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SMALLab - Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab Central to our work is the development of the Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab [SMALLab]. SMALLab is an environment developed by a collaborative team of media researchers from education, psychology, interactive media, computer science, and the arts. SMALLab is an extensible platform for semi-immersive, mixed-reality learning. By semi-immersive, we mean that the mediated space of SMALLab is physically open on all sides to the larger environment. Participants can freely enter and exit the space without the need for wearing specialized display or sensing devices such as head-mounted displays (HMD) or motion capture markers. Participants seated or standing around SMALLab can see and hear the dynamic media, and they can directly communicate with their peers that are interacting in the space. As such, the semi-immersive framework establishes a porous relationship between SMALLab and the larger physical learning environment. By mixed-reality, we mean that there is an integration of physical manipulation objects, 3D physical gestures, and digitally mediated components. By extensible, we mean that researchers, teachers, and students can create new learning scenarios in SMALLab using a set of custom designed authoring tools and programming interfaces.

Looking for something similar for Keynote ;-) ...

This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations, clubs, charities, communities and other groups. We discuss issues and trends in modern web technologies that help your organization achieve more with less. This blog is sponsored by Wild Apricot membership software: a set of tools for membership administration, event registration, website management, online fundraising - with friendly and knowledgeable tech support. See for yourself how affordable and easy it is to use: - Take a tour!

Twitter: Better Late Than Never Tuesday, April 7, 2009 With so many high-caliber people finally digging in (acquiesce?) to the utility of Twitter, I'm finding myself approach such widespread new-found enthusiasm with mixed emotion. On the one hand, I'm grateful that people are finally realizing what we've been saying for years: Twitter can be an extremely powerful tool/experience. On the other hand, I feel somewhat dismayed that it has taken so long for folks to catch on. Regardless, I'm excited for the direction now being taken by leaders in my new district.

Social Media Classroom Invitation to the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory Welcome to the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory. It's all free, as in both "freedom of speech" and "almost totally free beer." We invite you to build on what we've started to create more free value. The Social Media Classroom (we'll call it SMC) includes a free and open-source (Drupal-based) web service that provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media that each course can use for its own purposes-integrated forum, blog, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets , and video commenting are the first set of tools. The Classroom also includes curricular material: syllabi, lesson plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos. The Collaboratory (or Colab), is what we call just the web service part of it. Educators are encouraged to use the Colab and SMB materials freely, and we host your Colab communities if you don't want to install your own. (See this for an explanation of who "we" are).

As a follow on to the discussion of social learning and formal learning in Long Live … great post by BJ Schone - Have LMSs Jumped The Shark? I constantly hear people (across many organizations) complain about their learning management system (LMS). They complain that their LMS has a terrible interface that is nearly unusable. Upgrades are difficult and cumbersome. Their employees' data is locked in to a proprietary system. Users hate the system. It's ugly. (Did I miss anything?) We've recently seen LMSs shift to include more functionality, such as wikis, blogs, social networking, etc. I think they're heading in the wrong direction. I don't really understand why LMS vendors are now thinking they need to build in every possible 2.0 tool. If I want a great blogging platform, I'm going to download WordPress (it's free and has a huge support community). If I want a great wiki platform, I'm going to download MediaWiki or DokuWiki (also free and they have huge support communities). And when it comes to social networking, as a co-worker put it, "Do they really think I'm going to create a 'friends' list in the LMS? Seriously?"

Edupunk From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from other articles related to it. (February 2009) Edupunk is an approach to teaching and learning practices that result from a do it yourself (DIY) attitude.[1][2] The New York Times defines it as "an approach to teaching that avoids mainstream tools like PowerPoint and Blackboard, and instead aims to bring the rebellious attitude and D.I.Y. ethos of '70s bands like The Clash to the classroom."[3] Many instructional applications can be described as DIY education or Edupunk. Jim Groom as "poster boy" for edupunk The term was first used on May 25, 2008 by Jim Groom in his blog,[4] and covered less than a week later in the Chronicle of Higher Education.[1] Stephen Downes, an online education theorist and an editor for the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, noted that "the concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire".[5]

Introducing Edupunk The concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire. This post summarizes several recent posts and offers something like a definition (I would like to think that true edupunks deride definitions as tools of oppression used by defenders of order and conformity): "edupunk is student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance. Barbara Ganley's philosophy of teaching and digital expression is an elegant manifestation of edupunk. Nina Simon, with her imaginative ways of applying web 2.0 philosophies to museum exhibit design, offers both low- and high-tech edupunk visions. Edupunk, it seems, takes old-school Progressive educational tactics--hands-on learning that starts with the learner's interests--and makes them relevant to today's digital age, sometimes by forgoing digital technologies entirely."

The purpose of your community and the needs of the group will dictate what tools you use and kind of community you build. Internet access, access costs, computer and browser types, geographic and time zone issues all affect the type of community you'll build. If you've got a group of people who all have high Internet connection costs, or who don't have web access, you might be best off using the email, email topic subscription features,and newsletters rather than expecting people to show up and spend (expensive) time in online in conferencing. If you have a geographically diverse group with international time zone disparities, it's hard to get them together for a chat very often, which requires that people show up at the same time and place.

The Meyer and Land Threshold Concept "The idea of threshold concepts emerged from a UK national research project into the possible characteristics of strong teaching and learning environments in the disciplines for undergraduate education (Enhancing Teaching−Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses). In pursuing this research in the field of economics, it became clear to Erik Meyer and Ray Land [1−6, 7−12], that certain concepts were held by economists to be central to the mastery of their subject. These concepts, Meyer and Land argued, could be described as 'threshold' ones because they have certain features in common." Glynis Cousin, An introduction to threshold concepts Over the past five years this concept has been embraced by many disciplines outside economics; indeed the above quote is from Glynis Cousin's excellent short introduction to the concept written for earth scientists. The threshold concept has been seen as a valuable tool, not only in facilitating students' understanding of their subject, but in aiding the rational development of curricula in rapidly expanding arenas where there is a strong tendency to overload the curriculum (Cousin, [1, 13]). This web page will describe, briefly, the characteristics of a threshold concept and list selecteted references to the work of those examining its value in the engineering and computer sciences, the physical and biological sciences, economics, accountancy, mathematics and statistics.

Thinking about building or hosting an online community? Looking for specific tips, tools and ideas? Start here. The following is a collection of articles that may help inform your work. They are all covered by our Creative Commons license which makes the material available with limited restrictions. Check it out. Have something to contribute? Let us know!

Twitiquette is not enough DateThursday, May 1, 2008 at 07:46PM Three days of student information system training (as a participant) has given me the opportunity to use Twitter for an extended amount of time. I really, really, really was hoping to get hooked and discover what all the educational excitement is about this tool. But all I am left with are questions about being "Minnesota nice" in a micro-blogging environment and why anyone would use Twitter. I freely admit that I am not the most social of creatures. I am uncomfortable in environments where I don't know the social norms, the accepted rules. So after feeling edgy for a couple days, I started doing a little digging about Twitiquette. (I thought I was clever in inventing the term, but others beat me to it.) Here's a very short list of sources: * The Twitter Fan Wiki, the etiquette page * Stuart Ciske's 5 Essential Twitter Truths. * GrammarGirl's Twitter Style Guide. * David Jakes Tragedy of the Commons * Global Geek News Blog. Twitter Etiquette (Thanks to Darren Draper for last three links.)

"WordPress + Education = ScholarPress ScholarPress is a hub for developing WordPress plugins for Education. It's that simple. So far we've developed Courseware, a course management tool to publish your class schedule, assignments, and bibliography to accompany your blog. There's also WPBook, which can embed your WordPress blog into Facebook and create an application that students can add. Check it out."

"How I create and publish podcasts posted in open source, podcasting | Jason Kern recently asked me to share information about how I create and publish podcasts here on "Moving at the Speed of Creativity," and rather than send that info to just him I thought I'd create a post to share these links and procedures. Since I've developed these procedures over time it's entirely possible there are much better ways to do this, so if you have suggestions and input on alternative podcasting possibilities I'd love to hear it. I published my first podcast on August 3, 2005, and since that time have utilized a variety of different podcasting tools and websites. Rather than share an exhaustive list of all those links (some of which are included in my Intro to Educational Podcasting wiki page and Intermediate/Advanced Topics in Podcasting page) I am going to attempt to share briefly the software, websites, and other resources I utilize now to podcast, as well as an outline of the steps I follow in podcasting today."

Guide for students on signing up for a group project or workshop using the sign-up tool in Blackboard.

Fantastic step-by-step guide to using the sign-up tool in Blackboard from Southampton University.

"These are three VLE related learning technology blog posts I have read and pondered recently: * http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/a-five-stage-model-for-using-the-vle/ * http://eduvel.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/building-vles/ * http://loujak78.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/from_repository_to_interactivity/ It is perfectly fine to reflect what is observed in models. It helps to take stock and put things in order and into perspective. In this sense, the models proposed by James Clay, David Sugden and Louise Jakobsen are entirely valid because they reflect fairly accurately what I currently see happening around me. That said, I very much disagree that these models make particularly good role models for developing a VLE."

Low-Threshold Applications and Activities (LTAs) An LTA is an activity or application of information technology that is reliable, accessible, easy to learn, non-intimidating and incrementally low-cost in time, money, and stress. 

Why IT Investments Often Don't Improve Educational Outcomes At least three basic problems have dogged most attempts to translate technological investments into improvements in educational outcomes.