technology

Training goes organic

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Virtual Whiteboarding

Lately you’ve probably seen an increase in the use of hand-drawn “white boarding” in media and learning spots. Think about the long-haired UPS white board guy…   

…or the ever-endearing “Simon’s Cat” series on YouTube…

Now it’s your turn!

LectureScribe is a program for easily producing animated “whiteboard lectures” from a tablet PC or electronic whiteboard. LectureScribe is written by Brian C. Dean, an assistant professor of computer science at Clemson Univeristy.

On Brian’s website, you can find:

  • The LectureScribe program. To install, download this file and place it on any Windows machine. There is no complicated setup required — just double-click the file to start LectureScribe.
  • An example of output of LectureScribe
  • An animated set of instructions on using LectureScribe. This is slightly out of date (for example, image import is now possible, and magnification mode is now turned off by default). A new version will be posted soon.
  • Brian’s article in the Faculty Directions newsletter describing LectureScribe.

LectureScribe

The New Learner

/ Susan Hendrich / 2 Comments

I love this post from Kim Cofino about “The 21st Century Learner.”  She skillfully presents themed ideas for engaging learners through the use of new technologies. Kim’s second presentation, “The 21st Century Educator: The Power of Personal Learning Networks,” demonstrates how web 2.0 technologies change the way learning professionals communicate, collaborate, learn, and teach. Both are worth a look.  Let me know what you think

DIY Websites – which tools to use

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment
It is widely thought that WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are the three best Content Management Systems.  So which one should you choose to create your website?

WordPress is extremely easy to use and setup. It’s an excellent system to use when creating a website that lets you quickly get your thoughts out on the web, but while it is often used as a blog, it can be configured to work in many other interesting ways as well.

Joomla is an open-source content management system (CMS). It allows polls, RSS, search, menus, and more. Very cool and customizable templates. Not as user friendly as WordPress, but more robust content management capabilities.
Drupal’s advanced content management system more closely resembles a developer platform than a traditional CMS.

This article might help you decide between

WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal: http://www.goodwebpractices.com/other/wordpress-vs-joomla-vs-drupal.html

 

More comparisons…
SlashDot on Joomla vs. WordPress:
 

 

Free, shiny stuff

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Free Background and Image Generators

Thanks to Balkhis for this one…

“As I searched for a complete resource of online generators, I did not find any. I found multiple different categories of online generator lists such as favicon generators, css generators, badge generators, color generators, and so on. So I decided to create this ultimate list of online generators. Each of these generators are hand picked by myself and categorized so it is easy to browse. I believe each of these are extremely useful and time efficient. I use quite alot of these myself. So check out these posts, and I guarantee that after viewing all of these you will be bookmarking this post.”

Check out the free image and background generator collection: http://www.balkhis.com/web-designs-resources/55-extremely-useful-online-generators-for-designers/