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IT News

Author: Rebecca Gould

From the 50 minute lecture to a 60-second microlecture: Food for thought

As the semester winds down and before TEVALS provide one view of how the semester went, take some time to think about what you would have done differently this semester, were the lectures well-received, did the assessments fit the learning objectives, were class projects worth the time and effort? Would shorter lectures have met the same learning objective and enhanced opportunities for interactivity, collaborative learning, etc?

For food for thought on rethinking the lecture read the Chronicle of Higher Education article entitled, “These lectures are gone in 60 seconds.” The author, David Shieh, might spark some thoughts on revamping how you teach.

Q/A: Video conferencing and LISTSERV

Every week, readers send questions to TellTuesday@k-state.edu, the IT newsletter’s input channel. From time to time, questions (paraphrased) and answers will be shared that relate to a broad range of K-Staters.

Q: We are planning for a conference to be held at K-State. Who do I ask about video conferencing capabilities?

A: Contact the Video/Audio Conferencing service at 785-532-5995 or

www.k-state.edu/infotech/video-audio.

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IT award winners

The annual IT Awards and Recognition Ceremony was held on Friday, Feb. 20.  Award recipients include:

  • Spirit of IT – David Pedergnana, ECC
  • IT Innovator – Tyler Traxson, ECC
  • Customer Service – Bryan Vandiviere, OME
  • IT Rising Star Student – Chris Jordan, ECC
  • IT Gold – Chris Casey, CTS
  • IT Team Gold – iSIS Application Development Team

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White House website and more

Behind the scenes during inauguration ceremonies for President Obama, the new White House website was unveiled and is available at www.whitehouse.gov. One feature within the site includes the president’s weekly Saturday address. To enhance accessibility, a transcript of the remarks is provided immediately below the video. This is just one example of ways to enhance materials to improve accessibility. Continue reading “White House website and more”

Inauguration day activities and online coverage

There are two opportunities to watch the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, Jan. 20.

K-State Libraries offers international coverage of the inauguration.  Ongoing inauguration coverage will be available 9 a.m.-4 p.m.in the Dow Chemical Multicultural Resource Center, on the third floor of Hale Library. Coverage will rotate among the eight international networks offered by K-State’s cable television service: ART, the Arabic network; BBC America; CCTV-4 of China; TV5 of France; TV Asia; TV Japan; TVK of Korea; and Univision, the Spanish-language network. Coverage of the actual inauguration ceremony will be at 10:30 a.m. and will be from BBC America. American news coverage will broadcast in the east end of the second floor of Hale Library.

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Wesch’s “portal to media literacy” video presentations online

If you missed Michael Wesch’s “A Portal to Media Literacy” presentation last week, you can catch it in these video versions online:

  • TechBytes video of “A Portal to Media Literacy” presentation Oct. 30 at Kansas State University (1 hour, 14 minutes; requires a media player)
  • YouTube video of “A Portal to Media Literacy” presentation June 17 at the University of Manitoba (1 hour, 6 minutes)

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Q/A: Downloading Flash players on a Mac?

Could you address the problems associated with downloading Flash players on Macs?  I cannot get an install to complete when I try to do it on my home computer.  In the past I have had to remove all plug-ins and start over, but should this happen every time I upgrade the flash player?

Answer

This is really a two step question, depending on the error message. The first potential problem could arise with not having the latest version of Flash Player.

  1. To check your current version of Flash Player visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ – the latest version is 9.0.124.0
  2. If you have an outdated version download the latest version: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
  3. In addition to the latest version of the Flash Player, problems can arise by not having the latest version of your browser. Check to make sure you have Safari and/or Firefox updated to the latest versions. Firefox: Help > Check for Updates, Safari: Apple > Software Update…

Continue reading “Q/A: Downloading Flash players on a Mac?”