Ancient History Ramblings

PKAP SL Meeting

We had another meeting in SL last night. It was an interesting meeting for several reasons. First, I realized that, planning wise, we are much further along than last year. In fact, most of the topics we discussed last night for 2009 were topics we did not discuss until Jan/Feb last year. So we (theoretically) are 3 months ahead of last year - too bad we are not 3 months ahead of last year in our financial situation.

Second, I have to confess that during our meeting I was keeping an eye on the World Series. This is the danger of using a laptop, at least for me. I have found that I can sit in front of the TV while do my work - at least theoretically. This could become a bad habit.

RSM

2 Quick Things

First, Google has finally settled a lawsuit brought against its Book Search program for $125 million. Many people feel that this settlement will benefit both parties, Google and the authors and publishers who brought the lawsuit. It will interesting to see how quickly the book scanning program moves forward. Second, PKAP will be having another planning meeting in SL to discuss our 2009 season. We have already had as many SL meetings this year before November as we had all of last year.

RSM

Cloud Computing?

As much as I like to think I am aware of trends in technology, I often am forced to realize that I actually know very little. For instance, today I saw an article on Cloud Computing, a term I was unfamiliar with. It refers to applications that run on computer networks or over the Internet, as opposed to an individual's machine. The article talks about the term because of the release of a new book, The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing, by Educause at the Educause 2008 Annual Conference in Orlando this week. For a good introduction on this subject see Jeffrey Young's article.

RSM

More Virtual Tours

A recent article I read in The Wired Campus described a joint project between the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and the Colonial Williamsburg to create five three-dimensional interactive recreations of Williamsburg sites. In trying to find out more about the site I visited the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities website and was very impressed by the projects they have or are working on. It is certainly worth a visit.

RSM

Darwin in Second Life

I read an article in Educause (Galapagos Islands in Second Life) about a project by the University of Cincinnati that is celebrating the sesquicentennial of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. This project will include activities on campus and the recreation of the Galapagos Islands in Second Life that will allow students to recreate Darwin's voyage. The SL site will be open to the public in January 2009, but some screen shots are available in the Educause article if you are interested in an advance view.

RSM

IUP Students Buck Trend

In following up my blog from yesterday, I surveyed my class today on whether they wanted to meet with their professors using on-line chat and was met with mainly confused looks and disbelieving stares. Only a couple of students raised their hands. To check this out further, I will survey a different class tomorrow. I also realize that a survey of one of my history classes is not a scientifically conducted survey and is not a true random sample of the IUP student population, but since I am lazy let's assume it is. Now, this means that IUP students (or at least history majors) do not feel as strongly about their professors being available on-line to them. Does this mean that IUP students are not as technologically savvy as students at other institutions? Possibly. Does it mean that IUP students are not as eager to deal with their professors outside of the classroom? Also a possibility. Or, as one person who read my blog yesterday suggested to me, does it call into question the original survey which was done by CDW-G, a company that sells technology to institutions of higher learning? More investigation is needed.

RSM

Online Chat

I recently saw an article that has left me a bit puzzled. The article, Dear Professor, Students Want to Chat With You, states that in a recent survey released by CDW-G 39% of college students claim that they want the opportunity to have online chats with their professors. The follow up survey to this says that while this may be the case, only 23% of college IT staff say that their university has the capability to provide that sort of student-faculty interaction. I have to admit I find this a bit hard to believe, mainly because so few students take advantage of office hours. Would it be different if I held my office hours online? And what would be the best way to do this, since my university does not have specialized software to help with this, at least as far as I am aware. I need to do some more exploration on this - I will start tomorrow by taking a survey of my students to see how they compare to the CDW-G survey.

RSM 

2 Updates

Today is a day for updates: 1) On the personal front, my cast came off my left arm after 5 weeks.......5 long weeks. The cast has been an incredible hindrance, and yes I realize it could have been much worse and that in the big scheme of things it was a minor blip, but it really brought home to me how much I type. The cast on my left wrist kept hitting the control key and causing all sorts of havoc (bolding, centering, deleting, etc.). Anyway, while I still have some work to do to get my range of motion back, it has actually been enjoyable to type again; and 2) An update on the lawsuit filed by Thomas Reuters Inc. against George Mason University over their release of the Firefox plugin (Zotero) which they claim infringes on their software EndNote. Since the announcement of the lawsuit, quite a few bloggers have come out against Thomas Reuters and some sites have even called for a boycott.

RSM 

Student E-Mail Addresses

An email I received today from a student in one of my classes made me think of a story I read recently in The Wired Campus, "Dear Students With Unprofessional E-Mail Handles: Your Professors Notice." The story mentioned the usual range of emails a professor typically receives (poorly written, rude, unrealistic, etc.), but also addresses the issue of students creating improper or obscene email addresses for themselves. I covered this issue in my Digital History class last semester and the students seemed to think I was overreacting and acting like an old man and their almost unanimous reaction made me doubt my concerns. I am using this article as proof that I was correct.

RSM

Back to PKAP

Since we are moving into the middle of grant hunting season, I spent last night creating a budget for the upcoming fieldseason - which is still 7 months away. To do a decent job on the budget requires me going through last season's receipts and trying to figure out our food costs (per person), gasoline usage, supplies, etc. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. After getting a handle on on our previous year's expenses, I then go through and create a budget for this year based on input from Bill and David on personnel and length of the field season. Then I work up a spreadsheet with all our expenses, broken down by category. This is the hardest part because I need to allow for inflation and the cost of the Euro. Last summer the Euro was $1.57 while we were in Cyprus, but right now it has slid to $1.37. It always goes up in the summer, but how much? The end result of this process, I am now panicking over the amount of money we will need for this summer. At least it is good motivation for looking for grants.

RSM