We start things with Cole Camplese, ETS director, who looks back at a year in the cloud. Cole is not being metaphysical or talking about how many frequent flyer miles he has logged, but cloud computing. More specifically, netbooks and how they might influence education. Find out what a netbook is and how you use it by going to his blog.

Mike Halm, who leads the WebLion group, recently posted on the WebLion blog about the presentation himself and Glenn Johnson, project manager of Penn State’s e-Portfolio Initiative, gave at this year’s EDUCAUSE mid-Atlantic conference. They discussed how WebLion helps the Penn State community develop e-portfolios, and you can read about the presentation here. Please note, they are looking for additional departments to work with them on this project.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, has posted an actual educational game that you can check out on the Educational Gaming Commons. He not only posts the game, but offers a hand if you want to incorporate it into your class but are not sure how.

Elizabeth Pyatt is not only an ETS instructional designer but a Unicode guru. Her latest Unicode post on her blog is on how to encode right to left scripts such as Arabic or Hebrew.

Eric Steele, programmer with WebLion, has announced the worm has turned at WebLion! Well, at least the Gloworm. Read about a very cool tool for Web content management here.

Brad Kozlek, senior programmer with ETS, shares with us a great article and video on collaborative editing and social voting.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!

Cole Camplese, ETS director, has been recording a video that asks a question, then invites you to record a video response. This week, it’s “How Do You Define Identity?”. Please feel free to participate.

Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, talks this week about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Elizabeth points out is a provision in the act that every three years, the community can petition for exemptions to the no-hacking clause.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, posted in the Educational Gaming Commons about several interesting events:

- One that recently happened including a game showcase and its winner, a medical simulation game that has huge educational possibilities.

- Less an event and more of a request, Brett would like you to read a report on Second Life.

- Finally, Brett tells us about an event that is drivable (and in June, so it won’t snow), a gaming conference at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Yvonne Clark, ETS instructional designer, points us to a very cool multi-cultural learning tool SCOLA. What is it? Go see her post at the Learning Design Community Hub to find out.

Pat Besong, ETS multimedia specialist, conducts a monthly educational multimedia development meeting. If you like to find out what great stuff Penn State people are developing, you can see Pat’s post to the Learning Design Community Hub and view an Adobe Connect recording of the meeting.

That’s it for this week’s BuzzLion – See you in 2009…..January 9, to be exact. Have a great Holiday and New Year.

If you stop by ETS on the second floor of the Rider Building, you see a screen in the hallway with a Twitter feed on it. The feed features Twitter posts by ETS staff, and it is a great way to see what people are doing at ETS. Cole Camplese, ETS director, has found an interesting new tool that takes this concept one step further, and aggregates all the blog feeds, Twitter feeds, etc. in a new and exciting way. If you want to keep up with all the information out there in blogs, etc. but feel overwhelmed, this might be the solution.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, says that games are active, engaging, and keep you focused on them. Except when they are not, and are passive. Come again? Check out Brett’s recent post to the Educational Gaming Commons to learn more about these “passive games.”

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, has decided to test this application – and found a rather weird benefit.

Some news bits for this week:

Deadline extended for 2009 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology faculty proposals

The deadline for faculty to submit proposals to present at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology has been extended to December 19. This free event will be held Saturday, April 18, 2009 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 “Student Engagement and the Culture of Teaching and Learning.” To reflect this theme, presentations will highlight students’ involvement in the learning process.

Faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a presentation proposal using the online form at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/2009proposal/. Topics could involve faculty and students collaborating on a project or an assignment showcasing students using any number of collaborative tools and new learning spaces. Some examples include the use of shared learning resources, the incorporation of digital media, and any best practices that foster student ownership of learning. 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. For more details and to register, visit http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/. The Symposium is sponsored by Information Technology Services.

December Adobe Connect Demonstration Sessions
Below are the dates and times for our December Adobe Connect Demonstration sessions. We’ve extended two of the sessions to 1.5 hours to include a demonstration of the breakout rooms which is new to Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (version 7). We will also demonstrate the primary features of the meeting room and answer questions that you might have. No registration or RSVP necessary.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Monday, December 15, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Here is the link to the meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/. Please come when you like, learn about the new features, different ways to use Adobe Connect, ask questions, stay for a few minutes or for the time; feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant.

If you plan to join our demonstration session through Adobe Connect, please read through the Getting Started information at http://meeting.psu.edu/quickstart and test your connection in advance with our generic test meeting room at https://breeze.psu.edu/testmeetingroom/. If you have any questions or problems entering the test meeting room, help is available by emailing breeze@psu.edu.

PSU Multimedia Group meeting for December

The Penn State Multimedia Group meeting will be held in 202K Rider Building on Friday, December 19th from 10:00-11:00 a.m. Pat Besong of ETS, meeting coordinator, would like to invite anyone that has something you think might be of interest to the group to share. Please let him know by emailing pbz4@psu.edu prior to Dec. 15 so he can get an agenda together for the meeting.

As usual, the meeting will be available via Adobe Connect at http://breeze.psu.edu/multimedia.

So, that is all for BuzzLion for this week. Thanks for reading!

Tim Perry, systems analyst with ETS, recently attended a Webinar on Tegrity, a Web 2.0 product that captures class slides, lectures, etc. And, it doesn’t require classroom-based software and hardware, so it’s cost-effective. Tim reviews the pluses and the minuses of this product in his blog.

Allan Gyorke, manager, educational technologies with ETS, has found another use for Youtube beyond viewing piano-playing cats: learning more about global issues. It is used in one of his graduate classes this way; in fact, Youtube is second only to PowerPoint as the most used educational tool at Penn State.

Cole Camplese, director of ETS, has posted before about Twitter on his blog. He has found another Penn Stater who recently posted on Twitter and he finds it a great way to learn more about Twitter and why it is relevant.

Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, found a great site that helps kids learn how to count. There is more to learning how to count than any of us probably remember.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, posted in the Learning Design Community Hub about a new Web site that ETS is developing for non-course content for students. Check it out, and help Brett give it a name.

That’s all for this week – thanks for reading.

So, live from the Digital Commons Tailgate, lets get started with this week’s BuzzLion.

Brad Kozlek, ETS programming manager, attended the IMS Global Learning Consortium this week, held right here at Penn State University Park. A session he attended raised an interesting question for educational technology – Are learning repositories actually learning spaces?

Cole Camplese, ETS director, also attended the IMS event, and his recent blog post on it gave a more general overview. Cole covers the sessions he attended, and commented on ideas, thoughts, and questions raised during the event.

Jeff Swain, ETS instructional designer, climbs into the time machine and peers into the future, asking “What Will the 21st Century University Look Like?” Jeff looks at the recent report in The Economist on the future of higher education, and offers his thoughts. Plus, welcomes YOUR thoughts.

Brett Bixler channels Edwin Starr and asks “What is it good for”. No, not war, but Second Life. Brett stresses that Second Life is definitely good for education.

Dave Stong, ETS graphics designer, produces a lot of digital content, such as photos, artwork, graphics, etc. In a recent blog post, he discusses HDR, the challenges raised by having to add additional metadata, and a cool way this challenge is met.

That’s all for this week’s BuzzLion. Be sure to come back next week, as BuzzLion is sure to have some stuff on the Digital Commons Tailgate.

Thanks for reading!

Anyways, lots going on this week, so let’s jump right in. Cole Camplese, ETS director, has been prolific in his blog writing this week, with three very interesting blog posts.

Cole wrote about a recent blog post by Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State. Dr. Wesch’s students produced a provocative video last year about their attitudes and experiences regarding higher learning. Wesch updates his thinking on this video, and Cole puts in his two cents on the matter.

Cole also blogged on the Blogs at Penn State project, and raised a question – is it simply blogging…..or something more? Cole explores the possibilities that the Blogs project may have in the future.

And finally, he issues a call for courseware to be put into iTunes, in the spirit of open education.

Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, is talking about embroidery. Really? What can that have to do with learning? Well, Elizabeth notes that embroidery involves a lot of math, and talks about how embroidery gave her a very cool teaching moment.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, recently discussed machinima in the Educational Gaming Commons. What on earth is machinima? Find out and see a great example (be warned, an R-rated one at that).

Yvonne Clark, ETS instructional designer, recently posted on the eLearning Guild 360 report on Web 2.0. You can both read the report and view a Webinar on the report in Yvonne’s post to the Learning Design Community Hub.

Okay, now for a bit of news about a very cool event – the Digital Commons Tailgate:

On Friday and Saturday, November 7th-8th at Penn State Schuylkill campus, Teaching and Learning with Technology will be hosting the Digital Commons Tailgate, the first of a series of community-designed unconferences* aimed at exploring all aspects of digital media in teaching and learning. Topics include (but are certainly not limited to) ePortfolio, digital literacy, and design and assessment of multimedia projects, and will delve into both pedagogy and technology. Sessions will be driven by attendees and everyone’s expertise will enrich the conversation. Our goal will be to share ideas and collectively develop a series of best practices which will inform how we all use digital media in the classroom.

If you were able to attend the Learning Design Summer Camp this August, you’ll be familiar with how this event will be run. Creativity and conversation are paramount, and the mood is intended to be relaxed but intellectually stimulating. Since this is a Fall weekend we’re going with a Tailgate theme, so expect lots of good food, and dress appropriately (i.e. however you want!).

You are invited to attended this free two-day event starting with an optional day of workshops and dinner on Friday November 7th, with the main conference sessions on Saturday November 8th.

You are also invited to help design the conference! Check out the wiki at: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/wiki/Digital_Commons_Camp. Anyone with a PSU access account can edit this. So if you have an idea for a session, or you want to expand on what’s already been suggested, just hit the [edit] button.

I would also like to announce the Digital Commons Research Partner program: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/wiki/DC_Research_Partner. This is an opportunity to obtain funding to cover all of part of your travel expenses. Available spots are very limited, so send an email to digitalcommons@psu.edu ASAP if you are interested.

Please pass this invitation along to any faculty or staff who may be interested in this opportunity!

To register, simply jump to the Registration section of the wiki and add your name to the list.

That’s all for this week for the BuzzLion. Thanks for reading!

To learn more about the findings, Jamie Oberdick of ETS interviewed John Harwood, senior director of TLT, and Andrea Dowhower, director of student affairs research and assessment about the survey and some of the surprising findings.

Listen to the podcast here: Academic Integrity Pulse survey

Dave Stong, ETS graphics guru, wrote two recent posts about pdf’s and what frustrates him about them. He also offers potential solutions. Here is his first, then his follow-up.

Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, talks about her teaching experiences. Namely, getting students to understand all those assignments are not done to torture them.

Cole Camplese, ETS director, has talked before about what is going on with the Schreyer Honors College’s portfolio project. He offers an update to the project, including a very cool mashup that allows you to see their progress.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, found a great book on serious gaming and education put out by our Pittsburgh peers at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. He provides a link to more information about the book here.

Brett also posted this week on the potential found in iPhones and education gaming.

Now time for some news:

Adobe Connect Demonstration Sessions for October, 2008

Below are the dates and times for our October Adobe Connect Demonstration sessions. We’ve extended the sessions to include what’s new with Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro (version 7), demonstrate the primary features of the meeting room and answer questions that you might have. No registration or RSVP necessary.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Friday, October 17, 2008, 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Here is the link to the meeting room: https://breeze.psu.edu/r54559680/. Please come when you like, learn about the new features, different ways to use Adobe Connect, ask questions, stay for a few minutes or for the 90 minutes; feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues. Members of the Penn State community can arrange for an on-site demonstration by contacting your ITS Consultant.

If you plan to join our demonstration session through Adobe Connect, please read through the Getting Started information at http://meeting.psu.edu/quickstart and test your connection in advance with our generic test meeting room at https://breeze.psu.edu/testmeetingroom/.

If you have any questions or problems entering the test meeting room, help is available by emailing breeze@psu.edu.

New stats demonstrate popularity of Blogs at Penn State

System wide stats of the Blogs at Penn State Project (as of 11:39 AM on 9/26/2008):

* 3,837 blogs
* 18,225 entries
* 2,509 pages
* 3,502 users
* 7,297 comments
* 10,169 assets
* 5,880 unique tags

That’s all for this week of the BuzzLion. Thanks for reading!

Cole Camplese, ETS director, lives on a cloud – that is, cloud computing. Google’s Chrome open source browser project has Cole interested due to the potential is holds for cloud computing in education.

Brett Bixler, ETS lead instructional designer, has two interesting posts in the Educational Gaming Commons. The first is on browser-based gaming, which is exactly what it sounds – games played off an Internet browser. He weighs the pedagogical possibilities and links to a great article about browser games.

Brett also talks about a new wiki on Virtual Worlds that is a treasure trove of information on these worlds.

Jeff Swain, ETS instructional designer, posted the latest ANGELshorts to the ANGEL Community Hub. This one is titled Five Things Instructors Should Know about Downloading All Drop Box Submissions. If you are not familiar with ANGELshorts, they are very handy brief guides to doing specific actions on ANGEL, and are produced by Jeff and Mary Janzen, ETS writer/editor.

Allan Gyorke, ETS education technology manager, goes Zen on us this week. More specifically, he talks about when things and people take on roles other than what they are “supposed” to do.

Looking for training? ITS Training Services just issued the following announcement:

Technology workshops and overviews now open for registration

Registration is open for the technology workshops and overviews offered by Information Technology Services this fall.

Registration is open for the technology workshops and overviews offered by Information Technology Services this fall. This semester, students, faculty, and staff at all Penn State campuses can take advantage of live or recorded sessions that are being offered online through Adobe Connect meeting software. Popular overview and hands-on topics include Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Data Warehouse, ANGEL, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, podcasting, cascading style sheets, and many more. Visit the Web site for details on all available training options or to register for training at http://its.psu.edu/training/.

That’s it for this week’s BuzzLion.

You don’t need an invitation to participate in Web 2.0, so says Chris Stubbs, ETS programmer. In fact, he even declares this Stubb’s First Law of the Social Web: No Invitation Required. He urges more participation in things like wikis, blogs, etc. on his outstanding blog, and even somehow manages to use a John Mayer quote (yeah, the musician, that one) to good effect. Go to the blog, and consider it an invitation, er, opportunity to participate by offering your thoughts on this subject (Cole Camplese, ETS director, offers sort of a companion piece to Mr. Stubbs’ thinking on his blog, as does Allan Gyorke, ETS manager of educational technology, on the Learning Design Community Hub).

Brett Bixler talks about the challenges of getting faculty and administrators to learn more about and accept gaming in education. Given so many people think of gaming as pong or Grand Theft Auto, this is a challenge. Read the suggestions Brett offers to overcome this challenge on the Educational Gaming Commons.

Yvonne Clark, ETS instructional designer, invites everyone to go to the Adobe Connect Community Hub and complete the analogy “Adobe Connect is to holding a meeting as Microsoft Word is to ________________.” Go to her post there and offer your ideas.

Elizabeth Pyatt, ETS instructional designer, recently posted on Information Sciences and Technology students from Penn State who are blogging about their summer internship using blogs set up via Blogs at Penn State. Sounds mundane, but they are doing it in Bangalore, India. Find links to their blogs here.

Elizabeth also offers a muse on Personal Learning Environments titled “Lifelong Learning or Lifelong Research”. What on earth is a “Personal Learning Environment?” Elizabeth explains that and more in an excellent blog post.

A quick reminder, ANGEL, Penn State’s Course Management System will be unavailable during the upgrade to version 7.2 from 6:00 p.m. (EDT) Friday, July 18 to 6:00 p.m. (EDT) Sunday, July 20.

BuzzLion will end with another note on participation. ETS is planning a Learning Design Summer Camp August 12 and 13 here at University Park and would like your input and planning help. Go to the Learning Design Summer Camp wiki to find out how you can participate in this great event.

That is all for BuzzLion for this week. Thanks for reading!