Google Apps for Education: Learn More

Google offers free webinars on how to integrate Google Apps into the classroom. Coming up in December is a series for higher education.

• Google Apps as an e-portfolio solutionGail Ring, Director of the ePortfolio program at Clemson University, will discuss how Google Sites and Google Docs play a foundational role in Clemson's notable ePortfolio program.December 6th, 2010. 11AM PST.
  
  
• Google Apps + SunGardTruman State University's IT department will show how they've integrated Google Apps with the Banner and Luminis platforms from Sungard Higher Education.December 8th, 2010. 11AM PST.

Grant opportunities from the NEH Office of Digital Humanities

The NEH Office of Digital Humanities offers grant opportunities for scholars interested in the use of digital technology or to study the impact of digital technology in the humanities. Carey Heatherly, MLIS, University Archivist was awarded two grants from NEH. Thanks to Carey, the library was able to purchase supplies and obtain the services of a consultant.

Grant opportunity: Digging into Data Challenge

Check out this grant opportunity! The Digging into Data Challenge is an international grant competition sponsored by four leading research agencies, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from the United Kingdom, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) from the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) from the United States, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) from Canada.

Using Prezi in the Classroom

I recently had the opportunity to use the presentation software platform Prezi in one of my classes. I think of Prezi as PowerPoint on steroids. Not only is the service remarkably easy to use but the presentations look great.

Prezi is an example of the movement toward cloud computing. The service can be used from any compatible browser and requires no software downloads (although there is a client available for download.) As a busy college librarian, I love the freedom of building my presentation from almost any Internet-capable computer quickly and easily.



My first Prezi was a short lecture on evaluating political advertisements in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission this January. Using the flap over Target Corporation's large donation to a pro-business Political Action Committee as a case study, I made the case that the information literate citizen now must dig deeper to find the complete story about the political ads they see on television and on the Internet.

Reactions to the Prezi software were generally positive. Students seem to like the use of graphics and video in library and information literacy presentations. It doesn't hurt that a lot of our students shop and work at Target - - it's a highly relevant case study for many in our classes.

The Prezi educational license is free to active students and teachers. The "Edu Enjoy" license includes 500 MB of online storage space and the ability to download finished files to allow for offline presentations.

This is my first try using XMind to compose a Mind Map. This has all sorts of interesting pedagogical uses.

Using Technology to free up lecture time

Gasp! Give up lecture time! The Chronicle is running a series Killing the Lecture With Technology. Part II of the series highlights the stories of three professors who found alternative methods of delivery for the lecture and used time freed up for more one-on-one discussions and give and take. David B. Miller a psychology professor at University of Connecticut reports in the Chronicle "almost half the class earned A's (I do not curve grades), and for the first time that I can recall, nobody failed the course"Dr. Miller has a video explaining his methods.

Omeka: “five-minute setup” makes launching an online exhibition as easy as launching a blog

Anything with a "five-minute setup" appeals to me. Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know if I do and what I think. Meanwhile, has anyone out there tried it?

Some example of libraries that use it include the Ringwood Public Library and the University of Arizona.

University faculty at George Mason have used Omeka to teach history with primary sources that make “history making” visible and vivid.

The Blended Librarian: Blending Instructional Design, Technology, and Librarianship

Well I think I've found my tribe! The Blended Librarian according to Jennifer Howard in her August 2, 2010 Chronicle article "a fairly new model of academic librarianship that took root about five years ago. It combines traditional reference skills with hardware and software know-how and an interest in applying them to curriculum development and teaching." I went to the Blended Librarian Online Learning Community website. There's lots of free webcasts, digital learning resources, and information literacy links. Mark McBride, a blended librarian at Buffalo State is profiled in Howards article. McBride teaches the basics of 21st-century information literacy. The Chronicle asked Mr. McBride to lay out some of those basics.

"First you have to understand the nature of information," he said. "You have to identify what you need and be able to understand why you need it, and at the same time, if you’ve located something, understand who created it and why they created it."

Plagiarism lines blur for students in digital age

This article, appearing in today's New York Times, addresses a growing issue for many in
academia. The abundance of instantly and freely available online resources like Wikipedia, compiled by numerous uncompensated contributors, has created a notion that information is simply there for the taking. Apparently some students, while engaged in the writing process, are seeing less and less need for the application of traditional academic processes. For example, the writer cites a case where a student simply copied and pasted sections of a online article into his paper claiming he saw no need to give credit for information that lacked a clear author and was already common knowledge.

John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, also cover this and similar issues. In conjunction with their book, the duo launched a variety of websites which function to discuss these issues further and to keep the book's information current. The main page is here, but this is a shortcut to their tidbit on Digital Information Quality.

Flip Cameras in the Field: Faculty using Flips

Here's an ongoing list of faculty using Flip cameras in university settings.

Bill Wolff's Composing Spaces: 6 recommendations for teaching with the flip video camera

Communications Professor Michael Scully, Roger Williams University. Digital Journalism
Students are required to purchase a flip camera as part of the course materials. The purpose is to get students in the cycle of crafting and producing stories and publishing in an electronic forum.

Kevin Caves, Instructor in Biomedical Engineering, Duke University Student Video Fellowship: Biomedical Engineering capstone video project. Students used Flip video cameras provided by the Duke Digital Initiative to record interviews with disabled clients, in which the clients explain what they can do on their own, and later, what they can do with assistive prototypes.

Students could use these videos as a memory aid, as they were designing devices. The videos also helped instructors, who can’t always attend each meeting with the clients, to review what happened during a visit. In addition, students used video to demonstrate their designed devices as a final presentation.

Flip camera bibliography

I thought it would be helpful to collect and keep track of research, endeavors, and other active learning activities with Flip cameras. I'll add to this time from time and please feel free to send me what you find too.

7 things you should know about Flip Camcorders from EDUCAUSE

How Tiny Camcorders are Changing Education by Laurie Rowell

Stop flipping out: quick tutorials for Flip video cameras
Duke University Center for Instructional Technology

Flip cameras

I wanted to try something new this summer with the freshman English 101 class. Instead of the old tired library tour, why not let the students film themselves as they learn how to navigate the library catalog and the stacks to find a book? Summer is a good time to try out new ideas. This one worked! Amanda Melcher another library faculty member and two students Hunter Tinsley, and Michael Messina helped me pull it off.