Bring TED Into Your Classroom

Some of you are thinking "If you think I'm going to bring the President (Ted Long) in my classroom, you're crazy!" I'm writing about the website http://ted.com. It is the most stimulating website I have found. According to the site:

“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

“This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. Almost 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

“Today, TED is therefore best thought of as a global community. It's a community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who have just two things in common: they seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.”

You will find talks like the one given by Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?; or a riveting talk by brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight about how she “studied her own stroke as it happened.”

The talks are organized by themes including “How the Mind Works” or “Is There a God?” or any of these other themes.

This is a fantastic website and faculty will find great videos to stimulate class discussion.

Who Owns TED?

“TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation, a 501(c)3 organization under US tax code. It was established in 1996 by Chris Anderson, who was at that time a magazine publishing entrepreneur.

The goal of the foundation is to foster the spread of great ideas. It aims to provide a platform for the world's smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future. Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.”

Take Another Look at Wikipedia

Many people put down Wikipedia without really knowing much about how the articles are written. I encourage faculty and students to learn a little more about how Wikipedia articles are written and I present you with three references to assist you in this journey.

Read this blog post from the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Look at 7 things you should know about Wikipedia from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.

If you are still intrigued I encourage you to view this 20 minute video by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

Overlay Outlook 2007 Calendars

If you keep track of several calendars, and I’ve seen people who track 9 calendars besides their own; it would be nice to see all the appointments merged into one calendar. Outlook 2007 can do this, in a manner similar to Google Calendar.
Here’s how:
Change to Calendar view
Select more than one calendar in the list.

All calendars are displayed side by side.

Point and click the teeny arrow next to one of the calendar tabs.

The calendars are overlaid one on top of another.
The calendar that is active (the one you clicked) displays visually highlighted appointments.

Click the teeny arrow icon again to display calendars side by side.

ITS Blog Begins - Good Resources for Higher Ed

The ITS Department at Elizabethtown College will begin using this blog to communicate with our clients. We intend to publish articles several times per week. Majors areas to be included in the blog are: infrastructure, security, media services, teaching and learning technologies, database support, web development, and training resources. It is our hope that this blog format will allow us to get information out in a timely manner. We encourage our readers to comment on the articles.

Let's begin with some great resources for staying up-to-date on technology in higher education. EDUCAUSE is the major professional organization for the support of technology in higher education. They offer a large number of online resources including articles, periodicals, blogs, podcasts and wikis. In addition to being a member of EDUCAUSE, the college also subscribes to publications of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR). These are invaluable tools in assisting us in making sound decisions regarding IT services and facilities to meet the strategic goals of our faculty, staff and students.

Campus Technology also has a good site and a free monthly magazine. I just returned from their summer conference and will share some of the things I learned in future ITS blog articles.

Lastly, let me point you to the Chronicle of Higher Education's information technology articles. They also have a great blog known as The Wired Campus, that you may wish to subsribe to.