Social Networking Wars - video

A friend alerted me to this video on the "Social Networking" wars. Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Second Life? It is really funny and on point. Be sure to watch it to the end.

"Putting You in your Online Course" - Tips and a Fun Video

On Friday 3/20/2009 Dr. Patricia James visited the College of San Mateo and shared her tips on teaching online. Her presentation was entitled "Putting You in your Online Course". Dr. James is Dean of Instruction, Library and Technology, and Distance Learning, Mt. San Jacinto College

INTRO: It takes about 3 semesters to get used to teaching online.
-- 1st Semester- gulp!
-- 2nd Semester- get rhythm and fix things that didn't work
-- 3rd Semester- OK!

Before getting down to business, we viewed a fun video "Can't Help Teaching Online.wmv"

TIPS:

1. Set aside time to do research each week.
2. Consider setting up a ning.com outside your course management system as a "backup" to meeting space.
3. Make students responsible for backing up all their own work.
4. Set up your e-mail that automatically sends a "receipt" for student work.
5. Add your voice. Use audacity.com or camptasia (allows screen capture and voice over at the same time)
6. Note that MOST students do not print out info from online. Often they read from a smartphone.. So, when putting information online, use 60 characters across, background buff (not white). Also fonts for online should be san serif, verdana, or helvetica.
7. Add your own photo and other, somewhat related photos.
8. Each new week, make announcements. Provide regular, effective contact.
9. Welcome each student the first week
10. Read and Grade as you go. (don't spend time going back and re-reading)
11. Use CCCConfer (uses Elluminate webconferencing platform). Now you can save what you do as a webcast as mpeg file. This is ideal for tutoring or Office hours. If you use it during the week, CCCConfer will caption it for you.
12. More tools. Jing.com is a free screen capture tool and can capture video too! Download JINGPROJECT.com. You can annotate images and do voice-overs. Episelen.com. Create an ePortfolio if you have an .edu address it is free.

RESOURCES: www.msjc.edu -> online learning -> faculty resources -> general Distance learning resources. See also www.merlot.org

FYI - Academic Librarians have pointed me to a website called Merlot for peer reviewed material. MERLOT stands for: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.

In looking around the library & information area, I came across an information literacy game under "learning materials". One-4 players can play the online board game. Check it out.

The California State University has an Information & Communications Technology (ICT) Literacy section. It included professional development, assessment, faculty resources, campus programs, grants & initiatives.

St. Pat's Day Party in Second Life

This evening, the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries hosted a Saint Patrick's Day party in Second Life (SL). We were invited by Elaine Tulip as follows:

"Join librarians and educators for a Chicago-style St. Patrick's Day party on Thur, Mar 12 at 6pm SLT! We will have a live DJ playing celtic and blues music in our jazz club, free gifts, refreshments, and an Irish trivia scavenger hunt. The Chicago River is dyed green for the occasion."

Once Avatars transported to the coordinates (79.23.23), they were invited to get dancing capabilities, so mine danced and danced. See my avatar dancing by the pot of gold? Some avatar accepted green hats of several styles, and others held golden brew in beer mugs. After enough partying, I commented in the chat window that it was a "Great party. Thanks to the Chicago Public School Libraries for hosting." Elaine replied, "Thanks for coming!"

NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program

This post is a follow-up to the November 2008 FCC broadband hearing in San Jose.

Today's "kick-off" to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 Broadband Initiative took place in Washington, DC. The Public Meeting of NTIA's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program included a live webcast, viewed by at least 1,750.

Public Meeting Description: The U.S. Congress has appropriated $4.7 billion to establish a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program for awards to eligible entities to develop and expand broadband services to rural and underserved areas and improve access to broadband by public safety agencies. Of these funds, $250 million will be available for innovative programs that encourage sustainable adoption of broadband services; at least $200 million will be available to upgrade technology and capacity at public computing centers, including community colleges and public libraries; $10 million will be a transfer to the Office of Inspector General for the purposes of BTOP audits and oversight. Up to $350 million of the BTOP funding is designated for the development and maintenance of statewide broadband inventory maps.

Presenters included:

• Anna Gomez, Acting Administrator, NTIA, US Department of Commerce.
  
• Tom Vilsack, Secretary of US Department of Agriculture. See Rural Development website.
• Michael J. Copps, Acting Chair, FCC.
• Rick Wade, Senior Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff, US Department of Commerce.

Panel on Broadband initiatives, statutory requirements and timelines included:

• (Moderator) Mark Seifert, NTIA Senior Advisor
• Dr. Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, Associate Administrator, NTIA
• David Villano, Assistant Administrator for Telecommunications Programs, USDA Rural Development
• Scott M. Deuchman, Acting Senior Legal Advisor to Acting Chairman Copps, FCC.
  

The last portion of the hearing was devoted to Q&A. One of the many questions came from Alan Inouye, director of the American Library Association Office of Information Technology Policy, who asked for upcoming public meeting dates and stated that he hopes that grants to service providers will make access and discounts available to public libraries.

There will be a comment period before grant rules and regulations are determined. Then, the grants will be given out as fast as possible.

My first VOKI, GingerMan

Here is my first Voki character, GingerMan. It is an avatar that can speak using text to speech or you can record a message for your avatar to say. In this case, GingerMan welcomes teachers to the online web 2.0 course Classroom Learning 2.0. There are all sorts of options for representations of yourself, from holiday characters, historical figures, cartoons, cats, dogs, and more. there are a number of voice options, including male or female. Also different languages. Lots of background options. Check it out. Make different avatars for different occasions. this is designed for young people, but on the Internet who knows if you are a dog?

Glogster Poster Maker

It has been raining for more than a week so I decided to play with a cool tool for young people, Glogster. It is an online poster-maker. See my first attempt at a poster promoting the online web 2.0 tutorial for teachers, Classroom Learning 2.0.

Online posters are for expressing yourself. How would these be used in schools or libraries, or as ways to get the attention of public policy makers? Right now in California, many schools are about to send out "pink slips" to teachers, teacher librarians, all sorts of support staff. In School Board Meetings across the state, the cuts are being announced and meetings are packed full with parents, teachers, and students who have formal statements to make. Many of the audience will have t-shirts or buttons with words like "save our teachers" or "save our sports programs" or "save our Librarians" Some will carry posters and banners, too. Is Glogster another way to make a statement?

Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners - T.H.E. Journal

T.H.E. Journal carried an article on the "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners" in its February 2009 online issue. Author Chris Riedel's article covered an interview with educational technology consultant Gail Lovely, who presented her Top 10 Tools list at the FETC 2009 Conference in Orlando, FL. Gail's list of young learner tools included:

1. WIKIS (3 examples): wetpaint, pbwiki, wikispaces
   
2. Blogs (4 examples): Blogger, Class Blogmeister, 21 Classes, Gaggle
   
3. VoiceThread - voice and image.
   
4. Glogster - interactive posters.
   
5. Skype - communication. video window.
   
6. Animoto (education version) - mini music videos for kids.
   
7. YackPack - Yackety-yack! Voice-driven communication.
   
8. Create a Graph - easy visualizations of data.
   
9. Voki - design fun avatars.
   
10. Kerpoof - create movies, scenes.

In her presentation, Gail pointed out that the list is not as important as what teachers will do with the tools. She showed how teachers were using these with their students. Check it out!

CITATION: Chris Riedel, "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners," T.H.E. Journal, 2/2/2009, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23898

Section 108 - Copyright "Spinner"

California School Library Association 08/09 President Connie Williams alerted members to a cool "spinner" tool, Section 108 copyright of the U.S. Copyright Code. The code allows libraries, under certain circumstances, to make reproductions of copyrighted materials without express permission of the copyright holder. Visitors to the site can move the computer mouse to "spin" the wheel to learn the law related to five areas:

• preservation
• replacement
• last 20 years
• entire works for users
• portions for users

CARL's "Impossibly Wonderful Things"

The Northern Regional meeting of the California Academic and Research Libraries (CARL) attracted a roomful of academic librarians to Sonoma State University on Friday, February 27, 2009. CARL members were welcomed by Sonoma State University Librarian Barbara Butler and CARL VP North Ned Fielden. Special presenter was CARL President Tracey Mayfield, who showcased the newly designed CARL website. Check it out! We also learned that the 2010 CARL Conference will be in Sacramento. Details to follow. In the near term, there is a New Basic Skills Curriculum workshop on April 24, 2009 -- a good time to advocate for Information Literacy.

CARL Interest Groups met and networked over lunch break. The North IT Special Interest Group attracted a number of new and potentially new members. Co-chairs Sheila Cunningham and Ann Hubble gave an overview of the SIG's annual summer workshops, website, listserv, and blog. Pam Howard of San Francisco State University Library encouraged us to look at Library H3LP, an integrated IM/web-chat program especially designed for libraries. We also considered addressing new or ways to present library stats and measurements.

In the afternoon, several members were invited to give 5-minute presentations on "Wonderful Things" -- useful new tools and practices for the profession from around the region. Here are some of them:

• Jeff Rosen of San Francisco State sped us through an overview of MobiLib Home, ways libraries are making the library accessible via wireless devices such as cell and smart phones. Some examples of mobile access include University of Richmond, Scottsdale Public Library, Ball State Library, American University Library, Harvard University Library, and Washington Public Library. Of the above libraries, only Ball State Library had a "mobile access" option on their website. Jeff provided an impressive list of mobile applications: catalog search, computers (reservations?), library hours, ask-a-librarian, reserve a room, video services, LibraryThing, and more -- remember, all this in 5-minutes!
• Snoopy Library Catalog - Paula Hammett of Sonoma State University Library showed how students could use the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) phone link for text messages.
• Worldcat. Caroline Harnly of San Francisco State University Library did some special WorldCat tricks for Collection Development
• Captivate by Adobe. Aline Soules of CSU East Bay gave an impressive overview of how she has personally invested in Captivate software for creating 10-12 minute modules for students. It is 508 compliant. Preparing for closed captioning takes a bit of practice, but works well.
• Merlot.org - multimedia
• 2CoolThings blog by Jackie Siminitus. It captures CARL and a wide range of cool IT tools, events, and issues. It was started two years ago, thanks to an invitation by CARL North IT blogmaster Christine Holmes of San Jose State University Library to participate in SJLearning2.0. Recent posts include Second Life events and mobile access examples in libraries (see tags on sidebar).