Your Calendar in Apps at UMass Amherst lets you create “appointment slots” that you can use in a number of ways in your teaching. For example, you can allow students to sign up for office hours, classroom presentations, or leading weekly discussions, etc. You can create a single appointment, or repeating time slots. (Note: The…
Category: Tools & Technologies
Fall 2013 i>clicker Updates
To use i>clicker with Moodle and OIT’s new “Web Login” single sign-on service (see below), you will need to download and install our updated version of the i>clicker software (v6.3.0) from: https://www.oit.umass.edu/ars/request-iclicker-software Note: On September 25, 2013, i>clicker issued an update for v6.3.0. To apply the update: Download and install i>clicker. open the i>clicker software…
July 2013 Moodle Updates
Greetings! As summer winds down and the Fall 2013 semester is set to begin, we have some Moodle news we’d like to share with you. In addition to the major changes from our May 2013 upgrade to Moodle 2.4, the July 2013 release of Moodle included the following updates (described in more detail below): A…
What Web apps are students using?
Are you curious what Web apps students may be using to study and connect with their peers? Mashable has published a great piece by Sarah Ang, 25 Apps You’ll Need to Survive College, that reviews a number of Web apps that have higher education applications. Image: NASA Goddard Photo and Video.
Do you have experience with or interest in teaching with Google Apps for Fall 2013? Join us for lunch!
On August 15, 2013, please join us at 12:00 p.m. for lunch and a discussion of Google Apps and online collaboration for course work. This lunch will be the first in an ongoing series of Community of Practice meetings. The goal is to bring together faculty and instructors who have past experience using and/or an…
100 + Google Tricks
Starting August 2013, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) will be offering faculty, staff, and graduate students access to Apps at UMass Amherst, Google’s suite of productivity and collaboration tools customized especially for our campus. In anticipation of this release, check out the article 100+ Google Tricks for Teachers by Amber Johnson over at TeachHub.com.…
Back Up Your Mobile Device- NOW!
If you’re like us, you probably use your smartphone and/or tablet to manage at least some aspect of your work life. Even if you don’t know it, you likely have important information stored on your device. What would happen if you suddenly lost access to that information? Be it a damaged, lost, or stolen mobile…
Has Disruption of the Higher Education Textbook Market Begun?
Dr. Cable Green, Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, believes that the billion-dollar higher education textbook market is poised for a major disruption (check out the link to his talk- it’s fantastic). The Chronicle of Higher Education has published an article detailing financial trouble and changing market demand for a major print textbook publisher:…
Online Writing Services & Academic Dishonesty: A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
I found the info-graphic below, “how students use the Internet for studying” posted on the education information resource site Edudemic. It was produced by a company called Writing-Help.com. At first glance, the image seems to be a helpful informational communication about student internet studying trends, right? Look closer…
New Ways to Think About Prezi
Prezi is a popular presentation alternative to PowerPoint that allows users to create dynamic, visually interesting conversations on a virtual “whiteboard.” Kimon Keramidas, Assistant Professor and Director for the Digital Media Lab at the Bard Graduate Center, has published an interesting article on ProfHacker about using Prezi for creative visual compositions. Check out the article over…
Reminder: Google Reader Going Away July 1, 2013!
On July 1, 2013, Google Reader will be gone! If you haven’t yet found a replacement, Social Times has published an article that reviews 10 alternatives to Google Reader:
iBooks for Education
In January of 2012, Apple announced that it was renewing its focus on digital textbooks. In doing so, Apple launched free reading and authoring apps for its iBook format. It’s been over a year and half since Apple doubled-down on education with its mobile and desktop iBook initiative, so how are they doing?