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This week I was officially awarded a Professional Development Grant, which will make my travel to San Fran for 4Cs much easier on the wallet. I’m also 1 week away from receiving final exam essays from the students I asked to start Twitter accounts. Their responses will be the basis of my presentation, [...]
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It’s been a year since I’ve posted on this blog. I continue to work toward my Masters in IT - which for USF is Instructional Technology - not information technology. I am completing Instructional Media with Dr. Downey. I love working with the technology and creating learning. I could spend hours [...]
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This may well be my last visit to Lively, especially after finding out it will shut down on December 31. It will be interesting to see if there are more or less visitors this evening.
I’m going to the most popular room, Jen’s Coffee House. There are several others here; I’m interested in what they think [...]
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Hey everyone,
- I am pretty sure kids hate those big Hannah Montana birthday cards that say, “You’re SO cool!” Most kids are smart enough to know that these cards are mass produced self-esteem boosters. But all they’ll really do is remind kids of how much money Miley Cyrus is rolling in, which will [...]
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I’m back. Having Lively, Blue Mars, and USF Blackboard open at the same time was too much for my PC. I’ll check out some other rooms.
I’ll try “Trapped Under Ice”, that should be interesting. There is ice, there is a giant screen showing the Earth from space, Bette Midler is playing. Walking around I see [...]
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Another Lively session. I would like to see if anyone has visited the room I created. It did not make it on the first screen, Let’s try screen two. Nope. I searched and found Z’s Conversation Pit and found I had one visitor. That was likely me.
I’m going to try Google and see if I [...]
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Haven’t been feeling 100% and as a result, I forgot to blog last week. Will have to try NaBloPoMo again in December!
I’ve got the rest of the semester all planned out, but I think my body is telling me that I need Thanksgiving break NOW! Must catch up on grading and prepare for [...]
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Yet again a TED talk that justifies and re-inspires my work with Katrina bloggers. According to James Surowiecki, the blogophere came of age with the Tsunami, with blogs offering “a more complete and powerful picture of what happened.”
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Just noticed that Technorati has release another “State of the Blogosphere” report. What I like most about this version compared to previous years is that they “asked some of the leading minds on the Blogosphere to give us their thoughts on where blogging is headed.” I’m pasting in a few below:
“The word blog [...]
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I’m just going to have to quote the FL Statute
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0316/ch0316.htm
316.2004 Obstruction to driver’s view or driving mechanism.–
(1) No person shall drive a vehicle when it is so loaded, or when there are in the front seat such a number of persons, as to obstruct the view of the driver to the front [...]
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Back to room creation. When I went back into Lively, I did not see a link to “My Rooms” so I had to search for my room and go there. A notice came up reminding me that I need a thumbnail for the room list. I manipulated my avatar so he was standing in [...]
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This week I’ll be showing my students 2 episodes of Law and Order, one from 1999 called “Chatroom” and one from 2006 called “Avatar.” Both deal with issues related to the speed, reach, anonymity, and interactivity of the Internet, which [coincidentally? heehee] are the key terms Laura Gurak uses to define the term “cyberliteracy” [...]
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Cool, I found a “Dr. Who” style phone booth. Saved! I also found an “S” shaped couch that matches my décor. After adding the couch to my inventory, I went out back to the room screen and added it. Accidentally, when I held the right mouse button over the couch to try to move it, [...]
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In this visit to Lively, I wanted to move on to the creation of rooms and furniture. After logging in, I clicked on “Create a new room”. I called the room – Bob’s Shack ‘O’ Fun and for the description I wrote this; “Hi, my name is Bob and you are welcome to join [...]
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Came across this list of “11 Sites to Create Cartoon Characters of Yourself” today and thought I would try a couple out:
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Thought I posted for NaBloPoMo today, but looks like I’m getting this post in with only 10 minutes to spare.
Here we go!
I’ve been noticing several sites talk about the use of the internet in this election, one of which being “Blogged Down in the Past,” from the Columbia Journalism Review. See the [...]
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Wishing now I had documented more of my opinions and voting experience on sites like this…
12seconds.tv - Decision 2008 as told by our badass 12ers from Jacob Knobel on Vimeo.
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A clip from Election Night that combines all of my favorite things:
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ESol
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So far I haven’t had a block when it comes to fulfilling a post a day for NaBloPoMo. Lots of great political energy out there and amazing user-generated creations.
Speaking of political statements, here’s a new shirt from my favorite Dirty Coast Press:
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Lots of word clouds of Obama’s victory speech showing up today.
Here’s one I find aesthetically pleasing:
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I remember seeing this in 2003, on the Alan Cumming website of all places, and thinking how powerful an example it is:
So it’s amazing to see now, thanks to YouTube and other video-sharing sites, there can be efforts such as “Why Tuesday?” and “Video Your Vote”.
Obviously these videos aren’t as polished, but [...]
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After noticing all the Twitter election coverage tools, I’ve decided to spend tomorrow reviewing these sites [and others] with my students. To do this most effectively, I need to begin with a quick lecture on Howard Dean’s 2004 blog and the ever-growing power of video.
This video will help start that conversation:
Then we [...]
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MSNBC had a great article on the power of Twitter during this election. The tips they list below are good ones, and even if you don’t have an account, just seeing the livestream on election.twitter.com is AMAZING!
Use Twitter like a pro on Election Day
Register for an account at Twitter.com. Choose a username you like; [...]
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Andy and I cast our votes last week, so tomorrow we can go about our teaching schedules and not have to rush the polls or wait in any lines. I’m so excited that this election is finally coming to an end. I just hope by tomorrow night we know, for sure, who won. [...]
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Sites I’ve joined over the past few months:
Blip.fm–like Twitter, but with music. I love how it gives you “props” and also stores everything you’ve played. I’ve also found many wonderful mashups and covers, such as this bluegrassy one of Blu Cantrell’s “hit em up style”
Pandora radio–for when I don’t want to hear a specific [...]
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Visit NaBloPoMo
In an effort to keep up the blogging efforts I started last night, I figured November would be good a month as any to participate in National Blog Posting Month. The FAQ is quite detailed, but I’m excited to try and live up to the challenge! With all of the [...]
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With my hectic schedule and lower back pain, I haven’t blogged much lately; however, I have continued to update my Twitterstream, primarily from my phone and new I-pod touch. These have been short posts pointing to links I’ve found interesting or sharing my observations in a small Wisconsin town.
But this past week I [...]
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Wow. I haven’t blogged here in over a month, with that last post consisting only of embedded videos! I have written a couple posts over on the Katrina Media site, though, so check those out when you have a chance.
Things have been very busy here, such is the life of a [...]
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I just submitted an appeal for a VIOLATION 319-IMPROPER DISPLAY PERMIT. Heres the site https://usfweb3.usf.edu/Parking_Services/cmn/account.aspx
Does this piss me off? You bet.
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I went around to different rooms collecting items I did not see in the catalog. Some items I picked up were a tree lamp, pumpkin jack, a disco ball, a picture frame and a movie screen. I went back to my room and added a movie screen but it was not playing any videos. I [...]
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I usually try to remind these folks that change is never easy but that I hope that they are enjoying the features that they couldn’t do before, such as: direct entry of grades into the grid, exempting grades, dropping the lowest score, creating multiple total columns, emailing directly from the gradebook, seeing the last login [...]
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When my “mild-mannered” faculty start to voice their discontent, I’m not
quite sure what to tell them:
“I am assuming I am not the only faculty member with this complaint, but
the Grade Center on the new Blackboard System is awful and frustrating.
I am not really liking Blackboard right now. In addition to the really
delayed system and [...]
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It sounds like he does not understand that you can go down a column entering grades by hitting Enter after inputting each one. In the old version, you hit Tab after entering each one. The advantage is that in the old version, we sometimes had more than one instructor entering grades simultaneously for the same [...]
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We have also gotten the “help” call that includes “4 letter words” from faculty and a few folks that apparently didn’t read any of the emails we sent since March about the upgrade, nor did they attend any of the 30+ training sessions offered. At the same time, we haven’t heard a peep from [...]
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I’ve gotten everything from “I hate the new gradebook” to desperate
pleas for assistance to help them undo some unbelieveable things that
render the grade book completely useless and inaccurate. Yes - most of
the time, it is faculty who ignored all of my dire warnings that
training was IMPORTANT to understanding how the new grade center worked.
But, I’ve [...]
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With the opening of the new building everything was so hectic I didn’t have time to post on the blog. We’ve opened the new building and the USF community is enjoying their brand new student center.
The old Marshall Center has started to get torn down. There is information about the new [...]
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The presentation by Steve Andrews was very good. Not only did he give a clear presentation of his stories, he had the actual footage to enhance the presentation, and he managed to link them to Public Records.
Andrews talked about several stories he worked on. He showed how based on tips, [...]
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The Human Relations Board is a volunteer organization that is operated by the Equal Opportunity Administrator. The Administrator for Hillsborough County is Gail Williams. They hear cases related to the Human Rights Ordinance. The mission statement of the Ordinance is to “prohibit discrimination based on race, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), national [...]
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Today I created 2 more rooms. The first one I created was a rooftop that I called skyline. I furnished the room with chairs, a firelog, a telephone booth, a bed, sofa, money and 2 stereo systems. The other room I choose was a lecture classroom I named class. I decorated this room with goth [...]
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Logged into Jen’s Coffee House. Seems to be the room with the most visitors. I was there before but we will see how it goes tonight.
So far the dialog is this. “My name is Bond, James Bond.” and “Do you want to play with my boobs?” Oh brother!
I find myself facing the wall. I will [...]
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Today I created my own room on lively. I clicked on create a new room and had to choose a shell for my theme. I decided to shop around for a shell room and chose to go with a coffee shop. I am calling it the USF cafe house. I then tried to select [...]
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Our penultimate field trip was a return to the Community Center to the Tax Collector’s office. While the Tax Collector himself, Doug Belden, came in and greeted us momentarily, our learning session was conducted by Preston Trigg, who, like J.D. Callaway, once worked for the Tampa Tribune.
One notable thing about Mr. Belden [...]
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This blog will be about…nothing.
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William March’s speech on political reporting was not only informative, but he had solid evidence of the power of public records with the article he brought to the class. All the information he had was almost to much to absorb in one sitting. Tracking campaign contributions, politicians’ voting records, and people’s personal information that’s available [...]
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What is it?
The Hillsborough County Animal Services Advisory Board is comprised of appointees from the county commission, as well as representatives from local veternarians and non-profit agencies. They advise Animal Services on issues related to enforcement of animal-related statutes, overpopulation, vaccinations, etc.
The meeting started off fairly typical. There were motions to adopt the previous meetings [...]
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The visit to the Clerk of The Court’s office may not have had the sense of…let’s say “adventure” that the visit to the Orient Road Jail did, but it was still very interesting, and most likely will be far more useful. As both the Comptroller [...]
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Compare and Contrast:
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Who knows when I’ll ever get to see this [considering my new Wisconsin town has yet to get Burn After Reading], but I know I’ll look as hard as I can to find it. May even drive to Milwaukee since this schedule says filmmakers will be there in November.
As Loki writes, [...]
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I can’t think of a better way to introduce rhetoric to my class next semester.
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Cross-posted at Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster:
Last week I was interviewed by the communications staff here at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. They contacted me, saying they had heard about my research into the post-Katrina blogosphere, and the result of our conversation is this press release, which was sent out to 50 local and regional reporters. [...]
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Today I visited more rooms in lively. I got added to the contact lists of other users. When I was talking to some other people they had moved out of site and asked me to come up. I did not know how and they told me about an icon on the left hand side that [...]
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Well, even before logging into a room I notice that there seems to be many more rooms available. Quite a few are non-English as well. This means (to me) that Google Lively is getting exposure around the Globe. One even says “Win Lively Buck$”. Maybe I’ll try that one for fun.
This room was supposed to [...]
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Our class trip to the Orient Road Jail was completely fascinating. We were greeted by Major Robert Lucas, who was our tour guide for this trip. After going over a bit of the ground rules, our trip was underway…
Booking
We started off in the booking area. This is where the incarcerated are received from [...]
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This was my second time visiting lively. I went to a couple different chat rooms. I found out that I was able to walk outside of the building of the chatroom and walk around. A lot of other first time users were there. There were a lot of different people from different countries [...]
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I’ll be presenting a paper on teaching with Twitter at 4Cs next year, so, in order to get my “data,” this Monday I will present my students with their task of creating accounts on the popular microblogging site.
I was nervous over the summer when the Fail Whale kept rearing his power-blue head, but it [...]
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Our visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was full of useful information. J.D. Callaway, the SO’s Public Information Officer (and USF graduate), gave an informed lecture on the process that most reporters go through to obtain information on criminal activity and arrests. From a News Release, to an Arrest Report, to Incident Reports and [...]
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[...]
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All students at UW-Stout are given a laptop and (seemingly) no preliminary briefing on the course management software, which means it’s up to individual instructors to talk them through menus and screenshots. That’s fine by me b/c I like to limit the technology I ask students to use their first semester; however, I have [...]
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For this “visit” to Google Lively, I decided to do what I normally do when starting a new program or service. I poked around the Internet and see what others are saying about it, usually in discussion forums.
What I found was not what I thought would be there. The official Lively forum is barely happening. [...]
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Today was my first day using lively. Lively is a virtual chatroom site that offers many different chatrooms to enter. There was no membership fee and I had access to all of the rooms. I chose my character and then dressed him up appropriately for each chatroom. I was able to dress [...]
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I found Matt Doig to be very well informed in his field. He did a very good job explaining how to relate investigative reporting and public records research to our broadcast majority. Some of the things he mentioned that I had not thought about were how to use database systems, public records, and spreadsheet programs [...]
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I downloaded with relatively no problems:
SSH Secure Client so I can post stuff to my USF website
Kompozer
Gimp
I also downloaded an update to internet explorer. I learned about it in Chapter one and since I have not used the desktop computer in a while and I will be using it for my projects (I [...]
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My first couple of weeks of college have been incredible. I was a little apprehensive at first coming from out of state about starting completely over. I only kept in touch with a couple people from orientation, but meeting people here isn’t hard at all. I did the bull haul which was a great [...]
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My textbooks took forever to get here despite my expedited shipping. They got here on Thursday but the USF server seemed down all weekend so I was unable to update until now.
Readings:
Creating Web Sites
Introduction - After reading this section I actually feel like I might be able to do all this. It states [...]
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I joined a room called Jen’s Coffee House. As I was walking around, another “person” walked up and slapped me! What kind of “cool” online place is this?
Anyway, I did manage to talk to a lady from Russia. I’m trying to get the feel of this environment just by intuition. Maybe I’ll be forced to [...]
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quite simply put…
What The F**K is Social Media?
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmediamarketing marketing)
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11:30-12:00
Improvising on material from Violin+Tape piece.
Tomorrow start sketching fresh ideas for orchestra piece.
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Things have escalated beyond imagination:
“The footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles when it hit. Gustav currently has a footprint of 900 miles and continues to grow.”
Video of the mayor’s official press conference is here.
My parents are staying in Picayune, Mississippi, for the time being. I’ve gotten in touch with [...]
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My first interaction with the Lively environment was ok I guess. It was not difficult to get in a room, but the choice of avatars was pitiful! Once in a room I could walk around and I saw some other people talking. I said “Hello” but no one seemed to notice me. I tried another [...]
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I did not have trouble getting Lively up and running. I created a new Gmail account just for this. Very few avatar choices! I’ll do the questionnaire next.
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Since my Instructional Graphics class is now over (earned an A) I need to clear out this USF blog area for another class. As of the fall of 2008 I’m enrolled in two classes this time. Organization of Knowledge I and Human Computer Interface. It’s for the later class I need this blog.
One assignment is [...]
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This is a test. Viewing my blog ..
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To blog or not to blog; is that the qestion?
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Re-posting this from FoodMusicJustic.com:
Levees.org has just posted “The Katrina Myth” to YouTube.
The more people who visit this video,watch it, rate it, and comment on it, the higher it goes in the YouTube ratings.
If you are a YouTube member, rate it with a high rating (five stars) and make a comment (any comment, it [...]
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This is my first post. This blog will document my journey through LIS 5315, Instructional Graphics. Posts will include summarizations, critiques and more on my readings, websites and other material the professor assigns. I know next to nothing about web design so each week will include new learning experiences in which I [...]
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As today is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I’m honored to have been asked to reflect on my own experiences over at the Open Society Institute’s Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster blog.
Some information about the site is as follows:
Katrina: An Unnatural Disaster was named the best nonprofit website of the year in [...]
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Time to get nervous.
I’ve already been on the phone with several NOLA friends who are ready to get outta dodge, although today the maps showed a slight westerly turn:
Still, a lot of people are on edge, and with the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina tomorrow, this new storm is taking me back to my [...]
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Just figuring out the development of my own blog YAY!
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hello
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Welcome back to school everyone! So lets get to the topic on hand. So starting this semester, Fall 2008, USF Parking and Transportation Services decided to phase out the parking hang-tag and replace it with a “re-movable” sticker. The sticker is about 3″x4″ mostly opaque white with black text and a bar-code. My guess for [...]
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The USF Polytechnic will be closed tomorrow Tuesday, August 19th due to tropical storm Fay. Therefore, the Library and Open Use Lab will be closed as well. We will know Tuesday if the campus will open Wednesday.
The bookshelves have been wrapped this afternoon as a preventative measure but the books will remain available if [...]
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After way to many years, we finally have a mechanism that allows Blackboard Instructors to view the course as a true student. Simply called “Create Temporary Student”, this tool creates a student account based on your own NetID and password and enrolls them into your Blackboard course.
Use the new temporary student [...]
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Blackboard is offering Blackboard Sync, a Facebook application that delivers course information and updates from Blackboard to you inside Facebook. You can find out if you have a new assignment, grade, new forum posts, etc., without having to leave Facebook. Blackboard Sync also cross-references your courses’ Rosters with Facebook to make it [...]
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UPDATE: Google has released version 0.10.1, this guide is based on the 0.10.0 code but there should not be any major deviations. As always post on the Google Gadgets for Linux message board if you run into problems.
I was never a fan of desktop gadgets/widgets as most of the ones available performed horribly and had [...]
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Lesson one’s read was great!
From my readings I learned how important that employing excellent web design techniques will result in a successful website. Principles of Beautiful Web Design’s website was extremely informative because it briefly describes the physical characteristics of creating beautiful webpages (layout, color, texture, etc). I also learned of the free [...]
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Last year I was honeymooning in Australia, this year I’m in Wisconsin starting a new job and still unpacking the new house.
I hate missing this, especially since my dissertation focuses on this fabulous group of passionate placebloggers, but I’ve already promised myself I won’t miss Mardi Gras next year and I won’t miss [...]
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I know that there are some of you out there waiting to here how things are going. So, here goes...
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I have wanted to write this post for a while now. So I will take a few minutes....
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Sunday morning , August 17th, starting at 6:00am and ending by 6:30am, Information Technology will be upgrading the software on the two backbone routers in the SVC Data Center. For the Libraries, it means that web and EZProxy access will be affected.
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NetLibrary is the USF Libraries’ largest collection of online books from various publishers. While USF has not purchased the entire NetLibrary collection, the USF collection numbers over 60,000 titles with a focus on scholarly publications with some general interest titles included. Over 54% of the titles are from university presses such as Oxford, [...]