FITS Newsletter Home

Contributed by Michael Gough, Instructional Technologist and Coordinator of Student Technology Support

New technologies and innovative pedagogies develop very quickly.  Staying current is a daunting task, even for instructional technologists. To meet this challenge FITS has a team approach for researching and sharing new ideas in technology for teaching and learning. We use the social bookmarking tool Delicious to “tag” articles and share them.  A common tag, “fitsdpu” is used whenever an article is found that could be relevant to faculty members or others in FITS.  Searching for this tag in Delicious creates a list of all the instructional technology-related articles we have tagged.  You can view this list in real time by following the link below.

http://www.depauw.edu/univ/fits/support/delfeed.asp

In addition to our Delicious feed, there are a number of publications that are very useful for keeping up with the latest trends in technology as well as teaching and learning in higher education.  Below is a short list of publications we have found to offer reliable and timely information.  While this includes only a fraction of the publications we read, this is a good representative sample.

Educause 7 things you should know about… Series

This short, online publication is published once a month and offers timely and to-the-point information about a technology trend and its implications in higher education.  In addition to describing the technology without technical jargon, most articles also include a teaching example.  Click on the link below to see an up-to-date list of publications:

http://www.educause.edu/7Things

National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE): The Daily NITLE

Edited and published by NITLE (about NITLE), this blog includes a combination of technology innovations, pedagogy, trends, and best practices in using technology in liberal arts education.

http://blogs.nitle.org/

Educause Quarterly

This online, peer-reviewed journal highlights trends, best practices, and case studies in the use of information technology in higher education from a practitioner’s perspective.  While this publication is not specific to instructional technology, many of the articles highlight implications for teaching and learning.

http://www.educause.edu/eq

ProfHacker

This blog is written from the point of view of tech-savvy faculty members and is a good resource for tips and tricks on pedagogy and technology.

“ProfHacker delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.”

http://www.profhacker.com/

Campus Technology

This monthly journal focuses on innovations in technology on college campuses.  While not always geared directly towards pedagogy, its articles often discuss larger issues in using technology for teaching and learning along with practical applications of technology.   A new practice or technology highlighted in this journal often prompts FITS to test it and discuss how it could be used in the classroom.

http://campustechnology.com/Home.aspx

Contributed by Carol L. Smith, CIO

DePauw’s current email system, Novell GroupWise and TigerMail, needs upgraded. After having spent the past year studying viable options, Information Services is recommending that DePauw move to Google Apps for Education, a free suite of hosted communication and collaboration applications designed for schools and universities.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Carol Smith, at clsmith@depauw.edu or x4287.