Category: Digital Media Commons

Personalizing the Web: A Sandbox Summary

Last Friday, some of the staff gathered at the TLC for a Friday sandbox session on personalizing the web.  This was a rich conversation about using tools such as nevibes or igoogle to organize your information streams.  There is just too much information out there on the web – using tools to organize it and put it in one place will save us time.  For more information about how sites like these work or for a simple explanation of RSS Feeds, check out this video.

To help start the process, Kristen Byers put together a public netvibes page filled with the RSS feeds/widgets related to MIIS.  If you sign up for a free netvibes account, you can simple click on share button on the MIIS widgets and directly add them to your netvibes page – no mess, no stress.  Creating your own page will allow you to keep up to date on the happenings at MIIS as well as your favorite non-MIIS sites.  One place for all your web needs.  You can even add goldfish or cartoons!  The other nice thing is that you can log into this site from any computer.

A snapshot of Lynn's Netvibes page
A snapshot of Lynn's Netvibes page

Stay tuned for more Friday Sandbox sessions to keep playing and experimenting with technology & innovation.  The DMC is also offering a number of interactive workshops for learning digital media and communication tools.  As always, feel free to stop by Kade anytime for development conversations and exploration of possibilities.

TLC Friday Sandbox Returns

Please join the folks at the TLC for a Friday Sandbox session on the new blogging community.  The Friday Sandbox started last year as a time/space where staff could get together and play with new technologies.  All skill levels are welcome and the goal is to experiment, have fun, and learn a thing or two.  The TLC hopes to have Sandbox sessions most Fridays and are looking for suggestions for new topics/themes.

In general, the TLC is always looking to help with idea development and innovation of all kinds.  Feel free to stop by Kade – they love visitors and sometimes  even have treats!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/truckpr/2990541126/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/truckpr/2990541126/

What’s happening in Kade?

There have been many changes on campus this summer and Kade is no exception.  In the beginning of the summer, IT moved the printer, scanner and PC computers out of Kade.  Student printing is available in three locations: Pacific Lab (CF 442), Coleman library and Lab & Media Services (Morse A 101).

Kade hours will be posted at the beginning of the semester.

Kade is the exclusive hub for the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC).  Staff who are a part of the TLC are:

  • Bob Cole
  • Sarah Springer
  • Kristen Byers
  • Lynn McDonald

Activities of the TLC staff:

  • Innovation: Pedagogical & organizational
  • Digital & New Media Development
  • Idea Development

We love visitors to Kade who are interested in exploring, learning and sharing.

Academic Technology Resource Fair!

Come one, come all!!

Resource Trade Fair

Students, faculty & staff cordially invited to a collaborative resource and information fair during orientation week.  Representatives from campus technology departments will be on hand to answer questions and help point you in the right direction.

Tuesday, August 25th, 1-4pm in the Samson Center Courtyard.

Pizza Party Success!

The Pizza Innovation Process is off to a good start. 47 faculty, staff & students enjoyed some pizza and brainstormed ideas to help shape MIIS. To get involved, join the Pizza Process Social Network.

The party started with a small group icebreaker activity where teams created pizzas with a topping for each member and a name that described the whole pizza.  The pizza process was then introduced followed by great conversations about the definition of innovation, barriers and drivers to innovation, and some tips for success in the process.  The party ended with pizza for all and ideas shared with the group.

If you couldn’t make the party, you’re not out of the process!  Interested innovators can join our social network and form a pizza group.  To “officially” register your group, set up an appointment with Lynn McDonald.  Groups should be diverse, passionate and fun to work towards finding solutions and making a better MIIS.  Ideas will be shared with the entire community on April 16th at the Idea Fair.

Last years pizza process produced the DMC, CNS Second Life and Delcats along with some good ideas that just didn’t stick.  Innovation is a risk, but also an invaluable learning experience with idea sharing and organizational development.  Groups this year will be working on building community, connecting with alumni, understanding and incorporating competition, building a knowledge base and so much more!

For more information, contact Lynn McDonald at lynn.mcdonald@miis.edu or ext. 4633.  Join us for this pizza journey!

The Podcast Army is in Training

The Teaching & Learning Collaborative in coordination with the Digital Media Commons at the Monterey Institute is training an army of podcasters.  The one unit, fifteen hour workshop titled Digital Media for Change meets Friday afternoons from 2-4pm.  Participants are exploring new communication skills with digital media with a particular focus on affecting change.  We’re reading and discussing the workshop text by Garr Reynolds, PresentationZen, and we have gathered online on a homegrown social network hosted by Ning: http://dm4change.ning.com.  Participants will be helping the Institute build our capacity to capture campus events, speakers, and other stories that distinguish our community and reflect our mission.  We’re building an army of graduate students, staff, and faculty to help us!  And yes, we like cupcakes.

As the workshop coordinator I am using this as an opportunity to experiment with alternative course management tools and blogging.  We welcome any and all who might be interested in what we are up to, so please feel free to join us on our Ning, or grab the RSS feed for the DM4change blog that is being piped into the main page for workshop updates and thoughts from yours truly.

MIIS Staff Members to Attend WeAreMedia Workshop

Next week, Kristen Byers and Rob Horgan will be attending a two-day intensive workshop on social media and non-profits sponsored by the Non-profit Technology Network in San Francisco. TLC and Recruiting have generously provided the funding for this. The conference requires that two people from an organization attend: one broader marketing staff member and one person in charge of technical implementation.

They will be keeping a blog to record their participation and implementation of a media project.

The goal of the conference is to provide participating teams with an understanding of how to craft a social media strategy and to experiment with tactical approaches. Thanks to some advice and input from Caroline Mansi, Lynn McDonald, and Bob Cole, Rob and Kristen have decided to explore the merits of using Twitter for promotion, recruitment, marketing and information sharing at MIIS. Kristen has extensive experience in new media projects and is a regular user of Twitter. Rob recently created a Twitter account for the Recruiting Department: http://www.twitter.com/miis

The workshop aims to help participants plan and effectively integrate their media project (in this case, Twitter) into their organization’s overall web communications. They hope to return to campus with some ideas for implementation.

MIIS Approved for iTunes U Public Presence

The Monterey Institute of International Studies was recently approved by Apple for inclusion in the public portion of iTunes U. This means that MIIS will now show up when people search for the Institute through the iTunes Store. iTunes U can be used to distribute media content to faculty, staff, students, and the general public in the form of podcasts. Audio and video podcasts are available to download free of cost, and can then be watched on a computer or portable device whenever, wherever.

Our iTunes U presence will serve as a valuable recruitment tool, offering an inexpensive way to explain the benefits MIIS has to offer potential students. With the help of the Digital Media Commons, we hope to create an army of podcasters across the globe. Visit MIIS on iTunes U and help MIIS gain recognition as we reach out and share our stories with the world.

Why Wii?

The unveiling of the Wii in the Digital Media Commons last Friday added a dimension of hilarity, energy, and friendly competition to a successful Institutional Advancement and TLC sponsored event that was designed to blend learning with play and build community among MIIS staff.

It also raised questions for some: why are we buying toys when we need (you fill in the blank)…?

Here are some things to think about:

(1) Generally,  “play” unleashes creativity and enhances learning. To explore this idea, check out Tim Brown’s TED Talk.

(2) Specifically, the Wii controller makes possible a particular kind of activity that invokes our kinesthetic learning ability.  There is a great deal of interest in using this new tool to enhance learning in virtual spaces.  For example:

Lane Kuhlman, a graduate student at Ohio State, is studying gesture based interaction and its role in educational multimedia.  This kind of research could have major implications for the design of simulations for intercultural communication, negotiation, or conflict resolution.

MIT Research Fellow David Stone was featured in a recent Wired article for his work building Wiimote-controlled simulations in Second Life. To the already information-rich experiences available in this virtual world, one can now add the ability to take your hands off the keyboard and speak, gesture, and move naturally through virtual environments ranging from your favorite international city to an exhibition of the latest green building technologies.

The Educause Learning Initiative is encouraging its members to investigate the potential of the Wii. See their white paper, “7 Things You Should Know about Wii.”

Finally, in another TED talk, Johnny Lee demonstrates how he turned $40 Wii controllers into a multitouch display, and into a close approximation of a $2000 interactive whiteboard, increasing access to these technologies for schools and organizations with limited resources.

(3) We would like for MIIS be at the forefront of thinking about how people learn and experimenting with ways to enhance the quality of our education.  Our limited resources have, in the past, caused us to bypass many of the technologies that our peer institutions were adopting at great cost.  Now we are in a position of competitive advantage, in that we can leapfrog some of the less versatile earlier tools for learning, and focus on tools and strategies that match our pedagogical commitment through Monterey Way 2.0 to immersive learning, high performance thinking, and open architecture.

Agree? Disagree?  Join the conversation with your comments!