EDUC251

I saw Jennifer's link to the Screen-o-matic web site, and decided to try it out for the Module 9 activity. I think this is quite an amazing tool, much like Jing, except everything is transacted on the cloud, whereas Jing requires part of the application be installed on your local computer. Also, like Jing, the price is right (free!), although you can opt for a more developed version of the program for $9 per year, which isn't bad. I'm also a big fan of Photoshop Express, another free online tool that lets you edit images on the Web - which is why I did a short tutorial about a couple of its features. My biggest complaint about Screen-o-matic is that the audio is somewhat muddy - although this seems to be a petty complaint, considering how powerful and easy to use this tool is. Screen-o-Matic lets you save to their server, to YouTube, or as a video file to your local hard drive. You can find another account of this Screen-o-Matic trial run on my Web20Chronicle blog.

I just tried the Screen-o-matic and I also liked that there isn't the need to save in screencast, as it is saved on YouTube or in video format you can save.

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!

This posting on a new page in my Blog is to satisfy the Portfolio 8 activity. I noticed this as a possibility in the spreadsheet of portfolio ideas our class has been creating. I'm in the process of converting my "plain blog" to a professional looking one that will serve as my ePortfolio for the time-being.

Wow! What an impressive CV... It's good to know that science teaching is still alive and well.

I had to make this important correction for my course design.

Being a guy, I was somewhat taken aback by the startling new statistics presented at a recent TED TALK by Hanna Rosin regarding the world-wide decline in male accomplishments/status relative to women. Rosen makes the point that the Marlboro Man and alpha male top-down manager, are going the way of the DoDo bird and dinosaur. Her point is that women are better at collaboration and consensual communication - which are skills well suited to our social networks and information-based economy. For example, how come I'm the only guy taking this class on how to build collaborative online learning environments - where are my male compadres?

Here's a blog post related to that video. http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com/2011/02/genderdiversity/

Yup, she was right on. Until these concepts change...women stay inferior and get beaten...down, too.

First part of the 10 Best Things, but because of posting limitations used a topic post to list all 10. 1. Judith's Boettcher's - The Online Teaching Survival Guide - is a good organization and explanation of eLearning. 2. Wiggins Model of Understanding - enduring understanding, important to know, worth being familiar with - is a good framework for helping properly focus the course. 3. The jing tool has become my new "snip" tool. Being able to capture and make a screen video is extremely useful. 4. Providing additional time in the first lesson - in this case 2 weeks, rather than 1 - to allow students a transition to the platform and tools is a best practice for me for on-line courses. 5. The weekly instructor availability during class hours is another best practice, as students know there is a time they can get information and questions answered in an interactive manner.

A FLIP camcorder can truly enhance and engage history students which allows them to learn through the integration of drama, reenact historical characters.

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.

This is an interesting article giving the NSTA's position on the use of online education for science teachers. Oops! The title is actually: The Role of E-Learning in Science.

Its good to standards evolving. It implies a legitmacy to elearning.

I have made some personal comments on obtaining the skills and not being able to get the job one trains for.

To elaborate on your: " My point is this, giving my student the skills to do the job they hope to do in the future is not the end of the learning process." School has the dual purpose of both enlightening us as people and preparing us for a profession. As this article points out, obtaining a degree or going to school does not guarantee of a job. It may not guarantee a job, but without you can't have the insight or credential to eventually get there.

What deeply saddens me is technical and community colleges may give you the skills; but then they may drop the ball by not helping beyond that point. Without internships and situations for obtaining experience...one cannot overcome the obstacle of needing experience in the field. Same goes for my hope to teach...which may just be a dream I am holding onto with no basis in reality. Then the feds paid for the courses, the college got the money and I am in fact the loser.

The themes/information presented in this video are ones we are all familiar with - what the video terms exponential evolution of how things fast are moving and the sheer numbers of people using the internet. The fact that this is now part of a technology shareholder meeting was very interesting, with the final message that they don't know what it all means, but it is definitely changing the world.

Hybrid Class QM video. About an hour long.

This is a great example of student response to posting an hour long video. I've found most students don't want to take the time to watch something for an hour. If you are in instructor and would like students to watch a long video, how do you motivate them to do it? And how do you decide whether the long video is the best way to help them learn? Also, how do we balance the amount of resources we provide learners, with giving them time to find things on their own?

First of all, it is a video that you have to want to view. Students may or may not view it. It shoud be informative; but not mandatory. That way, those who are truly interested will watch and those that are not will not. The same can be said about those who have the time. There is a little nav tool under the video to Fast Forward as well. Hour long videos should be presented to those who want an official or gov reponse to a need or issue. Resources are optional or can be made optional. I would not want to limit the possibilities of my learners!

This link doesn't work for me.

I found this website that can help me to give information about the history and world rules of badminton. It can also help students to get more knowledge of badminton.

That's great that you were able to locate an online handbook so your students don't have to purchase a handbook.

A few days ago, I went to an excellent workshop sponsored by the Center for Career Connections at Bellevue College about using LinkedIn. This Web 2.0 networking application has now become the most important online tool for presenting your professional profile and work experience to the public. One of the speakers, Web tools guru Miles Austin, said that if you don't have a developed presence online, you don't exist as far as potential employers are concerned. According to a recent survey, 78% of all job recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary application for finding new employees. The link above provides some useful background information about LinkedIn, based on the workshop. It also reinforced in my mind the importance of developing strong network contacts and carefully building an online persona. If you have an account on LinkedIn or create a new one - please add me to your network!

This was interesting, as I personally thought it was too inclusive - anyone can post and your network was too broad to be meaningful. But obviously this type of "advetisement" does make a difference in employment.

LinkedIn is very different from other social networks. I'm extremely careful about my connections there. I only connect with people I know in person, people I've collaborated with online for a while, or people who already have a good reputation. I don't even connect with all my family members there, only the ones with careers related to mine.

I was able to watch some of this while it streamed live. It's worth watching the recording if you have time. "Tune in to this rare opportunity to see the "best living historian of education" (Washington Post) and America's "soberest, most history-minded education expert" (Wall Street Journal), give one of the best-informed analyses of the current state of American education-what's broken and what are the best ways to fix it. Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, renowned education historian, and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010). Her book, which takes issue with both the political right and left, has been called a "must read" for education policymakers at all levels of government."

For your funny bone. It is true UFOs and alien life in the universe exists and give testimonials to online teaching. Okay so sue me...I watch Ancient Aliens! :)

I thought this was a very clever way to get points across, which could only be done with computerized tools. I also thought a couple of the specifics - such as online teaching helps students with different language skills, as many people find reading and writing a non-native language easier than speaking, so the student experience is more normalized for everyone. The aliens point about not having to be in class in-person and people not having to be "envious" of his looks, is certainly one I can relate to, as I am sitting here typing in my pajamas.

I loved your comments Ann and your gave me my laugh for the day! Lord, I know what sitting on the computer at 2 AM in my pj's looks like!! I have to admit if people I knew saw me they would think I looked alien. I loved it! I cannot go through a day without humor or I would have looked more deeply into the Japanese Hari Kari.

I used Prezi to create a presentation this week...a simple one. Need to use tool more to get to the advanced features.

Susan, Thanks for posting this informative piece on sepsis - which kills an astounding 125,000 people per year! The quality of the video in full screen mode in Prezi looks great!

I was impressed with the quality of the video also. Prezi allows you to copy and paste code into blogs and other tools. In addition, you can download the entire Prezi presentation to present from your computer. As I understand the sepsis diagnosis...sepsis doesn't get recognized as the problem, many times until they cannot reverse the situation.

I goofed on this posting. This video is an example of a tech application called Flipshare which can be installed for FREE with your purchase of a Flip video. I have always wanted to create an authentic learning activitiy with middle school-age students about "self-identity" where they would write the story, script, acting, video editing, using the Flipshare tech application.

Flip is an amazingly easy product to use to capture video. A great idea to do stories with your class. This video made me want to get up and move, rather than sitting here at the computer.

The author of this study is Penny Ralstom-Berg, a Senior Instruction Designer at University of Wisconsin, where a survey of what makes a good course from a student perspective was conducted. The summary of the study starts on slide 20. The top 10 desires is consistent with what we've been focusing on in this class, however the bottom top is somewhat at odds and seems, to be, counter-intuitive to what I would have expected. Top 10: Assessments are appropriately timed, varied and appropriate; Instructions on how to access resources are sufficient and easy to understand; Course components are web-based or easily downloaded for use offline; Requirements for interaction are clearly explained; Opportunity to speak with instructor, classmates through email, bulletin boards, any time / any place; Technologies required are readily available - provided or easily downloaded; Clear instructions tell me how to get started and to find course components; Criteria for how I will be evaluated is descriptive and specific; Navigation is logical, consistent, and efficient; The grading policy is clearly stated Bottom 10: I find course-related content and share it with the instructor and classmates; I use wikis, shared documents, or other online collaborative tools to complete group work; I am asked to introduce myself to the class; I coach other students and help answer their questions; Opportunity to speak with my instructor and classmates through… same time, same place technology; Instructor does not participate in class discussions Course contains interactive games or simulations; I author / create course-related content and share it with instructor and classmates; I work in groups with other students; Course contains audio and video content

Reading through these student recommendations was very helpful, and as you say - they complement the material presented in the Boettcher textbook very well. I was somewhat confused by Penny Ralton-Berg's differentiation between the Top 10 and Bottom 10 items. My impression is that there is a low student positive response for their contributing course materials for a class site.(??)

I am not certain I grasp the meaning of that slide presentation. Some of it I get and agree with.