Enough said:
Instructional tools?
What’s the presumption?
I am working on converting a typical syllabus into one that is in a universal course design (UCD) format. One of the standard sections in the UCD guide is called “Academic Honesty”, and it suggests you enter a link to the appropriate university policy if one exists. The course I am working one will be an offering in an online program, and I was surprised to find that the appropriate section is entitled “Academic Dishonesty.” [emphasis mine]
I am aware that some people feel that too much is made of sematics, but in this case it makes me feel that the assumption in the policy is one of guilt rather than not.
Gen F. vs. Fortune 500
It strikes me that there are WORLDS apart from what is now being Generation F (Facebook Generation), and the Fortune 500. The very first characteristic held by Gen F is that all ideas compete equally. Seems to me it is the rare organization in which this is true, unless it is one recently formed by younger people.
Review the complete list of 12 characteristics yourself http://tinyurl.com/c4vld5
and see if you can figure out how those of us teaching in MBA programs can help bridge this gap.
Cloud Storage
Even though I told myself I was only going to blog one posting today, I can’t help but comment on Robin good’s article about how to send learge files w/o email.
I discivered the need to dor this kind of application a while ago when I needed to give people access to some Powerpoint point and other image files which were just too large for email too handle. Robing Good, who I love as a resource for a current and relevent take on what is happening in the today’s crazy [insane] world of communicaiton, has compiled a list of 15 different apps that provide the ability to
- send large files quickly
- store files online
I haven’t used any of the services Good writes about, but I have been using box.net as a location for file storage. I have often uploaded files that were too large to email, and then either gave selective access to people, or just uploaded files with open access for others.
I’d love to know if you have used any of the services and tools described in the article.
Degree in Social Networking
If you doubted that social networking is more than just a passing fancy, consider that Birmingham City University (UK) will be offering a one-year Master’s program beginning next year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5073683/University-offers-social-media-degree-about-Facebook-Twitter-and-Bebo.html
There is apparently disagreement as to whether or not the program content is really going to have an audience. While the program’s creator has created the program “nor for freaks or IT geeks”, it has been criticized as being too simple and “…a complete waste of university resources,” according to one student.
Personally, I think the focus on the tools is the wrong approach to education. It seems shortsighted to me to teach people how to use Facebook and Twitter and other social networking tools as an end unto itself. The technology is always changing, and it seems to make most send to use technology as tool to help achieve instructional goals and objectives. the technology should be “subservient” to the higher good of learning.
Why Another Blog?@?!*?#!?%
Hi.
I’m Elaine Garofoli, the Educational Technologist from the Sawyer School of Business, [insert photo], and I’m Michelle Bolser, Educational Technology Coordinator from the College of Arts and Sciences. [photo]
Since there are now two of us working at the University in this similar capacity, we thought it would be great if there was one location where we could post our thoughts, ideas, and “finds”, and also have people who read the blog have the opportunity to offer their comments, thus extending the conversation.
2 New Online Tools For Love of the Remix
If you a fan of the remix culture like I am, you’ll love these two new sites which give you (and students!) the ability to create, mix, remix (audi0, video, powerpoint slides, music, narration, text, etc.) and share, download end embed, all online!
Glogster
Make and remix posters, with animations, music, or video (or not) and share and embed them online. Check out a recent example from University of Mary Washington student who created a science poster for his psycholinguistics class. (Say good-bye to Death by Powerpoint!)
Animoto
Take images, video, and royalty-free music and create your own video shorts with lots of pizazz! Files can be shared and downloaded. Check out Animoto’s education section with education case studies and student work.
New Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education
The Center for Social Media has just released a document that helps educators who use media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright
doctrine of fair use. The document was created during 10 meetings with more than 150 members of leading educational associations across the United States, and follows in the footsteps of the Documentary Filmmakers Association who created guiding practices for their industry 3 years ago.
In the murky waters of what legally constitutes a fair use and what doesn’t, courts of law generally look to common industry practices. In the absence of such guiding documents, the courts must look to other other industries’ interpretations of fair use, or prior case law, which often themselves aren’t relevant or comparable. Interestingly, The Center for Social Media reports that they “don’t know of any lawsuit brought by an American media company against an educator over the use of media in the educational process”.
The Center defines Media Literacy in Education:
Media literacy is the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide variety of forms. This expanded conceptualization of literacy responds to the demands of cultural participation in the twenty-first century. Like literacy in general, media literacy includes both receptive and productive dimensions, encompassing critical analysis and communication skills, particularly in relationship to mass media, popular culture, and digital media. Like literacy in general, media literacy is applied in a wide variety of contexts—when watching television or reading newspapers, for example, or when posting commentary to a blog. Indeed, media literacy is implicated everywhere one encounters information and entertainment content. And like literacy in general, media literacy can be taught and learned.
Head on over to their website and to read more and download the code.
Excellent Examples of Course Blogs in Higher Ed
The University of Mary Washington is certainly leading the way with UMW Blogs in showcasing what is possible in education with a blog publishing platform such as WordPress MU. Other pioneers include Penn State, Harvard, and UMass Amherst, (and of course, The College Blogs at Suffolk University!)
For those who may not have realized the relevance and power of blogs as self-service publishing platforms in higher ed, some good places to start are to explore the Wordcamp conferences (included the just-passed Northeast one) and (UMW) Jim Groom’s blog bavatuesdays, or (Penn State) Cole Camplese’s Learning and Innovation.
Below are some great examples of course blogs from UMW and UMass Amherst. Poke around for admiration and inspiration!
University of Mary Washington Course Blogs:
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Art & Art History
- Professor JeanAnn Dabb’s Mosaics Exhibit
- Professor Marjorie Och’s Venice Seminar
- Professor Carole Garmon’s Sculpture I
- Prof. Rosemary Jesionowski’s Digital Approaches to Fine Art
Biology
- Professor Steve Gallik’s Online Laboratory and Digital Notebooks homepage for Cellular Biology
- Professor Michael Killian’s Biology 121 course blog
Chemistry
- Professor Kelli Slunt’s Freshman Seminar 100Bb: Kitchen Chemistry
- Professor Kelli Slunt’s Chemistry & Society
Classics, Philosophy, & Religion
- Professor Angela Gosetti’s FSEM 100B: The Journey to the Underworld in Greek Myth and Modern Film
- Professor Nina Mikhalevsky’s Ancient Greek Philosophy
Economics
- Professor Steve Greenlaw’s Economics 201
- Professor Steve Greenlaw’s Freshman Seminar: Globalization
- Professor Steve Greenlaw’s Economics 300
English, Linguistics, & Communication
- Professor Mara Scanlon’s Modern Poetry
- Professor Mara Scanlon’s Freshman Seminar: Ethics and Lit
- Professor John Morello’s Communication and the 2008 Presidential Campaign
- Professor Anand Rao’s Communication 205: Public Speaking
- Professor Anand Rao’s Communication 353: Visual Rhetoric
- Professor Tim O’Donnell’s Freshman Seminar: James Farmer and The Great Debaters
- Professor Tim O’Donnell’s Speech 209: Argumentation
- Professor Zachary Whalen The Virtual and the False
- Professor Zachary Whalen Forms of Narrative
- Professor Zachary Whalen Forms of Narrative
History & American Studies
- Prof. Sue Fernsebner’s Introduction to Historical Methods
- Professor Steve Harris’s Socialism: Theory and Practice
- Professor Steve Harris’s Stalin and Stalinism
- Prof. Jeff McClurken’s Freshman Seminar: Marching Home
- Professor Jeff McClurken’s U.S. History in Film
- Professor Krystyn Moon’s Consumerism Seminar
Modern Foreign Languages
- Professor Betsy Lewis’s Spanish Realism
- Professor Jeremy LaRochelle’s Ideas of Nature in Latin American Literature
- Professor Jeremy LaRochelle’s Spanish Composition and Spanish
- Professor Scott Power’s Contemporary France Seminar
- Professor Marcel Rotter’s German 399
Sociology
- Professor Kristin Marsh’s History of Social Theory
University of Massachusetts Amherst Course Blogs:
Anthropology 104
Astronomy 101/
Communication 397SS
Journalism 392W
udaic Studies 390i
Kinesiology 530
Physics 190E
Resources Economics 112
Wow! Inspiring stuff!
Top Ten University YouTube Sites
While assessing the recent state of the trend in the educational industry toward making video content more available to a wider audience, I stumbled on some pretty interesting sites on YouTube. These institutions have partnered with YouTube and have their own custom channels. Here are my top 10 in terms of content and design, in no particular order:
Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT
Stanford University
http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity
University of Southern California
http://www.youtube.com/user/USCCollege
University of California at Berkeley
http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley
Dartmouth
http://www.youtube.com/user/Dartmouth
Northwestern University
http://www.youtube.com/user/NorthwesternU
Oxford University Said Business School
http://www.youtube.com/user/OxfordSBS
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardKennedySchool
Northeastern University
http://www.youtube.com/user/Northeastern
Comics for the Rest of Us…
Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective
(The following was cross-posed in the podcasting blog, Podcasting Your Class)
What are some student perspectives on podcasting? Carie Windham, former undergraduate student, North Carolina State University, and current graduate student, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland presents her own views and experiences with podcasting as well as views from several students she interviewed in the paper: Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective.
In “Confessions…”, Windham recounts her own introduction to and involvement with podcasting (and how she became a “podcast junkie”) and cites student data and interviews from University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of British Columbia, Bentley College, Duke University, and DePaul University. Some of the conclusions are as follows:
All the students identified the same benefits to podcasting technology:
• The ability to access course content on a 24-hour basis
• The chance to take their learning mobile so that listening can be done on the bus, at the gym, or on a walk between classes
• The creativity factor when making podcasts: they can present the content in a way that they choose
• The ease of access: podcasts can be easily downloaded from the Internet for free
For teaching and learning, the students saw concrete benefits to podcasting projects, especially when compared with standard modes of testing, such as writing a paper or doing a class demonstration:
• They were able to get “intimate” with course material, either by re-listening to course lectures and supplements or by teaching the rest of the class.
• They could showcase their projects to the rest of the community, expanding the reach of
the classroom to their friends or members of the community.
• They had the opportunity to review course material during pertinent moments in the semester, such as before exams or during course projects.
• They learned new technical skills, whether they were downloading files or creating new ones.Finally, all the students reported that they enjoyed their classes more because of the inclusion of podcasting, and all hoped that more faculty members would use podcasting in the future. Michael Martinez-Mann said it best when he said of podcasting: “The possibilities are absolutely limitless. If there’s an idea, there’s a way to do it.”
Some of the sections of the paper also include:
- Podcasting in the Real World: Student Use (and Misuse) of Podcast Technology
- Notes on the Go: Offering Lectures and Class Notes via Podcasting
- In Their Hands: Students as Podcast Creators
- A Microphone and an Idea: Nonacademic Podcasting on Campus
- If I Were in Charge: Tips for Faculty
Windham’s paper is informative, well-written, and entertaining, and was published in EDUCAUSE Review, Vol. 42 (May/June 2007). It also appears on the web in the resource-rich ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting in the section “What Do Students Think?”
While whitepapers, research, and case studies are certainly useful, it’s definitely refreshing to get student perspectives directly from students in their own voices.
Who’s Afraid of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the Big Bad CMS.
Yet another great video, Institutional Fear, presented at the 2008 ELI Educause Conference in the Fear 2.0 digi-drama session “Who’s Afraid of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the Big Bad CMS?” Session Abstract:
Web 2.0 tools have the power to transform education. Such a transformation requires that faculty, students, and institutions take risks. With those risks comes fear, which is often unarticulated. How do you tackle this fear and make real change? (Join us to face this fear together in a multimedia, interactive miniplay).
The four discussion-provoking videos in the session were created and presented by faculty and staff at the University of California, the University of Texas, the University of Mary Washington, Bryn Mawr College, Oberlin College, and Middlebury College.
For a look at pedagogy and practice, interested faculty might also want to read “Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh, My! What Is a Faculty Member to Do?” from last fall’s Connect.
In the meantime, enjoy “Institutional Fear”… Do You Fear It?
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