http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal A blog for the Program for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at USA Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:42:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/09/05/a-few-tips-on-giving-students-your-powerpoint-slides/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/09/05/a-few-tips-on-giving-students-your-powerpoint-slides/#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:42:33 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/?p=53 One of the most popular applications of PowerPoint to the teaching and learning process is professors making their slides available to students before or after lectures. When students get slides before class, they very commonly print the slides to aid their note taking. It is beyond the scope of this post to consider the advantages [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/09/05/a-few-tips-on-giving-students-your-powerpoint-slides/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/29/thoughts-on-turnitin-and-the-new-policy/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/29/thoughts-on-turnitin-and-the-new-policy/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:41:09 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/?p=50 Last spring, the University implemented a policy governing the use of Turnitin. The policy's intention is to protect students in regard to privacy issues and FERPA, but some of its unintended ramifications seem to have discouraged many faculty from using the Turnitin system. The policy requires faculty who use Turnitin to create a code for [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/29/thoughts-on-turnitin-and-the-new-policy/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/a-look-ahead-to-fall/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/a-look-ahead-to-fall/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:26:14 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/?p=46 Fall is going to be a busy time around the new PETAL offices (read more about that here). We are going to have our regular schedule of New Faculty Seminars and Technology Workshops, but we are also going to increase the number of Brown Bag Lunches this semester. The PETAL New Faculty Seminars have been [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/a-look-ahead-to-fall/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/petal-has-moved/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/petal-has-moved/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:02:08 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/?p=44 We are privileged to announce that PETAL has a new home! We have moved to a location on the third floor of the University Library that was remodeled to house our offices, a classroom area, and a computer lab. Dr. Richard Wood, Dean of University Libraries, and Doug Wilcox, Assistant Dean, worked tirelessly [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/08/19/petal-has-moved/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/05/08/web-20-idea-google-docs/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/05/08/web-20-idea-google-docs/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 21:24:42 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/05/08/web-20-idea-google-docs/ I was reading an article about blogging in a month-old edition of the Chronicle (4/4/08), and ran across an idea that might come in handy in many of your classrooms. The article, "Public Intellectuals in the New-Media Landscape" is an adaptation of a keynote address given by Henry Jenkins at the Chronicle's Technology Forum and [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/05/08/web-20-idea-google-docs/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/04/16/service-learning-it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-hyphen%e2%80%a6/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/04/16/service-learning-it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-hyphen%e2%80%a6/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:23:21 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/04/16/service-learning-it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-hyphen%e2%80%a6/ This week, PETAL sponsored a Brown Bag Lunch where Karen Peterson (English) and Dawn McKinney (Computer Science) led a discussion about service-learning.  The purpose of the meeting was to generate interest in a centralized campus-wide resource for promoting and supporting service-learning efforts at the University.  The turnout was overwhelming (although the appetite for pizza could [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/04/16/service-learning-it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-hyphen%e2%80%a6/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/31/the-socratic-method/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/31/the-socratic-method/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:18:33 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/31/the-socratic-method/ Last week, PETAL had the pleasure of sponsoring a Brown Bag Lunch where Dr. Ethan Fishman (Political Science) led a wonderful discussion on a very famous teaching technique that is rarely understood and practiced appropriately.  Most people believe that using the Socratic Method is simply conducting a Q&A session, but it is much more systematic, [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/31/the-socratic-method/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/12/a-new-online-research-tool/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/12/a-new-online-research-tool/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:16:08 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/12/a-new-online-research-tool/ When I first became an Internet junkie in the mid-1990's, I tended to bounce back and forth between Internet Explorer and Netscape, typically leaving the one that had last crashed, moving sullenly to the other.  Then at some point in the late 90's, I just sort of gravitated to IE and have used it almost [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/12/a-new-online-research-tool/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/new-petal-blog/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/new-petal-blog/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:59:53 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/new-petal-blog/ I have been talking about CommentPress on the PETAL Blog and eNewsletter and have decided to migrate the PETAL Blog into CommentPress to serve as an example.  It may not be as pretty as the old site, but the added functionality is very attractive, offering its own kind of beauty. I hope you will subscribe to [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/new-petal-blog/feed/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/thoughts-on-web-20/ http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/thoughts-on-web-20/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:25:42 +0000 Rob http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/thoughts-on-web-20/ While I have to admit that I was probably a little late to the party on Web 2.0, I think we all still have a lot to learn about this new generation of Internet technologies. When I first got into online learning a decade ago, I was always working at institutions that didn’t have a lot [...]]]> http://usapetal.net/wpmu/petal/2008/03/11/thoughts-on-web-20/feed/