Crime Scenes

Have you ever wondered how crime scene investigations take place? You may have seen the Hollywood process on any of the numerous crime related shows on TV, but what do the REAL authorities do?

One way that the New York City Police Department is recording crime scenes is to take panoramic images of crime scenes, using the Panoscan camera. Some of these images have been posted online with an audio explanation of what has taken place. These images are real and are a tad gruesome, but are still excellent examples for a criminal investigations class.

On a lighter note, this would also be a great camera for vacation! :)

Tweet

Top 100 Web 2.0 Tools by Edudemic

Here is the list of the 100 Best Web 2.0 Tools  by Edudemic.   We have posted several of these in the past...but there are many new ones to explore.   Give a few a try...and let us know what you think.   We would love to have you review one of these tools and post it to the blog.

The EdTech Toolbox also has a list of Top 100 Tools for Learning.  So when you have some free time this week, take a look!

Tweet

What kind of airplane is that?

I know this may be totally worthless information...but the very fact that we have it at our fingertips is beyond belief to me!!!  So go to: 


http://www.wolframalpha.com/


In the search box type in flights overhead (enter).  Wait a couple of seconds and scroll down.  Every airplane flying within 50 miles of your current location will show up...and tell you what type of plane it is.  Crazy huh?


The engineers at Wolfram Alpha are also the geniuses behind Siri (the incredible new technology on the Apple 4S iPhone). 


This is truly an amazing time to be alive!!!  Enjoy.

Tweet

Easily Create your own Graphics

This post is from Elizabeth Luzar, Butler nursing instructor. Thanks for the valuable tips, Elizabeth.

"I follow the Articulate blog --- not so much for Articulate itself, but Tom has some great ideas to make e-learning tutorials better.

One of the big things I have learned from his blog is about graphics.  Yesterday I made two graphics (each took about 20 minutes) to illustrate some pharmacokinetics concepts. 

I did them in PowerPoint.  I made a slide with what I wanted the graphic to look like, grouped it and then saved it as a picture (jpg) that I could import into my ANGEL page". 

This is the graphic Elizabeth created:

"The specific blog is:

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/7-secrets-to-getting-the-graphics-you-need-for-rapid-e-learning/ . Scroll down to Customize Clip Art to Meet your Needs.  There are 3 links after his discussion that take you to previous blog entries to show you how to do it".  

I decided Elizabeth didn't get to have all the fun so I made the graphic on the left to demonstrate just how some of our students might be feeling about now.

Tweet

Graphic Short Stories

The Observer/Cape Graphic Short Story Prize winners for 2011 have not yet been chosen, but the site has previous winners listed. Here you can view the winning graphic short stories from 2007-2011.

Tweet

Interactive Graphics

Do you need some cool interactive graphics for your class?

ElearningExamples offers a wide variety of interactive graphics for subjects including health, automotive, golf, tennis, and even NASA.

Tweet

Rome Reborn

I am not sure how many of you address ancient Rome in your teaching but I came across the Digital Model of Ancient Rome site and thought it worth sharing.
"Rome Reborn is an international initiative whose goal is the creation of 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (ca. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (ca. A.D. 550)."

Tweet

Electric Literature

This site may appeal primarily to creative writing instructors. But anyone who is fascinated with the evolution of technology and its impact on the arts and the creative process in general, will find this intriguing. Traditions (which are once new themselves) are twisted and bent to form something entirely new. Tweeted short stories, animations of a single sentence, and lots more.

Tweet

A Reader's Guide

Many of us assign chapters out of the course book and cross our fingers hoping that our students will actually open the book. I have given weekly quizzes over the chapters, and with a traditional f2f class reviewed the material at the start of class hoping that this will encourage them to read the book. This however, has never quite satisfied me. I still get the feeling, in both my online and f2f classes, that they just don't READ!

Faculty Focus recently published an article by Tiffany F. Culver, Ph.D, on how to help students read the chapter, organize their thoughts, and better comprehend what they are reading. To accomplish this, Culver developed a Reader's Guide, which is also available in PDF format for printing purposes. Culver's Reader's Guide is pretty extensive, so you could modify the guide to make it more relevant for your own class.

Tweet

Coach's Eye - new from TechSmith

The Butler Online staff members are big fans of TechSmith, and although I have not had time to check it out I wanted to put this out there right now. For a limited time, this TechSmith app is available for 99 cents from the iTunes store.
It appears to be designed for coaches, and trainers. More than just recording video, the app boasts the ability to record in slow motion, and annotate with drawings and audio commentary. Beyond coaching, instructors could use it for demonstrations, analysis of speeches and more. Let us know what YOU think.

OK, you do need the latest IOS, - 5, but I am going to try to purchase and download to my Mac if i can't get my phone updated first.

Tweet

Acrobat Pro 10 can be your hero

One of the biggest complaints I have heard about PDF files is the inability to edit. Regardless how many times, users are told to save the original Word or Excel file to edit at a later time, that original always seems to get lost.

There have been converters pop up over the years, but I have never heard of any really working to folks' liking. Of course, you can always copy and paste the text for an ungainly unformatted look into a document. Desperate but ugly.

Now, Acrobat Pro 10 has added that ability to convert a PDF to Microsoft Word (.doc and .docx), and it seems to work. At least better than previous external applications (both free and paid). My recent sample attempt did not bring over math symbols, but the overall formatting in the new Word document looked pretty darned good.

With so many programs now able to convert their files to PDF, the purchase of Acrobat has become less attractive in the last few years. This latest feature, however, could be worth taking another look.

Tweet

50 GB of Cloud Storage - Free!

Box.net is "giving away 50 GB of free storage to anyone who uses a free Box Personal account on an iOS device. That’s right, it’s 50 GB in the cloud completely free, forever. Your 50 GB of storage isn’t just limited to your mobile device – you get it anywhere you use your Box account, like on your laptop at home or your desktop at the office.

This promotion only runs for 50 days, so get your free space in the cloud by following these steps:

1. Visit the app store and download the Box app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
2. Log in to your account or register for a new one directly from the app
3. Start sharing and collaborating in the cloud" (originally posted on the Inside the Box blog).

This offer began Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 12:01 am Pacific Standard time so the clock is ticking. Go get yours now.

Tweet

Voices of a Generation: Students Speak Out

In September 2011, Ann Curry hosted Education Nation's first student panel discussion, "Voices of a Generation". Young people provided insight into what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. Click "Voices of a Generation: Students Speak Out" to view the video. Some of the student comments included:

1. Us youth love all the new technologies that come out. When you acknowledge this and use technology in your teaching it makes learning much more interesting.
2. We appreciate when you connect with us in our worlds such as the teacher who provided us with extra help using Xbox and Skype
3. I have to critically think in college, but your tests don't teach me that. 
4. We learn in different ways at different rates.
5. I can't learn from you if you are not willing to connect with me.
6. Teaching by the book is not teaching. It's just talking.
7. Every young person has a dream. Your job is to help bring us closer to our dreams.
8. We need more than teachers. We need life coaches.

Tweet

Add a little Spice

I'm facilitating a workshop about The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education...perhaps you've heard of it? One of the instructors in there (shout out to Katrina Palan) mentioned Spicy Nodes. With a name like that, how do you not go check it out?

Once in there, I was hooked! It's a free site that lets you create cool visuals to help demonstrate a point, especially if the point doesn't really have a beginning or end, but many facets to one idea. Check mine out and see what you think! It looks best if you make it full screen and play with the zoom/focus a little.



And for the record - you missed out on a good time with this workshop! Ask your course manager about getting in on the next one!

Tweet

Does Facebook Jeopardize Home Security?

After you check your grade on your social media sites (see previous post) you might want to explore the statistics presented in this infographic and then evaluate your postings to social media sites. Be cautious about what you tell your friends because you might be providing just the information burglars are searching for.



Social Media Safety Infographic provided by CreditSesame.com an online credit and debt management company.

Tweet

Clean Up Your Facebook!!!

Facebook..................Isn't it great?! You can connect with all of your friends and family and let them know what you are doing every minute of the day................but what does Facebook mean to potential employers??

Facebook has become a covert way for employers to see what you are like outside of work. Do you post negative comments about your current employer? If so, STOP!! Do you post pictures of yourself that could be construed as tawdry or vulgar? If so, STOP!! Prospective employers are now using Facebook, so we need to spend time professionally managing our social media image.

One way to do this is to use socioclean, which is a free service that will scan your social media accounts and give you a grade. I had socioclean scan my Facebook, and I received an A. However, the service found two postings made by my friends that could be considered questionable. The site showed me the postings, and I was able to delete them.

My Facebook received an A. What is your grade?

Tweet