The Shelf Life of a Banana - An autoblog for Learning Technology and Social Computing junkies

An autoblog for Learning Technology and Social Computing junkies

The title of the blog is taken from a quote by Scott McNealy, co founder of Sun Microsystems. He recently said "Technology has the shelf life of a banana."
My point is similar to his - we need to look beyond the individual technologies and focus on the skills required to use them effectively.

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November 24, 2009

Adobe Connect Resources ca Nov 2009

Adobe Connect resources,

Cribbed from Paul Zenke of UW-Madison's DoIT

(http://comets.wisc.edu/event/media-shops-presentation-adobe-connect)

DoIT TechStore - Adobe Connect

http://techstore.doit.wisc.edu/product.asp?login=D&itemnum=C53980

Penn State Adobe Connect Community Hub (video tutorials, documents)

http://meeting.psu.edu/

Adobe Connect - Video Tutorials

https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=12376

Rochester Institute of Technology - Exemplar User Scenarios

http://online.rit.edu/faculty/support/connect/examples

Rochester Institute of Technology - Effective Practices

http://online.rit.edu/faculty/support/connect/best_practices

Tips and FAQ (message board)

http://meeting.psu.edu/forum/tips

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November 24, 2009

Three Adoption Patterns for Educational Social Software - Kyle Mathews of BYU

From Kyle Mathews blog, who says

"I've been reading and thinking a lot lately about how to drive more adoption of the social learning platform I'm building here at BYU, https://island.byu.edu, and wanted to summarize some of the highlights of what I've learned."

Pattern 1: Launch Broad then Deep

Pattern 2: Help Learners Climb the Participation Curve

Pattern 3: Focus on Creating Value

Full Posting at:

http://kyle.mathews2000.com/blog/2009/11/18/three-adoption-patterns-educational-social-software

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November 18, 2009

Tools: Two Ways to Share Media Via Twitter

Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter
TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, our API, or through the site itself. There are also popular twitter clients that have built-in support for TwitPic.
http://twitpic.com/

TwitVid - Share videos on Twitter
Upload and tweet a video
http://www.twitvid.com/

And a way to track stats of trending topics, "WhatTheHashtag":

http://wthashtag.com/Main_Page

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November 18, 2009

Whimsical: Back when test pilots wore proper suits...

Just for fun -
Photo shows a guy in a suit and tie sitting directly in front of an 8 cylinder airplane engine, (ready to take off?)
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/11/1118lincoln-beachey-loops-the-loop

Filed under // flight test_pilot whimsical

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November 18, 2009

Twitter Conference Backchannel Gone Wild

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed, November 17, 2009 By Marc Parry:
Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back

"Tweckle (twek'ul) vt.

To abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking.

Conference speakers beware: Twecklers are watching. They're out for blood.

And you may be their next victim…."

http://chronicle.com/article/Conference-Humiliation-/49185/

And this excellent "snarkiness" analysis of the episode,

from Tony Dunn's FutureEndeavor blog:

http://futureendeavour.blogspot.com/2009/10/highedweb-great-keynote-revolt-of-2009.html

And check out this summary and reflecions by one of the participants:

http://doteduguru.com/id3712-the-great-keynote-meltdown-of-2009.html

Filed under // backchannel conference twitter

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November 17, 2009

DePaul's IDD Blog

Facebook "dominance" continues - allfacebook.com

November 12, 2009
New stats show "Facebook growing 3 percent domestically over the past month while Twitter drops by around 2 percent."
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/11/compete-stats-facebook-dominance-continues/,

(with references to http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/10/new-hitwise-stats-facebook-dominating-while-twitter-falls/ , hitwise.com http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/social-networking-sept-09/ and compete.com http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+twitter.com/ )

Filed under // 2009 analytics facebook stats twitter

Comments [1]

November 13, 2009

My Learning Technologies Wiki

In case I referred you here to find the link to the wiki, go see:

http://msulearntech.pbworks.com

Filed under // learning_technology msulearntech wiki

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November 12, 2009

"Course Requirement: Friend Your Professor on Facebook"

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed
November 12, 2009, 02:49 PM ET
By Marc Parry

Some professors don’t let students see their Facebook pages. Some accept students’ invitations but don’t initiate them.
Peter Juvinall insists students friend him.
The Illinois State University instructor decided the best way to connect with a bunch of freshman business students in a short 8 a.m. class was to conduct much of the course where they are anyway—on Facebook.
So, as he explained during last week’s Educause conference and in a subsequent interview, he uses Facebook as a course-management system by instructing students to “friend” his personal page on the first day of class.
On the scale of pushing the privacy boundary, it doesn't come close to the stuff some other professors have done—stuff like, oh, posing as a student to snoop on your online classes. But still: Is this going too far?

Filed under // chronicle_of_higher_ed facebook friend higher_ed instruction

Comments [0]

October 24, 2009

Web2.0 Tools That Work. And are Free! WCET October 2009

Elluminate vRoom
Synchronous web meeting tool
Free version limited to 3 simultaneous connections.

To get started:Go to learncentral site and sign up for account
Web site:
http://www.learncentral.org/ , see the events tab, Start a vRoom meeting.

Jing and ScreenCast

Jing is a screen capture (still or movie) utility, and ScreenCast is a free storage utility
Allows you to save files to Screencast or local disk, in addition to options for Flickr, YouTube, or an FTP site.
Free version limited to 5 minutes of capture.

To get started:
Go to TechSmith Jing project site and sign up for account
http://www.jingproject.com/
(When you sign up, you are initially directed to a tutorial movie for your first capture. It is worth watching: http://help.jingproject.com/get-started/get-started-with-jing-taking-y/ )

LiveStream (formerly Mogulus)

Live video streaming from your desktop
Free version limited to 50 receivers

To get started:
Go to LiveStream site and sign up for account
http://www.livestream.com/

Facebook Fan Pages

Stanford example: http://www.facebook.com/stanford and the story behind it:
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/05/14/stanford-universitys-facebook-profile-is-one-of-the-most-popular-official-university-pages/
An MT Example: http://www.facebook.com/pages/go2collegeMT/107762215785
Blue Fuego has studied academic pages extensively:
http://bluefuego.com/index.php/2009/07/facebook-fan-pages-in-higher-ed/

Mashable’s 2009 commercial picks:
http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/killer-facebook-fan-pages/
Includes
http://www.facebook.com/redbull, http://www.facebook.com/adidasoriginals, http://www.facebook.com/Pringles

All about fan pages:
Help center: Facebook pages:
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=175

Overview:
http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages
unofficial:
http://whyfacebook.com/2008/09/25/how-to-create-and-promote-your-facebook-fan-page/