I found an interesting blog about Language Learning by Joe Dale, who appears to be in England. Here is his post about Boosting Confidence in Languages through the use of video and podcasting. Check out this video testimonial from TeacherTube:

Academic Technologies is putting together a series of Moodle Workshops surrouding the integration of Moodle and other visual and multimedia materials.  Topics include: Managing Moodle Resources, Digitizing Media, Basic Image Manipulation, Embedding Media into Moodle, and more!  Please check out our AT Events Calendar for more information and to register!

NITLE is currently accepting proposals for "Internationalizing the Curriculum: the Role of Technology," a conference for faculty, administrators, instructional technologists, and librarians from participating colleges who are engaged in developing or implementing curricular or extracurricular programs that provide students with an international perspective on learning. Just as technology has increased the pace of globalization in recent decades, it also provides opportunities for better understanding and teaching about how to cope with rapid globalization. This conference will include both workshop and presentation sessions. Proposals should focus on sharing work done in these increasingly important areas, offering ideas or lessons for others, and promoting discussion of related topics and themes. Proposals should be submitted electronically and are due by June 30, 2008.

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/

If you use Adobe software, you need this site! Video tutorials search-able by topic! Up to date with current versions! The few I've seen were very well done. I am…

I went to the CALICO conference this year with three faculty, Mariko Kaga, Diane Pearsall and Cynthia Shearer.  We had a great time and learned lots!  There are many, many things I could write about, but not having a lot of time, I will restrict this post to only the highlights.  If you'd like to hear more, feel free to contact me anytime for a chat or to get my notes.

A recent report from sociologist and assistant professor Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University claims that today's student are nowhere near as technically knowledgeable as many people assume they are. They are often quicker to learn these tools, but many have no clue about things like what BCC stands for and what it does. Even the social networking tools that we expect them to know are sometimes unknown.

Sometimes this lack of knowledge is only for the terminology: many students just point and click, not knowing what that function or act is called. But does this extend to a lack of complete comprehension for what that simple click does or means? That isn't very clear, and probably varies depending on the person and their own experiences with technology.

Also observed by one technologist is that students seem more tech savvy simply because they know the wireless technology, such as texting and things of that nature. The gap seems to be between the wired technology (even email in some cases) and the wireless cell phone technology. In some ways that seems true... does anyone have any opinions on that?

This report has created much conversation. For those of us working often with students from a technical standpoint, the report is not surprising at all. But for those that never see students from that perspective, this is quite unexpected. Feel free to comment on this post, and start a conversation here as well! Any ideas about this topic are more than welcome, as we have been trying for a long time to sort out these issues and help students learn more about technology.

Learn more about Hargittai's research by reading The Chronicle of Higher Education's interview. It is short (just one page), but worth reading.

Carleton, like many other schools, is rethinking the idea of disciplines of study. With this new expansion of interdisciplinary studies, widely new courses are popping up left and right that mix two of the generally considered opposites:  arts and technology.  Recently announced at Carnegie Mellon University is a Music-Technology program, that will incorporate the strengths and ideas behind both music and technology in numerous classes, including one that will have students creating music equipment.

Carleton has also experienced a surge of courses incorporating the arts and technology:  fall of 2006 was the first Digital Storytelling course, and coming in the fall will be an exciting course in Arts, Interactivity, and Robotics.

This is an exciting time for new ideas and collaboration.  If you have any ideas, however far-fetched, share them with someone.  You never know what will happen!

One of the advantages of the online course management systems that exist today, such as Moodle, is their ability to incorporate student participation quickly and easily, even down to the syllabus.  Collaborating with students in creating the syllabus for a course is normally a time consuming process, which is very hard to squeeze into a typical Carleton 10 week term.  If you are interested in this side of Moodle, contact us, and we'd love to work with you on it!  If you are still wondering how this would work, and want to know more about collaborative syllabi, I recommend this article in Campus Technology.

While tools like Google Earth are really fun and neat, the classroom use of such tools are not always immediately obvious.  Luckily, there are people who brainstorm such uses, demonstrate them, and post them on a webpage known as Google Earth Lessons to help the rest of us think of great ways to incorporate fun tools into classes.  Visit Google Earth Lessons and see what other people have done, it is really fascinating!

Many people ignore copyright laws on occasion for a variety of reasons. But copyright laws really aren't a joke, or something that can be shoved aside temporarily for a moment's convenience. Copyright infringements cost individuals, institutions, and school districts huge amounts of money every year.

So what can you do? Where can you learn about what does and doesn't fall under the fair use category?

A good place to start is the American Library Association's Copyright Advisory Network, at http://librarycopyright.net/, where you can find the code for a number of different media, ask questions about copyright policies, and get a good start on deciphering the confusing and complicated world of ownership.