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Dostoevsky |
The Fall 2006 semester has begun. I need
more power Mr. Scott.
We have made it through the first week of Fall
2006 semester. A serious course copy error has
cropped up in Blackboard, but we are working through
it. Once again, we have a lot of news from
Palomar and Academic Technology, and some
significant news on the download front too.
David is out this week, so there will be no
Blackboard feature of the week. Hope you're
feeling better soon Dave. Haydn has an
interesting one, though: the pedagogical potential
for online audio, called "Online
Pedagogy...Enhanced!". My tech-talk-topic is
related: how to make and receive an audio recording
over the web, end to end. Since Dave is not here, we are filling
in with a new feature, which I have a feeling will
become semi-regular, called "Campaign 06."
The campaign this time? An all out war against
the CAPS LOCK key. Finally, the gizmo of the
week is a must have for the concertgoer, the raver,
even the has been boomer laying on the couch in the
dark watching Clapton DVDs. Your clue is, it
shines in time.
Palomar Tech and Download News
-
Last week we reported on the Dell 4.1 million
battery recall, this week Apple announced the
recall of 1.8 million batteries, also
manufactured by Sony. "The affected
batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003
through August 2006 for use with the following
notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch
PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4."
Use the following URL to determine if your
battery is affected:
https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/
The Dell recall affected 20% of laptops sold
during the period. The Apple recall
represents over 30%.
-
IE7 Release Candidate 1 is now available for
download.
Click here for the IE7 developer team blog.
For you super tech types, click here for the
release notes (do not try reading while
operating heavy equipment). Genuine
Windows validation is required.
For more information on Lithium-Ion technology,
click here.
- A java runtime update for Windows XP is
available from Sun:
update 8, to version 1.5, platform 2.
- Microsoft has published a very interesting white
paper titled "How
to protect insiders from social engineering
threats."
- We are still living with the course copy problem
in Blackboard that we reported last week.
There are two scenarios: 1) Course copy
fails with an error message. Course copy
succeeds, but miscopies all items into a single
content area. If either of these scenarios
occur, recycle the target course, and use
export/import to copy your materials. So
far, it is working perfeclty. If you need
help, contact Academic
Technology at phone ext. 2863, or email
onlineclasses@palomar.edu. We have a
possible hot fix for the problem from
Blackboard, but it may not fix the entire
problem, in fact probably will not, and will
require down time to apply. We will debate
it next week and make a decision on the earliest
possible down time that would be acceptable.
The good news is that most everyone has copied
across their course materials successfully one
way or another, so we just keep on rolling.
- The semi-flaky drive 0 on the Blackboard
database server that we reported on last week
seems to be staying up after the latest rebuild.
We are going to have to do firmware updates, and
perhaps that will permanently solve the problem.
This just in, drive 0 is working ok, but today
drive 1 failed, meaning that it probably is not
the drives, but the controller or, indeed, the
firmware. We hope to make it into next
week, then run the update as soon as we can.
- An appalling error was discovered yesterday with
the new
Horizon Wimba
voice tools within Blackboard, and confirmed as
a "known issue" by the company. Students
are not being allowed in to voice boards or in
fact any of the voice tools and Live Classroom.
Horizon is blaming the recent SP1 upgrade to
Blackboard and have updated their building
block, but we have our doubts. In any
event, we obtained the upgrade to their building
block. (When were they planning on telling
us about this known issue and the upgrade to the
building block?). We have applied it, and
it seems to have fixed the problem.
- The
Windows Live Messenger 8 was released this
week, the latest update to Microsoft's IM
client. And speaking of MSN, they have
also debuted "Live
Spaces," their idea of competition for
MySpace.com.
Also on the Microsoft front, under the 'you
can't win for tryin'' category, MS has released
an updated security patch,
bulletin MS06-42, (KB918899
- the monster August 8 patch) because it was
discovered that a) under certain circumstances
it crashed IE6 on the Windows 2000 platform, and
b) it introduced a security vulnerability of its
own. So what do you call a critical
security fix for a critical security fix?
And how many regressions might it take to get it
right? (Read
more here).
- A quick note on the anti-virus front, I finally
became fed-up with the balky, ponderous,
annoying version of McAfee security center and
McAfee anti-virus I have at home. Ever
since they released their "falcon" version--that
forced update that occurred about 3 weeks
ago--the product has been impossible to live
with. Even though I had a full year's
subscription left, I blew it off and got
Windows OneCare Live and am living large ever since.
It's great, provides all the protection I
believe I need, has the nice extras, doesn't nag
and annoy like a fisherman's wife, is free for
90-days, and only $32 a year at Costco after
that for up to three--count 'em three--computers
in the home, and best of all, the computer now
feels like the warp drives have kicked in.
- The
Blackboard Backpack product sells for
$49.95. We reported last week in Haydn's
teaching with technology segment that it was
$29, but we stand corrected.
Training Opportunities
- Academic Technology Training
- Register for all Academic Technology
workshops through the
Professional Development web site.
Click here to access our entire training
schedule,
here to access the new "competencies"
approach to our workshops, and other training
information.
- Free 1-hour, live online training from
Horizon Wimba on
Voice Tools and
Live Classroom. Select from a range of
dates from August 15-Sept 1.
- Microsoft webcasts:
Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray
David is out this week. Get better soon
Dave!!!
See
the index of Dave's previous "Blackboard Feature
of the Week" segments.
Teaching with Technology - Dr. Haydn Davis
Haydn's topic is "Online
Pedagogy...Enhanced!" He covers the use of
audio in online classes, and makes suggestions
about using the Horizon Wimba voice tools within
Blackboard.
Resource:
Online Pedagogy...Enhanced! [PDF - 23K]
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
11:33]
See
an index of previous "Teaching with
Technology" segments.
Tech-Talk-Topic - Terry Gray
My topic is "From voice to ear: how to make,
link and receive an audio recording"
A
couple of shows ago we looked closely at the
Olympus WS-100 digital voice recorder, and placed it
in the more general context of making audio
recordings for the web, or Blackboard, specifically.
This week, I would like to detail the process of
taking that recording off the WS-100, uploading it
to Blackboard (or a web site), linking directly to
it, playing it on the other end, and even saving it
locally and playing it in iTunes.
Step one:
Recall the
Olympus WS-100 (which we will
check out to faculty interested in making
academic audio recordings, or even
academic podcasts) has a USB interface to your
computer. The record process is very simple,
and I do not cover that here. Once you have a
recording, to get the files off the WS-100 onto your
computer, simply plug it in to a USB port, open the
folder containing your file, and copy the file onto
your computer. Here is a screen video
illustrating the process (flash
player required):
Copying a file from the WS-100 voice recorder to
a computer
Things to remember:
- Be sure the Olympus WS-100 is OFF when you
pull it apart. Turn it off using the
switch on the back.
- Give it a moment to see the connection to
the computer. Typically, if you are
watching, you will notice the screen of the
WS-100 flash "Check;" "busy" - with a red light
flashing; "PC" (if it is a PC); "PC Link."
Once you see "PC Link" it is connected.
- If the "Removable Disk" dialog box does not
pop up automatically, go to the Windows Explorer
to transfer your file.
- There are five folders on the WS-100.
Each can hold up to 199 files. If you set
the time and date on your device, the files will
be date stamped with the correct time and date.
When start up the WS-100, a symbol on the screen
will tell you what folder it is recording to.
- Be sure to use the "Safely Remove Hardware"
tool in your system try to remove the WS-100 to
avoid file corruption.
Step two:
The next thing to do is to do is to upload the
file to Blackboard (or a web page) and create a link
to it. The process of uploading to Blackboard
is illustrated in this screen video:
Upload and link in Blackboard
Things to remember:
- Name your audio files something meaningful.
Do not use the default name from the WS-100.
It will mean nothing to you in a couple of
weeks.
- Decide whether you want to convert the file
from wma format to mp3 format. If you do,
use this free utility from Jodix:
WMA to MP3 Converter. For all
practical purposes there is no real reason to do
this, since iTunes will automatically convert
the file to AAC or MP3 formats when it is added
to the iTunes library (see below). If you
are publishing your recording as part of a
podcast, however, we recommend that you converti
it to MP3 before uploading it.
- Decide whether to embed the audio controls
or simply create a text link in Blackboard.
We recommend a simple text link for ease of use.
- Include some instructions in Blackboard on
how your students can download the file to their
hard drives if they wish. (IE, to play,
just click the link, to download, right-click
the link and choose "Save Target As...").
- File your audio files in a folder of their
own, so that you can re-use them later.
You will be surprised at the uses you can find
in repurposing parts of your audio files.
Step 3:
From the student perspective, I will demonstrate
downloading the audio file, in WMA format and then
loading it in iTunes so that it can be transferred
to the iPod automatically.
Download audio file from Blackboard and copy
into iTunes
Things to remember:
- The original file is in wma format. To
download it from your Blackboard site, students
will need to right-click it (Ctrl-click for the
Mac) and choose "Save Target As..." to place it
in a location on their computers.
- People using any MP3 player other than the
iPod will be able to play the file in its native
WMA format. For people using iPods (75% of
MP3 player users), iTunes will automatically
convert the file to the iPod's native AAC format
or, if the user has changed her conversion
settings within iTunes, in MP3 format.
Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time =
14:10]
See
the index of previous Tech Talk Topics.
Campaign 06
This
will be an irregular feature of the show dedicated
to those noble causes that swirl around technology
like buzzards around an expiring help-desk employee.
This week we feature Pieter Hintjens campaign to
do away with the Caps Lock Key. How many
useless helpdesk calls could be avoided if people
weren't typing their passwords in all caps?
How many times a day do you have to retype a
paragraph when you discover you accidentally typed
it in caps when you missed the tab key and hit the
CL key? Are you tired of being addressed as
DEAR FRIEND? Why do we put up with this
idiocy? To
quote Mr. Hintjens, "...enough is enough, and
sometimes, we just gotta do what we gotta do."
(No one has accused the movement of shying away from
the language of the people!) If you want to
lend your voice to this cause, go to
capsoff.org and
sign the online petition, find out about the
alternatives, and download one of the free
capsoff banners for use on your web pages.
I signed it myself, and am signatory number 867.
Gizmo of the week
The
quest for the perfect concert T-shirt has ended.
I give you the
T-Qualizer Music T-shirt. We are not
talking aoubt those old mood sensitive shirts that
were really heat-sensitive with the purple
underarms. No. The T-Qualizer has a
built-in sound sensitive graphic equalizer that
REALLY moves to the beat of the music. "It
has a fully functional Electro Luminescence panel
with a battery pack that snuggles discretely into a
pocket inside the T-shirt." It runs on 4
AAA batteries, and goes for around $40 (actually,
£19.95). Now you can carry this most basic of
all visualizations with you. The shirt screams
look at how cool I am. A must have.
(Source:
crazyaboutgadgets)
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
Crow by
Norine Braun. "Norine
Braun's music has always existed on its own terms,
falling into that titillating, refreshingly original
space to the left of 'trendy,' craftily sidestepping
the all-too-easily-dismissed stigma often applied to
the 'female singer/songwriter,' and freewheeling
unhindered around the rigid shackles of 'genre.'"
We used tracks 5: "Who Are You?;" 2: "Slipping
Into Violet;" 4: "Give Me Love;" 7: "Chasing Light;"
6: "Spanish Banks;" 10: "Wings - Phoenix;" 1:
"Salem;" 13: "Hanna to Hollywood;" and 11: "Crow."
Visit
magnatune and reward them for their generosity,
and if you like this album, buy it. Magnatune is not evil!
"Money can't
buy happiness, but neither can poverty." ~
Leo Rosten
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