Group items tagged

"It's often said that services like Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter - you name it - are not the product, you are. Each and every bit of information you share and action you take is used to create a profile of user behavior, which is used then to either advertise directly to you or to people on a whole. But how can we ride the fine line? How can we have great, world-changing services at a price (read: free) everyone can afford without completely selling out the end user?"

I think it's going to have to be redefined. But I also think we're in the process of defining new commodities. We need to decide what we value.

I think this issue of privacy and use of personal information by online service companies is a very big deal. I'm also beginning to make use of some of these cloud-based applications (especially from Google) as part of my standard approach to teaching hybrid classes. Up until this past year, I've relied on the tried and true Vista/Blackboard to manage student projects and interactions, but I've found it to be sort of a dinosaur compared to the speed and ease of use of other Web2.0 apps. But if I'm working outside of Vista/Blackboard, I need to be especially careful of privacy policies and procedures of the companies behind these online apps. In the 'Sharing and Privacy' article, Mike Melanson makes some interesting points. He says: "...the companies themselves - the Googles and Facebooks and Twitters of the world - realize that correctly handling these issues of privacy are center to their continued success." and... ""All things equal, the company that's going to want to win in the next couple years will have the best privacy model." When I was doing my own investigation into this issue last winter, I asked myself, "What are the most conservative and and security conscious organizations using for social networking tools?" So I went up to the US Army website to find out. Certainly they have a heightened need to be careful what companies they choose for their social networking tools. I posted the results of this online research on my Web2.0 Chronicle blog. The results aren't surprising... Google, Facebook, Twiter, Wordpress, Flickr... among others. I see no need to rush into this area, and am willing to wait until the dust settles and user results come back from dependable sources. Jennifer's recommendation of Diigo is a good example of this. For myself, I've already left a significant "digital footprint" over the past 15 years - which is now out

This is the activity for Module 5. I really like this open learning system. If you go to my blog you will find that they ( Canvas) will work with you whether you buy their system or not. Please watch video #2 on my blog. (Note: I wrote the last two paragraphs on my blog here. Then I cut and pasted it to my blog because it took up too much space on Diigo.)

Free is never really free, but it's a good way to learn about how these systems work. I'm currently investigating it for a project, and should find out actually licensing costs soon. I've got some quotes on other systems and it just blows my mind how much we pay for this stuff.

Thanks for posting those two videos on your blog -- informative. I am in the process of looking at LMS to use at my workplace...thought Moodle looked good. I will now do a thorough review of Canvas. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I thought I'd try something a little bit different for Module 5, and do a CMS review of a current online course that I've been working on, called Visual Storytelling. It's a review of a Blackboard/Vista-based online class, but I'm also blending a couple of presentation technologies together to create this - SlideRocket and Camtasia. If you take a look at it, you'll want to make sure your audio is turned on - otherwise, it won't make much sense... It runs just under 10 minutes. This was a useful exercise for me, because I became aware of numerous changes I'd like to make for the next iteration of this class. These presentation tools are now very powerful and easier to use than in the past. SlideRocket has only been around for about 2 years, and it keeps getting better! You can also access this presentation by way of my Web2.0 Chronicle blog.

Thanks Bruce for showing how you use Blackboard for one of your courses. I do agree that some of the mature LMS need to make it easier to use Web 2.0 tools. Jennifer's comments about being able to use these tools is so appropriate. All of these wonderful tools are available, the problem is learning when and how to use them in our online teaching.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and comments! Mary Ann, I did see your photos from the Galapagos, and it seems like they will make great material for an online class presentation especially with your underlying message - the importance of biodiversity to our long term survival. I'm really glad you're teaching this material... I wish we were more aware of these dire issues 50 years ago! The Visual Storytelling class will be offered again in Fall 2011. Susan... One useful application of online lectures/presentations is that they can free up classroom time for more exploratory dialog and hands-on activities, as appropriate. Students also like them, because they can stop and review material at their own pace. Jennifer - I'll be happy to give an overview some presentation media I use during your office hour on Thursday. This would be a good experience for me, since I've never taught a session using Elluminate. If you could give me some quick tips beforehand, that would be welcome. I can't do it this week, but Feb 24th or following Thursdays look open.

I'm currently searching for an LMS solution for our project, and this is one I am exploring. You can check it out for free on this page.

Mary Ann and I are running close to each other...I just saw the mods in Balckboard listed in Canvas. There were a few missing and I was wondering how many mods it will hold Jennifer? Also, I did see a discussion area but I don't know if you uploaded it to canvas or if it belongs to canvas.

I think I hid some of the stuff in the site I set up, since I don't know how the program folks will feel about it being public. If you set up your own account, you can get a better idea of all the features.

I can't recall if I shared this before, but it's appropriate for this week, especially for anyone doing blended learning. Tony is an instructor I used to work with at BTC. He's using laptops for small group work, where they work together on projects and he visits the groups one at a time to check for understanding. It's a good example of continuous assessment in a classroom setting. How could this type of model be translated to a fully online course?

For Module 5 assignment, I wanted to share a wonderful, collaborative project done with VOICETHREAD (I'm not sure the link is working!)

This is a screencast I made last year about how we used wikispaces for our courses. This is the type of recording I'd like to see you do for your final projects. I created this using the free trial version of Camtasia.

I am not quite sure I know what a PDP is, but assume it is a portable device. I appreciated your sharing that as I hadn't thought about how eLearning is not just over the internet, but can include auxiullary technology. In a previous post, the thought of delivery of course material over other devices - such as an iPod - was brought up, but hadn't thought about how students also use these tools in a way that I, as a teacher, don't structure. This brings up for me, how, if anything, I want to do as a student. If, for example, everyone has an iPod, might I suggest they could enter their assignment either by blog or iPod? I realize in a course technology is an overhead, but it reminds me of the possibilities and that we are at the beginning of a teaching evolution.

I made a sample lecture material for my badminton class with powerpoint.

Hyerin, I just viewed your final project, finding it filled with many good things teachers do to engage and nurture their students. I liked the buttons at the top of the home page which directed students to the various pieces of the course on badminton. As a student, I would find it easy to navigate your course and have fun learning about this sport! Keep up the good work!

This well written article gives pointers to teachers on how to discourage plagiarism in their classes as well as how to teach students about plagiarism in a positive light before it occurs. Very helpful!

I think this Virtual Salt article does a good job outlining the reasons why students plagiarize. While poor time management and procrastination are major factors, I also think that students are afraid of looking stupid by using their own writing styles - especially with international students. My policy regarding plagiarism now is to "fire a shot across the bow - to make sure that a student understands how serious un-cited work or ideas can be. What follows is an example of an evaluation that I wrote for what I consider to be very good student, who should've known better. It was simple to discover the plagiarized material by putting a suspected plagiarized phrase in quotes and pasting into a Google search box. That approach works very well in my experience. *********** Evaluation note to a student who plagiarized content **************** Your assignment was copied and pasted directly from an online essay called "The Impact of the Information Revolution", written by Kerby Anderson at the following URL: a href="http://www.lifeway.com/" This is plagiarism. I can't emphasize how serious this is. Repeat occurrences can get you kicked out of school and can have a long term impact on your academic record. It also represents a careless and irresponsible attitude towards your work at Bellevue College. On a personal level, I'm also surprised and disappointed, since you've been a good student up to this point in the class. Since this is a 100 level communications class, I'm giving you zero points for this project. If it happens again, I'll fail you from this course, and will also notify the office of the Dean of Student Services, to let them know that there were instances of plagiarism on your part. If you feel that this action is unfair or unreasonable, you may contact XXXXX, Chair of the Communications Department at xxxxx@bellevuecollege.edu.

I found both comments and the presentation an interesting read. Maybe students plagiarize because of the pressures inside the system of education and in the business world. I have never felt the need; but I have felt the need to get good grades. I use to spend three days studying before finals and sometimes without sleep (no drugs) and then crash for 24 hours...sleeping. I did more than most students and worked hard to stay on the Dean's list. By the time I entered my doctoral program it was so cocmpetitive, I started rethinking the reason I had for being there. It was not a pleasant expereience. You had to be a 3.65 or higher just to get into the program and then write a reseach paper and defend it before a committee of three to just get in the door.

This is a guide from Northern AZ U. I'm not a huge fan of rubrics for assessment, but I think they can sometimes help students get an idea of your expectations. If you can implement them without stifling creativity, they might be useful to you.

I think this course is a good example of how rubrics can fall short. We've got a small group of students with very diverse experience. You all want and need something very different from this course. Your projects should all be different. While I can give you some idea of expectations, it's difficult to plan in advance for your audience and still provide the individualized learning necessary in some disciplines and courses.

I find myself feeling somewhat torn regarding how the rubrics for online student participation are presented on this Northern Arizona University website. On one hand, it provides a rock-solid method for accurately measuring various levels of student engagement. On the other hand, it means the instructor has to parse out dozens of tiny point assignments for every student - ie. a potential micromanagement purgatory. Since I haven't tried this NAU recommended approach to online assessments, I should rein in my initial resistance, and take a plunge into this rubric pool to see how it works in practice.

Hi guys. This is not and I repeat not a video you want to watch in total. I was trying to fix my sound and needed a video to put on the site, so I could ask you if it was better than the sound on my final presentation. So if you can find the time to give a listen...I would truly appreciate it1

I agree. The sound sounds fine. Good meeting you in person tonight.

I say ditto to that one Ann...Luckily Mary Ann, Bruce and You and I will be in the next class! WooHoo!

Here it is--at last!! This is my Final Course Framework tour with 8 of Boettcher's Best Practices featured. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out considering that 100% of the knowledge required to create it was new to me at the beginning of this quarter!!

I loved it! When you can get animals to participate in the learning process...that is amazing ( I loved those pics!).

What a great project for grade school students to learn and understand these principles and also learn about the Galapagos. I visited the islands in 2009 and still am in awe.

This is a jing.video of a 10 Best Practice Assessment for the on-line tutoring class I am teaching. I decided on this portfolio activity because: 1. I wanted experience with jing. Jennifer indicated she uses it all the time for screen capture and I agree with her - an awesome tool! (I felt like I was "on-stage" making a jing-case, knowing everything I was saying and doing on the screen was being recorded.) 2. I wanted to understand Best Practices better by applying them to a good yardstick. 3. I wanted to share my experience as an on-line teacher. As a note, I found jing, easy to install and use, although there were a few "operator" issues - like finding the sun/icon on my desktop. I did not do the tutorials they offered, but it was easy to figure everything out. Also, after you save the jing, to have others be able to view it, you need to save it on screencast. (I downloaded it my computer and then uploaded it to screencast.)

Looked at your Jing presentation...very interesting how the tutoring works. Also, shows great use of the tool. Learning how to use the tools available to make the course material engaging for online classes takes time and patience. Thanks for showing how this tool can be used. I intend to download and begin to learn how to use.

I reviewed your Jing presentation and got a clearer idea of how you interact with students to problem solve math problems in real time on your class white board along with ongoing chat sessions. Thanks for a peek into your online classroom!

Because people do have different information styles (I prefer the written word), I decided to do a glog highlighting the points of my Best Practice assessment. In addition, I am planning to do a jingcast of the glog, where I add an audio commentary and can illustrate the best practices by showing them on my computer screen and capturing them. (A glog is a electronic poster that you can add text to and integrate video or audio.) Here are a couple of examples of glogs: - http://astephens3.glogster.com/the-colonoscopy-experience-5301/ - a collection of youtubes on the colonoscopy experience - http://astephens3.glogster.com/colon-resources/ - a collection of links to colon cancer information websites

I'm with Joy--the "comedy" was hilarious!! The other vids were informative and altogether a great addition to your Course Framework, Ann! I have heard several people mention Glogster in my other class but have not tried it yet. Thanks again, Ann, for paving the way once again!!

Thanks for the kind words. I was introduced to this tool in the first course we took - EDUC281: Tools - and find it fun and easy to use. Also, Jennifer's introduction to jing was really worth it.