New Media Center
at the University of Mary Washington
I Love This Time of Year – Part II
So CES is in full swing and there is varying opinion when the question “did you see anything cool at CES” gets asked. Some of the gadget blogs that I mentioned in the last post make it sound like everything is cool. So here is my take on what I’ve read about so far. By this time most product announcements have probably been made, but I’ll sure update this if there is a breaking news story. I can see why media people covering CES feel exhausted because there is so much information to boil down into a summary. I’m going to first state what I see are the trends, and then highlight some products that are of interest to me personally. It seems like there are 3 basic hot categories. 3D Televisions, Tablet/”Slate”... (more...)
Podcasting – Busting the myths
Myth #1 – You need an iPod to podcast In theory you don’t really need to even own an MP3 player, let alone an iPod. Podcasting gets it’s name from the iPod (Start with the word Broadcasting, take out Broad and substitute Pod). It’s the idea that you are broadcasting to an iPod, but you are actually broadcasting to any MP3 player or even just a person’s computer through the web. It is also not LIVE broadcasting, it’s more like a magazine subscription. Myth #2 – You need an iPod to listen to podcasts As we said in Myth #1, you can listen to podcasts on any MP3 player, UNLESS, the podcast is ONLY available in AAC format from iTunes. Even then there are some portable players that support some AAC files (Microsoft’s... (more...)
Jing Thing
Now Jing might sound like the name of a Chinese dynasty but, it is actually a free piece of software that allows you to do screen captures, create screencasts, and share it all easily. So lets break Jing down. As a screen capturing software it is great. As some of you Windows users probably have experienced, taking screenshots is a pain in the behind. Jing allows you to capture a window, pane, or region so you get just what you need. Jing also has a simple markup feature so you can add a text box, arrow, rectangle, or highlight what you want. After you have your screenshot you have several... (more...)
I Love This Time of Year – Part II
So CES is in full swing and there is varying opinion when the question “did you see anything cool at CES” gets asked. Some of the gadget blogs that I mentioned in the last post make it sound like everything is cool. So here is my take on what I’ve read about so far. By this time most product announcements have probably been made, but I’ll sure update this if there is a breaking news story. I can see why media people covering CES feel exhausted because there is so much information to boil down into a summary. I’m going to first state what I see are the trends, and then... (more...)
A Real Podcatcher for the iPhone
Sometimes Apple leaves features out of products for inexplicable reasons . We’re on version 3.0 of the iPhone software and their iTunes application does not allow you to subscribe to a podcast using the standard itpc:// protocol, nor can you add a feed manually, like you can with the desktop version of iTunes. The screenshot from the iPhone above shows you what happens when you click on an iTunes subscribe link in the web browser. An alternative program with the above features that you can use for the iPhone is called RSS Player. I mentioned this app in my post about AudioBoo, and it will... (more...)
About us
Welcome to the University of Mary Washington New Media Center. The UMWNMC is a sub-division of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT), and as part of its mission, provides research, oversees development, and offers production assistance and consultation for new media approaches to supporting technology-enhanced and online learning at UMW.
The University of Mary Washington is a member of the New Media Consortium, which we joined in 2007. The NMC provides programs and services that foster the exploration of new media and new technologies. The NMC provides an annual Horizon Project that reports on the emerging technologies in education.