BuzzLion for the week of November 4

Posted on November 9, 2007 
Filed Under BuzzLion

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.”

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