All Hallows' Eve,Samhain, All Souls Day, & Halloween,

Initially, Halloween has its origins in the
ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win"). The
festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic
culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies
and prepare for winter. Then Pope Gregory III declared All Hallows Day on November 1 to recognize all Saints known and

Read More

A few things to consider at Educause 2012

CampusEAI Consortium will be hosting a session on Future of IT in Higher Education'

Wednesday,

November 7th 2012
11:00 AM – 12:00 Noon MDT
CampusEAI Consortium Booth Number 1554




This
session will feature a briefing for higher education executives on
major IT trends that need to be considered for their 2012-2013 strategic
plans.
Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in a

Read More

Three Brothers Brewing is coming to Virginia

A microbrewery in the making:

Three Brothers Brewing

  





For those
who enjoy micro brews and

for those
who are just interested in seeing a new startup
business:



Three Brothers
Brewing

800 North Main St.,

Harrisonburg, VA 22801

http://www.facebook.com/ThreeBrothersBrewing



Located in an old Coca Cola bottling facility, the
physical plant is undergoing renovation and the

Read More

Learning Beyond Blackboard's Products - A Reflection

I wrote my first blog post on 4/19/2012 (~6 months ago) as a requirement for Blackboard's VIP Blogger contest. It took me hours and was worse than preparing my presentation outline for my dissertation defense. Blackboard also got me to use one of the social media tools that I hated the most Twitter. Yes, they required me to tweet about my post. I quickly got an acknowledgement from Blackboard (Bb

Read More

Which version of Bloom's Taxonomy do you use?

Bloom's Taxonomy was discussed during the 2012 TLT Conference at JMU this week, so I thought I would mention it. First lets talk about the words "Bloom's Taxonomy". Bloom's comes from Benjamin Bloom, who was the person leading the group who put classifications on the levels of intellectual behavior in respect to learning. Taxonomy is just a synonym for classification. Bloom's group listed the

Read More

Election 2012 Tidbits

I generally try to stay away from conversations about politics,
but as I listen to people talking about the upcoming election I find it sad
that people are saying things "I vote against someone these days, not
for anyone", "My vote doesn't matter, the electoral board
does what they want

Read More

Stange Scramble

NMC
Horizon Report - 2012 Higher Ed Edition



This ninth edition describes annual findings from the NMC
Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and
describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching,
and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are
identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five

Read More

Cyberattack Chatter

There seems to have been more talk about cyberattacks in the news recently, which left me wondering why. Is it a real threat or is it tied to the upcoming presidential election? While I am not 100% sure of the answer yet. Yes, there is and always has been a risk that someone could use technology to attack, so I guess the real question is what is different? Of course, the upcoming U.S. election

Read More

Don't Miss NBC Learn Happenings

NBC News has been documenting the people, places, and events that shape our world. NBC Learn, is the educational branch of NBC News. NBC Learn has digitized more than 12,000 stories from the NBC News archives. In addition, collections are updated with current events every day, Monday through Friday, with stories from programs like NBC Nightly News, the TODAY show, Meet the Press

Read More

"Blackboard", What does that term mean to you?

I am talking about Blackboard, Inc. also known to many as just Blackboard (Bb).  With each year I am in the education field and the more diverse conferences I attend, I am learning that the term "Blackboard" is being used in many different ways and sometimes leads to confusion. Why the confusion, because many of us have our own idea what the term "Blackboard" means.

Blackboard is not the only

Read More

Sound Breaking Sky Diver Has A Lesson For All

The big news in the sky diving would was the Jump made on Sunday, October 14 by Felix Baumgartner of Austria when he broke through the sound barrier with his jump from 128,100 feet reaching speeds of 833.9 MPH, or Mach 1.24 and landed on his feet! Oh, what a rush that must have been! The rush that I get from a mere 14,000 feet is great, so 128,100 feet ... WOW!


Picture from examiner.com

Mr.

Read More

Left Shocked, Amazed, Wondering, & Hopeful By Blackboard, Inc.

Today, as I was just starting to write my blog post, I got the tweet that Michael Chasen had stepped down as CEO of Blackboard, Inc (Bb). My excitement of finding close parking, because students are on fall break here at Shenandoah University, quickly changed to a list of questions.You can see Michael's blog post by clicking here. Ray Henderson, Bb's Chief Technology Officer-President of Academic

Read More

October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month

Down syndrome (DS) happens because of a abnormality in the number of chromosomes. Yes, Down syndrome is considered a disability by most. However, if you ask a lot of people who have DS or a family member of someone with DS they will say it is a challenge not a disability. 

The first thing to remember is that people with DS are people, they are just a little different. Most of us first notice a

Read More

Is Technology Changing Our Brain?

While flipping through the October 2012 VitaJornal from Trivita, I notice an article by Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman who is the founder and chief director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas.  The opening for this article started by talking about a study which involved 2 -5 year old children. This study showed that 30% of them knew how to operate a smart phone or tablet

Read More

ExamSoft Computer Based Testing Company Offers Webinars in October

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 3pm EDT: Evidence-based Curriculum Mapping - Closing the Loop on Accountability


Dr. Jane Souza, Associate Dean of Assessment from St. John Fisher
College, explores curriculum mapping as an essential aspect of the
educational process as institutions face increasing accountability. The
presentation will discuss how the process implemented by St. John Fisher
College

Read More

Tools and apps for IT Professionals

John Bagley who is a professional writer and independent consultant who wrote an article titled "Top-10 Freeware Tools for IT Pros: Summer 2012"  Redmond Magazine. This article list  these tools as follows:

Active Directory Change Report
Active Directory Object Restore Wizard
Group Policy Change Reporter
File Server Change Reporter
Password Manager
Event Log Manager
Password Expiration Notifier

Read More

Cengage Learning offers help to instructors

"Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. The company's products and services are designed to foster academic excellence and professional development, increase student engagement, improve learning outcomes and deliver authoritative information to people whenever and wherever

Read More

Are digital textbooks really the answer to U.S. education problems?

Wednesday was parent/teacher conferences for my kids and one of the topics in my discussions were the use of only digital textbooks. I was amazed to learn that even some of the teachers were having an issue with this. Not because they were not old school or traditionalist, but because of research that shows health issues related to extended periods of computer use; the new student excuses of "our

Read More

Blackboard Instant Messaging (BbIM)

I was excited to learn this week that Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) where I teach technology courses was participating in a pilot of Blackboard (Bb) Instange Messaging (IM) this fall. I found it even more interesting that my student looked forward to using it in class this semester. It works like any chat application and includes voice, however it confines the contacts to those you ‘allow

Read More

Things to consider ...

Mobile Learning Is Not So New
Mobile Learning (mLearning) isn’t the future, it’s the past and the present. Mobile devices have been part of the learning environment for years. The abacus is a portable device used for counting. Mattel’s See ‘n Say helped us learn what noises barn animals make. Some Mobile Learning reports say that access to broadband as the main barrier to mobile technology use

Read More

Movie Studios and Technology are Killing US Theaters

Hollywood has long been known for leading in the use of technology, especially when it comes to making movies. Movie goers used to get excited about a movie coming out in 3D, now many people expect all movies to have a 3D version. Hollywood then announced that they were going digital by the end of 2013. What does this mean though, high tech options for film makers, higher cost movie tickets to

Read More