vendor client relationship

Ah, it’s that time of year. We’re renegotiating contracts, purchasing software, setting up pilot programs to test potential purchases. For your Friday Fluff, here’s what it looks like when you try that stuff elsewhere. (Thanks, Kirk!)

the time has come

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of carpenters and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.”
I love that stanza from The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll. It almost always trips through my mind when [...]

get virtually synchronous

Office Communicator (OCS) is now available on UK’s campus to all faculty, staff and students. Among other things, having OCS means connecting two or more people in real time through text, audio and/or video (or any combination). Send quick messages back and forth (whether you use a PC or a Mac) for immediate response from others [...]

the new reality

I read a commentary this morning in The Chronicle of Higher Education that made me literally nod my head, as if I were having a conversation with the author. The column is about the inevitibility of the online course. Love it, hate it, ignore it … it doesn’t matter: it’s here and it’s staying.
The author, [...]

friday fluff … if indeed you are out there

Why am I at work today? I certainly am among the minority.
If you’re stuck at work, too, might as well watch some video. (I’m kidding, really.) YouTube has launched a Classic TV Channel - hey, they have to do something about Hulu. Examples include Star Trek, Bewitched, Alfred Hitchcock, the Lone Ranger, TV’s Baseball Hall of [...]

using Wet Paint for your wiki

I recently was asked to provide some start-up instructions for using Wet Paint for a wiki. What follows is a brief how-to for getting your Wet Paint page up and running:
Create a Wet Paint wiki or Web page
(Estimated time to complete: approximately 60-90 minutes)

Go to http://www.wetpaint.com/.
Under “Create a free website about anything you love!” there are two [...]

fair use is our friend

Here’s an entertaining and informational video about Fair Use, along with a code of best practices to accompany it (scroll down beneath the video on the Web page … keep scrolling, it’s there). Bonus: Today’s post is NOT about Blackboard 9.
To view and read, visit the Center for Social Media (American University’s School of [...]

important safety tips

If you have logged in to Blackboard today at the University of Kentucky, you will have found that the gentle yellow reminder box is now a blazing red. We are very serious about the IMPORTANT INFORMATION CLICK this! message. The link takes you to Bb9 start-up reminders and a quick link to known issues and their workarounds [...]

adding posts in Bb blogs/wikis

If you’ve never added a post to a blog or wiki in Blackboard before, here are some tips – including how to resize an oversized photo. These instructions were created using Internet Explorer 7, and they also work for Firefox 3.  See the Blackboard Wiki (Help Web Site) for a list of certified browsers that work with [...]

“…like herding cats…”

We’re starting to crawl out from under the Bb9 upgrade, so I feel good about going back to my usual Friday Fluff posts! Today, you fill in the blank: “________ is like herding cats!” I’m sure you have a good idea of what to put there. Sometimes moving people to a new release of the [...]