Robert Baird on Educational Technology

Box Takes On Microsoft, Google for Cloud Dominance | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

2011-12-05T15:25:00.000-06:00

Box Takes On Microsoft, Google for Cloud Dominance | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

I've been very impressed with box.net and it's the first new tool in over a year or so (besides the iPad) where I've felt something as big as Google is on the horizon.

What Big Media Can Learn From the New York Public Library - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

2011-10-24T23:24:00.000-05:00

What Big Media Can Learn From the New York Public Library - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

2011-10-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education: Pearson and Google Jump Into Learning Management With a New, Free System

October 13, 2011, 10:25 am

By Josh Fischman

One of the world’s biggest education publishers has joined with one of the most dominant and iconic software companies on the planet to bring colleges a new—and free—learning-management system with the hopes of upending services that affect just about every instructor, student, and college in the country.

Home | Visual Resources Center | U of I

2011-10-07T08:43:00.000-05:00

Home | Visual Resources Center | U of I

Multimodal Writing Presentation

2010-08-17T13:26:00.003-05:00

Prezi Presentation

Christian Sandvig
Communication, Technology & Society Course Blog home page

comic life

comic life gallery

Use Google Docs for business research

2009-11-25T10:20:00.002-06:00

I've been collecting my bike commuter data with a simple bike computer (distance; avg speed; top speed; drive time) and placing this in a Google Docs spreadsheet. This is a manual data entry process, but once inside Google Docs one can do some really cool things with the data. The new "gadgets" are very cool and help visualize data. They are easier to apply than the kind of features you see in Microsoft Office, although they are similar. Here is a tiny url link to my published bike data: http://tinyurl.com/yjnumm7

Google Docs in Plain English

2009-11-25T10:13:00.001-06:00

great example of simple animation with very good explanatory power.

Teachers and Principals Talk about Google Docs

2009-11-25T10:12:00.001-06:00

A compelling series of testimonials for the use of Google Docs with students.

Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing

2009-08-04T12:38:00.000-05:00

Crowdsourcing ideas . . . ideas from those with "no formal expertise." All hail the DIY crowd and the limits of the expert class.

Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing: "This shouldn’t be surprising, notes Karim Lakhani, a lecturer in technology and innovation at MIT, who has studied InnoCentive. “The strength of a network like InnoCentive’s is exactly the diversity of intellectual background,” he says. Lakhani and his three coauthors surveyed 166 problems posted to InnoCentive from 26 different firms. “We actually found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise,” Lakhani says. He has put his finger on a central tenet of network theory, what pioneering sociologist Mark Granovetter describes as “the strength of weak ties.” The most efficient networks are those that link to the broadest range of information, knowledge, and experience."

GiSTEQ PhotoTrakr Review

2009-06-23T12:21:00.001-05:00

Picture geocoding is the "hot" GPS topic of 2007 and GpsPasSion published a comprehensive guide in March. As with many budding areas, the user needs to piece together various solutions and figure out what works best. Many users including myself will enjoy experimenting but a "turn-key" solution is needed for more people to join in the fun and when it is well designed even advanced users will enjoy using it. I'll admit that this introduction was a bit long, but it summarizes my point of view on GiSTEQ's PhotoTrackr solution.

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=85458

KGO TV San Franciso Story on Geo Logging

2009-06-23T12:07:00.001-05:00

Online university founders: University of Illinois' Global Campus face uncertain future -- chicagotribune.com

2009-04-07T16:38:00.000-05:00

Online university founders: University of Illinois' Global Campus face uncertain future -- chicagotribune.com

Blogtronix Solutions

2007-06-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

Blogtronix Solutions

I3 in a nutshell - I3: The Illinois Informatics Initiative - Informatics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

2007-06-19T10:20:00.000-05:00

I3 in a nutshell - I3: The Illinois Informatics Initiative - Informatics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

PowerPoint

2007-03-06T11:11:00.000-06:00

Hand out for PowerPoint presentation

The Tech Savvy Educator

2007-01-05T16:37:00.000-06:00

The Tech Savvy Educator

Nice technology blog worth exploring.

CITES EdTech:

2006-11-13T09:50:00.000-06:00

CITES EdTech:

test - seems to be working

great example of single image to support podcast

2006-10-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

Nova Science Now has a short podcast on Apophis, an asteroid that may or may not hit earth. The cool thing about their podcast is how they choose a single image and caption to illustrate this podcast. Much better than just watching the play bar inch along slowly with the audio.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/dispatches/061004.html

MediaSite Live

2006-09-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

With the help of our ClassTech sister unit in CITES we have been recording our brown bags and some other events with MediaSite Live. Here is a link to a presentation we did in the UI Library on Compass and other online tools.

Browser Tips and Tricks

2006-07-07T16:55:00.000-05:00

Browser Tips and Tricks

VideoHelp.com

2006-06-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

VideoHelp.com: "This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, DV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF. We also have extensive lists of Capture Cards, DVD Media, computer DVD Writers, desktop DVD Recorders and desktop DVD Players with features, compatibility information and user comments. Use the menu to the left to navigate our site. Enjoy."

Great Podcasting/Vodcasting White Paper

2006-06-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

http://edmarketing.apple.com/adcinstitute/wp-content/Missouri_Podcasting_White_Paper.pdf

Center for Digital Storytelling

2006-05-15T22:19:00.000-05:00

Center for Digital Storytelling

Their workshop on digital storytelling looks interesting.

Using blogs in course work helps improve students' writing

2006-05-04T12:19:00.000-05:00

Using blogs in course work helps improve students' writing:

"Several years ago when Christian Sandvig, then a new professor of speech
communication, was developing a course called Communication Technology and
Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, he wanted to make the
course writing intensive, but was concerned about managing the workload of
grading the work produced by up to 100 students. After reading scholarly studies
on using diaries to enhance writing skills, Sandvig decided to try a high-tech
twist on that tried-and-true tool: blogs."

Nice article by Sharia Forrest of the UIUC News Bureau on "Using Blogs in Course Work Helps Improve Students' Writing."

Christian Sandvig also did a very good brown bag presentation for us, which we've posted online as both text summary and video.

Technorati Tag: continuous partial attention

2006-05-04T11:05:00.000-05:00

Technorati Tag: continuous partial attention

Resonance Partnership Blog: Attention: Giving It and Getting It

2006-05-04T10:57:00.000-05:00

Resonance Partnership Blog: Attention: Giving It and Getting It

Continuous partial attention

Liz Strauss . com Pay Attention. No, I Mean Really.

2006-05-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

Liz Strauss . com Pay Attention. No, I Mean Really.

more continuous partial attention

Supernova 2006 - About

2006-05-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

Supernova 2006 - About

An interesting technology conference that focuses on decentralization and pervasive connectivity.

Levy: Digital Distractions Bad for the Workplace - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com

2006-05-04T10:45:00.000-05:00

Levy: Digital Distractions Bad for the Workplace - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com

Constant Partial Attention--been there; done that; what did you say?

Promoting Access through Learning Spaces

2006-04-25T14:17:00.000-05:00

Promoting Access through Learning Spaces

A significant writer on learning commons thinking.

Bienvenido a Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof�a. Mncars.

2006-02-23T16:38:00.000-06:00

Bienvenido a Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof�a. Mncars.: "El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof�a (MNCARS)

great website that lets one change from Spanish to English easily--good way to try to improve my Spanish, si or no?

pbwiki :: homageaseulogy | FrontPage

2006-02-17T09:08:00.000-06:00

pbwiki :: homageaseulogy | FrontPage

A wiki used for an independent study film project with a student.

Faculty Summer Institute (FSI) 2006 - Overview

2006-01-24T10:56:00.000-06:00

New website for FSI 2006, created by ION.

Faculty Summer Institute (FSI) 2006 - Overview

NPR : Tailor-Made Cartography with Google Maps

2006-01-17T10:23:00.000-06:00

NPR : Tailor-Made Cartography with Google Maps

Google Earth meets homegrown maps--cool.

Testing BBC RSS Feeds in Blogger

2005-12-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

Does this work:

BBC RSS Headlines

Yahoo integrates RSS into email and alerts - RSS everywhere! | Web 2.0 Explorer | ZDNet.com

2005-11-30T16:36:00.000-06:00

� Yahoo integrates RSS into email and alerts - RSS everywhere! | Web 2.0 Explorer | ZDNet.com

Al Weiss passed this on to me--I need to explore this.

TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report: Are Small Bites Enough for Conferee Appetites?

2005-11-10T14:31:00.000-06:00

TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report: Are Small Bites Enough for Conferee Appetites?: "When I first read about Al Gore's latest project, CurrentTV, I didn't really know what to make of it. I wasn't the demographic they were trying to reach, so no big deal to me. It was an easy newsbyte to ignore."

Ties in with our current hope to preach that less is more in terms of video clips in educational contexts. Who wants a full hour and a half of a talking head when you can force the head to consider boiling things down to 2, 3, 5 minutes.

Now we will have to anticipate the ADD generation concern that would pit traditionalists against infobite concerns. That's where an old respected source like Churchill comes into play:

"I once heard, and have often told, the story of Winston Churchill's technique when he wanted to know something from a subordinate. He would contact the person responsible for the topic and say: "Pray give me, by this evening, on one sheet of paper, ..."

brevity is the soul of wit and it ain't bad for the mind either.

More Places "They" Say You Can't Blog

2005-11-04T09:15:00.000-06:00

More Places "They" Say You Can't Blog

Ok, so lots and lots of kids are writing and working with new information technologies so let's ban their use. What does the Chinese government and this Catholic School have in common? They would both just as soon totally ban the use of blogs.

WebCT Newsletter

2005-11-01T17:26:00.000-06:00

WebCT Newsletter

A sign that WebCT has at least heard of blogs.

Issues in Scholarly Communication: SC News for the UIUC Community

2005-10-24T09:08:00.000-05:00

Issues in Scholarly Communication: SC News for the UIUC Community: "ISSUES IN SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION: SC News for the UIUC Community"

Our own UIUC blog on scholarly communication, which comes out of the Library.

EDUCAUSE | Resources | Resource Center Abstract

2005-10-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

EDUCAUSE | Resources | Resource Center Abstract: "A longitudinal extension of the 2004 ECAR study of Students and Information Technology, this 2005 study is based on quantitative data from over 18,000 freshmen and senior students at 63 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies today's students are using, with what levels of skill they are using them, how information technology use contributes to the undergraduate experience, and what value the use of IT adds in terms of learning. The study also provides a review of and comparison with the 2004 ECAR study of students and IT and the 2003 ECAR study of faculty use of course management systems undertaken at the University of Wisconsin System. "

This is my first blog entry using Blogger for Word

2005-08-22T14:59:00.000-05:00

This is my first blog entry written in Microsoft Word and then published using the new Blogger for Word plugin. This might be a very interesting way for faculty on campus to publish information for students to the web. Historically, faculty have relied on Word to create content and then had to convert that text into html. Microsoft’s publish as html history has been spotty at best, typically using too many proprietary options for maintaining formatting, creating web pages that might work great for Windows users, but not for anyone else. One thing I’ll do with Blogger for Word is test formatting and see how it carries over to Blogger. Also, perhaps this can be a mechanism for publishing to Illinois Compass, aka WebCT Vista.

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html

[Let’s see if this url above to Blogger for Word actually carries over]

Best

Robert

Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless

2005-05-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless

Winn Schwartau is mad as hell and he's switching his PC for a mac. Funny, but I've been thinking the same thing for about 6 months now, along with millions of others, apparently.

best

Prof. Biff

Lanny on Learning Technology

2005-05-26T16:48:00.000-05:00

Lanny Arvan's blog on learning technology. He's my boss.

Lanny on Learning Technology

The Becker-Posner Blog

2005-05-26T11:13:00.000-05:00

Lanny forwarded this interesting article by Richard Posner, which contrasts the blogosphere from mainstream media on economic and legal perspetives, finding that the blogoshpere should not be regulated as is mainstream media.

best

Prof. Biff

The Becker-Posner Blog:
"Blogging, Spam, and the Taxation of Internet Transactions Posner The rise of the Internet has created a host of social, economic, political, and regulatory issues, a few of which we address in this week's postings. (Another, at present under consideration by the Supreme Court in the Grokster case, is copyright infringement by means of file sharing.) One that is naturally near to our heart concerns proposals to regulate blogging, either formally or through voluntary adoption of ethical standards. Many blogs are electronic counterparts of newspapers, magazines, and other advertiser-supported mainstream media, and the argument is that since the mainstream media have adopted ethical standards concerning such matters as reliance on anonymous sources and retraction of errors (with electronic media such as television stations subject to formal regulation), so should bloggers."

Podcast from Educause NLII Conference

2005-03-08T08:33:00.000-06:00

I recently attended Educause's NLII conference in New Orleans. They were conducting podcasts, which basically means that they were interviewing attendees and presenters on various edtech topics and then "podcasting" these at the conference. Later, the interviews were made available on the web as MP3 files. In this discussion on keeping up to date with new technologies you will hear outstandingly articulate experts anwers this question!

Iranian Cleric Uses Blog to Reach Out to Citizens

2005-02-17T12:03:00.000-06:00

Reuters presented a story today that suggests the power of the simple blog: Iranian cleric and government official Mohammad Ali Abthai uses his blog to speak openly with fellow citizens regarding the Iran's current political dynamic:

Abtahi, 45, a mid-ranking cleric who last year quit his post as vice-president, says he learns more chatting with young people on the Internet than he does in any government report.
"A lot of them criticize the (political) system and sometimes I tell them they are right. I talk to them very freely," he said in an interview at his spartan office in affluent north Tehran.

Free, Cheap, and Wonderful: Photo Story 3

2005-02-03T19:43:00.000-06:00

It's not often that Microsoft creates a free piece of software that really shines and has few strings attached. Their new Photo Story 3 is not only free, but is pretty darn easy to use. Best of all, you can quickly take digital photos and create a Ken Burn's style documentary effect such that you begin or end on a key region of a particular image. This can be used to add drama or to focus attention on important information and features in an image, making Photo Story 3 of potential use for educators.