fcPEDIA

iTunes U Expands 'Beyond Campus'

2007-10-19T09:27:00.000-05:00

iTunes U, the education portal within Apple's iTunes, has expanded its content to include educational materials from sources beyond colleges and universities, including Smithsonian Global Sound, KQED, Little Kids Rock, and the Museum of Modern Art. The most recent addition to the expanded content area, known as Beyond Campus, is American Public Media, which is making its radio programming available free for educational purposes.

The programming includes selections from APM's programs American RadioWorks, Composer's Datebook, Marketplace, Speaking of Faith, Word for Word, and The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. The content includes downloadable audio, printable transcripts, and suggestions for discussion points to support classroom use of the programs.

"iTunes U offers an exciting opportunity to extend the value of the outstanding programming produced by American Public Media's radio series, strengthen our relationship with educators, and connect with a generation of students that are already plugged in to iTunes," said Sarah Lutman, senior vice president, Content and Media, American Public Media. "iTunes U will also be a powerful gateway to the dynamic supplemental web content that accompanies our signature programs."

The APM content, as well as other Beyond Programming, is accessible through the iTunes Music Store in the iTunes U section.

Citation
"iTunes U Expands 'Beyond Campus'," Campus Technology, 10/19/2007, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=52161

Wikipedia: Use It Or Not

2007-09-21T14:52:00.000-05:00

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia which anyone can add or edit its content. Due to its open nature, Wikipedia is now the largest, most extensive and fastest growing encyclopedia currently available online. However, it is also criticized about its reliability and accuracy. To know more about Wikipedia and its implications for teaching and learning, please check “7 Things you Should know about Wikipedia” from Educause.

You may already find that your students are using Wikipedia as references in their papers more and more. To instruct your students about the information they find on Wikipedia and how to use those information, please check Wikipedia’s own article about researching with Wikipedia.

The Facebook Craze

2007-08-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

Facebook is the new social networking website for college and high school students. In July 2007 the website had 34 million registered users, the largest number of recorded users among the college focused websites. With features such as The Wall , Gifts , Marketplace , Pokes , Status , Applications , Facebook Markup Language students are using the site to keep in touch with friends and family, share pictures, links, videos,and make new friends.

Here are 7 Things You Should Know About Facebook
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7017.pdf

Feel free to add your comments.
If you are an instructor or student we would like to know your overall impression of Facebook. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a site in Academia?

Educational Origami

2007-06-08T13:44:00.000-05:00

Development in technology brings instructors many exciting and promising opportunities. However, how to integrate those new tools into little changed traditional classroom education or newly arising online education is one of the most challenging issues that teachers face. Education Origami—a Wiki created by Andrew Churches, a New Zealand middle school teacher—is dedicated to help instructors migrate from traditional classroom to technology-enhanced instruction.

One of the resource that I find particular useful for a teacher starting to utilize technology in teaching is Bloom's Taxonomy and Digital Approaches. In this article, the author create a connection between the Bloom's Taxonomy Element-a familiar concept to many teachers-and digital approaches and tools.

You may also find inspired by Traditional Practice and Digital Approaches, which looks at "traditional classroom practice and potential digital alternatives." The table is especially useful when you'd like to convert a traditional classroom activity into an online practice.

The Wiki site also has a lot of information regarding how to utilize digital tools according the student's learning style, e.g., visual learner, auditory learner, reader/write learner, and kinesthetic learner.

Help Digitize Old Text - ReCaptcha

2007-05-25T12:57:00.000-05:00

ReCaptcha is a program developed by a group of Carnegie Mellon University programmers. This program/service can help cut down on spam while letting people digitize books. Every time you decode a word it is captured and stored. "Not only can you solve your problems with spam, you can help preserve mankind's written history into the digital age," said Ben Maurer, the project's chief architect and a Carnegie Mellon University. Full story >>

Online Community For Sharing Ideas.

2007-05-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

About Maricopa Learning eXchange.
The Maricopa Learning eXchange (MLX) is an electronic collection of learning objects, ideas, examples and resources that support teaching and learning.

How it works.
Each content module is package and is represented by a descriptive "packing slip" consisting of the author’s name, college(s) that were involved in developing it, contact information, a description, links to web sites associated with the package. The attachments provided are free for educational use as long as credit is given to the package owner (MLX Website, 2007).

To Visit Website: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/index.php

Back When Books Emerged As a New Technology

2007-05-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

I encountered this video - Introducing the Book - on YouTube, which shows how help desk in medieval would do to introduce the new “technology” – BOOK! It’s a hilarious one. At the same time, however, it vividly demonstrates how people deal with new technology with their old mindsets. It could happen to anyone.

This makes me think after the laughter. On one hand, being technology-proficient, we may sometime neglect the fears and difficulties other people often have when facing new technologies. The key is how to clarify those fears and difficulties a user may have beforehand and then try to clear them along the way.

On the other hand, this video might be a good tool to start a workshop about technology. Although it is less threatening than the dazzling “Machine is Us/ing Us” video we introduced before, it will put the audience at ease since being nervous and confused about new technology is quite normal and would’ve never been an obstacle to learning.

Wikipedia on your iPod

2007-04-27T15:03:00.000-05:00

Encyclopodia is a free software project that brings Wikipedia, one of the largest encyclopedias on the World Wide Web, to the Apple iPod. Encyclopodia can be installed on iPod generations 1 through 4, iPod Minis, and Photo iPods. Encyclopodia can be loaded onto an iPod from PC, Mac and Linux computers. Installing Encyclopodia from a PC is the simplest option.

Installation via Mac and Linux
Installations from Linux and Mac computers is still a bit inconvenient, because there is not yet an easy-to-use setup wizard. Installing via a Mac or Linux is more of a manual task. The link below will provide you with detailed instructions.

http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/installx.html

Installation via Windows
Installing Encyclopodia via a PC is simpler than that on the Mac and Linux. The link below will provide detailed instructions.

http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/installwin.html

The Buzz On Second Life (SL)

2007-04-19T14:59:00.000-05:00

Second Life is an online 3-D virtual world where people can create virtual second life of themselves. Since its launch in 2003, it has grown significantly. Today, it is inhabited by a total of 5,695,677 people from around the world.

In my quest to explore this new creative tool, I went to the Second Life website, downloaded the program, installed it, and followed the on screen instructions to create a new account. Once the registration process was complete, I logged in, and followed the on screen directions to orient myself with my new world. As weeks passed, I got more involved with my second life, and found a wealth of sites for learning and teaching. Listed below are my top picks. Note: You must have a SL account to access the sites.

To register, go to http://secondlife.com/join/?a=b1db2230e011387588f345e9410f7ab1. Once you establish an account, click on any of the links below, and click the teleport now button to be taken to the site. Enjoy!

Virtual Campuses

Campus:Second Life (Pathfinder Linden's hosted space for educators) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Campus/150/100
Harvard Law School's Austin Hall - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/69/54/24/
Ohio University Second Life Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/ohio%20university/20/36/24/
Northern Illinois University, Glidden Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glidden/88/166/30/

Science and Health

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juwangsan/218/223
Second Life Medical Library 2.0/Consumer Health Library/HealthInfo Island - SLurl 1, SLurl 2, SLurl 3
Spaceport Alpha (incorporating International Spaceflight Museum and Second Life Planetarium by Chaac Amarula) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/23/51/22/
Solar Eclipse Planetarium (Aimee Webber) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midnight%20City/94/76/27/
VINEC - Virtual Neurological Education Centre - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lost%20Islands%20NW/48/83/22 (info)

My Photos

Computer Tools That Support Learners

2007-04-16T07:50:00.000-05:00

Development in technology brings us vast amounts of information and increasing number of tools to search, organize, process, and present information and knowledge. Edited by Rod Corbett of Mount Royal College in Canada, Computer Tools that Support Learners, lists more than 100 tools that can be used by teachers and students to facilitate their daily teaching and learning. Most of the tools are free downloads or free web applications that one can access easily.

The list categorizes the tools according to common activities in learning. For example, note taking, concept mapping, searching for online articles, managing references, preparing presentations, etc. If you would like to know more about certain tools or find a tool to meet your purposes, please feel free to contact FCPE.

New Dimensions in Copyright for Academics: What are Creative Commons?

2007-03-13T09:08:00.000-05:00

"Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

From: Creative Commons. Retrieved online March 12,2007 at http://creativecommons.org

The FCPE has recently attended an EDUCAUSE* web conference titled "The Information Commons and the Future of Innovation, Scholarship, and Creativity". If you are interested in the conference materials or if you would like to watch a 1hour video of that session, please contact Astrid Palm at the FCPE. (Adelphi Faculty only)

Learn more about Creative Commons and Scholarly Communication on the EDUCAUSE* website http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=428

*EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Website: http://www.educause.edu/

Customize Your Blackboard My Course Page

2007-02-28T12:16:00.000-05:00

When you log into your Blackboard account and see the long list of your courses, have you ever wondered is there a way to make those courses from previous semester disappear so that you can only see the course for the current semester?

Yes, there is a way to make it happen without having your old courses deleted by the Administrator.

Step 1. In the My Courses section, click on the Edit icon in the top right corner.

Step 2. On the Customize My Courses page, in the Display Course column click on the check boxes to choose which courses will display on your My Adelphi page. A checked box means the course will be displayed. An unchecked box means the course will not be displayed.

Also, uncheck the box in the Display Announcements column for a course when you uncheck a box in the Display Course column. That way, the announcements for the old course will not be displayed either.

Step 3. Click the Submit button to finish editing your displayed courses.

Web 2.0 - The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-08T11:16:00.000-05:00

A five-minuets video about how the Web is changing and how this affects the relationship between the machines and us, and the relationships among us.

link: YouTuBe.com

Can you recognize how many and what kinds of tools this video demonstrates?

Hello World!

2007-02-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

May this be a place to share, to communicate, to learn, and to grow.