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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Textual Scholarship: The Investigation of Texts


What is textual scholarship?

The primary goal of the discipline of textual scholarship (or textual criticism) is the investigation of texts. Textual scholars attempt to understand how texts have come to be as they are and, in order to achieve this, they examine the primary sources of a text. There are several different schools of thought within the discipline: some scholars are interested in what the author intended, some others see texts as collaborative products and there are also those who are interested in how a text is transmitted. In many cases, textual scholars produce editions of the texts they have studied.
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EdTechatouille: What makes for effective learning & teaching?


http://www.cmduke.com/2010/03/25/what-makes-for-effective-learning-teaching/

March 25th, 2010 by cmduke
I have a very definitive view of what constitutes effective learning and teaching
Effective learning and teaching experiences typically are:
Active: Learners may, by design, cognitively influence the learning process.
Collaborative: Learners are interdependent and reciprocally influence learning activities and outcomes.
Authentic: Learners exhibit knowledge or perform a skill in a naturally occurring environment as possible.

I believe those three components encompass a wide range of theory, strategies, and techniques described within the body of education literature. A focus on these three aspects is based on a long developing (7+ years, 2003) amalgam of research, conversations, conference presentations, classroom teaching, tweets, blog posts, work projects . . . This is the foundation of my philosophy of teaching and learning; it’s a personal “learning signature.”

I first encountered the notion of a “learning signature” when I started teaching adjunct for Lonestar College CyFair in the Fall 2006. LSC CyFair has a college adopted learning signature which influences strategic and day-to-day decisionmaking. As I’ve considered it, and as I discussed it in the recent #edchat conversations, I believe most institutions would benefit from having an established learning signature. That learning and teaching value statement could influence and guide professional development efforts, hiring processes and preferences, strategic planning, evaluation methods, curriculum re/development etc. Quite honestly, it’s somewhat baffling to consider how few institutions explicitly define their core values regarding effective learning and teaching.
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Making Your Mark: Faculty Training Seminars


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T is for Training -the blogosphere home of the library training podcast


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Friday, April 23, 2010

TLT Group TGIF 4.20.2010


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Campus Technology Resources and GOOGLE Free 1-Hour Webinar: Vanderbilt and Google: Innovating Communication in Education

 
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Time: 9 AM (PDT)/12 PM (EDT)

Vanderbilt University needed to replace their legacy open source student e-mail system with one which students could relate. This new system had to:
• Empower users to work and communicate collaboratively
• Deliver a better technical experience
• Provide a search solution that could handle large volumes of searches through its public website-nearly 300,000 per month
• Handle an inventory of 4 million documents


After carefully weighing alternatives and reviewing vendor ratings with third-party analysts, Vanderbilt selected Google Apps Education Edition, a free version of Google Apps optimized for on-campus use.
Within thirty days the new system was up and running, delivering an opt-in email solution for the university's undergraduate population that provided new e-mail and collaboration tools which students welcomed and quickly put to use.


Join us to hear how Vanderbilt:
• Migrated student e-mail to Google Apps for Education, providing e-mail and collaboration tools at no cost
• Implemented the Google Search Appliance (GSA) across the school's search experience


What they accomplished:
• Saved $750,000 on storage costs, not to mention additional server expenses
• Freed up IT resources to address legacy data issues and focus attention on more strategic, university-wide projects
• Dramatically improved user experience on the Vanderbilt website by adding advanced search functionality
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Distance Education Report Online Seminar: Growing Successful Online Programs at a Small School

Featured Higher Education Presenter: Carol Williams, Ph.D.
Date: Thursday, 6/3/10
Time: 12:00-1:30 PM Central Daylight Time
Cost: $199 ($224 after 5/27/10)


Three easy ways to register!
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-227-8182

Demand for online education is on the rise. Could your school take advantage of this growing income opportunity? Smaller institutions are usually overlooked in discussions of online educational programming. Typical seminars on distance learning focus on large institutions with existing continuing education structures on which to build an online program.


This seminar is different. It is aimed specifically at smaller schools that are developing an online program for the first time. Even small institutions can find big success with distance learning–especially when they know which steps to follow and understand how to maximize their available resources.
In Growing Successful Online Programs at a Small School, Dr. Carol Williams will explain how to establish thriving online education programs at institutions with fewer than 5,000 students.


This seminar will cover:
• Developing a revenue stream with online education
• Articulating a clear online mission
• Selecting a lead administrator
• Initiating effective marketing efforts
• Admissions
• Faculty buy-in and incentives
• Developing fair compensation plans
• Instructional design
• Appropriate administrative structures

• Providing online education support services
• The 5 key areas small colleges must consider before starting an online program
Participants will also identify the key questions and crucial online course development personnel for their own campuses.


Expert presenter
Carol Williams, Ph.D. has served as both dean of the graduate school and associate provost for distance education at Abilene Christian University. She managed the transition of selected graduate programs to online platforms and oversaw growth from 66 students to over 464 in just four years. She continues to supervise the ongoing expansion of distance programs at ACU as the new associate provost for online programs.


A price even a small campus will love!
An online education program will involve multiple departments at your school. Why not invite them all to attend this live audio online seminar? Our per-site registration policy allows an unlimited number of participants to attend this presentation from a single location for one registration fee of just $199. This is an affordable way to get the online education conversation started at your institution.


Questions welcome
Have questions about online education at your school? Bring them to this live session for the opportunity to receive an individualized response from our expert presenter. Your institution CAN join the exploding online education market. Find out how by enrolling in this strategy-packed seminar today.

Who should attend

If you’re involved in developing and implementing strategy at a small college, this seminar is for you! Specific job titles that should plan to attend include:
• Chief academic officers
• College deans
• Professional development leaders
• Department chairs
• Chief information technology officers
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Magna Online Courses: Courses Online - Step by Step! Learn the skills you need to take your courses online!

Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-227-8182
Affordably Priced: $299 for each participant (price discounts for additional registrants)

The top three problems faculty cite when it comes to teaching online:
I don’t have the time.
I’m not a techie.
I wouldn’t know where to start.


Solved, solved … and solved!
If you’re like most faculty, the thought of teaching online interests you. What doesn’t interest you is spending long nights figuring out how to get your classes online … or slogging through piles of headscratching technobabble. When it comes to the online classroom, being there sounds good … getting there doesn’t.


But the truth is, getting there is not that difficult. In fact, you’d be surprised how painless the process can be. Especially when you anchor your efforts with Online Courses: Step-by-Step, a program tailor-made for faculty seeking a simple and efficient way to get online.


You'll learn how to teach online ... one step at a time!
In three content-rich modules, Online Courses: Step-by-Step will help you feel at home in the online classroom. You’ll discover:
• How to develop a course that provides academic rigor and strong outcomes.
• Which assessment tools to use, and why.
• How to create a media-rich experience with text, voice, PowerPoint, social media and more.
• How to “reimagine” your regular course material for online use.
• What you can do with learning management systems, wikis, online research and shared document development tools.
• How to critique your online courses.


Each module focuses on a set of core principles that form the foundation of online success…

Module one:
• The history of the virtual classroom.
• Best practices in online teaching.
• Essential content delivery methods.
• Principles of class interaction and discussion.
• ADA issues online.
• And more.


Module two:
• Reconceptualizing your course(s).
• Basic development guidelines.
• Best uses for blogs, wikis and other social tools.
• How to integrate video and other media.


Module three:
• Class discussion.
• Assignments.
• Quizzes.
• Grading.
• Peer communication.
• Teacher-student communication.


Who will benefit from this course?

While this information is relevant to everyone who teaches online, it's most beneficial for:
• Instructors new to online instruction
• Faculty who need a refresher in online pedagogy
• Department chairs who supervise online faculty


John Orlando is the Instructional Resource Manager at the Norwich University School of Graduate Studies. He has delivered lectures on distance education administration and business continuity management for distance education at University Continuing Education Association conferences, at the University of Wisconsin Conference on Distance Education and Teaching, and through webcasts.
 
At one module per week, you’ll find the course fits comfortably into even the busiest schedule. It also fits into the tightest budget … the course fee, modest to begin with (just $299), drops even further for group registrations, starting at just two people. If there are others on campus who share your interest, you could save nearly $100 per person.



Now, thanks to Online Courses: Step-by-Step, there’s nothing to keep you from exploring the online classroom, making full use of educational technology, and adding an important accomplishment to your professional résumé.
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Campus Technology: Assessing Student Work in the Open Educational Resources Era

by Trent Batson04/21/10

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Inside Higher Education: Data May Show HBCUs at Best, Worst

April 23, 2010
WASHINGTON 
Historically black colleges and universities are expected to play a crucial role in improving the nation’s educational attainment levels by 2020, but they are likely to face some hard truths in the process. Speaking to a group of educators and policy analysts here Thursday, the man leading the White House initiative on HBCUs said he’s mining data that may show both what’s wrong and what’s right with these institutions. “We are not going to run from whatever news there is, good or bad,” said John Silvanus Wilson Jr., the initiative’s director.

Wilson, formerly an administrator at George Washington University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was among six panelists featured Thursday at an Education Sector discussion devoted to improving success for minority-serving institutions. While he did not discuss specifics about his office's data collection efforts, Wilson suggested a broad range of data on student success rates at HBCUs was needed to make better informed policy and funding decisions.


To fulfill President Obama’s goal of achieving the world’s highest graduation rate by 2020, there is no question the 105 HBCUs in the United States will have to play a significant role. But in a sea of data already available, Wilson and others say it’s still hard to answer basic questions about success rates, including the performance of first-generation college students, many of whom are members of minority groups.


The data that are available do not always put HBCUs in the most favorable light. The Associated Press analyzed the six-year graduation rates of 83 four-year HBCUs last year, finding that just 37 percent of black students attained degrees within six years. More striking than the low completion rate was the fact that the national college graduation rate for black students is actually 4 percentage points higher than that of HBCUs collectively, calling into question the long-held notion that HBCUs are better at graduating African Americans.


The Associated Press report was met with consternation from some HBCU presidents, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund argued that the federal data used to inform the report missed a crucial segment of transfer students who populate HBCUs.


Asked about graduation rates Thursday, Education Sector panelists suggested that funding levels could not be discounted as a significant drag on student success at HBCUs. “A lot of that [graduation] rate …. is grounded in money, lack of money,” Wilson said.


Some HBCU officials say they still encounter hundreds of academically eligible students each year who drop out of college because their financial need cannot be met with Pell Grants and other aid. The vast majority of HBCUs have small endowments, so there isn’t a pot of money to dip into when financial challenges arise.
“The capacity is not there. It’s an issue of dollars,” said Charles Smith, vice president for student affairs at South Carolina State University.


Smith and others are optimistic about a recent boost in Pell Grant awards, along with $2.55 billion allocated to HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions as part of a recently passed budget bill. Even so, challenges remain. Of the approximately $120 billion the federal government gives to higher education through aid and research dollars each years, HBCUs receive only about 4 percent, Wilson said. “That’s low,” he said.


Improving funding for HBCUs and other minority institutions, however, will require a change in tone and philosophy, Wilson said. Wilson, who holds degrees from Morehouse College and Harvard University, has been talking tough since Obama appointed him nearly a year ago, challenging HBCUs to prove their worth through hard data rather than just appealing to the better angels of those who control the purse strings.

“We’re not asking for this investment because we want you to do the right thing or we want you to have a good heart,” Wilson said.
— Jack Stripling
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The JOURNAL: Transforming Education through Technology




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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Campus Technology Free 1-Hour Webinar: IT Systems Management Report Card: Does Your School Make the Grade?

Join Campus Technology and Kaseya for this FREE 1-hour webinar.
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2010
Time: 11 AM (PDT), 2 PM (EDT)
The demands on college and university IT departments increase each year as resources and budgets decrease. Students, teachers and parents expect better IT service levels-and fully protected IT systems-from the IT department at the same time the IT team is required to deliver technology innovations and demonstrate higher productivity to their administrators and board members.


This FREE webinar will teach you:
• How to save time, hassle, money and resources by efficiently managing hundreds of systems through one interface
• How one smart IT director automated away his daily IT hassles and easily manages machines in multiple locations
• How college and university IT directors can manage IT systems tasks in a new way to earn a passing grade for their school


Speakers:
Scott Farmer, Ph.D., director of outreach information services, Virginia Tech University
Pete Coleman, VP public and private sector group, Kaseya
If you're too busy patching, fixing and updating your IT systems and don't have time to focus on new ideas, you will want to take time to join us for this potentially career-saving, FREE webinar to learn how you can more effectively and efficiently respond to your school's needs.


 Register and attend this web seminar and also receive a complimentary copy of Kaseya's eBook entitled, "A Guide to IT Automation: Managing K12 and Higher Ed IT Systems Effectively."


Campus Technology and Kaseya
Follow Campus Technology on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Campus_Tech  
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Academic Leader Online Seminar: The Keys to a Culture of Assessment: Value and Respect

Featured Higher Education Presenter: Linda Suskie
Date: Wednesday, 5/19/10
Time: 12:00 AM - 11:59 PM CDT
You can log on to the seminar anytime, all day long, on Wednesday, May 19.
Program Length: 90 minutes
Cost: $189 ($214 after 5/12/10)
Three easy ways to register!
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-227-8182

Learning assessments are the brussels sprouts of academia: While it’s generally acknowledged that they’re good for you, they’re almost universally despised.

Faculty object to assessments for any number of reasons. They’re intrusive; they’re tedious; they attempt to quantify the unquantifiable. You know the litany.
But you also know how important assessments are–not only for improving learning outcomes, but for providing the metrics your institution needs to maintain accountability, ensure accreditation and secure funding.
So … how do you bridge the gap between faculty attitudes and institutional imperatives? How do you encourage people to see assessments not as painful obligations but as important opportunities?
You can gain valuable insight–and answers to those questions–with this seminar program.

The Keys to a Culture of Assessment: Value and Respect will show you how to change the mindset on your campus, and encourage faculty to embrace the assessment process. Led by Linda Suskie, Vice President at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and a 30-year veteran of college and university administration, this 90-minute audio presentation provides a roadmap to success.



You’ll learn how to:
• Make a convincing case for assessment’s importance and value.
• Gauge the level of resistance to assessment among faculty.
• Respect the history and values of your institution in the process.
• Maintain an emphasis on faculty empowerment and respect for their teaching styles.
• Win program support by building flexibility into expectations and approaches.
• Create assessments that encourage innovation and risk-taking.
• Simplify the assessment process and ease the administrative burden.
• Provide infrastructure and resources to support professional development.
• Build a strong assessment team.
• Develop meaningful incentives for improving disappointing assessment results.
• And more.
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Campus Technology: Classroom System Adds Assessment Data Management

Classroom System Adds Assessment Data Management
By Scott Aronowitz04/20/10

ClassLink will now offer NOCTI assessment data for its ClassMate classroom management solution. The agreement will allow users to import scores from NOCTI assessments in order to improve analysis and reporting on students' individual progress and instructional needs in a range of subjects and specific goal areas.

Designed especially for vocational and technical education, ClassMate offers several standard classroom management features specially tailored for such curricula, including performance and mapping data and analysis. The company said it expects the inclusion of NOCTI assessment data to pinpoint more accurately the progress and needs of students engaged in technical instruction and pursuing certification in specific career disciplines.


NOCTI (http://www.nocti.org/), the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute, is a nonprofit corporation offering a range of assessments and related products specifically geared to determining student skills and competency, acquired through career and technical instruction, as they directly relate to real-world job readiness. A spokesperson for NOCTI noted that the joining of its data with a sector-specific system like ClassMate is a natural fit.


Robert Lees, administrative director of Berks Career & Technology Center in Leesport, PA, expressed enthusiasm for the new component of ClassMate. "Now our teachers will have instant access to both pre-test and post-test scores on their students. This will enhance their ability to analyze both written and performance components of the NOCTI assessment. They can determine where learning gaps exist and which areas of instruction will need to be reinforced. Having this type of data will direct curriculum renewal and help our teachers improve instruction."


About the Author
Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years.
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Infotopia Information Portals for Academic Educators


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Science Daily: Your Source for the Latest Research News!

ScienceDaily is one of the Internet’s most popular science news web sites. Since starting in 1995, the award-winning site has earned the loyalty of students, researchers, healthcare professionals, government agencies, educators and the general public around the world. Now with more than 3 million monthly visitors, ScienceDaily generates nearly 15 million page views a month and is steadily growing in its global audience.

No other web site offers readers the depth and breadth of breaking news about the latest scientific discoveries that ScienceDaily does in such a user-friendly format – all freely accessible with no subscription fees. With over 65,000 research articles, 15,000 images, 2,500 encyclopedia entries, 1,500 book reviews, and hundreds of educational videos, there is something for everyone on ScienceDaily.



Updated several times a day with breaking news and feature articles, seven days a week, the site covers discoveries in all fields of the physical, biological, earth and applied sciences. Stories are integrated with photographs and illustrations, links to journals and academic studies, related research and topics, encyclopedia articles, and videos, to provide a wealth of relevant information on almost every science topic imaginable – from astrophysics to zoology. And thanks to a custom search function, readers can do their own research using the site’s extensive archive of stories, topics, articles, videos, images and books.


ScienceDaily is best known for showcasing the top science news stories from the world’s leading universities and research organizations. These stories are selected from among dozens of press releases and other materials submitted to ScienceDaily every day, and then edited to ensure high quality and relevance. Universities have come to rely on ScienceDaily to spread news about their scientists’ findings to a wider audience. And through ScienceDaily’s email newsletters and RSS newsfeeds (offered freely to both commercial and non-commercial web sites as well as individuals), news about these important discoveries is further amplified.


Over the past 14 years, ScienceDaily has been linked to by thousands of schools and universities, professional associations and research organizations, reference sources and other information authorities, newspapers, magazines and other news services, and increasingly bloggers and social networking and bookmarking sites such as Digg, Facebook, MySpace, and Technorati. ScienceDaily enjoys high rankings with popular web search engines such as Google and Yahoo for hundreds of scientifically important keywords, including the word “science” for which the site comes up in typically the top three search results.


Top companies looking to advertise on the web have also come to recognize ScienceDaily – not only for the quality of its content, but for its well-educated audience as well. Premium branding ads for leading consumer, health, and technology companies are regularly placed on ScienceDaily, served by major ad networks. Media metrics firms now rank ScienceDaily among the Internet’s top 500 to 1,000 web sites.


For more information, please contact us at:
ScienceDaily
1 Research Court
Suite 450
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel/Fax: (240) 454-9600 (240) 454-9600
Dan Hogan, Editor
editor@sciencedaily.com
Michele Hogan, Sales Manager
sales@sciencedaily.com


We hope you enjoy ScienceDaily and make it one of your regularly visited web sites. We welcome all questions and comments.
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Academic Index: A True Meta-Search Tool!

The Academic Index was created and is maintained by Dr. Michael Bell , former chair, Texas Association of School Librarians. The Academic Index is a true meta-search tool that includes results from mega-information databases that index only research-quality reference and information sources selected by professional librarians, educators, and educational and library consortia.

At the present time the Academic Index provides access to over 300,000 quality information web pages.
Some included sites are :
  • Virtual Learning Resources Center http://www.virtuallrc.com/ - 100,000+ pages recommended by professional librarians and teachers.
  • Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/  -Intute is created by a network of UK universities and partners. Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites in our database and write high quality descriptions of the resources. The database contains 123,700 records.
  • Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) http://www.thegateway.org/  - Sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Education, GEM is a Consortium effort to provide educators with quick and easy access to (currently) 39,723 educational resources found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.
  • MagBot http://www.virtuallrc.com/magbot/  - a carefully selected database of freely accessible online periodical articles corresponding to important topics of interest to high school and community college students and teachers.
  • Internet Scout Project http://scout.wisc.edu/Archives/index.php -Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, an eclectic staff of academics and professionals have selected 16,969 research-quality Internet information sites.
  • MeL Internet http://www.mel.org/ -A division of the Michigan E-Library, MeL Internet makes available 20,000+ librarian recommended Internet sites.
As a meta-search engine, the Academic Index integrates into its search results only the first 1-2 pages returned from each site it searches. Because most sites rank search results as to relevance, this ensures that only the best (most relevant) information is returned to users.
I hope you enjoy using Academic Index.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael Bell

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GOOGLE Custom Search BETA Website

With Google Custom Search, you can harness the power of Google to create a customized search experience for your own website.
  • Include one or more websites, or specific webpages
  • Host the search box and results on your own website
  • Customize the look and feel of the results to match your site
Custom Search for your website or blog

•Provide fast and relevant search results
•Make money with AdSense for Search
•Invite your friends and community to contribute
•Automatically search across links, bookmarks or blogrolls with Custom Search on the fly
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Innovative Educators Webinar: Leveraging Internet Technology to Facilitate Student Success

Webinar Description

This presentation will highlight the collaborative efforts of faculty members, student services staff, computer programmers/web developers, and administrators in the development, implementation of an Online Student Profile system which serves as an integral part of a college-wide effort to improve the retention and success of at-risk students (defined as those placing into one or more developmental reading or English courses). This project, funded in large part through a Dept. of Education Title III Improving Institutions grant, resulted in significant increases in student success and retention for this student population.
This internally-produced Online Student Profile system incorporates self-scoring personality and learning style assessment features and a wide variety of student information features in a package used by student services staff and faculty members to provide more individualized service and instruction to students through ease of access to expanded information about individual students and, for instructors, about the learning/cognitive preferences of entire class sections.


Objectives

Participants will learn how to :
• develop and implement an Online Student Profile system that includes a variety of student information features
• teach student services staff how to utilize the system to provide more individualized service
• teach faculty how to utilize the system to learn more about the learning/cognitive preferences of entire class sections and ultimately improve instruction
• incorporate the system into a college-wide effort to improve the retention and success of at-risk students

Who Should Attend?

• Faculty
• Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs
• Vice Presidents of Student Affairs
• VP for Enrollment Management
• Dean/Director of Admissions

• Deans of Academic and Student Affairs
• Student Success Staff
• Retention Specialists
• Student Development Retention Coordinators
• Academic Advisors
• Directors of Enrollment Services
• Directors of Student Development Services



Who is the Speaker?

Clint McElroy, Ph.D., is Dean for Retention Services at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, NC. He earned his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Urban Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He chairs CPCC's Retention Committee, a cross-functional group which focuses on improving student retention, and also its cross-functional Student Intake Steering Committee, which focuses on improving student intake processes. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Activity Director for a federal Title III Improving Institutions grant project focusing on improving retention of students entering the College who placed into two or more developmental courses. The success of the CPCC Title III activity in positively influencing student retention has resulted in teams from several colleges from across the United States visiting CPCC to learn about the implementation of the project and how it might be duplicated on their own campuses. The organization of the CPCC Title III activity was highly cross-functional, requiring substantial interaction among the College's Instructional, Student Services, and Information Technology Services units.
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Campus Technology: The Future of Lecture Capture is in the Cloud

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
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*Call for Chapters Call for Reviewers Transformation in Teaching: Social Media Strategies in Higher Education

*Call for Chapters Call for Reviewers Transformation in Teaching:
Social Media Strategies in Higher Education

Proposals for chapters are being solicited for a new refereed book entitled Transformation in Teaching: Social Media Strategies in Higher Education. Please fill out your proposal at: http://www2.oakland.edu/elis/book_proposals.cfm

*Proposals are due July 30, 2010. Contact Editors:* Catheryn Cheal, cheal@oakland.edu  , John Coughlin, jcoughli@oakland.edu  , Shaun Moore, samoore@oakland.edu  

*Call for Reviewers:* For those interested in only reviewing chapters, please sign in and create an account at: http://transform.informingscience.net


All authors will eventually be asked to review as well.
" Go to: Reviewers Sign up. The keycode is required, so type in the box: * key*
" Click Enter and fill out the form.
" Write down the username and password you create, because you won't be using it for several months. We recommend making your password the same as your username.
" Write a paragraph biography in the Comments to Chair.
You will be credited as a reviewer in the final book.

*Publisher*: This book will be published by Informing Science Institute, a non-profit publisher located in Santa Rosa, California.
As a leader in non-profit publishing, all Informing Science Press publications are made available online free of charge as well as available in print. To learn more about the Informing Science Institute, visit http://informingscience.org  

*Description:* Social media is web content that is user-generated through social interaction. Social constructivism is an educational theory that focuses on active learning by students who construct and build upon their own knowledge-base through social interaction. The intersection of educational theory with online networking practices has invigorated teaching and learning in higher education. This book will describe specific examples and case studies of adapting social media systems for educational purposes in colleges and universities.

*Proposal Format:* You are invited to submit an abstract proposal (50 words or less) for a short book chapter on teaching in higher education with social media. The proposal for chapters on case studies should describe what specific social media you use in teaching and the type of course. If you are proposing an overview chapter on social media about the history, theory, etc. give the specifics of what you plan on covering. Please also submit a three to four page discussion and outline of your chapter (750 - 1000 words), including planned section headings. Also include a paragraph biography of all authors.

" Abstract Proposal (50 words or less)
" Discussion and outline of chapter (750 - 1000 words)
" Authors biography (paragraph)

*Possible Topics:* Chapters should describe and evaluate teaching that uses specific social media strategies and enhances learning outcomes for a college or university course. Case studies or quantitative/qualitative studies of teaching in higher education with networking software, the successful abstract proposal should give an explanation and summary of the proposed subject, including the course taught, the teaching and learning activity, and the resulting student perceptions and measured student outcomes. Examples of specific software technologies listed below are in parentheses, but there are many other possibilities as well.

Social networking and discussion sites (Facebook, MySpace, or Ning) Collaboration through wikis (Wikipedia, GoogleWave), social bookmarking and tagging (Delicious, Diigo), or social news sites
(Digg) Multimedia sharing of video (YouTube) or images (Flickr) Music sharing (Share the Music)Presentation sharing (SlideShare, Prezi) Live chat (IRC), or video conferencing sessions (Skype)
Virtual worlds (Second Life) GPS software in phones Blogging (Wordpress, Edublogs) Microblogging (Twitter) Blogging Activities in open source Learning Management Systems (Moodle) Overviews (such as history, theory and philosophy, research methods, future trends and/or purposes of social media or a particular category of social media): For further information contact me at cheal@oakland.edu  

Catheryn Cheal, Ph.D. Assistant Vice President
e-Learning and Instructional Support Suite 430 Kresge
Library Oakland University cheal@oakland.edu
248-370-4566
fax: 248-370-3628

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Digital Librarian: a Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web

Digital Librarian: a librarian's choice of the best of the Web
Digital Librarian is maintained by Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in Cortland, New York
 
 


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DU 2009 2010 Yearbook Photos for Faculty and Staff

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Faculty Focus: Six Steps to Designing Effective Service-Learning Courses

By: Mary Bart in Curriculum Development, Instructional Design
A biology class works with a local environmental organization to test water samples from the Chesapeake Bay. A graphics design class helps a non-profit organization build a new website. A childhood development class serves as mentors to at-risk students in an after-school program.


These aren’t examples of a few kind-hearted college students volunteering their time, but rather part of formalized service-learning programs designed to achieve specific learning outcomes. Although service-learning isn’t new, it is “burning hot” right now, says Barbara Jacoby PhD, senior scholar and chair of the Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership at the University of Maryland.


And for good reason.
“Faculty members I’ve worked with say that service-learning invigorates both their teaching and their students’ learning. By integrating course content with real world experience, service-learning has tremendous potential to meet faculty goals for student learning while making unique contributions to addressing critical community needs,” Jacoby says. “Service-learning enables students to deepen comprehension of course content, integrate theory with practice, increase understanding of the complexity of social issues, and sharpen their abilities to solve problems creatively and collaboratively – all skills that are highly valued in the workplace.”


Of course all of this is only possible if the service-learning course is properly designed and taught, and that takes careful planning, a strong commitment, and frequent communication.


In the recent online seminar Service-Learning Course Design: What Faculty Need to Know, Jacoby provided a step-by-step guide to help faculty design a service-learning course from scratch, or revise a current course. What follows is a brief outline of these steps, along with just a few of the key questions you need to answer along the way:


Step I: Consider how service-learning will help students achieve your desired learning outcomes.
•What are your desired learning outcomes for the course?
•What pedagogies align with the desired learning outcomes (e.g., research papers, lecture, demonstration, problem based learning, class discussions, service-learning)?
•What desired learning outcomes are best achieved through service-learning? Why?


Step II: Determine how the combination of service and academic content will enable students to achieve the learning outcomes.
•What types of service are appropriate for the course? How frequently? What duration?
•What readings and other materials will complement the service?
•What kinds of reflection activities will students engage in?


Step III: Initiate community partnerships.
•How will you identify community organization partner(s)?
•Who will be responsible for initiating and developing the partnership?
•How many students does the organization need? With what knowledge and skills? To do what tasks?


Step IV: Establish assessment and evaluation standards.
•How will students demonstrate learning from their service experiences and other assignments? What measures will you use?
•At what points during the term will you assess learning?
•What will be the community organization’s role in evaluating students’ performance at the service site?


Step V: Develop the syllabus.
•Prepare a draft syllabus detailing rationale for service-learning, students’ roles and responsibilities, how the service experience will be assessed, readings, course materials, and reflection activities.
•Visit the community partner to discuss the draft syllabus.
•Based on community partner input, revise the syllabus as needed.


Step VI: Prepare to manage the process.
•What logistical issues need to be addressed?
•Have you addressed appropriate dress and behavior, transportation, and safety issues?
•What campus resources are available to assist you along the way?


Permalink: http://www.facultyfocus.com?p=12772
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Futures Dreaming: 4 Simple Questions About The Library Of 2020

LIBRARIES MATTER BLOG

The questions were:

1.What would you do in your library if you had all the time, money and skills you needed?
2.What will the library of 2020 look like?
3.What skills will librarians need for the library of 2020?
4.What will we need to drop as we move to 2020?
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OpenSciNY: Study The Impact of Publicly-Accessible Scientific Tools & Resources

OpenSciNY is a free, one-day conference on the impact of publicly accessible scientific tools & resources, open access publishing in the sciences, and open data/notebook efforts. Organized by a group of science librarians from New York University, Brooklyn College (CUNY), and Columbia University, OpenSciNY is a free, one-day conference on the impact of publicly accessible scientific tools & resources, open access publishing in the sciences, and open data/notebook efforts. The day’s events include a series of speaker presentations followed by informal roundtable discussion. Lunch has been kindly sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry.


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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Campus Technology Free 1 Hour Webinar: Three Keys to an Effective Emergency Communications Plan

Join Campus Technology and Alcatel-Lucent for this FREE 1-hour webinar.
Date: Thursday, April 22, 2010
Time: 11 AM (PDT)/2 PM (EDT)
Today's campuses are under increasing pressure to ensure the safety of their students, faculty and staff against threats of violence, natural disaster or pandemic outbreak. Plus, new federal mandates require campuses to have enhanced E.911 capabilities. Meeting these needs means having communication systems that enable you to quickly push information to the campus community and connect first responders. In this webinar, experts from Western Washington University and Alcatel discuss the three key components of an effective advanced emergency communications plan: awareness, response coordination and campus notification. Get a blueprint for creating an effective emergency communications plan that:
* supports lockdown procedures
* provides emergency notification
* integrates with building control systems to support surveillance
* delivers alarms and alerts
* enhances responsiveness of campus security personnel and administrators


Bring questions for our experts. Campus Technology's Matt Villano will lead an interactive Q&A session with our presenters immediately following the live presentation.
http://www.1105info.com/t.do?id=4740367:19829214

Campus Technology and Alcatel-Lucent
Follow Campus Technology on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Campus_Tech  

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Microsoft at Work Video Showcase Website


How to shortcut your shortcuts!

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Elluminate Whitepaper Unified Learning and Collaboration

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
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Elluminate White Papers - April 2010


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Elluminate elearning YouTube Channel: Elluminate Introduces New Unified Learning and Collaboration Approach, Re-Launches Website



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Innovative Educators: How to Promote Your Service-Learning Programs to Key Audiences

Thursday, May 13th ~ 1:00-2:30pm EDT
Overview
All too often, service-learning programs are the best kept secret on campus. This webinar will help participants learn how to communicate consistently, effectively and to the right people. It will take attendees through the critical steps of establishing strategies for use on campus, with the media, and with other important groups; developing messages; defining audiences, setting objectives, preparing budgets, structuring assessments and creating timelines.
 Objectives
Participants will be given a step-by-step method for effectively communicating in order to build support on campus, among faculty, administrators and students and off campus with the media, funders, government officials and community organizations. In these times of tight budgets, the session will focus on low- or no cost ways to tell your important service-learning story.
 Who should attend?
Service-leaning staff
Faculty
Student Affairs personnel
Members of the University’s public relations staff will all benefit from this overview of targeted marketing and public relations.
Everyone involved in service-learning on campus can benefit from a session that helps people learn the strategies of effectively communicating with the audiences they need to win over if they want to succeed.
Who is the speaker?
Maureen Shubow Rubin was appointed Director of Undergraduate Studies at California State University, Northridge in 2006. Prior to this position, since 1998 she served as founding director of the Center for Community-Service Learning where she helped to develop and secure funding for over 300 new service-learning classes. She has written and implemented successful grant proposals to help students on her campus participate in projects centered on gang prevention, school readiness, computer literacy, self-help legal assistance, and bringing English and citizenship skills to immigrant elders, among others. An experienced faculty trainer and peer mentor, she has published widely about service-learning pedagogy, civic engagement, community collaboration and effective outreach. In 2001, she was awarded the Richard E. Cone Award from California Campus Compact for excellence and leadership in cultivating community partnerships in higher education. Rubin joined the University in 1984 as a professor of journalism where she specialized in teaching law, public relations and media ethics, all of which have been subjects of numerous articles she wrote for both scholarly journals and mainstream media. In 1993, she was voted Outstanding Journalism Educator in the State of California by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Prior to joining the university, Rubin was Director of Public Information for President Carter’s Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs in the White House, and held similar positions for a U.S. Congresswoman and Consumer Federation of America. Rubin is a graduate of the Catholic University School of Law In Washington, D.C., holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Relations from University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Boston University.
 Registration Information How do I register?
You can register online by adding this product to your shopping cart. If you have any questions, please call 303-775-6004 303-775-6004
When do I register? How much does it cost?
You can register at any time. The cost is $345, which includes access to the recording for one year.

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