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Hopefully an Android-app comes out soon, too!
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Get the iOS App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/
Or access the Web App: http://m.core-apps.com/
Hopefully an Android-app comes out soon, too!
12 members in attendence. (Rita Povolka (Indiana University) is also a contact who could not be at the conference.)
IU repository including data about docs resides on a server @ IU. The Sakai KB has been exported & formatted as static Help pages as we know it. KB@iu.edu. IU have a DB of their own. Context sensitive help menus can be developed.
The docs come as a weird combo of needs. We really need two types of docs: "how do I?" & "why do I?" Rutgers includes a "what's this" link for select new features.
There exists a need to have a template that is wiki-like that we can create a tool description that still allows for user & community contribution. Warnings, pedagogy, user feedback, analytics, collection & reporting (JIRA?) should be included. Consider the variety of medium. A review and update system to existing content.
Look into the End-User Confluence page & the BoF, too, for more information.
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. --
Amber D. Evans
Mathieu Plourde
Univ of Del. Running Sakai & WebCT.
Workflow
Users call center. Ticket created in Remedy & sent to LMS team. Frequent requests sent to Tech Writer to create/update documentation.
Types of Content
- Help files
- Support Videos
- Pedagogy
Karen Campbell (Rutgers)
50,000 users. Very small staff. Users & docs are as self-reliant as possible. Although not pedagogy focused, they are in need of some teaching or tool use for teaching.
FAQ provides basic help. Tool groupings help them decide which communication tools to use. Within Help, there are giant buttons they cannot miss; there is a tools overview page. Additional instructional tips are provided alongside.
Updates are done throughout the year w/all fixes often, but an overhaul happens w/each upgrade. Docs Coordinator (her) proofs docs & manages check in/out. Long-term goals include more videos, examples, & pedagogical content. Example sites is a challenge but desired. It would be nice to have ways to track use and helpfulness (analytics); it really is necessary, but currently missing.
Finding the student resources for employment isn't too hard b/c every student can have a site of their own and they have same or similar knowledge of creation tasks.
Indiana University
Portal page of OnCourse shows a Getting Started, Training for Faculty & Students, Enhancement Process ... And Help.
The Help tool is a little different than normal Sakai help. The pages are in XML and can be collated in any order or collection, but for consistency it appears as any other static page. 500 pages are OnCourse related in the repository & undergoes updates easily & effectively.
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. --
Amber D. Evans
Lafuze & Newbrough
The science of the brain and addiction can be very difficult to understand due to the complex concepts & language. Her goal was to share the science concepts of brains & addictions, but in a way that would be non-threatening. This course has been taught online for the lst 10 years averaging between 30-50 students per course.
Placement of the mainly used tools is placed within the site info area. (This is similar to VT practice where we encourage faculty to use that space to provide a "roadmap" to students, letting them know what tools & when they wil be used.) She provides a link from that main page to a recorded message directed at the students, introducing them to the content, context, and the important people of the course.
She has "the Holodeck" which is the Forums tool, but creatively designed in a way to allow students to interact with historical people (e.g., Marie Curie). (Aside: Man, this instructor completely rocks! She has a Star Trek "What is the Holodeck" video, complete w/short clips from the classic 60's series & everything!) Within the Forums, she invites her students to engage with each other & discussions within based on topics. Guests also partake bringing knowledge of chemistry & chemistry & biology
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. -- Amber D. Evans
TWSIA Winner: Andrea
Using constructivism, she provided guided instruction through their learning of forensic science across great distances. Providing them with defined temporary roles allowed them to experience different situations & the requisite decision-making skills both individually & as a team. The necessary interactions also allowed students the flexibility to choose how they would communicate, as long as it was within Interact (Sakai). This allowed her to "peek" in and observe their process and progress.
An Evalution Rubric was used to assess both the student work & the quality of the course. The "surprise" by many of the stuents themselves was how willing & enthusiastic they each were to share their specific knowledge & skills w/group members, creating a true community within.
TWSIA Winner: Edith Sheffer
Edith's live, face-to-face course focused on interactions, having her students workly closely & intensely with European history & Sakai providing the platform.
Capitalizing on the wiki, students kept and created wiki pages for their own "historical avatar." each student drew an identity at random; to whom they were born and where. All were born in 1900, but life circumstances were different. Students then had to construct a childhood. Based on the history lectures in class, they had to discuss their avatar's life choices.
This open platform inspired authorship, imagination, curiosity, and understanding. Students averaged 1121 words per post = 4.5 pages every week for 9 weeks ON THEIR OWN. They went beyond basic research. They became attached to their avatar, too. They built a life that required introspection, reflection, & evaluation to create lasting learning.
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. --
Amber D. Evans
This short 30-minute session highlighted the UI experience of trying to select an assessment tool replacement. There is a shared Google doc w/all the data comparison between types and functions between Mneme & Samigo held @ http://tinyurl.com/n249w8 & PDF @ http://tinyurl.com/nzthgn. Save yourself some time & check it out if you're also shoping around.
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. --
Amber D. Evans
A nice perk of the early registration to the 10th annual Sakai confrence in Boston this year was the inclusion of the book, Opening up Education. Keynote speaker for the conference, Vijay Kumar, opened his speech with reminders of the growth of and the emerging embracement of open education initatives not only in higher ed, but also in K-12. This is developing a new breed of educators and learners. Addressing and communicating with these potential audiences requires us to consider the Value Potential (think Rogers' benefits consideration) and their Readiness (how can these impact education & how can we align education priorities with the open ed initiative)?
Kumar showed slides voicing speaking users' experience with the use of open ed, Proessor Richard Hall commented on the high quality of OCW material; Kunte Adejumo, a student, complimented the ease of accesibility and supplemental learning opportunity. Carnegie Mellon's OLI has led & provided a framework for others to quickly build open learning online courses. Consider the implications of this kind of technology & education adoption for countries like India ...
The open vision included elements of focusing on Blended Learning & Boundary-less Education. Focus on LIFELONG learning, not just "schooling." Consider remote control of hardware & experience as seen in MIT's iLabs, Queensland, DUT (China), and others in the iLabs Consortium. Access to expensive labs & materials would dramatically alter economic-based education and create a larger community. It allows faculty to establish their own understanding of what should be taught (as relevant a priori to their course) and what is taught. An instructor can point students to OCW and know her students will have the requisite knowledge needed before she gets too far underway. (Side note: One of the "coolest" tools in all of this was the Spoken Lecture Browser. Check it out.)
Issues & Barriers to Adoption
Where does one find content? Once content is found, is it truly relevant and/or appropriate? How does one order and make sense of the materials & knowledge within the provided OCW? Standards can certainly help, but the most profound changes come elsewhere. Vijay makes the case for addressing the Organizational Cultural factors: Scarcity vs. Abundance, Sense-making (digital disorder & pedagogy), Accountability & Accreditation.
Kumar closes with the quote from Charles M. Vest, "We are seeing the emergence of a meta-university ..." and "If we don't see you in the future, we'll see you in the pasture."
-- I apologize for typos or errors. This was sent from my mobile phone. --
Amber D. Evans
video collaboration, e-meeting and web conferencing on the Internet
Google bought this company back in April of 2007. I wonder if/when it will be going somewhere ...
Simple small business software, collaboration, CRM: 37signals
I want this. All of 37signals products, really. Basecamp for project management and collaboration; Highrise for client relations management; Backpack to organize and store it all in; Campfire to chat it all up with others (did I mention it's iPhone compatible?); and throw in Ta-da List and Whiteboard (collaborative writing) and I'd die happy. It's everything Google, but prettier and likely a bit more functional (since it's mostly a for-pay service).
Sweet, though.
SOESA Poster Presentation: "The voices of tenure-track faculty: Their transitional experiences."
Reference:
Evans, A. D., Adams, I. S., Richmond, J. A., Spruill, N. R. (2008, February). The voices of tenure-track faculty: Their transitional experiences. Poster presentation at the 3rd Annual School of Education Student Association Research Conference, Blacksburg, VA.
This is a poster that I created for the 2008 School of Education Student Association (SOESA) 3rd annual conference in Blacksburg, VA. Research for developing this poster consisted of researching and referring to the following sites for information about presenting quality poster presentations:
- Advice on designing scientific posters.
Colin Purrington. Department of Biology, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm
- Creating effective poster presentations.
George Hess, Kathryn Tosney, Leon Liegel.
http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters - PhD Poster Gallery.
http://phdposters.com/gallery.php
The Backchannel Bouncer
I learned a new-to-me term today: Backchanneling. I find it interesting because the concept is absolutely nothing new to me. When I worked for Distributed Learning Technologies at Chico State, any assistant that was worth their weight automatically performed the duty of a backchannel bouncer. It came to be because the classroom-versus-online interactions were too unwieldy to manage otherwise. With the assistant, or a "backchannel bouncer", the teacher could present the material while in-class students could ask questions alongside the online students asking, posting, contributing, and fact-checking in the chat area of the HorizonWimba (now Wimba) screen. If you don't have somebody backchannel bouncing, you're either wasting time combing the chats or your ignoring your online audience. A presenter between worlds cannot do it all. It really nice to see that this role is (finally) being taken seriously during online conferences and presentations.
Invitation:
Steve Gilbert, Ilene Frank, Drew Smith, Joe Floyd
Date: July 19, 2007
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 Eastern Time
Place: Adobe Connect Classroom
http://connectpro86502729.acrobat.com/slworkshop071907/
Commentary:
A lot of real-life issues tie directly in with what's going on in SL. It appears to me that the rate of things changing in the technology-social domain is akin to Moore's Law of technology hardware. It's getting to the stage that every 18 months, the need and use of social connectedness (or "social presence" or what I think of as "social proprioception." Yes, for real.
What did I get out of this session? A lot of tidbits, some ideas for actually getting a place and then what to do with it. For example, I'm going to actually get a spot in NMC now. A virtual office or room or something. I figure it'll give me a way and place to do my workshops for FDI in a reasonable fashion. Since we're an NMC site in RL, I figure this only makes sense. Time to talk to le bosses ...
I also typed down some notes like crazy. This is the gibberish of my processing:
- Teaching in progress? See, Intelligirl and her Freshman comp. writing class.
- ADA compliance?
A girl on the Teen grid is developing a browser for SL (uses AJAX tools) to use a browser to enter SL. You cannot see or move your avatar, but you can interact (chat, IM). Still in development. - Intellectual Property? Who owns what? It's still in debate all over including "old skool" things like the Web (Oh, geez). Check out LawSpot on InfoIsland I, Bell Library, 5th Floor, too.
- Support Service? Where does the support for SL come from? Who provides the support and to what extent? Currently there's a huge push to have faculty, students, and staff to create these things [in SL], but who owns what? Who owns it? Maintains it? How is it managed? This is a bit of a new situation b/c the global sharing and exchange of information is changing and shifting ... causing a problem to figure out fair use vs. Intellectual Property. Think about who controls or maintains the general information as it stands now (e.g., WWW, etc.) Does the higher admin. have the authority to control the subsites? To what extent? Is this the same case with SL? Compare that to the control exerted in the classroom? See the dilemma?
- Help?
Check out the SLed Archives. Contact Joe Floyd for additional help. See the TLT Group Wiki page for this session and more information about actually getting started: http://www.tltgroup.org/OLI/2007Workshops/sl_education/home.htm
Invitation:
Steve Gilbert, Ilene Frank, Drew Smith, Joe Floyd
Date: July 5, 2007
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 Eastern Time
Place: Second Life
Location: Cybrary City open air auditorium. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/131/155/24
Commentary:
I think SteveGilbertSir Heron said it all:
Probably the hardest thing about taking advantage of a new medium is figuring out some new ways of doing our old taks [sic] - and then, going beyond to new tasks - that weren't possible without the new medium
What purpose does Second Life have in Education? In-world at the TLT Group meeting, there was a lot of talk about role-playing. Someone else mentioned something of true interest: the Star Wars guilds and Star Trek Academy in-world. I bet you that those are well done with highly defined objectives ... those fan groups tend to get those things pretty darn right. Now, if only the Education realm and us as Educators could find that kind of time and creativity to do the same for our very own classrooms ... although I don't really blame us for not doing it. There is a difference between work and play ... and the line between real and imaginary blurs in this type of setting.For example, as Ilene Pratt wrote, "One educator remarked that she never thought she'd put "don't come to class naked" on a syllabus ;)" Indeed, that was something I'd never have thought of. I have heard of worse things ... like the time a SDSU professor was conducting class and someone crashed her course sporting a giant phallus for all to see. If you currently think disruptions outside your real-life classroom doors and windows are problematic, well, SL may be something you'll want to ease into. Although to be perfectly honest, I doubt that so many of your (18-to-2o-something) students would be quite so offended at such things ... they're pretty good at laughing or shrugging those things off. They did grow up with MTV, sex, and violence on TV and the Internet, after all ...
The hour passed quickly. Chatting is slow and causes the discussion to appear to be all over the place, but I'm good at fast-switching my attention and following separate conversations. Of course, any good instruction is followed with some homework to keep us focused.
Homework:
Virtual Web Quest about Learning Spaces
2007-07-05 10:36:44 Virtual Web Quest
Objective: Develop some ideas about constitutes an excellent virtual learning space in 3D immersive environments
What should virtual learning spaces look like? Will they be just be a replica of what exists in 2007 in real life, or will they be much more creative and informal?
Work as a team to identify what makes a good virtual world learning space and why. Be prepared with some remarks for the next workshop session.
Set up a team meeting to visit learning spaces on Second Life.
Make sure you identify a ‘meeting chairperson’ and a scribe to take notes so that you can refer to them later. To save the chat history, click Edit --> Preferences --> Communication --> click Log Chat and choose a location on your computer for the text file.
Visit a number of learning spaces in Second Life using the Resources section below as a starting point, and look at how they have been set up. What are the key features of each learning space you visited? – and how will you know if they are successful learning spaces that help learners to learn?
(To search for these locations, use Search --> Places tab --> include mature content )
• SL Ecosystem [SL Location: Terminus 147, 106, 27] – Search term: SL Ecosystem.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terminus/147/106/27/
• Academy of Second Learning: ASL [SL Location: Eson 32, 162, 351] – Search term: Academy of Second Learning.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eson/32/162/351/
• SL Computer History Museum [SL Location: Info Island II 241, 54, 23] – Search Term: SL Computer History Museum.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island%20II/241/54/23/
• EduNation [SL Location: EduNation 70, 49, 23] – Search term: EduNation. Free seminar facilities for educators.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation/70/49/23/
• Reef Ball Coral Reef Library [SL Location: Changmi 167, 81, 110] - Search term: Reef Ball.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Changmi/167/81/110/
• English Village [SL Location: English Village 131, 156, 126] – Search term: English Village
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/English%20Village/131/156/126/
• Literature Alive [SL Location: Eduisland II 186, 241, 22] Search term: literature alive.
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/186/241/22
. Terra Incognita [SL Location: Terra incognita 156 99 33] Search term: Terra Incognita
o SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/128/128/0
This learning activity has been adapted from http://www.sleducationuk.net/ for a more detailed version of this virtual quest that includes ideas about evaluating the activity and suggests some additional outcomes. Visit Education UK island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/248/39/22
Links of Interest:
- TLT Group Adobe Connect Webcast Room: http://connectpro86502729.acrobat.com/secondlife/
- TLT Group: Education and Second Life Meeting Place (Cybrary City): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/131/155/24
- TLT Group Second Life Workshops Blog: http://tltgslworkshop.blogspot.com/
Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference
The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)
6:00 PM SLT / 9:00 PM EST
Wainbrave Bernal (SL)/ Jonathan Richter (RL)
Moderator: Aidenn Brooks (SL)
Creating a community of practice and searchable database of learning objects in Second Life: The SaLamander Project
Abstract:
A recently funded grant by The NorthWest Computing Council has added to the capacity being built by CATE at the University of Oregon's effort to enhance higher education faculty to learn and teach in Multi-User Virtual Environments, such as Second Life. The SaLamander Project will enlist educators from all stripes in Second Life to nominate the many tools, builds, and locales in SL that are useful for teaching and learning to be described by content experts and placed in a searchable format both on the web and within Second Life.
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/123/127/23/
Review:
No conference is complete without technical failure. The SaLamander Project began with a well-spoken, although odd-looking, SL "Wainbrave Bernal" and a missing Powerpoint presentation. It really didn't matter whether or not he had slides, though.
He began by correlating the relationship between the existing MERLOT.org community and how the SaLamander Project will follow along the same process and adaptation for gathering the necessary SL objects. The goal was also discussed, to create a Community of Practice (COP) centered around the creation, sharing, and reuse of these objects.
"What works? Who has it? What are other uses for it?" These were the key questions that SL Wainbrave Bernal approached. Getting involved with the SaLamander Project would make you privy to many new and emerging objects for (and uses of) SL in general. With the added features of being able to store and tag all of the peer-reviewed items, it would make SL suddenly a usable place without having to sludge through all the normal decisions that one faces now when building an online course.
Want to get involved?
Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference
The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)
4:00 PM SLT / 7:00 PM EST
John Jamison (Virtual Bacon-SL)
Moderator: Rainbow Drake (SL)
Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life in 60 Minutes, or: Tips for Dinosaur Wrangling
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/imagiLEARNING/128/128/0
Abstract:
"How do explain Second Life to my boss?".."How do I explain Second Life to my budget officer?".."How do I get my faculty to use Second Life?".."How do I get my IT people to....(fill in the blank)...". These are some of the most common questions appearing in the SLED listserve, and the ones I hear most often from the educators visiting imagiLEARNING. Add those to the "Where can I find..." questions and you've got a pretty good picture of where many educators spend their time in SL. According to my friendly greeter bot, Alex, imagiLEARNING has hosted more than 7,000 educator visitors in the past few months, and this session will present the gleanings from interactions with most of those folks. Participants should come prepared to get involved and not just sit back and try to lurk their way through the presentation...WOOT. Sorry... This session will also feature VB's Seven Critical Issues for Educators...and you certainly don't want to miss those, now do you?
Review:
It was a packed room on a packed island like all the other presentations and posters I've attended today on Hyperstring (SLurl) and EduIsland (SLurl). As my avatar, AmsDiane Gustafson, I was able to snag the seat formerly belonging to someone who was "afk" (or "away from keyboard"). Once down and comfortable, I zoomed in on the presenter's screen, turned my music on, and listened as "Virtual Bacon - SL Presenter," otherwise known as John Jamison in "RL" ("real life"), spoke about what it is that SL offers in contrast to existing or "traditional" methods of interaction and learning.
He spent a long time discussing the differences in how digital immigrants and digital natives think about (re-)creation. This was an interesting component to the speech. Apparently, the immigrants to the SL world re-create a facsimile of their RL, and often ask, "What now or what next?" The natives immediate create whatever their imagination desires and then proceed to discover how to design, develop, create, use, and refine the items and objects around them.
Jamison followed it up with a stint about embracing and supporting SL in Education through a grassroots effort. Like Blackboard and it's history, use it and use it well in your classrooms. Continue to expand on it, contribute to EduIsland, the in-world libraries, and soon your students will begin to ask other professors, "Why don't you do what Professor X does in his class?"
Lastly, Jamison provided SLurl links to his land for imagiLEARNING (East | West), suggesting that any educator who is bona fide in developing something for their instruction may do so by contacting him.
Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference
The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)
8:00 AM SLT / 11:00 AM EST
Suzi Mazzenga (Xirconnia Morphett-SL)
Moderator: Meriwether Voom (SL)
Drawing on Second Life Experiences to Enrich the First Life
Abstract:
Points for Discussion: 1. Virtual Self-Awareness vs. Self-Awareness in Real life 2. Using SL to Expand Imagination 3. Using SL to Enhance Group Dynamics 4. Gaining across-the-board Self-Awareness by Becoming Your Exact Opposite
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zabawa/54/167/25/
Review:
For the fact that this conference is a complete "in-world" experience, it felt amazingly like I was attending a lecture in a room. In the least, it was about as exciting as one.
I should be clear: she was not boring. It was just not the kind of thing that would get you revved up about SL. It really didn't showcase SL as being a good way to conduct interactions or to engage learners. For example, she spent the whole conference presenting via keyboard in the chat, and not through a voice broadcast in SL. It was a bit tedious and one-way in it's communication. She also came across as very young, idealistic, and obviously biased in favor of using SL.
Despite those niggling things, she spent a good amount of time discussing how creating and changing your avatar is a consuming and personally revealing experience. Then she continued on to discuss some pedagogical aspects or themes that could be addressed in SL: gender differences, perception, identity, and the process of self-definition. I personally found that this might be useful for helping first-year freshmen transition between a child's life and an adult's life ... maybe through helping them create both their SL and RL identities at the same time?
Overall, I wasn't particularly wowed with Suzi's presentation, but her enthusiasm was transparent. If nothing else, it helped to conjure up some ideas about using SL ... so it wasn't a bad way to start out the in-world day.
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