Category: General Instructional Technology

729 Miles : collaborations in educational technology across the Pacific Northwest

Educational technology is by nature a collaborative effort, with faculty, students, and staff working together to build an effective learning environment within and beyond the classroom. In order to foster relationship across campuses, in May 2015, Reed and Lewis & Clark co-hosted the first collaborative instructional technology event sponsored by the Northwest Five Consortium* (NW5C). We dubbed the conference “729 Miles of Technology”, a name taken from the distance of one route connecting the five campuses. (You can view the full program and other conference details at the project website.) 

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Software zooming in iMovie and Final Cut Pro X

In my iPad post regarding video creation on the iPad, I hinted at using software to zoom instead of using the digital zoom available on the iPad. This is because the iPad (and iPhone) use digital zoom and not optical zoom.  

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iPad as a musical instrument

Playing an instrument is an analog experience: a tangible act based in physical reality. Because of this, when instrument simulating apps (soft synths or virtual instruments) can use the touch paradigm available on iPads, musicians can find themselves having more of an analog experience with that technology. This is useful as music creation has traditionally started via an analog process: playing a string, wind, or percussion instrument, for example. Because of touch technology, the process of playing digital instruments is now able to become more seamless.

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One stop video capture, edit and finished project on the iPad

Say you need to make a video for a class, a short rough of a performance idea for a theatre project, some dance choreography, a video capture to be used in a multimedia project you move into software on the PARC computers, a music video of your band, or even a feature length film. Why not consider using an iPad? It is quick and easy. As mentioned in my previous blog post the iPad’s processing power is approaching laptop speeds and with the iPad Air 2, they are closer than ever. Continue reading “One stop video capture, edit and finished project on the iPad”

The Future of Note Taking

We are taught to take notes in class, but note taking has changed dramatically over the past decade. Nowadays we see a variety of classroom note taking cultures—-some faculty encourage students to bring laptops to class and use it as a note taking tool, some worry about what’s behind the screen and introducing unnecessary distractions to class. A number of students argue they take better notes using the keyboard, while others are still attached to the traditional pen and paper method. So is there really a better way of note taking?

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Code the Youtube URL for class use

Before I knew this trick, I always felt I had to be the Youtube police for my class. Ideally I would play only the videos I intended to play, and turn down all the other requests from students (well, at least most times)—–the recommended/related videos that Youtube shows on the right side bar (and also at the end of the video) are either amazingly attractive or not appropriate for class.

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iPad lending using Apple Configurator: presentation

I recently gave a presentation on Reed’s use of Apple Configurator to manage iPads that we check out through the Reed library system. Since iPads are designed to be personal devices, the biggest challenge when making iPads available in this way is keeping the user experience as close as possible to the iPad’s intended use while simultaneously making sure the device is secure for each user. We do this by using Apple Configurator to erase all data on the iPad upon each return and re-apply a customized image that installs the system management profiles we have created and the apps we have purchased.

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Clickers in chemistry: a classic case of data munging

Clickers are a common piece of educational technology across college campuses, used for in-class quizzes or to allow many voices to “speak” in a class discussion. At Reed, clickers are most commonly used in the first two years of Chemistry courses, which are some of our larger classes (75 students per section in Chem 101) and bring together students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Clickers allow faculty to check student comprehension throughout class and actively engage students in a larger lecture environment.

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