29
Feb 12

Caulk the Wagon and Float it Across

Imagine this scene, but much, much darker.

You’d then have an approximation of what I encountered on my way down to Mont Alto in the Fleet car this morning.  As I wound through the dark of 5:30 am, unable to turn on my high beams in the rain owing to a truck in front of me, I accidentally miscalculated where I was and turned about .5 miles too soon for the logging road I’d normally take.  Unperturbed, my GPS merrily plotted a new course on some rather rough tracks past camps, a mere .8 miles extra distance.

Harried and still slightly groggy, I kept trudging along, though I did notice what seemed to be an increased amount of puddles as I made my way.  By the .3 miles to left turn part of my journey, I looked ahead to discover that the road I should have been traveling over was more suited to small watercraft.  As my lane of travel had narrowed to just wider than a Ford, I endeavored to back up away from the deluge, using a chained off driveway a bit up the way I had come as an awkward launching point for a truly spectacular multipoint turn around.

Of course I had to make my way back in the “daylight” to snap a photo to accompany my adventure tale!

Update:  Hannah astutely pointed out that this comic from CaptchArt accurately, well, captures my experience:


28
Feb 12

MC Forum 2012 at Berks

Carla Rapp, my Eastern campuses colleague, just did a remarkable job of pulling off the 2012 installment of Media Commons’ Spring Forum.  Held at Berks, the event brought together faculty, staff and even a student or two from the region in order to have a dialogue about the state of technologies in the classroom.  The Gaige building was an awesome venue:  having just been completed this past semester, it features a lot of the latest innovations in space planning, learning furniture and classroom technology.  A great spot, for sure, to talk about the kinds of topics MC holds dear.

Here are the photos from the event.  You can read more about it in Carla’s wrap up post, too!


23
Feb 12

A Novel Approach to Digital Stories

Joe Sabia tells digital stories using the iPad, but not at all in the way that you might expect.  Courtney Young, head librarian at Greater Allegheny (and one of my favorite campus contacts) shared this Ted Talk with Media Commons’ Facebook page – and I’m glad she did!


16
Feb 12

Engaging Résumés – and Making the Workshop More Engaging

Last night, I had the opportunity to present three sessions of the Engaging Résumés with QR Codes workshop that I’ve been refining over the last few months.

I offered the training as a co-presentation with Career Services director, Rebecca Maguda who had been asked to teach first year English students about résumé writing and building.  By packaging our two training sessions together – hers a hands-on session where an actual document was taken home, mine an exploration of ways to add a living layer of information to the flat document – we seemed to really get the participants thinking about ways in which they might be able to present themselves as a cohesive “product.”

An interesting note about the construction of the actual session:  during the first class slot, we went with me first and Rebecca second, as we thought showing them something flashy first might grab their attention.  Now, this was at 4:00 pm, so it’s possible that all they were hearing were dinner bells, but the students were far less engaged than when we found them to be in the 7:00 pm and 8:30 pm iterations when we flipped it around.  If not a hunger-haze, perhaps the act of building a résumé helped to put them in the correct mindspace and allowed them to see just what fits well in that format – and what could be expanded upon to help set them apart from the crowd?


13
Feb 12

Watch This: “Still Alive” with Found Footage

At the Media Commons, we are big fans of good examples of using Public Domain and other free/legal media sources to produce outstanding reworked masterpieces. We are also big fans of nerdy things like Portal’s GLaDOS so this excellent “Still Alive” music video made from The Brain That Wouldn’t Die is absolutely up my alley.

(io9)


06
Feb 12

A Day Made of Glass 2: Return of the Glass

Around this time last year, I found a video from Corning entitled “A Day Made of Glass.”  Filled with shiny surfaces, transparent dividers and sci-fi technology of the first order (and theorized for “the near future”), the video encapsulated everything that is hopeful, wonderful – and painfully naïve about futurism.  However, it was still a fascinating experiment in interfaces, smart information overlays and product design.

Well, they are at it again with “A Day Made of Glass 2.”  

Just as stunning as the original, there are many new concepts worth noting.  I love the interactive presentation screen/whiteboard/chalkboard in the classroom as well as the gather-round-and-touch surface that the students use to explore the spectrum.  However, I’m hoping I’m not the only one that was appalled by the use of a giant glass screen to divide the redwood forest into halves.  I get what they were going for, but that was a bit weird.  Great for digital dinosaurs, maybe not so great for the deer that will invariable smash into/through it!

Still, a fun “what if” experiment and some pretty to flavor the start of Monday afternoon!


02
Feb 12

THANK GOD

WordPress has come to Penn State.  I shall never set foot in my MovableType blog again!  Huzzah!

Update, seconds later:  this published on the first try, not the eighth!


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