Instructional Technology @ PhilaU provides faculty with news, information, resources,
and tips for using technology and integrating it into their curricula.
Instructional Technology @ PhilaU is published monthly by the Paul J. Gutman Library.

I hope you all enjoyed your much deserved Spring Break. There's nothing like a little time off to recharge the batteries after a cold winter and in preparation for the last half of the semester.

I spent the Break attending the Blackboard Users Conference. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the latest release of Blackboard which we will be moving to this Summer. There are some great features that will help to streamline the course creation process and allow you more flexibility in how you want your courses to look. In addition, I had the opportunity to network with other institutions to share ideas for training, support and system management. I hope to be able to share with you next month more details on the conversion process as well as a schedule of demonstrations of Blackboard 6.1.

This month's guide includes a recap of last months TLTR Workshop Teaching with Technology: Learning from Faculty Grant Projects and the first of a two part introduction to Blogs and RSS Feeds. Don't forget to sign up for the new workshop Integrating Atomic Learning and Other Multimedia Resources and be sure to take a look at the Instructional Technology Support website (http://www.philau.edu/ITS) for up-to-date workshop schedules, descriptions and quick how to's for Blackboard and other technologies.

                                                                                                   Kristopher Wiemer
                                                                                                            Instructional Technology Specialist

Table of Contents

• Blackboard
• Support Sites
• By the Numbers
• March & April Workshops
• Integrating Atomic Learning and Other Multimedia Resources
• TLTR Workshop: Teaching with Technology - Learning from Faculty Grant Projects Recap
• Blogs and RSS Part I
  • What is a blog?
  • What is RSS?
• Coming Up Next Month
• Requests for Information
• Contact Information

Blackboard Update

Blackboard, Inc. has released an updated features list for their new software release (version 6.1). You can view this feature list by clicking here. If you'd like a sneak peak at the new Blackboard, drop by my office and I'll be more than happy to show you the demo site. Large scale demonstrations and initial training will be announced soon.

Support Sites
Don't forget that there are two newly designed and updated support sites for Blackboard Users. These sites include answers to many of your questions, as well as tutorials (written, audio, video) and demonstrations.

Faculty Support Site: http://www.philau.edu/bbfac.htm

Student Support Site: http://www.philau.edu/bbstud.htm

By the Numbers
As of March 15, 2004 we have 165 Blackboard courses servicing 181 course sections. This is an increase over last semester and I hope indicates a growing trend of Blackboard use. If you aren't yet using Blackboard and would like to incorporate it into your course, please contact me to set up an orientation session (wiemerk@philau.edu).

March & April Workshops

Following is a list of workshops that are being offered during the months of January and February. Descriptions and registration information can be found at http://www.philau.edu/ITS, click on the Workshops link.

Integrating Atomic Learning and Other Multimedia Resources
Thursday April 1, 2004 11:15am - 12:30pm, Gutman Library Media Classroom
Monday April 12, 2004 1:45pm - 2:45pm, Gutman Library Media Classroom

Multimedia tools can add a new dimension to your course. Funding and travel constraints, time crunches, content limitations, etc., can make it difficult to expose your students particular topics or experiences. Multimedia tools can help to overcome some of these limitations by demonstrating concepts, illustrating functions, or teaching lessons, in and out of the classroom. This workshop will explore a collection of multimedia resources, including Atomic Learning & MERLOT, and how you can integrate them into your curriculum.

TLTR Workshop: Teaching with Technology - Learning from Faculty Grant Projects Recap

On February 24, the TLTR sponsored a workshop where three members of our faculty presented projects they have been working on to enhance teaching and learning through technology. The projects were funded by Technology Grants developed by the TLTR and funded by the Office of Academic Affairs. Following is a brief summary of the three presentations.

Pari Bhagat - eBusiness eLounge: Your Tech+Business KnowNow Source
Pari has been developing a prototype web site where users can learn about eBusiness (e.g., electronic commerce, Internet marketing, technology management) anytime, anywhere. The site will be geared towards anyone who wants to learn more about this field, not just students in an eCommerce concentration. The site contains a variety of learning options including eLectures (audio/video lectures, PowerPoint Presentations, text, interactive tutorials), an eLibrary (links to articles, journals and white papers, as well as other scholarly works), a directory of links to other online resources, an eCyclopedia (online dictionary), eTech News (a collection of RSS feeds with the latest news in the field), and online assessment tools so that the user can monitor their own learning progress. In addition, the site will include summary page of the various eBusiness disciplines which will also act as a type of navigation for the site and a clickable site map created with Inspiration (a concept mapping software package). At present the site is just a prototype, but Pari hopes to have the site up and running soon. Before he can go live, he needs to work out some issues involving copyright and security. Look here for an announcement when the site is available to the public.

D.K. Malhotra - Paperless Teaching
D.K. has been working to make his Financial Management course less paper intensive. He showed the audience the stack of handouts that he used to give each student and approximated that it equated to each student receiving about 1 ream of paper during the semester. In the past, he posted many of these handouts on his web page for students to download and print as needed. However, all this did was move the paper consumption from the School's copier to a variety of printers, on and off campus. As this course is highly quantitative and students need to be able to practice numerical questions, he decided to explore the online assessment tool built into Blackboard. The online assessment tool would allow him to create a series of practice quizzes that his students could take over and over again as part of their studying and practicing. The problem is that our current version of Blackboard does not allow for inclusion of mathematical equations. To remedy this, D.K. began investigating a program called Respondus which allows you to create quizzes that include equations and that can be uploaded into a Blackboard course. The quizzes are self-correcting and include detailed answers. He used this during the Fall semester and the feedback from his students was very positive. They were able to practice with a variety of questions to help them better understand the concepts and as a result their actual test results increased. D.K. also commented that working with a program like Blackboard allows for easier coordination with adjuncts in courses that he is overseeing and to standardize the curriculum (e.g., one course site can then be copied into other courses so everyone is using the same basic template).

Julie Kimmel - Online History Lessons
Julie began her presentation by explaining why she chose to explore this topic. She explained that there are fewer and fewer history textbooks available and those that are available are expensive and have less data than in the past. As a result more historians are building online primary source repositories (ex: www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire, which Julie's class is using to write a paper on the Triangle Fire) to explore specific events and time periods in history. Julie's own historical interests include labor relations and Taylorism (scientific management) and she has been working to create an online repository of primary source documents that fit a define pedagogical framework. Prior to this grant project she has been using Blackboard to collect and organize her sources, both for Taylorism and other topics covered in her courses. The grant allowed her to begin the creation of her online history lesson entitled, Debating Frederick W. Taylor's "One Best Way": A History of Factory Work Using Primary Sources. She demonstrated her first draft which she explained ended up being too text heavy and difficult to navigate. It included several scanned sources as she wanted to share the "pastness" of the material. She then shared the beginning of her second draft and her plans for its completion. The site would include a graphical interface with a template for each page that includes a common header and navigation structure. The site will include background essays, three case studies (each includes a background essay, primary documents, and student projects), an introduction and other sources for further study. Many of the background essays will be written by Julie and she has a vast collection of primary source documents to include courtesy of a library in New Jersey that holds the collection of Taylor's writings and work.

A side conversation that occurred as a result of Julie's presentation focused on students reading online versus reading a printed copy. While studies have shown that the majority of students learn better when they have the printed word in front of them, her site will be able to accommodate those who need to print and those who prefer to read on line. It will include the scanned copies of her source material and typed out versions so that the students can clearly read the material while still get a flavor for the "pastness" that is often lost in a history text book.

If you would like to know more about these projects, the software being used, and/or the pedagogy surrounding each of these projects, please contact the presenters or myself.

Blogs and RSS Part I

Blogs and RSS have become very popular topics in the educational technology journals over the past year. Blogs are popping up as course management systems, writing tools, web sites, editorials, and even as news providers. RSS is being described as the new broadcast medium for the Internet that allows anyone to have themselves heard on the Internet.

This month and next, I will present a two part introduction to Blogs and RSS. This month we'll explore what they are and take a look at a couple of popular examples. Next month we'll take a closer look at how these two Internet tools are being used in the academic realm and how you might be able to incorporate them into your research and courses.

What is a blog?
Blog is short for web log. It is an web-based collection of thoughts, ideas, website links, multimedia, and other online materials typically organized in reverse chronological order. Since each blog is created by a unique individual, each blog has its own characteristics and personality. Some blogs are created as a sort of online diary, or as some journals call it, a confessional; others are editorials on a specific topic (e.g., blogging, politics, pedagogy, comic books, fashion) or even news gathering agents (e.g., a blogger scans the web for articles on cancer research and posts these links and short summaries).

Historically, blogs were introduced to the Internet community in the mid1990's as an easy alternative to creating HTML based web sites. Through a free service, a person could put their own identity on the web for all to see without having to learn the HTML programming language or how to use programs like Dreamweaver and FrontPage. Many of the early blogs were collections of web links on topics of interest to the blogger. Current blogs have taken this a step further and integrated text and links with audio, video and other interactive multimedia (e.g., Flash, Shockwave) to create a more interesting experience. In addition, the newer blogs include the ability for viewers to post their responses and create a dialog with not only the blogger, but other blog viewers.

For more information on what blogs are, including a detailed history and a preview of documentary on blogs, go to A Course About Blogs (http://blogosphere.swiki.net/1), the online syllabus and course material for a course on blogs at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

If you would like to create a blog of your own, try one of these free online blogging services:

• Blogger (http://www.blogger.com)
• Blog-City (http://www.blog-city.com)
• TypePad (http://www.typepad.com)

Blog Examples:

• EdTechPost (http://www.edtechpost.ca/mt) - Technologies for Learning, Thinking and Collaborating
• The Kept Up Academic Librarian (http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/) - Helping Librarians Keep Up with News and Developments in Higher Education
• Grotesque Anatomy (http://grotesqueanatomy.blogspot.com/) - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Comic Books. And Sometimes Other Stuff.
• Weblogs at Harvard Law (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/) - A directory of blogs created by the faculty and students at Harvard Law and other schools within Harvard University.
• Opportunity (http://www.livejournal.com/users/opportunitygrrl/) - A daily journal of life on Mars for the Rover Opportunity.
• Spirit Rover (http://www.livejournal.com/users/spiritrover/) - The partner daily journal for the Mars Rover Spirit.
• John Kerry's Blog (http://blog.johnkerry.com) - A blog being used to raise candidate awareness.
• George W. Bush's Blog (http://www.georgewbush.com/blog/) - To be fair, here is President Bush's campaign blog.

What is RSS?
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication (or according to some articles Rich Site Summary). It is an extension of the XML programming language (a descendant of HTML) that allows you to "broadcast" your blog across the Internet. Specifically, it allows a blogger, or even a webmaster, to create a virtual broadcast of your site that can be picked up by programs called aggregators. Aggregators go out and collect these feeds and collect them in one place for easy access and review. For example, if you have an interest in fashion trends, you can set up an aggregator to collect feeds from various blogs and web sites on that topic and load them into a single window, or similar organizational structure, for review at your leisure. This saves you from having to go to several sites each day. And if you should happen to miss a day, the aggregator will store the information until you get a chance to read the posts.

If you have a web site or a blog, creating an RSS feed does not require that you learn XML. Most blogging services have the code available and it can be added to your site by simply clicking a button or by copying and pasting a section of code into your site. You can find more information about RSS feeds at the A Course About Blogs site listed above.

RSS Aggregators:

• Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com) - A web-based aggregator (this is what I use)
• Amphetadesk (http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/) - A desktop based aggregator (works for Windows, Mac, and Linux)
• Bloglet (http://www.bloglet.com) - An e-mail based aggregator (have your RSS feeds e-mailed to you)
• Rollup (http://www.rollup.org/rollup/) - A web-based aggregator

This article includes some links and examples of how blogs and RSS work and are being used in the word. Next month we'll explore how these two tools can be used to help you in the classroom, in research, and in professional development activities.

Coming Up Next Month

Look for Part 2 of our Blogs and RSS investigation and some links related to the Integrating Atomic Learning and Other Multimedia Resources. In addition look for a schedule of Blackboard 6.1 Sneak Peaks, more information on the Blackboard upgrade, and a sneak peak at the May TLTR Workshops.

Request for Information

What are you doing in your classes? Do you have a technology strategy/tool that has worked well for you and your students? Are you doing something innovative with Blackboard? Do you have a tip or trick for making Blackboard easier to use? Is there a topic you’d like to see investigated in this newsletter?

Send your ideas, questions, comments, concerns, best practices, etc. to wiemerk@philau.edu.

Contact Information

Kristopher Wiemer, Instructional Technology Specialist
Paul J. Gutman Library, Room 111
(215)951-6332
wiemerk@philau.edu
http://www.philau.edu/ITS (click on IT@PhilaU for archives)
http://staff.philau.edu/wiemerk