Category Archives: Uncategorized

My First Windows Mobile App

Publications, Uncategorized

I wrote a Bentley App that runs on Windows Mobile using Visual Studio 2010 in Visual Basic. After installing the Windows Phone Developer tools, I was good to go. Took a bit of time to learn a bit about page navigation, but I was able to get started. I took advantage of some of the code sample starters online.

The app showcases information about Bentley University, but is designed in such a way that by changing the college name, colors, logo, web site URL, etc., in various XML files, and then rebuilding,  it becomes an app for  any school.

Philip DesAutels presented this app at the Microsoft  CIO Summit in Redmond, Washington. It was designed as a template that will serve as a model for other educational institutions.

The app is available in the Windows Marketplace, and the code in VB and C# is up on Codeplex.

Randy Guthrie, an Academic Developer Evangelist from Microsoft,  wrote a review on his blog.

From Computer Literacy to Web 2.0 Literacy

Publications, Teaching, Uncategorized

Last year Larry Press  of California State University and I wrote a paper entitled “From Computer Literacy to Web 2.0 Literacy:  Teaching and Learning Information Technology Concepts Using Web 2.0 Tools”.  I presented it at ISECON 2009 and it is now published in the Information Systems Education Journal.

Abstract: Computer literacy has evolved from writing simple BASIC programs to using desktop productivity applications. The shift from mainframe to personal computer brought about the need to rethink computer literacy courses to introduce basic skills and familiarity using desktop productivity applications. While these skills remain important, the recent shift of applications and data from the desktop to the Web has brought about another stage in the evolution of computer literacy education to the extent that today’s students not only need to be “computer literate” but also “Web literate” or “Web 2.0 literate.” Computer literacy courses retained the old concepts, but had less time to cover them because of the need to introduce new concepts. This paper examines approaches to teaching first year college introductory technology courses and suggests practical exercises and skills required for today’s students to be Web 2.0 literate.

JDRF Spring Briefing

Uncategorized

Some of my students worked with the JDRF New England Chapter to record their spring research briefing. Thanks to Kevin Bell, Christina Gangi, Eileen Mullan, Taylor Murphy, and Julie Pomponi, who attended the event, recorded the videos, edited and posted them, and posted the accompanying presentations on slideshare.net.  This gave the students the opportunity to create and produce multimedia and interact with blogging and collaboration tools.  Way to go!