Google Calendar cancels appointment slots

In a December 17, 2012 blog post on the Chronicle of Higher Education, Heather M. Whitney reports that a popular use of the Google Calendar tool "Appointment Slots" will be discontinued on January 4, 2013.

Heather goes on to suggest other tools that integrate with Google Calendar.  Click here to view the original post.

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.

Computing Tips and Tricks

Do you login to the Portal to connect to Moodle? Do you Copy/Cut/Paste text by going to the File menu? Do you never use your right mouse button (or does your Mac not even have a right mouse button)? Do you stop your PowerPoint presentation to open a web page or media clip and then stumble back to your presentation? Does the existence of the Control key make you suspicious? Does your twelve-year-old cringe whenever you start to work on your computer?

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above, then this post is for you (and for many others out there). And even if you are a computer whiz who knows all about these topics you may still find my message motivating.

Saving youtube clips

Faculty members that I work with, often express their need to save youtube clips for offline viewing and editing. Unfortunately, Youtube does not provide any avenues for this on their site. Saving streaming web clips can often be impossible, especially without expensive 3rd party applications for capturing streaming content. I wanted to let you know about a site which allows users to do just that - download youtube clips!

Poll Your Students Using Their Cell Phones

Poll Everywhere is a popular polling application that enables one to post a question and have everyone in the class post their answer via a smartphone, an iPad, or any type of computing device that has access to the web.  It uses a simple text messaging system so even a flip-phone can be used to submit an answer.   The poll is displayed to the audience, they can then vote by sending SMS messages to a special short number.  Participants’ responses can be displayed in real-time on a large screen in your class. Additionally, you can import your results into PowerPoint or Apple Keynote without any additional software. You can also download your results as an Excel file.

The free version is limited to an audience of 40 participants.

Note:  since cell phone network access is spotty in some of Colgate’s classrooms, you should definitely run some tests prior to attempting to use in your course.

http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Using Webex to Extend the Classroom

Webex is an online meeting tool. It supports 25 simultaneous video/audio connections and provides the ability to share individual user's applications and multimedia files. At Colgate we host meetings, academic classes, and office hours with Webex. We do not want to replace face time but for those times that you are away and still want to hold a class this tool is very useful. Here is a video of Professor Burnett using it for office hours.


If you want to know more about it contact itshelp@colgate.edu or visit your instructional technologist during office hours. Office hour Schedule.

Social Networks for Academics Proliferate

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted an article on April 29, 2012 titled "Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Doubts". The social networks mentioned are:

Academia.edu, "The profile ... includes far more information than a university's Web page could accommodate, including links to research papers, books, blogs, and forthcoming talks. It lets people know what he's working on and helps him connect with others in his field."

Mendeley.com, "is a program for managing and sharing research papers that includes both a desktop application and a social-networking site."

ResearchGate.net, "allows scholars to share research papers."

Zotero.org, "offers similar technical tools for researchers in other disciplines, including many in the humanities. The free system helps researchers collect, organize, share, and cite research sources."

FacultyRow.com "provides online forums so scholars can link up through text or video chats."