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  • Social Bookmarking 2.0: Research, Share and Collaborate Online Using Diigo
    Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 13:34
    I attended the Social Bookmarking 2.0: Research, Share and Collaborate Online Using Diigo presentation by Jason Rhode at FSI 2010. About 10 participants attended.  Okay, no notes, today.  Rather, see Jason's handout.

  • Simple is always hard: Design guidelines for effective online activities
    Wednesday, May 19, 2010 - 10:36
     I attended the Simple is always hard: Design guidelines for effective online activities presentation by Eric Wignall at FSI 2010. About 22 participants attended.  Key take-aways include:
    • Simple is best.
    • Students can feel shot-down by a single, simple "no, that's incorrect" response.
    • Linear design models (Dick & Carey, ADDIE, even Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, etc.) are based upon theory but no evidence; does not reflect actual practice.
    • Classroom Instruction that Works - recommended as excellent, research-based summary of multiple models and pieces of research; summarized to 9 effective strategies.
    • Quality Matters.
    • Sternberg's Beyond IQ
    • Not enough of our education is visually-oriented, yet visuals are most important
    • Research:
      • Knowledge builds over time
        • Declarative (internalized)
        • Procedural (never mastered; can always get better)
        • Contextual (where it matters)
        • Synthetic (predictive/anticipatory knowledge)
      • Organizing environments
        • Linear
          • Time-based
          • Objectives
        • Contextual
          • Themes
          • Information
        • Coalescent
          • Interests
          • Learners
    • Three types of assessment
      • Assessment for evaluation
      • Assessment for learning
      • Assessment for you
    •  

  • 50 Ways You Could be Using Facebook in Your Classroom
    Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - 14:40
    I attended the 50 Ways You Could be Using Facebook in Your Classroom presentation at FSI 2010.  About 18 people present. Why Facebook is so good:
    • Students already use it daily
    • Levels the playing field; it's their environment, not yours
    • Invites 2-way street of conversation
    Tips:
    • Create a teacher/school profile (a separate account)
    • Invite people to "like" the group (rather than "friending" you)
    • Setup multiple groups for each course, group, etc.
    • Explore lots of apps; a few worth noting:
      • Calendar (30 boxes)
      • CourseFeed
      • SlideShare
    • Manage privacy settings very closely
    • Tag students to help get the message out (also shows content to "2nd degree" circle -- a.k.a. free marketing)
    • Bottom line: reach out and communicate with students

  • Learning in Community: Designing Successful Collaborative Projects for Online Courses
    Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - 08:55
     I attended the Learning in Community: Designing Successful Collaborative Projects for Online Courses presentation (only part 1, as I had to present during the part 2 time slot) with Jan Engle for FSI 2010.  About 10 people attended. Some of my key take-aways:
    • Group projects fall on a continuum of Cooperative Activities (mostly divide and conquer) to Collaborative Activities (work must be done jointly for a single, consolidated deliverable).
    • Driven by:
      • Level of online learning experience
      • Level of group learning experience
      • Level of virtual group learning experience
      • How well students know one another
      • Prior online teaching experience of instructor
      • Amount of time available for activity
    • Suggested structures:
      • Allow plenty of time
      • Establish groups early
      • 4-6 students for cooperative tasks; 2-4 for collaborative tasks
      • Provide specific instructions
      • Provide milestones with due dates
      • Provide teambuilding strategies
    • Provide group-specific collaborative technologies:
      • text chat
      • audio conferencing
      • discussion board
      • email
    • Creating Groups
      • Instructor-formed
      • Randomized
      • Self sign-up
    • General tips:
      • Don't allow late adds (beyond, say, first week); don't start group projects until after add/drop period
      • Consider drafting a "best practices of online group work" document; make it required reading/guidelines for those inexperienced with online group work and optional for experienced groups
      • If instructor assigns groups, use tracking tool and sort by number of logins (not total time); then group first X students together, then second X students together, etc.; rather than pairing most frequently accessed with least.  Let's type-As work together (and learn to work with other type-As) and anti-type-As work together (who all work in a flurry near end of project).  Quality tends be the same as more evenly distributed arrangement and group cohesion tends to be better (except for most type-A group, perhaps).  Good idea!

  • Content Management Systems II: Illinois Efforts Panel
    2009 UIUC Web Accessibility Conference, accessibility, web development
    Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 14:30
    Attending presentation entitled "Content Management Systems II: Illinois Efforts Panel" by Tim Offenstein, Nicholas Hoyt, Robert Slater, and Jeremy Todd at the 2009 UIUC Web Accessibility Conference.  About 50 people in attendance.
    • Discussed the history of IT Access initiative at Illinois.  They found that several disparate groups on campus were reproducing the same effort of evaluating and selecting a CMS
    • OpenCMS used by library system, but this system was selected purely based on needs, not based upon size of support community.  Plus it has terrible accessibility.
    • Drupal used by Colleges of ACES and Education, Uni High, and a scattering of others.
      • Accessibility of Drupal based largely upon which theme you select and modify.
      • Some Drupal sites use a different theme for screen reader users.
      • Be sure to check the output of all contributed modules for accessibility concerns.
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