Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 2:54 PM
To: ITAB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [ITAB] The Wired Campus Newsletter
At the ITAB meeting someone asked me where I had heard about schools replacing their ID cards in order to remove the SSN. I believe it was on The Wired Campus. This is a daily newsletter about technology on campus. Go to http://chronicle.com/infotech/newsletter/?wc for sample copies and to sign up for a free subscription.
Bill Vilberg
305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)
Friday, April 29, 2005
RefWorks
[ITAB is the Information Technology Advisory Board and was created by the Student Government Association at UM. It is made up of students and technology service providers, mainly from IT.]
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 6:59 AM
To: ITAB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [ITAB] RefWorks, Write-N-Cite, On Line/Cite View
At the meeting last night I mentioned a program that manages your citations and produces a bibliography in whatever format you wish. The program to manage your citations is called RefWorks. The program that integrates with your word processor is Write-N-Cite. It integrates with Microsoft Word on Windows machines. There is also On Line/Cite View that you can use when on-line and that apparently integrates with Microsoft Word on both Macintosh and Windows machines. UM has an institutional license to these programs, I believe.
You can find more information on the library web site (www.library.miami.edu). Go to:
- Databases & Indexes
-- R
--- Refworks
---- Refworks
They have pretty good training materials.
The main thing that confuses users is whether you need to buy it or have a special code to use it. You don't. If you access it on the UM campus you can just create an account and get started. If you access it from off campus, but are going through the library links, you will just have to identify yourself by entering your name and C number, as usual with library resources.
I was sadly shocked that none of you were aware of this. It is our fault for not promoting it more widely. I am not an expert with the program, but it looks like something that would be useful to almost every student at UM. If you try this out, let me know what you think. If you need help I can try to provide assistance, but the library reference desk is probably the first line of support.
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 6:59 AM
To: ITAB@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [ITAB] RefWorks, Write-N-Cite, On Line/Cite View
At the meeting last night I mentioned a program that manages your citations and produces a bibliography in whatever format you wish. The program to manage your citations is called RefWorks. The program that integrates with your word processor is Write-N-Cite. It integrates with Microsoft Word on Windows machines. There is also On Line/Cite View that you can use when on-line and that apparently integrates with Microsoft Word on both Macintosh and Windows machines. UM has an institutional license to these programs, I believe.
You can find more information on the library web site (www.library.miami.edu). Go to:
- Databases & Indexes
-- R
--- Refworks
---- Refworks
They have pretty good training materials.
The main thing that confuses users is whether you need to buy it or have a special code to use it. You don't. If you access it on the UM campus you can just create an account and get started. If you access it from off campus, but are going through the library links, you will just have to identify yourself by entering your name and C number, as usual with library resources.
I was sadly shocked that none of you were aware of this. It is our fault for not promoting it more widely. I am not an expert with the program, but it looks like something that would be useful to almost every student at UM. If you try this out, let me know what you think. If you need help I can try to provide assistance, but the library reference desk is probably the first line of support.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Blogs (less stress?)
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 8:49 AM
To: ED-TECH@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [ED-TECH] Blogs (less stress?)
It is the end of the semester. We can see stress building. I hope you all can take a deep breath, slowly exhale, and feel some of the tension leaving your body. Help your students do this, too, OK?
I don't want to add stress to your lives, and I have lots of things that I would like to tell you. I have decided to try to put some things into web logs (blogs). These are electronic journals on the web. I will still send things to this mailing list when I think it is particularly interesting or important, but I will post to my blogs all the time. So I hope to reduce your stress by limiting my e-mails while still giving those people who want access to a lot of information a way to get it.
On each of my blogs you will find the text and links for the last five messages, links to my other blogs, links to the last 10 messages in this blog, and links to the monthly archives for this blog. You can add comments to a post if you would like to correct or add something to it.
My Ed-Tech blog covers lots of thoughts related to education and/or technology. This is the "over-flow" from this mailing list. I hope you will at least take a look at this one.
http://wvilberg.blogspot.com
My Magazine Notes blog collects snippets of interest from the variety of magazines that I read. This includes PC World, PC Magazine, Wired, Fast Company, Technology and Learning, and many more. Consider this a clipping service of the most interesting things I have been reading.
http://magazinenotes.blogspot.com
My Tips & Tricks blog is my place to put solutions to problems that I run into, mainly with Windows. Two examples are how to set up your browser to open immediately to a blank page rather than a web page, and what web pages at UM have names so you can get to them quickly.
http://wrvtips.blogspot.com
My Bb at UM blog is a place to post notes about our Blackboard system.
http://bb-at-um.blogspot.com
My BLKBRD-L NOTES blog is an attempt to collect information that I get from the international mailing list from Arizona State University. This blog is probably not relevant to people at UM.
http://blkbrd-lnotes.blogspot.com
Each of these blogs has an RSS feed. You can use those to keep informed of the newest postings without having to check the sites. I haven't figured all of that out yet.
Bill Vilberg
305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)
To: ED-TECH@LISTSERV.MIAMI.EDU
Subject: [ED-TECH] Blogs (less stress?)
It is the end of the semester. We can see stress building. I hope you all can take a deep breath, slowly exhale, and feel some of the tension leaving your body. Help your students do this, too, OK?
I don't want to add stress to your lives, and I have lots of things that I would like to tell you. I have decided to try to put some things into web logs (blogs). These are electronic journals on the web. I will still send things to this mailing list when I think it is particularly interesting or important, but I will post to my blogs all the time. So I hope to reduce your stress by limiting my e-mails while still giving those people who want access to a lot of information a way to get it.
On each of my blogs you will find the text and links for the last five messages, links to my other blogs, links to the last 10 messages in this blog, and links to the monthly archives for this blog. You can add comments to a post if you would like to correct or add something to it.
My Ed-Tech blog covers lots of thoughts related to education and/or technology. This is the "over-flow" from this mailing list. I hope you will at least take a look at this one.
http://wvilberg.blogspot.com
My Magazine Notes blog collects snippets of interest from the variety of magazines that I read. This includes PC World, PC Magazine, Wired, Fast Company, Technology and Learning, and many more. Consider this a clipping service of the most interesting things I have been reading.
http://magazinenotes.blogspot.com
My Tips & Tricks blog is my place to put solutions to problems that I run into, mainly with Windows. Two examples are how to set up your browser to open immediately to a blank page rather than a web page, and what web pages at UM have names so you can get to them quickly.
http://wrvtips.blogspot.com
My Bb at UM blog is a place to post notes about our Blackboard system.
http://bb-at-um.blogspot.com
My BLKBRD-L NOTES blog is an attempt to collect information that I get from the international mailing list from Arizona State University. This blog is probably not relevant to people at UM.
http://blkbrd-lnotes.blogspot.com
Each of these blogs has an RSS feed. You can use those to keep informed of the newest postings without having to check the sites. I haven't figured all of that out yet.
Bill Vilberg
305-284-3949 (work); 786-218-3052 (cell); 305-255-9138 (home)
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
PowerPoint
I have three items related to PowerPoint. The first is the short article by Edward R. Tufte called "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint." One of his arguments is that PowerPoint cannot contain the amount of information that is needed when making presentations.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0961392150/qid=1114548958/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-0060856-3456763?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The second item is an online presentation of "Effective Teaching with PowerPoint: A Learning Theory Approach." This builds on Gagne and other cognitive scientists to create some simple rules that should be applied when using PowerPoint if you want to help students learn from the slide shows.
http://www.educause.edu/PopularContent/2658
The third item is a Microsoft Press book by Cliff Atkinson titled "Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire." This book provides a thorough explanation of story telling and then applies it to PowerPoint presentations. Your presentations will not be the same after going through this material.
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/7125.asp
These all fit together as a call to reevaluate our uses of PowerPoint.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0961392150/qid=1114548958/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-0060856-3456763?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The second item is an online presentation of "Effective Teaching with PowerPoint: A Learning Theory Approach." This builds on Gagne and other cognitive scientists to create some simple rules that should be applied when using PowerPoint if you want to help students learn from the slide shows.
http://www.educause.edu/PopularContent/2658
The third item is a Microsoft Press book by Cliff Atkinson titled "Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire." This book provides a thorough explanation of story telling and then applies it to PowerPoint presentations. Your presentations will not be the same after going through this material.
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/7125.asp
These all fit together as a call to reevaluate our uses of PowerPoint.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Summer Institute on College Teaching at William and Mary
June 5-10, 2005
$800 includes room and board
Lectures, demonstrations, workshops, individual consultations
Instructional innovation, testing and grading, small group strategies, lecturing, cooperative learning, technology in the classroom, course and teacher evaluation, questioning skills, teaching and learning styles, student assessment, syllabus construction and how to make classes more interactive
http://www.vtc.odu.edu/summer_institute.html
$800 includes room and board
Lectures, demonstrations, workshops, individual consultations
Instructional innovation, testing and grading, small group strategies, lecturing, cooperative learning, technology in the classroom, course and teacher evaluation, questioning skills, teaching and learning styles, student assessment, syllabus construction and how to make classes more interactive
http://www.vtc.odu.edu/summer_institute.html
Friday, April 22, 2005
ISU Faculty Senate backs laptop initiative
Indiana State University is moving forward on a plan to require all incoming first-year students to have a laptop, starting summer 2007. This is the "ubiquitous computing" movement. I haven't seen many institutions adopting it recently. Seton Hall is one school that has it and uses Blackboard.
Tribstar.com article
Tribstar.com article
Techlearning > > DATA: Maximize Your Mining, Part One > April 15, 2005
How can K-12 schools use technology and assessment to meet the No Child Left Behind requirements? This is a very nice description of the first two stages: Analysis for its own sake and Analysis for improved efficiency.
Drilling Down: Four Tips
The following are specific data points necessary to create an effective action plan.
1. Understand the performance of the current cohort in comparison to the previous and the next cohorts.
2. Collect information about individual student performance.
3. Identify specific skill areas that teachers are failing to secure.
4. Know whether teachers are teaching below the level of the standards being assessed. Data-driven decision making is an iterative process with each round of findings and additional data collection moving you closer and closer to the core issues.
Meeting AYP Goals
Successful stage two schools apply the following methods to measurable subgroups as required by NCLB.
1. Move from percentages to numbers to names.
2. Focus extra effort on marginal students.
3. Track student performance and adjust accordingly.
Structured Analysis Method
The most effective schools train teachers to ask the following about student assessment data.
1. Have I taught the content assessed by this item?
a. If yes, go to question two.
b. If no, is there anything to be learned? If the students performed well, can I reduce the amount of time I will spend when we get to this topic? How can I use this data as a baseline? Go to question five.
2. Did the students perform as well as I expected?
a. If yes, what are my expectations for performance on this item? What other assessment data do I have to establish my expectations? Go to question five.
b. If no, go to question three.
3. What do their attempts at answers tell me?
a. Are the students guessing the answer?
b. Do the students have a misconception (as evidenced by selecting the same distracter) and are solving the problem the wrong way?
4. What do I need to do to improve the students' performance?
a. Is a brief review sufficient?
b. Do I need to re-teach the concepts with different methods or from another perspective?
c. If the students have a misconception, how can I "un-teach" it and help them create proper understandings?
5. What actions will I take in the next day, the next week, and the next month to act on the findings of this analysis?
a. How will I reassess this content after I have made the adjustments suggested by this analysis?
Techlearning > > DATA: Maximize Your Mining, Part One > April 15, 2005
Drilling Down: Four Tips
The following are specific data points necessary to create an effective action plan.
1. Understand the performance of the current cohort in comparison to the previous and the next cohorts.
2. Collect information about individual student performance.
3. Identify specific skill areas that teachers are failing to secure.
4. Know whether teachers are teaching below the level of the standards being assessed. Data-driven decision making is an iterative process with each round of findings and additional data collection moving you closer and closer to the core issues.
Meeting AYP Goals
Successful stage two schools apply the following methods to measurable subgroups as required by NCLB.
1. Move from percentages to numbers to names.
2. Focus extra effort on marginal students.
3. Track student performance and adjust accordingly.
Structured Analysis Method
The most effective schools train teachers to ask the following about student assessment data.
1. Have I taught the content assessed by this item?
a. If yes, go to question two.
b. If no, is there anything to be learned? If the students performed well, can I reduce the amount of time I will spend when we get to this topic? How can I use this data as a baseline? Go to question five.
2. Did the students perform as well as I expected?
a. If yes, what are my expectations for performance on this item? What other assessment data do I have to establish my expectations? Go to question five.
b. If no, go to question three.
3. What do their attempts at answers tell me?
a. Are the students guessing the answer?
b. Do the students have a misconception (as evidenced by selecting the same distracter) and are solving the problem the wrong way?
4. What do I need to do to improve the students' performance?
a. Is a brief review sufficient?
b. Do I need to re-teach the concepts with different methods or from another perspective?
c. If the students have a misconception, how can I "un-teach" it and help them create proper understandings?
5. What actions will I take in the next day, the next week, and the next month to act on the findings of this analysis?
a. How will I reassess this content after I have made the adjustments suggested by this analysis?
Techlearning > > DATA: Maximize Your Mining, Part One > April 15, 2005
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