OIT-ELN Blog Project

e-Learning Snippets, Tips and Workshops

• MUSICIANS, COOL AND GEEKY. Faculty: Please mark the date, April 27th, and attend the presentation: “Music To Our Ears: Teaching With Technology and New Media,” from 12:15 to 1:15 pm in the BPAC Recital Hall. Drs. Shelley Collins, Teri Herron, Jung-Won Shin, Christopher Meerdink, and Mark Snyder are ready show you that musicians are not only cool and hip, but seriously geeky. DSU’s Music and DMI faculty will be on stage to demonstrate and discuss how they use various strategies and technologies—screencasting, podcasting, and web video—in class and online to improve upon teaching and learning.
• SUMMER IS A-COMIN’ IN. Summer I (including Spring Intersession), Summer II, and Fall 2010 have been rolled out in Blackboard-CE6. All of the terms are available to faculty with instructor/designer access. Students do not have access to these terms until the terms begin officially–with one exception: Summer I. Because Summer I encompasses the Spring Intersession, students will be able to access these sections as soon as faculty activate the course shells.
• MASTERCOPIES LOVE TWEAKING. Yes. Summer is almost here, and you are ready to take a nice, leisurely break. However, your lazy days at the lake (or siestas in far-flung cities) will get old within the month, and you will find yourself fidgeting. Yes. Take advantage of the fidget; this the perfect time to log in to Blackboard-CE6 and tweak your course mastercopies.
• DO INSTITUTIONS DREAM OF ELECTRIC CURRICULA? If Delta State re-visions its vision statement, faculty members may need to improve upon their technology literacy. For more information on the vision re-vision, visit The Bolivar Commercial article, “DSU Seeks a New Vision,” online at: http://www.bolivarcom.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=0E0EAEBB-19B9-E2E2-67B201F889216CA8.

• iPadding at the Apple Store

  DEAR E-READERS, THE E-READERS ARE HERE. There’s nothing like summer reading, and this year you may be tempted to give up your cow-skin and paper-flake books for something that’s neither animal nor vegetable. Apple’s iPad release this month has re-invigorated the reading public’s interest in e-reading devices, such as the Amazon Kindle, the B&N Nook, the Sony Reader, and, of course, the iPad (pictured right: iPadders at the San Francisco Apple Store). If you’re interested in testing the e-reader waters and want to learn more about e-book technologies, consider checking out OIT’s Kindle 2 and/or taking our “Leveraging eBooks in Your Courses” workshop. Wired Magazine offers a pretty good e-reader primer (visit: http://www.wired.com/
  reviews/product/ pr_tablet_roundup).

• INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH IN YOUR ONLINE COURSES. If you teach online courses, you may see the profile IRSURVEYS enrolled in your courses during the month of April. Institutional research has requested staff-member access to facilitate end-of-course evaluations. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Marcie Behrens, Assessment and Planning Specialist, mbehrens@deltastate.edu.
• STILL CLEANING UP…FOR SPRING AND BEYOND. Please help OIT avoid quotas on space usage in Blackboard-CE6 and on the Faculty/Staff NT server by carefully reviewing what you are storing in these spaces. Please delete or remove any files that are obsolete or not in use. In Blackboard-CE6, please be sure to clean up your “my files” and course “file manager” spaces, and to download (to your desktop) then delete any backed up courses.
• THE FINAL LEG. The Office of Instructional Technology has four more workshops scheduled—and one presentation—before the end of the semester. If you wish to learn more about social networking, syndication, web video, bot research, and learning objects, April is the coolest month! Go to: http://eln.deltastate.edu/workshops.htm for more information, and to sign up.

Workshops for Faculty

Instructional technology workshops are
offered in the OIT Lab in Bailey Hall 114. Each workshop is limited to 8
participants. To sign up for a session, go to: http://eln.deltastate.edu/workshops.htm.

• Tuesday, 4/20, 2-4 pm
  ELN 401: Social Networking, Syndication and Research Automation
• Thursday, 4/22, 2-4 pm
  ELN 402: Basic Video Editing
• Monday, 4/26, 2-4pm
  ELN 403: Web Video Post-production and Distribution
• Wednesday, 4/28, 2-4 pm
  ELN 404: Embedding Learning Objects

Volume 4, Issue 4.2. The OIT-ELN Bi-Monthly is published by the Office of Instructional Technology’s Electronic Learning Network. For additional information contact Dr. Susan Hines, Director of Instructional Technology (shines@deltastate.edu or x4038). Find the “blogged” back issues at http://eln.deltastate.edu/wordpress.