U-TELL

[Email text I received regarding an opportunity to "try out" SecondLife.]

We are happy to announce that during this academic year, 9 Mellon Seminars in Digital Humanities taking place at UCLA in real life (RL), will be “broadcast� via live feed into the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Second Life (SL) island, Entropia. The RL participants will also see the SL audience, projected on a screen in the Seminar room at UCLA. Anyone interested is welcome to attend at UCLA or in Second Life.

The following Second Life URL will teleport you to DLF’s Entropia, though you must have a Second Life account in order to log on:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Entropia/110/117/21/

Basic Second Life accounts are free.

Please note that the times listed below (editor's note: see extended entry) are U.S. Pacific Time. See further details in the message below, from Todd Presner, Germanic Languages, UCLA, or in the attached flyer.

Best,
Esther Grassian (UCLA) & Deni Wicklund (Stanford)
Co-Managers, DLF’s Entropia

Dear colleagues,

I wanted to invite you to participate in the 2008-09 Mellon seminar in Digital Humanities at UCLA. This year’s seminar is co-organized by Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford University, Stanford Humanities Laboratory, and Mellon Visiting Professor of Digital Humanities, UCLA) and Todd Presner (Germanic Languages and Comparative Literature, UCLA). The monthly seminars are open to graduate students, faculty, and the general public. Participants outside of UCLA can also join us at Entropia in Second Life.

“What is(n’t) Digital Humanities?�

Through dialogues with expert guest interlocutors and practitioners from various fields, seminar participants will examine, historicize, and critique the emergent field of "digital humanities." Bringing together insights from media, game, literary and cultural studies, we will attempt to take stock of humanistic inquiry at the start of the 21st century.

Topics:
• Web 2.0
• Virtual worlds
• Ubiquitous computing
• Geo-temporal navigation
• Participatory media
• Digital narratives
• Open source knowledge
• Collaborative authorship
• Experiential design
• The classroom as laboratory

Seminar guests include:
• Johanna Drucker
• Michael Schanks
• Lev Manovich
• Diane Favro
• Franco Moretti
• Tara McPherson
• Peter Lunenfeld

Graduate students may take the seminar for 2 units of course credit per quarter (COMP LIT 597), but enrollment is not required for participation. For more information, visit http://www.digitalhumanities.ucla.edu/ or join the UCLA Digital Humanities Facebook Group.

Seminars meet in Humanities Building 193/199 from 2-5 pm on the following dates:

Fall Quarter: October 8th, November 5th, December 1st
Winter Quarter: January 5th, February 2nd, March 2nd
Spring Quarter: April 6th, May 4th, June 1st

Topics for each session will be posted on-line once they have been finalized.
Please feel free to forward this email and the attached flyer to anyone who you think may be interested in the seminar.

Many thanks,

Todd Presner

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Advanced EndNote Q&A

Next Thursday (October 2 ) the Science and Engineering Library will be hosting an Advanced EndNote Workshop taught by a representative from EndNote. EndNote trainer Doug Nguyen will be in Walter Library, Room 310 from 12:30-1:30 providing answers to questions EndNote users may have about ways to maximize their use of the software.

This is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge of EndNote from an expert on the topic. He'll start with a quick demonstration on how to set up the journals term lists so that EndNote can do full and abbreviated journal names and then he'll open it up to your questions.

Come and learn more about customizing citation styles, personalizing your database to best fit your needs, and troubleshooting any problems you may have run into using the software.

This class is free and open to the public. If you’re interested, space is limited. Register click:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/registration/

There is also a beginning EndNote workshop linked on this same page:

EndNote for Engineers and Physical Scientists

An introduction to using EndNote. Learn to import citations, customize your account, and format your bibliographies and in-text citations. We'll also discuss using EndNote in conjunction with EndNoteWeb, a web-based version of EndNote available for free to current University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just posted a blog entry on my Digital Media Center Faculty Fellowship blog, Conversations about Emerging Learning Environments, about our meeting last week about 3D immersive learning environments. You can find that post here.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SMART-WALTER GRAND OPENING SCHEDULED FOR 9/24

The grand opening of the SMART Learning Commons and Library Media Services in Walter Library will is scheduled for:

Wednesday September 24
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Walter Library Room 204, East Bank

Come tour our new space, learn about our integrated services, and enjoy refreshments and prizes.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publisher Jossey-Bass is sponsoring an online conference on, of all things, online teaching and learning. More information is here.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the CLA Language Center:

Wimba VoiceTools on Moodle
Thursday, September 18,
10:10 a.m.
Room 30

Three of the Wimba Voice Tools are now available on the University Moodle course management system. They are Voice Board, Voice Presentation and Podcaster. Sign up for one of the three small group training sessions to learn how to set up and use these tools in your language class. (also offered on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 12:20pm and Friday, Oct. 24, 3:35pm)

To attend this workshop please RSVP to Jian Wu at wuxxx015@umn.edu.

Using Authentic Audio and Video in Your Language Class
Tuesday, October 7
3:35 – 4:25 p.m.
Jones 35

Presenter: Beth Kautz

With satellite TV and the internet, resources for authentic audio and video are abound! The question is, how can you effectively use them in your (beginning, intermediate, advanced) language classes? In this session, we will
• focus on creating level-appropriate tasks
• learn techniques for practicing both receptive and productive skills
• suggest various pre-viewing, viewing and post-viewing activities
• explore methods for unpacking the cultural richness of the visual and audio content

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am currently in a meeting of the DMC Faculty Fellowship Program where we are going to learn about Croquet, a 3-D virtual environment (similar to SecondLife?) and how it can be used in teaching in learning. I am sure I will find out a lot more and I will report on our meeting here.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Proposals are being accepted for the EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference (Chicago in March). I hope to be submitting a couple proposals.

Each proposal will be evaluated in one of the tracks listed below.

* Building Information Services Together: Emerging Practices for Library and IT Collaborations to Advance Institutional Mission
* Emerging Practices: The Intersection of Teaching, Learning, and Technology
* IT Service Management Models in Higher Education
* Managing Enterprise Resources: Best Practices in Architecture and Implementation
* Corporate and Campus Solutions

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Conference September 18 and 19 in Walter Library.

This year’s conference will be an all-day forum featuring papers and posters on innovative research using the internet and other digital technologies. There will be four presentation/discussion groups (see 2008 schedule) grouped by research themes in the areas of virtual reality, social networking and learning technologies, followed with small group discussion to facilitate interactivity and networking among participants.

I will be presenting on a research project about Maximizing Social Presence in Online Learning in Friday's panel. They are still looking for posters for Thursday.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CALL FOR PAPERS:
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Special Issue of E-Learning on globally networked learning in higher education
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E-Learning, a peer-reviewed international journal directed towards the study of e-learning in its diverse aspects, invites submissions for a special issue on “Globalizing Higher Education Across the Disciplines: Innovative Partnerships, Policies, and Pedagogies for Globally Networked Learning Environments; guest edited by Doreen Starke-Meyerring.

Early national and global policy discourses around the role of the internet in higher education advanced utopian and dystopian understandings of the internet as a new global market for existing industrial-model, locally produced higher education courses and programs to be repackaged for global delivery and global trade online. As a result, hundreds of millions of public and private dollars have been spent on global internet-based higher education marketing consortia, many of which have since failed. As initial responses to digital technologies, these initiatives had largely tried to reproduce established institutionally bounded practices in digital environments, disregarding the networked nature and peer production potential of digital technologies, and therefore lacking pedagogical innovation to re-envision learning in a globally networked world.

At the same time, however, many faculty across the disciplines in higher education have begun to develop alternative pedagogies and learning environments that take advantage of the globally networked nature of digital technologies. These globally networked learning environments (GNLEs) connect students with peers, instructors, professionals, experts, and communities from diverse contexts to help students develop new ways of knowledge making and learn how to build shared learning and knowledge cultures across traditional boundaries, especially with peers and communities that have been the most marginalized and disadvantaged in the emerging global social and economic order. However, such GNLEs are difficult to develop because they require robust partnerships, must negotiate a multitude of divergent national and institutional local policies, and as innovations, face challenges of institutional support infrastructures and policies designed around traditional local classrooms.

The purpose of this special issue is to understand the current state of globally networked learning environments across disciplines in higher education and to advance insights into their development and sustainability. The special issue therefore invites both conceptual contributions that address larger questions surrounding GNLEs as well as
research studies of GNLE development across disciplines, addressing questions such as these (among others):

- What is the current state of globally networked learning in higher education? - How have GNLEs addressed issues of global and local social justice?
- What kind of disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge making do GNLEs enable that would be difficult to achieve in traditional institutionally bounded classrooms? How?
- What challenges do educators face in designing, implementing, and sustaining such partnered learning environments? How do they overcome them?
- How do national and global policies regulating higher education as well as those regulating digital technologies (e.g. privacy, intellectual property, and censorship policies) enable or constrain the development of GNLEs?
- How do local institutional policies, including policies regulating digital technologies, enable or constrain the development of GNLEs?
- What institutional initiatives (e.g., task forces, innovator networks, centres for research and faculty support, integrated support networks) have emerged to support the work of faculty innovators?
- What research is needed to advance globally networked learning environments in higher education?

Schedule:
Proposals indicating the purpose, rationale, and possible approach of contributions (250-500 words): November 1, 2008
Submissions (full manuscripts): January 15, 2009
Accepted manuscripts revised for publication: May 15, 2009
Scheduled publication of issue: Fall 2009

Please direct inquiries and proposals to the guest editor:

Doreen Starke-Meyerring
doreen.starke-meyerring@mcgill.ca
Please also contact the editor if you are interested in serving as a
reviewer for this special issue.

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, this blog has been languishing in blog purgatory for some time. I have decided a new academic year and a new semester bring with them a new chance for U-TELL. My goals:

1) Update this site two or three times a week (which will require me building it into my schedule);
2) Continue to keep track of TEL (tech-enhanced learning) opportunities around the U of M campus;
3) Post articles and websites of interest;
4) Post new tools I hear of along the way;
5) Get others to help me.

I don't want to be the only one responsible for this blog ... so, I will be inviting a few people to join me as authors and leave it open for any of you out there (I feel like WALL-E ... is anyone there?) to volunteer or reply with comments directing me to new sources for information.

Let's try it (again) and see what happens!

Posted by Amy Garrett Dikkers at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)