Do Student Postings of Lectures Violate Copyright Law?
December 26, 2011
According to Wired Campus contributer Alexandra Rice, “The faculty union at the University of Manitoba, in Canada, sent an e-mail message to its members this month alerting them to a popular Web site where students are sharing course materials, including what the union calls professors’ “intellectual property.”
In the e-mail, the union defines intellectual property as “lectures, course notes, laboratory materials, exams, and other works created by members for their class,” which cannot be published without the author’s permission. The e-mail encourages members to warn their students that posting any of the above materials is prohibited by law.
Students can legally share their own notes from a class, but taping a professors’ lecture and posting that to a Web site is a violation of copyright law, argued James L. Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, in an article in theWinnipeg Free Press.
The Web site, LocAZu, is open to any university student in Canada with an e-mail address and is run by various students.”
via: The Wired Campus
101 Chrome Extensions
December 19, 2011
Earlier this month, I shared with you that Google’s Internet browser, Chrome, recently became the world’s number two most popular browser.
The folks over at www.makeuseof.com released a “101 Best Chrome Extensions” list. Extensions are extra features and functionality that you can easily add to Google Chrome. By using extensions, you can customize Google Chrome with features you like, while keeping your browser free of things that you don’t use. With extensions you can:
- Get bonus information about a page.
- Get timely notifications.
- Do things with fewer clicks.
Some of my favorite Chrome extensions are:
- Diigo
- Google Dictionary by Google
- Rain Alarm
- Google Alerter
- LastPass
- TweetDeck
Finalizing Fall Teaching
December 13, 2011
It’s been a great semester! Your students were at the top of their game, and you were at the top of yours. Now for the winter break.
Now is the perfect time to consider the role of technology in your courses. The first question you might consider is how are you using technology currently? Do you use Blackboard, email, netfiles or PowerPoint? If so, how are you using those technologies?
Read more
UAA to slow Internet to prevent illegal downloads
December 12, 2011
Campuses across the country are taking different measures to prevent students from infringing on copyrights when downloading movies, music and videos. The University of Alaska has taken a rather unique tactic… According to an Associated Press report, the university will slow Internet connections in campus dorms from 10 megabits per second to 2 megabits per second.
A university IT official said that complaints from the recording and entertainment industry triggered the decision. There were 878 complaints last year, the official said, and more than 95 percent of those involved illegal downloads taking place in on-campus housing. A student-education campaign didn’t control the problem, he said.
Rich Whitney, in charge of computers and telecommunications services at UAA, told The Associated Press, “We don’t want to be the Internet police. This is just a practical amount of steps to be taken to try and get under control these complaints.”
It is important to note that while the vast majority of UAA students are going to school and using their Internet connections appropriately and legally, there are “a relatively small number of infringers,” Whitney said.
Students aren’t pleased by the slowdown. One undergraduate started a “Take the Internet Back” page on Facebook to protest the university’s decision. “I felt they were punishing us all for the actions of a few,” he told the student newspaper, the Northern Light.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/12/01/2197531/uaa-to-slow-internet-to-combat.html#ixzz1fyZzJnbd
Chrome leapfrogs Firefox for the first time, still trails Internet Explorer
December 5, 2011
StatCounter has just released its latest global report on web browser usage, and it’s something of a doozy. According to the analytics firm, Google Chrome overtook Mozilla Firefox for the first time this month, becoming the world’s second most widely used browser. During November, Chrome accounted for about 25.7 percent of the global market, up from a measly 4.66 percent in 2009, and slightly higher than the 25.2 percent that Firefox pulled down this month. It still trails Internet Explorer, however, which enjoys a healthy 40.6 percent market share globally, and a 50.7 percent share in the US. As the above graph clearly demonstrates, though, both IE and Firefox have seen notable declines in recent months, though the latter still has a slim lead over Chrome in the US market, with a 20.9 percent share, compared with Google’s 17.3 percent cut. For more country-specific stats and crunchy numbers, check out the source link, below.
Via:Engadget
Source: StatCounter
December Issue of Learning@Richmond
December 2, 2011
Professor of Art, Tanja Softic’s teaching methods are rooted in hands-on, experiential studio learning that is informed by the history and contemporary practice of the media she teaches, principally printmaking and drawing.
In printmaking, some very old print technologies (etching, silk screening, etc.) interface with digital means of image production and printing. When working on a photo-etching, for example, her students begin with a digital photo image that is then exposed onto a plate, etched and hand-inked, wiped and finally printed manually on an etching press. “Printmaking demands that one considers the meaning of the medium itself.”
Plus a preview of the Spring CTLT Calendar, a note from our director, how to archive your Blackboard course, and what your CTLT liaison plans to do this winter break.
Click Here to Download this issue.
If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future issues, please contact the Learning@Richmond editor, Dr. Matthew Trevett-Smith.
Links featured in this issue:
CTLT Liaison Blog
CTLT Fall 2011 Workshop Schedule
CTLT Training & Classes
Pizza & Pedagogy Schedule
