Dear members of the Educational Technologists Forum,

We hope you are able to attend the Educational Technologists Forum (ETF), Thursday, December 11, 2008, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in room 402 Walter Library. We encourage you to come at 3:00 for snacks and conversation with your fellow educational technologists. This time, the topic will be the educational potential of the Wii, an innovative gaming platform with a wireless controller that can better track movements in three dimensions. We will describe a few examples and give the audience the chance to experience Wii games. If you've never raced cows, you won't want to miss this one. Presenters are Kurtis Scaletta from the Digital Media Center and Chris Scruton from the Vice Provost's office for Distributed Education & Instructional Technology.

This will be last in our series of ETF activities. As leaders of the ETF, our goal was to give educational technologists across the University the opportunity to network and share their work. We feel that the ETF met both those goals, and we enjoyed some very successful meetings, but have now decided to merge the forum with University Technology Enhanced Learning Leaders (UTELL). Many of you are also UTELL participants, and we feel that the ETF and UTELL have largely the same goals. UTELL meetings are designed to help keep you informed about the latest in academic technologies at the U as well as provide an opportunity for you to ask questions, but there is ample time for networking and for sharing your own successes, tips and tricks with colleagues from across the University.

The next UTELL meeting is Tuesday, January 13th at 11:30 a.m. in 402 Walter Library. If you would like to participate and are not currently on the email list, please contact kcragg@umn.edu to add your name to the list.

Although the ETF is now merged with UTELL, we will continue to explore ways to support educational technologists across the campus, and would like to continue creating opportunities for networking and professional development, so please feel free to contact us if you have other ideas on how we can do this.

Thank you for your interest and participation in the Educational Technologists Forum (ETF) over the past few years, and we hope to see you on December 11.

Sincerely,

Kurtis Scaletta
Co-Coordinator, Educational Technologists Forum/Digital Media Center, Office of Information Technology

David Ernst
Co-Coordinator, Educational Technologists Forum/College of Education and Human Development, Academic and Information Technology Services

Online via Moodle

Educational Policy and Administration
EdPA 5080: section 002 course number 91675
Approved Leadership Minor Elective
3 credits or 40 CEUs

Who protects and advocates for our Human Rights?
How urgent is the need for Human Rights Education?

The intent of this course is to foster enthusiasm and commitment to Human Rights and Human Rights Education. Human Rights Education will equip students with the pedagogies, methods, and strategies appropriate for teaching Human Rights. This course is designed for those who want to be teachers of and leaders for Human Rights in PK-16 education and community-based organizations.

For more information please contact the instructors:

Amy Garrett Dikkers, EdPA garre014@umn.edu
Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, University Human Rights Center krp@umn.edu

Click here for a video introduction.

Cuaderno: Online Notebook and Writing Portfolio
Tuesday, November 18, 12:20-1:10 p.m.
Jones 35

Presenters: Frances Matos-Schultz, Pablo Viedma, and Jose Fernandez

The Spanish department has developed Cuaderno, a system for creating and managing web-based writing portfolios. Cuaderno is designed and programmed to be flexible and adaptable to different writing tasks and projects which both the instructor and learner are able to manipulate in a secure environment. Learners have access to multiple tools that enhance and facilitate their writing, such as multimedia, rubrics, tutorials and templates. The Cuaderno system is self-populating and scalable and requires minimal administrative intervention. Though initially developed for Spanish, the Cuaderno tools can accommodate different languages and levels. Come to this presentation to learn more about Cuaderno and how it might be useful in your language program!

In preparation, check out http://dmc.umn.edu/spotlight/itunesu.shtml. Spotlight articles are published a few days before each seminar session. The page includes an overview of each topic with citations to related readings and information about relevant campus resources, plus instructions about how to participate via UMConnect Meeting. After each session, we will add on this page a link to the UMConnect recording of the event. The seminars also will be podcast after each event.

*iTunes U and Beyond: Perspectives of Faculty*

The TEL Seminar Series is sponsored by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and cosponsored by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost (SVPP) and the panelists’ units. All University faculty members, staff members, students, and members of the general public are invited to attend at no charge. For more information about the series, please see: http://dmc.umn.edu/spotlight/

Moderators: Billie Wahlstrom, Distributed Education & Instructional Technology, SVPP • Ann Hill Duin, OIT

Panelists: David Arendale, Postsecondary Teaching and Learning • Frank Barnwell, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior • Sehoya Cotner, Biology Program • John Finnegan, School of Public Health

Wimba VoiceTools on Moodle
Friday, October 24
3:35 - 4:25 p.m.
Jones 30

Three of the Wimba Voice Tools are now available on the University Moodle course management system. They are Voice Board, Voice Presentation and Podcaster.

Contact Jian Wu at wuxxx015@umn.edu to RSVP

Instructors often provide written comments about student presentations. However, these comments can prove difficult for instructors to complete in class, and students may not understand what elements of their presentations are referenced in instructors’ comments. These problems are solved with VideoANT, an Internet-based tool which synchronizes instructors’ written annotations with students’ videotaped presentations. See a demonstration of this technology and learn about the opportunities and challenges it creates.

Presenters: David Atterberry currently teaches in the Minnesota English Language Program at the University of Minnesota, where he completed an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language in 2005.
Catherine Clements is a teaching assistant, Instructional Technology Fellow and MA-ESL graduate student at the University of Minnesota.

Cosponsored by the Language Center and the ESL Forum

In preparation, check out http://dmc.umn.edu/spotlight. Spotlight articles are published a few days before each seminar session. The page will include an overview of each topic with citations to related readings and information about relevant campus resources, plus instructions about how to participate via UMConnect Meeting. After each session, we will add on this page a link to the UMConnect recording of the event. The seminars also will be podcast after each event.

The TEL Seminar Series is sponsored by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and cosponsored by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost (SVPP) and the panelists’ units. All University faculty members, staff members, students, and members of the general public are invited to attend at no charge. For more information about the series, please see: http://dmc.umn.edu/issues.shtml

*U of M Learning Spaces: Physical, Virtual, and Mobile*

October 15, 2008, 12:00–1:30 p.m., 105 Cargill Building (St. Paul)

Experience the use of innovative, flexible, mobile learning devices designed for today’s students. Faculty, staff, and student panelists will demonstrate teaching and learning opportunities and the associated challenges as they implement innovative learning spaces and conduct new forms of scholarship.

Moderators: Ann Hill Duin, OIT • Robert McMaster, Undergraduate Education, SVPP

Panelists: Robin Wright, College of Biological Sciences • Aimee Whiteside, OIT • Earl Schleske, OIT• Steven Manson, Geography

When asked what kind of educational technology they wanted most, students—replete with iPods, laptops, and social-network pages on Facebook—say the thing they don’t have and wish for most is an online chat with their professors.

In a survey released today by CDW-G, the technology vendor, 39 percent of college students say they want regular online chats with faculty. The surveyors contacted 401 students to get this information.

The students are likely to be disappointed, according to the report. Only 23 percent of IT staff surveyed—there were 301 of them—said their campus offered that kind of electronic faculty-student contact.—Josh Fischman

Do any of you chat with your students? I have set up online office hours before, but more often than not spent the time surfing, emailing, or facebooking while waiting for students to contact me.

Weigh in with the top teaching and learning challenges in IT Assessment.

Learning space design. Changing student and faculty practice. When polled, focus groups within the EDUCAUSE teaching and learning community identified their top “challenges� in teaching and learning with IT. But how does your list compare? What big issues are dominating your campus conversations and water cooler debates? What challenges would you add?

This fall, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) is kicking off a new community effort to list the biggest "Challenges" in teaching and learning with technology and to aggregate resources that can help to address them. Through online brainstorming, face-to-face sessions at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, and a community-wide vote later this fall, participants will identify their top five issues. With the list in hand, the community will begin building content around each challenge, creating dynamic resource pages in wikis within EDUCAUSE Connect, and joining collaborative working groups on the Challenges Ning Network.

But first, we need your help to generate the initial list of challenges.

Take the community brainstorming survey and decide which challenges are most important to you. Then, add your own suggestions and join us at the EDUCAUSE Annual Meeting when we reveal results and roll out this new community project.

Take the survey now:
http://survey.educause.edu/eli_t&l_challenges/

The October/November 2008 issue includes a landmark interview describing important developments in technology-enhanced learning plus two articles on e-learning, experiential learning, and reflective participation. In our remaining articles, one reports on a study on the use of student response systems to increase classroom engagement while the other describe an analysis of student assessments of important elements in department Web sites.

We are happy to announce that during this academic year, 9 Mellon Seminars in Digital Humanities taking place at UCLA in real life (RL), will be “broadcast� via live feed into the Digital Library Federation’s (DLF) Second Life (SL) island, Entropia. The RL participants will also see the SL audience, projected on a screen in the Seminar room at UCLA. Anyone interested is welcome to attend at UCLA or in Second Life.

The following Second Life URL will teleport you to DLF’s Entropia, though you must have a Second Life account in order to log on:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Entropia/110/117/21/

Basic Second Life accounts are free.

Please note that the times listed below (editor's note: see extended entry) are U.S. Pacific Time. See further details in the message below, from Todd Presner, Germanic Languages, UCLA, or in the attached flyer.

Best,
Esther Grassian (UCLA) & Deni Wicklund (Stanford)
Co-Managers, DLF’s Entropia

Next Thursday (October 2 ) the Science and Engineering Library will be hosting an Advanced EndNote Workshop taught by a representative from EndNote. EndNote trainer Doug Nguyen will be in Walter Library, Room 310 from 12:30-1:30 providing answers to questions EndNote users may have about ways to maximize their use of the software.

This is a great opportunity to expand your knowledge of EndNote from an expert on the topic. He'll start with a quick demonstration on how to set up the journals term lists so that EndNote can do full and abbreviated journal names and then he'll open it up to your questions.

Come and learn more about customizing citation styles, personalizing your database to best fit your needs, and troubleshooting any problems you may have run into using the software.

This class is free and open to the public. If you’re interested, space is limited. Register click:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/registration/

There is also a beginning EndNote workshop linked on this same page:

EndNote for Engineers and Physical Scientists

An introduction to using EndNote. Learn to import citations, customize your account, and format your bibliographies and in-text citations. We'll also discuss using EndNote in conjunction with EndNoteWeb, a web-based version of EndNote available for free to current University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff.

The grand opening of the SMART Learning Commons and Library Media Services in Walter Library will is scheduled for:

Wednesday September 24
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Walter Library Room 204, East Bank

Come tour our new space, learn about our integrated services, and enjoy refreshments and prizes.