PBWorks Camp & cool things to embed in your pages

Some of you may remember that last summer I went to camp — PBWorks Camp that is.  Well, this year, I went back to be a mentor.  This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of presenting to massive number of teachers, library media specialists, university faculty and staff, and others who are part of PBWorks Camp 2010!  It was a super fast and fun webinar.  I tried to focus on some cool and fun stuff you might want to embed into your web pages and blogs. One of the things I wanted to bring home to folks as they begin embedding media and using others’ works more is to be respectful of copyright.  This means to attribute the media where appropriate, following the appropriate linking and referencing such as with Creative Commons.

You can see the whole list of things we discussed here: http://bit.ly/pbworkswebinar

Some of the tools I mentioned were:

• Flick Creative Commons
• Morgue File
• Veezle
• Bubbl.us
• Wordle
• Jing
• iSpring free
• Poll Daddy

I had a blast!  The campers were so gracious in their appreciation, too.  So thank you all for the appreciation!!

Publishing has changed … or not so much?

Last week, I spoke with students at Clemson University in their graphic communications program about HTML and CSS, content management systems, and how to combine mediums for publishing.  Yesterday, in one of my feeds this video was brought to my attention.  It’s incredibly clever. Apparently, the video was created by Penguin Group for a sales conference and it sort of exploded from there, as mentioned in at paidcontent.org.  At Penguin Group’s blog, though, they explain the inspiration, idea, treatment, and development process, following “The Lost Generation” video.

Disclaimer:  This video was produced by publishers PenguinGroup USA and DK in the UK.

I encourage you to watch the whole thing.  Don’t stop half-way through.  If you do you’ll be disappointed. This video is very thought-provoking and it’s in the vein of Michael Wesch’s viral The Machine is Us/Using Us.  I can see this video as a sort of mantra or battle cry for publishing as printers and publishers consider digital technologies and the individuals that rely on them.

So, take this video with awe and a grain of wisdom for recognizing it as a small piece of propaganda, too. Enjoy!  Hey, but let me know what you think about the video.  Leave your comments below.  I’d love to heard from you guys!

GC 310: A printer’s primer to HTML & CSS

Today, I get the great pleasure to present to my alma mater at Clemson University.  I have been asked by my good friend Nancy Leininger to present to her graphic communications class about HTML, CSS, content management, and how these apply to printing technologies.  We’ll be using Adobe Connect today, so I’m excited to see how it works as well.  I’m hoping to get Connect for our campus and our Masters degree online.  Below are the slides for this presentations, housed at Slideshare.

Of course, if you have any questions about the slides or the content or if you have a comment about what you see, please drop me a line in the comment section below.

Technology to Support Your Research

Since I’ve been uploading quite a few presentations this semester from my Developing Interactive Learning Environments and project management course, I’ve also decided to upload a few others to Slideshare.net that I’ve given and created recently.  This is a little slow going, because I am attempting to be critical and meticulous to copyrights, as well as respectful of ideas and images, giving credit where appropriate.  I’m also systematically adding my Creative Commons licensing to each of the slide decks.

Last fall, I was invited to present to Dr. Sally Blake’s graduate student seminar about using technology to support your research.  So, I’m including those slides below.  These slides are organized into the phases of research:

1. awareness of a field of endeavor
2. literature searches and reviews
3. citation management
4. data collection
5. data analysis
6. dissemination

Just a sample of the technologies that are mentioned include journal table of contents updates, Delicious, diigo, LinkedIn, Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks, SPSS, Google Docs Forms, SurveyMonkey, Nvivo, and Atlas.ti.  Here are the slides:

Let me know if you have questions or suggestions for other technologies that I can include in the future, particularly ones that you use.

Visiting Union and Doin’ Some Googlin’

Today, I get to spend the day at Union University with Dr. Anna Clifford’s classes. Anna is always so generous and invites me to come visit with her students and share a little of my knowledge with them. For the past few times, we’ve been concentrating on Google Docs. But I think I’m going to throw in a little Wordle this time, too.

Below are the links and resources we’ll be using from my Resource Wiki hosted at PBWorks.

1. Using Google Docs word processor
2. Using Google Docs presentations
3. Using Google Docs spreadsheet
4. Creating forms and quizzes with Google Docs forms

And hopefully, we’ll have time to do a little Wordle, too, to see how we might use Wordle during class.

Welcome Dr. Clifford’s Students

I just wanted to offer a quick, “Hello” to those of you who are in Dr. Clifford’s courses at Union University.  I know you guys will be dropping by, and I will be dropping  by to see you all tomorrow.  I hope you find the posts interesting and insightful.  Be sure to check out my bookmarks at the top of the page, where I have a lot of things for preservice K-12 teachers.  See you all soon.  Of course, if you have questions or comments, be sure to leave them.

Articulate workshop on March 3 in Ball Hall Room 307a

On Wednesday, March 3 from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, Mr. Kevin Thorn will offer a hands-on workshop on using Articulate to build rapid elearning.  Kevin is the  LMS Administrator for Learning Technologies in Human Resources and Customer Satisfaction at Autozone, Inc.  Kevin is also one of the clients this semester for IDT 7095/8095.  While this is directed toward students in 7095/8095, I am opening this up to other students/alumni/fans of Dr. Grant’s crazy blog.  I hope you can attend.

Articulate is a plug-in to Microsoft Powerpoint that creates interactions and exports to Adobe Flash’s Shockwave (.swf) format.  You can check out more information about the Articulate suite of products on their corporate site.

Image from YukonLearning.com

3 predictions I agree with and 3 I don’t … and why

A new year is upon us and thus we should take time to examine some of the potential changes that the year 2010 will bring. Examining potential changes is important because technology is in a constant state of change and so are the lives of those involved with instructional technology. Although this blog post will not attempt to take on all the predicted changes in instructional technology for the year 2010, this post will examine three 2010 predictions I agree with and three that I do not.

I Agree With….

At the beginning of this year, staff members and contributors to eLearn Magazine each described some of their predictions for the year 2010. The first prediction that I agreed with was from Stephen Downes who predicts that the demand for online learning will increase from both the private sector and traditional institutions. I agree with this prediction because the current economic crisis and job situation will compel citizens to take on new positions and roles, requiring them to learn new knowledge and skills. I also agree with Mark Notess’ assessment that higher education institutions will make greater movements towards open source solutions. I agree with Mr. Notess because the economy is forcing many higher education institutions to cut costs wherever they can and because open source options are becoming more accepted and understood by the technological community. Finally, I agree with Jim Hendler’s prediction that the technology gap between students and teachers will continue to expand and widen. I agree with Mr. Hendler because student’s technological exposure and experience continues to grow while many teachers technology learning remains stagnant or does not increase at the rate in which new technologies are developed.

I Don’t Agree With…

From the same eLearn Magazine article, I do not agree with Roger Schank’s prediction that mobile e-learning will go away. I believe that as mobile technologies increase, so will opportunities to learn from mobile devices. I believe that just-in-time learning will become a major form of e-learning on mobile devices. I also do not agree with Hend S. Al-Khalifa’s prediction that portable devices like Smart phones and Nintendo DS systems will make their way into traditional classrooms. I do believe that learning opportunities will increase on devices like these; however, to be implemented into the classroom there would need to be more teachers willing to teach using these devices. I do not think that many teachers are ready to make this leap yet. The final prediction I do not agree with comes from Ignatia Webs. I do not agree with the prediction that pedagogy will overtake technologies role as front and center of innovative learning. I believe that pedagogy should become the primary focus of innovative learning, however technology still offers so much motivation and interest that technology will remain in its central role.

Guest blogger: Jeremy Larson is a 7^th and 8^th grade American History teacher at Grace- St. Luke’s Episcopal School in Memphis, TN. He received his Bachelors degree in Elementary Education (K-8) at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN. While at SCSU, Jeremy also received specialties in Instructional Technology and Social Studies Education. Jeremy is currently working towards his Masters degree in Instructional Design and Technology at the University of Memphis. He is interested in K-12 technology integration and helping school districts bring technology into the classroom.

Image courtesy of iLounge at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ipodlounger/4310067280/

TETC 2009: Friday sessions

I’ve had a really great time here at TETC in Nashville.  The sessions on Wednesday went great.  The feedback I received was really positive, and I hope the information was helpful to many of the teachers.  Today, we’re going to be discussing two topics.  The links and topics are below.

W84-The Secrets to Project-based Learning (2:45 – 3:45pm, Ballroom C)

Here is the link to web page with the details about PBL all in one place. I plan to be adding some more pieces here, too, so let me know if you think something is missing.

1. Secrets to Project-based Learning

Web 2.0 … from the beginning

Here’s the link to the page that contains details about the presentations

1. Web 2 from the beginning

TETC 2009: Wednesday sessions

Wow! I’m so excited to be in Nashville at the Tennessee Educational Technology Conference.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been back to TETC, but I’m ready to meet and share with some great teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators/coaches from across Tennessee.

I’ll presenting two sessions today: one on managing communications in online courses and one on project-based learning.  All of my resources and links are linked up below to make them easy to get to.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

W63-Tips for Managing Communications in Online Courses (1:30 – 2:30pm, Ballroom C)

Here are the links to the web pages with details for all of the topics we’ll discuss:

1. Tips for Online Course Management
2. Tips for Asynchronous Communications
3. Tips for Synchronous Communications

W84-The Secrets to Project-based Learning (2:45 – 3:45pm, Ballroom C)

Here is the link to web page with the details about PBL all in one place.  I plan to be adding some more pieces here, too, so let me know if you think something is missing.

1. Secrets to Project-based Learning