tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:20:15 +0000http://oirt.rutgers.edu/noreply@blogger.com (Jesse)Blogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-6595254406850620562Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:44:00 +00002009-11-16T10:49:23.596-05:00Blogs are conversations. Please join ours by adding a comment when something we write strikes you -- for whatever reason. To comment, click on Full Story, scroll to the bottom of the blog post, and click Comments.And if you'd like us to start a conversation about something specific, leave a comment on this post.http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/11/please-comment-on-our-blog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-8516462108818849387Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:38:00 +00002009-11-16T10:43:47.175-05:00Rutgers has a site license for RefWorks, a web-based research management tool that allows you to:Import references from many electronic databases and catalogsInclude citations in your paperBuild a bibliography using a variety of citation styles including APA, MLA, Chicago, and TurabianCreate a bibliography in a choice of formatsRutgers student, faculty, and staff are eligible to use RefWorks.http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/11/refworks-for-building-bibliographies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-6056980659075808380Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:42:00 +00002009-11-12T10:46:57.689-05:00National Writing Month's goal is to collect 175 page (~50,000 word) novels by midnight, November 30. Click here to get started.http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/11/november-is-national-novel-writing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-106406135463372070Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:57:00 +00002009-11-03T15:04:13.673-05:002009technologyrutgersshowcaseoirtEvery year, OIRT's Technology Showcase brings together faculty and staff from around the university to share novel uses of technology in academia.Do you use technology to organize your research in a novel way? Do your students grasp your material better because of the way you present it using a specific technology? We'd love to hear about it and have you share your experiences with other facultyhttp://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/11/invitation-to-present-your-special-use.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-2605204025550186530Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:11:00 +00002009-10-19T11:46:38.760-04:00podcastsresearchfacultyoirtyoutubeBack in early 2008, OIRT started a web video series called The OIRT Faculty Research Spotlight. Its goal is to highlight the contributions our faculty make to the academic community through their research. If you'd like to get interviewed about your research, please read on to see how you can get involved! Since the inception of the series, we've interviewed 50 faculty members in 36 departmentshttp://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/faculty-researchers-be-youtube-star.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-246546030046275129Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:31:00 +00002009-10-14T10:29:29.659-04:00Click here to learn more, see a fabulous commercial parody starring an engineering student and an ITI student, and play Safepardy, a game developed by a communications alum.http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/october-is-national-cyber-security.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-5327537869565180432Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:55:00 +00002009-10-12T11:56:13.217-04:00The Division of Continuous Education and Outreach and OIRT are pleased to offer faculty the opportunity to integrate Adobe Connect into Sakai and eCollege or to use it in a standalone mode.Adobe Connect provides desktop videoconferencing, shared whiteboards, shared websites, and chat capabilities for use in courses and projects. It is particularly useful for fully online courses and in instances http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/adobe-connect-for-desktop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-87402889248751412Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:23:00 +00002009-10-09T17:01:14.114-04:00Last year, OIRT and The Aresty Research Center started a video series called The Undergraduate Research Spotlight. The goal of the series is to recognize the contributions of the undergraduate students who are at the heart of this university's strong research tradition.So far, we've interviewed over 50 undergraduate students and we want to interview more! Read ahead to learn how students can http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/ru-undergrad-researchers-be-youtube.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-4141352604694125705Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:51:00 +00002009-10-05T14:31:45.102-04:00Wordle is a free tool that turns a block of text, or simply a list of words, into a cloud pattern. Words that are used most frequently are displayed most prominently. You can play with layout, font, and colors to change the appearance or highlight certain vocabulary. Wordle is useful for analyzing text, comparing newspaper coverage of a specific issue, and summarizing the content of student http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/word-clouds-with-wordle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-7947303795576846732Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:19:00 +00002009-10-02T11:22:38.417-04:00On September 28, Google announced the addition to Google Docs of some useful new features for academic use. Google Docs has added a new equation editor for mathematics teachers and students. There is a new subscript and superscript tool that can be used in writing chemical compounds and mathematics equations.http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/google-docs-now-has-equation-editor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-8234207075666359534Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:04:00 +00002009-10-01T16:26:02.827-04:00I’ve started using the free versions of Poll Everywhere and Wiffiti in class and my students really seem to like both applications. They’re both easy to use – students text message answers to a question and the answers get posted live, stimulating more participation and, I think, understanding.I had the students work in pairs or small groups so that students who do not have unlimited text http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/10/cell-phones-for-brainstorming-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-4463710592265673600Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:33:00 +00002009-08-21T17:04:06.081-04:00SakaiI am pleased to announce that we are expanding the amount of Sakai support we are able to offer, beginning this fall semester. During these hours, we will provide first and second level support via email and phone.Sakai support contact info:sakai@rutgers.edu732.445.8721Sakai support hours:Normal Fall Schedule (Aug 31 - Dec 11, excluding Labor Day weekend)Mon-Thurs 8:30AM-10:00PMFri 8:30AM-6:http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/08/extended-sakai-help-hours.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-3792259434904693532Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +00002009-08-07T17:02:46.343-04:00SakaiYou may have noticed that Sakai has been unavailable about once a week for two hours early in the morning during the last month. These maintainance “downtimes,” which will continue until classes begin, are giving us a chance to upgrade Sakai in anticipation of an increase in activity during the upcoming school year.For those interested in more details, we're in the middle of three general http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/08/sakai-downtimes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-8512445373839194546Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:48:00 +00002009-07-01T13:52:29.504-04:00More on my desktop videoconferenced class. During the class, I showed them You Tube videos and a Microsoft Word document, just as I would have done in a face-to-face class. They responded to a question by typing on the online whiteboard, providing me with a way to summarize their ideas in one place. I didn’t use powerpoint slides, but I’m not using powerpoint in this class. If I was, I could havehttp://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/07/iste-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-253479418213124852Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:29:00 +00002009-07-06T18:18:03.048-04:00I’m currently at the International Society of Technology in Education’s (ISTE) annual conference in Washington, DC. There are about 18,000 K12 teachers, tech staff, and administrators, university faculty, and vendors attending this conference. We’re all here for a similar purpose: to find ways to improve learning through the use of contemporary technology. It’s an overwhelming experience that I’http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/06/im-currently-at-international-society.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Gayle Stein)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-6809998810533814247Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:59:00 +00002009-06-12T14:48:10.495-04:00Can a video game show us what it would be like to live on the streets? Can it show how growing up in a dysfunctional family could influence a person later in life? Can it inspire others to donate to charity to help the homeless?These questions are starting to be asked, ever since a social "experiment" began in The Sims 3, the new "real-life simulation" game by EA Games. Robin Burkinshaw, a http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/06/homeless-in-sims-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-1443312681416497293Fri, 29 May 2009 14:53:00 +00002009-05-29T11:45:45.971-04:00imagesfencingsimilargoogleI saw a tweet yesterday from Lisa Thumann at the Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education. She's got her finger on the pulse of the educational technology world and she mentioned a new technology from Google Labs called Similar Images. In my short play-test, I found it to be extremely successful. Here is quick walkthrough of how it works:1. Visit the site and search for an image http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/google-labs-similar-images.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-3542032382480672477Tue, 26 May 2009 03:58:00 +00002009-05-26T00:58:59.750-04:00During Memorial Day weekend, it is easy to get caught up in barbecues and summer rituals and forget the original purpose of the observance of this holiday. I happened across this blog post that I felt would be appropriate to share during this time of remembering those who lost their lives defending our country.Sean Askay, an engineer for Google, unveiled on his blog a Google Earth layer he http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/honoring-our-fallen-soldiers-with.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christian)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-1976845051432978962Sat, 23 May 2009 15:10:00 +00002009-05-23T11:15:21.589-04:00datagovernmenttransparencyFor those of you interested in government datasets and an invitation to play and shape the future of publicly available government data, your day has arrived!From the main page of data.gov:The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/datagov-is-live.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-1773977062091118452Tue, 19 May 2009 13:52:00 +00002009-05-20T21:56:16.827-04:00Sakai2.6 upgradepatchTomorrow's the big day! Here are the last of the changes we will be making:Site InfoThere have been some improvements to the "Import from Site" action in the Site Info tool. You can now choose whether the material you are importing should replace your current site material or be added to what is already there. You can also now import participants from another site, adding them to the http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/looking-ahead-to-new-sakai-part-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-3064914180547787074Mon, 18 May 2009 14:10:00 +00002009-05-18T10:54:31.445-04:00Sometimes, technology isn't all it's cracked up to be. More often than we'd like, some new technology that is expected to change the face of IT simply....doesn't. PC Authority gives a review of some such technologies in the recent article, Top 10 Disappointing Technologies. Their ranking:Honorable Mentions:BiometricsUbuntuTop 10:10. Virtual Reality9. Alternative Search Engines8. Voice http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/top-10-disappointing-technologies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-6136283939612692637Sat, 16 May 2009 20:15:00 +00002009-05-18T10:45:07.368-04:00knowledgesemanticwebsearchinformationWolfram|Alpha opened its doors to users this weekend. It is being touted as a step beyond conventional search engines. Its creator is Stephen Wolfram (of Mathematica fame), who calls it a computational knowledge engine. Briefly, this means that this engine can take specially prepared data sets and attempt to help you compute and create knowledge. The idea is that you can ask it questions like http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/draft-of-next-step-in-search-engines-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-4272323068457698834Thu, 14 May 2009 20:53:00 +00002009-05-20T21:56:55.377-04:00Sakai2.6 upgradepatchHere is the promised Part 2. I'm going to start listing 2.6 changes based on tools from this point on.AnnouncementsYou can provide an RSS feed for people to subscribe to your announcements in a site. Only the announcements set to "public" will appear in this feed. All other announcements will only be viewable by members of the site.Chat RoomMultiple chat rooms were available in 2.5, but now http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/looking-ahead-to-new-sakai-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-5671370629918739515Thu, 07 May 2009 15:14:00 +00002009-05-20T21:57:28.392-04:00Sakai2.6 upgradepatchAs you probably know, Sakai will be down on commencement day, May 20. This is to perform some major upgrades to Sakai as we update from Sakai 2.5 (the current version) to Sakai 2.6.We at OIRT have been hard at work the last few weeks, doing final testing on our test servers. We are catching bugs, getting acquainted with the new system and any quirks it has, and customizing the "generic" Sakai http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/looking-ahead-to-new-sakai-part-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Karen)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4767322195145266514.post-2022730484785540562Wed, 06 May 2009 13:03:00 +00002009-05-06T09:15:51.132-04:00psychologyethicsfinalsexamscheatingDan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University and visiting professor at MIT's Media Laboratory. I found an interesting and timely post that he wrote on his blog the other day, which is short enough to share in full:Here are the first two question of the exam I just gave:1) My parents and grandparents would be most proud of me if:a. I did not cheat on this http://oirt.rutgers.edu/2009/05/exam-questions-that-address-cheating.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jesse)9