Search DU CTLAT Blog

Thursday, July 5, 2012

eSchool News: ‘Share My Lesson,’ a free online portal for teachers, will debut this summer with more than 100,000 user-generated lessons


http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/07/05/share-my-lesson-a-free-online-portal-for-teachers-will-debut-this-summer-with-more-than-100000-user-generated-lessons/
 
Discussing education reform at Stanford University last year, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, asked of the audience: “You’re all technology people. Could you actually help us?” Weingarten said she received one call—from Louise Rogers, chief executive of TSL Education, a United Kingdom-based company that operates an online network that lets teachers around the globe access, review, and discuss lesson plans and other learning materials. The result of that call is Share My Lesson, an online portal that teachers will be able to access free of charge. It is expected to contain more than 100,000 user-generated materials when it launches in August. “We’ve been trying to find a way to have teachers be able to access information quickly, actively, and share with each other,” Weingarten said. “It felt to me almost too good to be true, that some private entity had created a platform for teachers to be able to share.” Share My Lesson is expected to be the largest online resource for teachers in the U.S., and it comes at a time when cuts to education budgets have led many districts to slash professional development. AFT and TSL have pledged $10 million to develop and maintain the site.


Share/Bookmark

EDUCAUSE 2012 Annual Conference


EDUCAUSE
 2012 - November 6-9 - Denver, Colorado, and Online

The EDUCAUSE 2012 Program Is Now Available

The EDUCAUSE 2012 face-to-face and online conference programs are now available.
This year's conference unites the best thinking in higher education IT in Denver and concurrently online November 6–9. Both programs include a diverse collection of sessions spanning numerous domains and themes.
Customize your conference experience by using the topic themes to search the program for educational opportunities that best align with your interests and learning needs.

Check out this year's program on the redesigned EDUCAUSE Annual Conference website.

Three Reasons to...

Attend in Denver
Attend Online
  • Exhibit hall additions: In addition to the 250+ exhibitors, explore the learning theaters and information alleys (including technology start-ups, Next Generation Learning Challenges initiative, and market research).
  • Digital Poster Gallery: Share experiences through brief, interactive presentations focused on emerging research and campus initiatives (also available to online audiences).
  • More networking opportunities and webcasts: The restructured program allows for more opportunities to network, increased access to webcasted sessions after the event, and clear ways to recharge between sessions.
  • Largest online program: The online program sessions offer the breadth and depth of information you expect from face-to-face events, at your convenience. This year's program features 63 webcasts and more than 25 exclusive sessions for online participants.
  • Live and on-demand captioning: EDUCAUSE will provide captioning for all webcasts. Take advantage of access to transcripts and searchable content after the conference.
  • Convenient access to more content: Access a wealth of information, including more live and on-demand streamed sessions.

EDUCAUSE
For questions, contact EDUCAUSE at info@educause.edu or 282 Century Place, Suite 5000, Louisville, CO 80027.

Share/Bookmark

LinkedIn: Top 10 issues for Project Managers

             Started by Andres Gonzalez, Head of Marketing at Ark Group Australia     

Before you drop down to the list, we are going to plug two events that are coming up that might be useful to you. Both workshops are set up by internationally recognised experts in IT procurement and programme management.

Programme Management in a Business Context
http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/Events-E035Progmgt.htm
One-day workshop
Facilitated by: Michel Thiry, Managing Director, Valense

Negotiating Major IT Contracts
http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/Events-E034NegotiatingIT.htm
Understanding and leveraging your legal and commercial bargaining strengths
One-day workshop (includes complimentary report)
Facilitated by: Julian Gyngell, MLB, LLB, Dip IPL Solicitor and attorney with more than 25 years of experience in IT contract negotiation, and formerly a Partner in top-tier law firms in London, Hong Kong and Sydney


TOP 10 ISSUES FOR PROJECT MANAGERS
For those of you who are sitting in the office thinking "no one has it harder than me in this company" then this story might make you feel a little better. Every role has a set of challenges and today we are pulling together a few that project managers face from day to day:
1. The administrative tasks associated with running several projects

2. “Sharing of resources. Not only do you have to track and allocate your own resources time you have to monitor someone else’s project timelines to keep the productivity level at par. Then the game of let’s make a deal starts—I can lend you developer X for Monday and Wed, if you let me have developer Y for two days to finish a GUI interface..oh and I will throw in a lunch.

3. Handling vendor related tasks, such as dealing with contracts, negotiation rates and policies, and SLAs. Especially dealing with union shops, as they have different rates for jobs at certain times.. All play a key part in your project success when you are trying to stay under budget and on time.

4. Dependencies and having to rely on other people for success.

5. Lots of negative feedback & ‘waffling’ from various team members, as they don’t consider you to be on a ‘management’ level even though you’re responsible for and tracking their work.

6. Difficulties setting correct scheduling/resource expectations with the customer, when they don’t fully understand dependencies on different projects (they want everything done ASAP). And, in turn, when you can’t deliver on their requests, you’re viewed as the bad guy.

7. Virtual/Multinational teams present added challenges…not taught in your typical college class or PM boot camp:

8. While budgets are part of the triple constraint, major aspect of project management, it is somewhat rare for the PM to actually own the budget. Often you are given a number before you get out of concept phase or monies are shifted at the exec level without input from the PM. Often, actual budget control turns into simply tracking & reporting.

9. With all the talk of managing projects via Twitter, web-based tools, and more collaborative/social mediums there is still a lack of wide-spread adoption of PM/PPM management tools at many organizations. Many projects still cobble together some Excel spreadsheets, static MS Project file, and MS Viso schemas into a PowerPoint presentations. Version control, standardization, collaboration, real-time updates, etc are all so close yet so far away!

10. Project Managers can be typecast pretty quickly, so pick your industry well or jump into a few industries early on.

View the full story at IT Toolbox:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/kellys-contemplation/top-10-issues-for-project-managers-45150

Share/Bookmark