Classroom Activities
Hoesley Digital Literacy Fellows
We have recently announced this new program that aims to demystify technology, provide hands-on training and a website building project, and foster career connections. We will accept 15 rising juniors and seniors – application deadline of March 24 – and this cohort will spend next year with us at Weigle Information Commons learning about a [...]
7 Things You Should Know About
Consider this blog post an advertisement of sorts for a great resource I think anyone interested in educational technology should be reading whenever they get the chance!
Educause Learning Initiative: 7 Things You Should Know About
The “7 Things You Should Know About…” series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a [...]
3 Tips for Interactive Web Conference Design
Faculty and staff at the College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS) have been using web conferencing software for the delivery of live lectures in online courses and web-based orientation and information sessions for the past three years. As more folks at Penn start using web conferencing tools, I wanted to share some of what [...]
Online Workshop Teaching: Shouting down a deep well
On Monday I taught my first hands-on workshop completely online using Penn Libraries’ new Adobe Connect room. I chose to teach Excel Pivot Tables under the logic that anyone interested in pivot tables would be comfortable enough with juggling multiple windows and handling sound problems. This was a good assumption – the seven participants handled [...]
9/25 Engaging Students Through Technology Symposium
Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, 10:30 am to 3 pm
It’s not a coincidence that our symposium has the same name as this blog! Several regular bloggers here are involved and we hope all of you will join us.
Explore teaching with new media through faculty insights, hands-on exploration of four technologies and an overview of new [...]
You don’t have to be sick in order to use technology for teaching.
This summer I’ve been involved in planning for how we’ll continue teaching in the event of a large outbreak of H1N1 – the dreaded Swine Flu. I’ve been asked to document how teachers can use technology as a substitute for some of the activities that would otherwise be carried out in the classroom.
It’s no surprise [...]
Facebook for Language Practice
Like the social network 2nd Life, Facebook has gained in popularity not only among recreational users but also among educators and their students. Traditionally, members use Facebook to update personal profiles and notify their friends about each other. However, we now see Facebook being used in language classes to create communities of online learners who [...]
Online Mashup Voting – Now through April 30
Something fun to share – our annual mashup contest has taken off this year with 33 entries, and for the first time, we are taking online votes and all entries are linked there with descriptions. Online voting closes on April 30 at 10 am.At our awards event this Thursday, we will award prizes to the [...]
Reporting from the NMC Symposium on New Media & Learning
Well, this isn’t really a live “report from the symposium”, but it just ended last night, so it’s fresh in my mind! The Symposium offered a variety of interesting sessions, an it was a great way to learn about other schools’ projects and ‘meet’ others in SecondLife without having to spend money on travel. More [...]
Free services for student-generated web sites
Many instructors want to get their students involved in contributing content to web sites for class projects; in some cases, they want the students to build a site from scratch. IT support staff (such as myself) are typically reluctant to provision resources on University systems for such projects. Setting up and maintaining sites can consume [...]


