Laura Blankenship September 11th, 2008
The New Media Lab will be staffed during the following hours:
Sun-Th. 1-5 and 7-10
Fri. 1-5
The equipment and software may be used at any other time outside of these hours. Should you require assistance, please make an appointment by emailing nml@brynmawr.edu.
aharding September 20th, 2007
The scanning documentation is now up, which means you can read about various scanning techniques to your heart’s content. Topics covered include basics of scanning, how to scan into Adobe Acrobat, and how to scan photographs. To reach this documentation, you can click on “How-To” in the top navigation and then on the various sub-pages about different kinds of scanning.
Catherine Farman September 18th, 2007
I am a devoted evangelist of free office applications that chip away at the hegemony of Microsoft Office. Last week while on duty here in the New Media Lab, a fellow student asked me if I knew where she could get the new Microsoft Office for her Mac- and I encouraged her to instead try a couple of these free, open source office programs. On a college campus, where the faculty and staff use Microsoft Office and the students who interact with them cannot or do not want to pay for such expensive software, free programs such as OpenOffice (for Windows and Mac) and my personal fave, NeoOffice for the Mac, are vital for those sharing projects, papers, and presentations inside and outside of class.
I have used Google Documents for about a year now, and find it has many advantages over desktop applications- I can backup my papers there; create documents quickly for notes on-the-go; convert files quickly online to PDF, Word, and other file types; and I have found it useful for filling out forms or writing reports for projects and professors that I wish to share immediately through email. I’ve even helped friends write resumes and papers through the sharing features; I read and mark up places for change, and the other person sees it immediately as a revision. In short, I love Google Docs- so when I saw today that Google Presentations had just been introduced, I gave it a try to see if it would win me over just as Docs has done. I’ve presented my findings in- what else?- a Google ‘powerpoint’ file that I am now sharing here in this blog. The first few slides are me messing around, seeing what I can do with the app- and the last couple list what I found to be the strengths and weaknesses in the app.
The coolest feature I’ve found is something anyone reading this can use right now: integrated Google Talk, right alongside the presentation. Viewers and the presenter(s) can interact online as the powerpoint unfolds. You can join in just by viewing the presentation- so go there now and let me know your thoughts.
Laura Blankenship September 10th, 2007
The schedule is up. It will probably go through a few minor changes this week as students’ schedules continue to shuffle. If you want to make sure you receive assistance, it’s best to make an appointment. Please email nml@brynmawr.edu to do so. As always, students, faculty and staff are more than welcome to use the lab on their own whenever Guild is open.
Laura Blankenship September 7th, 2007
We’ve gotten new video equipment for the New Media Lab and have it connected to all the machines in the lab. We’re awaiting three converters, but we have two stations set up to import video from nearly any source. Once your video is imported, you can export it to multiple formats suitable for the web or for uploading to Blackboard or even for downloading to an iPod. We also have the ability to burn videos to DVDs that will play on any DVD player.
The scanners are also ready to go. As usual, they are a little quirky, but we’re working out the kinks. Right now, they’re all perfectly functional, but not all integrated with the Adobe products that most people like to scan into: Photoshop and Acrobat. You can still scan in your document, but it won’t be imported into Acrobat or Photoshop automatically. If you need to do any editing, you’ll have to open them in those programs after scanning. We hope to have this problem worked out soon.
Laura Blankenship September 1st, 2007
The new school year is days away and we are trying our best to get things up and running here. The New Media Lab got all new equipment over the summer: new computers (all Mac Pros), new dvd/mini-dv recorder players, and new software. We’re still getting things put together, so things are in a bit of disarray. However, we do have working stations with working equipment–scanners, dvd players, etc.–attached to them. We just don’t have them all set up and running, so please be patient and we’ll soon have them all working. We’re also working on the schedule for student staffing, which we hope to have worked out early next week. Watch this space for more info. In the meantime, feel free to drop in and visit and use the equipment.