Roger's Weblog

Group mosaics?

rogerjneilson — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:23:14 +0000

Collaborative Spreadsheet Art

Google has released a template to create collaborative pixel art in Google Spreadsheets. Just change the background color of cells in this copy of the spreadsheet I made, and we’ll see where it goes! (Also see Google’s template, video and more.) [Via Andy!]

A new pedagogy gathers pace

rogerjneilson — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:55:47 +0000

clipped from www.eschoolnews.com

Virtual office hours get students, profs together

Online meetings are increasing student-professor interaction, college officials say

The era of brief, face-to-face meetings between college students and their professors is coming to an end, higher-education officials say. Instead, colleges and universities are embracing a new forum for student-teacher conferences—virtual office hours, which extend class discussions into cyberspace.

Rather than forcing students to adjust their schedules to meet with professors during the relatively small window of opportunity afforded by weekly office hours, virtual meetings allow for much greater flexibility—which, in turn, means more students can benefit.

New high speed USB

rogerjneilson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:52:42 +0000

clipped from www.engadget.com

USB 3.0 will be unveiled next Monday, and so far the new specs for the protocol look incredible, promising 25GB transfers in a mere 70 seconds. To put that in perspective, the same transfer would take 13.9 minutes with the current USB 2.0 protocol and 9.3 hours on USB 1.0. Looks like the future of wired syncs and backups is bright and blazing. [via]

USB 3.0 to Transfer 25GB in 70 Seconds [Hardware]

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Apple RTC Dublin

rogerjneilson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:25:13 +0000

Two days in the Digital Hub…
A truly joined up concept, showing the flow between education and the new economy. Night time networking in an Irish Tapas Bar with a wall of clogs.

A radical change in media financing

rogerjneilson — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:26:46 +0000

Another effect of the internet

clipped from www.google.com

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

“360″ Music Deals Become Mandatory As Labels Prepare For Free Music

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

clipped from www.techcrunch.com

360 Music deals give labels their standard cut of CD and digital download sales, but also give them a percentage of event ticket profits, merchandise sales, endorsement deals and anything else that uses the artist’s brand or music.

A year ago they were still seen as controversial and experimental. Labels defended them as justification for investing in an artist in a time of decreasing CD sales.

Eschoolnews is a great forward thinking space

rogerjneilson — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:14:50 +0000

We are all going to become online instructors in one form or another……

clipped from www.eschoolnews.com

These traits make online teachers successful

What are the qualities that help instructors succeed when teaching online? That was the focus of a lively discussion at the 14th annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning Nov. 6.

Presenter Bill Phillips of the University of Central Florida discussed findings from his research on the topic. Not surprisingly, he said, successful online instructors share many of the same characteristics that successful teachers in traditional classrooms exhibit–but they also spend a lot of time establishing a persona of approachability and ensuring students’ comfort in the course.

Mobile storage gets bigger and bigger

rogerjneilson — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:11:54 +0000

Though I think there is a debate to be had between this and storage on the web.

clipped from www.coolest-gadgets.com

Kingston ships 32GB DataTraveler 150

Kingston is a name associated with memory products, and we have news that the company will begin to ship its high capacity 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash drive. Also known as the DT150, this USB flash drive model boasts the largest capacity in Kingston’s entire line of DataTraveler USB drives, which is almost as convenient as toting around a portable hard drive since many large files (and I mean huge – even those bigger than 8GB) won’t exactly spill over 32GB, right? Perfect for folks who want to merge work-related content and personal digital content on the same drive, although it can be quite a pain trying to get all the data inside organized properly. My 4GB USB flash drive is already in a mess with files all over the place sans a proper folder structure.

The importance of audience

rogerjneilson — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:09:40 +0000

Of note to C&M students, the importance of targeting your audience, and how easy it is using the internet.

clipped from mail.google.com

Some Big Sites Are Using Google Trends To Direct Editorial

Google Trends, which shows you the hot search queries on Google at any given time, is more than two years old now (this year they added website/domain tracking as well). PR professionals and brand managers use it regularly to track how hot their assets are, and there are countless other uses for the service.

One use though, which is becoming increasingly popular we hear, is for blogs, mainstream media sites and others to monitor Google Trends regularly and write stories based on hot terms. Google displays a daily summary for easier data gathering.

The goal isn’t to tap into what Internet users think is interesting and write about that. Instead, it’s all about getting more hits from Google.

Katy

rogerjneilson — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:51:04 +0000

A rare sighting of the elusive cat obviously a special birthday appearance.

Hello world

rogerjneilson — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:23:44 +0000

This is an entry using wordpress blogger and iblogger on my iPhone.
Seems very simple to use.