My online summer course on digital media culture theory and trends at Queen’s University is off to a great start. The students are creating some excellent work on the site.

One of their first assignments is to create some photoquotes based on the weekly readings. Here are a couple of examples I think turned out really well:

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/6756420231/

Image sourced from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/born2bmild/5158015580/

The description for how to do photoquotes is on the site, and part of the course outline (on scribd). Here is the first week’s lecture video. The topic is digital literacies.

In terms of walking the talk, we’re using several social media platforms including Twitter and Google+. And we’re constructing a collaborative pinterest board and a Facebook page.

Obviously this course has a tonne of online open educational resources. We are using the campus learning management system (Moodle) for secure delivery of the gradebook and for online testing. Otherwise, I’m dedicated to teaching in public to increase accessibility and engagement. The students are putting lots of comments on each others’ work, and that activity is being tracked using Disqus (the leaderboard for commenters is on the sidebar here).

300 students, many learning WordPress and Photoshop for the first time and at the same time, and 12 weeks of content covered in 6 weeks, I love summer school!

Here are links to my boards on educational technology trends and mobile/web apps for education.

And some of my favorites discovered via my Twitter PLN: check them out

1. Seneca Professor Valerie Lopes has a great board on social media for learning.
2. Syracuse Social media Prof Dr. William J. Ward has pinned an enormous collection of resources on social learning and education.
3. Marketing Professor Bhupesh Shah is pinning some amazing infographics on revolutionizing education.
4. Advertising Prof Anthony Kalamut‘s board on all things in the world of advertising is a gold mine and demonstrates how a subject specialist can use Pinterest for research.
5. Prof and entrepreneur Margaret A. Powers is building an all-star collection of boards on education, apps for education, and global ed sites.
6. My hero, the EDTECH HULK is contributing to an awesome board on Social Media and Learning and has posted an unmissable collection of THINGS TO SMASH!

image:  Some rights reserved by katstan

Doing some research into the flipped classroom at scale, and discovered this inspiring perspective from Steve Wheeler’s blog, describing another innovative approach to flipping the classroom: “We don’t need to use hi-tech solutions to help us flip the classroom. If we want higher quality learning experiences, we simply flip traditional roles. Flipping learning for me means teachers becoming learners and students becoming teachers [...So for example,] teachers assume the role of a learner, and accept that they are not the fonts of all knowledge, but are there to facilitate learning instead of instructing [...And correspondingly, supporting] students to become teachers, and we encourage them to independently create their own content, share and present their work – either in the classroom, or on the web – we place them in a position where they must take responsibility to learn and develop their understanding of their subject. This is active, participatory learning.” ~ Steve Wheeler [@timbuckteeth]
Click here to read the original piece for an intelligent critique of the flipped classroom model/rhetoric.

Image:  Some rights reserved by sunshinecity

Just booked, a new workshop for The University of Delaware coming up this May, and designed with time-starved faculty in mind. Here’s the description:

This hands-on workshop is designed for faculty, staff, and students who want to improve their online reputation through developing a robust online presence. With concrete action steps, we’ll cover how to use multimedia tools such as blogs and images, video and podcasting, booklists, visual bookmarking, and social good initiatives, to create a current, relevant, and impactful digital footprint. We’ll review new social networks specifically for scientists, researchers, artists, and other academics. I’ll share ideas, tools, and case studies of how to quickly and easily professionalize your presence on some of the best known social platforms including a Facebook profile, a LinkedIn page, a YouTube channel, a Pinterest board, and a Twitter stream. Assuming that everyone is short on time to learn how to use these tools to construct a professional online persona, this workshop is all about shortcuts and timesavers. From growing a personal learning network online, to disseminating research on the web, from job searching, to collaborating with far-flung colleagues, attendees are guaranteed to leave this workshop full of ideas and inspiration to optimize their online selves, whether they have a few minutes or a whole weekend available to do so. Prepared for The University of Delaware. May 29, 2012.

I assign infographics instead of another research essay or presentation, because we are doing both of those types of assignments in the course already. These creative pieces certainly demonstrate to me that putting together an infographic takes a lot of time, research prep, inspiration, design- and software skills. So impressed!

Ps. Clicking on the images takes you to the original posts on the course website. For teachers and profs that click-thru might be of interest, because it reveals the excellent, in-depth, peer-to-peer commenting and feedback/dialogues students are having about these infographics. Enjoy!

Facebook Timeline by Leanne Taylor Hein

Pinterest by Caroline Klimek

Exergaming by Ben Bourgon

Social Media Marketing Case Study by Cicely Johnston


iGeneration Learning with Social Media by JJ Flegg

Registration is open for my online summer course in digital media trends at Queen’s University. We have 300 virtual seats available for part-time professionals and full time students from Queen’s, for students from other colleges and universities, and life-long learners, alums, and community members.

If you like thinking about and using social and mobile media technology, this might be the right course for you. Six weeks, lectures on demand, webinars, podcasts, a mobile app, tweets and a Facebook page, infographics and blogging…it’s going to be a great experience!

FILM260-eflyer

We created some video promotions and course trailers for this class, and are testing which versions are most effective. If you have time to screen them and post a comment I would be VERY grateful to read it!

Big thank you to Ben, Leanne and Hayley for creative work on these videos:

Promo #1 Talking head with animations


Promo #2 Voiceover animation

Promo #3 Kinetic typography


Promo #4 Kinetic typography

Hayles suggested:

“If the environment is highly technologically engineered, humans become technologically savvy but also dependent. Some cognitive scientists have realized that GPS technology has changed our sense of direction and left us more dependent on getting around, since no one will have to read a map anymore.”

Similarly, back on campus it follows that:

“Students nowadays are increasingly multitasking. No longer do students go to the library to write their papers; they’re watching T.V., surfing the internet, listening to music, and viewing webpages. All of these aspects influence their research and essays.”

In her research Hayles “toured many colleges and heard a lot of professors say that young people nowadays can’t read whole books, so they assign chapters, and students can’t read whole novels, so they assign short stories.”

All things considered, Hayles concluded:

“The challenge for educators is to build bridges between the rapidly changing generations of students with newly integrated learning through other forms of digital media, ending the traditional lecture which is becoming outdated.”

Another nail in the lecture coffin. Interesting.

For a very similar perspective on swapping lectures for more interactive techno-teaching, see Twilight of the Lecture — describing the groundbreaking work that Eric Mazur is doing in the classrooms at Harvard.

All of which leads me to wonder: in the age of TED talks, which we can’t seem to get enough of, why is the university lecture doomed?

Today I took part in a great online discussion sponsored by Postmedia about teens and sexting. The discussion covered related issues like kids and online safety, cyberbullying, parenting in the digital age, and how to get student leaders involved in mentoring other students about being smart and safe online and on-the-go via mobile phones. My discussion panel included Paul Taillefer, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and Matthew Pearson, an education reporter for the Ottawa Citizen. It was organized and actively moderated by Ruth Dunley of Postmedia Digital.

The entire chat transcript is online, just click the image below to see the session including comments from many guest participants (including parents, teachers, and some teens and twenty-somethings) who dropped by to get involved in the discussion.

click image to see full transcript

It’s that time of the year again, launching on Valentine’s Day, the annual Summer eLearning video contest at Queen’s University — and first prize is a shiny new iPad.

Students are challenged to submit a 3 minute (max) web video short about why online learning in the summer is great! The video with the most YouTube likes takes home the lovely new gadget (or a Best Buy gift card for the equivalent amount of a 16G model). Contest closes on 16 March. All the contest details and regulations are here.

I’m teaching a course this summer on digital culture trends so I am VERY excited about this cool little contest. Here’s a 45 second video promo I made for Queen’s Continuing and Distance Studies to promote the contest!

 
And here are some of my favorite entries from last year’s contest, including the grand prize winner “Online at Queen’s — A Love Story” by Hayley V. Fuller. Enjoy!

Using Social Media for Health Promotion: Best Practices

February 2012
The Peer Health Educator (PHE) “Be Well Do Well” program run out of Health, Counselling and Disabilities Services at Queen’s University. This short talk will focus on how to effectively use social media tools, channels, and communications for health promotion and outreach. February 2nd. Location is Dunning 10, and the talk starts at 5:30pm.

Social Media in the Classroom

February 2012
Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are common practices in our personal lives, but what if we could also use them as teaching tools in our classrooms? In this workshop we will discuss about how we can effectively incorporate social media into our teaching practices. February 7, 2012. Queen’s University, Dunning 10, 7pm to 9pm. Registration is $2.

Social Media and Reputation Management

March 2012
This presentation is part of the lineup prepared for the Queen’s School of Business Innovation Summit 2012. This years theme is “get disruptive!” The presentation will cover topics including creative strategies, tools, and best practices in designing an online presence with professional impact. We’ll also discuss how to manage Facebook and other social media sites in the era of online recruiting, how to optimize a LinkedIn profile, and how to bury “digital dirt” from search engine results and how to improve personal SEO on Google. March 10, 2012. Queen’s University.