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BuzzLion for the week of October 21

It’s a rainy week, but the innovation sun shines brightly in ETS. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of October 21:

Chris Stubbs discusses a whitepaper he worked on regarding potential educational uses for Facebook.

“I don’t think any of us really knew what sort of reception the Library Facebook app would receive when we started this process, but with more than 1,100 users currently, its fair to say that its usership has shattered my own expectations.”

Elizabeth Pyatt makes a case that sometimes, it’s a good idea to make one of your blogs a private one.

“I should say that I maintained a private blog elsewhere for some time. It’s really private too - not an anonymous blog hosted somewhere outside of Penn State. It’s password protected, and it’s dated, has categories and could generate an RSS feed. Although some entries in the private blog have made the public blog, most are still lying in the dark…and that’s OK with me.”

Fortunately for us, Dave Stong is always happy to share his thoughts on design and multimedia. This week he talks about video in Photoshop and it’s potential.

“I knew that Photoshop has long been able to render images for television while the workspace remains on a monitor. In the background, Photoshop does the math to convert a circle I’m creating on square pixels to the ellipse it needs to be to appear round on rectangular pixels. Quite a feat, I think. I thought that, even though Photoshop isn’t really a great video tool yet, it might have the algorithms to help.”

Brett Bixler found an article that makes a strong argument that gaming indeed can have an impact on learning. He posts a link to it here.


“It lists several reasons why game development is a great activity for education. I’ve condensed these into two main reasons:

1. A learning by doing activity.
2. A collaborative activity.

And I’ll add my own:

* Students are motivated to do this!”

In keeping with a multimedia theme, Jeff Swain offers tips on incorporating multimedia into a course via ITS Streaming Services.

“The use of multi-media files as a teaching tool is increasing. Some instructors are using movie clips to illustrate a point while others are recording portions of their material for students to reference and use as often as needed. The use of multi media files (movie and sound clips) enhances distance learning, blended learning and traditional courses.”

Hot Team: The Facebook Platform

SN Tag SmallA few months ago, Some of us here at ETS and faculty from the University Libraries were discussing Web 2.0 tools in the contexts of the Libraries. The meeting was really just to get an idea of the types of things they are thinking about and we started discussing the Facebook and the new FB Platform opportunities. The librarians showed us what some other higher education libraries were doing in that space, and we decided to form a Hot Team to look at it so we could understand the potential. Part of the team’s exploration included building a simple library search application. In looking at the it, the team sees some opportunities to mash up learning with the most popular web application among students at the University.

Download the white paper to learn more about the Facebook Platform.

BuzzLion for the week of October 14

Leaves are falling, and innovation is rising at ETS. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of October 14:

ETS staff always has an open ear for ideas, suggestions, recommendations, and other feedback. ETS Director Cole Camplese is looking for feedback on ideas for developing effective eLearning.

“I would love to hear from those of you out there who design courses and what works for you … what are the right tools and approaches? Think of a design environment that a team (with specific roles) is asked to create scalable eLearning materials … what are some examples of people ditching the all in one design/development environments to create courses that are made up of small pieces? Can we legitimately ask our faculty to work with us to select and deliver killer learning environments using the platforms we constantly talk about?”

ETS IT expert Jason Heffner discovered an online overview of the content management system Drupal, which would be of interest for any Web designers out there.

“It was an excellent presentation given by some of the people at Lullabot, and I would recommend it if you never heard about Drupal and want a good overview.”

ETS Director Cole Camplese turns swami on us and pulls out his crystal ball to predict the future of student involvement in onlne publishing.

“Today I was asked to project if the Blogs at PSU, when used in a electronic publishing context, would increase the amount of students engaged in portfolio creation. Right now, from what I understand, less than 50% of students activate the free personal webspace we give them. Activate is different than using it. About half of that group reports using it for academic purposes. Will giving the students of our University a simple tool for publishing, reflecting, sharing, and collaborating online change those numbers? I said I think it will — and I also mentioned that if we built a FaceBook Application to facilitate blogging from their profiles we’d see an even bigger jump.”

ETS multimedia developer Mark DeLuca updates us on a few very cool multimedia projects for Penn State courses.

“It’s been a busy few months here at ETS. Not only has the BLI been keeping me active, but with the release of Adobe’s CS3 suites I’ve had to take some time to reacquaint myself with the apps I use most.”

Brett Bixler talks about the call for proposals for the upcoming New Media Consortium Symposium on the Evolution of Communication

“If anyone from PSU is interested in presenting, I will assist as I can!

Call for Proposals
The NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication
December 4-5, 2007

Proposals for presentations for the NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication, a special 2-day, live online event to be held December 4-5, 2007 in the virtual world of Second Life, are being solicited through November 2. “

The ANGEL Community Hub is a great place to find out tips on how to use ANGEL for your courses. Jeff Swain from the ANGEL Documentation Team offers three tips in this week alone:

- Configuring Course Mail Settings
- Changing the Content Items Icons on the Lessons Tab
- Using Google Reader Clips in a Course in Place of Hyperlinks

ETS instructional designer and Adobe Connect expert Yvonne Clark compiled some interesting blog postings about Connect and how different groups are using it.

And finally, we really recommend anyone reading this take the time to go to both the Digital Commons Open House and the Penn State Testing Center Open House October 25. Both of them are in the Pollock Building, so you get a two-for-one deal. Below are announcements on both events. We invite the Penn State Community to see a cutting-edge multimedia production project for both students and faculty in the Digital Commons, and the only computer-based testing center in the Big Ten. We look forward to seeing you there.


Digital Commons media production studios to host open house Oct. 25

The Penn State community is invited to an open house of the newly designed and renovated Digital Commons media production studios on the second floor of Pollock Building, University Park on Oct. 25 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. At University Park, the Digital Commons offers two studios, the Faculty Multimedia Center for faculty and Studio 204 for students. These free facilities, which provide hands-on assistance from experienced multimedia experts, are part of the Digital Commons initiative of Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of Information Technology Services. Through the initiative, similar studios will be installed at all Penn State campus locations by 2009, allowing students to enrich their educations through the creation of digital content.

Featured at the open house will be four new faculty workstations that are dedicated to the creation of digital media to incorporate into course-related activities. Visitors can tour the newly expanded digital video production studio and digital video editing suite and see the array of equipment available. They will also be able to view examples of past projects produced using Digital Commons facilities. For more information about the Digital Commons initiative, visit The Digital Commons Web site or e-mail digitalcommons@psu.edu.

New Testing Center open house events

Penn State’s new Testing Center, located in the Pollock Building on the University Park campus, will hold several Open House events during the fall semester. Upcoming events are scheduled for 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. October 25 and November 13. The Center combines an e-testing lab and the new home for the University’s Scanning Operations, previously located in the Rider Building II. Scanning Operations processes paper scan sheets used to capture responses on tests, surveys, or other course assessments. The e-testing lab will be in piloting phase this fall and open for computer-based test administration in spring 2008. The lab space is newly renovated with state-of-the-art technology designed to ensure the highest level of security possible. Open House events will include an overview of submitting course-related scan sheets at Scanning Operations and demonstrations of Testing Center entry procedures, new testing equipment, and security technology. The Testing Center is jointly operated by Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of Information Technology Services, and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, a unit of Undergraduate Education. For more information on the Testing Center, please visit http://www.testing.psu.edu/.

BuzzLion for week of September 30

The leaves are turning, but the technology innovation machine at ETS never stops turning, so here is the BuzzLion for the week of
September 30:

ETS staff often travel to conferences to present, network, and learn new skills. Pat Besong recently traveled to the Adobe Max 2007 Conference to hone his multimedia skills and learn about the latest technology. A three-part post of sorts, you can read about each day at the conference and what he learned.

“I’m going to try and blog while I watch this presentation. There’s like 4000 people here in one room, very much like the Apple keynote at WWDC. The geeks are in frenzied anticipation. There is a triple screen in the front of the room and music is blaring to the animated slides.”

Cole Camplese was one of the ETS folks who presented at an event this past week. Along with Allan Gyorke, they presented at the CIC TechForum on “Open Communication and Web 2.0.”

“What we covered was our process for innovation and engagement. It seemed to be well received by the audience. I decided to do something different in sharing this presentation — I have added it as multiple formats.”

ETS multimedia guru Dave Stong consistently writes interesting blog posts on the world of design technology. This week, Dave talks about “Photoshop, 3D and me.”

“By now you’ve heard that Photoshop will open 3D objects. They come in as special layers very similar to Smart Objects. Double clicking the layer opens a brand new bank of 3D editing tools. Very cool, of course; you may have to wear an earring to access the tools. But as before, my needs, interests, or responsibilities would never lead me to model something that I would adjust in Photoshop. Though I can see how it could be useful, and I can tell that it’s a pretty remarkable software enhancement, I probably would use it even less than 3D Transform. That is, until I saw that Vanishing Point will render to a 3D layer.”

ETS IT whiz Jason Heffner is a big fan of the open source Web content management platform Drupal, and he fills you in as to why.

“I can’t say this enough, Drupal has some of the best documentation I have ever seen written for ANY product I have ever worked with; I can honestly say this unbiased. If you don’t believe me then look for yourself at http://drupal.org/handbook. You will find full documentation for all core modules, instructions for setting up your install, configuring your site, and even end user documentation. The documentation is extremely well written using Books (wiki like pages). All the code, including development and for all the modules, is located on the drupal.org site. There is a large community available online and through the Forums. The support page for Drupal is at http://drupal.org/support; go see for yourself.”

Hypercube? What’s a hypercube? You math and geometry whizzes out there know what it is, but did you know you can find them in the Virtual World Second Life? Brett Bixler tells us more, and why this is interesting for educators.

“Cerated by Seifert Surface, this is a scripting marvel. When I first though about how to do this in SL, I became hung up on one key fact - gravity is always “down” in SL. You can’t really have avatars walking on walls or ceilings. This is critical to experience immersion in a hypercube. Seifert solved the problem by simply (?) manipulating the structure so it changes depending on how you progress through it. Watch the movie to see this in action. You’ll see my avatar several times inside the cube. As I move about, the structure changes around me. See the attached movie.

Besides being neat, this points out the next level of effort required by educators to provide engaging experiences in SL. The social stuff is easy - it’s built in. Manipulation of objects requires some hefty programming savvy - and time.”

Chris Millet recently posted a video on the new Digital Commons that’s worth a look.

Jeff Swain asks the question, “Course editors, did you know you can sequence lesson content items when adding them to your course?” and then proceeds to answer his own question.

“Traditionally whenever content items are added to a course they appear at the bottom of the list. However, with ANGEL 7.1 editors have the option of placing the item in the order they wish it to appear by using the Sequence option while in the content item’s Settings. ”

One final note that has appeared on several ETS blogs:

Faculty proposals sought for 2008 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Faculty are invited to share innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. This free event will be held Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. This year’s theme is “The Collaborative Campus and the Culture of Teaching and Learning.”

Faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a proposal to share their story with other faculty and instructional support staff using the online form at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/proposal/. Potential topics could include the application of social computing tools, collaborative writing, new learning spaces, digital expression, the role of technology in assessment and accreditation, and student perspectives on their use of technology. Sessions can be in a variety of formats, including group presentations, panel discussions, poster presentations, demonstrations, small-group discussions, and other activities. Each session should include some discussion of practical aspects such as the tools used, sources of support, best practices, and how the application of technology can be transferred to other disciplines. The deadline to submit proposals is Nov. 16.

For more details and to register, visit http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/. The Symposium is sponsored by Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of Information Technology Services.

Faculty proposals sought for 2008 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Faculty are invited to share innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. This free event will be held Saturday, March 29, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. This year’s theme is “The Collaborative Campus and the Culture of Teaching and Learning.”

Faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a proposal to share their story with other faculty and instructional support staff using the online form at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/proposal/. Potential topics could include the application of social computing tools, collaborative writing, new learning spaces, digital expression, the role of technology in assessment and accreditation, and student perspectives on their use of technology. Sessions can be in a variety of formats, including group presentations, panel discussions, poster presentations, demonstrations, small-group discussions, and other activities. Each session should include some discussion of practical aspects such as the tools used, sources of support, best practices, and how the application of technology can be transferred to other disciplines. The deadline to submit proposals is Nov. 16.

For more details and to register, visit http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/. The Symposium is sponsored by Teaching and Learning with Technology, a unit of Information Technology Services.

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