Nine Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom

In a blog post, Derek Bruff describes some potential uses of Twitter in the classroom that include:

1. Notetaking
2. Sharing Resources
3. Commenting
4. Amplifying
5. Asking Questions
6. Helping One Another
7. Offering Suggestions
8. Building Community
9. Opening the Classroom

To read the post go to http://derekbruff.org/?p=472

Social Media Dystopia - Tom Scott

Bookmarks and TOC in Google Docs

If you often work with a large document, you know that some times it can be difficult to navigate, especially if you aren't the only one working on it. Google provides two tools to make this navigation easier - Bookmarks and Table of Contents. Bookmarks can be defined within in a google document allowing you to create links to them within the document, enabling you to jump around and avoid scrolling . The Table of Contents tool relies on the document formatting and will convert all of the text designated as "Headings" into the topics of the Table of Contents. The topics generated are automatically linked to that section of the document.

I hope you found this post useful and if you'd like some help send an email to itshelp@colgate.edu. Here are some links to some Google help pages to get your started.

Table of contents

Bookmarks 

Revisiting Prezi for Presentations

From the Chronicle of Higher Education June 28, 2012, 11:00 am By Anastasia Salter With summer conference season well underway, I’ve been preparing a number of presentations. There are lots of options for presentation tools and techniques, but recently I’ve been relying on Prezi. When Prezi was a new presentation tool, Ethan examined the early version for its possibility to challenge the way we give presentations. The first version was fairly limited, with preset color palettes ranging from the garish to the bland and aggravatingly fussy process for arranging content. However, the platform’s recent extensions make Prezi worth a second look. Read the entire article

Professors Put Textbooks Online to Reduce Costs

From the Chronicle's "Wired Campus" blog

July 6, 2012, 12:31 pm

By Angela Chen

The rising cost of textbooks—along with the rise of easy-to-use publishing tools online—has helped drive the popularity of open-source materials and professors’ taking a do-it-yourself approach to textbook publishing. Here are three professors who wrote their own textbooks and are distributing them free.

Read the entire article:  http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professors-put-textbooks-online-to-reduce-costs-for-students/37677

NowComment is a sophisticated collaboration app

I came across this application when reviewing UVA's SHANTI website.  SHANTI promotes innovation at the University of Virginia through the use of advanced digital technologies in research, teaching, publishing and collaborative engagement.  http://shanti.virginia.edu/

NowComment a sophisticated collaboration app available for group discussion and annotation of documents. It displays documents together with threaded commenting on their sentences and paragraphs to create engaging online conversations literally in context. Brainstorm, debate, and collaborate.  Watch the two minute demo.

If you are interested in using this technology and would like a partner to help explore it, send an email message to itss-acad@colgate.edu and an instructional technologist will connect with you.

Power Searching with Google

I just wanted to pass along that Google is offering a six class course on internet searching. The search techniques and their application will be accompanied with activities to help practice. The first class is July 10, 2012. For more information and registration go to http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html.

Keeping your Passwords Safe

After years of working closely with members of Colgate Faculty and Staff, I've come to a very serious realization that a substantial portion of our users have a difficult time managing the vast number of different passwords that are necessary here at Colgate.  Most users have at least a network/banner/portal password, and a gmail password, but some of us also have a local computer password, listserv passwords, personal website passwords, library access passwords, and the list goes on and on.