ATRC Podcast Notes

Podcast for January 25, 2008 - Episode 82

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Play time 57 minutes  - Program Notes

 

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."  ~Steve Jobs on the Amazon Kindle

On the show: The library announes some new online databases; a digital picture frame with a virus; last call for 3C Media Solutions film festival; Apple is riding high, in more ways than one; blu-ray is winning at the cash register; the Library of Congress releases 3000 pictures on Flickr; Sun buys MySql; tje CIA warns about grid hackers; and we feature Wikipedia, The Missing Manual, online.  David's Blackboard feature of the week describes how to name a link in Blackboard and what you can do with those names.  Haydn's Teaching with Technology segment is about helping online students off to a great start.  Chris does our Tech Talk Topic this week with Part 2 of his review of the Amazon Kindle.

Technology News Briefs

• The Palomar College Library wants you to know that we have access to the same great lineup of research databases as always, and that a few new ones have been added:
  • The World Book Encyclopedia
  • Learning Express
  • Theatre in Film
  • Film and Television Literature
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • Gale Literary Reference Books
  • and over 3000 new books in our Netlibrary eBook collection.

  You can access the research databases from any campus network computer without a login or password, and off-campus from anywhere in the world using your Palomar login and password.
   

• Did you get a digital picture frame for Christmas?  If so, and it was an Insignia brand frame purchased from Best Buy, you may now have a computer virus.  The Insignia 10.4-inch frames sold at Best Buy were identified as the source of the spread of "an older virus that is easily removed."  Detected and removed if you have anti-virus software, that is, and 50% of computer users do not.  The Insignia model has been discontinued.   Insignia is handling complaints and exchanges.  Click here for details.
   
• You have heard of Generation X and Generation Y from long ago.  What are the new crop of teens called?  Generation G, of course: G for Google.  So are they really good at Googling?  Not so much, says a report [PDF] from the British Library and Joint Information Systems committee.  The report explodes several myths about "tech savvy" youth: 1) Are they expert searchers?  Absolutely not.  2) Are their "information skills" far superior to their elders'?  Again, nope.  3) Have they lost all respect for authority with the democratization of sources on the web?  Not a chance.  They trust teachers, relatives and textbooks above Internet sources.  What do they do well?  1) Plagiarize; 2) Multitask.  It comes with the new territory.
   
• This is the last call for the 3C Media Solutions third annual student film festival competition.  Its purpose is: "To encourage and reward students for achievements in video, film and broadcasting by distributing their work exclusively on the 3C Media Solutions Network and live web cast. And to award them industry standard products and services to further their education."  Deadline for entries is January 31, 2008.  Click here for details and the entry form [PDF].
   
• Apple is riding high.  Coming out of Macworld last week they had x new products to sell: MacBook Air for under $2,000.00; HD movie rentals through the iTunes store; Apple TV 2.0; new iPhone and iPod Touch applications; and Time Capsule/Time Machine backup device/strategy.  And, first and foremost to Apple investors, last quarter brought the highest revenues in Apple's history (up 57%).
   
• Speaking of Apple, they have published security updates (read vulnerability patches) for QuickTime, the iPod Touch and the iPhone.  Click here for details.
   
• In the week before Warner's decision to back blu-ray as the high definition DVD standard for their products blu-ray players owned 60% market share of sales.  In the week after, 93%.  This represents only two weeks of 2008 sales, but if the trend continues, and it is likely to, blu-ray will be the standard and HD-DVD will be dead very soon.  Click here for the sales statistics.
   
• The Library of Congress has made over 3000 of their photos available on Flickr, for your tagging and commenting pleasure.  Most have no known copyright restrictions, and can therefore be re-used in academic projects.  Click here for more information about the collection, and access to over 171,000 photos.
   
• According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center "vishing" is increasing at "an alarming rate."  Vishing is like phishing, except that it attempts to harvest personal information by phone (voice-phishing) rather than a fake-real-looking web site.  Email is the initial point of contact for both types of fraud, but in the case of vishing the email is used to re-assure the victim that the company involved would never use a web form to insecurely capture data.  It is possible, in fact, that legitimate phone center employees might be taking the information without knowing that they are part of an illegal operation, since criminals may have outsourced the work to legitimate contractors.  Click here for the FBI alert.  Have your master card ready...
   
• Sun Microsystems, for reasons best known to Sun, has purchased MySQL, the open source database company that so many products are based on--until they become profitable, when they graduate to a professional grade product.  Why do big companies buy Open Source software?
   
• The CIA, not normally known for public volubility, went public this week with news that a cyberattack has caused a power blackout in multiple cities outside the US, followed by demands for cash from the hacker-perpetrators.  The perpetrators are not known, but all of the attacks were carried out by "intrusions through the Internet."  Click here for details from CNet.
   
• Featured Safari Tech Book Online: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, by John Broughton.  "Want to be part of the largest group-writing project in human history? Learn how to contribute to Wikipedia, the user-generated online reference for the 21st century. Considered more popular than eBay, Microsoft.com, and Amazon.com, Wikipedia servers respond to approximately 30,000 requests per second, or about 2.5 billion per day. It's become the first point of reference for people the world over who need a fact fast. If you want to jump on board and add to the content, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual is your first-class ticket. Wikipedia has more than 9 million entries in 250 languages, over 2 million articles in the English language alone. Each one is written and edited by an ever-changing cast of volunteer editors. You can be one of them. With the tips in this book, you'll quickly learn how to get more out of -- and put more into -- this valuable online resource."  Palomar maintains a subscription to Tech Books Online, and the books can be accessed from any computer on the campus network without as login, or with your Palomar login and password from anywhere in the world.  Click here for more information about off-campus access.

Training Opportunities - the next two weeks

• Academic Technology Workshops
   
  • We have published our spring 2008 Academic Technology training schedule.  Click here to read it.  For TBA training call (760) 744-1150 ext. 2341.
     
  • On Monday, January 28, the following self-paced, online training workshops will be made available:
    • Blackboard Essentials
    • Copyright Essentials
    • Adding Content to Your Blackboard Course Site
    • Windows Vista Essentials
    • Styling Your Web Site with CSS
      
      To access workshop materials, if you are a faculty member, login to Blackboard and click on the class in which your are enrolled titled "Academic Technology Training."  If you are a staff member, you may access the materials as a guest.  Click here for instructions on guest access to Blackboard.  These courses are offered to be completed on your own schedule at your own pace.  There is no set meeting time.  Questions and comments are handled through the Blackboard discussion board, where appropriate.
       
  • On Wednesday, January 30 from 2-4pm in room LL-109 David Gray will host "Using the Blackboard Gradebook."
     
  • On Thursday, January 31, from 10-11am in room LL-111 Terry Gray will host "Audio recording your lectures and placing them in Blackboard."  Attendance is limited to 8.

• Elluminate Training

  • Elluminate is our new econferencing system.  There are many excellent training resources available through the Elluminate training center.  Live, instructor led training seminars--conducted through the Elluminate interface--occur regularly and may be scheduled through their web site.
     

• @ONE Training

  • Multi-week, instructor facilitated online classes.
  • Lunch'N'Learn 1-hour webinars.
  • Self-paced courses.

Blackboard Feature of the Week - David Gray

Click here for more information.

One of the most commonly used functions in Blackboard is to attach a file so students can view it. It is a good idea to customize the link to the file though, to make things easier on your students.

By default, if you attach a file to an item in Blackboard, the link text is the filename. So students would have to click a link that says “Document1.doc” or the like. However, instructors can control what text is linked, by entering the new text in the “Name of Link to File” box, just below the button used to attach the file to the item.

A link which specifies an action to take, such as “Click here to view the document.” or “Save this file and use it to complete the assignment.” may be more effective than a mere file name. Also using a lengthy sentence will give more room for students to click on, as some folks may not be precision mouse artists.

A simple step to improve the function and appearance of your Blackboard content: customize the file link text.

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 3:01]
	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

Helping Online Students (and Instructors) Get A Good Start

It probably fair to say the first two weeks of a new semester plays a large role in influencing a student to be successful in the class. Getting off to a good start in a class can motivate a student to continue to do well throughout the class.

Last time I talked about the importance of student feedback and I think that while this is important throughout the course, it may be most important in the early part of the course. This time I’m going to underscore that point by mentioning a couple of tools we’ve harped on before in these podcasts but with me anyway it’s often helpful to be reminded of something I already know. With that adage in mind I want to remind online instructors to consider using two powerful but underused Blackboard tools: the Calendar and the Performance Dashboard.

The calendar tool while primitive can be very useful in helping students stay on task and it has the virtue of being very simple to use. I recommend that the instructor place a number of reminders for students and tell them that they too can add their own events (of course whatever they add will appear only in their view of the calendar). I like the fact that the calendar items appear when the student first logs onto the Blackboard system.

The process for adding calendar items couldn’t be easier as I mentioned. The steps are:
Control Panel
Course Tools/Course Calendar
Add Event
Choose Date

 

The second tool I know we’ve also discussed more than once but the Performance Dashboard provides a lot of useful information that, particularly early in the course can be used to identify students who might be having difficulty in the class. A short email or phone call will often get them back on track. The screen capture below shows how the instructor can monitor course access as well as other progress. In the example shown, Adam has not accessed the course yet and the first week is coming to a close.

Finally, under the heading of getting started well, I’ve included two URLs that instructors might find helpful.

• Getting Started Online
• So You Want To Teach Online?

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 5:53]
	See the index of Haydn's previous "Teaching with Technology" segments.

Tech-Talk-Topic - Chris Norcross

A Review of the Amazon Kindle, Part 2

With a couple weeks of testing completed, I’m ready to declare the Amazon Kindle… a partial success. The electronic reading device, first and foremost, is great at reading books. If at all possible, every book that I purchase for myself to read from now on will be in the Kindle format. The only disadvantage is that I cannot loan, resell, or donate the books once I am done with them. However, I feel that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Being able to search within a book or an entire collection of books is great. I use the built-in dictionary often, mostly when I come across an unfamiliar word within a book that I am reading. The ability to purchase books from anywhere in the U.S. wirelessly is something that sets this device apart from all others. While vacationing in Big Bear, I was able to download an entire book from my rented cabin in seconds without a computer or any other form of internet access. Most of all, having all of my books in one convenient location that I can easily carry with me is reason enough to own one of these devices.

When it comes to periodicals such as newspapers and magazines, the only problem for me personally is that many photos normally accompanying articles are not present in the Kindle versions. However, I have found that the lack of photos has not been as much of an issue as I originally thought it would be. The missing photos are easy for me to ignore. Additionally, the selection of magazines and newspapers is very limited at this time. My hope is that more periodicals will become available as time passes.

There are a couple of areas where Amazon made some mistakes. One “feature” that I am really unhappy with is the ability to subscribe to blogs. The selection of blogs is very limited and there is a monthly subscription fee in all cases. Personally, there is not a single blog that I would pay for on a monthly basis. I would much prefer to have the freedom to subscribe to any feed that is freely available online, just as is normally done on a computer. This “feature” can certainly use some work.

Another “feature” is the ability to play mp3 files. The “player” controls are so limited that it is not at all useful. After copying mp3 files onto the device, the only options are to play files randomly and stop play. It is not possible to skip from track to track, nor is it possible to choose a specific track to play. Since I do not normally listen to music while I am reading, I simply do not use this feature.

Despite the negatives, the device does excel at its primary function – to provide an exceptional reading experience. The great looking screen, small size, light weight, and wireless access to content all make reading easy and enjoyable. I highly recommend the Amazon Kindle to anyone who reads books regularly.

	Listen to this segment only [mp3 - play time = 17:29]
	See an index of previous "Tech Talk Topics" segments.

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 is "Demarzi-6 for Cetra o Kitara" by Doc Rossi.  "Typical of the Gallant style, Demarzi's melodies point to the elegance and clarity of the Classical style, yet with the figuration so typical of the Baroque. The harmony sketched out in the basso continuo does not often display the modulation associated with the Baroque, yet it is not as tonic-dominant oriented as later music. Neither is the harmony so dramatic or dark as Baroque harmony can be: the emphasis is on a pleasant lightness well-suited to the major-chord tuning."

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"  ~ Edgar Bergan

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