Laura Blankenship March 26th, 2008
We successfully recorded the Information Management Workshop. It ended up in two parts.
We covered using Google Reader and RSS Feeds generally, EndNote Web, del.icio.us, and Zotero.
Laura Blankenship February 28th, 2008
Shameless self-promotion. Here’s a podcast I did at ELI with Veronica Diaz. We talk Web 2.0, faculty support and education. Enjoy.
Laura Blankenship February 6th, 2008
Google has announced the ability to use spreadsheets combined with a form to collect data. Let’s try it out. Here’s a link to my form.
Laura Blankenship November 9th, 2007
Via the Wired Campus Blog, I found Pronetos, a facebook-like app for sharing research and connecting with scholars. I like the look and feel of it. It’s missing some of the more fun elements of social networking, but it’s definitely got potential. Of course, I set up an account. Like I needed another social networking account . . .
Laura Blankenship October 30th, 2007
First, there’s this video on the Information R/evolution:
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I’m in the middle of reading Everything is Miscellaneous, which I highly recommend to anyone who regularly creates, stores, uses, or interacts with information of any kind–which is almost all of us. This video in combination with the book are really hitting home. There are challenges, of course, with information being less neatly organized. But the biggest challenge is to the idea of information organization itself. We are the organizers, not some group of gatekeepers.
Then, there’s this video about Today’s Student.
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Some very interesting information here. One thing that I thought about was the way that small liberal arts colleges really are positioned well to take advantage of information technology tools. Larger colleges and universities seem to be focused on using technology for more efficient information delivery, not for finding ways to engage students and create collaborative learning opportunities.
Laura Blankenship September 26th, 2007
Following up on Catherine’s post about Google presentations, here’s a video that explains the basic concept and why using something like Google docs is way better than emailing documents around.
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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 14th, 2007
I’m very excited to be bringing to campus some wonderfully innovative teachers and researchers to talk about social software, Steven Greenlaw, Jean-Claude Bradley, and Jim Groom. I’ve been reading Steven Greenlaw’s blog, Pedablogy, for a number of years now. He writes about his thoughts on teaching, often right in the midst of a sticky situation (see 9/11’s entry, for example). I also met Jean-Claude Bradley via his blog and he has come to Bryn Mawr before to talk about his use of tablets. He’s been pushing the Web 2.0 envelope for quite a while now, using blogs and wikis to track research and interact with students as well as working with Second Life. Jim Groom also keeps an amazing blog. I first ran into him via a talk he gave on open source software in Academia and found what he had to say fascinating. He will likely be joining us virtually, but I think his energy will come through over the Internet.
If you’re a part of the Bryn Mawr community or going to be in the area, please feel free to come hear these three people discuss their use of Web 2.0 tools. It’s in Dalton Hall, room 20 from 2:30-4:00 on September 19th. There will, of course, be refreshments and probably a reminder or two.
Laura Blankenship June 20th, 2007
This week, Mark and I talked to Tim Burke from Swarthmore College and Collin Brooke from Syracuse University about various issues related to Academic Publishing in the web 2.0 world. They’ve both written in their blogs about these issues. Here are some of the posts that inspired the show:
Fun with Intellectual Property Issues
If Tuesday Began with the letters CSH
Is it really so complicated?
We covered a lot of ground, from the economics of publishing to tenure and promotion to tagging. I think the words of the day were “distribution” and “circulation.”
Enjoy!
Episode 17 (mp3; approx. 40 mb)
Tags: podcast, academe, publishing, web2.0
Laura Blankenship June 8th, 2007
In this episode, we cover several bibliography tools and issues surrounding their use.
Episode 15 (mp3, about 16mb)
Links we covered:
My EndNote
Zotero
CiteULike
BibMe
Want us to cover something in a podcast? Email us at lblanken [at] brynmawr [dot] edu or mcolvson [at] brynmawr [dot] edu or tag it in del.icio.us with bmcpodcast. Or leave us a comment here. We’ll take feedback and suggestions in any form!
Tags: bibliography, web, education, podcast