Fall 07 Trainings

Course Offerings

Basics

Jeanette Gribble

Come to this early workshop to learn the basics of Webmail used on campus for reading your emails. Using Dickinson's network will be explained, the quotas and differences in your Private, Public and Drop folders and how to navigate to these folders. Passwords and more: Learn about the different ones you have while on campus. We will walk through setting yourself up on Password Self-serve so that you never have to worry about your network account getting locked out. Blackboard, the on-line course management program used on campus, will be covered briefly including the features it can provide you and your students. Finally we will go over how to navigate to useful and important links and how to find your liaison in the Academic Technology Services Department. Need more time with Blackboard? Then come to a Blackboard Workshop on Thursday Aug 24th from 9am till 10am in the lower level of the Library, Academic Technology Training Area.

Useful Web Sites and Services (Web 2.0)

TBA

In this section of the workshop you will be introduced to a number of highly popular and useful websites which fall into a relatively new classification known as “Web 2.0”. These websites distinguish themselves by functioning more like desktop applications than traditional static web pages. Some of these sites include: del.icio.us (for storing your bookmarks on-line), YouSendIt (temporary web storage to circumvent e-mail attachment limits), TinyURL (for truncating long web links to make them easier to e-mail to others), Gliffy (on-line diagramming/drawing tool), Wufoo (for easily creating free on-line surveys), etc. Once you start using these services you will soon wonder how you were living without them.

The full extent of Google

Andrew Connell

Arguably Google has made the largest contribution to the internet of any other company or organization to date. Not only is the Google search engine an incredible achievement of programming, it is the tip of the iceberg in the company’s highly impressive compliment of applications and services. In this section you will see Google’s advanced search functions, mapping technologies, personalized portal service and other interesting (and obscure) offerings.

Google Earth

Ryan Burke and Todd Bryant

Google Earth allows the user to browse the earth using satellite imagery. Users can also "tag" specific locations, attaching information to a specific longitude and latitude. This information can then be shared with the entire Google community or kept private. Professors in the past have used this technology to show the geograhic location of a given event, to build and share community histories, and to introduce students to different locations and cultures.

Image Databases: Icon and Flickr

Brenda Landis

DO WE WANT TO ADD ARTSTOR HERE? OR ANOTHER COURSE?

Icon is a digital image repository designed to organize image and multimedia collections. Faculty members are encouraged to add their own personal collections so the campus community can use those collections in other courses. We will go over how to use the collections stored within ICON as well as describing how to go about setting up a personal collection for your own images.

Flickr is an online image sharing program that allows for social interaction. We will go over why you might want to host some images on flickr and how this tool could be used in courses for discussion on related images.

Social Software: Wikis, Blogs, Elgg and Drupal)

Todd Bryant, Ryan Burke, and Brenda Landis

Wikis and blogs are often referred to as social software because they allow people to build communities around their writing. We’ll show you examples of how wikis have been used for collaborative writing and projects. Blogs will be introduced as a way for students to extend class discussions beyond the classroom while creating space online for their own opinions and thoughts. Elgg is a newer and more creative and private system designed to allow learners to create communities and link to each other through their own profiles and blogs.

Machinima

Todd Bryant and Brenda Landis

Machinima is the process of using software, usually games, to create movies. It's similar to the idea of having a very simplified pixar studio at you and your students disposal. Language professors can have students "film" a short scene then add dialogue to the movie. It is also possible to use machinima as a way to create a storyboard for a larger production.

Games and virtual environments for language learning

Todd Bryant

Many of our students spend an incredible amount of time gaming. Many of these games are very engaging, requiring students to interact and communicate with the the computer or even other players who are logged into the environment around the world. When we switch the language of these games to the target language of our choice, this can create a environment of virtual language immersion for our students. I will show how we can use simple games such as Sims to have our students use basic reading skills to more advanced games that require our students to communicate with native speakers in order to progress through the game.

Skype

Todd Bryant

Skype is a program that has literally changed how we view the internet in terms of communication. Any user Skype user can call any other Skype user for free. This provides us with an opportunity to expose our students to opinions and discussions with literally anyone in the world. For the languages, this means the ability to find conversation partners for our students via a partner class or by letting them choose their own partner via the Mixxer. It is also used frequently by Global Education to speak with our abroad centers. At Swarthmore, students contacted people in Iraq via Skype to ask them about their opinions regarding the war. Skype also supports conferencing and moderation for large groups.

Can8

Todd Bryant

Can8 is our language learning system. It allows students to listen audio tracks or watch video then respond verbally. It is an excellent way for our students to practice listening comprehension and conversation outside of class as well as for oral exams. I will also show how to use ready made lessons from SCOLA's news broadcasts as a very quick and easy way to bring authentic language and current events into the classroom.

If you can not make it to these sessions and would like to learn more please contact your liaison at this link: Academic Technology Services Department Liaisons