The Web is Changing

Crosslin and Watkins, UT Arlington, Thursday, 2/18/10, 8:30 a.m.

The session was a bit disjointed but the overall point was to propose a re-invention of the LMS. The analogy used involved Play Doh. Each table was given a different color of Play Doh. Tables were told to form them into a ball. The speaker then picked up each ball and squeezed it into a large mass of multi-colored clay. However, each color was easily visible and could be separated quite easily from the ball. The analogy was that each color was a different type of information within an LMS. LMSs need to be designed so that specific types of information are easily obtainable.

Current LMSs are more like silos, where content is dumped into a silo. The content is there, but trying to retrieve it is difficult.

Social E-Learning? Social Networking meets E-Learning

Rob Gibson, Emporia State University, Wednesday, 2/17/10, 4:45 p.m.

Gibson starts the session with a jaw-dropping example of augmented reality. Using a brochure of the Nissan Cube, Gibson places the brochure in front of his web cam and the image immediately becomes 3-dimensional, in full color. He rotates in all directions, and the interior is plainly visible from the outside. The possibilities for education are endless such as nursing, geology, automotive, safety, etc.

He begins by suggesting the download of Nielson's report titled Global Faces, Networked Places. The report provides insight on the growth of social networking sites.

He focused the presentation on the pros and cons of three technologies: Twitter, Facebook and Ning.

Twitter

Provides a number of Twitter apps:

• Twitterfall
• Twittervision
• Atlasfreshlogicstudios.com
• historicaltweets.com
• tweetdeck.com
• twittergram-connects flickr to twitter
• twitdon
• podbean
• polldaddy
• screenr
• hootsuite

Suggests an excellent blog by Wesley Fryer titled Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

Facebook

Not recommended for academic use. He also suggested a number of applications:

• Forbes
• BlackboardSync- notifies students of changes in Blackboard courses
• Booklist
• WorldCat-searchable database of content from over 10,000 libraries
• Slideshow-?
• Podcast Player
• Xmind-mind mapping application
• Academia.edu-research interests and papers of academics

Ning

Ning is hard to pinpoint but is best described as a subject-specific social networking site. Probably the best of the three for use in academia. Gave two examples:

• education.ning.com
• bioarcheology.ning.com

Maturity Level and iPhone/iPod Tough Usage

Matthew Dodd, Abilene Christian University, Wednesday, 2/17/10, 3:45 p.m.

Pilot study at Abilene Christian University. All incoming freshmen received either iPhone or iTouch. Participating faculty received their devices one year earlier.

Google system used for apps such as calendar. Students developed their own apps.

www.acu.edu/connected

Using a Wiki to Keep Up with Evolving Training and Documentation Demands

Brenda Burrell, Missouri State University, Friday, 2/19/2010, 8:30 a.m.

• In 2007, converted all systems to Banner.
• Needed method for documenting processes and training
• Needed documentation quickly and editable by users
• Needed to set permissions, tied to Active Directory
• MediaWiki is one source
• Atlassians Confluence
• Content organizable
• Rich text editor
  
• Easy to add additional content
• pricing based on number of users
• Each Banner module had a space created
• Private spaces created for private, internal documentation
• Public and private spaces created for Helpdesk support of Banner
• Started with existing pages of Banner team members, etc.
• Added how-to documentation, screen shots, training handouts, calendars, forms
• Added a Wiki Users Group for contributors to play with various features
• my.missouristate.edu
• Wiki is at experts.missouristate.edu
• Content is approved by a selected group. Helpdesk content is determined by helpdesk personnel.
• Future will be cleaning up content such as duplicates, obsolete documents, etc
• Enhancing the social aspects of the wiki
• Training courses
• Encourage collaboration among users

Other Comments

• Discovered a program called Snippy (www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/) as a simple screen capture program.

The Universally Designed Learning Experience

Jesse Hausler, Craig Spooner, Colorado State University, Thursday, 2/18/10, 2:30 p.m.

The ACCESS Project

Funded by DOE

• Ensuring that students with disabilities receive a quality higher education.
• Determined that emphasis on assistive technologies was too narrow
• Disabled students didn't think they were disabled
• Decided to broaden the definition of accessible
• Make the technologies more usable
• About teaching and technology

dissemination

• Embedded UDL principles into prof development to improve learning, teaching, and technology

Created a UDL award

• Monetary incentive

Acvisory group

• Provost
• Teaching and learning
• Student affairs
• IT
• Retention
• Gives an external prospective
• Tie UDL to strategic plan
• Provides buy-in from senior administration

Orientations for new faculty

Master Teacher Initiatives

Teaching with Technology

Electronic reserves

Electronic books

• Planning team for e-book reading technology
• Hardware and software

Faculty training

• f-2-f
• Online modules
• accessproject.colostate.edu/udl/modules
• UDL research in gateway courses such as vet services and psychology

Research results

• 9-11% of students have a disability
• Just a few hours of training can produce significant changes in instructor teaching behavior

Institutionalization is realized by

• Philosophical shift to UDL
• Inclusive pedagogy for all
• Advisry group of key administrators
• 
  

Improving Online Course Design and Delivery

Ed Bowen, Dallas County Community College District, Thursday, 2/18/10, 11:45 a.m.

Teaching is like reaching out to the student or audience.

Ruth Clark: Building Expertise.

Presentation is loaded on Educause website.

If he had $100 to spend on course improvement, $99 spent on faculty development and $1 on course design.

Very little consideration ever by institution to distance learning. Rarely acknowledged

Development of online courses done a lot by the seat of the pants. Development rushed since so many options are now available for students.

Building airplanes in the sky (video)

kick (download youtube video to your computer). Go to the video you want, in the URL place kick before youtube (ex. kickyoutube.com/xxxxxxxxx). The youtube video downloads to your computer.

Pedagogy is almost always ignored in course design.

• Behaviorist-empty students that you need to fill with knowledge
• Cognitivism-determine how brain functions to
• Constructivism-students learn and work in a networked environment
• Connectivism-exploration, multidisciplinary

CMSs are similar to behaviorism, where you have boxes to place materials such as discussions, announcements, assignments, etc.

Think of online courses as a visual media and not textual.

The brain seeks patterns. Words are more difficult to remember than images.

One of the biggest issues is that courses are developed based on what faculty want rather than what students want.

Never have a dead end in your course pages

Massive open online course (MOOC). Each student created their own learning environment.

Objectives must align with the strategies must align with the assessment.

Personalized Assessment

King, Rawls, Scott, TAMU-Commerce and Jones Intl. U., Thursday, 2/18/10, 10:45 a.m.

Discussing new model of assessment.

Assessment matrix includes course objectives, program objectives, and relevant workplace competencies.

Aggregated so that student has continual feedback. Feedback includes formative, summative, and continuous.

Three learning outcomes are assessed, course learning objectives, degree or program learning objectives and workplace competencies.

individual feedback:

• Each course gives student individual feedback on a number of areas

Four categories of proficiency:

• Basic
• Developing
• Proficient
• Advanced

Then each student is shown how they are doing overall broken down by above proficiencies.

Program level evaluation contains an administrator view across all program outcomes.