It's not hard to design and install a technology-enhanced classroom: a projector, a screen, a few cables and a computer and you have your room. Designing a campus-wide system of technology-enhanced classrooms and keeping them all operating at full capacity every day of the school year with an FTE staff of one – that's the real trick. One element of this elaborate juggling act we call classroom support is preventative replacement, A.K.A.,technology refresh.
Now that the dust has settled and the NMC 2007 summer conference is one for the history books, thought I'd do a little link wrap-up.
Many of the presenters submitted their presentations for online posting, and some sessions were even recorded for podcast. The full list of available presentations is on the NMC site: NMC Summer Conference Presentations. Check them out - they've included the poster sessions, too, several of which were facinating!
Great sessions today, so far, including an absolutely riveting Keynote presentation from Edward Castronova of Indiana University. Ed's background is in economics and, in fact, he studies the economies of on-line virtual communities. But that's just the start.
As Ed says about these 3D immersive communities "That new world is more than 3D; more than immersive; more than online; more than entertainment; more than communication. It is all of those things, and one more, a new source of Meaning."
Now that HD has hit the market with a vengence, it's time to begin considering the ramifications to the classroom.
High definition televsion brings two prime benefits to bear in the classroom environment: widescreen images and higher resolution video. The considerable cost aside, classroom HDTV upgrades will also introduce a considerable number of incompatabilities. Yet, as consumer electronics continue to move in that direction, so must educational technology.
Some links to start the discussion...
A consumer's guide to HDTV
All the Basics in a PDF document
The HDTV Expert
High-end how-tos
The Consumerist.com
An HDTV discussion from the Consumerist
The much anticipated foray into blogging! After many months of testing, playing and deliberating, we finally roll out the ILC pilot blog. Supported by Ray Camden's BlogCFC, the pilot will put university-supprted, course-oriented blogging into the hands of professors and students. Actually, for now only one professor - Michele W. - and her new media oriented class, but it's concentrated, quality instruction, so it'll seem like more....
Clay M. is our blogging braintrust. Clay's a huge proponent of open source software, and of BloggCFC in particular. He's been running his own blog with BlogCFC for some time now and loves it. We're going to put it through the wringer and see who well it works in a course environment.
Sheldon J. will also be participating with his own test blog. Particulalry important as we test the functionality and interaction of "group blogging."
Stay tuned...
