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What would you do to make Stellar more useful?

Each Spring and Fall semester, a new version of the Stellar software provides new features and functionality, increased reliability, and an enhanced user experience. With each release Stellar course management system becomes more fully integrated with the MIT enterprise infrastructure, as well as with other educational initiatives.

The Emerson College Learning Portal Project is the latest and most ambitious iteration in their experiments in multimedia pedagogy. Combining blog and portal technology, this system has implications for pedagogy, software design, and the ways in which software does or does not reflect the actual craft practices of teaching and learning.

The GIS Lab is offering five one-hour workshops this fall to help people get started using Geographic Information Systems at MIT.

Workshop topics include:

• Introduction to ArcGIS software
• How to Read Topographic Maps with Digital Elevation Models
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• The Quest for Data - Finding data for your projects and getting it into a GIS
• Working with U.S. Census Data in a GIS

Watch for the more in-depth GIS classes which will be offered during IAP. For more information see the class descriptions.

To register send email to gishelp@mit.edu

"How can we advance arts and humanities research through the development of shared technology services?"

Project Bamboo attempts to answer that question.

A broad-based initiative, targeted at the needs of scholars in the humanities and social sciences, Project Bamboo is funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation and led by U Chicago and UC Berkeley.

Approximately 15% of MIT undergraduates will spend time studying or researching in another country. Following DUE's strategic theme to foster global leadership through foreign travel, this percentage is predicted to grow. Using the capabilities of Second Life, OEIT's VW expert Evan Leek has created - within MIT's existing Second Life SIM - a gathering space for globally distributed students.

Check out the new machines in the NMC:

13 - 24" iMacs (2.4GHz Intel Duo Core 2, 4 GB RAM, SuperDrive) running Leopard 10.5.4 and with Adobe CS3, Final Cut Pro, MS Office Suite 2004.

The NMC is open 24/7, accessible with the Athena cluster code. The room can also be reserved for classes and workshops by contacting nmc-consult@mit.edu.

Editor: Chuck Schubert

An application in STAR's suite of visualization tools is reaching a wider audience. This month the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHS) featured StarHydro as a effective tool for learning hydrologic concepts by exploring "similarity and regionalization using a catalog of hydrologic/geomorphologic indices." 1.

Designed as an open-ended and user-friendly tool, StarHydro permits various levels of "integration with the curriculum, from single problem sets to use as a comprehensive teaching aid."

Originally intended for use in teaching, Professor Rafael Bras has also identified an opportunity to use it as a front-end for hydrology research software. Future StarHydro releases will use what has been learned from work with high performance and cloud computing in order to incorporate more research capabilities into the application.

LiNC (Learning International Networks Consortium) has launched a new program, BLOSSOMS (Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies), funded by Hewlett Packard and oriented towards math and science high school students in the USA, Jordan and Pakistan.

"University educators in each participating country will create 15 enhanced blended learning stand-alone educational video modules to use in high school math and science classes". In addition "...selected high schools in each country will utilize the 45 created modules in their own teaching and learning. The pedagogical model is 'enhanced blended,' meaning the in-class teacher is a vital part of the learning process". 1.

Refer here and the LiNC website for more info.

We are happy to announce that Toru Iiyoshi recently joined OEIT as Senior Strategist.

Well known in the field of educational technology and technology-enhanced scholarship of teaching and learning for his work at the Carnegie Foundation, Toru was a senior scholar and Director of the Knowledge Media Lab, as well as the co-editor of the recently published "Opening Up Education" (MIT Press). He brings a wealth of experience and expertise around educational knowledge building and sharing, communities of practice, and open education.