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Strategies for Creating Social Presence This section examines strategies that will help establish and maintain social presence within online environments. In this section, I offer strategies for the three groups of individuals involved with the three functions of these environments: (1) course designers (course design), (2) instructors (delivery and management), and (3) participants (participation). In reviewing the literature, the main responsibility for creating social presence is placed on the instructors. However, based on my personal experience as an online course designer and online course participant, I contend that the responsibility for establishing and maintaining social presence extends beyond the role of the instructor

What is a Personal Learning Environment?

Why attend Flip the Switch? I love to teach, just like others at Cornell, but the bad news is that while we all are teaching, 64% of our students are texting!! Out of my frustration, I've been experimenting successfully with using mobile devices and to turn my students away from distraction and towards interaction. At a deeper level, I am now connecting better with ALL students, not just the ones that always raise their hands. In the process I started to wonder if I could somehow help other faculty members do this. The Workshop My team has put together an intimate, hands-on workshop specifically focused on creating an action plan for each participant's courses/teaching needs, on how to make use of cellphones and other devices to intrigue and engage students, deploy digital video to renew attention spans and implement innovative "apps" to engage the YouTube generation in order to improve the learning environment.

ANother idea for May PD:

Some studies reveal deep doubts among students and faculty that distance learning ever can have the degree of interaction in a non-distance environment. Horn (1994) and Hirumi and Bermudez (1996) are among those who find that, with proper instructional design, distance courses actually can be more interactive than traditional ones, providing more personal and timely feedback to meet students' needs than is possible in large, face-to-face courses.

What's interesting about this tool is not so much that it is an online learning environment for teachers and their students, but that it can also be used to make connections between teachers.  This could be useful for instructors who may feel isolated at their particular school and a chance to branch out.

Experts discussing the competencies needed to be successful in an online teaching environment.

"October 27 & 28 Diversifying Blended Learning: Diverse learners, needs, and approaches in a cost-effective environment REGISTER NOW! The conference will be hosted by the University of Guelph at: Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre, 700 Hespeler Rd, Cambridge, ON N3H 5L8 "

A. Openess B. Greater insight into the knowledge and creation process C. Mobile Learning D. Alternative forms of assessment (badges) E. Rethinking the classroom environment

"Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses."

"I've been hesitant to dive into using Windows Live because I've already become so familiar with GoogleDocs. However, there are good reasons for me to start learning. For one thing, my students and colleagues are, for the most part, already using Microsoft Office in their work, and Windows Live doesn't require them to learn yet another interface. (Yes, I know that GoogleDocs isn't really that different, but I've frequently found that people consider the need to switch interfaces off-putting.)"

Should we be considering using MS Live instead of google docs?

This is from the comments below the article "When I tried this I ran into a problem with it not working cross platform with Mac. This made it useless in an academic environment." We would likely need to do some initial testing to see if it viable to make the switch. If it makes instructors more comfortable then it should be seriously looked at.

I often ask my parents what college - and, therefore, learning - was like before the Internet came to be. Because when I enrolled at Indiana University in 2005, the Internet ran the show. My classes were organized, registered and configured online, and assignments were often distributed in virtual environments.