The iPod Flea The latest member of the iPod Family to ship on April 1 First there was the Apple iPod, which revolutioned the music industry! Then, Apple invented something even smaller, the iPod Mini. Last year, Apple turned the music industry on it's ear by introducing the pocket-sized iPod Shuffle. Now, Apple introduces the smallest MP3 player in history, the iPod Flea! More... Faculty Showcase: Jerome Hodos Jay Hodos, Assistant Professor of Sociology, has been using Blackboard, the College's course management system, since 2001. He initially implemented Blackboard as a way to deliver course content to students, such as readings and syllabi. Overtime, he has made use of additional interactive features of Blackboard and envisions Blackboard as a potential "one-stop shop" for students enrolled in his courses. "Blackboard offers great potential for enlivening the classroom experience," says Professor Hodos. More... Tech-savvy students stuck in text-dominated schools: A summary of available research on student attitudes, perceptions, and behavior Students rarely have a place at the table during K-12 decision-makers’ discussions about education policy and school design. Across the nation, however, it has become increasingly popular among research organizations and various media outlets to ask students their opinions. Education/Evolving’s initiative, “Real Impact: Student Opinions for a Change,” integrates student opinions with the policymaking by connecting what students can do and want with current debates about how to improve K-12. This report summarizes available literature reporting student attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors when it comes to using digital technology, particularly for learning. The report is divided into two major sets of findings. The first set describes our nation’s increasingly tech-savvy students and the various ways in which they use computers and the Internet. The second outlines students’ frustrations with our nation’s still text-dominated schools as well as students’ ideas for how adult education policy and school designers could better meet their needs. More... AthenaWeb presents weird science A portal for audiovisual information on science launched by the European Commission Initiated and supported by the European Community (DG Research), AthenaWeb provides a video portal for European scientists and researchers. The ultimate goal of AthenaWeb is to add value to scientific audiovisual programs produced in Europe — from the Avian Flu to nanotechnology to carnivorous ants and more — and encourage distribution to scientific professionals in EU countries and around the world. AthenaWeb gives its users access to an original audiovisual database and allows them to: Index and reference all scientific audiovisual material available from numerous and fragmented sources Search and identify documents of interest View and evaluate them in streaming video format with chapters Negotiate rights through one of AthenaWeb three mainstays: copyright, copyleft or copyshare Exchange films between peers Janez Potoćnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research said ?Most European citizens get their information from television, including on science and research issues. We need to make sure that the information available is of the highest possible quality. AthenaWeb is an innovative response to some of the problems faced when communicating about science and technology.” More... Around the Web A snapshot of what's going on around the World Wide Web Wikibooks: Textbooks in a new form Wikibooks are coming. They likely will confront the homogenization, the slow publication and adoption processes, and the need for political correctness in textbook publishing. Wikibooks also could ease the costs of buying, distributing, and replacing textbooks. The Philadelphia Inquirer National Archives and Google Launch Pilot Project to Digitize and Offer Historic Films Online Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and Google Co-Founder and President of Technology Sergey Brin have announced the launch of a pilot program to make holdings of the National Archives available for free online. This non-exclusive agreement will enable researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives via Google Video. The National Archives European Union Plans to Digitize and Post Online at Least 6 Million Books The European Commission has announced it plans to make at least six million books, documents, and other cultural works available online by 2010 via the European equivalent of the Google Library Project. Two million books, films, photographs, manuscripts and other works should be online through the library by 2008 and the figure would rise to six million by 2010 as more and more libraries, archives and museums plug in. Deutche Welle Georgia College Pushes for iPod Ingenuity More schools are integrating technology with traditional teaching tools. At Georgia College & State University, one-third of the faculty use iPods to enhance lectures and assignments. At least 100 of the rural school's 300 faculty are turning iPods into education or research tools. New York Times Google to Broker Online Book Sales Still embroiled in controversy over its plans to digitize several of the world's largest library collections, Google is inviting U.S. and U.K. publishers to sell online access to their copyright texts through its book search site. CNET News Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new media” like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with “old” media like TV, print and music. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they’re managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.. Kaiser Family Foundation Big Ideas: Television for passionate thinkers Physicists, Evolutionary psychologists, Pulitzer prize-winning authors. Spiritual leaders. Every Saturday and Sunday, TVOntario offers its members the opportunity to hear Big Ideas from influential speakers from around the world. But even if you can’t watch the broadcast, you can hear the lectures by downloading and/or subscribing to the Big Ideas podcast. TVOntario

The iPod Flea Faculty Showcase Tech-savvy students stuck in text-dominated schools AthenaWeb presents weird science Around the Web How much internet cabling is there on campus? According to Tom Mahoney, Network Manager in Computing Services, there are 1,091,700 feet, or about 207 miles, of internet cable covering all College buildings excluding the residence halls. While the numbers are less precise for the residence halls, Tom estimates there are at least an additional 150 miles of copper installed there. If one could straighten all this cable out over 350 miles, it would stretch from Lancaster, PA to Providence, RI ! Creating a Test/Quiz in Blackboard The Test Manager feature of Blackboard creates and organizes tests/quizzes and surveys. Results from a quiz can be automatically graded and recorded in the online gradeBook feature of Blackboard. ATS QuickStarts are designed to provide short, concise instructions for using hardware, software, and facilities managed by ATS. Wiki A wiki (<wee-kee> or <wick-ey> is a type of website that allows users to easily add and edit content and is especially suited for collaborative authoring. The name is based on the Hawaiian term wiki, meaning "quick", "fast", or "to hasten." For more information on clickers in higher education, see the EDUCAUSE Series: 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively by people from around the world in several languages. Screen capture of just one window If you want to take a screen capture of just one window using Mac OS X, there's a little-known keyboard shortcut you should get to know. Just press Command-Shift-4, then hit Spacebar and your cursor will change into a large camera. Click this camera cursor on the window you want to capture, and it will create a capture of just that window, which will appear on your desktop in a file called Picture 1. Summer Learning Opportunities for Faculty - Supporting Teaching and Learning with Technology Integrating Blackboard Digital audio & podcasting Scanning & editing digital images Using digital video More information about setting up DeskSide Training with an ATS instructional technology integrator is available online. Professor Louise Stevenson, History and American Studies, displays online course materials via Blackboard, the College's course management system, that she has made available to students in a Foundations course. Professor Stevenson provides students with a variety of electronic instructional materials. Click to view larger image and description... ATS eNews April, 2006 Volume 1, Issue 6 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/