Language Resource Center Goes Digital LRC gets technology upgrades and adds new internet-based capabilities The Language Resource Center (LRC) has been upgraded, with funding from the Budget Priorities Committee, to include G5 Macintosh computers, high-speed internet capacity, a modified space design, and new capabilities for language learning. The LRC now offers faculty and students several new opportunities including digital audio and video recording, internet-based audio telephony and video conferencing. Take a quick look around LRC by taking a Virtual Tour! Access educational images online More than 450,000 images available for educational use The Corbis Bettman archive provides access to almost half a million digital images of popular art, historical, nature, science, and space collections for use in a variety of learning-related applications, including class projects and assignments, presentations, lesson plans, Web coursework, classroom materials and much more. The license that comes with this product is a broad-rights educational use license, which allows faculty, students, and staff to access the entire collection for any educational purpose. More... Skype me! Free internet telephony software offers opportunities to support collaboration Skype (rhymes with ripe) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) internet telephony (VoIP) network provided by all combined users of the free multi-platform desktop software application. What's that mean? You can think of Skype as a big, free Internet telephony company. Skype users can speak to other Skype users for free, call traditional telephone numbers for a fee (SkypeOut), receive calls from traditional phones for a fee (SkypeIn), and receive voicemail messages for a fee. Skype already has 54 million members in 225 countries and territories. Skype is currently adding approximately 150,000 users a day. In North America alone, Skype has more users and serves more voice minutes than any other Internet voice communications provider. The basic computer-to-computer service allows users to speak, to send instant messages or to send files to one another from their computers via the Internet at no cost. Conferences of up to five users are supported. SkypeOut is a inexpensive, paid feature which allows Skype users to call virtually any non-computer-based landline or mobile telephone in the world, making it great for bringing guest speakers "into the classroom." More... The legal lion Effort to facilitate legal file-sharing among individuals and educational institutions around the world Researchers at Penn State and other universities have developed LionShare, a tool to more easily share or search for large academic files -- using the principles most associated with trading music and movies illegally. But unlike the free "peer-to-peer" file-sharing systems that have drawn complaints and lawsuits from the entertainment industry, people who allow data to be exchanged over LionShare can place limits on who can view specific files. The secure, private network is meant for faculty, researchers and students to trade photos, research, class materials and other types of information that may be not be easily accessible through current technology. Normally, a researcher looking for data would need to conduct separate, time-consuming searches at individual repositories. It may also difficult to download large data sets or video of, for instance, a deep-sea expedition. LionShare, now being tested and slated for a September 30 general release, combines the concepts of file-sharing and repository searching into a single search. More... Around the Web A snapshot of what's going on around the World Wide Web Short stories for 49¢ from Amazon.com Amazon.com has launched its latest innovation for customers, Amazon Shorts, an entirely new way for customers to enjoy their favorite authors and to sample the work of new authors through exclusive short-form literature, for 49 cents each. Amazon Shorts have no printed editions and are only delivered digitally. Amazon.com Americas online Videoconferencing allows students at the University of Maryland and the Mexico City campus of the Monterrey Institute of Technology to model a joint business venture. The Chronicle of Higher Education Purdue podcasts professors' proclamations Purdue University is making podcasts of lectures in almost 50 courses at its West Lafayette campus available online. By accessing Boilercast, students can listen to the lectures on MP3 players to catch up on missed classes or review for exams. Purdue University Google to Offer Instant Messaging and Voice Communications on Web Expanding further beyond its core search engine and into Web portal territory, Google on Wednesday introduced Google Talk, an instant messaging (IM) service with voice communications capabilities that’s also compatible with several Mac client applications, including iChat 3.0. New York Times Digital Literacy: A Global Imperative The New Media Consortium, working with Adobe Systems and The George Lucas Educational Foundation, convened a summit in April 2005 of thought leaders to spur the expansion of visual-, aural-, and digital-literacy awareness and programs across K-12 and higher education. The summit has led to the publication of a new report, "A Global Imperative: The Report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit." This document includes a discussion of five strategic priorities designed to encourage, stimulate, model, and use twenty-first-century literacy skills and methods. New Media Consortium

LRC Goes Digital Access educational images online Skype Me! The legal lion Around the Web How many faculty use Blackboard? This semester, 58 faculty in 29 of 39 academic departments are using Blackboard in 118 different courses. During the Spring 2005 semester, 51 faculty in 25 academic departments used Blackboard in 109 different courses. On an average day during Spring semester, 27090 pages were viewed from within Blackboard; 47780 pages on the most active day, February 8, 2005. The Top 5 most-used features: uploading of course documents and lectures, posting announcements, grade book, discussion board, external links. Blackboard is the College's supported course management system. Digitizing Video (VHS to Digital) Using a Digital Media Creation Station in ATS, it's simple to convert a few minutes of video from VHS tape to a digital file that you can then use on Blackboard or eDisk. ATS QuickStarts are designed to provide short, concise instructions for using hardware, software, and facilities managed by ATS. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and realtime data, such as Telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively by people from around the world in several languages. Here's a useful tip for PowerPoint users. During a PowerPoint slideshow, you may want to occasionally "blank" the screen for a short time to focus attention elsewhere. • Black/Unblack Screen by typing either B or Period • White/Unwhite Screen by typing either W or Comma Technology Demonstration for College Faculty Voice and video over the internet October 7, 2005 9 AM to 4 PM More information about upcoming ATS Events is available online. Conrad Kasperson, Business, Organizations and Society, reviews a student presentation with Suat Esemenli ’05, Joe Booth ’05, and Patrik Fedier ’05 using the BOS department's portable technology classroom. ATS eNews October, 2005 Volume 1, Issue 2 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/