http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Sat, 25 May 2013 01:27:44 PDT Sat, 25 May 2013 01:27:44 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570471 The Internet may be changing our brains, making it more difficult for us to concentrate and devote full attention to the task we're working on. But good writing requires careful, focused reading. You should strive to slow down and become a mindful reader. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570349 In this talk at the State Department, Clay Shirky reviews the history of communication technology revolutions. He argues that since the Internet is becoming ubiquitous and taken for granted, it is revolutionary. He feels the Internet is good for both conversation and broadcast and that it will become the carrier for all media. He also notes that users can both consume and produce content -- talking to broadcasters and more important, to each other. As always, Shirky illustrates his talk with compelling examples ranging from African election monitoring to coverage of the earthquake in Sichuan Province, China and President Obama's use of the Web http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570393 PowerPoint is often dismissed and criticized, but I find it to be a powerful teaching tool. I present three tips for creating PowerPoint presentations – use the same format for every presentation, keep slides simple, and write a careful notes. We use the notes as scripts for narrated videos and for transcripts, enabling the students to study our presentations. We will see examples from effective presentations by Steve Jobs and Larry Lessig. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570423 In this interview at the Aspen Institute, Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone discuss their company and the impact of social microblogging. They talk about their early experience (Stone was the creator of Blogger, the service you are using right now) and the way Twitter was conceived and has evolved. They also discuss Twitter's social and political impact and the way it is changing journalism. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=84282 This is a complete first course in programming, using VB.NET using VB.NET. Student outcomes using this material are slightly better than using a standard textbook. For a description of the material and its assessment, see: http://bpastudio.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/vbNET/Programmingmodules.doc. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570265 IT literacy courses and curriculum date back to the 1960s at Dartmouth. Since that time, the curriculum has been revised as new platforms for developing and delivering applications emerged. Today, many students take IT literacy courses, but the curricula vary somewhat as a function of the student's major field. I have developed a set of modules, from which a customized course or a few modules to supplement a textbook can be selected, and will describe the format of those modules. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570267 A document describing our IT literacy topic modules, the structure of our presentations, and the course outline. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570269 We will see the use of several image processing operations in creating a 200 by 200 pixel picture. An informal notion of the amount of information in an image is also presented. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570271 The presentation illustrates the idea of an application program interface or API, using Twitter as an example. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=570273 This presentation is on application programs. No skills are covered but technology concepts include what a program is and what is means to run or execute a program. We'll also discuss the functions of the components of a computer system, and see what is in memory while a program is executing.