking here , and for students by clicking here. It may take up to two hours for the change to percolate down to Blackboard, once it’s made in eServices, so plan ahead.

So that’s how email addresses are put into Blackboard, but how does the actual Email tool work? For instructors, from the Control Panel there is an Email link in the middle left of the page, which offers a list of emailing choices. You can select between mail to select users, all students, groups (if you use Blackboard groups), and more. The two most common uses are sending an email to all users, or to select users. In both the cases the email form is similar, a place is provided for a subject, a message, and choices on attaching files or having a Return Receipt.

When the email is sent, your Blackboard course ID is included in the subject line, so emails sent from within Blackboard can easily be filtered by an email program. (For example, if I type “Test Message” in the subject line of my Fall 2007 class 77777, the email subject would read “2077-77777: Test Message”.)

The message area does not support the Visual Text Box editor, but does have a Spell Check button in the bottom right corner. You will likely want to restrict your email message to simple text, but some HTML code can be included (either typed directly in, or copied and pasted from an HTML editor), but be aware that some students do not have HTML-enabled email readers; if you send an HTML email, they may see some strange code included in your message. It’s probably best just to keep it simple.

Personally I wouldn’t suggest using the Return Receipt or the file attachment tools. Return Receipts are just not as useful as many people seem to think, in my opinion. And your average student may not want to receive file attachments with emails, as that is a prime way that viruses get spread. (For that matter, I’d suggest that faculty not accept file attachments either… unless you are really sure that your Antivirus program is up to date.)

If you’re sending an email to all your students, just hit the Submit button in the lower right corner. If, however, you are sending to select users, you’ll have a selection box at the top of the screen to pick out who to send the email to. You can hold the Control key on the keyboard and click on different names to select more than one user, then click the “right arrow” button in the center to transfer the names over to the Selected list. Either way, when the email is sent, a copy of it will go to your own email address, so you can keep copies of everything you send to students quite easily.

So now… You’ve Got Mail!


 		 Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 14:04]
 
See the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature of the Week" segments.

Note:  To get to David's vodcast site, click here.

Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis

Get A Life (a Second Life!)

In the March, 2006 issue of Nature Vernor Vinge presents some interesting ideas for how the internet will be used as a research tool in the coming decades. He points out that it has already changed education (along with most other areas of life) by facilitating collaboration among researchers. Vinge cites scientific and medical projects that have been completed only because of their ability to obtain the enthusiastic collaboration of people (and their computers) around the world. He references a sociology experiment on “social influence on music preference” in which 14,000 participants were recruited from a website.

One collaborative internet activity that completely captivates large numbers of (mostly) young people is MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games). Two of the most popular are World of Warcraft and EverQuest. Newsweek and other popular press periodicals have run lengthy articles about them and the sometimes dangerous devotion some have for these online games. There is something about these online virtual worlds that many find totally captivating. As an educator I am always interested in cognitive activities that college students find engrossing and engaging; I always wonder if this same kind of engagement can be transferred to academic interests.

There is some evidence that Second Life, a virtual world that emphasizes participation rather than pre-designed adventures, can support educational activities in the way I wondered about. Second Life has elicited quite a bit of interest on the part of educators and, in fact, a number of web sites exist for the express purpose of illustrating how Second Life can be used in academic pursuits. I was surprised to learn that many libraries, museums, not-for-profit organizations, as well as colleges and universities (including Harvard Law School, Stanford, Ohio State University) are using Second Life. There are many resources available to those who wish to explore the possibility of using Second Life with their classes including a Second Life Education Mailing List, a Second Life Wiki, and other documents.

So what is Second Life? From Wikipedia: “Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.[4][5] Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, . . . Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another.

While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, this description is disputed. It does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games, though it can be thought of a game on a more basic level. It is a semi-structured virtual environment where characters undertake activities for the purpose of enjoyment.

Back to SL and education - Two examples: the Milgram Experiment and Asperger’s Syndrome

Milgram conducted a famous psychology experiment in which participants were directed to shock other volunteers. The experiment established that ordinary people would do things that they thought hurt other, innocent volunteers if directed to do so by a legitimate authority figure. This experiment cannot be replicated today even though there would be great interest in the outcome because of ethical guidelines not in place in earlier decades. However, the experiment was conducted in a virtual world in Second Life. The results? “Our results show that in spite of the fact that all participants knew for sure that neither the stranger nor the shocks were real, the participants who saw and heard her tended to respond to the situation at the subjective, behavioral and physiological levels as if it were real.” One conclusion drawn by the Acceleration Studies Foundation blog on this topic was that a virtual world can elicit the same emotional and behavioral responses as real world activities. This presents an intriguing possibility of conducting social psychological experiments in SL that could not be done in real life.

The second example gives a glimpse at another possibility that SL might offer. From a CNET blog: “In one experiment, a small island was set up for patients with Asperger's syndrome, he said at PC Forum in Carlsbad, California. People with the disease are uncomfortable with social situations. The island created for them contained artificial, difficult social situations. Some patients said it helped them later in some aspects of real life, according to Rosedale.”

So, can SL be used to enhance the educational experience I want for my students? I hope to have at least a tentative answer in a future Podcast.

Resources


 		 Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 12:31]
 
See the index of Haydn's previous "Teaching with Technology" segments.

Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray

Using Google Notebook

Wouldn't it be great to be able to take very quick notes on web pages as you are doing research: clip the URL, selected passages, images, your own comments and queries, to a notebook that was accessible without leaving the page you are on, and then return to the notebook later when writing a paper?  That is the idea behind Google Notebook.

Google Notebook permits clip-as-you go functionality.  After clipping, you can organize and search notebooks, add your own comments, invite others to collaborate with you, even publish them to the web if you want your notebooks be public.  Here is how it works.

Begin by logging in to Google Notebook with your GMail account information or your email address.  (There is helpful information on creating an account at the Notebook web site).

Next, agree to the terms of service, and download the web extension that enables Google notebook within your browser. 

Note that this web add-in does not yet work with Windows Vista except in a Vista-compatible version of Firefox (version 1.5 or above).  It does work with IE7 on the Windows XP platform.

Depending on your browser and security settings, you may see a yellow security banner at the top of your browser:

If you see this, click the banner and choose "Download File..."

If you are using Firefox  you will see the familiar Firefox Add-on installation box:

After installation, Google and your browser will talk, and eventually you will see the Notebook icon in the status bar of your browser (the bar at the bottom of the browser window--look in the lower right corner). 

Click the "Open Notebook" link or the notebook icon itself to activate the notebook.

You can begin clipping text, images or links immediately, without leaving the web page you are on.  Just highlight the item you wish to clip, click the "Clip" button in the mini -notetebook.   You can leave it docked to the status bar, or click the arrow ("pop-out") control to float it over your browser window.  (It is called the mini-notebook when it is docked to your status bar or floating on your screen.  The full notebook appears on the notebook home page.)

After clicking the Clip button, you will see a note for the content placed in the notebook.  Each note will retain the title of the page from which it is clipped, the URL of the page, and the content of the note itself.  Each note contains a drop-down menu in its upper right corner in order to delete it, move it (to another notebook or section), or remove its URL.

Notes can be moved by dragging and dropping on your notebook home page.  To drag and drop, go to the Notebook home page (by clicking the "Go to my notebook home page" item on the Tools menu in the mini-notebook), place your cursor in the far left margin of a note (the cursor will become a four headed arrow), hold down the mouse button and drag and drop to a new location, either within the same notebook or to another notebook.

To create a new note, click the "New note" button.  A blank note will be created.  Within any blank note, you can type your own text, clip text from a web page, or add a section header to help keep your notebook organized.  Each section header has its own drop-down control.

Clicking the minimize control next to the section title will collapse all notes under that section header.

Each individual note also has a comments section, where you can annotate the notes as you gather them.  Simply click within a note you have clipped and a comments field will appear at the bottom of the note.

Text within notes can be more elaborately formatted from the Notebook home page.  Once again, to quickly get to the home page click the "Tools" button and choose "Go to my notebook home page."

Formatting options are minimal, but include the ability to change font attributes or add links to existing text/

As you gather a great deal of material in your notebook, you will lose track of things, and that's where Google's search technology comes to the rescue.  The notebook is fully searchable and, since it is web-based, accessible from anywhere.

Use the search box at the top of your notebook home page to search its contents, or search the web if you are looking for other material or URLs with which to build links.

The Tools button from the notebook home page is different than the one in the mini-notebook.  It contains options for printing, exporting to Google docs, renaming the notebook, and so on.

For group projects, Google notebooks can be shared by invitation of the notebook creator.   The notebook creator grants access to others who can then edit existing notes or add their own.  Initiate sharing by click the "Share options" from the notebook home page and enter the email address of those you wish to collaborate with, then click the "Save Settings" button.

You will be prompted for text in an email to be sent to those whose addresses you have included on the invitation form.  You do not need to put the URL of the notebook in the email.  It will be placed there automatically.

If you decide to remove a collaborator later, you will have that option on the Sharing options form from your notebook home page.

Finally, your Google notebook can be published to the web, if you wish to make it public.  It's URL can then be shared with others, and all public Google notebooks can be searched.  To publish a notebook click the Sharing options from the notebook homepage and click the Yes radio button under the "Publish this notebook" label.  You will be given the URL of the web page to which it will be published and prompted to invite others to view it by entering their email addresses in a form.  Note that graphics will be displayed as thumbnails unless you clear the "Use thumbnailed images" checkbox.

That is a quick overview of how to use Google notebook.  It is a great tool for gathering materials as you conduct research on the web, and for conducting group class projects.

Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 6:56]
 
See an index of previous "Tech Talk Topics" segments.

Gizmo of the Week

The USB Mini-Fridge

If you are working at your desk, what could be better than a nice cold coke?  If you are telecommuting from home, what could be better than a nice, cold beer--or let's say it is Cinco de Mayo, a frosty margarita--or any day in summer, a bracing frozen daiquiri?  Nothing could be better.

'I'm tied to my computer,' you complain.  'I can't go to the fridge because I'm in the middle of an intense computing session.'

No problem.  Enter the USB Mini Fridge from Brando.com.hk (the hk in this domain name stands for Hong Kong).  For a piddling $33 USD you can purchase a 5 volt, USB powered, 19.4x9x9cm, 362g mini-fridge.  According to the brando web site, it takes 5 minutes to decrease a can of soda (beginning at some average room temperature, one assumes) to 8.5 degrees Celsius (47 degrees Fahrenheit ).  What's great is, it is fire-engine red with a white top (Coca-Cola anyone?) and, even better, you can take it anywhere and plug it into any USB port.  The days of parched computing and lukewarm bracers are gone forever.

(Source: engadget)

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 "The Seventh Mirror" by Mandrake Root who look, from their publicity picture, and much like Peter Luzhin in Crime and Punishment, like men no longer young.

"

"Having smoking and non-smoking sections in the same room is like having urinating and non-urinating sections in a swimming pool."  ~ Ross Parker

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