We have published our Academic Technology training schedule for fall 2012 on our web site.  For those of you who want to plan your Professional Development for the fall semester, here is the rundown. Workshop Descriptions A description of in-person and online workshops is given below. A tabular schedule of in-person person and webinars can be found on the web at http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/attrainingschedule.htm. A. In-Person Workshops Workshops to be presented in fall 2012 Part-Time Pre-Plenary and Plenary Activities Blackboard Essentials Facilitated by: David Gray Date: Thursday, August 16...

One of the most common objections I hear from instructors about teaching online is the lack of interactivity between students. The most popular tool in Blackboard for student to student (and instructor to student) interaction is the discussion board. I recommend considering the blog and journal tools as well as they are also great ways for students and instructors to interact with each other. The blog tool is best for student to student interaction. It allows students to submit entries (posts) consisting of text, links, and images which can be commented on by other students. The blog can be setup as a...

Last week Amazon updated the software for the Kindle Touch that now makes the Touch the most advanced Kindle of all.  While the Kindle family continues to diverge, it is easy to see that Amazon is betting the future on the Touch and touch enabled devices.   The new versions is number 5.1.0.  To see whether you have it, go to the Home screen, then tap menu > settings, and on the settings screen, tap menu again, and then Device Info.   If the version number does not read 5.1.0, you can download the new software from Amazon and follow their simple directions for installing it. After update...

Occasionally when the techs here are speaking with faculty, particularly in the free-form discussions that come up at our Wednesday morning “Blackboard with Cream & Sugar” sessions, the techs will mention tools we use that faculty are unaware of. Sometimes those tools can be adapted to use in the classroom, so I’m highlighting some such tools on the blog under the “Tech Toolbox” name. Today’s addition to the Tech Toolbox is an educational content creation and distribution tool: Educreations. From the website: “Teach what you know. Learn what you...

For many, Evernote is an indispensable tool. If you are not yet an Evernote user, here are five reasons that you should consider becoming one: Capture Anything Evernote allows you to capture almost anything and store it for later use. Notes can be text that you type in directly, a voice recording you make with a mobile device, or a photo from your smartphone. If you come across a webpage that you want to save the Evernote Web Clipper makes it as easy as clicking one button. Evernote is also a great place to store important files that you may need quick access to such as user manuals or research...

In preparation for my workshop on eReaders next week I did a blog post describing the Kindle Family.  I was pretty dissatisfied with it because it took a lot of words to describe the many Kindle options currently available.  To clarify things, I decided to make a graphic.  In the graphic I try to hit the historical highlights of Kindle development in addition to clarifying the Kindle models, with options—especially pricing—but don’t depend on the scale of the graphic for complete historical accuracy.  I leaned heavily on the Wikipedia article on the Kindle for dates, but wasn’t able...

This semester we’ve received several calls asking “how can I find out if student [X] actually interacted with my Blackboard course between date [Y] and date [Z]?” My guess is that there is some sort of administrative concern, perhaps relating to dropping classes, which comes into play with those requests, since the dates all seemed to be just at the start of the term. Well, the answer is that, yes, there is a way.   I’ve recorded two processes in the video below, a simple “last accessed” look-up using the Performance Dashboard, and a more detailed look-up using...

Google Docs is a service offered by Google that offers the ability to create, edit, manage, and share documents online. It is possible to make text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms. Google Docs can be compared to software suites such as Microsoft Office or OpenOffice but is housed online so that it can be accessed from almost any computer or device with an internet connection. Assuming that you have a compatible device with access to the internet, the only other requirement is that you have a Google Account. After signing in to Google Docs, the Docs list is displayed. The...

In answer to the question, ‘What page was that on?’  The answer is: ‘it depends.’  It depends if you are reading the book on a Kindle, that is.  The problem of pagination with electronic texts is shared by all eReaders, of course, but since Kindles are the most popular I will concentrate on them in this post. If you are reading the book on the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s latest color tablet eReader, the answer is ‘I don’t know,’ because the Fire does not display page numbers—yet, at least.  You read books on the Fire with the Android version of the Kindle...

Knowing which device is which in the current Amazon Kindle lineup takes a little thought.  There are five breeds, with variations within breeds depending on whether you choose with special offers (ads on the home screen, not in-your-face, but ads all the same) or 3G connectivity (unless your away from WiFi hotspots a lot, you don’t need this).  Further complicating things the special offers option is not available on all breeds and neither is the 3G connectivity.  The breeds are: The Kindle “The Kindle,” also called the Kindle 4th generation, the “basic” entry level...