OLW Blog Hop - July

Welcome. If you're visiting from the One Little Word Blog Hop, I'm so happy you're here. I came home a few days ago from a great trip across the Pacific Northwest - photos to follow soon I hope - to a dead hard drive on my PC.

 Luckily, I only lost the on board hard drive and not my portable where all my data is actually stored (I also use Carbonite's back up service so everything is also stored off site), but it's still a challenge to not have my regular PC. I'm using an old laptop to post tonight, but it's messed up all my workflows a bit. That said, my power was out the night before I left and...what is there to do for a digital gal when all the lights are off...crafting by candle light and flash light. I set up my flash light and a couple of candles in my studio and just played with paint and other craft tools for about two hours while the rest of the world was dark.

 But, that's not what you're here to "hear" today...you're here to see the soundtrack that is currently bringing me a lot of joy. I should start off by saying I LOVE music. I have gigabytes of it...it's a collection that according to iTunes would take weeks to play all the way through once. So...to pick just a few favorites is a challenge. I organize my playlists by mood and lately I've been using a lot of my "my favorites" and "makes me happy" playlists as well as my "makes me sing" which is always a favorite.

 For this post, I chose the following eight songs (along with one card that just says "feel the music".  I chose that title because I don't often choose songs for their lyrics...really only a couple are in my list for the lyrics.  All the rest are about the rhythm, the sound...the feeling you get.  Even the names of my playlists are by mood (makes me happy, makes me sappy, makes me dance).  Music is all about feeling to me.  So, while I can't necessarily tell you what these have to do with the word intention - my word for 2012, I can tell you these are songs I have loved since the first time I heard them and I bought them almost immediately after hearing them...I guess that's intentional.  Enjoy!

1. Feels Like Home by Chantal Kreviazuk.  I've always said if I got married this is the song that would play for the first dance - but it's always, always a favorite song.  You might also remember it from this other big project earlier this year.  I am not too proud to admit that when I heard this played for the first time in an episode of Dawson's Creek, I ran right out and tried to find it.

2. I'm Alright by JoDee Messina.  I adore JoDee Messina and have been lucky enough to see her from about the fourth row of the Grand Ole Opry.  This song is definitely on my "Makes Me Sing" soundtrack...I've known all the words since about 2 hours after I first heard the song.

3. I think I was late to discover Adele, but isn't this young woman's voice incredible?  I'm partial to Rolling in the Deep, but I like a number of her songs. As I took the time to read the lyrics of several of her songs that are in my collection tonight, I realized that I probably wouldn't pick them for the lyrics - but I do love that sound.

4.  I have a very special relationship with the movie Sweet Home Alabama.  It, along with a few others, were constant companions - providing much needed background noise, without distraction - while I finished my dissertation.  I love the Jewel cover by the same name that was a theme to that movie.  I haven't visited Alabama for any length of time, but I will someday and when I land or cross the state line I'll probably sing this as proudly as I sing Back Home Again in Indiana every time I return home.

5.  I've been a fan of the television show NCIS since well before it was number one in the ratings and everyone was watching it.  I quote the show a lot more often than even I probably realize in my daily conversations and I've been known to headslap people on occasion - only when completely deserved of course.  So, when they released a soundtrack to the show, I grabbed it up.  My favorite track by far is sung by Cote de Pablo - one of the show's stars...it's called Temptation.

6.  Kelly Clarkson could make my list twice - both in duets.  (Funny I've never watched her in that television show though).  And even though I saw she and Reba McEntire (coming up next) in concert and got to see them do Because of You live, it is her duet with Jason Aldean that I'm going to include here...Don't You Wanna Stay .

7.  Reba McEntire could make this list a hundred times as I think I own everything she's ever recorded.  My current Reba favorite is I Want A Cowboy .  I actually identify with the words in this one too, but I love the sound just as much as the words.

8.  And, to round out the list, I'm not even sure how to describe this song.  It's performed by Roisin Murphy and it's called Ramalama.  If I need to get moving...this is my go to song.  I identify with the line "takin' a picture" of course...but all the rest of it is just this oddly pulled together rhythm and sound that I adore.

 The letter and number stamping on these was done with a set of stamps I hand-carved during Julie-Balzer's awesome Stamp Carving 101 class.  The handwriting is my own.  I hope you've enjoyed the visit.  Please feel free to visit again.  I look forward to adding to my own music collection visiting everyone else in the Blog Hop.


Margie - http://xnomads.typepad.com
Kara  - http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com <--You are here -->
Monica  - http://scrapinspired.com/tag/one-little-word/
Lisa - http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/
Donna - http://holimess.blogspot.com/
Mrs. Wookie - http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/ 
Monica B - http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com
Ruth - http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com
Naomi - http://poeticaperture.com/
Veronica - http://www.veronicanorris.typepad.com
Carolina - http://www.micinnamons.blogspot.com
Cindy - http://seriousplay.typepad.com
Kelly - http://mindingmynest.com
Brighton - http://www.simplebrighton.com
Nikki  - http://www.inkyart.com.au
Amanda - http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com
Tere  - http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/
Cheri - http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

#BbW12 Day 2 Wrap Up - My Full Run Down of the Product Keynote

Before we move on to Day 2...a brief addition to our recap of Day 1.  If you want to see/know more about Dr. Freeman Hrabowski's awesome opening keynote from yesterday our own Lacie's article was featured on the Blackboard Blog today.  Be sure to check that out.  Also, if you don't mind less than outstanding video (and videography) quality you can check out my YouTube playlist which features nearly the entire address.... (this video links to Part 1 - just find the full Playlist by linking to this video on YouTube)

 ...now back to our regularly scheduled Day 2 Wrap Up.

A highlight of Blackboard World every year is the Product Keynote.  This year's keynote was certainly a highlight, although it was presented in a more serious tone - Chasen's pee jokes notwithstanding - than any previous keynote I can recall.  I believe the address was moved from late morning/early afternoon (previous years) to first thing in the morning (this year). It is my experience that geeks (at least this one) are rarely fully alert early in the morning so I'm not sure I like the change in timing.  It also felt to me like there was far less build up/excitement from the stage which left a little bit of a feeling of underwhelm to what were some pretty outstanding announcements.  (And, yet again, the wireless died for Kayvon's mobile demo...perhaps next year just plan to simulate things so you don't have to deal with that?)

Here is my full recap for those of you who want more detail than you could get from the live twitter, instagram, and facebook posting.

The presentation opened with this great, quick video featuring "The Active Learner".  The video was a collaborative project between Blackboard and JESS3.  Active Learners aren't coming soon - they are coming NOW to all of our schools.

Michael Chasen kicked off the keynote by relating Blackboard's product and services in terms his kids could understand (the Chasen's welcomed their new daughter this past year and so Michael was inspired by his extended time off spent with his kids).  You may have seen this floating around (pun fully intended) on the Internet...social media explained in pee terms...which inspired Chasen's description of Bb's product suite in similar terms.  For your viewing pleasure...Chasen's descriptions of Bb's products and services...in "potty" terms.

Part 1 - The Products

and...Part 2 - The Services

In case you can't read/hear ... the first line says Blackboard Consulting "We Can Help You Install Your Toilets".  The last line, which you may not be able to read and/or make out what was said given I'm laughing so hard that the camera was shaking says..."Blackboard Managed Hosting...Let Me Hold That For You".  As a managed hosting client...that was just a little too disturbing...


Michael carried the pee theme into the announcement of the new Blackboard product - which has been code named "xp" (or xPee...just to keep the joke going a moment longer).  

Joking aside...the first product coming out of the xp Project is a Learning Object Repository (LOR) name xPlor.  xPlor holds big promise for institutions who want to free their content from the LMS as it is a cloud based object repository.  That will let institutions with multiple platforms (or those who wish to change platforms) reuse content without having to recreate or transfer it.  The sample interface screens shown were clean and showed off the ability to easily add content to multiple courses. Since it is cloud based, content will likely be available from Blackboard's free CourseSites tool as well as institutional content repositories if that content is tagged as OER/Creative Commons content (that's a complete guess on my part, but seems logical).  The demo featured Khan Academy content, but it's likely to include content from hundreds of sources. xPlor features tools for creating content directly as well - excited to see that both assessments and assignments are a part of that content creation tool set.  Can't wait to get our hands on this to kick the tires.

xPlor was called the first of many projects under the project xP label with calendars and discussions flashed quickly on the screen as potential future expansions...will look forward to next year's keynote to see where this project goes.

Chasen also highlighted the continued partner relationships (announced during last year's keynote) with the major publishers.  In addition to McGraw-Hill whose Connect tool because available last year, Blackboard delivered on the agreement announced from the stage last year that integrations with Pearson, Cengage, and Wiley have been added.  A highlight take away that I tweeted during this portion...

@pearson serves 4.5 million students a year in mymatlab...now it can do it right in @Blackboard w/ new building block #bbw12
— Kara Monroe (@kicki22) July 11, 2012

After that, Michael turned the presentation over to Ray Henderson.

Ray highlighted improved ticket closure rates, delivery on continued commitment to openness, quality improvements, and transparency.  He used the example of the adjustment in release calendars based on client feedback to highlight this one.

As is his tradition in has past two addresses (his first set the stage for what was to come in the future), Ray highlighted the Blackboard Performance Rubric.

He took this one step further this year...adding a new category for reporting on next year...Innovation.  I was extremely pleased to see this addition - it's been needed for a couple of years.

Reorganization within Blackboard in the last year has Learn, Analytics and Collaborate all reporting up through to Ray so he covered a few coming changes in these areas.  Changes to navigation (they called it global navigation) will improve ease of use.  

An exciting announcement was improvements to assessment analysis tools.

Enterprise surveys were also highlighted again. I seem to recall this being announced last year, but I could have been confusing that with it just being on the roadmap last year. That said...it's going to be delivered in a future product update. Speaking of the "when is it coming" question, Ray got "called out" from the audience and asked specifically when something would be delivered...he tried to dodge the question but gave the pretty quick answer of a Service Pack somewhere between 9 and 11...cute way to avoid the "legal eagles staring him down" from the audience when someone shouted the question at him.

One of the more exciting announcements, in my opinion, is that one way text notification will also become a part of the core product in a near future release. Bb announced two way texting at the conference as a part of their Connect tool so they have added the original one way into the core tool...very nice!

 

Analytics was covered briefly - more of in reference to the opening keynote yesterday - but still a brief mention.

Blackboard is trying their hand at social again...with a planned new tool by the same name. Over the last few BbWorld's we've seen a lot of different sample iterations of what this might look like some day...this is a to be delivered item now so whether it's service pack 10 or 11 is unclear, but it's coming. Bb took one of their attempts at Social - the Scholar tool - out of commission earlier this year. It will be interesting to see how this new attempt works. If I followed it all correctly, profile data will live in the cloud, but it didn't appear that this was tied to the xP project from the opening of the presentation.

Social also comes with Spaces...informal gathering places for students and groups. Given the size and scope of our system...this one strikes the most fear into my heart.

Collaborate announcements included Mobile - which we already are a part of the beta for, as well as some enhanced integration with Learn that includes grade book participation marking both for attending a session and watching an archive. I was a little surprised to NOT hear the words Echo Cancellation said from the stage as they were getting said pretty much everywhere else from Collaborate folks.

Ray handed off to Katie Blot, VP for Services. Katie talked about the entire stack of services available to help institutions in the education lifecycle.

She highlighted some successes in leveraging these tools at places like University of Southern Mississippi and a pretty recent (I think) contract/arrangement in California.  Developmental Education got a mention as did Student Services.

The Keynote was running long (which is pretty much the norm) when Katie turned it over to Kayvon to present on mobile...(BTW...anyone know how he was streaming wirelessly from his iPad back to his mac to be able to project what was on his iPad or was that actually simulated? I assume it wasn't since his wireless apparently stopped work  - and didn't that happen to him last year too?)

Big announcements from mobile...testing (which we're already playing around with) as well as a new model for deployment that lets students purchase the app - meaning the institution isn't paying for the service. Students can buy for $1.99 annual or $5.99 for unlimited use. I anticipate us staying with the institutional license that means students get the app at no additional cost to them, but this announcement and new approach garnered a lot of applause.

Overall, it was a great keynote with a number of exciting changes. That was just the first hour of the day so there was much more throughout the day here in NOLA.

 If you saw the keynote live...what did I forget? If you weren't here - have any questions?

#bbw12 and NOLA - Ten things from our first day

I'm blogging from a conference (Blackboard World) in New Orleans this week, but I'm blending my geeky and my photography/art side together with this post and linking up to Shimelle's 10 things in this post with 10 things from the first day of Bb World and our first full day in NOLA.

1. The days start very, very early at Bb World...we were meeting for Breakfast at 7 a.m.  We won't discuss how early I woke up.  Of course, as always in hotels, I had to see if there was a good pic out the window - and there was.  I have a view of Canal Street.  If you can see the CVS just left of center in the pic - that's Bourbon street.  

2.  I came to NOLA with a relatively new cell phone (only had it about two weeks) and a brand new MacBook Pro.  The cell phone is wonderful.  The Droid Razr Maxx has AMAZING battery life.  However, the Mac is reminding me of how much I have to relearn about the Mac OS.  Finding these photos on the Mac, then exporting them to Flickr, and then realizing that I couldn't do HDR with this photo as I don't have HDR software on the Mac = ugh!  So, there will be quite a bit of re-processing and posting of photos when I get back home.

3.  The Ruby Slipper = delicious Breakfast.  My team has come to BbWorld together for several years.  As such, breakfast together one morning at BbWorld has become a tradition.  This year, it's great to have so many regional staff along with my team here and they joined us for breakfast!  Missed Ryan, Jeff and Dennis at breakfast but the rest of the gang had a great time.  The photo was a bit cloudy as it was cold inside and very warm outside.  I like the look though.

4. I'm enjoying Instagram a lot on this trip.  Hence, a few of my instagram photos are also scattered in this post.  There are cool bean bag chairs scattered throughout the convention center.  I've (half) joked with the team for a while that I'm going to add some bean bag chairs to our office to add to the "swanky lounge" feel.  We already have a lava lamp, a disco ball, and...if you're there at just the right time a conference table turned ping pong table. I think bean bags would be a great next addition.  These would be awesome.  Adam is on the case to find out where/how we could acquire some of these, although it's proving to be a daunting challenge.

5. Jeff (on the right), Chad (center) and I gave our presentation this afternoon.  (Thanks Michelle and Matthew for grabbing some pics for me).  I promise, the presentation was not as serious as this picture makes it look.  (Although, Michelle snapped a lot of shots and this was the least serious looking of all of them...note to self - remember to smile next time you present.)  We had a good time, great questions from the audience, and truly enjoyed chatting with folks after the session was over.  

6. Right after our session, Cathy gave her first presentation at a National Conference.  She presented in the Digital Learning and Content Center.  What could have been more distracting than presenting in a huge open "theatre-esque" space?  No worries though as she did a fabulous job!

7. We observed another BbWorld tradition of sitting together at the Keynotes - this year we needed more than a whole row!!! Here is the quick Instagram snap of the group (and some other innocent bystanders) just before the Keynote began.

8.  Our own Lacie is a BbWorld 2012 VIP Blogger.  She was ready to go in the reserved blogger area at the conference.  You can find her on Twitter as well as on her blog.  Very excited for her!

 

9. The Keynote by Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President of University of Maryland, Baltimore College was interesting and inspiring.  I shot video of the whole speech but hotel wireless isn't cooperating so I'll get it uploaded at some point to share out with you.  One of the key takeaways was the idea that in higher education today access MUST equal success - we can no longer have one without the other.  Great, great presentation.

10.  After the opening reception (complete with Flash Mob) in the exhibit hall, it was time to have a little fun exploring the French Quarter.  We headed to Pat O'Brien's and, of course, got the requisite hurricane - although mine was sans-alcohol.  Like I said when I opened the post, days start early at BbWorld...and it's another early morning tomorrow.

Getting the Most Out of #bbw12 Poster Sessions

Greetings from NOLA!  I'm here attending Blackboard World this week and will be smattering in a little geekdom to my normal art and photography stuff.  I'm hoping to get some time with the camera in New Orleans as well to keep up the photography while I'm here.  If you're new here just for the Bb World posts, welcome.  If you're a regular visitor, we'll be back to normal programming next week.  


Surprisingly, my most viewed picture on Flickr (of the more than 8000 in my account), is this one of a QR Code, last year at Educause.  The title of the photo is "QR Codes are the norm for poster sessions".

QR Codes...those tiny little blocks of black ink that look like a Rorschach test gone wrong...that you see popping up everywhere nowadays can hold text, links, phone numbers and more.  You can make your own using a number of online QR Code generators like Kaywa QR Code generator.  A QR Code that will link you to my Tumblr web site is shown below.  It was made with the Kaywa QR Code generator.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Since the BBWorld posters are usually available during the opening reception that will be held tonight, I thought I'd share a little tip for getting the most out of your QR Code Reader while browsing the posters.

If you've been to a professional conference and tried to make your way through poster sessions, you know they are generally crowded and a little frenzied.  I enjoy them though as you often get to talk one on one with folks who have spent a lot of time on big projects.  However, the change to QR codes as a way to get more info on a particular topic, left me wondering how to keep a catalog of all the QR codes I'd looked at so I could reference them later when I got back home and could do something with them.  However, you don't really have to remember them as most QR Code readers have a history feature built in.  Just scan the code and move on.  When you get back home, just open the app back up and scroll right back through the history to see what you've scanned.

I have an Android RAZR Maxx smart phone (LOVE.THIS.PHONE!! and it's AMAZING battery life).  My QR Code reader/bar code scanner of choice is Bar Code Scanner.  It's available for free from this link on the Amazon app store.

or you can get it here from Google Play.  After scanning a QR Code you can send it by email, by SMS text message, or view it in the browser.  They are also saved in the history which is accessible by clicking the menu button while you've got the app open.  That's far faster than having to email each link back to yourself to remind you to look at them when you get home.

For iOS users, the "QR Reader for iPhone" app seems to have good reviews and also sports a history function. That said, I'm not a regular iOS user so I can't speak to that one specifically.

Have other tips for getting the most out of poster sessions?

My Fabric Map...the Pinterest Challenge!!!

I was so excited to see Sherry at Young House Love and Katie at Bower Power announce it was yet again time for the Pinterest Challenge.  I had two ideas in mind.  I was going to turn the wine cabinet I'd bought a few weeks back into a brightly colored pen holder in my studio.  However, I'm still not sure what color the room is going to be so I thought overbrightening the wine rack now might be a bit premature.  So, I went with option number 2 - a fabric map, inspired by this pin which is from a blog post by Being Brook.

Source: beingbrook.com via Kara on Pinterest

It became obvious this was the project for me when Ali Edwards linked up to this Printable map puzzle

in her Creative Lifts newsletter this past week.  The map was the only thing on the list of supplies I needed to be able to do this project so now that I had this alternative - I was ready to go.  I wanted to do this project as a way to track my goal of spending at least one night in all 50 states before my fiftieth birthday.  I also think it will just be a fun piece to act as a centerpiece to a visual travelogue wall in my loft/office. 

Source: mrprintables.com via Kara on Pinterest

Let's dig into how easy it was.

I started by printing the PDF of the map puzzle and cutting out all the pieces.  (If I did it over again, I'd print them onto card stock so they were a little more durable).  I didn't cut out Hawaii from what was provided...I'll dig into why a bit later.  I love that these pieces are a little "edgy" - they aren't true to a road map type shape with all the little wiggles and curves that make up a true map.  This looks a bit more modern as all the lines are much more straight on this printable. It was that styling that made me decide this was the right map for me.  The size of it was also perfect as I had a 24" x 24" board I wanted to use and this fit just perfectly side to side.

After cutting out all the pieces, I grabbed the rest of my supplies.  You'll need fabric scraps, some fusible heat bond interfacing, scissors, and an iron and ironing board.  You're also going to need some sort of background fabric to mount it on.  Instead of using 50 different scraps, I only used 10 different ones - and tended towards oranges, yellows, and some black/white for a little dark/contrast.  My mounting fabric is just $1.99 a yard muslin that I keep on hand all the time for all sorts of crafty projects.

First, iron the heat bond onto the wrong side of your fabric scraps.  Since I was doing five states per fabric, I just put about a six inch square piece of bond onto the back of each fabric and then picked five states that felt as though they were nowhere close to each other on the map and traced them, face down, onto backing paper.

Now...cut them all out ...again.  Cutting was NEVER my favorite thing so this project did try my patience a bit.  But, at least I was working mostly with straight lines and wasn't dealing with all the tiny little curves that would have been on it if I'd used real map pieces.

As I cut the pieces out, I test fit them - using a print out of the pieces as a master to make sure I didn't accidentally switch the places of Wyoming and Colorado or New Hampshire and Vermont.  Given my general sense of direction and lack of geographical prowess...that - and much worse - was a distinct possiblity.

When everything was cut out (still with the exception of Hawaii - right now it's that little yellow thing just hanging out west of Oregon right now - don't worry - I'll fix it here in a bit) it was time to peel off the backing paper on the fusible heat bond interfacing and iron it to the muslin.  As you can see, my muslin needed a little love from the iron before I got to that so I knocked that out and then started fitting everything together with the iron.

 

Just like in Brook's map, I started with Iowa since it's roughly in the center and it was pretty easy to build out from both sides.  My pieces don't fit perfectly together - there are a few gaps and a few overlaps, but generally, it went together well.  I think if I had used cardstock rather than plain paper for the original template, my lines would have been a little crisper so some of this might have been a little cleaner, but it wasn't enough to worry me or force me to recut anything.  The tiny gaps tell you it's handmade and I'm okay with that.

Speaking of not recutting anything, you might be saying...Kara did you not realize that Oklahoma and Texas are right next to each other?  If you look closely - you will see those are two different fabrics.  However, South Dakota and Iowa are the same fabric and do touch each other and Minnesota and Nebraska are pretty close.  That said, I was going for "random" and in true randomness, I would have most likely ended up with more than what I have here next to each other in the exact same fabric.  The mathematician in me could live with not fixing it and, from a design standpoint, I actually liked the balance of it overall.  I left everything as it was and opted not to recut anything in a different fabric.  I also gave about 10 seconds consideration to stitching around each state but decided that was more trouble than I wanted and I didn't think it would add to the look.  I also thought about adding in the Great lakes in some way, but again, decided it would just be a mass of blue up there so didn't worry about that either.

Once the 48 contiguous states were attached, it was time to deal with where to put Alaska and Hawaii.  I didn't mind that the printable I used didn't have these to scale.  Alaska would have been enormous if it had been to scale.  I did, however, mind that the printable only had four little islands for Hawaii.  There are seven inhabited islands in Hawaii - and I've been fortunate enough to have visited three of them - so getting that a little more right was important to me.  I don't know that I got shapes right, but it was a better effort than the four little pieces included in the printable.

Now that everything is cut out and ironed down, it's time to mount or frame this.  I decided to mount it over cork and a little fabric batting - just to give it a little more density since the muslin is so thin.  I already had the 24" x 24" project board and the pack of four cork tiles as well as the batting and my trusty staple gun.  After digging for a couple of minutes in my tool box I also found a couple of "self leveling" project hangers that I could use to put this up on the wall, so now I just needed to "upholster" the project board.

This is what it looked like just before I dropped about fifty staples all around the back side.

Once all the stapling was finished, I pushed the hangers into the back of the board, tossed some nails into the wall, and hung it up.  (For those of you that know the layout of the loft...yes...I moved the chair to "style" the picture a little bit.)

And, now for a close up...

The process for this is pretty straightforward - but a little time consuming.  All told, it probably took me about four solid hours of work (although that was spread over a couple of days and certainly wasn't done in one large block).  A large majority of it is just cutting so you can do that while watching tv, listening to music, etc.

I had everything I needed for the project in my stash of crafty supplies so this was a $0 new dollar project for me. If you did have buy everything I'm guessing it would be around $25 - $40 plus fabric scraps.  You'll have plenty of heat bond and batting left over to use on other projects.  


I didn't frame mine, like Brook did - although I may still add a frame later.  At the moment, I'm debating whether or not to add pins in each place where I've stayed or to just use this as the centerpiece and add framed photos around it of different places I've been....what do you think?