Archive for 2009

Steps toward a paperless classroom

Gustavus student, Chloe Radcliffe, has posted a video for her civic engagement project that asks students and faculty to work together to find ways to reduce a student’s printing load. In the video, she demonstrates steps that faculty can take to encourage a paperless classroom, including accepting electronic assignments on Moodle and making comments directly […]

Share folders in google docs

Collaboration just got a little easier with Google Docs for the Gustavus domain.  Previously, if you were doing committee work and wanted to share documents with colleagues, you had to upload the file and invite them to share that particular document or spreadsheet.  Now you can share a folder with colleagues and the files within […]

Custom “From” address in gmail

Having your Gustavus email automatically forward to a Gmail account can sometimes cause confusion with students and colleagues (“Which email should I use to contact you?”), or in some cases, since the email is coming from outside the Gustavus domain, it may get caught in a colleague’s spam filter.   However, in the “Accounts & […]

Learning technology podcasts

Joshua Kim at Inside Higher Ed is starting a list of podcasts that are useful to those interested in learning technology.  From his list, the one that caught my eye was Tech Therapy from the Chronicle of Higher Education with podcasts such as, “How To Start Talking About Green IT” and “Why Not Outsource E-Mail,” […]

Using google docs for knowledge surveys

A couple weeks ago, I posted about using the Form function in Google Docs to conduct surveys and collect data from students and colleagues, and last semester, the Kendall Center brought in Karl Wirth from Macalester to give a workshop on using Knowledge Surveys to help students assess their learning.  Being into mashups, Sean has […]

Preventing sleep using caffeine

You might be demonstrating how to do video editing in Final Cut Pro or showing students how to collaborate on a word processing document using Google Docs.  You stop to answer a few questions, look up, and the screen saver has started or the computer has even gone to sleep.  Previously, I left myself reminders […]

Videos from instructional services

I wanted to highlight that in a comment on an earlier post, Joyce mentioned that Instructional Services “started creating mini instructional videos last year on some of the basics of Moodle and plan on expanding them, as well as including other topics. They can be found at http://instructionalservices.blog.gustavus.edu/2009/05/07/new-from-instructional-services-mini-instructional-videos/.” So far, they have instructions for uploading […]

Realtime collaboration with EtherPad

Colleagues working at different schools writing a conference abstract together or students living in different residence halls working on a group project are just two examples of times when real-time online collaboration is helpful. Google Docs can serve this purpose, but you should also consider using EtherPad.  Unlike Google Docs, EtherPad doesn’t require account creation; […]

Collecting data using forms

Throughout the semester, it is sometimes useful to survey your students’ knowledge or familiarity with a particular subject.  For example, you could find out about their familiarity with Excel or see how frequently they have used the PsychInfo database at the library.  You can do this by visiting your Gustavus Google account (if you have […]

Doodle for polling and scheduling

Last year, I planned an event for both sections of my Developmental Psychology course, which is about 60 people.  Trying to find the time when the most people could attend was made easier by using a free service called Doodle.  It allows you to choose potential meeting times.  Then gives you a link to send […]