The new myUMM Faculty Technology Selector allows University of Minnesota teaching faculty to easily provide web links and class messages for their students. The links and messages will appear to students when they are viewing their myCourses tab in the myUMM portal. Below is a link to a simple instruction sheet for using the tool, and a link to a document containing screenshots of the tool.
Faculty Technology Selector Guide
Screen Shots
Have you thought about how wikis can be used to enhance learning? Stewart Mader has staked his career on the power of wikis. Mader first worked on wiki adoption in the IT department at Brown University and now is with his own company as a consultant. He says that in higher ed, there are really three ways he thinks a wiki can be useful: teaching, research, and administration.
Read more of the Campus Technology article at:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/66505/
Check out the University of Minnesota's supported wiki tool, UMWiki, at http://wiki.umn.edu
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
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.
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
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
We all have this wonderful tool available for our use -- the U of M ePortfolio. The University provides individualized content for each of us, including a photo (UCard photo), contact information, college and major, transcript, graduation information, and so on. We can think of this as our electronic file cabinet in which we can store information by and about ourselves, such as writing samples, photographs or design samples, video clips, music clips, resumes, internship experiences or mentors. As owners of our information, we can choose to share either part or all of our portfolio with other individuals.
You can see your ePortfolio at http://portfolio.umn.edu. Log iin using your InternetID and password.
Portfolio provides an efficient way to document and reflect upon personal information, educational accomplishments, career goals, skills development, professional practices, and recognition received. We can retrieve and view our documents at any time and organize components into folders for others to access. We are allowed to keep our portfolio for life, as long as we access our account at least once every six months. Storage allowed is 5 gigabytes.