Posts tagged edtech
Leveraging Quality Matters Certified Courses
Aug 6th
Short version: An institution that facilitates and supports Quality Matters (QM) centered reviews of online courses could leverage those courses by licensing a QM certified course from the faculty developer on a semester-to-semester basis and distribute that QM certified course to any faculty – including or perhaps especially adjuncts – teaching the course. For me, that would be a win-win-win solution for the institution, the faculty developer and all other faculty teaching the same course.
Long version and a few issues are described below. After I explain all of this, please comment and tell me what sort of things I don’t know about QM or licensing issues etc that preclude an institution from doing this ;-) More >
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Loading ...Assessing Online Discussions
Aug 4th
I recently re/developed the rubric I use to assess learner performance in the online discussion for my “Introduction to Computers” course; I wanted a more generic approach suitable for many of the discussions in the course – particularly with the course going through a Quality Matters review. I developed a holistic rubric with two primary criteria supported with a number of descriptors at each level of proficiency. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...STOP Calling them the Net Generation!! (Please!)
(If you’re landing on the individual post page directly, this is an abstract for a conference/professional development presentation. See the speaking page for more details.)
The education industry, at all levels, has been inundated with the “net generation” and “digital native” rhetoric for more than a decade. An uncountable number of conference presentations, technology initiatives, curricular changes and innovations, and faculty development projects have started with the assumption that we, as educators, are faced with a college learner of today that is radically different from the college learner of years past. They’re just different. Why? Only one reason: they’ve been surrounded by ubiquitous technology their entire lives. You’ve seen *that* presentation introduction 100x over… How many hours they surf the internet, play games, listen to music, text on their phones… blah blah blah blah. More >
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Facebook Meme as Online Class’ Personal Introduction Assignment?
Jan 23rd
Teaching an online class, I’m always looking for ways for students to introduce themselves in a method other than a discussion board post. They typically don’t write anything spectacular, and after all is said and done, it is text. I have seen folks use ToonDoo.com, Animoto.com and other online tools to have students create media that introduces themselves in some way to their classmates. Tonight, I encountered a Facebook Meme that AJ (@sorry_afk) posted. It was interesting enough that I decided to follow along; I don’t do that very often. As I was finishing it, I thought this might be an interesting activity for students to do as a first activity in an online class. For it to work though, some intentionality would have to be inserted. My result, at least the image, for the meme is to the left, and the modified list of instructions for a first assignment are below. The original that AJ posted to FB is at the bottom. More >
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VWER: Future of Education in Virtual Worlds?
Jan 8th
(cross posted from http://blogs.sanjac.edu/virtualworlds)
I attended the Virtual Worlds in Education Roundtable (VWER) Annual “First Meeting of the Year” for 2011 this past Thursday. I believe this is the third year the VWER’s new year has begun with a panel discussion. The stated focus of the discussion was on the Probable, Possible and Preferable Futures of education in virtual worlds. Of course, the majority of the discussion focused on the first two. The discussion was moderated by (using Second Life monikers) AJ Brooks and included Buddy Sprocket, Fleep Tuque, Anthony Fontana, Wainbrave Bernal, and Kenny Hubble. So what’d the panel have to say? (with my thoughts mixed in throughout.) More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...@Rockmelt Browser, a first impression
Jan 6th
Rockmelt, according to their site, is “re-imagining your online experience by creating a new web browser that makes it easy to stay in touch with friends, search online, and get updates from your favorite websites.” My explanation? It’s a Google Chrome-based browser that’s been modified to integrate social networks as a “native” part of the browsing experience. You can read and watch more about the browser from the folks at Rockmelt (video embedded below). I want to offer a few first impressions from an educational perspective after tinkering with it for a little while. If you decide you’re interested, let me know; I have a few invites available. More >
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How do you use your mobile device?
Dec 30th
A quick thought and question regarding mobile devices. How do you use your device(s)?
I have an iPhone 3GS with the current version of iOS. By the iTunes storage meter, I’m an app hound. I love apps. Have more on my phone than I ever use. I even have some apps on my phone exclusively for the opportunity to demonstrate a capability of this (or other mobile devices) – for educational, professional or personal use. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Interesting Google Labs Projects
Dec 21st
It’s been a long while since I’ve flipped through Google Labs, and honestly, I can’t remember doing that recently in any depth or with much curiosity. Not sure why. I just happened across Google Labs tonight; perhaps it was a twitter mention of Google Shared Spaces – a sort of new/re- incarnation of Google Wave – that led me there. Giving it a little more time, I noticed several Labs projects that definitely deserve more attention from educators’ – if they’re not already getting that attention: Shared Spaces, Breadcrumb, News Timeline, and Fast Flip. I’m sure there’s more in Labs I need to find/explore. Let me know what you find that’s particularly interesting. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...WordPress Help! Private Comments/Posts & Aggregating Tags
Dec 17th
For the WordPress Mu gurus – or at least those more familiar with WP Mu than I (which does not require being a guru) – I have several questions. First, is there an available plugin that allows a post author to mark the post as private so that only they and a specific user or group of users can access/review the post? Second, is there an available plugin to allow a commenter to mark their comment as private so that only they and the post author (and system adminsitrators) can access/read the comment – even if the post isn’t private? Third, is there an available plugin that does site-wide aggregation of tags by user or tag?
That’s probably clear as mud, so I’ll explain what I’d like to do related to student portfolios and institutional assessment. I have italicized the parts of this scenario which are the source of my questions; the elements not italicized aren’t in question – I believe/know they can be done within WPMu. More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Metanomics: 2010 & Next – Second Life, Virtual Worlds & the State of the Union
Dec 15th
I attended the Metanomics series on virtual environments Tuesday afternoon; this epsiode was 2010 & Next – Second Life, Virtual Worlds and the State of the Union. I observed the virtual broadcast via NMC Teaching island (http://bit.ly/dYFJzi) though the chat, audio and video were all available via the Metanomics website.
One of the panel members was Larry Pixel (RL: Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium); my primary interest in the event was to listen to commentary regarding the future of virtual worlds (and perhaps Second Life in particular) within the education sector. A few notes, comments and thoughts follow.
A quick summary? I believe Second Life does and will continue to offer unique benefits that other platforms and technologies do not; I believe the capabilities provide value-added benefit to education beyond what other platforms may currently offer. If at all possible, I believe educational institutions should maintain their presence in Second Life while exploring other platforms in parallel; I understand that an institution’s presence may need to be reduced to meet budgetary limitations, but I do not believe using the elimination of the educational discount as a reason to leave Second Life is a good or rational decision. More >
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