Starting the Cycle Anew with New Tools

Welcome back to the new term! I had my first class today and am already floating on adrenaline and hope. It is always refreshing to address a class of new students each term.

An additional source of excitement relates to tech and my teaching environment. The theater classroom I lecture in is “tech challeged” in that it has no presentation computer down at the front of the class and I have always struggled with connection problems using wireless mice, keyboards and even iPhones controlling my computer in the back projection booth. This term is the 1st I am able to use an iPad in conjunction with Keynote Remote, Air Display and a new Moodle plugin.

What my screen on the iPad looks like when I run Keynote Remote with my current screen on the left and the next screen on the right..

Keynote Remote is actually an iPod/iPhone app that controls a keynote presentation on a networked computer. It doesn’t scale for iPad so you do get some pixelation, but it makes presenting a breeze. I not only can control my slides but can also preview the upcoming slide. For some reason I would lose my connection with my iPhone when running Keynote Remote, but this has not been a problem with the iPad to date. Keynote Remote can be downloaded from the iPad or iPhone app store for $.99.

Air Display turns your iPad or iPhone into a second display with touchscreen capabilities. This is amazingly cool but does require some setup that may could be daunting for the tech challenged. I use it to mirror my display on my computer and run lectures from the front of the classroom without having to run back and forth. Air Display costs $9.99 in the iTunes App store, but it has made my classroom (and work) time a bit easier. I use it as a 2nd display when I need more desktop real estate. It has made my lectures run smoother as I don’t need to run back and forth to switch between applications. You can access it here.

Attendance has always been something I felt I could monitor better. New that Kevin Steeves, our new learning environment administrator (LEA) has installed the attendance module, it looks like it will be easier than ever. Again, because I am in a lecture hall and away from a computer, I have been striving to find a solution for attendance that eschews paper and ties into my course. Having used paper solutions (sign-in sheets, roll call sheets) and even tried placing a computer in the class where students could sign in, I was ready for something new. With the new Attendance module, I can use my iPad to take roll and have the results go directly into my course resources, avoiding the need to transfer results from paper. I do like calling students names for the 1st couple of weeks of a term as it helps me to remember to put names to faces. So far it has worked great. I couldn’t be happier.

So, I have a few new toys for the classroom this term. As of the 1st day, they have been more of a help than a hindrance, but I will report back if they get in the way of teaching.

 

FALL 2011 – Information on T2T Courses and Workshops

Teachers Wanted
ONLINE COURSES
Are you thinking about teaching an online or hybrid course? Not sure what it involves? Or is your current online class ready for a little more action? Check us out. We have just the tools you need. Teacher2Teacher. For credit courses you are welcome to attend the first class without registering. Class fee is waived for Lane instructors. Details below.

Fall term credit courses:

– Developing an Online or Hybrid Course

– Audio/Video for Online Instruction I

– Audio/Video for Online Instruction II (projects)

>> Credit courses – course descriptions and registration information

Workshops:

T2T workshops are  designed to be short (1-2 hr), informative, hands-on sessions covering various technologies as they relate to instruction. While most workshops are geared for instructors teaching online/hybrid courses, many, if not all workshop topics will have practical application for any class that has access to computer presentation.

>> Workshop information

>> Workshop registration

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Best Ideas for Teaching With Technology

I am one of those weird techies who like to read about it! This is my current reading–and yes, the paperback is available for under twenty bucks once you get to the amazon.com site. I like these authors–humorous, knowledgeable, and with some innovations I hadn’t thought of before.
It’s called:
Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology
by Thomas Daccord and Justin Reich.

I am familiar with most of the technical moves, but for those who aren’t, there are clear, uncomplicated instructions.

There are great links to resource pages that are worth the price of admission alone.
Here is the Table of Contents:

Selected Contents:
Foreword by Alan November

Introduction

1. Lectures: Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Multimedia
Introduction
Multimedia Presentations with Images, Video, and Audio
Searching for Images, Audio, and Video: How to Find All That Good Stuff in the First Place
Using Video in the Classroom
BrowserPoint: Simple Web Site Presentations with Tabbed Browsing
Projectors: Sharing Your Screen with the Classroom
Getting Data into Your Classroom
Final Thoughts

2. Discussion and Communication
Introduction
Creative Uses of Email
Educational Uses of Blogging
Chatting
Bringing the World into Your Room: Skype and iChat
Final Thoughts

3. Note Taking and Organization
Introduction
Beyond the Trapper Keeper: Keeping Students Organized Online
Taking Notes with Computers
Software Tools for Taking Notes
The Future of Note Taking: Tablet PCs in the Classroom
Tracking Class Participation
Class Scribe: Sharing Class Notes Created By One Student
Taking One for the Team: Collaborative Note Taking
Final Thoughts

4. Guided Inquiry
Introduction
Online Scavenger Hunts
Virtual Tours
WebQuests
Google Earth
Select Web Sites for Guided-Inquiry Activities
Final Thoughts

5. Open Research
Introduction
“Why Johnny Can’t Search”: Searching with Key Terms
Google: For Better or Worse, the Number One Student Research Tool
Search Directories
Library Catalogues
Grokker Visual Searching
Five Online Collections
Final Thoughts

6. Homework
Introduction
Equity and Access
Assigning Online and Computer Homework
What to Do for Homework?
Examples of Short-Term Online Assignments in the Humanities
Final Thoughts

7. Writing
Introduction
Standard Formatting
Pre-Writing and Brainstorming
From Pre-Writing to Polishing: Best Practices for Writing with Word Processors
Beyond the Essay: Using Word Processors to Devise New Assessments
Writing Collaboratively with Wikis
Final Thoughts

8. Student Presentations
Introduction
Student PowerPoint Presentations
Recording and Editing Audio for Podcasting
Screencasting
Building Simple Web Sites with Google Page Creator
Final Thoughts

9. Assessment and Grading
Introduction
Online Tests and Quizzes
Giving Tests in an Online Environment
Electronic Commenting and Grading
Online Rubrics: Finding Them, Designing Them and Grading with Them
Electronic Gradebooks
The New Frontiers of Online Plagiarism
Final Thoughts

10. Class Management
Introduction
Teaching Strategies for the Computing Environment
Email: Getting on the Same Electronic Page
Course-Management Systems
Setting Up Your Own Class Web Site
You and Your IT Department
Acceptable Use Policies
Online Safety and Health
Recommended Professional Development Resources
Visions of the Future
Parting Thoughts

 

Flip Out

Cisco, the parent company that acquired Flip Video has decided to end that product line.  This is a stumbling block for educational institutions that have invested heavily in low-cost, easy to use cameras for instructors and students. When it comes to a camera that is intuitive and not intimidating to use, the Flip was our camera of choice.

Folks that are interested in a low-cost pocket video camera can look to the Kodak Zi8 (around $80) or the Apple iPod Touch ($220).  It does look like that the future of low cost video is networked devices.

 

Tineye for documentation gone awry

Over the last few years, I have been trying to be better at documenting and attributing images downloaded from online sources from and making sure that they are attributed.  I think I have been doing pretty well.  Unfortunately, this was not always my M.O. I admittedly grabbed images that I placed into presentations hurriedly and forgot to grab their info, making sure that my materials were prepped as soon as possible.

Fortunately there is a reverse image search engine called TineEye that in their own words “finds out where an image came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or if there is a higher resolution version.” I have used this to track down where I accessed images when I forgot to get attribution info.

It could also be useful to see if others are using your work in a way you deem appropriate.  I could see using to demonstrate to students how easy it is to search for images and make sure that they don’t try to claim someone else’s work as their own.

The TinEye search function allows free non-commercial use for up to 50 incident per day or 150 searches a week.  More info can be found at http://www.tineye.com/faq

 

Anyone Seen My Keys?

photo by Virginia Hammer on Flickr

I podcast by means of screencasting a lot.  Last year, I created around 200 for my classes  in the form of tutorials and feedback.  One thing that has made those screencasts valuable is that my audience can see what keys I am pressing on the my keyboard as I am demonstrating a technique.  This is due  to the software I primarily use for screencasting, iShowU HD Pro.  This software is not free and I have been using it primarily because it gave me the ability to display my keys pressed.

After a conversation with a colleague as to whether or not this was possible in a regular class and outside of that application (thanks Kathleen Murney!), I did some searching around.  I am happy to say that there are solutions for both Mac and Windows computers if you are interested in this.

On the Mac side of things, try out KeyCastr.   This free app allows you to display keys and do some moderate tweaking of the displayed output.  You can find it here:
http://stephendeken.net/software/keycastr/

If you are working on a Windows workstation, try KeyPosé.  This little app has less options than the aforementioned KeyCastr, but is very lightweight.  I have to confess that I have not figured out how to turn it off except logging out of my session and logging back in.  That shouldn’t detract as it is a very useful tool.

I think these make low-cost screencasting really powerful.  I hope you are able to find some use from them.

 

My Videos Are Going Down the Tubes

I have come to realize that YouTube is really where I want to place the screencasts (video tutorials) that I create for my classes.  This is for a few reasons:

One is that our Media server is rapidly losing space.  I heard at last count that we were down to 200 GB and I want to help alleviate that problem.  My videos range from 3-15 MB depending on their length, but it does add up.

Another reason I am going to YouTube is to make my material available to the world.  This term, I have been participating in a fellowship that is examining and committing to using and creating OER or Open Educational Resources.  By placing my material on YouTube, it becomes easier for others to find and use.

YouTube makes sharing my content really easy,  especially when I want to embed it in my classes.  Their embed code is easy to access and I like how their objects only load a poster frame until the user actually clicks on it instead of loading the entire movie first.  This should help reduce some of the load on the Media Server.

Finally, the proposition of HD video is enticing.  I can upload video that is the same size as my desktop, recording 1:1.  YouTube will then handle making smaller versions for people that don’t want it so big.  Upload once, and forget about it.

As far as privacy issues, I think it is easier to backwards engineer URLs from the current server than it is for YouTube.  YouTube gives you three access options: a fully public and searchable option, a public but unlisted option and a fully private upload.  The publicly available videos can be tagged with keywords to make your work easier to find.  The unlisted videos can only be accessed by URL, and while that URL can be shared with others, it is excluded from YouTube searces.  The private option for videos restricts viewing to those that have been invited through email addresses.

Any thoughts about this?

 

How about a Qwiki?

It’s only been online for three days, but news of Qwiki is spreading like wildfire along the hot blooded venous system of the super-connected.

Whutizzit? Qwiki is a multimedia encyclopedia containing more than three million entries. Qwiki publishes narrated, illustrated, interactive reference entries. To use Qwiki, enter a topic in the search box or select a topic from the featured topics on the homepage. Then watch, listen, and read the Qwiki entry for that topic. Below your chosen Qwiki you will see a selection of related Qwiki entries. You can also find related materials by clicking the “Q” symbol that appears at the end of the Qwiki play bar.

Qwikis can be embedded into your blog or website.

http://www.qwiki.com/embed/Lane_Community_College

 

New Software Can Help You Manage Your Life

Courtesy of NPR, here is a short overview of some solutions that make productivity across multiple computers a bit easier.  Of particular interest to me is HootSuite.

Link: New Software Can Help You Manage Your Life.

 

Screencast-o-Matic

Screencast-o-matic is a new tool I was introduced to (thanks Tina Davis!) that allows you to record your voice and computer desktop as a video.  It is very similar to Jing,  but requires no software to install, allows you to record up to 15 minutes at a time, and will help you upload your videos to YouTube.

This is a true web-based application.  You simply go to the site, click on the button in the site to start your recording.  It helps you to set your video size and and choose your audio source.  Once finished, you can include a description and tags.  If you have a Google or YouTube account, you can upload it directly from the site (if you don’t mind your stuff being on YouTube).

Formats for your videos include .mp4 (the better option), .avi, and .swf.

For those that want longer recording times, you can upgrade to a $9/year subscription.

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

If you would like some assistance with this app, sign up for the Winter 2011 T2T Audio/Video for Online instruction, or email me for consultation. coronadoi_AT_lanecc.edu.