ATS eNews Inaugural Issue Tips, techniques, and tools for using technology to enhance teaching and research Academic Technology Services staff are scouring technology journals, exploring internet sites, attending conferences, and talking with Franklin & Marshall faculty to find useful examples of tools and techniques that could enhance and/or augment teaching and learning. Hear stories from colleagues on how they are using instructional technology, find out about innovative new hardware and software, and get tips on integrating technology to support your teaching and research. Share a tip, technique, or an interesting idea for using technology to enhance teaching and research, and we'll share it with your colleagues in a future edition of ATS eNews! As an added incentive, ATS will give you a free USB Flash Drive as a small token of our appreciation for your thoughtful submission. Don't delay...supplies are limited! Faculty Showcase Glenn Ross Glenn Ross, Dr. Elijah E. Kresge Professor of Philosophy, first implemented Blackboard, the College's course management system, during Fall 2002. He has experimented with several features of Blackboard including announcements to post amendments to assignments or to communicate information to those enrolled in the course and the electronic gradebook to post grades for immediate student access. "You get a quantum leap in organization by using Blackboard...and it allows the class to be better organized, to run more smoothly, and for us to get more work done when we actually meet face-to-face." More... Educating the Net Generation How are today's technology-literate students challenging educators to accommodate their learning needs in imaginative ways? The Net Generation, also often referred to as Milennials, has grown up with information technology. The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised -- one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up. This collection explores the Net Gen and the implications for institutions in areas such as teaching, service, learning space design, faculty development, and curriculum. Contributions by educators and students are included in this EDUCAUSE publication. More... Blackboard Course Cartridges Textbook publishers providing instructional content for use in Blackboard Blackboard course cartridges are pre-packaged, ready-to-use online course materials that may contain slides, documents, multimedia files, links to related websites (such as current news feeds), and test banks. These materials often correlate to a textbook adopted by the instructor. Course cartridges are available as either a CD-ROM that includes the content or an identification number that can be used to upload the content into a Blackboard course directly from the publisher. The instructor of the course can edit course cartridge materials to determine availability of content to students. Find out if a course cartridge is available for your course and review information on cost, student access, and copyright regulations. More...   Around the Web A snapshot of what's going on around the World Wide Web How My Computer Changed My Life A professor's spellchecker, unleashed with the best of intentions, plays havoc with his CV. The Chronicle of Higher Education Digital-Textbook Pilot Project Begins This Fall MBS Textbook Exchange has announced that they are teaming up with a group of college textbook publishers to offer eBooks to students at 10 pilot colleges and universities across the country, as part of a new Digital Textbook Program. The new program aims to boost eBook sales and give students an inexpensive alternative to traditional textbooks. ABC News Public policy podcasts and more University Channel, a new web service from Princeton University, offers free online recordings, via streaming video or as audio podcasts, of prominent scholars giving public-policy lectures at universities. Princeton University Academic Commons First Edition, August 2005 Academic Commons offers a forum for investigating and defining the role that technology can play in liberal arts education. Sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, Academic Commons publishes essays, reviews, interviews, showcases of innovative uses of technology, and vignettes that critically examine technology uses in the classroom. The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College The world's largest collection of animal sounds and video The Macaulay Library at Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology is the largest collection of animal sounds in the world with more than 160,000 recordings, 67 percent of the world's birds, and rapidly increasing holdings for insects, fish, frogs, and mammals. The Library is a major source of sound recordings for basic research, education, conservation and habitat assessment, the media, and commercial projects. Cornell University Back-to-School Gadgets More than ever, back-to-school shopping means a trip to the electronics store, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. College students plan to spend (or have their parents spend) $700-million more than last year on computers and other gadgets as part of their preparations to head to campus. USA Today

ATS eNews Inaugural Issue Faculty Showcase Educating the Net Generation Blackboard Course Cartridges Around the Web How many TEC-rooms are available at F&M? There are currently 36 technology-enhanced classrooms (TECs) spread across 16 campus buildings at the college. These classrooms represent 27% of all college classrooms and contain minimally a computer, audio/video player, and projector. Goethean 207 is the College's newest TEC. You can also take a quick look around Goethean 207 by taking a Virtual Tour. Creating a PDF File If you're using Mac OSX, it's easy to create a PDF file. This Quickstart explains how to convert a word (.doc) document to a portable (.pdf) document file using OS X. ATS QuickStarts are designed to provide short, concise instructions for using hardware, software, and facilities managed by ATS. Podcasting Podcasting is a method of publishing audio broadcasts via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). It became popular in late 2004, largely due to automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively by people from around the world in several languages. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to quickly perform tasks on your computer by pressing keys on your keyboard. For example, you can use keyboard shortcuts to take pictures of the screen in Mac OS X. • To take a picture of the whole screen, press Command-Shift-3. • To take a picture of part of the screen, press Command-Shift-4 and drag to select the area you want. The picture is saved on your Desktop. Sharing Course Materials Online An overview of the opportunities for sharing course materials online at F&M via Blackboard and eDisk August 24 and August 26 TEC-room Training Training for the ATS-supported technology-enhanced classrooms August 25-26 and August 29-30 Student Technology Demonstrations By students for students: How to use Blackboard and eDisk September 6-8 More information about upcoming ATS Events is available online. Linda Aleci, Art and Art History, and several of her students discuss the implementation of a website in the service learning course, Food, Communities, Ethics, and Economies. More information is available online at http://edisk.fandm.edu/pub/food. ATS eNews September, 2005 Volume 1, Issue 1 Tips, techniques, and tools for using technology to enhance teaching and research ATS eNews is published by Academic Technology Services. http://ats.fandm.edu/enews/