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BuzzLion for the week of November 25

Both the BuzzLion and the ETS staff are back after Thanksgiving break, ready to talk turkey about educational technology. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of November 25…..

ETS instructional designer Elizabeth Pyatt discusses copyright, technology, and making a buck.

“Interestingly, another article, “Prince the artist who formerly liked the Internet” has started an anti-file sharing campaign…despite being a pioneer in legal music downloading. Prince has not given a clear reasons for his change in heart, but I bet it has something to do with revenue.

A lot has been written on both sides on copyright issues, but in the end it really is about how much money you will make or lose in the transaction. I have to confess I’ve been both sides of it myself.”

ETS Marketing Coordinator Derick Burns shared his thoughts on a game that has some profound ideas behind it.

“The Metal Gear Solid series is known for intertwining real world issues and themes into its story line including the morality of soldiers and the consequences of war, but it mostly focuses on the threat of nuclear proliferation and the maneuverings of those in power in order to achieve their own ends.”

ETS Director Cole Camplese discusses a concept called the Digital Media Value Chain.

“During the last few weeks I have started to see some really amazing digital media artifacts coming out of our classrooms here at PSU. Two weeks ago I came across one of the most amazing uses of a student blog I have ever seen.”

ETS Senior Programmer Brad Kozlek wonders if anyone uses the blog comments feed.

“The Blogs at Penn State includes an rss feed for comments for each blog by default. Does anyone actually use these? I find them pretty important for certain blogs that tend to generate a lot of discussion.”

ETS virtual world expert Brett Bixler tells us about Arden, a virtual world based on Shakespeare.

“Ed Castronova is well-known for his advocacy for the use of virtual worlds in education. He’s just released Arden, a virtual world that integrates some of the Bard’s writings, plots, and thoughts.”

ETS ANGEL documentation expert Mary Janzen tells faculty how they can override quiz settings in ANGEL.

“A new article I have added to the Help & Information Guide explains how to override quiz settings such as time limit, end date, or maximum attempts for specific students while keeping the existing settings for the rest of the class.”

Hot Team: Location Aware Technologies

I’m not sure how this one slipped through the cracks, but we never posted the white paper results from a Hot Team we did in cooperation with Purdue University looking at Location Aware technologies. Chris Millet guided this team through exploring how things like GPS and Google Maps can be used to create teaching and learning opportunities.

Get the white paper and please post any comments you may have.

BuzzLion for the week of November 4

First flakes of the season are falling outside, and inside the warm confides of ETS, innovation is heating up. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of November 4…..

ETS Director Cole Camplese discusses numbers as they pertain to adaption of ETS’s technology offerings here at Penn State.

“The first question that hit me over the head is related to something I started to think about recently — can we honestly expect them to “come over to our stuff” just because we build it? This isn’t the same old issue with them showing up with accounts at Blogger, FaceBook, MySpace, and others … this to me is about giving them a real reason to use our tools.”

ETS senior programmer Brad Kozlek shares what he recently learned about the iPhone at a recent Apple Tech Talk.

“Think about allowing users to do something valuable before requiring input. For example, if you have a directory of protected videos, consider allowing the user to browse the directory immediately, and only ask for authentication to actually watch the video. Consider having a list of the most popular content right up front, this can keep most users having to enter data to get at what they want. Sounds pretty basic, and probably sound advice in most cases, not just the iPhone, but sometimes you need to reminded of the simple things to maintain your focus.”

ETS instructional designer Elizabeth Pyatt tells us her theories on why students won’t blog unless they are told.

“Both Cole Camplese and Bart Purcell have written interesting posts commenting on the fact that students in one course only blog when instructors tell them to and no other time.

It’s somewhat depressing, but probably not surprising to anyone working with educational technology. Students also have to be prodded to write discussion board posts, turn in homework, take quizzes and read the material (via check-up quizzes).”

ETS programmer Chris Stubbs discusses how new versions of classics can be educational and entertaining in a way that is educational and entertaining.

“For example, who remembers “Romeo + Juliet”, the movie? If you’re anything like me, you spend a good bit of mental energy trying to block any and everything that involves Leonardo Dicaprio - but we’re among friends here in this enormously public venue, so its ok to admit that you’ve seen it.

Anyway the point is that that movie used its influence to give a literary classic a hip, fresh look, and in doing so provided an opportunity to reach an entirely new generation that might never have read the Shakespearian tragedy. I’m sure the film wasn’t a perfect recreation of dear old William’s handy work, though it did manage to come pretty close, right down to the signature Shakespeare language. But more importantly, it made Romeo and Juliet a cool story that teenagers could relate to as opposed to an old musty “classic”.”

Boy, do you have a lot of stuff in your ANGEL course. How do you know how much storage space is still available? ANGEL guru Jeff Swain has the answer.

“As we get further along in the semester it is advisable to check your course to see how much space is available, and to take any necessary action, before the limit is exceeded. To do this from your course:” (you can see the rest by clicking the above link)

ETS Digital Commons manager Chris Millet has just released the first Digital Commons Podcast, and you can hear it here.

“In our very first episode of the Digital Commons podcast, Chris Millet introduces the Digtial Commons team, and we discuss DC news, the Video of the Week Spotlight, and the new Panasonic HDC-SD1 solid-state video camera.”

ETS virtual world expert Brett Bixler discusses Penn State Great Valley’s first classes in the virtual world Second Life and what is the best way to use Second Life in education.

“I’m starting to believe for educators that SL works best when experiences are structured. Dumping students into SL and asking them to just poke around will not lead to a positive experience. For Great Valley, they are able to use one of the the build in affordances (a virtual economy) to structure learning. For other disciplines, it’s harder. You have to build the experience via scripting and careful planning.”

BuzzLion for the week of October 28

Halloween week brought ghosts, goblins, and absolutely scary-good innovation at ETS. Here is the BuzzLion for the week of October 28:ETS Director Cole Camplese has come up with a way that the Blogs at Penn State project can enhance a student’s ePortfolio.“I think the keys here revolve around making a few changes not to the technology, but to the ways we work with students as they move through their academic careers. Sitting down with them as they enter a program and helping them establish their personal goals so that they balance them with the goals of their program — that is critical.”

Members of the Penn State community who work with Unicode will find Elizabeth Pyatt’s discussion on using Unicode with lesser-known scripts and languages a good read.”I had a hard time deciding which sessions to attend at the last Unicode conference, but I did end up at “Unicode at the Front Lines”, which was a series of mini-presentations from scholars working with lesser-known languages and scripts. This is a place where the Unicode rubber really hits the road, and I learned some interesting “life-lessons”.”

ETS multimedia expert Pat Besong discusses two very cool projects he is working on, a medical simulation module and the kiosk at the Penn State Sports Museum.“I don’t remember if I mentioned before that I will be putting together a hands-on workshop for the 8th Annual International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in San Diego this coming January. Sounds pretty hoity-toity. I’ll basically be showing people the technical end of how I put this simulation together and how they can use the same template to create other simulations in the healthcare field.”

One of ETS’s many ANGEL gurus, Jeff Swain, works with ETS’s wordsmith Mary Janzen to produce the monthly “ANGEL Shorts” series, which helps users get the most out of ANGEL. You can view the latest one here.“ANGEL Shorts, Vol. 1, Issue #5 Five Things Faculty Should Know about the Report tab is now available. From the article:’The ANGEL 7.1 Report tab houses the Reports Console, where instructors can track various performance aspects of individual students, teams, and the entire class. Additionally, instructors can review activity regarding specific content items or track progress through course milestones.’”

Brett Bixler talks about something quite interesting — a “virtual college fair”, and how Penn State was involved.“The college fair had over 20 colleges and universities from all over the world, and roughly 200 visitors throughout the weekend. Penn State was the only Big 10 school represented and I speak for both myself and Claudia when I say that we had a wonderful time and are looking forward to participating in more of these events in the future!”

And one last thing….Lawrence Lessig to present keynote at 2008 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with TechnologyLawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. The free event will be held March 29, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park.Lessig is the author of Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired. For more information on Lessig and his work, see http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/keynote/.

Faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a proposal to share their story with other faculty at the Symposium 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.

Lawrence Lessig to present keynote at 2008 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. The free event will be held March 29, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park.

Lessig is the author of Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired. For more information on Lessig and his work, see http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/keynote/.

Faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a proposal to share their story with other faculty at the Symposium 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.