How’re ya holdin up?

We define “sustainable” as that which has the capacity to endure. In other words, it holds up over time – like this bronze statue of Atlas I found on Flickr. Bronze has been around since – well, the bronze age – and continues to be the medium of choice by sculptors wishing to have their [...]

Graphical Elements: Illustration, Graphs, Charts, and Diagrams

When creating a course learning module to be delivered online, the right visual elements can make or break the page. A long page of nothing but text, no matter how well laid out, can seem overwhelming to the online learner. But how do you find just the right image to add to the topic? Should [...]

Media Elements Faculty Learning Community

This was the first week of our Media Elements faculty learning community (FLC). The Media Production staff  and I are co-facilitating the weekly sessions. I got the idea a few weeks ago after reading Clive Shepherd’s post on “Media Chemistry”. Our community will be exploring the use of digital media for teaching and learning. Much [...]

Digital Media Literacy

After reading Clive Shepherd‘s post on Media Elements I decided to host a Faculty Learning Community this summer on the topic of Digital Media Literacy.  For a couple of hours each Tuesday our FLC will explore various digital media elements: typography, illustration, photography, animation, audio and video, and consider when, where, and how they might [...]

I need Flash on my iPod Touch

Steve Jobs, President of Apple – makers of the top-selling iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – has stated they will not use Flash with their hand-held technology. Flash has become the de facto standard for delivering online media including video, games, and animation. Hulu uses Flash, Scribd uses Flash, TeacherTube, Slideshare, StudyMate and many other [...]

Technology-Induced Agoraphobia (TIA)

One of the things I enjoy most about my job  is helping faculty decide which technologies to use for teaching and learning. Several times a week an instructor may approach me looking to solve a challenge in their classroom with technology. As a learning technologist (another fun) part of my job is spending time exploring [...]

Net-gen’rs, Digital Immigrants, and Geeks!

A small group of us on campus has been investigating alternatives for our next learning management system. We are considering four solutions: two proprietary and two open source systems. As I was reporting on our team’s progress the other day, we got into a discussion about student readiness. One of my colleagues said that he [...]

Setting up VoIP with Adobe Connect Pro

Made this video the other day to help with the challenges of using VoIP with Adobe Connect. Maybe someone will find it useful.

Emerging Technology

Draagbare radio / Radio hat, originally uploaded by Nationaal Archief. Okay so this ended up going a different way. The Draagbare radio / Radio hat, found in “The Commons” on Flicker, was perhaps the earliest attempt at a portable radio. One more example of a technology that should probably not be used while driving.

The very short celebrated life of EtherPad

I’ve been hearing quite a bit about EtherPad for the past several months. Its sort of a chat/wiki/Google Docs/Wave thingy. I hadn’t actually tried it out until the other day when a faculty member asked if I had any suggestions for an alternative to the chat tool within our LMS. He was hoping to include [...]