Search DU CTLAT Blog

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Wikia GOOGLE Wiki



This wiki is a site for Google fans to share the latest news about Google and tips for using Google products.


Please join us and write a new article by entering the title in the box below. Or help us by expanding a short article.




Share/Bookmark

“How learning is changing to a more social dynamic”

WebAnywhere recently published an interesting white paper on the changing landscape of online learning/elearning and how it’s being impacted by the innovations large and small providing new ways to connect and learn online. From Google+ to Facebook for learning to Moodle and other free services the landscape is changing more towards social-oriented platforms and systems.



As we move into a new era of eLearning or Blended Learning we find ourselves in a completely new paradigm. Organizations now not only look to partner with custom content development houses, build content in house or simply buy the ‘off- the shelf’ type content, they also are looking at completely new modes of delivery of this content.


The market has further been distorted by open source platforms such as Moodle which have given companies the power to test eLearning before they make financial commitment. We have also seen other tools such as Screenr, Google apps, Youtube and DIM DIM (virtual classroom) all being used as free tools to deliver learning.


Share/Bookmark

Doc of the Day: Moodle Glossary of Terms



from Moodle News by Joseph Thibault



Ever been at Moodle.org and noticed the autolinking of terms and words throughout discussion forums? Those are driven by the Glossary autolink filter which pulls all of the common terms and concepts from this global glossary activity at Moodle.org: http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=851


There are around 100 entries in total, from AFAIK (as far as I know) to XML (eXtensible Markup Language). You can even download the full glossary XML file to use on your own site (in a glossary) from the Glossary landing page: http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=851




Share/Bookmark

Free Technology for Teachers: Three Helpful Tools to Add to Your Classroom Blog



Friday, August 19, 2011

The start of the new school year is when I get lots of requests for helping people set up new blogs for their classrooms. Beyond the normal elements of built into your chosen blog platform, there are three things that I almost always recommend that teachers add to make their blogs a true online hub for communication.


#1. Google Calendar. By creating a public calendar and embedding it into your blog you can share all kinds of helpful information that will stay in a visible location on your blog at all times. I will often include in my calendar an outline of upcoming lesson plans, assignment due dates, and school events.


#2. A DropItToMe link. DropItToMe is a service that integrates with Dropbox.com to allow students to upload files to my Dropbox account without seeing the contents of my account. It prevents an email inbox flood when students are submitting work they did outside of Google Docs. Click here to learn more about DropItToMe.


#3. A link to call or text me via Google Voice. I have my Google Voice account set up that when someone calls it goes directly to voicemail. It's a great way to quickly have parents and students contact you.







Share/Bookmark

Southern Arkansas University: Online Learning Professional Development Library



The new Teaching Online: Professional Development Library, intended to serve as a growing resource, addresses online challenges and provides extended learning opportunities for online instructors with varying schedules. The recorded sessions, presented in DVD format, are now available for faculty checkout at the Circulation Desk of Magale Library.





Share/Bookmark

TES Connect Teaching Resources




TES teaching resources provides brilliant ideas for brilliant lessons. Discover over 87,000 free tried and tested classroom resources and lesson plans.





Share/Bookmark

First Year Experience in Higher Educationfrom Information Literacy Weblog


Aug 2, 2011

by Sheila Webber


A new issue of the open-access International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education has been published. This will be of interest to those readers concerned with transition to university and the experience of first year/ "freshman" students. Most of the articles don't directly touch on information literacy, but this one does describe a collaboration at Monash University (Australia) including librarians on a "getting started" [at essay writing] workshop:


Beckman, J. and Rayner, G. (2011) "Embedding academic-professional collaborations that build student confidence for essay writing: Student perceptions and quality." International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 2 (2), 83-90.


https://www.fyhe.com.au/journal/index.php/intjfyhe/issue/view/4/showToc


Photo by Sheila Webber: Summer, August 2011
Share/Bookmark

Dillard University CTLAT Director and Program Coordinators FY2011-2012





Director of CTLAT
Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, Ph.D. pdawkins@dillard.edu
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

 
Program Coordinators
Dr. Steve Buddington, sbuddington@dillard.edu
Dr. Eartha Johnson, ejohnson@dillard.edu

Share/Bookmark

Google Scribe in Blogger from Blogger Widgets ~ Blogger Tutorials by Blogger Plugins


Google Scribe is an Auto text completion tool which was launched in Google Labs an year ago. Google has recently added this feature to the Post Editor in its Draft version. Google Scribe helps you write more efficiently by auto completing words and phrases as you type. Google Scribe supports Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish and the language is automatically detected using the text in the post.



Share/Bookmark

The On Demand Learning Center Celebrates 1 Million Hits from Blackboard


Aug 18, 2011 by Beth Stinson


Entering into our second Back to School season, the On Demand Learning Center continues to provide popular video tutorials and quick start guides to support students and teachers working in Blackboard Learn. After our first full year of recording statistics, we logged over 1 million page views! If you haven’t yet visited On Demand, you’ll find lots of short how-to videos and getting started guides covering course design, tool use, and much more.


The On Demand Learning Center content is sorted into four main areas:
• Understanding and Building Your Course
• Communicating and Collaborating
• Assessing Learners
• For Students


Get the most out of the new school year using Blackboard Learn 9.1 SP6 by watching our newest movies:• . . Creating a Rubric
• Associating a Rubric with a Gradable Item
• Grading with Rubrics
• Setting the Needs Grading Status and Grading Interactive Tools
• Setting Test Options (including setting the test timer)


We are also delighted to share Using Web 2.0 Tools in Your Course to show you how easy it is to integrate free web 2.0 tools into your Blackboard course. This document, with content contributed by Dr. Torria Bond from California Baptist University, provides descriptions and ease of use ratings for 14 popular web 2.0 tools that can be embedded into Blackboard to stimulate communication and collaboration.


Developing new material for the On Demand Learning Center is ongoing. Let us know how we are doing or send us any suggestions for new content using our feedback form.

















Share/Bookmark

Social Media Examiner: 5 Tips for Driving Facebook Fans to Your Website


Share/Bookmark

Don’t Fear the Internet: BASIC HTML & CSS for NON-WEB DESIGNERS



by Jessica Hische & Russ Maschmeyer

Are you a print designer, photographer, fine-artist, or general creative person? Do you have a website that you slapped together yourself in Dreamweaver in that ONE web design class that you took in college? Do you not have a site at all because you’ve been waiting two years for your cousin to put it together for you? Well, we’re here to help. We know that you have little to no desire to do web design professionally, but that doesn’t mean that you want an ugly cookie-cutter site or to settle for one that hasn't been updated since Hackers was in theaters. Through short tutorial videos, you’ll learn how to take a basic wordpress blog and manipulate the css, html (and even some php!) to match your aesthetic. You’ll feel empowered rather than crippled by the internet and worst case scenario you’ll at least end up having a better idea of how professional web designers turn your design dreams into a reality on screen.
Share/Bookmark

Aspects of Nature - Open Eye Pictures E-News



UPCOMING WORKSHOP AT ESALEN



framing nature
Filmmaker and cinematographer Andy Abrahams Wilson is once again offering his unique workshop Framing Nature: Photography as Meditation and Mediation on September 11-16 at the renowned Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. An inward and outward journey, this workshop invites you to go deeply with the camera--into the world of nature and your own human nature. Connect through the lens of your camera with the abundance and nuance of the natural world--and soak in the exquisite hot springs perched on the ocean's cliffs!
www.openeyepictures.com/services_workshops


.....................................................................................................................


UNDER OUR SKIN: NOW AIRING ON PBS & NETFLIX


perilous nature
This Oscar semifinalist and critically acclaimed film continues to impact communities and open eyes to the devastation and seriousness of Lyme disease. With over 530 broadcasts on public television stations, UNDER OUR SKIN will reach more than 80% of the PBS market and millions of households, spreading awareness about a major medical and health care threat. As the TV broadcasts wind down, viewers can still watch the movie instantly on Netflix, where it has tallied over 100,000 ratings. Or get the new DVD, packed with over an hour of bonus footage, foreign language subtitles, and a 32-page discussion guide. And be sure to join our active Facebook community to network and connect.
www.underourskin.com


.....................................................................................................................


THE GROVE: COMING TO PBS IN DECEMBER


healing nature
This new Open Eye Pictures film tells the story of the little-known, almost hidden, National AIDS Memorial in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It asks questions about what it means to be a national memorial and how best to remember an epidemic that killed more Americans than all the U.S. wars in the 20th Century. THE GROVE has several upcoming festival screenings, including one this Saturday at the Sausalito Film Festival in the producers' hometown. In the works is a PBS broadcast beginning on World AIDS Day, December 1st. And stay tuned for more information about iMemorial, our groundbreaking mobile app using mapping and augmented reality to create and place virtual memorials for loved ones.
www.thegrovefilm.com


.....................................................................................................................


THREADS: A NEW FILM SPINS TOWARDS PRODUCTION


human nature?
Fifteen years after her mother's death, journalist Marisa Fox discovers a buried secret: her mother had been in a Nazi concentration camp as a young girl. There, she and other Jewish girls from German-speaking Silesia in Poland toiled as slaves, turning flax into threads for S.S. uniforms. Unlike the typical holocaust story, they all survived. A lost diary of the girls' days in the camp resurfaces in Australia, and Marisa finds there in the handwriting of a mother she never really knew clues about the cost of secrets--and the way they thread through generations. A story about sisterhood, survival and secrets, THREADS is now in production, but we need your support to finish the film. Please consider a tax-deductible contribution today. We're also looking for interns for the film. E-mail us if interested.
www.threadsmovie.com


Share/Bookmark

Free Program for Online Teaching Class: Pedagogy First! putting the "prof" back in professional development



Welcome!

This is Pedagogy First!, home of activity for the Program for Online Teaching's Certificate Class for 2011-12. If you wish to enroll in this free, open, educational experience, please contact Lisa M Lane. The Program for Online Teaching is an all-volunteer faculty organization that offers workshops through MiraCosta College's Professional Development Program.


To get started:
1. Check out the Syllabus, above.
2. Email Lisa at llane@miracosta.edu.
3. Get your textbook.
4. Set up your blog.
5. Add your blog feed in the box on the right.
6. Fill out Add Your Info, above.

Share/Bookmark

Campus Technology White Paper: The Five Critical Elements of a Collaboration Solution for Education


Online learning today increasingly involves live, virtual-classroom delivery, as well as opportunities for non-classroom collaboration. To support the synchronous interactions that are becoming more and more vital in the learning community, those charged with deploying real-time online learning and collaboration are able to choose from a wide array of technology options. All these options are not created equal, however.

This white paper lays out the elements that academic technologists and chief academic officers should take into consideration when assessing the different solutions available to them.




Share/Bookmark