Captivate vs. Camtasia

I've used both Captivate and Camtasia for creating online library tutorials. I like them both I generally favor Captivate because it has a few more features. Michael Steeleworthy of the blog the zeds : library science did a recent post comparing the two tutorial creation softwares. His job is to make recommendation to other librarians concerning which software to use and, in this post, he makes a case for why he generally prefers Captivate.

Creating a Good Profile Picture

As a librarian, I like to have a picture of myself available in profile on D2L as well as the social networking tools we use in the library (like Facebook) so that should students venture into the library they may recognize me and feel more comfortable approaching me and also so they get a sense that I'm real person when interacting with me in the online classroom. The social media guide Mashable offers 5 Tips for Creating the Perfect Profile Pic which includes some tools that can help you be creative in the process.

A peek into the future -- uh, past

A new partnership between Google and Popular Science Magazine has made available the entire 137 year archives of the magazine. Though I'm only a little familiar with the mag, I would imagine there are a number of ways this could be used by instructors. For example: history projects, evolution of technology discussions, changes in writing style over 137 years...and the list could go on. Check it out and relive your great-great-grandfather's youth.