Friday, TASC welcomes Dr. Christopher Rice to the Panic! Pandemic Series to speak about his instructional experiences with wikis. He’ll also give a bonus talk on the Big Blue Network (BBN), UK’s private undergraduate social network for which he serves as Community Manager.
We hope to see you there: 3-3:30pm on Friday, Dec. 4, in Funkhouser 200. Dr. Rice is an engaging speaker with a couple of great topics! Find out more about the series from the flyer on TASC’s Web pages. Walks-ins are welcome, but registrations are appreciated. Register with Megan at msbeac2@uky.edu or 257-8272 ext. 0
The Big Blue Network, UK’s private social networking site on Ning, is a thriving community with more than 3,100 members and growing. Now you will also find BBN information at the Big Blue Network Blog, which provides updates and answers your questions about BBN. It also includes feeds from the BBN Twitter account and its Facebook page.
BBN is open to any Undergraduate student at UK. Just email the Community Manager at christopher.rice@uky.edu for an invitation.
Drop in on University of Kentucky Island to view the Primcutter exhibit, featuring the virtual world work of Dwight Newton, known in SL as Oriscus Zauberflote, or “Oz.” In real life, Dwight is a musicologist and public information coordinator for the University of Kentucky School of Music, but his alter-ego Oz in SL is a master architect and builder of musical instruments which have won praise from a global audience.
Not sure how to get started in Second Life? Visit the Blue 2.0 tutorial to get your avatar and get started.
Check out University of Kentucky Libraries’ Stacey Greenwell speaking on ebooks at UK and online library databases in TASC’s Panic! Pandemic Series. Visit UK iTunes U (click here for instructions if you need them) and you’ll find her presentations, and the rest of the Panic! series, in the TASC area under Tools for Teaching.
Coming up:
Dec. 4 – Part I: Wikis with Dr. Christopher Rice (Political Science & Social Technology Strategist)
Dec. 4 – Part II: The Big Blue Network with Christopher Rice (Political Science & Social Technology Strategist)
Dec. 11 – i Tunes U with Dr. Alan Brown (Hispanic Studies) and Viginia Lacefield (UK IT)
All workshops in this series are on Fridays at 3pm in Funkhouser 200. Register by emailing date and session plus your name to msbeac2@uky.edu (walk-ins are welcome; registrations are appreciated).
Next Semester – New name! The Tools for Teaching series picks up where the Panic! left off. Watch the TASC Calendar for dates at http://www.uky.edu/TASC (click on Calendar in the right column).
A popular way to “tag” (or classify, if you will) Twitter tweets (messages) is to use a hashtag, or the # key with a key word. So, this recent message by @lexhistory (Lexington History Museum), which was a RT (or re-tweet of someone else’s message), read
and contained a hashtag for genealogy. By clicking on the link formed by the #genealogy tag, you are taken to a group of messages that have to do with genealogy. This convention was created by Twitter users themselves as a hint to search on that word to find more information. Twitter obliged by making hashtags a one-click search.
All this to say that I’m using #UKiTunesU in my tweets to direct users to what’s new on the University of Kentucky’s iTunes U channel. Since we don’t have enough content yet to be a part of the iTunes U store, this may be a way that we can share with each other quickly and easily. Use it if you get a chance – let’s watch our content grow!
I’ve had a few questions from our instructors and staff about how to get into the University of Kentucky’s iTunes U collection, so here are some brief instructions:
Ensure you have the free iTunes software on your computer. It may be downloaded from the following Web site (you may need to request that a college or department IT person download it for you): http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Scroll to the bottom of the page, and under Explore and Connect, click on iTunes U (this takes you to http://itunes.uky.edu/)
On the Web page that opens, click on Access UK on iTunes U
Be patient … that click will open the iTunes software
If you’d like to find TASC’s podcasts, then add the following steps:
Once iTunes opens, look under Community and click on Teaching and Academic Support Center
Here you have several choices for podcasts. New ones will be added over time.
If you are looking for the Panic! Series, it is under Tools for Teaching.
Why doesn’t the University of Kentucky show up if you access iTunes U through the “iTunes Store”? It’s because we don’t have enough content yet to be listed. Instructors and others at UK who have content can contact me for information about how to get an iTunes U account.
I’m currently testing Google Wave, trying to see what kinds of activities it can support, all in the same place. If you’re interested in starting a Wave with me and have an account, you can connect with me (in your Google contacts) as patsy.carruthers@googlewave.com – yes I know it’s long, get over it.
Picture it: 700 students. No TA for help with instruction. And now students are pressing you for more information about one of the more complicated things you teach. Maybe you live that scenario already. Kim Woodrum in Chemistry at the University of Kentucky certainly does.
In one of TASC’s recent Panic! series presentations, Kim talks about giving more time to problem-solving of equations by using a simple video of her “talking hands.” Watch it on iTunes U. (After clicking the link [be patient, iTunes will open*], click on Get Movie to the right of Kim Woodrum: Teaching Problem Solving to download it.)
*You must have the free iTunes software loaded on the computer to view the video.
The University of Louisville has launched a new copyright education site: Copyright Guidelines and Resources at UofL. Especially helpful is the section on Copyright Basics (see the menu at left on the Web page), including information about the TEACH Act and Fair Use. Scenarios are also included.
Really useful copyright sites have been rare, but they are beginning to emerge. I’ve always liked the Copyright Crash Course from the University of Texas. Here;’s a a fairly new helpful and clever guide to using multimedia in courses: Copyright Metro from Baruch College (CUNY) – click on Launch to start it. What’s your favorite?
Drop in on 
