Friday, July 13, 2012

Featured Online Resource: Webinar on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)


This week's Featured Online Resource is a recording of a webinar held July 11th, on the topic of MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses.
The web is all abuzz lately on the topic of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Classes), with the introduction of edX, a joint partnership between Harvard and MIT, that will offer free online classes.  If you want to learn more about what a MOOC is, you can listen to the recording of a webinar sponsored by JISC, held July 11, 2012.  JISC is a UK-based institute that provides leadership for educational institutions in the use of digital technology in research, teaching, and learning in the UK.

The link for information on the webinar and to listen to the recording of the webinar is: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2012/07/webinarmooc.aspx

The recording is about 1 hour and 15 minutes and will launch in Blackboard Collaborate.  To start the playback of the recording, select the Playback link at the top and then Play.

Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.

Monday, July 2, 2012

New Exhibit: Roswell @ 65: Paranormal Goes Mainstream


The Lewis J. Ort Library is pleased to announce the newest exhibit in the library: “Roswell @ 65: Paranormal Goes Mainstream”On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record reported that the US Army had recovered a “Flying Saucer” on a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico.  It has been 65 years since this incident.  Since the purported UFO crash landing in Roswell, sightings of UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and other paranormal phenomenon have increased in number.  

The paranormal has entered popular fiction with the introduction of television shows like The Twilight Zone, In Search Of…, and The X-Files, along with movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Fire in the Sky.  Reality TV shows about the paranormal has also exploded in recent years.  We now programs on television purporting to explain and understand the paranormal with titles such as:
  • Ghost Hunters
  • Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
  • Finding Bigfoot 
  •  Ancient Aliens
  • UFO Files
  • Monster Quest

This display highlights some of the resources the library offers on the subject of the paranormal.  It also provides information gathered resources from the Internet to highlight the plethora of paranormal information that can be found there.

The display is on the main floor of the library (3rd floor) and will run through the end of July. Please contact Theresa Mastrodonato at tmmastrodonato@frostburg.edu or MaryJo Price at mprice@frostburg.edu if you have any questions about the display.