Good Morning Developers,
One resource that I haven't had a chance to talk about yet is TED. Some of you may have heard of TED before and some of you are probably wondering who TED is? So I would like to start with a description of what the TED website consists of:
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a creative commons license , so they can be freely shared and re-posted.
If you haven't had a chance to search around the TED website at http://www.ted.com/ I very much encourage you to do so. The videos that are shown are very "real life" and "relevant" and having students do an assignment that requires them to watch a TED video would also introduce them to this wonderful resource.
To show you an example of a video that is extremely relevant I would like you to watch the 8 minute video on Twitter. I have been talking about Twitter quite a bit lately and this speech is given by the creator of Twitter and he does a great job talking about the philosophy behind it and how to best use it in your own lives.
On a different note, please notice that I have started to give labels to my blogs and you can now see some of the labels on the right side of your screen. I have yet to get through all of my past blog posts to label them, but it is a project I am working on. For now, you can start to look at archived postings based on their subject. Have fun!
Have a great week!
Amy
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
March 16, 2009
Hello Developers,
Most of you are moving right along in your developments and we are now in the development phase where you are getting creative with your assignments, discussion boards, and interactivity between the students in the courses you are creating. Several weeks ago, on March 2nd, I mentioned iTunes University. I want to take this time to point you in the direction of another article that mentions iTunes University: http://www.oculture.com/2006/12/the_hottest_cou.html
This article comments on the amount of information that is available for free on the web. The article mentions that this free information is making companies that offer these kinds of taped lectures for a price become obsolete. If we can get it for free, why would we pay for it?
Please take a couple of minutes to take a look at the free information that is is available via iTunes University and see if any of this information could be worked into the courses you are developing. There is a wealth of information out there, we just need to find it!
Have a great week!
Amy
Most of you are moving right along in your developments and we are now in the development phase where you are getting creative with your assignments, discussion boards, and interactivity between the students in the courses you are creating. Several weeks ago, on March 2nd, I mentioned iTunes University. I want to take this time to point you in the direction of another article that mentions iTunes University: http://www.oculture.com/2006/12/the_hottest_cou.html
This article comments on the amount of information that is available for free on the web. The article mentions that this free information is making companies that offer these kinds of taped lectures for a price become obsolete. If we can get it for free, why would we pay for it?
Please take a couple of minutes to take a look at the free information that is is available via iTunes University and see if any of this information could be worked into the courses you are developing. There is a wealth of information out there, we just need to find it!
Have a great week!
Amy
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
March 9, 2009
Good Morning Developers,
Today I will be going into your courses to check for 25% completion. If you have any concerns about meeting this deadline please let me know.
Plagiarism:
We have found that as students have more and more access to information via the Internet our instances of plagiarism have increased. In order to combat this plagiarism increase many faculty members have started taking advantage of our SafeAssign feature feature that is built into Blackboard. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. SafeAssign can be used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase.
I have created a new "How To" document on how to create a SafeAssignment in your course and have e-mailed it to all of you. If you are developing an assignment with a research component I encourage you to set up your assignment as a SafeAssignment rather than a regular assignment. These assignments are integrated with the Grade Center just like other assignment but just have the added feature of checking for plagiarism.
Have a great week!
Today I will be going into your courses to check for 25% completion. If you have any concerns about meeting this deadline please let me know.
Plagiarism:
We have found that as students have more and more access to information via the Internet our instances of plagiarism have increased. In order to combat this plagiarism increase many faculty members have started taking advantage of our SafeAssign feature feature that is built into Blackboard. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. SafeAssign can be used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase.
I have created a new "How To" document on how to create a SafeAssignment in your course and have e-mailed it to all of you. If you are developing an assignment with a research component I encourage you to set up your assignment as a SafeAssignment rather than a regular assignment. These assignments are integrated with the Grade Center just like other assignment but just have the added feature of checking for plagiarism.
Have a great week!
Monday, March 2, 2009
March 2, 2009
Good Morning Developers,
Now that March has arrived we have almost reached the season of spring, yipee! It makes those summer developments you are working on seem like their roll out date isn't that far away. Please remember that your 25% completion deadline is Monday, March 9th (one week from today). If you have concerns about meeting this deadline please let me know ASAP.
In the past week there have been two very interesting news updates that pertain to online learning. The first one is from the Department of Psychology, SUNY, Fredonia, NY. They studied how iTunes University can assist students in the classroom. Their findings revealed that
students who listened to a podcast while going through power point lecture notes scored significantly higher on a test than students who sat through the same the lecture in the traditional lecture format. So those of you who are posting lecture notes in your courses (which should be all of you) now have proof that if you also record a podcast to go with your power point presentations your students will learn much better! http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCJ-4V5GCPP-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e37f858b8a49dca5d5cd6a8c85494e7a
If you have questions about how to create a podcast just let me know!
The second update is from Microsoft and how they are exploring educational link to video games. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDQ-SWd6OPxfVg2xMiYzMvPxF5UgD96FCQL82
Could playing video games draw students into learning and get them more interested in Scientific Thinking? Here at Globe University we think playing games, or doing learning objects, can really get students interested in the material! See these websites to find learning objects that are related to your subject matter:
http://www.lolaexchange.org/
http://www.mrelot.org/
http://www.wisc-online.com/
Have a great week!
Amy
P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks for day light savings on Sunday!
Now that March has arrived we have almost reached the season of spring, yipee! It makes those summer developments you are working on seem like their roll out date isn't that far away. Please remember that your 25% completion deadline is Monday, March 9th (one week from today). If you have concerns about meeting this deadline please let me know ASAP.
In the past week there have been two very interesting news updates that pertain to online learning. The first one is from the Department of Psychology, SUNY, Fredonia, NY. They studied how iTunes University can assist students in the classroom. Their findings revealed that
students who listened to a podcast while going through power point lecture notes scored significantly higher on a test than students who sat through the same the lecture in the traditional lecture format. So those of you who are posting lecture notes in your courses (which should be all of you) now have proof that if you also record a podcast to go with your power point presentations your students will learn much better! http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCJ-4V5GCPP-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e37f858b8a49dca5d5cd6a8c85494e7a
If you have questions about how to create a podcast just let me know!
The second update is from Microsoft and how they are exploring educational link to video games. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jDQ-SWd6OPxfVg2xMiYzMvPxF5UgD96FCQL82
Could playing video games draw students into learning and get them more interested in Scientific Thinking? Here at Globe University we think playing games, or doing learning objects, can really get students interested in the material! See these websites to find learning objects that are related to your subject matter:
http://www.lolaexchange.org/
http://www.mrelot.org/
http://www.wisc-online.com/
Have a great week!
Amy
P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks for day light savings on Sunday!
Monday, February 23, 2009
February 23, 2009
Good Morning Developers!
This week I am going to dedicate the blog to Twitter. Some of you may use Twitter often, some may be somewhat familiar with it, and some of you may have never heard of it before.
First off, what is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Here is the link to Wikipedia to learn even more about Twitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Secondly, how can we use Twitter in higher education. Here is a link to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that explains a little bit about how Twitter is currently being used in Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i25/25a01501.htm
In my mind, Twitter is another social networking site that is becoming very popular in the mainstream and if something is becoming popular in the mainstream we should not ignore it in the world of education. Our students are the future of their professions and it is our responsibility to stay on top of what they will be required to know about when they go out into the "real world". At this time I am not convinced that it is the best thing to come along since sliced bread, but I am seeing that it does have a place and a time and if used correctly it could add some value to a course (whether it be online or residentially). To see ways that other educators are using Twitter please see the following web site:
This week I am going to dedicate the blog to Twitter. Some of you may use Twitter often, some may be somewhat familiar with it, and some of you may have never heard of it before.
First off, what is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Here is the link to Wikipedia to learn even more about Twitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Secondly, how can we use Twitter in higher education. Here is a link to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that explains a little bit about how Twitter is currently being used in Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i25/25a01501.htm
In my mind, Twitter is another social networking site that is becoming very popular in the mainstream and if something is becoming popular in the mainstream we should not ignore it in the world of education. Our students are the future of their professions and it is our responsibility to stay on top of what they will be required to know about when they go out into the "real world". At this time I am not convinced that it is the best thing to come along since sliced bread, but I am seeing that it does have a place and a time and if used correctly it could add some value to a course (whether it be online or residentially). To see ways that other educators are using Twitter please see the following web site:
Additionally, if Twitter is very new to you and you haven't even been on the web site here is a link that has a video out how to get started using Twitter:
Beginning last week I started my very first Twitter page! You can view my Twitters under the name amyode or you can simply click on the "follow me on Twitter" link on the right side of my blog. I am hoping to connect with other Higher Education professionals through this new form of social networking in order to learn about new technologies and interesting articles as well as share my knowledge with others in the Higher Education community.
Have fun playing around with this new technology and I hope to see you on Twitter!
Please feel free to post comments regarding this blog post after you have read it. I am always open to your thoughts and ideas regarding anything that I post on my blog!
Have a great week!
Amy
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
February 17, 2009
Good Morning Developers!
All of you that are developing a course during this round of development have done online development before so rather than focusing on the basics of development for the upcoming blog posts, I will be discussing more advanced topics and will do my best to give you ideas to spark your development creativity.
To start off with a few announcements:
All of you that are developing a course during this round of development have done online development before so rather than focusing on the basics of development for the upcoming blog posts, I will be discussing more advanced topics and will do my best to give you ideas to spark your development creativity.
To start off with a few announcements:
- If you haven't returned your contracts yet, please return those to me this week.
- The 25% completion deadline is on March 9th
- I will be going on maternity leave during this round of development. When I go on leave you will begin to receive updates and announcements as well as blog entries from Heather Thomton-Stockman
- We will need to create both 12 week and 10 week masters for every course
I also wanted to bring an article to your attention regarding the use of laptops in lecture based classrooms. Although you are designing courses primarily for online use, most of your shells will be used by residential instructors as well. The article titled "Can I have your half-attention, please?" discusses whether or not laptops are creating a culture of 'constant partial distraction'. As we work more and more in a technology centered educational environment, this is an important topic to know about: http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/02/06/can-i-have-your-half-attention-please/
In your design of your course think about whether or not it would be beneficial for instructors to have students access your course during a lecture or if it would be best used as a supplemental tool for residential instructors. Is there a way you can add items to your course shell to make it useful during a lecture situation?
Have a great week!
Amy
Monday, February 2, 2009
February 2, 2009
Hello Developers,
This will be the last blog for developments due to be complete for the Spring 2009 quarter.
I want to extend a big Thank You for all of the work you have done on your courses and I am excited to receive the feedback from the peer advisers this week - I am sure the feedback will be great!
If you have not yet completed your course (some of you have to still add course calendars, etc.) I have already e-mailed you individually this morning.
Once we have completed working in the feedback from the peer advisers the last step is to make a copy of the fully completed course and then you will convert it to the 10 week schedule. If you have concerns about this process please let me know ASAP!
I enjoyed working with all of you this quarter and look forward to working with each of you again in the future! We will be in communication over the next few weeks as we finish up the development, so as always, please be sure to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Amy
This will be the last blog for developments due to be complete for the Spring 2009 quarter.
I want to extend a big Thank You for all of the work you have done on your courses and I am excited to receive the feedback from the peer advisers this week - I am sure the feedback will be great!
If you have not yet completed your course (some of you have to still add course calendars, etc.) I have already e-mailed you individually this morning.
Once we have completed working in the feedback from the peer advisers the last step is to make a copy of the fully completed course and then you will convert it to the 10 week schedule. If you have concerns about this process please let me know ASAP!
I enjoyed working with all of you this quarter and look forward to working with each of you again in the future! We will be in communication over the next few weeks as we finish up the development, so as always, please be sure to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Amy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)