Campus Migrates to eLearning Commons (Final Revised)

SARAH PELHAM

Several weeks into school, faculty and students are still working out the kinks of moving to the new online management system replacing WebCT at the University of Georgia.

The eLearning Commons, or eLC, is software that allows professors to distribute information and manage courses over the Web. With eLC, students can access course materials, take quizzes, chat with classmates and access many other resources.

This is the last semester faculty and students have to experiment with eLC before its full implementation in January 2010.

“My experiences with the eLC have not been good,” said Katherine Poss, a senior from Newnan, Ga. “My food and nutrition teacher decided not to use eLC this semester and stuck with WebCT because she didn’t feel comfortable using eLC.”

Poss is not alone. Since last April, the technology help desk has received 127 calls from students experiencing problems with eLC, according to Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS).

The problem most students encounter is incompatible versions of Web browsers, according to Sherry Clouser, the coordinator of instructional and distance technologies at the Center for Teaching and Learning.

“Not all Web browsers work well with eLC,” Clouser said. “That’s the one weakness that I worry about the most because I have no control over it.”

Clouser chaired the learning management systems executive committee and is very involved with the transition to eLC.

“When a new browser comes out, we just try to get the word out to people not to upgrade if they don’t have to because it may cause issues with eLC,” Clouser said.

Safari 4.0 is the most troublesome Web browser, according to Clouser. But Safari 4.0.3, the most updated version of the browser, seems to run smoothly with eLC.

Recently updated versions of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox may be incompatible with eLC because Blackboard, the company supporting eLC, needs time to develop software patches designed for the newer browsers, Clouser said.

Several resources are available to students and faculty who are experiencing problems.

On the eLC homepage, a browser check can confirm a Web browser’s compatibility, and a student orientation to eLC is located on the student help Web page.

The EITS helpdesk is also available for students experiencing technical problems with eLC.

Faculty members can register for eLC workshops and request eLC workshops for students in their classes, in addition to using eLC resources on the Web or calling EITS.

Farley Richmond, a professor of theatre and film students, attended a two-hour eLC workshop.

“Like everybody else I think I had trepidations about going to eLC,” Richmond said. He still does not know how to use some of his favorite tools from WebCT with eLC, but he is told that it is possible.

Craig Piercy, director of the management and information technology department, also finds specific tools easier to use in WebCT. “But I don’t have any doubts about eLC,” Piercy said.

Ease of migration was one of the main factors considered when choosing eLC, Clouser said.

The eLC creates course sections and loads students into courses automatically based on OASIS data, so professors need not manually add students to their course section in eLC. After a student adds or drops a class in OASIS, eLC will automatically update after 24 to 48 hours.

Since WebCT and eLC were both developed by the same company, the two programs have several features in common, like tools for assignments, grading, communication and quizzing.

“It seems pretty much the same as WebCT, but with an online chat feature,” said Haley Engelberth, a senior from Dubuque, Iowa. “I used it to chat with my friend the other day.”

Engelberth isn’t the only student using the new chat feature, which allows students to view and instant message classmates who are also logged on to eLC.

“I did a workshop with some first years last week, and I showed them the chat tool and I couldn’t get them out of that tool,” Clouser said. “They really liked it.”

Another plus to the eLC is that every other public university in Georgia, except the Georgia Institute of Technology, uses the same product, Vista, which eLC is based on, Clouser said. This creates a support network for the University of Georgia and also eases the transition for students transferring from other Georgia schools.

Blackboard, the company behind eLC, guarantees support for eLC until 2013, but a committee will begin evaluating new online management systems next year, Clouser said.

“I would hope that we have at least three years on this product,” said Clouser.

Edited by Amanda Duval

Matthew Martin, an eLearning Commons (eLC) consultant, teaches a workshop about using eLC's quizzing feature in the Miller Learning Center at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009.

Volvo's Alcoguard gets mixed reviews in the United States

By: Alexis Economy

Soon it may be mechanically and physically impossible to drive while drunk, at least in Europe.

Many leading car manufacturers are conducting tests and research in Europe and Asia with new technological devices that will not allow a car engine to start if the driver has had more than the legal limit to drink.

While this is good news for Europe and Asia, the big question is when will this device make its debut in the U.S.?

The answer to that question is not anytime soon.

According to Brian Buffington, Sales Manager of Volvo of Athens, the Alcoguard is not something that Americans are interested in or receptive to.

“The American public has not bought into the product, so I don’t think we are looking to bring it to the U.S. just yet,” said Buffington.

Despite the consensus of the American people, students at the University of Georgia seem to be more receptive to the idea.

Paul Brieske, a freshman and history major from Stone Mountain, Ga. said that he would definitely use the device.

“Well, I don’t have a car right now, but yeah if I could I would get one so that I can tell whether I was safe to drive or not,” says Brieskse.

Cortney Dodson a senior and nutrition science major from Carrollton, Ga. agrees with Brieske.

“I would definitely do it. It makes a lot of sense and it keeps people who shouldn't be driving off of the roads. It benefits not only the actual driver, but also everyone else who could potentially be driving at that time” said Dodson, when asked if she would add the device to her car.

While there is enthusiasm amongst students about the device, University of Georgia police Chief Jimmy Williamson does not think that Alcoguard is necessary. Despite the fact that 520 out of 600 alcohol and drug related offenses reported were alcohol related, according to the UGA police Web site.

“I’m not real big on implementing these devices. Most of our DUI and alcohol-related offenses could be dealt with if people just changed their drinking habits. When I talk to students I ask them why they have to get wasted every time they go out. If they could just change that mentality then we would not have problems, said Williamson”

Chief Williamson also said that the DUI rate has decreased significantly in recent years and has hit a plateau. He credits this to risk takers. “Laws are for law abiding citizens, they set the social standards. However you are always going to have those risk-takers who do not think that the law applies to them."

Regardless of differing opinions on the matter, Swedish-based Volvo exclusively offers the Alcoguard as a feature on cars mainly in Sweden. The company launced the device in 2007, and is expected to release the devices in all of Europe within the next few years, and eventually to the United States.

Alcoguard is handheld and allows drivers to blow in and receive instant results on their blood-alcohol content level.

It is stored in the center console and has a simple color system to notify drivers of the their results.

In Sweden, the legal limit is .02 g/l.

If the driver has results of less than .01 g/l, the engine will start and a green light will appear. For a 150 pound man or a 120 pound woman, this means consuming one beer over a period of one hour.

If the results are close to .02 g/l, the engine will start and a yellow light will appear. However, the driver will be notified that he or she should not drive. For a 150 pound man or 120 pound woman, this means consuming one and a half beers over a period of one hour.

If the results are greater than the legal limit, the engine will not start and a red light will appear. For a 150 pound man or a 120 pound woman, this means consuming two beers or more over a one hour period of time.

The device will also notify the driver if he or she needs to exhale for a longer period of time.

The results are stored for thirty minutes, and then the test must be repeated.

Alcoguard is removable so it does not have to be used on a daily basis or for a quick trip to the grocery store.

According to Volvo's Web site, this device was developed to decrease alcohol-related accidents. As a result, insurance companies are discussing the possibility of a discount on insurance as an incentive to use Alcoguard.

For more information on Alcoguard, contact your local Volvo dealership or log on to the official Volvo website: http://www.volvecars.com/us.

Edited by Dana Hortman and Ashley Bene

iTunes article (Final)

Is iTunes changing the face of music for the better?
By Thomas Patrick Hooper

ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.

Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.

The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.

“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”

Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.

“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.

Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.

Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.

“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”

Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.

“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”

However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.

The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.

“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.

The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.

“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”

However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.

“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”


Editor: Sydney Slotkin

Students have growing interest in GPS as smart phone applications

Students have growing interest in GPS as smart phone applications

By Ashley Bene

Stand alone GPS devices are being phased out for GPS applications on smart phones.
(Photo/Ashley Bene)

Smart phones are a hot commodity on the University of Georgia campus.

Already these phones have taken over the jobs of many other devices. Students can store and listen to their music and use the Internet, among other downloadable applications, on these phones. But what about using their phones to find their way around Athens when they are new to the city as first year students?

In past years, the sales of stand-alone GPS devices have increased consistently. With the recent economic downturn, however, the trend has taken a new direction.

2009 has seen an increase in the number of people buying iPhones and other smart phones that will allow them to use GPS instead of having to buy a stand-alone GPS device, according to an article in the New York Times.

Brandon Banks, a sales associate at the Apple Store on Lexington Road, said he has seen a lot of college-age students looking for iPhones in the store. While the GPS application is not their main concern, he said it is a beseeching feature.

“In general, it makes the iPhone more appealing,” said Banks. “It’s just one less thing that you have to carry around and keep up with.”

Sarah Burr, a sophomore double major in history and philosophy from McDonough, Ga., seemed to have the same opinion. She said she would find a GPS device very helpful in Athens, and she would be interested in having GPS as an iPhone application instead of a stand-alone device.

“Then I’d have my music, phone, and directions all in one place,” said Burr.

Devon Gibson, a freshman majoring in international business from Cartersville, Ga. and Ryan Michalak, a junior majoring in real estate from Valdosta, Ga., shared different opinions.

Michalak felt that paying the one-time fee for a stand-alone GPS device was a better deal than buying an iPhone and paying a monthly fee for the application.

Gibson, who already owns a GPS-application-capable Blackberry, just doesn’t see a need to pay the monthly fee for the feature. He just uses Yahoo Maps to plan his trip before he leaves.

Banks says the cell phone GPS applications run off the same operating system as the stand-alone devices, so there usually are not discrepancies between the two. There are no added features that the smart phone GPS devices have that the stand-alone devices do not.

There are some changes that could be made to GPS devices to make them more appealing to college students, however.

For Burr, it’s all about the cost. She said her main reason for not already having a GPS is the price.

“I just have other expenses that are more pressing,” said Burr.

Michalak expressed interest in a GPS that comes with Lane Assistance.

“It shows you a picture on your GPS so you can see which lane you’re supposed to be in,” he explained. His doesn’t have the feature, which would help him navigate the interstates through Atlanta.

Gibson said he would use GPS if it was free on his cell phone, or he said he could see himself using it if he moved to a different part of the country. Until then, GPS manufacturers will probably not be receiving his business.

While some students choose to stick to planning their trips ahead of time through Google maps, many are opting for the spontaneity a smart phone with GPS can provide.

Edited by Alexis Economy and Dana Hortman

FINAL EDIT with Pictures - Private School Embraces New Resources, By Erin Dillard

Computers at Wesleyan in the fifth grade computer lab. Copywright Erin Dillard, 2009.

Private School Embraces New Resources
By Erin Dillard

NORCROSS, Ga. - With the way that the technology industry has exploded over the past decade, there is no stopping its effect on the education system.

Ten years ago, Wesleyan, a private school located in Norcross, Ga., had one lab with only 20 computers. Now the blossoming school has nine labs and a total of about 600 computers.

Wesleyan is a college preparatory school that hosts grades kindergarten through twelfth, with a faculty of about 200 people.

“Wesleyan began placing SMART Boards in every classroom in 2006, and the school has continued to grow from there,” said Carol Horner, who is currently in her fifth year as the director of technology at Wesleyan.

SMART Boards are white boards that can be manually written on and then automatically coordinated with a computer. The high school received SMART Boards the following summer.

“I enjoy the SMART boards a lot. I think that they are very helpful to those of us that are visual learners,” said Connor Pendry, a 13-year-old eighth grade student. “The teacher can be explaining a lesson while also giving us visual aid. Almost all of the teachers use the SMART boards every day.”

After three years of using SMART Boards, Wesleyan is already introducing a new technology program. The high school has gone wireless and every high school faculty member has received Toshiba Tablets.

The tablets are small laptops that can fold into electronic notebooks. Teachers use a plastic stylus to write notes, and the notes can immediately be transferred to a SMART Board.

Tablets can be placed on docking stations, where all information stored on the tablet can be sent to printers or to another computer. The printed copies have the note-takers exact handwriting on them.

The expansion of technology in the education system each year brings the need for not only educating students, but teachers as well. All incoming teachers are required to take a course on how to use the SMART Boards and are offered additional courses for further instruction.

“For my first year last year, I was required to take the SMART Board training in the fall, and then a course of my choosing in the spring,” said Corrie Nash, a 10^th and 11^th grade Geometry teacher.

Wesleyan offers a variety of courses that teachers can choose to take. The classes are called “Computer U” and offer 30 different subjects. The classes are offered once in the fall and once in the spring.

“They recommended SynchronEyes for any teachers who take students to the computer labs, so I signed up for that” said Nash. “SynchronEyes is our ‘monitoring’ system, so that we can keep up with what all our students are doing on the computers from the teacher’s PC.”

Nash uses this program to make sure all of her students are on task and can block the Internet or games to keep them on track.

“Computer U is a really great program because it offers a wide variety, with everything from Word and Excel to SMART Boards,” said Horner. “There are lots and lots of choices for class development.”

The Computer U classes are offered during school hours, so teachers must find a substitute teacher for their students while they are enrolled in a class, so there are some drawbacks to the opportunity.

“I hate to be out of class and organize for a sub. I like to keep the continuity of my class flowing,” said Ashley Stainback, a ninth-grade Algebra teacher.

“The technology does not help me teach my class,” Stainback said. “It becomes unaligned so much that it detracts from my lesson. I use it occasionally but not as much as other teachers.”

Horner and other technology and computer associated teachers instruct the classes. Deborah Kelleher, a fifth-grade computer teacher, is one of these instructors.

Kelleher currently works with Internet programs not only to teacher her students content but also to help students familiarize themselves with the Internet.

Kelleher creates videos of interacting robots to lecture students with a Website called Xtranormal. Another Website, called Wikispace, allows Kelleher to post assignments, Websites and movie media, which students and their parents can then access.

“What I think is so interesting about the whole technology education process is that we are teaching and learning stuff that’s going to be outdated very soon,” Kelleher said. “What we will be learning in the next year or two, we have no idea.”

Edited By: Sarah Pelham

Connor Pendry, a 13-year-old eigth grade student, uses one of the many computers found in the middle school classroomson Sept. 4, 2009. Copywright Erin Dillard, 2009.

CHRISTOPHER BENTON--Article 1

The blank (screen) generation is all atwitter about Twitter, tweets, hash (tags), and other jargonic miscellany associated with the “micro” blog. With its sub-text-message mantra of “140 characters or less,” Twitter is breaking down the former walls of communication and eliminating the middleman. The effect of this is clear in the music industry, which is rapidly adopting the technology for various forms of promotion. Many local members of the Athens music community are finding ways to use Twitter, too.

“I just got one. I was hesitant to use Twitter at first, but then my friend made me one. I mostly use it so fans know what I’m up to…,” Andrew Dykes said, a solo folk artists who plays under the pseudonym Green Gerry.

For Dykes, Twitter is not just a one-way interface with fans, but a dialogue. He may use Twitter to publicize himself and reach out to fans, but fans also have reached back, even sometimes helping him while on tour:

“Whenever I’m on tour, the question is, like, ‘Do I have to sleep in the car again tonight?,’ and there’s this mad search to find someone to stay with and couch-surf. But when I started posting on Twitter that I was looking for somewhere to stay in town, I’d sometimes get like 5 replies.”

Twitter may frequently be about self-promotion but sometimes, the self-promotion needs self-promotion. This meta-promotion, or extra layer of abstraction of Twitter, is one of the service’s main drawbacks, at least, that is according to Daniel Clower, a local booker and band manager.

“When I was an intern working with social media for a PR company…we made a few Twitters but the problem we had was getting people to follow. Even for our larger groups with tens of thousand of MySpace friends, we couldn’t even break a thousand on Twitter…The question was, ‘How do people know this Twitter even exists?’”

Clower tried advertising various Twitter accounts on other social media sites like MySpace and Facebook, but still to no avail.

“We quickly realized we were pushing the wrong content…publicists may run MySpace pages but when fans see a Twitter I think they want a personal connection to the band, so bands should operate their own accounts.”

While the “If you build, they will come” adage may not work in the Twitter world, there does seem to be a correlation to the amount of the Tweets, or content, with the amount of people who follow.

Adrian Zelski, lead singer in the reggae band DubConscious agrees. “We have a Twitter but I stopped tweeting when we got really busy and I purchased the club [New Earth Music Hall]…last time I checked, I think we had at least one thousand less followers.

Consistency may be the key, and while his band stopped tweeting, Zelski hasn’t given up experimenting with uses for the service. Zelski’s newly opened music venue “New Earth Music Hall,” has a new Twitter account. So far, it’s mostly a forum for announcing shows and drink specials.

It’s not just the artists, their publicists, and the symbiotic venue system that has the Twitter bug, the publications that cover the whole thing has it too. Michelle Gilzenrat, music editor for local magazine Flagpole, has been tweeting for over a year, mostly announcing secret shows and posting local music news. The speed of Twitter’s service was especially useful this past May: when the Georgia Theatre caught fire around 7 AM, Gilzenrat’s Twitter was constantly updated with instantaneous news about the event, hours before Flagpole’s official site could post the same news.

Twitter may be a useful tool for music industry, but it is still just one pillar of a much mor vast structure need to promote music. Publicist Michelle Roche, who runs the local PR firm Michelle Roche Media Relations, likes the new tools offered by the Web 2.0 paradigm, but issued a warning in her address to UGA’s chapter of IABC (International Association of Business Communicators):

“Although MySpace Music, Facebook and Twitter and all these other so-called ‘social media’ tools are allowing musicians to connect directly with fans, and publicize themselves, there is still a definite need for music publicists.

True, Twitter is not a solution for all, especially with the threat of fake Twitter accounts, that have scared-off national acts like Kanye West. Local solo singer-songwriter Allison Weiss also had a fake Twitter and Facebook accounts made in her name.

Whether you agree with it or not, Twitter seems here to stay, and for musicians and the record industry, you’re bound to see a lot more.

Social Media Goes Academic

Kristen Luca

Facebook may soon be coming to a classroom near you.

Or at least one of its companions in the social media market may be. Services like Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us are not going unnoticed on college campuses. Two University of Georgia professors have decided to work with those services in their classrooms.

Karen Russell, associate professor at Grady College, uses several different social media platforms in her courses.

“Since I teach PR and social media is important ... I try to expose them all to social media,” Russell said.

She connects with her students through the Internet is del.icio.us, a social bookmarking Web site. It is a place for Internet users to share and distribute links. Each day of class Russell informs her students where to look on her account for their reading assigments.

Facebook is another popular social networking Web site, which allows users to make accounts and connect with people whom they share history or interests with.

Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute at UGA, has set up a Facebook group for his classes to use. Students are required to have a Facebook account to join the group, which is used to send out readings, answer student questions, and deliver assignments. Shamp could not be reached for comment, but his teaching assistant Cindy Reynolds spoke on the use of Facebook in teaching the Intro to New Media course.

“Some of them didn’t want to join,” Reynolds said, “but we made them. It’s a New Media course and they need to use new media.”

Reynolds said that as a TA, she gets asked the same questions by students repeatedly, and the Facebook group cuts down on the time spent answering them by allowing her to answer the question once. It facilitates class communication for her course.

“I don’t really like Facebook,” Karen Russell said. In her public relations classes, she uses a different medium. “My favorite by far is Twitter, [my students] will tell you I’m addicted to it.”

Twitter is a microblogging service allowing users to update their page with messages of 140 characters or less. Users can choose to receive updates, called “tweets,” from other accounts, as well as reply to tweets and hold conversations.

Russell uses Twitter to communicate with her students. “I could do the same thing by e-mail,” she said, “but doing it by Twitter forces them to use it.”

Russell said that social meida allows her to connect to students on a more personal level, since her students often use their Twitter accounts to update about their personal lives. She said that the technology gives her the ability to get to know students in a different way.

Others are resistant to the idea. Ricky Contes, a third-year English major, said he would be uncomfortable if a professor required him to use social media for class. Even with services like Twitter, which do not offer as many potentially personal details as Facebook, he said he would object to their use in a classroom setting.

Contes also said that if social media and academics were combined, “I would never get anything done.”

Russell said that student reaction to her early use of Twitter, in the summer of 2008, was along those lines. “Let me tell you,” she said, “at first they hated it.”

This semester, however, her students have been more agreeable. The Web site’s popularity has reached the point where her students already have accounts before coming to class. She receives positive feedback about it, and the other Web sites she uses, including PROpenMic, a online community for PR students, educators, and professionals.

A student who has not used social media in class before seemed to reflect that attitude. Katie Wyke, a fourth-year English major, said that she would enjoy using social media for coursework.

“It’d be easy to get on it,” Wyke said. “I’m on it anyway sometimes.”

Social media have already proven themselves to be useful and popular across the Internet. Convenience and a personal quality have now extended that reach to desks in UGA classrooms.

Edited by Katie and Christopher