Thursday, October 25, 2012

"ambivalence is the sign of an interesting mind." R. Goldstein NYT 20100328 [I'm not sure how I feel about this quote-SWG]

Excerpt from "On the Seventh Day,"  book review by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, New York Times Book Review, Sunday, March 28, 2010 p. 10  

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

DRAFT GUIDELINES/DESIDERATA for good educ Social Media/Networking Tools/Resources from TLTGroup Oct19 tlt.gs/frlv FridayLive! #TLTGfrlv

GUIDELINES & DESIDERATA for Online Social Networking/Engagement Tools and Resources 
Tools/resources that can be used for educational purposes by those who have little previous experience with them
FIRST DRAFT extracted from FridayLive! online discussion "Social Collaboration Online - What Does It Mean?” October 19, 2012 also see list of tools/resources and transcript, etc. from that session.

Join us every/any Friday 2pm ET.  Register in advance as we continue to share good ideas, resources, suggestions, and specific [small] next steps in the TLT Group's FridayLive! free weekly online sessions   

DRAFT GUIDELINES
We expect these tools and resources can be used to permit, support, and/or encourage teachers and learners to construct, share, and collaborate: to develop personal connections; and, as one of our online participants said, to "...expand engagement across time and space.”  We recommend that when using such tools, resources, you usually:
  • Include synchronous as well as asynchronous interaction
  • Use a variety of media - not limited only to pure text.
  • Differentiate roles among leaders, participants, users, …. e.g., “Voice of the Chat”
  • Don’t use too many tools/resources - especially those that duplicate each other’s features.
DRAFT DESIDERATA 
We prefer and recommend tools and resources that are:
  • Free ($ - as in “free beer” not as in “free puppy”)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

20+ good higher ed Social Media/Networking Tools/Resources from TLTGroup online free FridayLive! Oct19 tlt.gs/frlv #TLTGfrlv

Social Media/Networking Tools/Resources LISTED BELOW
These were introduced during "Social Collaboration Online - What Does It Mean?”  TLT Group's FridayLive! Online Session October 19, 2012  2:00-3:00 pm ET  

Guest Presenter:  Penny Kuckkahn, Nicolet Area Technical College
Click here for access to Slides, Chat Transcript - including other links, comments, etc. from this session.
Join us every/any Friday 2pm ET.  Register in advance as we continue to share good ideas, resources, suggestions, and specific [small] next steps in the TLT Group's FridayLive! free weekly online sessions   

List below is numbered only for easy reference - the order does not indicate anything else at all!

Friday, October 19, 2012

"Social Collaboration Online” Slides, Chat Transcript TLT Group's FridayLive! tlt.gs/frlv #TLTGfrlv 10/19 online free



"Social Collaboration Online - What Does It Mean?” Slides, Chat Transcript TLT Group's FridayLive! October 19, 2012  2:00-3:00 pm ET 
Penny Kuckkahn, Nicolet Area Technical College

Please find below: Text chat transcript (including many links shared by  FridayLive! participants) and links to other resources (slides, archives).

Join us every/any week as we continue to share good ideas, resources, suggestions, and specific [small] next steps in the TLT Group's FridayLive! free weekly online sessions   
Call for Proposals - Draft (for future FridayLive! sessions and other TLT Group online events) 
Digital Archive  Full recording of this online session, which includes audio, slides, and text chat. If you registered in advance for this FridayLive! session you will automatically receive a copy of the link to the archive at the same email address you used to register. if you are a member of the TLT group you can always use this link tlt.gs/memarchives to access the full  collection of available archived sessions.
Slides for this session available published separately
Text Chat Transcript...

Thursday, October 18, 2012

SilverCloud Stories Oct24 2pmET What happened. What I wish someone asked/told me. tlt.gs/SilverWkshpReg TLTGMembers Free


Question/guidelines for Silver Cloud Oct. 24, 2012 story presenters
Silver Cloud  - Revisioning and Supporting Retirement Transitions
“...what I really wish someone had told me.”   October 24, 31, 2012 at 2pm ET
+ 1 additional session date to be selected based on participants' interests and availability.

Offer stories, strategies, references, and research updates to:
  • Help Individuals - to identify and meet their own needs and find ways to continue to serve academia late in their professional lives.
  • Help Institutions - to improve their ability to support and effectively (and respectfully) use “Silver Cloudians”
FREE to TLT Group Individual Members & those affiliated with institutional subscribers!  Fee otherwise.
Also available by recording to registrants & TLT Group members


Question/guidelines for story presenters for October 24 session
What happened? "What i really wish someone had told me."  
Queries for planning  - recommendations for  others  to consider

SilverCloud-(Re)Vision/Support Retirement “what I wish someone had told me.” Oct24&31 2pmET tlt.gs/SilverWkshpReg TLTGroupMembers Free

Silver Cloud  - Revisioning and Supporting Retirement Transitions
“...what I really wish someone had told me.”   October 24, 31, 2012 at 2pm ET
+ 1 additional session date to be selected based on participants' interests and availability.

FREE to TLT Group Individual Members & those affiliated with institutional subscribers!  Fee otherwise.
Also available by recording to registrants & TLT Group members


Oct 24
Stories and Lessons Learned - Challenges Encountered (whether mastered or not)
Relevant Resources
What happened?  What we are learning:  “What I really wish someone had told me.”   
What information, questions, or activities could be most useful at what age/stages?
[More detailed question/guidelines for story presenters listed in next blog posting.]

Offer stories, strategies, references, and research updates to:

  • Help Individuals - to identify and meet their own needs and find ways to continue to serve academia late in their professional lives.
  • Help Institutions - to improve their ability to support and effectively (and respectfully) use “Silver Cloudians”

“Clothing the Emperor” when technology and education touch each other so furtively, tentatively, eagerly, expectantly


“Clothing the Emperor”
In this very rapidly changing part of the world where technology and education meet...  Where technology and education keep touching each other so furtively, tentatively, eagerly, and expectantly...
How can we deal constructively with issues that have been distorted by hyperbolic claims from polarized groups?
How can we "clothe the emperor" when it's not enough to reveal the emperor's nakedness? 

Goals for Clothing the Emperor
We try to reveal simple truths and useful options that may be disappointing to those who prefer the more dramatic and polarizing claims of zealous advocates of innovation – or the equally hyperbolic claims of their opponents who resist such changes most avidly. We are committed to providing starting places that are both interesting and useful enough to repair the damage that often results from more exciting and illusory activities.

We want our work to be more useful than useless, more harmless than harmful.

We are committed to finding those “intermediate” issues (issues with scope somewhere between setting foreign policy and resolving minor interpersonal conflicts) in this very rapidly changing part of the world where technology and education meet – where technology and education keep touching each other so furtively, tentatively, eagerly, and expectantly. Issues: 

  • where we have some credibility based on experience and expertise; 
  • where we can make contributions that are both substantive and procedural; 
  • where we are most likely to be able to identify and engage others who have even more to offer; 
  • where we can help directly as well as by offering coordination and working in collaboration with others.


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Eyejot: YOU create/share brief(?) Video eMails free. Low-Threshold App PC/Mac/IOS. & Join FridayLive! tlt.gs/frlv free/weekly/online

Here are 2 sample videos demonstrating (in my own case) very first use of Eyejot for free.  Recommended last week by Penny Kuckkahn, Nicolet College
NOTE:  Requires establishing a free online account to use this free service (must provide usual - username, password, email, etc.)
"...client-free, online video messaging platform ideal for both 
personal and business communications. Eyejot offers everyone 
the ability to create and receive video messages in a 
self-contained, spam-free environment. With nothing to install, ..."
3:16 PM (1 hour ago)

 - excerpt from Eyejot website.

To view 2 sample videos click here:
Eyejot Video Mail from Penny Kuckkahn
Eyejot Video Mail Test Sample from Steve Gilbert Oct 16, 2012 <1 min
Also use this URL:  tlt.gs/PKeyejotVideo
Below is copy of most of the email which Penny 
sent to me introducing this useful tool.  



Friday, October 12, 2012

CHANGE TODAY OCT12: FridayLive! sMOOChers/MOOCs 2PARTS: **2pmET FreeReg tlt.gs/CFHE12Oct12 **2:30pmET tlt.gs/login #tltgSMOOCHERS

CHANGE:  FRIDAYLIVE! Today Oct12 2pmET  Free Reg tlt.gs/CFHE12Oct12  Then join us for FridayLive! at 2:30pmET via tlt.gs/login as guest 
I could claim that this is a brilliantly coordinated activity, but really I just discovered that CFHE12 is offering Webinar TODAY at 2pm ET due to nice visit to family in San Diego and adjustment to daughter's engagement which distracted us from prep for sMOOChers.

2pmET "Guest Speaker, October 12: Siva Vaidhyanathan:  
Beyond MOOC Hyperbole: Why We Should Support MOOC Experimentation ... Critically and Carefully"

So we'll begin our own FridayLive! session at 2:30PM ET or immedately at the end of the session listed above, and we'll STILL focus on MOOCs, and on our sMOOChers' experience of the 1st week of CFHE12 - Everything below remains the same except that our starting time will be 2:30PM ET and we will include in our discussion reactions to the 2pm session "Beyond MOOC Hyperbole"

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Jeff Selingo's presentation "5 Disruptive Forces" demonstrates 3 flaws (hubris, etc.) of higher ed that he cites #tltgSMOOCHERS #CFHE12

"5 Disruptive Forces That Will Change Higher Education Forever,"

Selingo's "Value Gap" based on survey of "the public" asking respondents to rate value of higher ed vs. survey of college presidents.  Bigger value gap between what is available from most selective, expensive undergrad education vs. others.  But most people have had little opportunity to compare the differences.  The growing movement to make course materials, curricula, syllabi publically accessible will make it much easier to see the differences.  BUT WILL THAT MATTER?  HOW? TO WHOM?

Selingo ends by citing 3 flaws he has found characteristic of academicians in his travels to higher ed conferences and campuses this year.
Hubris
Skepticism of anything new 
.... I think his presentation demonstrates these characteristics quite well.

Webinar just began (4:30PM ET 2012 Oct 10) "5 Disruptive Forces That Will Change Higher Education Forever" Shallow over-generalizations?



Excerpt from "Edfuture Daily Newsletter;  October 10, 2012:  The 5 Disruptive Forces That Will Change Higher Education Forever, ...with Jeff Selingo to be held on Wednesday, Oct 10, 2012 4:30-5:00 PM EDT... register for CFHE12 and get info about this online event at tlt.gs/cfhe12
...After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
When you join the session, you'll have the option to join the audio using a dial in telephone number or your PC headset or speakers."

5 Forces:  
Completion
Demographics
Sear of Red Ink
Improved Alternatives
Value

Seems to be summary of widely-publicized over-generalizations...  ignores growing gap between what is available from most selective institutions and what is available from the majority of much less expensive public colleges with respect to cost, experience, quality, job prospects.

No picture of speaker showing so far (4:42pm);  voice + PowerPoint slides.

Join sMOOChers/CFHE12 Discussion Groups for Week 1 Oct 8-14 Change pressures: What's influencing higher ed? tlt.gs/smoochREG tlt.gs/CFHE12


Join sMOOChers/CFHE12 Discussion Groups for Week 1 (Oct 8-14): Change pressures: What's influencing higher education?
THIS POSTING:   tlt.gs/sMOOChers 
THERE'S STILL TIME TO JOIN THE TLT GROUP'S  collaborative, reflective exploration of MOOCs and other very-large, mostly-online, open-access courses. 
Please register BOTH with
tlt.gs/smoochREG and 
tlt.gs/CFHE12
Then join our sMOOChers forum tlt.gs/smoochforum 
and use Twitter hashtag #tltgSMOOCHERS 
Also, see informal planning doc:  tlt.gs/smoochersplan

As sMOOChers [Smart Massive Open Online Courses Higher Education Research Subgroup], our goal is to exchange insights and develop guidelines about how to take advantage of these new courses.  We're beginning by participating together in the CFHE12 MOOC [Current & Future of Higher Educ]. 
We'll extract lessons from our experience with CFHE12 as it happens.  You are welcome to participate in either or both of our subgroups:

Group A.  Process:  Reflection about Experience (about our shared experience in a MOOC as it happens - focus on process
Group B.  Content:  Adaptation and Application of Resources (to our own institutions and individual situations of the information and resources provided by the MOOC - focus on content)
Group C.  Support:  Develop New Roles (to help students learn from MOOCs) NOT LAUNCHED IN WEEK 1

As you begin using the CFHE12 resources & activities, focus on ONE of the two sets of questions below and use the sMOOChers "forum" to offer your comments and respond to other members of our cohort.  
Then join us for FridayLive! 2pmET Oct 12, 2012 when Dale Parker & Nancy Smulsky will summarize your comments and add their own, and we'll discuss CFHE12 week 1 and plan our activitie for the next weeks.

Topic of week 1  (Oct 8-14) from CFHE12: Change pressures: What is influencing higher education? 

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

“...what I really wish someone had told me.” - Report of J. McCrickerd's 1st Online Teaching Experience Summer 2012 FridayLive! Oct5 2pmET Free Online TLT.gs/frlv

"Wading into Online Teaching" THE SEQUEL J. McCrickerd

Jennifer McCrickerd will report on her first-time online teaching experience, the ways in which it did/didn't match her expectations, and offer advice for others who are about to begin their own first-time online teaching experience.

In October, 2011, Jennifer McCrickerd, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Drake University, agreed to teach an online course the following summer. She also offered two FridayLive! online sessions in which she thoughtfully and candidly discussed her expectations, hopes, and fears - and asked participants to suggest how she might prepare more effectively and comfortably.

Many useful suggestions, questions, and online resources were exchanged by voice and within the text chat in the two previous sessions:

TLT-SWG Apr 21, 2012: "Wading into Online Teaching Part Deux"

TLT-SWG Nov 09, 2011: "Wading into Online Teaching”


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 5, 2012:




Monday, October 01, 2012

BYOD=Bring Your Own Device(s): Changes classroom/campus/jobs technologically, pedagogically, financially, legally, ethically...

"employees like the convenience and employers think it’ll save them money, but there are real legal risks and privacy concerns on both sides...[employers ask if they should] require employees to install software that would allow the company to wipe out data remotely if they lose their phone."

- this and excerpts quoted below from:  "A minefield of legal risks come with 'bring your own device' policies," by Catherine Ho, Published: September 30, 2012 online and October 1, 2012 in print by Washington Post.  Article discusses growing legal risks as businesses permit/urge/require employees to use their own "smart" devices in the workplace...  
Probably even more complex implications for academia.  How many students are already recording classes with/without permission?  How many faculty and other colleagues are already recording meetings with/without permission?  

When I fly, I always count how many spy devices - not limited to those included in most new phones, tablets, laptops! - are offered in the Sky Mall catalogs provided for most airline passengers.  And for even greater convenience and more surprises, search within Amazon for "spy pen."     e.g.,                                  More excerpts and some previous blog postings about abundance of tiny video cameras and similar devices  And see the remarkable "Ultra Micro Tiny Covert Camera" page of this Website:  Portable Video Recording Gadgets & Spy Gears