bc-tech-blog

Cloud Computing

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Folks,

Last week I listened to a piece on Cloud Computing that I thought I ’d share with you. It’s from the end of a podcast episode from the BBC World News Service entitled “The World Technology Podcast.

This podcast is produced and hosted by BBC World Technology correspondent Clark Boyd and distributed in the U.S. by PRI (Public Radio International). This segment was taken from the end of podcast #224, posted on Friday, December 19, 2008. The piece talks about the concept of cloud computing in rather general terms, but it does mention Google Docs, Google’s web-based office suite, and also web-based e-mail services such as hotmail. For some additional examples, you can visit http://www.google.com/options/ where you’ll find a great list of Google’s free goodies. Some of these apps are web-based, and some require you to download and install a client application on your PC, but virtually all of the data is stored and accessed from the “cloud,” meaning that’s out there on the big Internet somewhere. Precisely where is really of no consequence; it could be on a server in the next room or half-way around the world – it really doesn’t matter!

You can subscribe to an RSS feed of the BBC World Technology podcast by going to http://www.theworld.org/rss/tech.xml. You can also subscribe to it on iTunes as follows:

Open iTunes > then, select iTunes Store > then, type “PRI’s The World: Technology Podcast” into the search box in the upper right - without the quotes, of course, and hit Return.

That’ll do it for now. Have a safe and happy holiday!

John Spencer
Technology Training Specialist
USU Brigham City Regional Campus
john.spencer@usu.edu
435.734.2277 x252
435.757.8395 (Cell)
435.797.1784 x252 (From USU Campus)

Tech-Tuesdays, December 16, 2008

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:45:00 +0000

Hey All,

I was recently asked about the current prospects for using a class response system such as iClicker in an interactive broadcast environment. In that regard I want to talk about two class response products , Web Clicker and Poll Everywhere.

Web Clicker:

been encouraging our instructors at USU Brigham City to give it a try in their face-to-face classes, and a few instructors have used it successfully during the last year or so. As good as the iClicker system is, it does have one obvious limitation, which is that it only supports face-to-face classes. Recently the folks at iClicker have been promising an expansion of their product line to include an application they’re calling Web Clicker. This product will support interactive broadcast classes and accept responses from the iClicker hand-held remote or any other web supported device, such as a web-enabled cell phone. iClicker plans to offer a beta test version of Web Clicker beginning spring 2009. There’s more information on Web Clicker at: http://www.iclicker.com/dnn/OurProducts/webclicker/tabid/156/Default.aspx

Poll Everywhere:

If you want to get started right away, I suggest you take a look at Poll Everywhere. They’re at http://www.polleverywhere.com.

With Poll Everywhere, your class doesn’t need specific hardware such as individual clickers or a classroom receiver. The system is fully supported via the web and cell technology so the hardware is already in place. Students can send responses by texting from their individual cell phones or any web-enabled device such as a laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. You can imbed a live graph into a PowerPoint slide and display polling responses in real time which can then be viewed by all of your students, both in the local classroom and at remote sites via the IVC interactive broadcast system. Pretty cool!

Displaying PowerPoint via the Web:
Hey, just a quick follow-up on an item I waved in front of you a while back. As you’ll recall, my friend and colleague Mike Stucki steered me onto a site called Slideboom that lets you share PowerPoint slide shows via the web. Recently I’ve stumbled across a couple of similar sites that offer the same service. Check out http://280slides.com/ and http://www.slideshare.net/.

Need help with class? YouTube Videos Await:
One last item: check out this article about YouTube videos. Who knew that there was actually something useful on YouTube? Check out this article from the MSNBC web site:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28200197/

OK – that’ll do it for this week. Pray for snow and have a great Christmas break!

John Spencer

Technology Training Specialist
USU Brigham City Regional Campus
john.spencer@usu.edu
435.734.2277 x252
435.757.8395 (Cell)
435.797.1784 x252 (From USU Campus)

Streaming Video: Linking and Embedding

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:53:00 +0000

Facilitators - How To Set Up a Student Presentation

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:40:00 +0000

This video screencast is intended to give USU Brigham City facilitators a quick look at how to set up a student presentation in an IVC receive classroom, using a student-supplied laptop and a connection to the IVC system.

...a couple of late additions to the video: (1) make sure the student laptop is off when you attach the video cable, and (2) if you're in one of the rooms that uses the Tandberg 1700 desktop system, remember to unplug the audio cable from the Tandberg at the end of the presentation.

We Stink at PowerPoint

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Tech Tuesdays: 7-1-08

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:50:00 +0000

Good Folks,

For this Tech-Tuesdays segment, I want to stay on the subject of podcasting in education. Actually, at the risk of “working a good horse to death,” I’m planning on posting at least one or two additional pieces on the subject before moving on to other items. Specifically, I’d like to share some insights on creating and posting video podcasts, and I’d also like to explore some good resources and methods for locating and downloading educational video clips.

Future of Podcasting

The video clip below is a short piece on the future of podcasting from the Future Tense podcast from American Public Media that was posted back in February of this year. Here’s the link to the post on the Future Tense web site:

http://www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/2008/02/06.shtml

It’s also posted on the Regional Campus and Distance Education Association wiki, at http://rcdea.wetpaint.com/.

Weekly Web Sighting(s)

This week I want to direct your attention to two pretty decent resources for podcasting and teaching with hand-helds (of which podcasting is a subset):

1. http://learninginhand.com/ - this is a great resource for teaching with hand-held devices, and it contains a great section on podcasting. There’s also a learning-in-hand podcast that you can subscribe to in iTunes.

2. http://techintegration.cciu.org/index.html - the home page is entitled “Instructional Technology Resources.” Again, this is a great starting point for information on podcasting, and teaching with technology in general.

Hey – as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns, questions, or suggestions you may have concerning Tech-Tuesdays, or anything dealing with the use of technology in teaching. Thanks!

John Spencer
Technology Training Specialist
USU Brigham City Regional Campus

Future of Podcasting

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:07:00 +0000

This is a short audio piece from the Future Tense podcast dealing with the future of podcasting. It was posted back in February, 2008.

Tech-Tuesdays - June 24, 2008

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:46:00 +0000

Tech-Tuesdays - June 24, 2008

Good Folks,

This is yet another in an ever-growing collection of “Tech Tuesdays” USUBC faculty training segments. In the previous couple of Tech-Tuesdays segments we’ve looked at an overview of podcasting and the steps necessary to create an .MP3 audio file on your PC. In this segment we’re looking at the steps necessary to post .MP3 files in your Blackboard course, and use Wimba Podcaster in Blackboard to create a podcast in iTunes. There’s a video demo posted below. It’s also posted on the RCDEA wiki at http://rcdea.wetpaint.com/ (look for my faculty training link in the list on the left side of the home page).

New Wimba Course Tools in Blackboard

By the way, I should mention that a rather extensive set of course tool enhancements from Wimba is now available in Blackboard. Together, these tools comprise the Wimba Collaboration Suite. You can read all about it at http://www.wimba.com/products/collaboration/.

To try out the Wimba tools, (1) log into Blackboard (http://bb.usu.edu), then (2) select one of your Blackboard courses. Now (3) click on the “Build” tab, and (4) click on the drop-down menu labeled, “Add Content Link.” From here you’ll be able to see all the Wimba Collaboration Suite tools.

Weekly Web Sighting

My pick this week for the weekly web sighting comes from a recent episode of “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” co-sponsored by Public Radio International and Wisconsin Public Radio. This episode is entitled, “We Generation,” and it deals with how the internet has influenced the dynamics of group interaction. It runs about an hour, but it’s worth a listen – especially segments 1 and 3. Here’s the link: http://www.wpr.org/book/080608b.html

Hey, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns, questions, or suggestions you may have concerning Tech-Tuesdays, or anything dealing with the use of technology in teaching. Thanks!

John Spencer
Technology Training Specialist
USU Brigham City Regional Campus
john.spencer@usu.edu
435.734.2277 x252
435.757.8395 (Cell)
435.797.1784 x252 (From USU Campus)

Audio Podcasting

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:21:00 +0000

In this Tech-Tuesdays segment we look at the procedures for using Wimba Podcaster in Blackboard to post audio files to your course, and then create and post audio files to an iTunes podcast.

Tech-Tuesdays, 6-3-08

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:36:00 +0000

Folks,

Greetings from the Brigham City regional campus! This is Tech-Tuesdays message is intended for members of the USU Brigham City faculty. Hopefully you’ll find the information useful in your teaching efforts. If you feel you’ve received this message in error, kindly hit “delete” and have a fabulous day!

Tech-Tuesdays screen-casts now on RCDE Wiki!

Recently I’ve been going back and updating some rather dated video screen-casts from prior “Tech-Tuesdays” USUBC faculty training segments. I’ve also added a couple of new ones dealing with Podcasting practices and issues (more will be added to this series as we move along). Look for these screen-casts (and lots of other cool stuff) on the new RCDEA Wiki site, created back in March by the intrepid USUBC Biology professor and tech wizard, Kevin Young. Kudos to Kevin for creating this Wiki! I think it will prove to be an excellent tool for training, networking, collaborating, and generally enhancing the quality of teaching and learning for Brigham City faculty and the larger RCDE community. Here’s the Web address: http://rcdea.wetpaint.com.

Using PowerPoint in Interactive Broadcast Classes

Many instructors are finding it useful to manipulate the contents of PowerPoint slides “on the fly” during their interactive broadcast classes, such as completing bullet items, filling in blanks, etc. This is a great learning activity, but keep in mind that the resolution of the video displayed at the remote classrooms is somewhat diminished compared to what the students in the local classroom can see. To overcome this, you can “toggle” back and forth between edit mode and slide show mode by using the “ALT-Tab” key combination – here’s how: First, open the PowerPoint file, then select “Slide Show” to launch the slide show. Now you can toggle back to “Edit” mode by holding down the ALT key and pressing the Tab key. After you’ve navigated to the appropriate slide and made the desired changes, you can “ALT-Tab” back into slide show mode to show the slide at full-screen.

Tech Gadgets in Education

What if every student in your class had an iPhone? Check out the article below…some interesting ideas for employing technology in the classroom!

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/AdultLearning/?article=EducationUpgrade&GT1=27001

Weekly Web Sighting: Instructional Architect

Here’s a great article on Instructional Architect that ran in the 2008 annual edition of Research Matters, the annual publication of the office of the vice president for research. The article is at the link below, with a link to the Instructional Architect web site immediately following:

http://research.usu.edu/researchmatters/htm/designing-the-digital-classroom

http://ia.usu.edu

OK – that’s going to wrap it for this Tech-Tuesdays message. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there are topics relating to technology in teaching or other concerns that you’d like to me to address. Thanks!

Samsung Document Camera

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:31:00 +0000

This is an updated version of the Document Camera screencast that we posted earlier. This is pretty much the same as the earlier version, but we've deleted the procedures that addressed raising and lowering the camera arm and lights. These days we just leave the unit fully extended.

Podcasting - Step 1

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:19:00 +0000

This screencast demonstrates the procedures for downloading and installing the Audacity audio editing software on your PC. (My apologies to any MAC users - there's a MAC version, but it isn't covered in this segment!). After viewing this screencast you should be able to create audio files which can then be posted to a Blackboard course, blog, wiki, and/or podcast. We'll talk about procedures for doing this in later segments.

Podcasting Overview

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:56:00 +0000

This is the first segment in a series of posts dealing with the podcasting process. In this segment we look briefly a the four basic steps needed to set up a podcast. In future segments we'll look at each step in more detail.

Starboard Electronic Whiteboard

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Screen Capture (Part 1)

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Screen Capture (Part 2)

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Blogs and Wikis - Part 1

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Blogs and Wikis - Part 2

john.spencer@usu.edu (jspencer52) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:45:00 +0000