Recently in Web Tool Category
This week I tested a piece of equipment I've been curious about...headphones which plug in to my phone. I tested it when I used the phone to call in to Monday's NMC Adobe Monday's meeting. It was very easy - plug in the jack (which looks like a phone jack), activate the "headphone" setting and dial away.
It's the 4th set I own (in addition to the ones on my speakers, the one on my iPod and the one to Breeze)...but I'm really glad I asked for them.
Since I was on a telephone, the sound was very good, and I didn't have to reserve a conference room. This can save space for those webinars only I will be attending or ones where I can't make the central conference room because of back to back meetings. The one thing I missed was the back chatter with my colleagues, although I did run into someone away from UP in the regular chat room (small world some days).
The classic use for the headphone is to free the hands and prevent neck creak. They could be handy for long phone consultations. I have fond memories of sales managers pacing the halls with phone headsets. It probably saved the life of a difficult customer.
I know our Cisco phones vary in features, but if yours has the "Headset" button or a headset jack in the back, then it could be an option.
Electronic Reserves - a University Libraries Service in which instructors request library content for their courses to be digitized and made available online to students. A few of these documents may be streamed music or online images, but truthfully most are PDF files.
Around 2003, I worked with the Libraries and the Penn State ANGEL Programmers to conceptualize and implement a nifty ANGEL utility - an ANGEL Reserves tool which lets students jump straight from their ANGEL course to the correct course Reserves without a second login and course search.
This tool may not sound as exciting up front as some other technology options, but I am proud to say that this is one service that has stood that the test of time. Despite minimal marketing (at least from ITS), the tool is still being used in over 600 360+ courses in Spring 2008 (or 700+ courses/year) across 19 campuses. Electronic Reserves is also one of the tools I can guarantee that I will use in just about every course I teach.
Connecting Electronic Reserves to ANGEL solves a lot of problems for instructors. Not only can students go to just one location, but copies will be legal 99% of the time (for instance, I may be able to link to a pre-existing image from the CAMIO image database which Penn State has purchased access to). On the other hand, because ANGEL is password protected, there is potential for TEACH Act leeway for at least a semester. And Electronic Reserves saves file space on the ANGEL because files are really hosted at the Libraries. It's almost a .... mashup?
So although the ANGEL Electronic Reserves is a fairly small scale utility, it's one of the projects I am very proud to have been associated with. It looks like just another way to link to a PDF file, but really it introduced me to the world of the mashup, service integration and the single signon portal.
I just wonder what Electronic Reserves will be connecting to in another five years.
We've seen courses, especially social sciences, in which students are sometimes asked to write scenarios. Maybe it's a vignette on a diversity issue or maybe you might be asked to write a script the miniseries on Balboa's discovery of the Pacific.
In any case there's a new tool - http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/comix.php where students can create comic strips. In this tool, students can select a cute character (animals and humans), then write out dialogue or thought balloons. It could be useful for elementary video storyboarding. Interesting premise.
