Email text of 6-28-06 p.m.:

To all MLNG 420/G participants:

I am sending exactly the same text in Word doc. format as in the body of the email.

Blackboard news:

Since there are two sections of MLNG 420, one of which has only two persons enrolled, I asked the IT staff to create one Blackboard Discussion Board.  They did. In the process, all the past discussion in the MLNG 420G was deleted!

As of this Monday evening, I am not sure if the Discussion Board or the Digital Dropbox is working for the MLNG 420G participants.  Let me know how things look at your end. Please do not hesitate to revisit topics from past class sessions.  If it isn’t too much trouble, those whose discussion was deleted might renew their contributions…

PowerPoint, sound files & problem:

Some of the sound files do not work once your PowerPoint presentation is invoked on a computer other than the one with which you created the PPT.

PowerPoint will subsume WAV files, integrating them into the actual PPT file. If the WAV files exceed in storage size an arbitrary default setting, the WAV file must accompany the PPT file as it will not be incorporated into the PPT file. That means, among other things, that the PPT file and the WAV file must be in the same folder.

Fortunately, the user can change the rather meager default setting. Within the PowerPoint program, click on Tools > Options > the General tab. Change the numerical setting, ‘Link sounds with file size greater than ___ kb.’ Put in 1000 or 2000, and see what happens.

By the way, if a PPT has a movie or a sound file of another format (like MP3), the media file will also have to accompany the presentation file. Digital photos, however, will be stored in the PPT file, and very economically at that.

Check to see that the sound files in your PPT Journal work on any other computer.

Hands-on sessions in WKU Fine Arts Center room 252 (media center):

Wednesday, June 28, 2006, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. & 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (finished)

Saturday, July 1, 2006, from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

These sessions are first and foremost for demonstrations and trouble-shooting with assignments and projects pertinent to MLNG 420.  They are by no means required.

Email text of Wed., 6-28-06 p.m.:

To all MLNG 420/G participants:

I am sending exactly the same text in Word doc. format as in the body of the email.

Blackboard news:

As a result of today morning hands-on session, I learned a great deal about Blackboard!

1) What you see and what I see in the Digital Dropbox are not at all the same.  I saw the documents I deposited there on June 16, 2006 (the PowerPoint journal and the three PowerPoint manuals). But they have not been visible to you. The PowerPoint journals that you have turned in are likewise invisible to me (except in two cases). The problem is that for reciprocal access, the Send File button must be used, rather than the Add File button.Much to my surprise, the Add button does not make the item available to anyone else!

2) If you access the syllabus through Blackboard, rather than going directly to my Web site (http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~nlove/) or our course Web page (http://edtech.tph.wku.edu/~nlove/420tech/mlng420summer06.htm), it makes no difference, except when you attempt to save a document to your computer. It works fine if you access the Web page directly. However, if you attempt to save an item from the syllabus through Blackboard, there is no option other than to save to the WKU Blackboard server.  Students may not save files to the server, so there is no viable save option from the syllabus through Blackboard. That explains why you may have been unable to save a file like the Questionnaire or the PowerPoint journal to your computer. Many, if not all of you, have been thwarted to varying degrees by the two limitations indicated above. That means that I must make all reasonable allowances.

3) I have added an “Items to download” option to our Blackboard course site.

Accommodations in view of the Blackboard limitations just discovered:

I have revised the syllabus in such a way as to add more time within which to complete all assignments, the mini-project and final projects. That by no means obligates you to take advantage of any or all of the extra time. If you wish to finish the course in accordance with the original timeline, that is, in fact, a good idea. As for journal entries, you have basically two options, neither of which is wholly satisfactory, perhaps. Either pretend that the original dates are valid, or redo the dates on the menu buttons and subsequent pages, and make entries more in keeping with reality as it actually unfolded. Otherwise, I suppose the syllabus revisions are clear. Let me know if you have any questions, please.

I am redoing Blackboard a little bit, placing the files that could not be saved from the syllabus via BB into the Digital Dropbox or in a newly created “Items to download” option, from which you can download them.

Journals: Please submit them via the Digital Dropbox, and look for them to be returned with comments via the Digital Dropbox, as well. You may delete comments from me once you have read them.

Excel assignment:

I also learned at the first hands-on session that all teachers in KY public schools use a mandatory grade reporting application. Excel spreadsheets, which is what I use for grades, are apparently of little value to you who teach or will teach in KY. Therefore, the Excel assignment is now strictly voluntary. (Using a spreadsheet is, nevertheless, potentially useful and figures among Kentucky’s technology standards performance criteria, [10.6].).

Hands-on sessions in WKU Fine Arts Center room 252 (media center):

Wednesday, June 28, 2006, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. & 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (finished)

Saturday, July 1, 2006, from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

These sessions are first and foremost for demonstrations and trouble-shooting with assignments and projects pertinent to MLNG 420.  They are by no means required.

Email text of Wed., 7-12-06 :

To all MLNG 420/G participants:
I am sending exactly the same text in Word doc. format as in the body of the email.

Online exercise assignment / mini-project / final project
Since http://lang.swarthmore.edu/mellon is not working, please use Hot Potatoes instead. You can create more than five questions if you register.  As a teacher, you can register for free! If only your online exercise is only for the July 7 assignment, five questions suffice for completion of the assignement, but not for either the mini or final projects. Include sound, image (& text, of course).
I will post online exercises on your home page. (see Krista Green’s, for example. I added a link for your home pages at the bottom of the syllabus.) Five

Assignments
If you printed out the syllabus or the assignments on any given date, be sure recheck the real, online syllabus to be current and informed.

PowerPoint Journal
Make up to date in every respect, including the “table of contents” and the journal entries buttons. (See assignment for July 7.)

Blackboard
Please update the email address in Blackboard to reflect your preferred address.

Emails
I have posted email messages of a general nature with a link on the syllabus (top right).

First and revised versions of mini and final projects.
I will critique the first submission of each (if I have not already done so for several of you).

Grades
This a reminder that everyone gets an incomplete without requesting it, pending completion of all course requirements. Please make every effort to complete all by August 4, per the revised syllabus timeline.

Participation grade
Remember that participation for this online course consists of contribution to the Blackboard Discussion Board forums. Whether you are in arrears or current, please make your questions, advice, suggestions, and reflexions known, without regard to original posting dates.

7-18-06

All MLNG 420 participants,

I am adding one final discussion forum for two reasons. First, some may need to discuss what they might do for the final project. "The Final project will illustrate and document even greater proficiency as well as imaginative, inventive application of multimedia to a teaching/learning project. It may take the form of an interactive exercise or lesson, a Webquest, to name the two most common format chosen to date. (Some past examples) See a Webquest rubric and a multimedia project rubric." That's what you read in the syllabus. The second reason is mathematical. As your participation grade is based upon your contributions to the Discussion Board for 10% of the course grade, we now have an even ten topics.

7-28-06
All MLNG 420 participants,

On Tuesday, August 1, I will delete from the Digital Drop Box all the files I have placed there as returned submissions through today, Friday, July 28. I will delete only files I placed there; any files you place submit there will not be deleted. If you have files there that you need to "pick up," but will be unable to retrieve by August 1, let me know.

7-31-06

All MLNG 420 participants,

I send you a reminder that the course will end soon. Some of you may benefit from reviewing the e-mails, the more important of which I linked to the syllabus (upper right-hand corner), especially concerning the participation grade and Blackboard's Discussion Board (e-mails of June 28 and July 12).

I heard on the radio news today, by the way, that some schools may receive a boost in funds from the commonwealth for technology.