[ED-TECH] Can't open an assignment a student has submitted?

Ed-Tech people,

The semester is almost over. If you get files from your students, either via email or, I suppose, via Blackboard, be aware that there is a web site that can create corrupted files. Its purpose is to give them some extra time on the assignment. They submit it at the last minute. You try to open it, say the next day, and it fails. You contact the students. The student has now completed the assignment. The student sends it to you, saying "The computer must have eaten it." You accept it, not realizing that this is a new strategy.

Isn't that an interesting scenario?

The site that I just heard about is http://neddyy.net/docs/. I have not tried to send it a file to be corrupted. I just looked at the page and thought, "Oh, No." I still want to believe in students who want to learn. There will always be a way to get around everything. 

Bill Vilberg, bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 8-3944 or 786-250-2255

[ED-TECH] Apple TV In The Classroom – The New Smart Board?

Ed-Tech list members,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

How important is the ability to mark up material being projected on the screen in the classroom? Would having an iPad that you could walk around with, controlling your presentation and marking it up, be something we should investigate as an alternative to the Sympodium writing tables we are using today?

DETAILS

The Instructional Advancement Center manages the technology in the original 65 general assignment classrooms: Memorial, Learning Center, and Residential Colleges. When we designed the technology for those rooms we put in the SMART Sympodium writing tablet LCD displays. The goal was to allow faculty to write on the screen when presenting PowerPoint or other material through the computer. Usage of the Sympodium has been very low, based on our faculty surveys, the Sympodiums cost a LOT more than a normal computer display, and they are failing as they reach five years of age.

Here are some questions we are beginning to ask. We would love to have your views on these questions.

1. Is this functionality something that faculty want? Do you want to be able to "mark-up" PowerPoint slides, or web pages, or Word documents in front of the class?

2. Is the fact that you have to stand at the podium one of the factors that limits usage of this technology?

3. Is an alternative, such as an iPad, where you could walk around the classroom, controlling your presentation, and marking it up, a "better" solution for you?

4. The iPad "solution" is not clean, at this point. There are lots of gotchas that would have to be worked out in order to make this widely available. How much effort do you think we should expend researching and developing solutions for use of the iPad by the instructor in the classroom?

We would really appreciate your thoughts on these questions. Our efforts in the IAC are measured by how they actually enhance learning in your classrooms. We need your input as we look into the future and make plans that will affect the student experience in your classrooms.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

Who is working harder?

I am listening to a webinar on Flipped Classrooms, where the students watch videos, read, and learn as homework and then do activities like homework during class. A fascinating quote during the presentation was, "Who is working harder during class time, the students or the teacher? It should be the students, but it is usually the teacher." Who is working harder in your classrooms?

[ED-TECH] Students Endlessly E-Mail Professors for Help. A New Service Hopes to Organize the Answers. - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Ed-Tech list members,

I just read an interesting article in the Chronicle about a new teaching support system. It tries to make it easier to get students to ask questions and help each other. Many people are using discussion boards on Blackboard to do this now, but apparently this system must have some bells-and-whistles that make it better.

Two interesting quotes:

"Ms. Sankar said her biggest challenge is convincing professors that they can use a technology tool that is not officially endorsed by their colleges. She intentionally does not seek out deals with campus technology offices because she feels that what type of tool to use should be left up to individual faculty members. That's a shift that could change the way technology is supported on campuses."

"The service is so easy for students to use that he worries people are using it as a crutch. 'I got the feeling that students were asking the questions because that was easier than thinking,' Mr. Morrisett said."

ARTICLE: http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Endlessly-E-Mail/131390

Bill Vilberg, bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Luncheon Wednesday - Be Prepared...

Ed-Tech list members,

It looks to be an EXCELLENT luncheon on Wednesday in the Bank United Center, Hurricane 100 room. I expect Dr. Turner to have some fascinating things to say about redesigning courses to enhance student learning. Before this valuable session you might want to take a look at a presentation Dr. Turner gave and/or read an article he wrote on his experiences with blended learning. 

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We didn't start out planning to transform teaching at the university. Instead, in 2004 we began a modest, one-year project to redesign a few general education courses, and we did so largely because of a collective guilty conscience.

"I learn better having someone explain something to me rather than figuring it out on my own." One of the 25 percent of students who prefer the traditional approach

"I liked being able to get involved as opposed to reading out of a textbook." One of the 75 percent of students who prefer the NGen approach

"I don't want to take the 'me' out of teaching." Reaction of an instructor at the prospect of not spending all of the class time lecturing to a 200-student class

"The biggest thing that I have learned is that students will be as responsible for their learning as you let them." NGen senior faculty fellow

The university had invested considerable resources in creating a technologicai and human-resources infrastructure to support online instruction, and it had succeeded beyond its wildest expectations. It had tapped new student populations throughout Texas and in all fifty states, and online programs had begun to account for the majority of the institution's enrollment growth. By 2004. the University of North Texas had emerged as the largest provider of online learning of any public university in Texas and one of the largest in the country. We could proudly point out that we were leaders in the technological revolution in higher education.

But we realized in 2004 that this revolution had almost completely bypassed the freshmen and sophomores at UNT. The University of North Texas was teaching undergraduates in ways that would make a time traveler from the nineteenth century feel comfortable. It is true that whiteboards had replaced blackboards, and these had been replaced in turn by screens for computer-projected displays. But the vast majority of college and university instruction involved the aural transmission of content from faculty members' heads to the hands of students.

So we began a course-redesign project to blend some emerging technologies with traditional instruction. Five years later the project continues with substantially more ambitious goals, because the need to transform teaching and learning in general education courses is stronger than ever.

----------- END INSERT FROM ARTICLE

LINK TO ARTICLE: Opens in PDF reader (UM Library link)

LINK TO PRESENTATION: http://www.slideshare.net/umiami/sloan-bl-workshop04192010final 

I hope to see you at the luncheon.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement Center
Information Technology
University of Miami, FL
bill.vilberg@miami.edu
786-250-2255

The Office of the Provost and UM Faculty Learning Community

cordially invite you to a lunch presentation by

 

Dr. Philip Turner

Professor Emeritus, College of Information, University of North Texas

The Next Generation Course Redesign Project

Wednesday, April 4^th, 2012

12:00-2:00PM

Hurricane 100 Room at the Bank United Center

University of Miami

 

The Next Generation Course Redesign Project at the University of North Texas aims to redesign undergraduate classes to enhance student learning outcomes.  At the heart of the Next Gen Project are interdisciplinary faculty learning communities in which faculty nurture, mentor, and encourage each other.  NextGen courses are a blend of lecture, online, and experiential learning and are designed on a foundation of Student Learning Outcomes.

Dr. Phil Turner has been a classroom teacher, a librarian, a college professor, and the owner of an information company.    He served simultaneously as an academic dean and the lead administrator for distance and distributed learning for fifteen years at two institutions: The University of Alabama and the University of North Texas. Dr. Turner is currently serving as Professor Emeritus in the College of Information at the University of North Texas, and serves as a consultant to UNT's Next Generation Course Redesign™ Project. 

He has written extensively on the subject of the application of technology to the teaching and learning process, especially in the area of planning and policy. In 1994, he was the second academic to receive the Annual Award for Achievement in Managing Information Technology sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University and American Management System.

 

 

Please RSVP by March 28 to e.johnson5@miami.edu or 305.284.3356