You can see in the screen shots below, that my course hashtag was #idt7064.  Hootcourse automatically added this.  I had to add this inside Tweetdeck (on my desktop) and Twitterific (on my iPod Touch and iPad).  Because Hootcourse is automatically adding the hashtag, it goes ahead and subtracts the number of characters in your hashtag from your 140-limit for Twitter.

I really liked being able to retweet posts and share these with my students directly from Tweetdeck and Twitterific.  In addition to being able to tweet inside HootCourse, you can also write longer posts — beyond the 140-word-limit — and these will post to a blog.  With only a small amount of difficulty and a quick email out to support, I was able to connect my HootCourse account to my own Wordpress (Viral-Notebook) instead of the suggested Wordpress.com account.  (I also found out from the tech support that this feature had been enabled by one of the developers, but the other didn’t know it. ) So, longer posts can go into my blog and then tweeted.  In Derek Bruff’s blog you can see where he did just this (and explains a number of features too), and this is a test post that I used as well.  I found that I didn’t use this feature very much for my online course that I was teaching.  But, I’m interested to figure out whether I might do this in a standard 15-week course with a little more forethought and planning.

The last feature that I’m interested in trying out connects nicely to Dr. Rankin’s Twitter experiment in her large class.  This is a classroom version of Twitter for face-to-face discussions.  In essence, it’s creating a backchannel for your classroom.  You can see from the screenshot below that HootCourse sort of strips down everything and makes the posts large so you could project these during a lecture of classroom discussion.  I didn’t use this feature in my online course, but I’m interested in trying this with some face-t0-face courses to see how it might work.

There are a number of folks testing out HootCourse right now, but I haven’t seen many reviews or posts of actual implementations.  So, I hope some folks come out with those.  Are you using HootCourse?  How’s it going?  Are you doing it online or face-t0-face or both?

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. Testing for HootCourse with my Viral-Notebook #hootcourse
2. Assessment in online courses
3. Effective online courses workshop

• Problems with ADDIE –
• Moving Your WordPress Site and Database « Weblog Tools Collection – here comes a time you may have to leave one web host for another. No matter the reason the idea of relocating an entire website – especially one that has been online for sometime – can seem very daunting. With a WordPress based site – I found it easi…
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Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. Project Showcase April 22 at 6:00 pm in 301 Ball Hall

Official title?
Supporting Technology Integration in Higher Education: The Role of Professional Development.

Here’s the abstract:

As institutions of higher education increase access and support the use of educational technologies, there is a need to examine how to best support faculty’s integration of technology into their courses. In this chapter we discuss findings and issues related to supporting faculty’s integration of technology in university-level courses. We share data from two cases: a university-wide faculty professional development project and a professional development center designed to focus on supporting faculty’s integration of technology. Lastly, we provide implications related to faculty professional development.

Need a citation?
Polly, D., Grant, M.M., & Gikas, J. (in revision). Supporting technology integration in higher education: The role of professional development. In D. Surry, T. Stefurak, & R. Gray (eds.), Technology integration in higher education: Social and organizational aspects.  Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

How about the file?
Technology Integration in Higher Education

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. New book chapter: Web 2.0 in teacher education
2. A book chapter on mobile learning—got ideas?
3. New journal article: Ethical issues in instructional technology

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.

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. Google Groovin’ at Union
2. More Googling at Union
3. Using Google at Union University

Image via Wikipedia

Big Brother is watching … only it’s your vice principal.  If you thought that getting technology into schools was the primary issue or even getting teachers to integrate was bigger.  This might change your mind.  By way of Mashable, I heard about this story:

BoingBoing reports that a recent case filing in Robbins vs. Lower Merion School District, a Pennsylvania school, is a class action suit on behalf of students with school-issued laptops whose webcams have been used to watch the students and their families at home.

It was discovered that the laptops issued by the high school contained software allowing administrators to covertly activate the on-board webcam. The plaintiff, Blake J. Robbins, was disciplined by the school for “improper behavior in his home.” The evidence of said impropriety was brought forth by the school vice principal, who displayed a photo of Robbins taken by the laptop’s webcam.

This was also reported on HLN this morning as well.  The level of weird and creepy in this is enough to require a shower.  This is oddly reminiscent of an episode of Criminal Minds minus the serial killer, FBI, and quirky characters.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll see the quirky characters unfold in this story?  But I don’t believe we’ll like them as much as Garcia, Hotch, and Reid.

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. New book chapter: Supporting technology integration in higher education

• Project Cartoon: How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) – How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) How Projects Really Work (version 1.5)
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• Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge – A lecture on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for students in EDUC6751.

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. More icon love. Company’s coming.
2. Where does your inspiration for design come from?

• Software Project Management Resources — Columbia University – Project management resources: templates, samples, articles, software, lecture notes on software & general PM. Updated January 6, 2009. John Musser.
• Custom E-Learning Training & LMS Solutions Kineo – Tip 35: A Shot of Theory – Elaboration Theory – A synopsis of elaboration theory from the folks at Kineo.
• Forty_three_Interesting_Ways_to_use_Wordle_in – 43 Interesting ways and tips to use Wordle in the classroom.

Today, we’re going to tooling around with Google Docs/Apps.  In particular, we’re going to take a look at Google Reader, Google Docs word processor, Google Docs presentations, Google Docs spreadsheets and Google Docs forms.

Here’s the links to the wiki pages I’ve created to go along with the workshop.  Anything we don’t get to will be accessible through these links, and please use them liberally.

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

And a Google Form for us to try if we have time.

Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. Google Groovin’ at Union
2. Using Google at Union University
3. Visiting Union and Doin’ Some Googlin’

• Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie – Use Xtranormal to create movies quickly. Drag and drop actors onto scenes. Add text and the software syncs the actors mouths with the text. Windows only.
• Storybird – Collaborative storytelling – Storybirds are short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share and (soon) print.
• Uncovering Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets – BusinessWeek – For his new book, communications coach Carmine Gallo watched hours of Jobs' keynotes. Here he identifies the five elements of every presentation by the Apple CEO.
• ImageChef – Word Mosaic – In the flavor of Wordle, write a comment or poem in the shape of hearts or other symbols.

• Weebly – Create a free website and a free blog – Weebly has now added an education section. Weebly is perfect for creating classroom websites, student e-portfolios, and websites for assigned projects.
• Free Adobe Dreamweaver Tutorial | CSS Tutorial for Creating Layouts in Dreamweaver | Layers Magazine – This tutorial covers the process of building a CSS-based layout from scratch using Dreamweaver. Great beginner tutorial.
• Free Adobe Dreamweaver Tutorial | CSS Tutorial – Basics of Working with Cascading Style Sheets | Layers Magazine – This tutorial covers the basics of creating CSS in Dreamweaver using the CSS Rule dialog. Great intro.
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• Adobe Flash Tutorial | Creating an interactive story in Adobe Flash – A simple tutorial in two parts for moving around Flash CS3.
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• Live Online Learning – a facilitators guide « Onlignment – To download your free copy of “Live Online Learning – a facilitator’s guide” just sign up for the free newsletter.
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Here are some previous posts that you may be interested in:

1. Plug-in to Dreamweaver: Adobe BrowserLab
2. Icons I love. Fur and feathers.
3. The power of stars