Grockit and learning in gaming

Here at the library we have been involved with two separate groups who are designing games for us. These games are meant to teach information literacy. We are not quite sure how we are ultimately going to use them, but that may be easier once we see the finished projects. From the meetings I have been to, the games are looking pretty solid and I can't wait to play them.

In addition, a number of students recently got a grant from the UN to design a game that combats violence against women. They traveled to South Africa and from their blog posts clearly had an amazing and moving experience. Learning in gaming is clearly a trend around here, and an awesome one from my perspective. I love fooling people into learning.

This trend is not limited to Champlain College though. The startup company Grockit took home a Jury Selection award at this year's TechCrunch50. From what I have read it is “Massively Multi Player Online Learning Game” in which you are a student in a classroom and you get questions that you can discuss and debate and ultimately decide on. You award "Grockit points" to other students that increase or decrease their ranking. It sounds like an online study session but funner. The article talks about using it to study for things like the SATs, but I could see this product used in a lot of interesting ways, especially in the classroom. They have been very secretive about it for the past year and only now are they opening it up to the light of day. I am excited to learn more about it and see where this game goes.

Who knows, maybe some of our graduates will go on to work on this game or something even better.

Technology Workshops: Mark Your Calendars!

Champlain's IT Department are offering a host of helpful workshops this month. Some are for getting your work done (Outlook, Powerpoint) but others are to spread our wings into social networking and effective use and enjoyment of 2.0. Here's a list of what is offered:

Monday 3/31 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/1 @ 8:00 am
Outlook and Meetings – Meeting Requests
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create meeting and track responses from invitees


Monday 4/7 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/8 @ 8:00 am
Outlook IV – Searching and Sorting
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to more easily find messages in your inbox or folders.

Monday 4/14 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/15 @ 8:00 am
PowerPoint Basics
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create and show a basic PowerPoint Presentation

Monday 4/28 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 4/29 @ 8:00 am
Connecting to the H: drive from home – Secure FTP
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to access your Network H: drive from home (or anywhere)

Monday 5/5 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/6 @ 8:00 am
Social Networks
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to create a profile on a social network site

Monday 5/12 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/13 @ 8:00 am
ClearSpace
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to navigate in the ClearSpace

Monday 5/19 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/20 @ 8:00 am
RSS Feeds
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to subscribe and unsubscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite websites

Monday 5/26 @ 4:00 pm and Tuesday 5/27 @ 8:00 am
Microsoft Vista – A Tour
At the end of this workshop you’ll be able to describe the features and benefits of Microsoft’s latest generation of desktop operating systems

Super Busy at the MIC bring Technology out into the Open

School started today and getting the Library ready for the influx of 475 new first years as well as returning students, new faculty, new deans, and new adjuncts has been a whirlwind. But the results are outstanding. Largely this is due to our library crew embracing and taking technology to a whole new level. We are starting out the year with a series of new initiatives that are pretty cool. Here are some of the highlights:
1. We have started using wikis to create subject guides. What a relief! You can actually update and modify the pages to accomodate instructor's needs, students' feedback and new additions to the collection. Awesome and very well received. Hopefully they will be very used.
2. We are trying chat reference. We've held back from chat in the past because we are such a small staff but with more of our students going abroad and a new librarian in the mix, we thought it was time to give it a go. More on that as the school year progresses...it's hard to know how that's working on day 1.
3. We are blogging (as you well know since you are reading it!) We are maintaining a library blog to highlight events at the library but also things the librarians think are cool. (Oh, there are so many).
4. We are tracking reference questions using a free, online tool from zoho. We just stareted it today but it was so much easier to keep track of questions. We kept the screen open and the form is easy to fill out and WHAM, we've got improved data on reference.
5. We have been spending most of the summer adding our newest additions to the collection into Flickr. I think it will be a cool way for faculty, and maybe even students, to share books with one another, comment, suggest other books, and get to know our collection better, which is changing rapidly.

We are giving these technologies a go and I am so proud to work somewhere that is willing to take that chance. It's a great way to kick off the school year: invigorated, excited, and trying new things. It might make all of us insanely busy, but it feels insanely great.