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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Technology Tips to Prepare for H1N1

We are offering some quick tips for instructors to use technology to minimize the negative impact of H1N1, whether it affects 1 or 2 students or a large number of students.

1. If you are not using any course management system yet, this should be a good time for you start using one. A course management system, such as Moodle and WebVista, offers convenient tools for instructors to communicate with students, to distribute course content, and to conduct class activities online. The University supports both the WebVista and Moodle course management systems. To request to have a site set up for your class, go to http://webvista.umn.edu/forms/request-site.shtml for WebVista, or http://www1.umn.edu/moodle/instructor/request.html for Moodle.

2. Use Netfiles. Netfiles is a file-storage resource with collaboration and sharing features. With Netfiles, you can upload class-related files and share them with colleagues and students. Current UMN Staff, Faculty and Students are eligible for a NetFiles account. To activate your account, go to your internet account options page at https://www.umn.edu/myaccount.

3. Use iTunes U to distribute audio and video content to students in the form of a podcast. iTunes U provides both restricted and public access to educational content and makes the distribution of audio, video or pdf files to your students an easy task. To sign up for an account, go to http://itunes.umn.edu/

4. Use the Digital Content Library to deliver copyrighted movies and other audio/video content. To find out more information and to submit content, go to http://dcl.umn.edu/

Other tools that we recommend include Media Mill and Media Magnet for creating, managing and distributing media content, and Camtasia Relay for capturing your class. Please contact the Language Center for help if you are interested in using these tools.

Stay healthy!



Tuesday, October 6, 2009

World Languages Day, May 18, 2010

After the success of World Languages Day (WLD) 2009, the College of Liberal Arts Dean's Office and the WLD Planning Committee have decided to go forward with the seventh annual event. It is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18, 2010, the week after U of M classes end.

WLD is an opportunity for Minnesota high school students to explore some of the languages and cultures of the world and to experience life at the University of Minnesota. The event is intended for sophomore-level language classes, and all students in those classes may attend, even if they are not sophomores. Teachers, counselors and parents are also invited to attend.

Demand for the 2009 event far exceeded capacity, and we attracted the most diverse group of students in the event's history. The biggest change for 2010 is a more controlled registration process that we hope will result in even more geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity.

We are in the early stages of planning, but some information is available at http://worldlang.cla.umn.edu/. Information on the event, particularly for high school teachers and counselors will also be available via Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephTreat.

Please let me know if you have suggestions for the 2010 event or would like to be involved.