Pam's Instructional Technology Blog

Texas State University - San Marcos holds an annual two-week workshop for faculty. The faculty participants receive a $1,200 stipend. Across the country, a growing number of colleges and universities are offering similar programs and stipends designed to incent educators to embrace technology. The thinking behind most of these programs is simple: By offering educators an immediate motivation to embrace technology, colleges and universities hope to ensure that faculty will implement the latest and greatest technologies, and innovate with them, to bring new levels of learning to their students.

Continue reading "Two-Week Technology Integration Workshop" »

Posted by Pam Gades at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Law Professors Rule Laptops Out of Order in Class

This Chronicle of Higher Education article discusses the pros and cons of allowing students to use their laptops during class. Some say the students have even approved the improvement in class discussions once the laptops were banned. Others say that sometimes the discussion is enhanced by what the students have access to on their laptops. What do you think?

Posted by Pam Gades at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An announcement will be coming out soon from the U of M regarding U-wide licensing for SafeAssign -- an anti-plagiarism tool that is now included in the course management system, Blackboard/Vista.

See information about SafeAssign

Posted by Pam Gades at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Want to give your students a little bit further information about a concept? Maybe something you would like to tell them to help clarify a certain point? Some faculty are creating short video clips from their own office computer. Students are finding the videos helpful and tend to tune in to view them more than they tend to watch full captured lectures.

Find out more about this idea by reading the Chronicle of Higher Education article, "Film School: To Spice Up Course Work, Professors Make Their Own Videos."

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i34/34a01301.htm

Posted by Pam Gades at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alexandra Juhasz, Professor of Media Studies at Pitzer College, in Claremont, CA, taught an entire semester's class on YouTube. This piece consolidates lengthier blog entries about a course she ran on YouTube, called “Learning from YouTube,” in Fall 2007. The whole goal was to better understand this new media/cultural phenomenon, and how it can be used in the classroom. How did she set up this class? And what did she learn? Find out at:
http://www.oculture.com/2008/04/teaching_on_youtube.html

Posted by Pam Gades at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new kind of eReader -- Amazon's Kindle -- is here. But is higher education ready for it? Kindle is a portable eReader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution display. There is a waiting list of several months. Cost is $399 at Amazon.com.

When we talk about emerging technologies in higher ed, electronic textbooks has been a topic of discussion for a few years now. With the Kindle, a suite of interactive features makes this a tool beyond a simple book reader. Features include the ability to add notes, highlight text, and search, which makes the device ideal for college students. Rich media -- audio, video, animations, and 3D simulations -- are also possible on the Kindle.

Another huge advantage to students (and the rest of us), is that we don't have to haul around a backpack full of heavy textbooks! The Kindle weighs 10.3 ounces. Publishers will sell eBooks for far less than they would sell printed books, either used or new.

Excerpt from Campus Technology, April 2008 issue.

Posted by Pam Gades at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Clickers: Spring 2008 Update for TurningPoint Student Response Systems

TurningPoint Student Response Systems (SRS) are small handheld devices coupled with receiving hardware and presentation software. The system allows an instructor to present questions, usually via a computer projector, and collect student answers immediately during the lecture.

WebVista Powerlink is Live!

At long last the powerlink has been added to allow us to integrate clickers into WebVista. In addition to being an alternative way to get your students' clicker IDs into a class list on your laptop, WebVista will allow you to upload session files and give more immediate feedback to your students. T

Version Confusion Prevention

* Be aware that the version of Microsoft Office you are using dictates which version of TurningPoint you will use and which receiver.
* If you use Office 2003, then you need TurningPoint 2006 (with 2008 drivers).
* If you use Office 2007, then you need TurningPoint 2008 and you also need a receiver with an updated license.
* If you are comfortable using the version of TurningPoint you have already used in previous semesters, then there is no reason to update.
* Please don't hesitate to contact me (x6376) if you need help sorting this out.

Posted by Pam Gades at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been practicing with the Wimba Voice Tools plug-in for WebVista. Some of our foreign language faculty have begun using these voice tools, and I wanted to become more familiar with them myself. In my previous blog entry, I introduced Jing. I've used Jing to create a video to demonstrate how easy it is to add a Wimba Voice Discussion Board to a WebVista course.

Here is the URL to that demonstration video:

http://screencast.com/t/b7ZY9l0h9LS

Posted by Pam Gades at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you tried Jing yet? Here's a link to my first try using Jing. This is a video of my screen as I am showing someone how to do the one-time setup for NetFiles.

http://screencast.com/t/LMyXAbCUZ

Then I used Jing to do a screen capture of the dirtools or myaccount page, using the Jing tools to highlight areas of the page, the arrow to point to the specific link on the page that the user must click on to set up NetFiles. Here is the result:
http://screencast.com/t/W8wVj7GBAdh

Posted by Pam Gades at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mobile broadband, collaborative Web technologies, and mashups will all significantly impact education over the next five years, along with "grassroots" video, collective intelligence, and "social operating systems." This according to a new report released this week by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative, the 2008 Horizon Report.

The report focuses on the six key technology areas that the researchers identified as likely to have a major impact on "the choices of learning-focused organizations within the next five years," broken down into the technologies that will have an impact in the near term, those that are in the early stages of adoption, and those that are a bit further out on the horizon.

2008 Horizon Report

Continue reading "Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?" »

Posted by Pam Gades at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a limited time, Atomic Learning is offering free access to their online Blogging Workshop.

A blog is a Web site that functions as a journal, or a diary, or a place to post your thoughts and opinions pertaining to a particular subject matter. In addition to text entries, a blog may contain pictures, video, and/or audio clips. This workshop will explain the difference between various kinds of blogs, introduce you to some hosting solutions, and show you how to setup your own blog using Blogger™.

http://movies.atomiclearning.com/highed/blogging

Keep in mind, please, that the University of Minnesota hosts a fully supported, advertisement-free, blog site, and that you can set up your own blog for your department, your discipline, your class, or for yourself [or all of the above], FOR FREE.

To set up your own blog, go to: http://blog.lib.umn.edu and click on the link, "Start your own blog!"

Posted by Pam Gades at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take a look at this. University of Washington, Classroom Support Services resource:

http://www.css.washington.edu/screencast/Strickland/2007-09-21

Video Screencasting for Teaching and Learning

Video Screencasting is different from traditional video recording. Screencasting conveys complex information and concepts by recording your digital presentation, a view of the room, and your voice. These three elements are combined into a web-based presentation that students can view after class.

Posted by Pam Gades at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Perhaps the biggest threat to podcasting is fear -- on the part of faculty who know about the technology, but haven't the foggiest notion how to use it. To confront and overcome this obstacle, some educators have developed podcasts geared for those of their colleagues who might not understand how podcasting works.

For example, there's Kathy Schrock, technology administrator at Nuaset Public Schools in Orleans, MA. Schrock's podcasts (http://www.nausetschools.org/podcasts.htm) include short interviews with teachers and administrators about such things as how they use technology in the classrooms.

For more on the fundamentals of creating and locating educational podcasts, visit:
http://www.learninginhand.com/podcasting

Posted by Pam Gades at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Life in the Palaeozoic [pdf]

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2659

The Open University in Britain is well-known for its efforts to bring higher education to persons across the world. As of late, they have also been expanding their online offerings for the general public by making course materials available on their "OpenLearn" site. This particular course will take interested parties into the world of the Palaeozoic era. Through six different topical sections, visitors will learn about the Cambrian explosion, the origins of vertebrates, and life in the Silurian sea. Along the way, visitors will be presented with questions that will test their knowledge of the material. Visitors may also wish to post comments to the online forum and offer their own reviews of the material and course offerings.

Information provided by The Internet Scout Project: The Scout Report
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2008/scout-080118-re.php#R&E

Posted by Pam Gades at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Biology Browser: Teaching Resources

http://www.biologybrowser.org/bb/Subject/Education/Biology_Teaching_Resources/index.shtml

Thomson Scientific has created this fine site in order to provide science educators with a wide array of activities that can be used in the classroom. Currently, the site features over 190 resources related to various areas of biology. Visitors can search through the resources by subject, geography, or organism. These resources include a primer on the antlion (also known as a doodlebug) and "Bugnet" which is an online forest entomology class. Visitors can also glance over a glossary of zoology terms and look over news from the world of taxonomy.

Information provided by The Internet Scout Project: The Scout Report
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2008/scout-080118-re.php#R&E

Posted by Pam Gades at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)