Digital Literacy for St. Cloud State University
How To Use The App That Will Make Your Photos Look So Much Better
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-vsco-cam-2015-1?op=1#ixzz3OeN3Fss0
VSCO Cam available for mobile devices
VSCO Cam allows users to transform bland photos into gallery-worthy artistic images.
http://www.edudemic.com/instagrok-an-education-search-engine-for-students
instaGrok is a next-generation research engine intended for academic settings to allow students to research any subject and see results in an interactive concept map, or “grok.” The grok features key facts, concepts and their relationships, images, videos, quizzes, and a glossary. Students can pin the information that they want to use to their grok and keep a bibliography or research notes in an integrated journal.
What makes instaGrok indispensable to teachers is its ability to facilitate self-directed learning of several critical skills, including researching and integrating discrete concepts.
My note: App for Android and iOS tablets is NOT available for smartphones and iTouch
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2015/01/06/375173595/with-downloads-in-decline-can-itunes-adapt
Spotify is simpler. It’s all about music. Mosley has switched over, saying he’s willing to pay the $10 monthly subscription fee for the premium, ad-free version of the service because it’s so much easier to use.
There is an informative discussion on the LITA board regarding signage, both hard/software-wise as well as design-wise.
From: Hess, M. Ryan [mailto:MHESS8@depaul.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 6:14 PM
To: lita-l@lists.ala.org
Subject: [lita-l] Re: Digital Signs – Best practices, hints & tips
Hi Christa,
I don’t manage the signs in our library, but had a part in getting them put in place and designing workflows. Along the way, I found some interesting research on the topic:
San Jose Public Library (2009). San Jose Public Library Signage Design Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.olis.ri.gov/ services/ ce/ presentation/ SJW-SignageDesignGuidelines.pdf
Envirosell (2007). San Jose Public Libraries & Hayward Public Libraries Final Report. Retrieved from http://sjpl.org/sites/all/files/userfiles/svpl-hpl_final_report.pdf
Barclay, D. A., Bustos, T., & Smith, T. (June 01, 2010). Signs of success. College & Research Libraries News, 71(6), 299.
Shooting more from the hip, my opinion on digital signage is that commonly made mistakes with content include:
– multiplied narratives don’t work in most library cases. Keep everything short and on a single slide
– keep the slide visible for at least a minute to give people a chance to read it
– make sure your graphics are appropriately sized for HD screens (keep those images sharp and avoid pixelation)
On a technical note, we use a mix of solutions:
– PPTs on USBs
– We’ve experimented with Google Drive Slideshows too, to help streamline the work
M Ryan Hess
Digital Services Coordinator
DePaul University
JTR 303-C, DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus, 2350 N Kenmore Ave., Chicago IL 60614
office: 773-325-7829 | cell: 650-224-7279 | fax: 773-325-2297 | mhess8@depaul.edu
On Dec 22, 2014, at 2:20 PM, Hirst , Edward A. <Edward.Hirst@rowancountync.gov> wrote:
We are using a Plex Media Server feeding 3 Rokus over a wireless connection from a laptop. We use .jpg pictures for our slides. Each Roku is connected to a different folder on the Plex server since our displays are in different parts of the building.
Edward
—–Original Message—–
From: Junior Tidal [mailto:JTidal@CityTech.Cuny.Edu]
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 1:10 PM
To: lita-l@lists.ala.org
Subject: [lita-l] Re: Digital Signs – Best practices, hints & tips
Hi Christa,
We used two templates for our digital sign. We were using PowerPoint on a Windows machine.
Librarians would take turns updating the slides to promote databases, workshops, library hours, etc., and we had a stable of maybe a dozen or so slides. We updated the slides whenever we needed to promote specific events, usually a couple of weeks before it took place.
This past summer, we switched to using a Raspberry Pi setup installed with Screenly – https://www.screenlyapp.com/ose.html .
This made it much easier to update the slides, because we couldn’t remotely login into the PC with Powerpoint running. Now, we can connect to the RPi/Screenly, and upload images.
Best,
Junior
Junior Tidal
Assistant Professor
Web Services and Multimedia Librarian
New York City College of Technology, CUNY
300 Jay Street, Rm A434
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.260.5481
http://library.citytech.cuny.edu
Christa Van Herreweghe <christa@ucitylibrary.org> 12/21/2014 5:12
PM >>>
Hello all:
We are new to digital signs having just installed our first. Would love to hear about any best practices you have developed.
How many slides do you show? (assuming you are doing slides – if not, would love to hear about your format).
Did you develop a template (or two) and develop a consistent “look”
on all your slides?
Who updates your sign and how often?
Other hints and tips are welcome.
Thanks,
Christa Van Herreweghe
Assistant Director/IT Librarian
University City Public Library
ucitylibrary.org
Visually the tablet is a dead-ringer for the iPad mini, but the N1 actually manages to be both thinner and lighter than Apple’s tablet – just 6.9mm thick and weighing in at 318 grams.
The N1 looks very healthy spec-wise, with a 2.4GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras on the back and front.
‘Z Launcher’ software: essentially a customized lock screen that studies your habits to give you the right app at the right time of day (eg, email in the morning, Instagram at night) while also letting you launch apps by scribbling the first letter of their name.
The N1 is launching first in China February 2015 for $249 (around £160 – the same as the iPad mini) but it’s not clear when it’ll be making its way to the US or UK.
http://stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/index.php
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/4/7153975/dropbox-microsoft-partnership-microsoft-office
For Dropbox it’s a lot easier to partner with companies and build a platform rather than try and create a rival to Microsoft Office. Dropbox’s updated apps will be available across mobile platforms in the coming weeks alongside Microsoft’s own Office apps. Additionally, Dropbox has also committed to building a Windows Phone version of its app which will be available in the coming months.
Of course, not all aspects of online course design require a team of specialists, a longer development time, and more funding. Some things can be done quickly, cheaply and by individuals with focused skill sets.
But technology can, when built with a deep understanding of how students learn, meet both of these needs. We can build online courses that provide students with hundreds of opportunities to test their knowledge. Using scientifically-based learning analytics, we can provide each learner with immediate, context-specific feedback. We can build software that constantly responds to each student’s cognitive and educational differences and serves up activities that address these differences.
Michael
Educator, technologist, researcher, and innovator in edtech, distance education, and faculty development
“Placing the burden on lone educators with minuscule (or non-existent) funding and who are not hired for their strengths in instructional media development is neither logical, nor fair. But more to the point, it’s a lost opportunity to leverage high-quality course design to drive improvements in learning outcomes.”
I could not agree more with this statement and the remainder of the article. I’ve long supported an instructional design partnership model where faculty occupy a leading role along with other professionals capable of making the interactions, activities, and rich-media meet the quality needs of an increasingly complex learning environment (and world).
Judith
Editor at Individual Basis
We need to start imagining new models for building, acquiring and sharing instructional media.
This has always been an issue. My students love activities that provide them with immediate feedback. I spend extra hours building a wide variety of different activities into each Learning module. It takes time and effort and if I am going to address different learning styles that is an entirely different issue. To create effective interactive learning tools that will not waste my students time and will challenge their skill level consumes more time than planning for a face to face class with different activities. I would love to talk to someone-be able to explain what I want my students to learn, suggest a few interactive choices, and come back later to find age related learning activities that fit different learning styles.
Alex
Owner, MyMeemz
There is going to be a fight because this model is more like a business product that educators contribute to, rather than own. Perhaps this is the true industrialization of education, replacing the craft model of individual teaching with standardized, high quality product?
Maria
Enrollment Advisor – Pearson Embanet
I have forwarded this article on to members of the course development team within Pearson for their feedback. I am curious to see their impression of the article versus mine, considering I predominantly am a part of recruitment services for Pearson specifically. Within our academic partnerships platform, we do contend with faculty, should they employ our course development team, to this vein because the ownership usually rests with the instructor solely. Editing course content or abridging related material so that it could be received potentially as more either user-friendly or technologically savvy can be a source of major contention with faculty members. I do agree that this is an industrialization of education to an extent, but it also pushes the ownership of traditional education past the instructor, a predominantly sole proprietorship environment, to an completely different team effort. The natural technological growing pains coupled with role expansion and differentiation are also issues needing to be addressed as well.
Alex
Owner, MyMeemz
Suppose one was to take this seriously. What might such a course look like – for a subject like Biology? Could it be built on existing LMS platforms, or is a new platform required?
Judith
Editor at Individual Basis
I think that both individual ownership and team collaboration are important to the development of successful online learning. We (hopefully) use the concepts of group and team learning in our classroom environments. We should not be afraid to open ourselves up to some of the positive opportunities that could develop from participating in these practices. It does not mean giving up our ownership of content and presentation. I see it as a marketplace of choice where instructors can decide what kinds of activities, helps, prompts, extra materials, and resources they want to add to their class content. The choices could be categorized by learning styles or how they fit into learning paradigms. I think we must face the reality that some parts of education will have to be more industrialized than others just because of the delivery method. This does not have to be a negative issue if there are enough choices to help instructors develop the rigorous content they want to deliver without sacrificing their entire life to the project.