Link to An Academic Technologist’s Toolbox
Quadcopters at Swarthmore
You can get amazing video and still shots that previously would have required a full sized helicopter or significant crane and boom equipment with current quadcopter drones (small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) in the parlance of the FAA). Current guidance systems … Continue reading Quadcopters at Swarthmore
New Digital Tools for Reading
I recently read an interesting article in Educause Review talking about the development of a series of tools to support Social Reading. These tools vary in how they work, but generally allow individuals to create notes/questions about a digital text and then allow the Professor (and possibly fellow students in the class) to see all the comments. With MIT’s tool more intense color reflects more comments on that part of the text. LACOL’s Active and Engaged Reading (AER) working group, also focuses on issues of reading in a digital age, including the goals and practices for academic reading as they evolve on our campuses. If this … Continue reading New Digital Tools for Reading
Spring 2017 Academic Technology Workshops Announced
The Swarthmore Academic Technology Spring 2017 Lunchtime Workshop series is now available. We have a lineup of sessions available to the entire campus community. The first half of the workshops are focused on website and online portfolio development. This is a great chance to learn how to get your content online using modern web publishing tools. The second half of the series contains maker-related technology topics such as Arduinos, quadcopters, programming Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, and laser cutting. Come learn what resources are available for you to use or checkout from ITS. All the workshops are on Fridays from 12:30-1:30PM … Continue reading Spring 2017 Academic Technology Workshops Announced
Media Services Has New Chromebooks for Student Checkout!
Media Services has new Chromebooks for students to checkout! They now have a limited number of Chromebooks designated for student use on a short term basis. This may be really helpful for someone whose laptop is under repair or needs a laptop on the fly. Continue reading “Media Services Has New Chromebooks for Student Checkout!”
Navigation Apps for visually impaired
I struck up a conversation with a fellow conference attendee at the AHEAD 2016 conference who happened to be blind. We had an interesting conversation about getting around when you are visually impaired and he shared three apps he uses to navigate inside and outside buildings: overTHERE which uses a infrared technology developed more than 30 years ago to help with safer street crossing and recently adapted for mapping BlindSquare which can work with beacons to provide mapping inside buildings AllAccess which can access menus, logos, and QR codes Continue reading Navigation Apps for visually impaired
Green Advisors to monitor energy usage in the Beardsley Media Center
ITS, Media Services and the Office of Sustainability’s Green Advisors Program are currently working on a project aimed at reducing computer energy usage across campus. The first stage of the project will be to monitor energy usage in the Beardsley Media Center. We will collect quantitative data on our electricity usage while implementing strategies to reduce the electricity demand from computers in the lab. We aim to create behavioral changes in how students interact with computers (i.e. ensuring students/staff turn off machines at the end of the night or leaving inactive machines in sleep mode). Additionally, we will explore potential … Continue reading Green Advisors to monitor energy usage in the Beardsley Media Center