What are SniteCasts? - Ideas for Podcasting

What are the SniteCasts?

Whether you're on the bus, at the gym, or in the park it feels like everyone is plugged into one of those tiny MP3 players with white ear buds. Usually they're grooving to their favorite music, but listeners at the Snite Museum of Art just might be learning about Abstract Impressionism.
Students in Chris Clark's "Applied Multimedia Technology" class, offered through the Computer Applications Program (CAPP), have produced a series of twenty "SniteCasts," three- to five-minute audio programs about paintings and sculpture in the museum. Sudents produce five projects in Clark's course, including a podcast, an audio program designed to be published online on a free subscription basis.

To begin this project, students received the title of an artwork and a printed description. The goal was to learn about audio recording and editing, so students were not expected to do extensive research. They did make a personal commentary, though, and questions were provided.

Prof. Clark required his students to make high quality recordings. Thanks to a production grant from the Center for Creative Computing, he was able to loan out portable digital audio recording equipment. Students were allowed to recruit someone else to do the actual reading out loud, and some chose friends with radio experience. The podcast project also demanded a background music track that could be shared legally. To meet this requirement, most of the students downloaded music from GarageBand.com, a popular source of "podsafe" music. Students recorded voice segments, transferred digital recordings to a computer, and then used software to incorporate the soundtrack.

The SniteCasts are available at this web site and through iTunes. and other services. Listen on a computer or get the series and transfer it to a media player, such as an iPod. Compatible players display a small image of the art work.

Fall, 2007 - ITS Course Requests

Instructional Technology Support @ PhilaU is now accepting requests for Summer and Fall, 2007 Blackboard, eRes and iTunes U Course Sites.

If you plan to use any of these three content management systems during the summer or fall semester, please complete the ITS Course Request Form located at:

ITS Course Request

Notes:

• Reusing Material from a Previous Semester - Faculty who wish to reuse material from a previous semester are asked to indicate the Course Name, Semester, and, if known, the Course ID in the Course Import section.
• Using One Course Page for Multiple Sections—If you are teaching more than one section of a course, but would only like one site, please indicate this in the Special Instructions/Requests section.
• iTunes U Course—Creation of an iTunes University course is also located on this form. If you are interested in possibly trying podcasts for the spring semester, please indicate this on the form and I will also create a course on iTunes University for you.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please review the Blackboard Policies and Procedures (http://www.philau.edu/ITS/bb/bbpolicy.htm) or contact me via phone (215-951-6332), e-mail (gallb@philau.edu) or stop by my office in the Gutman Library

GrammarGirl - A resource for writing students

With the help of our Director of our Writing Across the Curriculm program and Assistant Director of our Midwifery program, I found a new resource that I would like to share with our community and other higher education and K-12 institutions.

Grammar Girl is a podcast about, guess what, Grammar!!!

In under five minutes, you'll get a fun and friendly dose of writing advice. Grammar Girl covers everything from punctuation and grammar to style and voice.

To subscribe to Grammar Girl in iTunes, click the following link:

Subscribe to Grammar Girl

iTunes will open and you will receive the current episode and all future Grammar Girl episodes. To listen to previous episodes, click on Podcasts and download the episodes you would like to listen to.

eLearning 2.0 Conference - Leveraging Web 2.0 in Teaching

Rodney Murray presented on how he utilizes Podcasts in his classes at Thomas Jefferson University. This podcast is for faculty and students interested in learning how to use and create podcasts, and other e-learning tools.

Rod's Pulse Podcast

Chris Shields - Presented on two Web 2.0 tools that he utilizes for his classes at Drexel University

Del.icio.us – social bookmarking and how the concept of “tagging” allows you to build a “network” of colleagues that share the same interest as you. Makes your searching more focused instead of using Google.

Google Reader – Subscription service for blogs, etc. Similar to Bloglines and has easy integration with existing Blogging technology such as Blogger.

If you scroll down this page, you will see a section on YouTube Videos. The first two videos show the meaning of Web 2.0 to educators.

eLearning 2.0 Conference - Utilizing Horizon Wimba Voice Tools and Live Classroom

I had the opportunity to attend the e-Learning 2.0 Conference at Drexel University and wanted to share my thoughts on three of the presentations I went to.

The first presentation was on Horizon Wimba Voice Tools and Live Classroom.

Horizon Wimba Voice Tools is a asynchronous voice recording mechanism used as a voice recorder, voice email, voice discussion board and voice podcaster within a course management system like Blackboard. Blackboard is not necessary to run Horizon Wimba. They are working on integration with Moodle.

Voice Recorder – student introduction of themselves, faculty record 5-10 minute snippet that students have to listen to before class that shapes discussion in class.

Voice Discussion Board – Students can audio record their discussion board postings for archival

Voice Email – faculty feedback on assignments and projects

Voice Podcaster – Archiving ability as well as subscription based in iTunes (integration with iTunes U?)

Virtual Classroom is the “Live Classroom” feature where you can have a synchronous class that includes text, voice, video, PowerPoint delivery, application sharing and more.

What does it mean @ PhilaU?

Can be a true enhancement to existing Blackboard system to add a robust audio and live classroom presence to our hybrid and online courses. Especially important for online programs like Disaster Medicine and the MBA program, but worthwhile for every faculty member to explore use.

Tech Tips - How do we create roaming favorites and bookmarks?

The IT Guy says:

"This was a constant source of frustration for me. Between work and home I use as many as four different computers at times, and often I couldn't find something I had bookmarked because I didn't know which computer it was on! However, all that changed when my friend Glenn introduced me to a Website called del.icio.us."

To use del.icio.us, you first need to sign up for a free account. During that process, you will set up your user name, password, and install a small button on your browser toolbar. Once you have your account set up, any new bookmarks you set up will be stored in your del.icio.us account online, instead of on the computer that you're using. Once there, you can access them from any Internet-connected computer by going to the address del.icio.us/your user name (with your user name after the slash, of course.)

It gets better. When you create your bookmarks, you also assign them "tags", which are terms that indicate which category or categories you want your bookmarks sorted into. Not only does this allow for better organization of your bookmarks, it also allows you to share your sets of bookmarks with others. Anytime I do a presentation or workshop, I set up a specific tag for that set of resources, and I only have to give participants one url! This is why it is called "social bookmarking."

Del.icio.us isn't the only site for doing this; Furl is a similar service. Whichever service you use, it frees your bookmarks to go wherever you go!

Reference:

The IT Guy @ TechLearning.com. http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604260. Accessed on March 9, 2007

Tech Tips - Creating Flashcards by ProProfs.com

Tech Tips - March, 2007
Flash Cards by ProProfs.com

• Create your own online Flash Cards for free. Customize with your logo/name and text & colors of your choice. Post your flashcards at any webpage (your blog or classroom page).
• Find FREE flash cards on any subject. Browse through the categories, tags or simply search to find flash cards of interest.
• Submit links to interesting free online flashcards. Vote on submissions, add comments and read what others say about the flash card.

This is a great tool for students to create Flash Cards to use for memorizing terminology, understanding concepts, foreign language learning and studying for tests.

I encourage you to tell your students about this tool and place a link to it on your Blackboard site.