PSU TLT

Smart.

If I really have to get stuff done, I'll basically self-impose email 'blackouts' for 2-4 hours. Helps with document and report writing at least. One thing I still haven't figured out...I personally don't mind if people don't respond to my emails if it's just an FYI or an info-dump. But some colleagues seem to *always* want a response from me regarding these emails, even if it's just a "thanks" email. Don't get it :/ Last thing we all need are more emails with a single word in the body.

Join me Tuesday, September 27th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Cecilia d'Oliveira, Executive Director, OpenCourseWare (OCW) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Cecilia was the technology director for OCW since 2002, and in 2008 was named executive director. She was also a winner of a 2010 WISE Award.

"Global Social Problems" course where students are asked to take on the role of a superhero and save the world through research, hands-on work on a local social issue, and imagining a solution to a broader social problem.

Doesn't look like a massively-open online course, but makes me think about setting up one of our own. I love how all of this (assignments, discussion, etc...) is completely exposed. With a course like this, I don't see the need for an LMS.

Article calls out PSU on its technology policies. Interesting to think about how we might go about fixing it or if students are just bound to be upset about the next thing instead.

I was in a meeting with housing folks when I started at SITE. They wanted to run some data to try and help figure out why so many students decided not to stay in campus housing after the freshman year. It doesn't take much data mining...you just have to look at the bandwidth limits and policy, and you have the bulk of your answer. For some reason they couldn't accept that students would move out because of a bandwidth cap.

1. Students watch lots of recorded lectures at home 2. No technical problems 3. Watch lectures multiple times 4. Watch <75% of lecture 5. Would like to see ALL lectures recorded 6. Improves pass rate 7. Recording lectures improves bad lectures!

Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.

This was a great radio documentary that aired this Sunday on WPSU. Did anyone else catch it? Really great info about how professors are changing the ways they teach, moving away from lectures to techniques like peer instruction even in large classes. I was also excited to hear it mention the classroom idea we are implementing in the Knowledge Commons in the library. A classroom where there is no "front" as another way to change up traditional teaching.

Great stuff. Hannah Inzko shared that with me last week before we did an ETS Talk episode about Flipping the Classroom (http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/podcast/ets-talk-63-flipping-the-classroom/)

Good read on gaming and crowd sourcing to solve long-standing scientific problems.

Student Reddit thread on ANGEL

"Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android where you help rebuild civilisation after a zombie apocalypse. By going out and running in the real world, you can collect medicine, ammo, batteries, and spare parts that you can use to build up and expand your base - all while getting orders, clues, and story through your headphones."

Interesting concept: you play this game by running in the real world. The app tracks your run, but also unlocks items (ammo, vitamins, medical supplies). When you're done, you get to distribute those supplies throughout your city. During the run, there is an interactive experience where you're being chased by zombies and getting instructions through your headset. They're releasing this next year. I'll definitely try it out.

along with the whole generational differences in learning (netgen, etc) angle, learning styles have always seemed suspect. perhaps it's the way it has been communicated, but regardless I thought this story was an interesting one.

Really smart idea ... might be worth considering as a partnership between TLT and Schreyer Institute?

It's a creative idea. It reminds me of the finals week survival kits that parents could buy for their kids (through Residence Life). I like that it includes key phone numbers and a dry erase marker.

In early 2010, Cole Camplese, then Director of Education Technology Services at Penn State, created a Web site (hereafter referred to as the OCDM wiki) that invited University Park learning designers and administrators to provide a summary of their unit's online course development models in order to capture a snapshot of practice at Penn State's main campus. In Summer 2010, an invitation was sent to the entire learning design community at Penn State to elicit the same information for other campus locations.  In January 2011, Ann Taylor, Assistant Director of the Dutton e-Education Institute in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Chair of the Senate Outreach Committee, joined Camplese in his efforts to gather and analyze information about University-wide course development models. Several additional invitations were made to the University community, asking learning designers and administrators to update and/or to add their unit's online course development model summary to the OCDM wiki.

Video of an Old English poem about a Roman ruin, but shot with newer 20th century industrial ruins. Interesting use of video to literature to "real life"