Microsoft Teams is Frankenstein’s Monster

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration app that provides text, video and audio collaboration tools with shared files and calendars. The diagram shows how it is linked to Microsoft Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Those connections are described here, along with instructions on how to link files from SharePoint into your personal OneDrive folder. Microsoft Teams is […]

Manually Focusable Logitech C270

Instructions for modifying a Logitech C270 so that one can adjust the focus manually. The Logitech C270 is an inexpensive all-purpose webcam with a fixed focus which is set at the factory to be used for face-to-face video meetings with the camera placed on top of your computer monitor or above a laptop screen.  The […]

COVID-19 Educational Technology Glossary

The novel (i.e. new) coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has prompted novel (i.e. new) terminology in the field of educational technology.  To keep track of it all, I’ve started this glossary page, which I will update from time to time.   I welcome additions, either in the comments or by email.  I am solely responsible for any mistakes or […]

Local+Remote Lab Classes

This article explains a potential way to teach physics lab classes in the time of COVID-19, in a way that gives students some hands-on experience with the equipment and preserves the collaborative element of working as lab partners. (750 words) Planning for teaching physics labs in the Fall of 2020 is fraught with difficulties.   One […]

Potential Use of Steerable Consumer Home Cameras for “local+remote” Laboratory Instruction

In this article I report what I’ve learned so far about the possibility of using steerable consumer home monitoring cameras (“nanny cams”) to allow students to work together on laboratory exercises, with one student in the room and one (or more?) participating using the video and audio from the camera.   (~4660 words) Introduction and Motivation […]