iPad used for Holographic-type Animations

The iPad is used to create animated glowing light boxes which are placed into scenes in a video.

Innovative and worth five minutes to chck out the demonstration.
 http://vimeo.com/14958082


~CS Robinson

INTELECOM Blackboard 9.1 Building Block

INTELECOM is pleased to announce the availability of a Blackboard Building Block for the INTELECOM Online Resources Network®.   This will enable Blackboard users to conduct keyword searches of the repository from within the Blackboard environment.    Compatible with Blackboard version 8, 9, and 9.1, the Building Block is free and may be downloaded from the Blackboard Extensions website at:

 http://www.blackboard.com/Support/Extensions/Extension-Details.aspx?Download=Y&ExtensionID=32607

INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, a non-profit corporation and joint power authority of 29 California community colleges, is a premier producer of curriculum-based media for online, distance and classroom learning.  INTELECOM brings together instructional design, content development and digital technology to offer teachers and students alike a universe of content for lifelong learning...anytime, anywhere.

~CS Robinson~

Screen Cloning Software

~CS Robinson~

What is iTALC?

iTALC is a powerful didactical tool for teachers. It lets you view and control other computers in your network in several ways. It supports Linux and Windows 2000/XP and it even can be used transparently in mixed environments!

A version fully supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be available by the end of 2010

In contrast to widely used commercial equivalent software, iTALC is free! This means you do not have to pay for expensive licenses or things like that. Furthermore the source-code is freely available and you're free in changing the software to fit your needs as long as you respect the terms of iTALC's license (GPL). Freedom in two waysiTalc is open source and free.

10 Questions to consider when redesigning a course for hybrid teaching and learning

A hybrid or blended course, by definition, reduces face-to-face "seat time" so that students can pursue additional teaching and learning activities online. To be successful, a hybrid or blended course requires careful pedagogical redesign. These ten questions offer you a way to start thinking about some of these design issues.

1. What do you want students to know when they have finished taking your hybrid course?
2. As you think about learning objectives, which would be better achieved online and which would be best achieved face-to-face?
3. Hybrid teaching is not just a matter of transferring a portion of your traditional course to the Web. Instead it involves developing challenging and engaging online learning activities that complement your face-to-face activities. What types of learning activities do you think you will be using for the online portion of your course?
4. Online asynchronous discussion is often an important part of hybrid courses. What new learning opportunities will arise as a result of using asynchronous discussion? What challenges do you anticipate in using online discussions? How would you address these?
5. How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other?
6. When working online, students frequently have problems scheduling their work and managing their time, and understanding the implications of the hybrid course module as related to learning. What do you plan to do to help your students address these issues?
7. How will you divide the percent of time between the face-to-face portion and the online portion of your course? How will you schedule the percent of time between the face-to-face and online portion of your course, i.e., one two hour face-to-face followed by one two hour online session each week?
8. How will you divide the course-grading scheme between face-to-face and online activities? What means will you use to assess student work in each of these two components?
9. Students sometimes have difficulty acclimating to the course Web site and to other instructional technologies you may be using for face-to-face and online activities. What specific technologies will you use for the online and face-to-face portions of your course? What proactive steps can you take to assist students to become familiar with your Web site and those instructional technologies? If students need help with technology later in the course, how will you provide support?
10. There is a tendency for faculty to require students to do more work in a hybrid course than they normally would complete in a purely traditional course. What are you going to do to ensure that you have not created a course and one-half? How will you evaluate the student workload as compared to a traditional class?

Further information may be accessed at http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/faculty_resources/questions.cfm

~CS Robinson~

VoiceThread: a collaborative, multimedia slide show

Penn State is doing pilot testing and provides a link a published white paper published about the VT interface: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/hot-team/2009/voicethread

VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.


~CS Robinson~

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

"Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances."

This video with accompanying information is useful as an introduction to the Fair Use law:

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-online-video

Flipbook Your Text!

A book made of PDF files that turns pages may be just the vehicle to engage your students to read!

Universal Accessibility:

Magnification is built in to the flipbook and the mouse navigates the page the page turning. I am not sure how a screen reader would work. A cohort suggested having an accessible PDF as an alternative format.

http://www.flipviewer.com/

http://www.flipviewer.com/download/indexmacfv11.php

http://www.flipviewer.com/download/indexfvenp.php

If you are looking for a specific flipbook or want to find a free flipbook service, Google brings up a huge array of options.

~CS Robinson~