TeachOIT: a Blog for People Who Teach with Technology

This November, Academic Computing is offering several workshops on a  range of topics, from building PowerPoint presentations and posting files online with UDrive, to setting up a course or research blog and discussions of “emerging technologies.”

Workshop topics include:

• Designing Effective Presentations in PowerPoint
• Setting up a class or research blog using the UMass Blogs tool
• Managing files online with UDrive
• A discussion of Second Life, a popular online virtual world
• Managing the SPARK grade book
• A discussion of strategies for using SPARK with large lecture classes

Most sessions are only 50 or 75 minutes long!

To view the schedule and register for workshops online, please visit:
http://www.umass.edu/accoprod/workshop/register.php

Interested in training, but none of the scheduled times work for you? Contact our Instructional Media Lab (545-2823) to set up a one-on-one consultation.

If you haven’t seen our newest and largest Computer Classroom in person check out these action shots we’ve posted on Flickr:

Morrill 212 in Action Photos

Kansas State Univeristy’s Michael Wesch present a fascinating overview of some of the history, trends, and themes observed as part of his ethnography of YouTube.

At 55 minutes this is  somewhat of a commitment to watch, you might want to wet your appetite  by checking out two short videos Wesch has made with his student that received a great deal of attention last year:

A Vision of Students Today

The Machine is Us/ing Us 

Read more about their project at:
http://mediatedcultures.net/youtube.htm 

Squeaks and Gurgles in SWF Audio Tracks

As good citizens of the Internet, we all dutifully update software, but sometimes it introduces unanticipated side effects.  If you or your students have upgraded to Flash Player 9, you are probably experiencing problems with the audio track of SWF files produced in Camtasia.  The buzz among Camtasia users is all about the invasion of squeaking and gurgling chipmunks.

The cause? The new Flash player will only playback audio tracks encoded at specific bit rate, whereas previous versions of the player were more lenient. The change in expectations for bit rate causes you audio to be distorted and hence the “chipmunk effect.” If you’re interested, you can read more about the problem with Flash Player 9 here: http://www.robertplank.com/remove-chipmunks-from-camtasia-videos/

An Easy Fix!

Don’t worry, you don’t need to republish your existing SWFs. TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia  have made an easy fix available.  There are two parts:

• The update for Camtasia will prevent the problem when you publish SWFs in the future. It’s free if you have a license for Camtasia Studio 5.

• The SWF Fixer, also free, is really amazing!  You don’t even have to open Camtasia.  Just drag the folder(s) containing a copy of your SWFs into the utility and it will find the SWFs and fix them all. Then all you have to do is replace the SWFs on your Web site or SPARK course.

You can download the Camtasia update and SWF Fixer from TechSmith: http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/techsmith.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1250.   Scroll down the TechSmith page a bit to find the links to the Update and the Fixer.

As always, let us know if you need help with any of this.  The friendly consultants in the Instructional Media Lab are always happy to help faculty and TAs with your instructional technology needs.

For our first Emerging Technology & Pie event of the semester Steve Fox, lecturer in the Journalism Department, joined us to  present on his use of Facebook and Twitter in undergraduate Journalism courses. We had a good number of new faces showed up, and a wide range of ages and departments were represented in the group that came to hear about Steve’s use of Facebook for instruction.

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Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) is a great web comic about life in academia and one of my favorite comics. Usually written from a grad student perspective, I thought the most recent comic on what undergrads really mean with their questions would appeal to many of you:

“Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

The Amherst Wire has an article discussing the use of micro-blogging tool Twitter by UMass Journalism students to cover the presidential debate. UMass journalism professors Steve Fox, Scott Brodeur and BJ Roche asked their students to contribute to a “#umassprez2″ topic that would group all of their posts together. Posts were automatically grouped on an updating page that would continually show the live play-by-play comments from the students watching the debate. Instructors were interested to see if a tool like Twitter would cause students to transition from observer to participant.

Traffic from contributing students on #umassprez2 was so fast and furious that it got picked up as a “hot topic” on Twitter, thrusting it into the spotlight for other Twitter users to see. This in turn caught the eye of representatives of the Obama and McCain campaigns who joined in with responses, links to resources, and general spin based on the students’ comments and questions. Professor Steve Fox said, “This was an experiment in an emerging new technology and it had the hidden benefit of engaging students in the political process.”

Reade the full article at:
http://www.amherstwire.com/2008/10/08/on-debate-night-umass-classes-aflutter-over-twitter/

More on Twitter:

• Our Overview of Twitter
• “Ambient Awareness” in Social networks?

This past weekend Tony and I immersed ourselves in the incredibly transformative process of digital storytelling. We rode the Amtrak down to Philadelphia, PA and stepped into a group of 8 other folks with diverse backgrounds and intentions for developing a particular style of communication. The 3-day hands-on tutorial, presented by the Center for Digital Storytelling, led us through the methodology for building digital stories from beginning to end—from nuggets of ideas to finished and polished pieces.

Digital storytelling utilizes computer-based tools to combine writing, narration, photography, sound and video to create reflective stories in the form of digital movies. The stories focus on a specific topic and typically encompass a particular point of view. Though they may vary in length, most of the stories that are being integrated into higher education curriculum tend to be 3-10 minutes long. Stories range from personal accounts, historical reflection, cultural explorations, to humorous metaphor and life experience. They have the potential to be used as poignant pedagogical tools within teaching, research and community building.

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In support of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, OIT is sponsoring events & activities designed to help the UMass Amherst community stay safe online.

UMass Amherst students, faculty, and staff are invited to come to a Cyber Security Clinic, attend a presentation, or enter to win prizes by taking our online quizzes.

To promote cyber security at UMass, we’ve given a theme to each week of October. Week 1: Security Basics, Week 2: Phishing, Week 3: Data Security, Week 4: Copyright & Fair Use.

For a list of events, links to resources, and information about weekly drawings, visit the Cyber Security Awareness site:  Cyber Security Awareness Month 2008

The OIT Computer Classrooms group is pleased to announce the opening of a new computer classroom in Morrill III, room 212. To celebrate, OIT is hosting an open house on Friday, October 3, from Noon to 2:00 p.m. All members of the campus community are invited to attend.

With 39 PCs, Morrill is OIT’s largest classroom and OIT’s first new computer classroom in three years. It includes technologies and features that will make the classroom easier to use for faculty and students. The room is equipped with two ceiling mounted projectors, an instructor station with a laptop connection, and an audio visual rack similar to those installed in the Provost’s technology-enhanced classrooms. The room also includes two ADA workstations.

I can tell you from personal experience, having just taught a class there, that this is a great space and a key resource for instructors who teach medium sized classes that could not easily be accommodated by the other computer classrooms on campus.