It's About Learning

Academic Website Development Challenges

Dwayne Harapnuik — October 31, 2011 — Leave a comment

The following video captures the essence of what building and and maintaining an academic website involves:

http://youtu.be/M3hge6Bx-4w

This image represents the challenge that we most institutions face. Most often what goes on the front page of the website doesn’t really reflect what people are really looking for when they go to your institutions website.

xkcd: University Website via kwout

Over the next few weeks and months Concordia will be facing the challenge of building our website while it is currently up and running. We will also face the challenge of deciding what we need to place on our main website as well as the main pages for the departmental or program sites. The exciting part of this process is that we will be bringing together faculty and staff from all parts of this University to work together to develop a site that will be useful for all users.

In Change development, web development, website

Best Note-taking Apps for the iPad

Dwayne Harapnuik — October 31, 2011 — 1 Comment

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/finding-the-best-ios-app-for-annotation-and-note-taking/36942?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Finding the Best iOS App for Annotation and Note-Taking – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education via kwout

I have been using the iPad since it was first released and in that time I have seen the use of iPads grow to the point where there is so much valuable information out in the blogeshpere that one no longer has to be an expert on all things. Case in point–what note taking application is the best for the iPad? I have used almost all the apps listed in this ProfHacker post and agree with their ranking. In addition I hadn’t yet used UPAD, primarily because it is more than 99 cents and I have already spent more than than on iAnnotate PDF, so I was pleased to find that someone else has explored the app and reported back on its functionality. UPAD is going to be my next app that I spend some money on and I can move forward with this small purchase knowing just how functional the app really is.

This is perhaps one of the most significant reasons why the iPad is the market leader and will be so for many years to come. There are so many people using the devices in so many different ways that one no longer needs to be on the bleeding edge to really benefit from using the device. I have been following ProHacker from their inception and have even contributed with a guest post and it is clear from this blog that most of my colleagues in higher education are using the iPad as well. For the new or novice user knowing that there is a whole community out their willing to share their experiences is a wonderful assurance that they are not alone. For the intermediate to advanced user is exciting to rely on a vibrant community that shares the passion that effective technology is the technology that enables us and our students to focus on the learning–which is really why we are all in this profession.

In iPad note-taking

Microsoft’s Vision of Productivity

Dwayne Harapnuik — October 28, 2011 — Leave a comment

http://youtu.be/a6cNdhOKwi0

In the Tech Sanity Check post Microsoft conjures up the future of mobile productivity, Jason Hiner rightly points out:

As entertaining as it is to watch these videos, it’s hard to take them very seriously until Microsoft can start connecting some of these ideas with steps that it’s actually taking in real world products.

While it is frustrating to see such potential not being realized by Microsoft we can be consoled by fact that Apple and many other companies are working to create this future. This perspective is confirmed in the Geekwire post The future is amazing, and Microsoft has video to prove it which offers an analysis of the Microsoft’s latest video and points to the likelihood that many other companies may use Microsoft’s ideas to create this future. For example the Geekwire post refers to Microsoft’s inability to deliver and points to Microsoft’s failed tablet strategy that was ultimately realized by Apple. An account of this failure is handled by Hiner in the 2010 Tech Sanity Check post Microsoft’s misguided tablet strategy is the apotheosis of the company

In 2009 Microsoft put out this earlier video that introduced many of the concepts further developed in this years video:

http://youtu.be/t5X2PxtvMsU

The following is the 2009 Microsoft “Courier” secret tablet that held so much promise but failed to materialize

While it may be unfortunate for Microsoft to not be able to realize the potential of the video vision-casts they create, they must still be commended for releasing these videos that are inspiring others to work towards this exciting future.

In Innovation augmented reality, mobility, productivity, Tablet