Makerspace workshops in full swing

This semester we are continuing with the Makerspace tradition with workshops at Lane Library.  "Makerspace" can be defined as learning experiences outside of the box at the library, where people gather to learn something together, anything from specialized technology to digital art.  We have already held workshops on Zotero, Prezi, Audacity, Gimp, and Animoto.  Students, faculty and staff have already learned some of the free open source software available to help with their studies, and they have been introduced to other tools to create videos, presentations and podcasts. 

The workshops are free and with no advance registration required, and we try and do two sessions of each workshop. The content covered in each of the two sessions is the same, so you only need to attend the one that fits into your schedule.  The workshops last about 30 minutes, and are held in the Waitkus Computer Lab in Lane Library.

We still have a few more workshops to hold in the coming months, and below is our remaining schedule.

Twitter:  update your social media skills       

Monday, October 28 @4pm / Tuesday, October 29 @noon

Ready to take the plunge into Twitter?  Or maybe you are looking for a refresher course on Twitter’s available tools and how to make it work for you?  This is your chance. 

More information available at https://twitter.com/about

iPhone/iPad photo apps:  enhancing your photos   

Monday, November 4 @4pm

Do you take a lot of photos with your phone, but those photos are simply sitting there?  Find out the best apps for making the most out of your photos, and get pointers from Ripon’s very own Professor David Graham, who will be leading this workshop.

Advanced Google:  new search strategies 

Tuesday, November 12 @4pm / Wednesday, November 13 @noon

Want to find out how to do a better, faster search with Google?  All searching is not equal; learn how to take advantage of the Advanced Google search to find what you are looking for the first time.

More information available at http://www.google.com/advanced_search

If you have any questions, comments, or any suggestions for future Makerspace workshops, please let us know! 

Make space for Makerspace workshops this semester @Lane_Library!

What is makerspace?

A makerspace “is a community-operated physical space where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialize and/or collaborate.” (from Wikipedia)

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What’s up with open source software? What is it?

Open source means that no one owns the software, it has been developed through shared authorship; that is, anyone can add to the software and has access to its programming code, therefore the resource is free. It is also usable by anyone—that means you, your uncle, your super intelligent parrot that knows how to operate a computer, etc.
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The ultimate outcome of this software is that it allows you to create digital media and save money with what is essentially a FREE version of Photoshop, Endnote, Garage Band, or other program equivalents which you would normally have to pay hundreds for.
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To help you better acquaint yourself with some of these resources, Lane Library will be offering classes throughout the 2013 spring semester. Some of the things this software allows you to do includes: organize your online sources, edit images, record podcasts, create and edit movies, archive and organize images, create tutorials, and design better presentations in an interactive new format.

Check out the dates and times below, as well as a description of what features the software has to offer. Two classes are offered and if you can't make one time, hopefully the other will fit your schedule. Both classes cover the same material and you need only to attend one:

Classes on Monday, February 4th @ 4:00 & Tuesday 5th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

Zotero is a web browser add-on that helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources by collecting them into a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your library.

*Information from and available at http://www.zotero.org/



Classes on February Mon. 11th @ 4:00 & Tue. 12th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

“Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.

• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.

• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.

• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.

• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.”

*Information from and available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/



Classes on February Mon. 18th @ 4:00 & Tue. 19th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

Gimp is an image manipulation program used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. It’s basically like a free version of Photoshop.

*Information from and available at http://www.gimp.org/

 



Avidemux 






Classes on Monday, February 25th @ 4:00 & Tuesday 26th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

Avidemux is a free video editing program, designed for simple cutting, filtering, and encoding tasks. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

*Information from and available at Avidemux

Classes on Monday, March 4th @ 4:00 & Tue. 5th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

“Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. Its “five-minute setup” makes launching an online exhibition as easy as launching a blog.”

*Information from and available at http://omeka.org/
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Classes on Monday, March 18th @ 4:00 & Tuesday 19th @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

Prezi is an innovative online program that allows you to make presentations with visual landscaping that isn’t in slide form like Powerpoint. Instead, Prezi is more like a drafting table that allows you to move in every direction. This presentation program is easy to learn and allows for an infinite number of design appearances.

*Information available at http://prezi.com/

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Classes on Monday, April 1st @ 4:00 & Tuesday 2nd @ 12:00 (Waitkus Lab)

While we all know what Wikipedia is, actually creating a page or editing some of the information on a page isn’t obvious. As a free encyclopedia, Wikipedia is constantly being edited and added to by its users and has approximately “100,000 active contributors.” This class will focus on the process behind how information is added to Wikipedia pages.

*Information from and available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
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Classes on Tuesday, April 9th @ noon & Wednesday 10nd @ 4:00 (Waitkus Lab)

This resource allows you to capture screenshots while you work through something on your computer. Or, you can use it to make tutorials which can be recorded and viewed later. This tool is especially helpful for walking someone through a process or illustrating how to do something on the computer.

*Information from and available at http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html