Adobe Photoshop is a pretty amazing application, but in the hands of artists, it’s breathtaking. Check out the work of Erik Johansson via this post in Mashable. I’ve included a Behind the Scenes video below that shows you how he works his magic. (Hint: LOTS of layers.)
“Why digital natives prefer reading in print”
With a tagline like this: “A spectacular historical atlas refashioned for the 21st century” who can resist? Check out the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States presented by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond to view a digital version of Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright’s atlas that was originally published in 1932.
Exciting! Students and staff at University College London serendipitously discovered a type 1a supernova in M82 on January 22. Read about it here!
Supernova in M82, before and after, by E. Guido, N. Howes, M. Nicolini, January 2014.
If you are very keen, check out the IAU Transient Object Followup Reports.
Research Desk Poetry (and more at the LIS Facebook page):
Is your refrigerator running? Then it might be spamming people.
Google is pulling the plug on guest blogging for increased ranking.
If you put an email address in a Google Calendar event’s title, that person will get a reminder of the event, even if you don’t share it with them. This is “expected behavior” according to Google.
Hmmmm…it’s pretty snazzy looking but how do I know if I should I trust that infographic? Fast Company has some good tips here. (Spoiler alert: the article title is “Infographics Lie. Here’s How to Spot the B.S.”)
Interested in a story for everyone? Check out the Big History Project and “explore 13.7 billion years of shared history…”
Speaking of stories – the New York Times has compiled “2013: The Year in Interactive Storytelling” Be sure to scroll down to view the Explanatory Graphics section. You can learn about the Higgs Boson or untangle the fast choreography of a successful field goal on the football field.
How do the Digital Humanities translate to the classroom? The Chronicle spotlights UCLA and Emory in “How the Humanities Compute in the Classroom”.
How many times do people switch devices in an hour? Quite a few, according to a UK study.
Lynda.com offers a collection of resources about creating infographics that can be found at this link: http://www.lynda.com/Infographics-training-tutorials/1462-0.html (after you log in using your Middlebury credentials). Not sure what an infographic is? Check out this example on the history of audio equipment via fastcodesign.com where the creators offer a mini-window into the work it took to pull it all together.
The Wilson Media Lab in the Library offers many multimedia tools that can be used to build infographics. Digital Media Tutors are available Sunday – Thursday from 1 pm – 1 am and on Fridays from 1 pm – 7 pm to assist users interested in using these tools.
Interactive Storytelling – There has been a lot of interest in the article “Snow Fall – The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek” as presented by the New York Times. (If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check it out!) Bear 71 is another example of interactive storytelling. It is the “true story of a female grizzly bear monitored by wildlife conservation officers from 2001 – 2009.” The National Film Board of Canada presents this film as well as a variety of other interactive media which can be viewed here.
“Signals” help students graduate: “Signals … keeps track of how students approach class work. Taking in about 20 data points [from the CMS] such as whether or not a student has completed online reading or watched online lectures, it measures the data against test and assignment grades, and ‘signals’ students how they are doing with green, yellow, or red lights for each course. The signals are scheduled throughout each course by the instructor.”
Just wanted to share some tool tips that some of the digital media tutors have found while working on projects in the lab:
Did you learn something cool this week? Let us know!
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