I tested out our new Samson Q3 Handy Video Recorder this weekend at WordCamp NYC.  We bought the unit for students to use in interviewing people for case study work — and I’m confident that it will serve well for this purpose.  The unit is advertised for its audio capabilities,.  And it is clear that the audio capabilities are front and center — you can alter the audio settings on the unit, but there are no video options.

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The Google Wave team makes some conference visits, aiming at corporations at Enterprise 2.0and the educational market at Educause. Google seems to have created a cool tool, and is now trying to figure out what it is good for.  It will be interesting to see if it changes much as it comes out in a more general release.

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The Firefox browser is five years old today (11/9).  Not bad — check out this goofy video.  Over a billion downloads and a sizable share of the browser market — not bad for a little open source project!

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We had a good group watching the Effective Use of Social Media for Student Recruitment webcast last week.  The session was nicely moderated by Jacques Steinberg of the New York Times, with speakers Robert Moore a consultant and Greg Carroll from Furman University.  A couple of take-aways: Read the rest of this entry »

I caught a video from WordCamp Portland, where Duane Storey was talking about the “Mobile Frontier.”  He mentions some interesting statistics, such as most people using a mobile phone to web browse prefer a mobile-friendly web site, while at the same time the majority of web sites don’t offer a mobile-friendly theme.  Seems like a bit of a disconnect.  And completely unnecessary, as getting a mobile design for your site couldn’t be easier — especially if you use WordPress.  But the resources offered below also have options for Drupal and others.  I use the MobilePress plug-in on my site — it is really easy to use, allows multiple versions for various browsers, and I like the way it displays on my blackberry.

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From the Chronicle of Higher Education to Popular Science writers are exploring the future and place for OpenCourseWare.  The Chronicle reviews the ongoing costs, and that with budget cuts continued funding for open courses is tough.  Popular Science is writing from the perspective of an interested adult learner, wondering how interesting the courses are.  The conclusions from both perspectives indicate that the opencourseware movement is still trying to find its way.  And I think that until opencourseware initiatives are integrated into the core activities of universities and colleges, their future and purpose will remain uncertain.

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