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I was pleased to see that this video on University leaders speaking out about accessibility of technology premiered today at the Educause Annual Conference.

View the video

The 15-minute video, "IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Have to Say," features university leaders and campus-technology staff members speaking about the importance of using technology to make college campuses more accessible. The AccessComputing project, run by the department of computer science and engineering and the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology Center at the University of Washington, produced the video with funds from the National Science Foundation.

Thanks to a gift from a UMM Alum, Kimberly Hiland, we have begun experimenting with integrating the Apple TV into classroom teaching here at UMM. If you would like to see the Apple TV and iPad in action, come to HFA 35 or give me a call (Pam, 6376) and I will be glad to give you a demo.

High School Principal David Mahaley is using this approach and offers his insights, and observations from educators in his school.

"With the integration of the iPad into the instructional environment, teachers and students have discovered many new ways in which the device can expand and enhance the learning environment. With the iPad, the Apple TV can offer a flexible, complete, and cost efficient alternative to the traditional interactive boards populating our classrooms.

...The use of the Apple TV in combination with an iPad in the instructor's hand provides a mobile platform from which classroom activities can be initiated. Through the use of several apps, teachers can provide notes, display steps and processes to problems, initiate the display of media (pausing and resuming as needed from any location in the classroom), and allow students to participate from their own seats in a variety of interactive activities. This is different than the remote control of a connected teacher laptop to a traditional interactive board. Movement within and between apps is measurably better than the laptop interface, and navigation on the iPad screen directly to the Apple TV is visually more intuitive."

....Read More

See Also:
Using The iPad As A Digital Whiteboard (Plus 4 Cool Free Apps To Try It Out)

"The rise of the iPad (and, to a lesser degree, other tablets) has led to myriad new kinds of apps that are flourishing. " Check out this video about Moglue:

Video demonstration

See Sam Gliksman's article here.

Don't stop there, either!

5 Apps for Creating Interactive Books on the iPad

We've found Google Calendar to be indispensible for organizing our time and sharing our schedules with friends and coworkers. Now we can let others know about our preferred availability!

That's right! Set up blocks of time you'd like to offer as appointment slots. Simply click anywhere on your calendar and then on "Appointment slots." From there, create a single block of time or automatically split a larger block of time into smaller appointment slots.

Every Google Calendar has its own personal appointments sign up page; you can embed it on your website or give the URL to students and clients. You can find the URL for your appointment page at the top of the set-up page, which you can access via the Edit details link.

When someone visits your sign up page, their calendar is overlaid for convenience and they can sign up directly for any available appointment slot. When they sign up, Google Calendar conveniently creates a new shared event on both of your calendars.

Google Help on Using Appointment Slots

I broke down and bought a Flip Video Ultra with my personal funds. I just wanted to get going and try this thing, without having to beg for it at my job. What a neat little video camera! I've been able to take it along with me everywhere (I carry it around in my purse and can just pull it out whenever I want to).

YouTube Video about the Flip Video Ultra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxAIAqM5TVk

Camtasia Relay is something I learned about at the EDUCAUSE 08 conference last week in Orlando, Florida. Betsy Weber, who writes The Visual Lounge blog, wrote the following:

"Camtasia Relay is something I learned about at the EDUCAUSE 08 conference last week in Orlando, Florida. It is an easy and streamlined way for anyone to record lectures, presentations and meetings. As a presenter, you can walk into the room, select your profile settings and everything, from the recording to the formats the recording is produced into, to the location where you will publish your files, is predetermined. When you're done with your presentation, no need to hang out while your video produces or make technical decisions. You can just leave the room and a central server does all the work for you by automatically processing and publishing your video.

Top features include

* Easy recording on Mac or PC - Yep, you heard me right. Recording on the Mac or PC.

* Automatic processing and publishing handled by the server - Predetermined profile settings automate everything from the recording settings, to the formats the recording is produced into, to the destinations where produced files are published.

* Multiple file formats - Produce your recordings in Flash and iPod video (MP4), audio (MP3), Camtasia Studio (CAMREC), Windows Media (WMV), along with others... Plus, you will have the ability to produce one recording into any or all of the formats above.

So, are you wondering how Camtasia Relay differs from Camtasia Studio? Basically, Camtasia Studio is for individuals who typically edit their recordings and choose how to produce the video and where it should go. Camtasia Relay, on the other hand, is for teams and organizations to do recording. Typically the recording would not need to be edited (note: you can edit your Camtasia Relay content using Camtasia Studio), and production and publishing are handled automatically by a central server.

* Licensing: Affordable and flexible licensing - No monthly, annual or per-seat fees. "

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasiarelay.asp

What do you get when you toss together a bunch of CIOs, instructional designers, front-line technologists, faculty, and students? A darn good conference!

It's my 2nd day at the EDUCAUSE 2008 conference. I attended two half-day pre-conference workshops on Tuesday. My favorite of the two:

Teaching with Images: Tools and Resources
by Beth Harris, Assistant Professor, History of Art
Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
Beth explained that there are some commercial solutions for image databases, but that none of them have been designed for use in teaching. Now, especially within the last 6 months, there are new Web 2.0 solutions for images. Some of these come very close to what she feels would be ideal for use in teaching.

Synchronous Collaboration Tools are revolutionizing traditional faculty office hours and allowing students to redefine teamwork in virtual space.

Chat room tools, such as those included in Moodle or WebVista, work amazingly well for online office hours and students meeting online to collaborate on a class project. More advanced tools, such as the U's (Adobe) UMConnect (formerly Macromedia Breeze) include additional features -- such as screen sharing and whiteboards. Students can work together online, at any time of the day or night in these virtual spaces. Faculty are seeing much-improved results in student projects because their students are enjoying the convenience of being able to connect with their fellow classmates online at just about any time. For more information, please see, "Taking the 'A' Out of Asynchronous" in the July 2008 issue of Campus Technology http://campustechnology.com/articles/64817/