Jason Rhode's shared items in Google Reader

Tune In November 13: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing

2009-10-28T15:45:03Z

Universities have served important functions in society for more than a thousand years. They have done so in part by creating places that promote reflection, discussion, discovery and learning. For many people, the university-as-place is central to the purposes of the university. The university is also an idea and, increasingly, ideas—in the Internet—have enormous power to stimulate learning and discovery. Indeed, what many now describe as “Web 2.0” is a view that the web is evolving into a social environment that has the potential to extend the influence and reach of institutions and individuals.

New ELI 7 Things... Brief Explores Google Wave

2009-10-30T16:08:35Z

Google Wave is a web-based application that represents a rethinking of electronic communication. Users create online spaces called “waves,” which include multiple discrete messages and components that constitute a running, conversational document. Users access waves through the web, resulting in a model of communication in which rather than sending separate copies of multiple messages to different people, the content resides in a single space. Wave offers a compelling platform for personal learning environments because it provides a single location for collecting information from diverse sources while accommodating a variety of formats, and it makes interactive coursework a possibility for nontechnical students.

ELI Releases New White Paper on Learning Environments

2009-10-30T20:16:54Z

ELI has released a new white paper, Learning Environments: Where Space, Technology, and Culture Converge, by Thomas Warger (EduServe International) and Gregory Dobbin (EDUCAUSE).

Learning about Interactive Whiteboards for the Classroom

2009-11-02T00:09:02Z

Examining the “State of the SMART(board)” in education.

Back in April, I researched and blogged about interactive whiteboard tools that are available as online applications. These are great tools for the classroom that are quick and easy to implement, and best of all, they are free or low cost. However, the functionality available with these applications is only a fraction of that provided by many of the installable interactive whiteboard systems available today.

Incentives and Disincentives for the Use of OpenCourseWare

2009-10-23T17:29:13Z

This article examines Utah residents’ views of incentives and disincentives for the use of OpenCourseWare (OCW), and how they fit into the theoretical framework of perceived innovation attributes established by Rogers (1983). Rogers identified five categories of perceived innovation attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. A survey instrument was developed using attributes that emerged from a Delphi technique with input from experts in the OCW field. The survey instrument was sent to 753 random individuals between 18 and 64 years of age throughout Utah. Results indicated that the greatest incentives for OCW use were the following: (a) no cost for materials, (b) resources available at any time, (c) pursuing in depth a topic that interests me, (d) learning for personal knowledge or enjoyment, and (e) materials in an OCW are fairly easy to access and find. The greatest disincentives for OCW use were the following: a) no certificate or degree awarded, (b) does not cover my topic of interest in the depth I desire, (c) a lack of professional support provided by subject tutors or experts, (d) a lack of guidance provided by support specialists, and (e) the feeling that the material is overwhelming. The authors recommend that institutions work to transition some OCW users into degree-granting paid programs as well as adopt a marketing campaign to increase awareness of OCW. Additionally, OCW websites should make their content available to recommendation engines such as ccLearn DiscoverEd, OCW Finder, or OER Recommender and should reciprocally link to one or more of these sites.

The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course Tools

2009-11-02T23:28:08Z

In 2008, a new term emerged in the already crowded e-learning landscape: MOOC, or massive open online course. Lifelong learners can now use various tools to build and manage their own learning networks, and MOOCs may provide opportunities to test such networks. This paper focuses on the technological aspects of one MOOC, the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08) course, in order to investigate lifelong learners’ attitudes towards learning network technologies. The research framework is represented by three perspectives: (a) lifelong learning in relation to open education, with a focus on the effective use of learning tools; (b) the more recent personal knowledge management (PKM) skills approach; and (c) the usability of web-based learning tools. Findings from a survey of CCK08 participants show that the course attracted mainly adult, informal learners, who were unconcerned about course completion and who cited a lack of time as the main reason for incompletion. Time constraints, language barriers, and ICT skills affected the participants’ choice of tools; for example, learners favoured the passive, filtered mailing list over interactive but time-consuming discussion forums and blogs. Some recommendations for future MOOCs include highlighting the pedagogical purpose of the tools offered (e.g., learning network skill-building) and stating clearly that the learners can choose which tools they prefer to use. Further research on sustainability and instructor workload issues should be conducted to determine the cost and effectiveness of MOOCs. Investigation is also necessary to understand whether such terms as course, drop-out, and attrition are appropriate in relation to MOOCs.

Blackboard is Buzzing at EDUCAUSE

2009-11-04T16:17:49Z

EDUCAUSE officially kicked-off its national conference yesterday in Denver, and we’ve seen some great enthusiasm from clients and the community. The booth (#423) was packed with attendees who wanted to hear more about the newest platform, Blackboard Mobile. Attendees were very excited about the addition of a BlackBerry app for Mobile Central. If you’re around the conference, stop by for a Mobile demo or visit the Blackboard Theater for one of our ongoing theater sessions.

Along with in-booth activities, Blackboard is sponsoring a panel session on Thursday:

Your Campus on a Smartphone, and the Future of Mobile Education– The session name says it all. Hear how institutions like Stanford, MIT and the University of Washington are already harnessing mobile technology and learn ways to bring mobile to your campus.

For all Blackboard clients attending EDUCAUSE, if you haven’t already picked up your bracelet for the Blackboard Client Appreciation Party, stop by our booth (#423) on the exhibit floor for on-site registration.

We hope you’re enjoying the conference so far and look forward to seeing you during the show. Stay up to date on conference goings on Twitter; follow @Blackboard, #educause09, #blackboard.

Taking Professional Development Online: Voices from K-12

2009-10-26T17:16:22Z

Many districts have begun to leverage online options for professional development to improve teacher effectiveness while controlling costs. Online learning enables districts to provide relevant, flexible and ongoing professional development whenever and wherever teachers need it. And, in some cases, it’s starting to have a real impact.

Blackboard recently interviewed education leaders from Albuquerque Public Schools, Calcasieu Parish Public School, Jefferson County School District and The Schultz Center for Teaching & Leadership. They each shared their experiences using Blackboard solutions to provide online professional development opportunities to their faculty. We’re pleased to share their stories here:

K-12 leaders share their insights on taking professional development online.

The Droid Is Coming November 6 for $199 With Contract

2009-10-28T14:08:06Z

Verizon just confirmed that the Moto Droid will arrive next week for $199 with a new, 2-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate. Customers will need a voice plan starting at $39 and a web and email plan for $29 per month. See our full Droid coverage here and look for a full hands-on later today.

HELLO HUMANS: DROID BY MOTOROLA ARRIVES NEXT WEEK Verizon Wireless DROID By Motorola: World’s First Smartphone with Android™ 2.0 BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – High-speed Web browsing, voice-activated search, customizable large screen, access to thousands of Android applications and hundreds of widgets and the best 3G mobile network in the country: DROID by Motorola arrives on Nov. 6. Verizon Wireless, the company with the nation’s largest wireless 3G broadband network, and Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a pioneer in the mobile industry, today unveiled DROID by Motorola, the first smartphone powered by Android™ 2.0. DROID by Motorola features the brainpower and breakneck speed of a modern smartphone, designed to outperform where other smartphones fall short.

TweetMixx Launches Branded Twitter Channels

2009-10-22T17:26:12Z

TweetMixx, the newly launched service from social voting site Mixx that allows you to find relevant links on Twitter, is venturing into new territory today with the launch of TweetMixx Channels. The service basically lets brands, celebs and companies consolidate their Twitter traffic and mentions on one page.

TweetMixx Channels features branded, customizable pages, with the brand’s current Twitter feed, tweets and updates from fans, and links relevant to content about the brand, company or topic posted automatically. The tool also serves as a tracking and monitoring tool for mentions and conversations about a brand taking place on Twitter.

Companies can create a customizable branded page with a vanity URL and can designate an “Insiders” tab within the channel which has a list of Twittering employees or users associated with a company.

Channels also include a “Chatter” tab that uses a list of search terms relevant to a company or brand to find both tweets and links that contain those terms; a “Links” tab that displays the hyperlinks containing matches to the list of search terms; and a widget to share and link to a brand’s site, blog, Facebook or MySpace page and more. Currently, TweetMixx has branded channels for PC Mag, the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, Duke University Basketball and others.

It seems prudent for TweetMixx to put their Twitter link discovery platform to good use for brands, as more and more companies and brands look to the microblogging network to engage with consumers. The site serves as a content discovery engine as well. TweetMixx also acts a Twitter client and features filtered search options, which makes it an all-in-one platform for both consumers and companies.

As we’ve said in the past, TweetMixx faces competition from TweetMeme, a popular engine for Twitter link discovery. TweetMeme also features branded channels, with WordPress, AstonMartin, and many others all including channels on TweetMeme’s platform. On TweetMeme’s channels, content is broken down by news, video and images whereas TweetMixx breaks the stream down by the Insiders, general chatter and links. Bit.ly also features analytics and information on links and will soon feature a link discovery engine of their own, but it’s unclear if it will include branded channels.

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How to Create Screencasts You Can Be Proud Of

2009-10-13T08:54:56Z

A few weeks ago we launched Screenr, a free screencasting application that is easy to use and great for quick tutorials and elearning courses. I like it because it’s easy for me to quickly answer the many questions I get in the user community and through the blog. Not only can I answer the questions quickly, but I now can share those same tips with other blog readers and members of the community.

And it’s not just me doing the sharing. There are many others also sharing their tips and tricks. In fact, on the Word of Mouth blog, we compiled over 100 rapid elearning tutorials that have been created with Screenr since its launch. Check them out.

Screenr’s pretty easy to use. However, like any new application, the more you use it the more you learn a few time saving tips and tricks. Today, I’d like to share some tips and tricks that are going to help you create the best screencasts possible. While I’m focusing on Screenr, many of these tips are relevant regardless of your screencast application.

Prepare Your Environment

Your success begins before you start recording. You want good quality audio and the right work flow. This only comes with preparation.

Record the best audio you can by using a good microphone. You can get a decent microphone for less than $100. And if you do a lot of recording, it makes sense to invest in a good one. Here’s an example of two different microphones on the same laptop in the same room: $30 headset and $72 desktop (with no pop filter or any other type of adjustment). You’ll notice that the headset microphone doesn’t sound as good. You also hear the pops of air and movement of the mouthpiece. That’s why I use a desktop microphone. It just sounds better, which most likely means less editing and retakes. Plus bad audio is worse than a bad screen.
Control the ambient noise. Turn off the A/C and fans. Turn off the office machines. Sometimes you’ll pick up some noise or humming when the microphone is too close to the computer, speakers, or other electronic devices. If you have a lot of ambient noise, try screening it out by playing some music in the background while you record. No Metallica. Just something soft with no vocals.
Get rid of distractions. Is there a flickering light overhead or one coming from a nearby electronic device? Does your chair squeak? Is your phone ringer off? Get rid of those things that might make noise, flash lights, or do something else to get your attention while recording. Put them out of sight while you record.

Prepare Yourself

It’s all about having a plan and executing it. Focus on what you’re going to say and make it brief.

Have some water handy. I find that I do a lot of retakes on that opening line, so I tend to start and stop my screencasts. This causes my throat to get dry really fast. It’s easy for me to go from sounding like a smooth rapid elearning coach to Lauren Bacall in just a few takes.
Get comfortable. Position your microphone and screen so that you’re comfortable while doing the recording. Two problems I always run into: I tend to lean into the screen which impacts my breathing. And my mouse runs out of room or gets tangled with other cords on my desk. These things distract me. And when I lose focus I mess up the recording; which means I have to stop and start over.
Try to use less than 5 minutes. Screenr gives you 5 minutes. That doesn’t mean that you have to take all 5 minutes for the screencast. An ideal screencast is 2-3 minutes. If you find that the screencast is long, just break it into chunks.

General Recording Tips & Tricks

Good screencasters make it seem like they just press record and start talking. But that’s usually not the case. It just looks and sounds that way. Here are some general tips that will help you record better screencasts.

Set up your screens. Do a quick walk through and make sure that everything you need is available. Many of my demos require that I jump from one application to another. I have them all open and sized to the record window so that when I go back and forth it looks seamless and flows well. I also make sure that all of my assets and files are easily available.
Supersize! Sometimes the screencasts are of a larger resolution and get scrunched down to a smaller window, which means you might lose some detail. To help make things more visible, you can increase the font size, make your icons bigger, and even increase the size of your mouse arrow. Sometimes I’ll change the resolution of my computer and do a full screen capture at a lower resolution. When I bring it back up, it looks great and I was able to leverage a full screen for the capturing. Play around with some techniques that work for you.
Get right to the point and stick with it. A good habit is to have an opening line that states what the tutorial or screencast is about, and then jump right into it. You only have a few minutes and you want to make it flow well and not bog it down with a bunch of chatter or dead space where you’re talking and the screen shows nothing new. If you do have to explain something, create an image you can jump to with some text on it. I like the way, David Anderson does that in this screencast on audio settings.

Tell the viewer what they should be looking at. You only have a few minutes and most likely the user is a little slower following you because they don’t always have the same context and can’t anticipate where you’re going. It’s easy enough to follow the mouse, but make sure to point out what they should be looking at when you change screens or focus on a new area. This is especially true if you’re doing things they can’t see like using a keyboard shortcut.

Get rid of the visual noise. The learner can only see what you show. There’s no need to show some stuff that could conflict with your message. Frame your recording window only around what’s important for you to share the information. If you have to do full screen videos where you show your desktop, try a product like Stardock’s Fences. It’s free and can quickly hide your icons while you do your recording. Here’s a tutorial to show how to use Fences to hide your desktop icons.
Hide personal or proprietary information. If you find that you’re doing a lot of screencasts, then create another user account on your PC. Just use the default settings and folders. When you do screencasts from this account you don’t need to worry about hiding personal information like folders or toolbars in your browser. I’d also make your desktop image a solid color rather than a distracting background image. You can also try a virtual desktop. Set one up just for screencast videos. Here’s a demo of how to use a virtual desktop.
Control your mouse movement. I have the habit of moving my mouse back and forth while I talk. This is both annoying and distracting to the viewer. If you do the same, take your hand off the mouse while you’re talking so you don’t drag the pointer all over the place. When you do move the pointer, make sure to guide the viewer’s attention so she understands where you’re going.

Extra Screenr Tips

Here are some recording tips that are unique to Screenr.

Create interesting thumbnails. In Screenr, the first frame of the screencast becomes your thumbnail and visual cue. Use that to your advantage. Consider how you start your video. One trick is to start with the final output. Tell the viewer that this is what you’ll create and then jump to the tutorial and a different screen.

Select the right aspect ratio. You can capture any size screen. However. Screenr does come with some default settings that work well in your rapid elearning courses. For example, 720×540 is the aspect ratio for a PowerPoint slide. 980×560 is perfect for videos in the no sidebar view mode in Articulate Presenter.

Use pause (Alt+D) to create screencasts that flow well. If you find that you have to click on buttons and open other screens during your demos, then you want to use Alt+D to pause your recording between mouse clicks. This will let you set up your screens and create a faster screencast that will look more polished. Here’s a demo where you can see the difference and how much nicer it looks using the pause feature.

Click here to view the Screenr demo.

What message does your avatar communicate? Nothing tells people you’re an amateur than by using the default avatar that comes with Twitter. At the same time, you want your avatar to communicate the right message. In most cases, you’re probably better to err on the side of conservative than going with a wild avatar that confuses or offends your audience.

See These Tips in Action

We created before and after versions of a simple screencast. Watch both and see if you can tell the differences. Not only is the after version a big improvement, it also takes a lot less time.

Before version: sloppy and distracting
After version: clean and focused

Do you have any tips to help make screencasting easier and better for the learners? If so, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Tidbits:

I’m in Atlanta this week attending, PowerPoint Live 2009. Tweet me if you’ll be there.

Here are some of the other places I’ll be in the coming weeks. If you happen to be at these conferences, swing by the Articulate booth and say “Hi.”

Educause Conference 2009: November 3-5 in Denver, CO.
DevLearn 2009: November 11-13 in San Jose, CA.

Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

Create It in Your Hand, Share It with the World

2009-10-06T13:10:00Z

Below is some of my 30 minute talk at Handheld Learning 2009 in London.
The presentation is called Create It in Your Hand, Share It with the World.

I decided to become a teacher when I was in sixth grade. From then on I studied each and every teacher I had and analyzed each and every activity they had me do. As a student I vowed to remember what I liked and didn’t like like when I was finally the one in charge.

I was lucky enough to have Palm computers for my fifth grade students in 2001. I would have very much liked a handheld computer when I was 12 years old. Though, I’m afraid that even if they were available in the 80s, most of my teachers wouldn’t have used them in very engaging ways.

As a teacher, I tried hard to use the handhelds in my classroom as creatively as possible. Of course I wanted to make learning fun. Boredom is the enemy of learning. We had about 50 apps we used on the Palms. Most all of the apps were drill and skill apps. Which, don’t get me wrong, were great. My handheld-equipped students learned their multiplication tables, historical figures, and science vocabulary faster than they would have with ordinary tools. Even with thousands of Palm apps, it was sometimes hard to find or adapt apps to move beyond drill and practice.

My favorite handheld today is the iPod touch. It’s amazing to compare the number of iPod touch and iPhone apps to the number of apps for the Palm Operating System. Ten years after the launch of the Palm OS, we have 30,000 apps for Palm devices. After little over a year since the launch of the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch, we have 85,000 apps, with and average of 46 new ones being added each day. There’s just got to be some good ones for students, right?

Of course, many of them are silly or frivolous. In fact, this name tag on the screen is actually a web app for iPod touch. Just point your mobile browser to mkaz.com/nametag and input your name. Presto! You are now holding a very expensive name tag.

But peeking into the App Store, there are plenty of apps for learning. Multiple-choice quizzes, flash cards, math games, and the like are plentiful.

Benjamin Bloom ranked thinking skills from lower order to higher order in 1956. Bloom’s Taxonomy helps teachers classify the objectives we set for students. Like we just saw, there, are plenty of titles in the App Store that address lower order thinking skills, like remembering, understanding, and applying.

Anderson and Krathwohl have slightly reworked Bloom’s Taxonomy for the 21st Century. What’s the highest order thinking skill? Creating.

Creating is reorganizing elements to form a new functional whole. In order to create, you have to evaluate. But in order to evaluate, you must be able to analyze. In order to analyze, you have to understand. And to understand something, you must be able to remember things about it. So, creating is the ultimate activity.

As a student and as an adult, I love to create things. In sixth grade I produced a video about the U.S.‘s Strategic Defense Initiative. It wasn’t exactly assigned by the teacher, but I didn’t care. I wanted to learn how to make a movie and share it with my classmates. As you can see, there are lots of verbs associated with Creating. I enjoyed planning, producing, and broadcasting that video.

American writer John Updike wrote, “Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.” We can kind-of-sort-of make our students care by holding grades over their heads. But that’s not authentic. Educators can invent activities (or have students invent activities) that are creative and that they will be excited to share with an audience.

I’d like to share with you three kinds of products that can be created on an iPod touch or iPhone: Comics, Animations, and Audio Podcasts.

Comics are a great way to synthesize information. The combination of images and text can be fun to plan and fun to read. Comics may sound like fluff, but consider that last year Google commissioned a comic book to tell the world about why they are making the Chrome web browser and the technologies inside of it.

Comic Touch and Comic Touch Lite are two of a few iPod touch apps where you can create comics. You can import any saved image into Comic Touch and layer text bubbles on top of it. There are also some limited special effects you can apply to the image. Where can you get images?

You can save images from the web. Mobile Safari makes it easy. Simply tap and hold an image and the Save Image option will appear. The image will be saved into your Saved Photo album, which is accessible in Comic Touch.

I want to share my comics on my website. I have to think about copyright--I should have permission to use copyrighted images. So I use Creative Commons licensed images. You can search for images that are labeled for reuse using Google Image Search. However, you have to choose to do an Advanced Search from the Classic view first. Then you can select to only search for images that are copyright friendly. I suggest bookmarking the Advanced Image Search page or saving it as an icon to your Home screen.

You can also save screenshots of what’s on your iPod’s screen. Hold down the Sleep/Wake button on top of the device and quickly press the Home button. The screen will flash and you’ll hear a camera sound. The screenshot is now in your Saved Photos album.

I think it’s fun to take screenshots inside of Google Maps. Sure, you can take screenshots of the satellite view, but it’s much more fun to go into Street View and take screenshots. Whenever I have a pin on the screen, I can tap the orange and white Street View icon to go into street view. Here’s I’m in Washington D.C. taking photos of the Supreme Court Building.

I can use these images from my virtual field trip in a comic. Another comic-creation app is Strip Designer. Strip Designer lets me have up to three panels in my comic.

Let me show you a comic I made using images from Street View and images I’ve saved in Safari. My goal is to tell about the three branches of the U.S. government and their role in a particular issue. I chose mandated health insurance as the issue. I ended up with three two-panel comics. I was able to save them in high resolution and email them to myself. If I was a student, I could email them to the teacher. The teacher could then put them up on a class website. Or, many blogging and photo services allow for posting directly from email. The comic I just made in my hand is just an email away from being published for the world to see! (Watch a video that explains how I made the comic.)

For even more fun, I could save my comic to photo or save a classmates comic to then use an app like Ali’s Jigsaw Puzzle to turn the comic in a jigsaw I can put back together by dragging the pieces around my screen.

So comics are a fantastic way for students to piece together their learning and share it with others. Now on to animations.

A favorite Palm app of my students’ was Sketchy. We could draw directly on the screen, duplicate the frame, make a change, and then duplicate the frame again until a masterpiece was created. When played in a row, you’ve got yourself an animation.

Planning and drawing a animation can take time, but it’s time well spent. The learner is interacting with content in a creative way and he or she enjoys sharing the final creation with others. Heck, they’ll watch their own creation over and over again.

Flipbook and Flipbook Lite are two of a handful of animation apps for iPod touch. It’s tricky to draw without a stylus and there’s no text tool. But there are useful features like layers and onion skinning. Then, when done, users can publish the animation to Flipbook.tv, where the file can be viewed by others and saved as mp4 video files. View samples.

Like comics, animations are great way for students to sythesize their learning and present it to others.

The third kind of product people can create on iPod touch are audio podcasts. There are a variety of apps for recording audio. The catch is that iPod touch lacks a built-in microphone. There are mics that attach to the connector on the bottom of the device. Or, you can buy earbuds with a build-in mic like the iPhone has.

When making audio recordings, I usually like to record directly into my laptop so I can edit and arrange the audio as I record. But, in classrooms where there aren’t enough computers or students need to record in the field, iPod touch can be made into a little podcast studio.

Let me play a short clip from a field trip I took recently. (Download the clip.) In Tucson, Arizona there is the Sonoran Desert Museum. Yes, there’s a museum in the desert about the desert. It was a really hot summer day. I took a break under a tree and felt a light, cool mist. I thought maybe the museum rigged up something for their guests to keep cool. I asked a couple docents under the tree where the mist was coming from...

I used an iPod to make a sound-seeing tour of my trip. I was forced to describe what I saw during my excursion.

The Voice Memos app is a pretty straight-forward app for voice recording. Besides a trimming option, it has a handy feature of being able to email recordings as an attachment. That’s great because the blogging service Posterous lets you post podcasts by email! Simple email the recording from Voice Memos to your Posterous email. It’s automatically posted to the blog and has a news feed so it can be subscribed to in iTunes.

Now, schools probably want to screen audio recordings before they are posted. Instead of emailing Posterous, students email to their teacher who could then post it after approving the content. It’s exciting that something recorded during a field trip can be instantly published online.

Comics, Animations, and Podcasts are just three of many creative endeavors that can be done on an iPod touch or iPhone. In fact, you don’t need an Apple product to create--other phones and handhelds have similar apps. But the key is letting students create. Letting them create something they care about because they are sharing with, educating, or helping others. Another key to success is letting students choose what kind of product they are going to create--give them a choice of making a series of comics, an animation, or podcast.

Twelve-year-old and thirty-four-year-old Tony Vincent both enjoy having choice. Giving choice engages learners because everyone likes to have a say in what they do. After using these apps for a while, students will get a sense of what they like to create--let them choose!

I worked with a school in Phoenix last month and I received an email from one of the high school’s English teachers. After showing how to create comics with students, Jason wrote, “It all of a sudden has become important to my students to get the information right, which isn’t always the case when they do a ‘worksheet.’”

If you’re interested in iPods, I have created a podcast called Learning in Hand: iPods. Like Jason’s students, it is important for me to get the information right in my podcast because I know that thousands of teachers download what I've created and shared. I learn so much in the process.

Understanding What’s Needed for Online Teaching Success

2009-10-12T12:41:57Z

Larry Ragan, director of faculty development for Penn State World Campus, may have given a new spin to the old expression “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” Except, unlike the philosophical musing that’s become immortalized as one of those motivational posters, Ragan’s focus is on improving online learning.

“If faculty development activities are to be effective and truly prepare the online instructor (and therefore his and her students) for success, then we must know the skills and competencies required to achieve this desired outcome,” says Ragan

In the recent online seminar Online Instructor Success: What’s It Take?, Ragan discussed a new framework for defining the specific skills and competencies required for effective online teaching. The framework, known as the Competencies for Online Teaching Success (COTS), is based on Ragan’s personal experiences from the past 10 years, literature reviews, and expert video interviews.

These video interviews, in which Ragan asks online faculty to describe one core competency for online success, include advice on such things as the importance of understanding student needs, being persistent, embracing new technologies, and being organized. To view the videos, go to YouTube and search for “COTS world campus.”

Ragan’s research has uncovered nearly 100 competencies and behaviors of effective online instructors, which are organized into the following six broad categories:

Attitude/philosophy
Building community
Classroom administration/management
Faculty workload management
Teaching and learning
Technology aptitude

During the seminar, participants were given the opportunity to rank the categories in order of importance, and then Ragan shared his rankings which he based on skills needed for new online instructors, noting that perhaps they’d be different for someone with intermediate or advanced experience.

If you would like to rank the categories, or view all of the competencies, visit the Penn State World Campus faculty development Ning site by clicking here.

Principles for Improving Online Transparency, Quality

2009-10-20T13:50:11Z

Transparency by Design, an initiative from a consortium of adult-serving educational institutions with significant commitments to distance education, is based on the premise that a well-informed student—or prospective student—benefits everyone. A key focus of the plan is providing program-specific outcomes data that allows students to make informed decisions about their education investment.

Michael Offerman, president of Capella University, who led the working group that shaped the initiative, said that “To meet the education needs of adult students, we must provide them with trustworthy and transparent ways to choose among many available options and to gauge the potential of each one to further their careers.” The goal of the program is “to lead universities and colleges toward greater accountability and transparency.”

Transparency by Design institutions began issuing annual reports that include comprehensive data for each course of study, including student demographics, completion rates, costs, student engagement, and knowledge and skills learned. Most important, Transparency by Design reports include outcomes at the program specialization level, allowing prospective students to assess how well a program will prepare them for their professional pursuits.

One of the requirements for implementing Transparency by Design is the development of a new set of best practices for participating institutions. “You want to make sure things are in place at the institutional level,” says Merle Harris, president of Charter Oaks State College, who has been instrumental in developing just such standards. “Collectively we went back and we looked at best practices that have been put out by other organizations for online learning and then we developed our set based on those,” she says.

Harris and her associates concluded that there were a few basic principles for institutions that really want to be transparent.

#1 Make distance education a central element of your mission: Distance learning really has to be central to what the institution is doing. If it is viewed as an add-on and not part of the central mission then very often it doesn’t get the resources that are needed to carry out a quality program.

#2 Accountability to stakeholders: Who are the primary stakeholders in a transparent institution? The prospective student and the enrolled student. “One of the reasons we feel it’s important to have accountability measures and to report on those regularly is because prospective students who are making a decision about where they want to go to school, where they want to take courses should have information,” Harris says.

Accountability to prospective students includes providing adequate information about the program, what it contains, and who’s teaching it. But it also includes measuring what happens to students who go through the program. Harris’ group looks at things like graduation rates, retention rates, what alumni say about the program, and measures of student engagement, with the aim of making this information readily available to prospective students.

#3 Responsiveness: In practice this means nothing more or less than good customer service, so that when there are issues and questions students can get quick answers. Responsiveness in the academic process means that faculty respond quickly to a student, so that a student who’s learning online can get an answer to a question or feedback on an assignment within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the institution’s policy. Administratively, responsiveness means that if there are questions about grades going out, about registration, about fees being paid the student will get very quick response either by email or by telephone.

Click here for Part II of this article.

Excerpted from Transparency is Good Practice for Online Administration, Distance Education Report, April 1, 2008.

Understanding the Instructor’s Role in Facilitating Online Discussions

2009-10-19T12:22:46Z

In my classroom-based courses I have always valued discussion as a powerful learning tool that provides students with opportunities to explain their reasoning and understanding, learn different perspectives and points of view, and re-think and possibly revise their own conceptions based on careful reflection of potentially disparate viewpoints. As I prepared to teach my first online course five years ago, it was only natural that discussion would be a part of it.

My use of online group discussion assignments led me to reflect on what I feel my role could and should be in the online course. Initially, I questioned whether I should be involved at all in online discussion. After all, in a classroom setting, although it was commonplace for me to walk around the room and listen to bits and pieces of different group discussions, I rarely jumped into these discussions, primarily because I was always afraid if I hovered around a group for too long, I might make some students feel uncomfortable, and this might then stifle discussion altogether.

I worried about similar things in the online setting. I was concerned that if I jumped into a discussion, I might change the dynamics of the group. Students might feel uneasy if they felt that I was going to critique every little thing they wrote, or they might begin to expect me to suddenly appear and give them the correct answer. I decided it would be better if I remained silent unless it was absolutely necessary for me to interject (e.g., if misconceptions were voiced that other students did not correct, if inappropriate behavior suddenly became an issue, etc.).

Changing the way I participate in online discussions
As I reviewed course evaluations after my first year of online teaching, an unexpected theme emerged: several students mentioned they wished I had been a bigger part of their discussions, primarily so they would know if they were on the right track. I naively assumed my silence during group discussion would be taken as evidence by students that their discussions were right on target, but this was not the case at all. Students needed more reassurance, especially since I was asking them to take very big risks in terms of explaining their understanding of a content area that was often new and challenging for them.

This feedback made me realize that instructor’s presence is very important in online discussion forums, and I began to think about ways I could be involved in discussions in positive and proactive ways. I now make it a point to post at least one message in every group discussion room during every group assignment. Among other things, I make a point to:

Cheer students on and let them know when they are on the right track
Highlight important points made during discussion
Question students about their understanding or ask them to clarify remarks they have made or expand on certain ideas
Correct misconceptions/misunderstandings
Provide direct instruction if students appear to be struggling to understand material

I also find myself focusing on the great opportunities I have in the online setting that I don’t have in my classroom-based courses. In the online course, I am able to witness every group discussion from start to finish, and I am able to carefully review the contributions to discussion made by each student in the class. If students are struggling, I can reach out to those students and offer extra assistance. I am able to learn so much more than I ever could in a classroom setting about how students think through different problems and the hurdles they face along the way as they attempt to solve these problems. I hope that ultimately this will allow me to continually improve in my role as an instructor.

Dr. Michelle Everson is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

A Novel Approach to Encouraging Class Participation

2009-10-23T12:07:34Z

Most instructors attempt to encourage class participation by making it part of the overall grade. But evaluating individual contributions and promoting a substantive, intriguing discussion at the same time is no small task. Consequently, many instructors end up evaluating participation subjectively, relying on an intuitive sense of who spoke, how often, and saying what. Besides worries about the objectivity of such a system, this approach “forces the instructor to adopt two fundamentally incompatible roles simultaneously: the support role of creating learning opportunities in the classroom, and the evaluative role of grading participation every time a student verbalizes his or her thoughts.” (p. 24)

Mainkar, the author of the article referenced below, uses this problem and the work of others to identify two more problems that are frequently a part of student participation grading schemes. First, students contribute not because they have something to say, but because they want the points. They craft these contributions in their minds as other students are speaking. As a result, what they say rarely follows from what has just been said, thereby making the discussion disjointed rather than a series of exchanges that flow in the direction of some logical conclusion. And finally, not all students are equally ready to contribute. For some (frequently those from other cultures or of ethnic minority backgrounds), having to participate in class may cause much stress and anxiety.

Mainkar has developed (and used successfully for four years now) a system that tackles these problems. “Students are the primary evaluators of discussion participation on a daily basis.” (p. 24) Here’s how the system works. Every day one or two (usually two) students evaluate the contributions of the rest of class (between 20 and 30 other students). They do so using a sheet (a sample of which is included in the article’s appendix) that lists all students by name and differentiates contributions into three categories: attendance (awarded for listening and not engaging in disruptive behaviors), straightforward comments (adequate contributions), and insightful comments (superior thinking).

One point is awarded for attending but not participating in class, two points for one or two straightforward comments, and three points for three or more straightforward comments. Insightful comments are worth more, but students cannot earn more than three points per day. Evaluators earn three points on the day they evaluate their classmates. Each student evaluates only once during the course. Mainkar has found that the two evaluators’ scores agree to a high degree.

Mainkar admits that the system does involve more administrative work for the instructor. Students’ participation is scored daily, and those scores must be recorded, averaged, and shared with the students; but given the system’s effectiveness at overcoming some fundamental problems associated with the grading of participation, the extra effort seems justified. The article also contains some useful suggestions on how the system can be streamlined and used in smaller classes. It is an interesting approach with many potential adaptations.

Reference: Mainkar, A.V. (2008). A student-empowered system for measuring and weighing participation in class discussion. Journal of Management Education, 32 (1), 23-37.

Excerpted from Class Participation Evaluated by Peers, The Teaching Professor, June-July 2008.

Tips to Reduce Cheating in the College Classroom

2009-10-07T12:34:16Z

In CHEATING IN SCHOOL: What We Know and What We Can Do, (Wiley-Blackwell) authors Stephen F. Davis, Patrick F. Drinan, and Tricia Bertram Gallant provide a comprehensive look at the cheating phenomenon from primary through graduate school. In an email interview with Faculty Focus, the authors discuss academic integrity issues in higher education specifically, including steps that can be taken at the institutional level as well as in individual classrooms.

Faculty Focus: What are some of the most common forms of cheating that occur in college?

Authors: Around half of the students surveyed admit to homework copying, plagiarism (copying and pasting another’s words or ideas without attribution), and exam cheating (whether copying or use of unauthorized aid) are the most common.

We still catch students who use old fashioned methods for exam cheating (like writing the answers on an arm for easy access during the test), but we suspect that many students are using digital aids that are likely more difficult to catch. Some of the more egregious acts that are thankfully less common (we think) include: submitting a paper written by someone else (paper mills are a booming business), arranging for an exam-proxy, stealing exams out of professors’ offices to distribute ahead of time, fabricating lab data, and altering incorrect answers on a graded exam and asking for a re-grade.

Faculty Focus: At the classroom level, what are some specific steps that college instructors can take to reduce cheating in their courses?

Authors: We cover this extensively in the book, but briefly, here are a few strategies instructors can implement to discourage cheating:

Clearly articulate your expectations for the class and EACH INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT. Can students work with others on their homework assignments, for example? Can they use old exams, lab reports, etc. as aids in the course?
Explicitly link assignments to learning objectives. Students often cheat on assignments that they see as meaningless or “busy-work.” If they understand the point of the assignment, especially how it will help them learn the material, they are more likely to push through it on their own rather than copy from someone else.
Reduce temptations to cheating. We cannot control student behavior, but we can at least show them that we care about the integrity of our classes by doing little things. For example, space students out during exams, provide multiple versions of the same test, require students to leave all non-essential materials at the front of the room, and have the WiFi turned off in the test room.
Talk to students about the relation of academic integrity to professional ethics and their future chosen career. Students are more likely to uphold integrity in academic assignments if they see it as holding more value than just being “another institutional rule.”
Report all cheating when you see it, rather than ignore it or handle it on your own. A professor can become known as someone who does not tolerate cheating or look the other way, and then the cheaters will not choose her class! Also, many professors mistakenly assume that they can reduce cheating on their own, but it takes the entire campus. If instructors do not report cheating, that same student may be cheating in other courses and no one would ever know!

(Editor’s note: In part two of this interview the authors will offer advice to academic leaders on creating healthy ethical environments that support ethical choices at all levels of the organization. Look for it in the Oct. 14 issue of Faculty Focus.)

Reference:
Davis, S., Drinan, P., & Gallant T. (2009). CHEATING IN SCHOOL: What We Know and What We Can Do. Wiley-Blackwell.

Author Bios:
Stephen F. Davis is Professor Emeritus at Emporia State University (Kansas), Distinguished Guest Professor at Morningside College (Iowa) and Visiting Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Texas Wesleyan University.

Patrick F. Drinan, Professor of Political Science at the University of San Diego, completed his Ph.D. in 1972 at the University of Virginia, and has served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego from 1989-2007.

Tricia Bertram Gallant is the Academic Integrity Coordinator at the University of California, San Diego, and is the current Chair for the Center for Academic Integrity’s Advisory Council.

Using Shared Online Video to Anchor Instruction: YouTube and Beyond

2009-10-05T12:09:11Z

It was August 26, 2009. That evening I receive a phone call from someone in Japan looking to create free online math and science courses on mobile devices for youth in India using existing shared online video. The following day, I get an email from a colleague at a university in Canada who had just read my new book, The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education. Many points made in the book seemed to resonate with him except for my advocacy of YouTube videos in teaching. Like most faculty members, he was very reluctant to show the YouTube homepage to his class because an offensive video might be featured.

Fortunately, the sources of videos for your classes extend far YouTube. There is BBC News: Video and Audio, CNN Video, MIT World, SciVee, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, MSNBC Video, Current TV, NASA TV, Discovery Channel Videos, National Geographic Video, Hulu, TeacherTube, Link TV, NomadsLand, and so much more! Today there is even YouTube Edu and hundreds of colleges and universities with their own channels on YouTube.

And it is not going to slow down. The use of shared online video may become the major source of your course content by the middle the next decade. The key question that comes up is how to use it effectively. Listed below are 10 ideas for integrating online video into your courses.

Online Video Anchoring: Use online videos to anchor your instruction and make it come to life.
Online Video Ender: Employ online videos to wrap up a class, activity, lecture, or other course event.
On Demand Key Concept Reflections: Play a shared online video when appropriate to illustrate points, concepts, principles, or theories from the current unit, chapter, or lecture.
Pause and Reflect: In a live class, you can play a portion of a video in YouTube or some other source and reflect on the content and then play another section and so on; continuous video, chat, and reflection.
Online Class Previews and Discussion: Post useful online videos to the course management system for students to watch prior to or after class.
Cool Resource Provider Handouts: Ask students to sign up to be the person who finds and presents relevant online videos (i.e., the “cool resource provider”) after which the class can discuss or debate them.
Anchor Creators: Require students to create their own YouTube videos to illustrate course concepts or ideas.
Video Anchor Competitions: Assign students to find relevant videos for the week and send the list to the instructor(s) for viewing and selecting (with class recognition or bonus points if used).
Video Anchor Debates: Create a task where students are required to find YouTube or other online video content representing the pros and cons of a key class issue or topic which they discuss or debate.
Anchor Creator Interviews: Require that students find YouTube videos relevant to course concepts and then interview the video creator or invite that person in for a class chat.

Curtis J. Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. He has a popular blog called TravelinEdMan and is the author of The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education as well as Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Ideas, for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing.

What Happens When You Give Children an iPod touch?

2009-09-20T20:24:00Z

The above video by Leon Cych is titled "What Happens When You Give 32 Children in a Class an iPod touch Each?" The 7 minute movie was filmed at Burnt Oak Junior School in the U.K. Eight-year olds there have been using a class set of iPod touches for a couple weeks. The video interviews the class teacher, headteacher, and students about the experience.

The students have used about a dozen apps, including Dictionary.com, WorldView webcam viewer, and the Safari browser. Peter Barrett, the class teacher, mentions that the Internet students see in Safari is filtered by the school's system.

Watch for a student to demonstrate how to copy and paste. When asked how he knew about copying and pasting, he said that he just discovered how to do it by tapping on the screen. This goes to show that youngsters learn to use iPod touch quickly, allowing them to focus on learning tasks, not the technology. The teacher says, "The speed at which they are learning is amazing."

Carol Richardson, the headteacher, observes, "It's quite clear that children are highly motivated when using the iPod touches." Read more about the iPod touch project at the Learn 4 Life blog.

iPods Episode #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics

2009-09-22T19:34:00Z

Learning in Hand: iPods Episode #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics is ready for viewing. In the video I show you how to take a tour of Washington, D.C., take photos along the way, and use those photos in a comic strip--all on an iPod touch. I use the Maps app, the screenshot feature, Google Earth, and a comic-creation app.

Watch all 11 minutes 37 seconds of Episode #19 to see the comic strip project come together. The transcript and sample comic strips are included below.

Transcript:

Episode #19: Maps, Screenshots, & Comics This is Learning in Hand: iPods. My name is Tony Vincent and this is the show where I share tips, how-tos, and ideas for iPods in teaching and learning. Episode 19, “Maps, Screenshots, & Comics” recorded September 2009, happens now!
Let’s take a tour of Washington, D.C., take photos along the way, and use those photos in a comic strip--all on an iPod touch. We’ll use the Maps app, the screenshot feature, Google Earth, and a comic-creation app.
My task for this comic is to create a comic strip to be published online that summarizes how a chosen issue is dealt with in each of the U.S.’s three branches of government.

Photos Creative Commons licensed: Supreme Court Justices by Steve Petteway,
President Obama by Steve Jurvetson, and Senate Chamber by Susan Sterner.
The Maps app is loaded on every iPod touch and iPhone. Maps requires a Wi-Fi connection because it uses the Internet to get its Google Maps data. I can simply search for Supreme Court Building Washington, D.C. and Maps zooms to the location. If your map isn’t showing satellite imagery like mine, tap the corner to select Satellite. You might also like Hybrid view to see street and landmark names layered on top of the Satellite images.
Slide to pan. Spread or double-tap to zoom in. Pinch to zoom out.
Google has driven around specially outfitted cars to take panoramic photos. These panoramas can be seen in Street view in Google Earth and Google Maps on desktop computers. But, guess what? Street view is available on iPod touch and iPhone as well! You’ll see a white and orange icon next to a description if Street view is available.
Where this red pin is dropped for the Supreme Court Building does not have the icon, so Street view isn’t available here. That’s probably because the pin is not on a street. I can add my own pin by tapping the icon in the bottom-right corner and tapping Drop Pin. A purple pin appears on the map. I can drag and drop that pin to any location. Let’s try to drag it in front of the Supreme Court Building. Notice that now the orange and white Street view icon appear. Tap it to switch to Street view.
Tap and drag to view the panorama. Stretch to zoom in and pinch to zoom out. Tap the arrows in the street to view a panorama taken 10 to 20 meters away.
This looks like a great photo op. I can take a photo of anything on the screen by hold down the Sleep button and quickly pressing the Home button. The screen flashed and you hear a camera noise.
“Where is the Photo stored?” you might be wondering. It’s saved into the Photos apps in the Saved Photos album. That makes sense. Let me show you. I tap Photos and then the Saved Photos album. Then I can tap to find the screenshot. It’s saved as an image file. I can email it, sync it to copy it to a desktop computer, or import it into other apps. I’ll show you how to import it into a comic app shortly.
For now, I’m going back to Google Maps. Remember, I want to construct a comic strip that summarizes how a chosen issue is dealt with in each of the U.S.’s three branches of government. For my comic, I’ll also need photos of the Capitol Building and White House.
So, I just type in a search. There it is, the United States capitol building. The pin closest to the building does not have the Street view icon. So, I tap to place a pin in the street directly in front of the Capitol. Like I did with the Supreme Court Building, I can hold down the Sleep/Wake button and press the Home button to take a snapshot of what’s on the screen. I’ll use that snapshot in my comic strip.
Next, on to the White House. Unfortunately, I could not find very good photos of the White House in Street View. I could take photo of the Satellite view of the White House. Instead, I’m going to launch the free Google Earth app and take a screenshot there. Google Earth doesn’t come preloaded on iPod touches like Maps, so you’ll have to download it from the App Store.
Google Earth has a snazzy zooming feature, ability to tilt, and information layers you can view. And like in any other app on iPod touch, I can hold down Sleep and press Home to take screenshot any time. I tap the Search button and away we go.
This looks just like Satellite view from Map. But, when I tilt the iPod, I get the tilted view, which will make for a better snapshot. I can zoom, rotate, and move around in Google Earth until I find just the right view. But, I don’t want those red pins in the photo. To remove them, I need to clear my search. Just tap the Search button and tap the X and then Cancel. The pins are removed! Now I can take a screenshot. In fact, I’ll take several so I can pick the best one when it comes time to import them into my comic strip.
For my comic strip, I also want photos of not only the buildings, but the people who head the three branches of government. So, I use Safari to search for images. I’ll be able to save the images to the Saved Photos album.
I’m going to do an a Google Image search by going to images.google.com. The website knows that I am visiting from an iPod touch, so it formats the screen for my device. Unfortunately, that format removed the Advanced options. I want to use Advanced image search options so I can search for copyright-friendly images. That way I can publish my comic strip online.
To get to Advanced options, tap the link to View Google in Classic. This is the same google Image Search page you’d see on your desktop computer. If I double-tap to zoom in, I can read and tap the link for Advanced Search. I input to find the word Obama and then scroll down to Usage Rights and select “labeled for reuse with modification.” Now I tap the Google Search button to see the results.
I tap a thumbnail image to see a larger one. I like this photo and want to save it. First, I note the author and URL so I can give attribution to its owner. Then I tap and hold the image. I am given a list of options. I choose to Save Image. That saves the image in my Saved Photos album in the Photos app.
I use Advanced Search and save photos for the other branches for the comic strip. I suggest bookmarking Google’s Advanced Image Search page for future use.
For $2.99 I bought Strip Designer in the App Store. I use Strip Designer to combine the snapshots I took in Maps and Google Earth and saved photos from Safari to make a series of comic strips about the three branches of government’s role in an issue. Let me show you how...
Launch Strip Designer and tap to Create new strip. Select a category and a template.
Tap a frame to add a photo. Choose to select a photo from your Photo album and select Saved Photos. Tap the first image you want to use in your comic. I choose the White House screenshot. I can rotate, resize, and position the image and tap Done. Tapping the Add button allow me to add speech bubbles. There are several types to choose from. Double tap the new bubble to input text. Tap the corners to change the size of the bubble. Then tap and drag to position the bubble where you want it.
You can also change the text, background, and line colors.
Now I can tap the next frame to add another photo from my Saved Photos photo album. Again, I can position the image exactly how I want it in the frame and tap Done. Then I add a speech bubble.
When the comic is complete, you can save. You can save high or low resolutions. I like high res so that the comic looks as crisp and clear as possible. You’ll probably want to save For later editing. That way you can go back and make changes. Just give it a description and the comic is saved under Saved strips from the main menu.
But you’ll also want to get the final image off the iPod. You can tap Save again and this time choose to send by email if you have an email account set up with the iPod. Alternatively, you can choose to save the image to the Save Photos album where the photos can be access on a desktop computer during a sync. It will be a JPEG image once it’s emailed or synced. Of course, with a JPEG it can be printed, posted on blog, or imported into a slide show.
As you’ve just witnessed, the Maps, Google Earth, Safari, and Strip Designer apps are are very useful individually. When used in combination, you can see that students can create compelling products, all right in their hands.
That’s it for Episode 19. For more about iPods and podcasting, click on over to learninginhand.com. That’s where you can contact me to book an online or in person workshop for your school or organization. Thanks for watching!