Prezi at TLT Group Symposium

  

Prezi books and resources

Jane Harris' Prezi (fluid, multi-dimensional PP) good tool, interesting explanation of informal fac/dev.
  
Jane discussed her own work in faculty support/professional development both as an IT person and as a Teaching Learning Center person at University North Carolina Greensboro. What she called Testing Prezi shows use of a multidimensional version of PowerPoint, although more fluid and flexible.  It worked quite nicely through screen sharing during the session.


Jane explains how "Dr. Rosa" came with a problem -  she was about to teach an online course beginning in three weeks and would have perhaps double the enrollment that she was previously accustomed to.  So Jane needed to help "Dr. Rosa" gain enough confidence to identify and attempt to use at least a few helpful technology possibilities.   Jane used the Prezi to explain the sequence of steps and connections among the people who became involved in this small project.  Jane works informally with both individuals and groups to help them make improvements in teaching, learning.  Her work fosters their own ability to help each other make even more improvements.  You can see how this works as she describes the process.


If you didn't participate in the session, you can see its resources, prepared before, during, and after at the homebase webpage which includes links to a full recording of the entire session as well as a link to the Prezi itself.  


We hope you'll join us this coming week on Tuesday and Thursday one o'clock Eastern for the next two sessions of this year's annual symposium.  If you are a TLT Group member, you can register for free.  Others pay a fee. 

'Faculty have the best job in the world and the right to complain about it.'

- Katie King of Elon U., responding to my question about her busy summer yesterday.  

You can complain... or see book:
Engaging Student Voices
 in the Study of Teaching and Learning

We were talking about her plans for our Symposium session next Thurs Aug 11.  She and some colleagues (probably including a student) from Elon U. will be describing how they have been forming and supporting small mixed group collaboration (faculty, student, et al.) to improve specific undergrad courses... in response to faculty requests.
She will also introduce her new work on mixed inquiry collaborations.  




Join us Aug 9, 11 1-2PM EDT for the TLT Group's 4th Annual Online Symposium  "You are not alone!" Queries and Strategies for Frugal Innovation and Collaborative Change 
[If you missed the first session Aug 3, you can still find a full recording and lots of other info at tlt.gs/1sym2011]
Free registration for TLT Group Members; Fee for non-members.

You are not alone!

More about the Symposium:

Can participate almost fully in Adobe Connect online sessions via iPad! Good/Bad News

"Adobe Connect Mobile for iOS"  works - almost fully.  I've tried it briefly and confirmed what I've been reading.  See refs, Good/Bad News below.  

The TLT Group has used a variety of Web-based "virtual classrooms" for our online synchronous activities (i.e., "webinars," "webcasts," online symposia, etc.) - most recently Adobe Connect, a Flash-based Web software/platform/service that (like several similar systems) supports multiple options for:

• preparing, organizing, and presenting information
• interacting live online
• recording and publishing online presentations, interactions, etc.

As you probably know, Apple's iOS and iPad-related products do not currently support Flash files, so I didn't expect to be able to use our new iPad 2 to participate in Adobe Connect sessions. Yesterday one of our online partcipants asked about iPad options, so today I did a little research and found:

1.  Good News: "Adobe Connect Mobile 1.5 for iOS" is an app available free from the iTunes App store that enables an iPad 2 to login to a live Adobe Connect session with good audio and video, and an interface that strongly resembles the newest version we've been using via other devices.  I've only tested it for a few minutes, but I've also been reading some comments by users that confirm my impressions, which are mostly good.  Seems that participation in the text chat may be limited in some ways. 
2.  Bad News:  Neither this App nor any other I've found enables the iPad 2 to deal effectively with Flash.  One consequence is that I have not found a way of "playing" or viewing the digital recordings (archives) that we usually produce and often publish when we offer live sessions via Adobe Connect.    For an example of one of these archives, try tlt.gs/1sym2011archive ... but not with your iPad!

For more about Adobe Connect Mobile [1.5 for Apple iOS] see:  

Fundamental Questions for Frugl Inovtns: Transform? Preserve?

What do you most want to gain?

Cherish and want not to lose?  See below for more specific Fundamental Questions 

Encourage, Enable, Engage = A Vision Worth Working Toward (VWWT)
A "Vision Worth Working Toward" is more than an expectation and less than a prediction. It must be an inspiring but plausible goal that we can work toward and make visible progress - soon. More...

Information technology can be the excuse and the means to make almost any kinds of change in education and elsewhere. As you consider the following questions, think about the kinds of change that might happen to your students, your colleagues, your institution, and yourself. What should be transformed? What should be preserved?

These Fundamental Questions for Frugal Innovations are sequenced to invite you to begin thinking broadly and then to narrow your focus to specific "low-threshold" improvements in teaching and learning that can begin soon. These improvements should be worthwhile, easy to begin, and easy to share.

Additional, More Specific Fundamental Questions for Frugal Innovation  

Aug 3 Small Collegial Collaborative Groups Help Transitions

Textbooks to Online Info; F2F to Hybrid; LMS to Web Tools; etc.  

We believe that focusing on small, realistic steps will lead to more widespread, long-lasting meaningful changes. In fact, in these especially challenging times, small steps may be the ONLY way to keep moving  - in the right direction.

Join us  Aug 3, 9, 11 1-2PM EDT for the TLT Group's 4th Annual Online Symposium on Frugal Innovation and Collaborative Change 

Queries & Strategies for Frugal Innovation, Collaborative Change via Small Group Collaboration

Free registration for TLT Group Members; Fee for non-members.

You are not alone!

We need more, better, small group collaboration

Some refs for Small Group Collaboration (Amazon)

•  to improve teaching and learning with technology in specific courses
• to address current major challenges in higher education.

We are too often overwhelmed by the gap between what we hope and what we can do.

Too many demands for our time, energy, attention.

Join us  Aug 3, 9, 11 1-2PM EDT for the TLT Group's 4th Annual Online Symposium on Frugal Innovation and Collaborative Change 

Queries & Strategies for Frugal Innovation, Collaborative Change via Small Group Collaboration

Free registration for TLT Group Members; Fee for non-members.

You are not alone! We're all churning!

We're all churning!

So TLT Group's 4th Annual Online Symposium on Frugal Innovation and Collaborative Change is about successful small-group collaboration.  We'll develop Queries & Strategies for Frugal Innovation, Collaborative Change via Small Group Collaboration Aug 3, 9, 11 1-2PM EDT

Free registration for TLT Group Members; Fee for non-members.

You are not alone! Queries & Strategies for Frugal Innovation, Collaborative Change

"You are not alone!" - Books, Music, etc.

via Small Group Collaboration Aug 3, 9, 11 1-2PM EDT
TLT Group's 4th Annual Online Symposium on Frugal Innovation and Collaborative Change focuses on
SMALL GROUP COLLABORATION

• to improve teaching and learning with technology in specific courses
• to address current major challenges in higher education.

Free registration for TLT Group Members; Fee for non-members.

Guest presenters will describe/demonstrate specific kinds of successful small-group collaboration:

• Student-Faculty
• Faculty-Faculty
• Faculty-Librarian
• Faculty-Faculty Development, and Faculty-Tech. 

Participants will be encouraged to ask questions and suggest alternatives and improvements.   We hope that each of you will learn both from the invited presenters and from each other.  These sessions will shape the TLT Group's agenda for our weekly FridayLive! online sessions in 2011-12 (beginning Sept. 9, 2pm Eastern) and other projects. 

Psst! Intro to MERLOT: Is MERLOT still the best secret weapon for improving higher education?

TLT Group Members Only Online Session tomorrow 7/27/2011 11am EDT.  

For more info, see tlt.gs/MERLOTsecret11   MERLOT – Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching – a program of California State University, has been, since 1997, providing peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. To date, MERLOT boasts over 30,000 materials and 95,900 members, and yet it is still a widely underutilized tool.
Irene Knokh, an Instructional Design Consultant and MERLOT Editor, joins this Members-Only session to introduce us to MERLOT and demonstrate its capabilities. In addition, we will  In addition, we will be joined by  Ray Purdom, (Director, University Teaching and Learning Center, UNCG, and Faculty Development Editor, MERLOT) to address the broader question of why MERLOT and resources like it aren’t more widely utilized. What are the conditions that faculty and staff face that impede them from using these resources? What can be done to change those conditions? 

I hope you can join this session tomorrow if you are a member of the TLT Group (and you are eligible for free membership if your institution is an annual subscriber to the TLT Group).

Steve Gilbert

President, TLT Group

Students Prefer Anonymous Passivity to Engagement?

Teaching for Engagement - Still Worth Trying!

Rate lectures higher than active/cooperative learning in big gen ed courses?
What kind of evidence can be used to resolve an alleged conflict between perceived values and actual values?  What are "actual values"?
We must ask these important meta-question when an analysis of any study suggests that "students’ perceptions of the value of the activities... may be quite different from the actual value of the activity..."  
Following are more excerpts from  "What Do Students Think about Active Learning?"

Airing Assessment Attitudes - How Study Own Teaching

See ProfHacker tlt.gs/6kb4 & FridayLive! tlt.gs/AAA2010 

I appreciate the clarity and directness of Utell's good suggestions and the candid description of the goals on which they're based in "How to Study Your Own Teaching (And Why You Might Want To)" July 21, 2011, 8:00 am, in "Prof. Hacker" guest post by Janine Utell, Widener U, Twitter: @janineutell http://tlt.gs/6kb4
Sadly, those are not common characteristics of campus discussions of assessment.
How, if at all, might this kind of " small qualitative study of your teaching, perhaps for presentation or publication but mainly just to see if it works, when you have limited, time, resources, and not very much experience" fit into institutional assessment activities? For many years I've been waiting for open, constructive, mutually respectful discussions about assessment. Instead, when someone announces an assessment initiative, I still usually hear these hostile mutterings :
"What's the least I can do to get them off my back so I can keep doing what really works?"

a. Faculty mutter something like "what's the least I can do to get them [administrators] off my back so I can keep doing what really works in my courses?"
b. Administrators mutter something like "how can I get the data we need to get them [accreditors, legislators, media, board, ...] off my back so I can keep doing what really works and make tough decisions about staffing and programs?"

For the beginnings of a constructive exploration, see Airing Assessment Attitudes - Safely, Usefully - Homebase Web page for onine session.

Image
Photo of "Woman Hanging Laundry - Alfuraba Fishing Village - Porto, Portugal" near seaside, by Adam Jones, Some rights reserved by Adam Jones, Ph.D.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/4642943312_11e54ee296.jpg

Teaching Online Synch Classes - 19 Recommendations

SYNCHRONOUS Classroom Activities - Online?

Gilbert's recommendation:  Collaborate with at least one co-leader

Kim's 10 recommendations (Headers Only):
1. Web Classes Go Fast
2. Tech Problems Happen
3. Pay Attention to Timing
4. Post an Agenda
5. Take Turns
6. Stress Community and Logistics Rather Than Content
7. Be Inclusive
8. Less Is More
9. Maintain a Firm Hand
10. Continuously Learn

Garay's 8 additional recommendations (Headers Only):

1. Instructors and presenters should use two computers
2. ...have a moderator (TA or volunteering student) available to handle/filter comments and questions 
3. Record the online sessions for on-demand playback 
4. Have a teleconference and well-known telephone# ready to go 
5. Do plan ahead and build a detailed agenda 
6. Keep things interactive by pausing regularly 
7. Set up an ongoing Web conference session 
8. Schedule a practice Web conference session

Full text available from “10 Guidelines for Running Synchronous Web Teaching Sessions,” By Joshua Kim, July 19, 2011 9:15 pm EDT, Inside Higher Ed Blog + 8 more recommendations from COMMENT  “Think Async” from  Ed Garay at University of Illinois at Chicago on July 20, 2011 at 9:45am EDT  

MY OWN COMMENTS ABOUT KIM'S POSTING & GARAY'S COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS BELOW FOR EASE OF IDENTIFICATION, NOT FOR “SHOUTING.”


GOOD SUGGESTIONS, GUIDELINES in general, especially when adding Garay's additional recommendations.
MY PRIMARY OBJECTIONS & CAVEATS:  Many of Kim’s recommendations seem to be based on admirable but much too narrow assumptions about the purposes and limitations of online synchronous sessions.  Some of Garay’s useful recommendations require resources unavailable to many college/university faculty members.  Neither mentions the value of collaboration when planning and running such sessions.  My strongest additional advice:  
COLLABORATE
It is almost always more effective and enjoyable to run online synchronous sessions with at least one co-leader.  For most faculty that would be a luxury and counter to local customs about teaching undergraduate courses. However as pressure grows to find ways to offer courses more “cost-effectively” - i.e., with higher student-faculty ratio - it is worth exploring carefully how online synchronous sessions with more than 50 students can be run effectively by two or three co-teachers.

Multiple Library Catalog search via Google Books

"...find books in libraries around the world ... from library catalogs... If your search query suggests you’re looking for a particular book – for example, if you enter the title of a book – you’ll see search results from books we’ve [Google] digitized, plus, at the bottom of the search results page, relevant library catalog results to help you find books in [geographically] nearby libraries. ...library catalogs contain only metadata – basic information like author, title and subject – so results from catalogs are not based on the full text of books."
- Excerpts from What is Library Catalog search? - Books Help

"Looking at Today to Get a Little Taste [of] Tomorrow" "Ubiquitous Technology"

Ubiquitous Technology - Not Rocket Science?

"There will be a paperless office when there's a paperless outhouse"^[30]    

"Ubiquitous technology surpasses the older concept of ubiquitous computing, transending beyond human-computer interaction to human-technology interaction...such as hand-held devices."

iPad in Academia, "Look Ma, no hands!..." June 10, 2011 Webcast

Description (Schedule/Plan, Resource Links Below)

Lisa Star will talk about her knowledge and experience with the iPad in online courses.  Lisa has a wealth of experience both teaching online and training teachers to teach online. She has also taken many online courses herself. In those various settings, she has employed the iPad.  In addition, Lisa has an added layer of engagement with the iPad; on account of recent physiological conditions, she can no longer use a keyboard and has had to implement voice recognition technologies as alternatives to keyboards. The iPad has been especially useful on this frontier. We look forward to hearing more about her practical experience with this new technology.

Home Base (Google Doc) Web Page

---

Resources & Links

Educational Rights & Costs: "Debate will continue!" Like health care & fed. budgets?

 #vwwt2000 PREDICTION #20 of 20 from year 2000  

Educational Rights and Educational Costs
Debate will continue on how much education, of what kind, for whom. As with health care, the notions of a citizen’s educational rights and the locus of decision making about them will be difficult to resolve. Human society will recognize that the costs of the most effective kinds of education (like the costs of much of the most effective kinds of health care) will continue to rise faster than the costs of food, clothing, and housing. Quality of life will depend on access to better quality education and health care for all. [Will enough world resources be generated and allocated to provide everyone with adequate food, health care, shelter, clothing, and education? How will “adequate” be defined?]

[UPDATE  Sure, the "debate continues".  But what a couple of understatements I made in 2000!  

• "citizen’s educational rights and the locus of decision making about them will be difficult to resolve"

• "the costs of the most effective kinds of education (like the costs of much of the most effective kinds of health care) will continue to rise faster than the costs of food, clothing, and housing."

2011 COLLISION:  REAL IMPROVEMENTS, REAL COSTS, UNREAL EXPECTATIONS   Today July 13, 2011! the  United States government cannot resolve its own budgetary crisis or agree on how this extraordinarily wealthy country can escape or end the worldwide economic recession.  In part, we cannot face the facts of rising real costs associated with making unprecedented real improvements in health care and in higher education because we cannot disentangle the real and desirable cost increases from those caused by growing administrative complexity and rising/widening unrealistic expectations.  See Necessity is the Mother of Self-Deception.]

- 20th of 20 predictions from "A New Vision Worth Working Toward: Connected Education and Collaborative Change," Steven W. Gilbert, 2000-2006, First version published via AAHESGIT listserv January, 2000; PDF of full article

Unequal Access to Info Tech Painfully Persists - Equity, Disabilities, Information Literacy

Bridging Digital Divide

#vwwt2000 PREDICTION #19 OF 20 from year 2000

Access, Disabilities, and Information Literacy
Access to computers, related information resources, and “information literacy” will become higher societal priorities. More educational institutions will recognize and respond to the need to provide such equitable access for all --- regardless of wealth or disabilities. Many colleges and universities will develop programs for defining and regularly revising access and information literacy goals; and for helping students, faculty, administration, and staff to achieve them. Eventually, colleges and universities may only need to offer guidelines about the expected information literacy competencies of entering students, and to provide some modest remedial services for the few who require them.

[UPDATE  Not even close!   Still waiting!  
The "Digital Divide" and "Information Literacy" are still painfully important challenges in 2011, even as they elude precise definitions.  In 2000, I didn't do any better than anyone else anticipating the changing roles of the Internet, cell phones, and new mobile devices - especially the iPhone and iPod and their emerging competitors.  Nor did we foresee the possibilities of "social networking media" such as Facebook and Twitter and information gateways such as Google and Wikipedia.  


Unequal access persists as a painfully familiar increasingly important challenge.  
But in 2011 the most important UNANTICIPATED challenge is the overabundance of online information and tools available to those who DO have adequate access and the ability to evaluate and manage these resources.]

- 19th of 20 predictions from "A New Vision Worth Working Toward: Connected Education and Collaborative Change," Steven W. Gilbert, 2000-2006, First version published via AAHESGIT listserv January, 2000; PDF of full article

Information Literacy - Incomplete but Good Progress - National Awareness Month Began Oct 2009 - 20th Anniversary of NFIL

"We can do it!" Rosie the Riveter poster

"National Forum on Information Literacy was founded in 1989 by ACRL Past President Patricia Breivik. In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the National Forum on Information Literacy, President Obama issued a proclamation declaring October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month. The proclamation states:

This month, we dedicate ourselves to increasing information literacy awareness so that all citizens understand its vital importance. An informed and educated citizenry is essential to the functioning of our modern democratic society, and I encourage educational and community institutions across the country to help Americans find and evaluate the information they seek, in all its forms.

- Above from National Information Literacy Awareness Month [ALA/ACRL]

"Information literacy, and all its associated critical thinking, communication, and technology competencies, is now widely recognized as a critical component of: 

• A democratic society

• A knowledge economy

• A 21st century workforce 

• Globalization 

• Lifelong learning 

"Instant information gratification combined with the glut of raw, unfiltered, non authoritative, biased, and questionable information readily available and mixed in with quality information, forces the information consumer to make intelligent choices. The vision and pioneering efforts of Patricia Senn Breivik moved the conversation about information literacy out of the realm of libraries and higher education and placed it firmly on the agendas of business and civic leaders. The National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL) has been the vehicle for that public conversation, in the United States, and more recently, around the world. Congratulations and thank you to both NFIL and to Dr. Breivik for their leadership and dedication to, as it is called in the Alexandria Proclamation, “this basic human right.” 

- Above from Patricia Iannuzzi, Dean of Libraries, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, in NFIL Testimonials - Presentation Transcript  in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the NFIL.

See also:

• President Barack Obama's Proclamation designating October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month  
• Wikipedia article about Information Literacy

Internet access spectrum: “People [A] never online [B] have dial-up or sporadic access [C] use broadband at home or work."

Internet Access?

 "Internet access is best understood as a spectrum, ranging from people who have never been online, to those who have dial-up or sporadic access, to those who have broadband at home and at work." 
Susannah Fox, "Americans living with disability and their technology profile," Digital Divide | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project: , Report Release Date Jan 21, 2011, accessed July 12, 2011 

"New digital divide [phone/email/broadband Internet usage]...but laptop ownership...about even for [whites/minorities]” 2010 Pew

Shallow wading... deeper reflective learning, teaching

What about access for EDUCATIONAL USES of "smart" mobile devices? iPads and its emerging competitors?  Does Internet access via small mobile devices encourage brief, shallow encounters? Induce habits contrary to effective learning and deeper understanding?  How can we use small mobile devices to engage deeply with online information? 

"Fifty-one percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of African Americans use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33 percent of whites, according to a July 2010 Pew poll. Forty-seven percent of Latinos and 41 percent of African Americans use their phones for e-mail, compared with 30 percent of whites. The figures for using social media like Facebook via phone were 36 percent for Latinos, 33 percent for African Americans and 19 percent for whites.
"A greater percentage of whites than African Americans and Latinos still have broadband access at home, but laptop ownership is now about even for all these groups, after African American laptop ownership jumped from 34 percent in 2009 to 51 percent in 2010, according to Pew."
"New digital divide seen for minorities on Internet" by Jesse Washington, Associated Press, Sunday, February 13, 2011