The Ramblings

FUSION 2011 (Main and Post Conference) - RegOnline

2011-02-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

FUSION 2011 (Main and Post Conference) - RegOnline

MLD & MED Orientation

2009-03-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've recently had the pleasure of participating in the graduate orientation for both the Master of Education and Master of Leadership Development programs at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Both programs use a hybrid delivery model where students come on campus (or to a local site) for a weekend every other month and participate in webinars and online between the face-2-face weekends. Both programs can be completed in one year.

We use a learning content management system here (Desire2Learn) that has been a very good system for us. In fact, you might want to check out the Fusion Conference to be held in July in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Anyway, I digress....

What I finally realized, was a need to set up an orientation section in D2L that we could update and more importantly, students would have access to all the information after they return home. I thought you might enjoy some of the PPTs that I shared with them, so I'm uploading them here.

WIPTE Conference October 15-16

2008-10-16T16:59:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful conference. More to come

2008 HP Technology for Teaching Grant - ELEVATE

2008-06-13T19:33:00.005-04:00

I've added a portion of the press release to show you a little of what I've been up to this Spring. The good news is that the equipment came in this week on Tuesday (6/10/08). Rama and I are like kids in a candy store. I'll be loading pictures up here soon. But here is part of the story!
------------------
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) was selected as one of 39 two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico to receive a 2008 HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to transform teaching and improve learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology. SMWC will receive an award package of HP products and a faculty cash award valued at more than $77,000.

Bellampalli Ramachandran, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, served as SMWC's principal investigator for the HP Technology for Teaching grant proposal. Jennie Mitchell, Ph.D, professor of business in the Business, Art, & Media/Technology Department, and Dottie King, Ph.D, associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Sciences & Mathematics Department, served as co-investigators for the proposal.

Ramachandran said they were all thrilled when they received news that the College had been chosen as a grant recipient."It was exciting and gratifying to learn [that SMWC had been selected to receive the grant], especially since the competition was open to colleges and universities in the entire North American region," Ramachandran said. "In HP's words, 'This was a very competitive grant process with over 370 applications, so being selected is in itself a sign of success.'"

Each of the HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients will use wireless HP Tablet PCs to enhance learning in engineering, math, science, or computer science.Saint Mary-of-the Woods College plans to use the grant award package to strategically redesign courses to incorporate Tablet PC and Digital Inking technologies in instruction. These technologies, in conjunction with an appropriate Classroom Management System, will facilitate teacher-student and student-student interaction and thus create a highly collaborative and interactive learning environment for students.

Initially, a selected set of courses, including general chemistry, calculus, and business finance, will be redesigned. Several other SMWC faculty members have also expressed interest in exploring these technologies for their courses.

Eventually, more courses, and thus more students, will benefit from the grant."The project title 'Enhanced Learning Experience Via Advanced Tablet-PC Environment (ELEVATE) - Using HP Tablet PCs in Instruction at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College,' and its apt acronym, precisely describe what the project, and the grant, will mean for us," Ramachandran said. "It will 'elevate' students' learning outcomes as well as the educational excellence of the College to even higher levels."

Focus on the Nation

2008-02-01T23:24:00.000-05:00

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College had a Focus on the Nation, January 31, 2008. I was able to present, Sustainability & The Triple Bottom Line, as part of the program. The entire day was a wonderful experience. I'm going to try to upload my PowerPoint. I've been asked by several students to send my powerpoint since I didn't visit many of the links since I was afraid I would take time away from the other speaker during my session.

For more information, visit http://www.smwc.edu/

This next week, I'm working on QuickBook problems for Prentice-Hall. I should have had them done by Jan 31, yeah - that didn't happen. But this week looks a little better. Not Monday - but Tuesday looks better. Monday, Rama and I are working on the HP Grant. In fact, I set up Office Live for us and the other grant buddies to use. Have you tried that yet? Go to http://workspace.office.live.com/ and beg for a beta workspace. This rocks. You can save files directly to your workspace, and it is safely tucked behind a username and password. Then you invite others to play! Some of the greatest features include ready-made templates so you get a feel for how to use it. It's free now, so I'm going for it for all my shared meeting files.

Presented at Illiana Tech - Indiana State University

2007-03-11T15:21:00.000-04:00

It has been months since I last blogged. I am ashamed of myself. However, I will try to catch up. I presented in the summer of 2006 at the Illiana Tech 2006 Summit. My presentation included showing Corporate Applications of Podcasting and RSS. I was a little disappointed that the Summit was not better attended. I had a nice group, but I felt that the Summit should have drawn more participants. It was held in the John Myers Technology Building, and had a reasonable conference fee and good speakers. Perahps the time (June) just didn't work for some.

I'm going to try to upload some of my PowerPoints as I can. I'm really enjoying the podcasting aspect, even if my voice is "gravel gerty."

Midwest Educause 2006

2006-03-05T18:20:00.000-05:00

The Midwest Educause is held this March in Chicago, Il.

On March 13th, I will be co-presenting with Terry McCammon and Lana Lytle on Little Red Schoolhouse on the Virtual Prairie.

On March 14th, I will be co-presenting with Nicholas Farha on the Future of Learning Objects.

I'll post more AFTER the event.

PBWiki

2006-02-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

I've found a new resource that I'm using in my Small Business Management class, called PBwiki. The students are divided into teams. Each team is using the wiki to coordinate the writing of a business plan. I can't believe how easy it was for me and the students! I would encourage you to consider using a wiki for collaborative projects in your classes and expect amazing results. For more information, try these links below!

Check out the PBwiki tour!

Get a free wiki at PBwiki.com.

Windows 2003 Server Lab 1-2 Active Directory & DNS

2006-01-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

After plugging into the network each page looks exactly like what is in the lab manual - SWEET. Interesting info at the DNS Registration Diagnostics. Interesting - it gives an error message on the first one that you get to. It says the primary DNS server tested was dns.cp.msft.net (207.46.138.10) but of course gives an error. Selected the second one (Install and configure DNS server on this computer...) and it appears to work as expected. Actually the most difficult thing to do was read the text on the screen (since I'm using VNC, it is even smaller!).

For lab purposes, we are using a dynamically assigned IP address, but the Domain Controller works best was static IP.

Windows Server 2003 Lab Configuration

2006-01-21T18:32:00.000-05:00

Student computers (where XX is the unique number assigned to students)

Computer name: ServerXX
Windows domain name: Contosoxx
Internet domain name: Contosoxx.com
Fully qualified domain name (FQDN): Serverxx.Contosoxx.com
--------------------
For the Instructor
Computer name: HALSERVES
Windows domain name: Contoso
Internet domain name: contoso.com
FQDN: HALSERVES.contoso.com

IP Address: 10.1.1.xx
Subnet Mask: 255-255.0.0
Default Gateway: get from network admn.
Preferred DNS Server: IP address of DNS server
Alternative DNS Server: IP address of another DNS server

Windows 2003 Server NAT/Firewall Device

2006-01-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

What I discovered in this process is that unless you are hooked into a network, you will not see the server role list. It skips that step and goes to the Active Directory. This means that I will certainly need to connect into a network in some way. According to the class notes, the best way for this to work is to isolate the classroom from the rest of the campus network. According to the Lab Setup Guide, the best way to do this is to use a Network Address Transaltion (ANT) or firewall device. This will prevent IP addressing and name resolution issues with the rest of the campus. I will check with Mike and Eric to see if this will cause problems with other systems. The best bet is to configure a NAT/Firewall device or to set up IP addresses as 10.2.2.1 as the IP range. and Subnet mask as 255.255.0.0

Windows Server 2003 and VNC

2006-01-21T18:06:00.000-05:00

This starts my blog on the Windows Server 2003 class. To begin with, I installed using the 180 day valuation package on HAL, my older computer from many years ago. I call him HAL because he has a blue light.

Anyway, HAL had Windows XP Professional on it, so I started the computer and then put the CD in it and then restarted it. It went through the process quite normally, although I could have used the Quick NTFS, but chose the normal selection since it checks the drives, etc. Yikes it really did take some time (37 minutes) and I suspect it will be even longer on the student machines. HAL has 256 MB of ram (the minimum required) and the student boxes only have 128MB on at least 4 of them. I put in a request for a ram bump, but time will tell if that can happen or not.

I was installing MS2003 in the design room of XCaliber, and David's music was not agreeing with me, so Daniel helped me set up UltraVNC. Ultra VNC allows me to set HAL about anywhere and use my own keyboard and mouse in my office - SWEET... Changed the display settings so it works for me and my HAL is talking at 192.168.1.55 - again, SWEET. Think to remember, plugging the network cord in the bottom port game me a different IP address - go figure.

I'm thinking this would be a good thing to show the students too, but I doubt that Mike will give me more machines for play. I may need my students to come out to XCaliber to work with a network unless the school will let me close off HH20.

In Windows 2003 Server, you use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to begin. I almost made that mistake and then realized the with VNC, I would be restarting my machine if I used that command. You use CAD on Ultra VNC to send that command to the machine.

My first podcast I attribute to a flood in my office...

2006-01-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

On October 7, 2005, my office at SMWC was flooded. Three inches of water, rug floating, and smoke seeping out from under my desk where the surge protector was melting. Sounds like a bad thing, right? At the time, I thought so. However, several weeks later, with equipment replacement a possibility, I did some researching to find the best equipment to help me podcast my lectures - more like PROFCAST. I'm a novice, so I went for a podcasting kit and watched Carl Franklin's hands as he put together the kit. I have NOT been disappointed. It was easy.

It took me two minutes to record my first podcast. I kept it (just so I have the first one). I feel I'm a better podcaster now since I've worked on slowing down, adding inflection, working on the "ummms" and other distracting sounds. So here is my first podcast!

This is my FIRST podcast.

Academic 2005

2005-09-02T20:49:00.000-05:00

At Academic 2005, faculty could sign up for one of four topics: 1) Using the smartboards; 2) Fundamentals of Turnitin.com; 3) Library Databases + Wireless Laptops; or 4) Lectora and CamStudio. Dr. Golding and I used the same materials from the Teaching & Learning Conference workshop for our own faculty. Not a full house, but everyone had a good time!

21st Annual Distance & Learning Conference

2005-08-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

On August 3, 2005, Dr. Golding and this author presented a workshop entitled, "Visual objects in a visual society - Creating a hook"at the 21st Annual Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Joanne covered the approach to writing a learning objective for a learning object and Camstudio. I covered the Lectora section of it and had them use the avi file that they created in the Camstudio section. I truly wish some of these conferences were earlier in the summer. This late in August makes it hard to go back and try new things.

I also enjoyed attending several of the sessions. I picked up some great ideas form "Dying to learn: Instructional design and MMORPGs." I also enjoyed the "Creating and using learning objexts with open source tools." Even writing about it makes me want to pull out the bag and try some things!

More about this later.

InSITE 2005 Conference

2005-06-05T16:14:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the chapter, "Syntax and Semantics of Learning Object Meta-data" to present Sunday, June 19 from 9:00-10:30 in Room D. The InSITE Conference is in Flagstaff, AZ starting June 16 and ending Sunday evening. Alex Koohang is the session chair and also serves as editor of the book, Learning Objects (my chapter to be included). This book has contributors from around the world. In fact, just during the 9-10:30 timeslot, there will be presenters from USA, Norway, Sweden, UK, and Italy. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other authors and sharing notes and resources as well.

Working on Chapter

2005-05-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

I've been doing quite a bit of research into the semantic and syntactic interoperability of learning object metadata and asked Judy Tribble, the SMWC Library Director, if she could get the actual standard 1484.12.1-2002. I am actually able to access the draft standard which came out July 15, 2002 (the final standard was published in September 2002). Judy was able to get the standard for me. When I received it, the notice on the standard makes me concerned that I should even quote it!! I'm going to check other articles on the same subject and see if anyone is actually quoting the FINAL standard or if they are using the draft standard. The FINAL standard costs money, but it may be more of an issue of making sure a rule isn't violated than the cost of purchasing the standard. I have until June 15 to get this done, but my goal is to get this chapter done by June 7 so that Nicholas and I can check each others work. I love teaching summer school, but it has certainly dipped into my writing time.

And this is not an easy write. I want to write in non-technical language in a way that conveys the information in enough depth that the students "get it" without overwhelming them. Oh well, the same old question we all face.

More to come soon.

To present at InSITE - Informing Science & IT Education Conference

2005-04-18T23:58:00.000-05:00

Alex Koohang, Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects has worked with the InSITE Conference organizers to submit our abstracts. This conference will be in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ June 16 through the 19th. The conference information is located at http:/2005.informingscience.org. Since our book chapter deadline is June 15th for the Learning Object Book, this is a perfect opportunity to share information as well as meet and work with the other chapter authors of the Learning Object Book. In addition, Alex arranged for a conference fee reduction.

I am working again with Nicholas Farha at Indiana State University. He is co-authoring my book chapter, Learning Object Standards, Metadata, Repositories, and LCMS and I am co-authoring his book chapter, The Future of Learning Objects. I originally submitted a chapter under a slightly different area, but this was the area of acceptance.

The next few months will be busy ones...

FlashLite 1.1

2005-04-04T19:52:00.000-05:00

As I work on editing and completing the seven chapters, I still find myself reviewing new innovative products which I hope to still sneak into the book. FlashLite 1.1 is such a product. You have proably head about Flash. Well, FlashLite 1.1 is a version that allows you to author a version that will play on phones and other mobile devices. If you already know Flash, this is a product that you want to review. The presentation is an archived version of a Breeze presentation made March 29, 2005 by Bill Perry from Macromedia. This is a 50 minute presentation, so set aside a block of time!

I can find uses for this even in Terre Haute, Indiana! Illianatech made a great map of the hotspots along Wabash Avenue. I can see a tour guide product of hotspots that works on a mobile phone that has internet access. Or how about a handset that works to interact with a museum? Yikes, the examples are endless.

The presentation shows some gaming applications and then best practices using FlashLite 1.1. The action script commands are a piece of cake. For example:

.on (keyPress"") = select keypress
etc - easy
The CDK is great since SWF files are provided that you can try on your handset. An excellent way to see what navigation matches with a specific handset.

The presentation provides very specific directions. Example - use bitmaps instead of vectors, avoid screen wipes.

Next, Bill showed a sample application creation. Steps abbrieviated here - I will add more later after I take his example and try it myself.

Flash MX Professional 2004 - select Mobile, Nokia 3650 Template, Delete the layers that show the phone image, then select Version 1.1 on settings, and save file. Now you are ready to add some layers - background, buttons, text, backing, AS (for action script layer). Application to create - a screen where user has to press a button, that will load a webserver application.

Chapter Proposal Accepted!

2005-04-04T19:44:00.000-05:00

I just received word from Alex Koohang that my abstract has been accepted for a chapter in the book, Learning Object, in the category Learning Object Standards, Metadata, Repositories & LCMS. The book is planned for release in December of 2005 by Informing Science Press. The 20 to 30 page chapter is due by June 15th. I was pleased with this comment, "Your chapter proposal was among the highest rated proposals." That certainly made me feel pretty good!

Getting ready for Educause

2005-03-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

The slides are ready and checked for the Midwest Educause Event. The presentation is Tuesday March 22 at 8:30 in the Empire Ballroom (Seventh Floor). Learning Objects, Wikis, & Blogs - Oh My! should appeal to any faculty member interested in seeing some examples of learning objects, our WIKI (Digitizing Inspiration) that we used to work on this project, or looking at how blogs are being used in our courses.

Although we removed some slides and don't plan to visit all the links, our practice presentation was right at 43 minutes (and we have 45 minutes tops!). Oh well, so much for questions. Nicholas and I plan to announce that we will be located in the hallway for awhile if anyone has other questions (at least we hope we can do this). Not sure where Lana is - since her daughter delivered a child this week. Hoping we hear from her soon!

Workshop Proposal Accepted!

2005-03-06T08:56:00.000-05:00

A colleague at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Sister Joanne Golding, asked if I was interested in co-presenting with her at the 21st Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wisconsin. After we started looking through the objectives of the conference, we decided to submit a workshop idea. If you submit a workshop, the conference registration fee is paid for two presenters and with the budget constraints at our institution – this just seemed like the way to go!

This year’s conference will reflect on lessons learned and how to apply them to improve the design, delivery, and support of distance teaching and learning. The conference is held August 3-5 and I believe we present on the 3rd. Both of us have taught online courses at our campus since 1996, but our latest passion is creating learning objects. We plan to demonstrate a variety of software packages that support the creationof learning objects. I’ll add another post soon that outlines our workshop, but I just wanted to share this with all my blog readers!

RSS Feed into Web Page

2005-02-23T10:37:00.000-05:00

This was a very productive early morning (4:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.). Blogger.com uses atom instead of RSS and regardless of the reasons, it just wasn't working with my pluck or feeding into my web page. So, I used the feedburner (feedburner.com) to make my blog friendly regardless of the reader that someone uses. This assumes that you used the setting at blogger to use site feed and that you are on a free blog account). Anyway, I used the step-by-step process to take my XML (http://jlmitchell.blogspot.com/atom.xml) in Atom format and convert it. That generates a new address from the feedburner site that you can successfully use in pluck or any other RSS Agregator. Next, I used that addess in my JavaScript (see http://accounting.smwc.edu and go to Blogs) to pull in five or so of my postings. I also pulled in some late breaking business news just to see how it would work. I will warn you - on a slow SMWC account, it took awhile to pull it the first time, but future visits seemed quicker.

I noticed that feedburner also has a mobile feed reader for select handheld devices. I want to try that next. That would mean that I could read my favorite blogs on my handheld! I could go for that.

I will post a complete tutorial of this soon AFTER it gets included in THE book.

Auditing Blogs at Woodsonline!

2005-02-20T15:43:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm working the Auditing AF website to incorporate the blogs of everyone. We may want to use this site in our presentation at the EDUCAUSE conference so I'm trying to spruce it up a little. I'm going to test the theory of incorporating an "RSS" reader into WebCT, to see how well it will pull in the blogs as they change.

Site Feed Added & Learning Object Using FARS

2005-02-13T18:11:00.000-05:00

Today, I added a site feed to The Ramblings mostly so that I can show my students how to do this. Now that I have more than a dozen students blogging, I want to get it organized. The students in BU327AF are using blogging to reflect on ethical cases, readings, and their journey through the audit case. Only one student in the AF class had a blog and she said it wasn't current. Well, I hope this changes things for them - I want them to take the time to reflect on some of the hard ethical issues using this technique.

I also created a Learning Object today on FARS for both the Auditing students and the Intermediate Accounting II students. I used Camtasia Studio 2 to record the screen while I looked up the most current information on Earnings Per Share. This required capturing me entering the FARS site, clicking on "Current Text," changing to the JAVA option, and drilling down to Earnings Per Share. I added a screen image made from a PowerPoint slide for the introduction and then added some callouts to point out the alphabetical order and that you open the folder by clicking on the "+" key. I saved the production as raw .avi, wmf, and swf. I wanted to see how each of them worked. I found out that .wmf files don't do well when I used a zoom feature in Camtasia Studio - so I'm learning as I go.

Camtasia also lets you use options for SCORM - basically adding metatags, but also making it possible to zip up all you need to export it to an e-Learning environment (like WebCT, Blackboard, etc). I haven't tried that yet, but I will soon.

I received an email from SmartMeeting. They've extended my trial version and are requesting that I update my version to try it. I think I'll give it one more chance!

SmartMeeting & WIKI

2005-02-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

SmartMeeting did not work for us on the 9th of February! Instead, we talked some on the phone and worked on the Wiki. The WIKI is set up for our paper that we plan to present at Educause. The WIKI is called Digitizing Inspiration3 (for the three of us) and is housed at SeedWiki.

We plan to get together again to discuss some of the learning objects, support for learning objects, etc. BUT, we have not set a meeting date yet - shall we try SmartMeeting? I guess we will give it another chance...

Midwest EDUCAUSE

2005-02-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

Getting ready for the Midwest EDUCAUSE...

Lana Lytle, Nicholas Farha and I are presenting a paper on Learning Objects, Wikis, and Blogs..Oh my.. Lana is introducing blogs for reflection in her database class as well as using learning objects. Nicholas is doing a broad search on learning objects that relate to the I.T. field and has spent hours looking for learning objects that fit our working definition. In my classes (Auditing mostly), I'm using learning objects to explain some basic accounting concepts (not ones that I created yet, but ones that I found). In addition, I'm using blogs for reflection but leaving it somewhat open-ended by giving students a list of URLs that they can explore and use as part of their reflection. Basically, I incorporated lots of ethical case materials, news articles that reflect Enron, WorldCom, Xerox, etc, - even ethic cartoons...! Should be interesting. The students helped design a matrix for determining the blog postings. Now if I could just get them to add it to their signatures!

What is really exciting is the way we are working on this paper. We will meet February 9th in a Smart Meeting Room. If you've not tried this - you need to. SmartMeeting (http://www.smartmeeting.com) is a way to meet in a virtual office. You need a microphone, but not a camera. Instead, you choose a vivitar right down to hair color and clothing that represents you at the meeting. The vivitars are controlled by you and even include facial expressions like smiling, waving, yawning, voting, etc. Your vivitar can walk around, take a break in the lounge - play some chess OR get back to the board room and work. You can upload documents and powerpoints, watch live broadcast video, share a white erase board - well things that you would expect in a meeting.

Another piece of our experience is a WIKI. We are using a wiki at seedwiki (the name is Digitizing Inspiration 3. The 3 is for the 3 of us working on this paper. You may recognize the title Digitizing Inspiration - the short name for the book that Nicholas and I are working on. The wiki is located at http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/digitizing_inspiration3/. I think this new way of collaborating will add an edge to our presentation that maybe only the three of us will appreciate - but we will see.

More to come - but just had to share!

2005-01-24T09:52:00.000-05:00

Some exciting times - the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education has approved the recommendations (with minor changes) of the Learning Objects Task Force and will award 50K for training and 50K for Learning Objects. I have worked the past semester on the Learning Objects Task Force as led the IHETS's Lynn Ward. According to IPSE, $100,000 of the $250,000 grant will be set asside for learning ojbect support and the remaining $150,000 will be used for course and program development.

The following information is taken from the Learning Objects Program Recommendations:

II. Background

For the last seven years, the IPSE grant program has supported the development of complete online courses and, more recently, instructional modules. Although past recipients have been strongly encouraged to provide public access to materials develop with grant funds, in reality most of the content resides behind password-protected institutional course management systems. Moreover, very few of the courses and modules have been constructed in a manner that facilitates reuse of the smaller components comprising the whole. Thus, even when the materials developed with grant funding has been made publicly available, they cannot be easily incorporated into different learning contexts.

In winter of 2003/2004, the IPSE Program Development team was asked to consider expanding or shifting the focus of the IPSE grant program to include explicit support for developing learning objects with the goal of increasing the impact of the content developed with grant monies. A task force of eight campus instructional technology leaders representing seven IHETS member institutions was convened to study the issues and issue a set of recommendations. During the fall 2004 semester, the Learning Objects Task Force (LOTF) reviewed existing literature about learning objects, interviewed directors of two large-scale learning objects initiatives, and conducted two statewide surveys, one targeted at college and university distance education faculty and the other at instructional technology professionals.

III. Learning Objects Task Force Recommendations

Although there are still many questions to be answered and issues to be resolved regarding learning objects, both within Indiana and nationally, surveys conducted by the LOTF suggest there is sufficient faculty and staff interest to justify at least small steps toward supporting development of learning objects. The task force therefore recommends expanding the scope of the IPSE grant program to include support for the development of learning objects. To maximize the potential for success, the task force suggested the following guidelines for program implementation:

A new Request for Proposals for learning-object development with different requirements and evaluation criteria should be developed, with perhaps a rolling deadline or proposals considered as submitted rather than on an annual basis.
Since levels of interest and adoption vary among and within institutions, initially the program will likely attract only early adopters. Education and training are critical to cultivating broad statewide interest. During the first few years, funds should be set aside from the grant budget to develop a comprehensive training program for faculty and instructional support staff.
In the first year, the recommended budget for the learning objects program is $100,000 with as much as half of that amount dedicated to support and training efforts. The balance of the annual grants budget ($150,000) will be used to support course and module development. The funding formula should be evaluated on an annual basis and is expected to change as awareness and interest in learning objects increases.
The maximum award for a single object should be $5,000 with a maximum of $20,000 for a collection of four or more objects.
To encourage widespread interest among faculty, the program should cultivate the development of learning objects that:
solve a particular instructional challenge or problem
are highly visual and interactive
focus on a single concept or learning objective (highly granular)
provide a engaging learning experience that cannot be easily duplicated through more conventional means
offer opportunities for active learning, problem solving and analysis, data manipulation and interpretation, exploration and discovery, and/or self-assessment
Project evaluations should similarly emphasize the impact on student learning
To maximize the likelihood of use and re-use, the learning objects program should strongly encourage:
collaborative projects that span multiple departments, colleges, campuses, or institutions
community, cohort, or discipline-based projects
projects that will serve large numbers of students (e.g., large enrollment courses)
To encourage a culture of sharing, the program should require that all funded learning objects:
be made publicly accessible
be submitted to MERLOT
be submitted to Indiana repository/referatory, if created
include Dublin Core metadata
If resources permit, learning object clearinghouse should be created for Indiana in the form of an online repository or referatory. Such a system could provide opportunities to centralize metadata creation and storage, accommodate user ratings and comments, and increase awareness and recognition for developers.
The task force recommends the following short-term goals for the program:
Positive impact on student learning (must be part of the program evaluation)
Solve specific, well-defined instructional problems
Increased interest in developing learning objects
Increased interest in using learning objects developed by others
Improved understanding of learning objects and the issues surrounding them
For the long term, the program should seek to:
Increase sharing of instructional content
Increase availability of high-quality instructional materials
Increase institutional collaboration
Create an Indiana-based repository or referatory
Secure national recognition of the program and associated results
Secure additional funding for development
Progress toward goals should be evaluated on an annual or bi-annual basis, with specific metrics defined for each goal.

IV. Financial Implications

No additional funding is required for implementation. However, moving forward with the learning objects program will reduce the available support for development of complete courses and instructional modules. The shift from funding complete courses to instructional modules to self-contained learning objects represents a change in emphasis that has been occurring not only in Indiana, but also nationally. By supporting the development of content that can be used by multiple faculty and students in multiple learning contexts, we have the opportunity to magnify the impact of our scarce grant dollars and to foster a culture of sharing between and among our member institutions.

2005-01-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

The book is on hold - it will not be done on January 15th as expected. Over Christmas break, Chapter 6 was revised and Beth worked on getting it into the 1" margins as well as working on the bookmarks. It is my intent to have the bookmark file work with the book. What we discovered was that I had many more bookmarks that did not appear in the book. So more work is needed to make sure that I've covered all that we planned to cover. Nicholas, Lana and I are working on a presentation at EDUCAUSE so I know we want to include some of this work in the book as well. More to come

2004-12-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

For the last few days, I've been working on Chapter 6, Communicate High Expectations. Although it might be somewhat of a stretch, I'm including Advising in this chapter as well as some course design issues that relate to good links, accountability, policies, etc. I will save the learning styles and diversity for the last chapter. Although the work is done on most of the book, I have all these topics that were part of a chapter 8 that I now want to fold into the seven chapters in keeping with the seven identified practices of good undergraduate education by Chickering and Gamson.

My abstract was accepted by EduCause, or rather mine and Lana Lytle's abstract was accepted. Now, I just need to make sure that the cost will be covered. I have to accept by January 4th, so I need to get busy.

2004-11-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

This Thanksgiving break was productive. Reviewed some brand new areas and added them to the book. Working on the case that will be added to with each chapter. My hope is to get with Nicholas over break to finish.

2004-11-11T20:38:00.000-05:00

Today as I sat with my mother-in-law at AP&S (chemotherapy), I worked at editing the book. I have forgotten how much I covered. I still have some extensive editing to complete and will probably have SOME help on Friday to make corrections to the chapters I've edited. From 9:30 to 2:30, I worked on editing one single chapter. I think it was much easier to just write it! I shared some of the resources for the first chapter, Encourage Contact, in a previous posting. I will try to get another batch of resources ready for the second chapter to post to my blog.

2004-11-09T19:32:00.000-05:00

Learning Objects, WIKIs, and Blogs - Oh My....
Today, I took the faculty on a quick tour of Lectora. We created a learning object that included a hotspot on a map, animations, and assessment. In addition, some student products were demonstrated (students in BU215 had created a tutorial on creating a macro and custom button using Lectora). I think the faculty enjoyed it and look forward to some of their comments.

We are still pursing WIKI avenues, but most faculty are working toward HLC this coming week. More to come

2004-10-26T03:01:00.000-05:00

Today we are working on a seminar to learn about Wikis, blogs and learning objects.

2004-10-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

I'm ready for my presentation at SMWC on Tuesday. The name of the presentaiton is Learning Objects, Wikis & Blogs, Oh My.... and will incorporate some of the things that I learned during my sabbitical. It would have been nice to just hand them a copy of my book, but...

I am actually removing some of the sections of the book and making them more generic - since they are specific to SMWC. Still usuable, but just need to reword them.

2004-10-23T22:44:00.000-05:00

Worked about eight hours on Lectora, Camstudio and Camtasia. All three of these software packages are incorporated into the book, but I make a presentation October 26th (Tuesday) at SMWC to talk about the sabbitical. Since it is so close to Halloween, the name of the presentation is Learning Objects, Wikis, & Blogs, Oh My... Lectora is so rubust that the presentation could just be a demonstration of that software, especially in light of creating learning objects. The drag and drop authoring and publishing makes it pretty easy to build something that is interactive and better yet - it is SCORM conformant!

Looks like I'm going to have some help this week - finally some student assistants! Jennifer Kramer starts Monday, and Kim Anderson starts Tuesday. Nicholas and I just can't do all the editing without some help.

2004-10-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

The first chapter, Encourage Contact, still needs some final edits; however, finding good secretarial help is not easy. What is listed below is just a few of the resources used to produce this chapter. Enjoy!

Encourage Contact
Bloglines Overview
Cafe - Waubonsee Community College
Coolsig - Find Great Email Signatures
COPING WITH HITCHHIKERS AND COUCH POTATOES ON TEAMS
Creating and Supporting Online Learning Communities - Donahue
Creating and Supporting Online Learning Communities
CyberJournalist.net The Weblog Blog
DevForum (E-Discussions)
Digital Journalism
Face-toFace Vs. Online Community
Free Website Live Chat, Live Help, and Live Support
Full Circle Associates - communications, project management, facilitation, and online community and collaboration spaces
George B. Brain Education Library - Guide to Information Resources in Education - Discussion Lists
Hope College Discussion Boards Spring 2004
How Interactive are YOUR Distance Courses
http--www.bsu.edu-web-arose-vita-MARose.pdf
IDEA Resources-Discsussions
Indiana State University Distance Support Services Sketches of Innovators in Education
LISTSERV list by Subject
Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
My Voice Email - Voice-enabling your out-going email messages
NewsGator - the RSS news aggregator for Outlook
Online Collaboration - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings
Online Learning Update
Online Learning
Online Student Handbook for CAC
SDSU WebCT Announcements
Seven Principles of Effective Teaching - A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Courses
Sloan-C - Publications - Journal JALN
Start - first contact
Synchronous Tools Comparison Shauna Schullo Symposium for Building Community Online and On Campus The TLT Group
The Furrygoat Experience
The IDEA Center - Establishing Rapport
The OTiS Site
The Ramblings
USDLA Publications - Electronic Learning Communities
Using Aggregators to Capture RSS Feeds
Vemail voice email software
Yahoo! Groups Accounting_at_SMWC Messages 1-2 of 2

2004-10-15T15:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I edited the first chapter by removing all reference to SMWC "how to" items to make them more generic. Nicholas is reviewing chapter 1 to include items that are relevant to ISU without being so specific to ISU that the general public doesn't get use out of them. Talked to publisher this week and we are feeling the pressure to get done.

Still need to develop one cartoon for each chapter. Have ideas but not the time. Plan to catch up this weekend on "must do" things so that we can get back to the book. Will get another student assistant this week to help (at least that is the plan).

2004-09-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

Hi All,

Still working on my book. Adding Nicholas Farha as an author since he is willing to add questions, review, and add a section in several chapters related to his institution (ISU). I'm going to Rose-Hulman to present Friday at The Dream and The Reality http://www10.cs.rose-hulman.edu/. My presentation is called "Digital Natives In Your Midst? Give them LEGOs to play with..." The paper is posted in the program section if you want to see it. A great deal of it was pulled directly from my book. I don't think I've ever had so much material to pull from. I really had trouble not trying to add too much - imagine that!

This weekend, I'm changing the margins on the book to print easier.

2004-08-31T23:42:00.000-05:00

Cool!
Ok, so I haven't updated this AGAIN for awhile. But, I did work on something kind of unique tonight. I'm trying to set up an automatic newsletter. Instead of putting an executable file in the CGI bin, I'm trying to use a FormMail script found at http://www.scriptarchive.com. When a student or alum fills out a subscribe type form, they are automatically sent a newsletter and then get on the newsletter mailing list. That way, when I get a newsletter out (like I have a ton of stuff on recent CPA exam, etc), it will go to email addresses of people that subscribed to this service. My biggest complaint is trying to keep up with email addresses. I start with an email address for my student and find that it changes 4 times in one year (for WED). Anyway, not quite working yet, BUT - the idea is sound. If the mailer doesn't work - I'll do the database thing and use the email address as the primary key to weed out duplicates. Since this is something kind of neat - it will make my book IF I get it working properly. Lots more to tell you Rambling readers, but just no more time to do it.

2004-08-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

Wow - I can't believe I haven't published anything at this blog since July. I truly have been working. Presented a roundtable at the ICI Conference at Depauw in Greencastle on Learning Objects. Now, I've been invited to work on a state-wide committee on this very subject. Cool.... Just so you know I've been working on my book, I've included the table of contents for my book. Some stuff in red means that I need to revisit this area.

Encourage contact between students and faculty
1. Effectively Use E-mail Groups
a. How to set up address books and groups
i. Create an Address Book
ii. Add entries to address book
iii. Create a group
iv. Modify a group
2. Campus Discussion Software Options
a. Using discussion boards within WebCT
i. WebCT Discussion Example
ii. Use Wizard to Create a WebCT Discussion
iii. Modify WebCT Discussions
iv. Search WebCT Discussions
v. Discussion Compile Features
vi. Create an Archive
3. Other Discussion Opportunities
a. It starts with a question….
b. How to set up Discussion board in Yahoo
i. Start a new group
c. Working with Existing Listservs & Groups
d. Voice Boards
4. Blogging or Journaling
a. RSS Readers
b. How to set up Plunk – A Free RSS Reader
c. Why is XML so important?
d. Linking instead of RSS
e. Blog Examples
5. E-Moderating
a. Access and Motivation
b. Online Socialization
c. Information Exchange
d. Knowledge Construction
e. Development
6. Discussion Interaction Strategies
a. How do you “make” students use discussion boards on a regular basis?
b. How do you use groups?
7. Overwhelmed by E-mail
a. Establish good policies
b. Establish Rapport
c. First Contact Checklist
d. Signatures
e. Electronic Signatures
f. Voice email
g. Reinforcement
h. Weekly journals
i. Out of office notification
8. Virtual Office Hours
a. E-mail Response Office Hour
b. Open Site Chat Office Hour
c. Fill Out Form for Question
i. How to Create a Form & Database
d. Self-Help
e. WebCT & Flash Server
f. WebCT Chat Room
g. Trends in Virtual Office Hours
h. Chat logs & help sheets
i. Free chat software
j. WebEx and other related high-end meeting software
9. Connect students to conferences
a. Invite students to conferences that you might attend (unusually a student rate)
10. Lessons from a CyberClassroom (see folders and review for this chapter), The Virtual Student, Building Learning Communities http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v7n3/pdf/v7n3_meyer.pdf

Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students
1. Encourage Teams
a. Key Points for Online Teams
b. Everyone Accountable
c. Cross-Mix Team Members
d. Learning to be a Team Player
2. Criterion by Design Encourages Leadership
a. Leadership Behaviors
b. Encourage Process
c. Types of Discussions
d. Trigger Stimuli
i. How to Send a URL
ii. Send a URL in Chat Mode in WebCT
iii. Critical Thinking Skills with Triggers
iv. A Critical Thinking Skills Checklist for Online Discussion
e. Team Design Process
f. Rubric Generator
g. Monitoring Progress – CATs & Others
i. Online Muddiest Point
ii. The Online Minute Paper
iii. Online Roundtable Scenario
1. The Example Scenario
iv. Online Student-generated Test Questions
3. Build a Team Space
a. How to build a team space in WebCT
i. Create a Team Workspace in WebCT
ii. WebCT has a way to share files, develop a PowerPoint together or a webpage and break out discussion groups using threaded discussions
b. Other team-building software
4. Building the Hook
a. Dynamic Readings
b. Using JavaScipt
i. How to Set Up Random Link + Text Description
ii. How to Set Up Free Online Quizzing
c. Online Icebreakers
i. Give and Take
ii. Introduction Bingo
iii. Group Resume
iv. Six Degrees of Separation
d. Assessing Group Effectiveness at the Beginning
e. Group Activities That Motivate
f. Self-Reflection
g. Peer-editing – samples of prior student work
h. Random homework problems
5. Creating Content for Discussion
a. Cooking Up Cases that Motivate Groups
b. Group Content that is Accessible
i. Easy to Over the Obvious
ii. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Model
iii. Are You Bobby Approved?
6. Student Virtual Café & Lounge
7. Be careful with synchronous requirements
8. Share resources (like types of software used at work), libraries that offer great information
9. Connect with alums
a. mentoring
10. Software for students (academic and student pricing)
11. Use of open questions for discussion
12. Puzzles (one piece to each student) to solve a puzzle

Encourage active learning (quote from Interactive Learning)
1. The Eye of the Hurricane
a. The Outcome-Based Model & Active Learning
2. Interact- The Key to Active Learning
a. Making comparisons through research
b. Critique research designs related to their discipline
c. Explore ethics through current events related to their discipline -datasets
3. Use labs and available resources
a. Design lab experiences that bring a practical aspect to the discipline
b. Use existing resources of the College
c. Computer labs available on campus – use them – bring in discipline-based software
4. Resources that promote active learning
a. Self-test
i. Simple Hyperlinks
ii. PowerPoint Template – Multiple Choice
iii. WebCT/Blackboard have self-testing features
iv. Publishers offer self-test features
b. E-Learning environments
i. Don’ts for Interactive Media
ii. FrontPage Templates for Teachers
iii. Smart Boards in the Classroom (whiteboards in WebCT)
c. Additional resources for pennies
i. Templates for Teachers
1. Lesson Materials
2. Class Management
3. Awards
4. Tests and Grades
ii. Add-ins that come bundled with textbook
iii. Primus (write-your own sections)
iv. Added CD ROM to textbook as study guide
v. Create Quick Source Guides
5. Project-oriented
a. Case studies available through disciplines
b. Free databases and raw data available for student research
i. Getting data from the web in Excel
6. Experiential learning
a. Service learning
b. Externships/Internships
c. Tours (include web based plant tours)
d. Conferences
e. Links with professionals
7. Interacting with assessment techniques
a. E-Instruction
b. Create your own database webpage and check results
c. Personal Response Systems
i. McGraw-Hill’s Homework Manager www.mhhe.com/business/homework/
d. JavaScript Popup Windows
8. Encourage active learning by self-learning (faculty learning)
a. Wiley Faculty Resource Network (WebEx)
b. WebCases
c. HorizonLive
9. Creating Learning Objects
a. Simulations, Games
i. StudyMate 1.0 (beta) from Respondus.com
ii. Puzzle Creater, Word search, Word mania
b. PowerPoint – Multimedia
i. Producer 2002
c. Role-playing in chat
d. Create your own E-books
i. eBook Creation and Use in Asynchronous Courses
ii. Downloading Your eBook & eBook Reading Tips
iii. The Handheld Librarian
1. Online book discussion groups
2. PDA Blogs
3. Guest speakers at E-Bookworm Show
e. Animation for Learning Objects
i. Various articles on how Learning Objects enhanced learning
ii. Flash Vs Swish & Flash-lite
iii. Learning Object Conference Presentation
f. Adding fireworks
g. Using Lectora
h. CamStudio Vs Camtasia (see avi on Straight Line Formula)
i. Visual Communicator
j. Producer (a PowerPoint multimedia product)
10. Learning Objects Resources
a. Merlot – peer reviewed
b. Etc.
11. Collaborative Learning Ideas
a. Online exchange programs examples
i. Students as Designers and Content Creaters” An Online Multimedia Exchange between the U.S. and Spain
ii. MIT and Spain

Give prompt feedback
1. Redesigned for Assessment
a. How to Set Up WebCT for FeedFORWARD (instead of Feedback)
i. WebCT Multiple Choice Questions
ii. WebCT Matching Questions
iii. WebCT Calculated Questions
iv. WebCT Short Answer Questions
v. WebCT Assign Points to Questions
vi. WebCT Quiz Settings
vii. How FeedFORWARD works in WebCT
2. Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique
a. Self-Testing & Publisher Test Banks
i. WebCT – Self-Testing
ii. Just a note about SCORM-Compliant questions
iii. Put javascript self testing here?
3. The Impact of Difficulties
a. Good Practice of Communicating Help Desk Support
b. Good Practice of Communicating Other Support
i. Continuous Support
ii. Online Tutorials
iii. Online Plug-ins
iv. Online Library Resources
v. Other Resource Connections
1. State Supported Virtual Libraries
2. Public Brick an Mortar Libraries
3. Publishers
4. Primis Content Center
4. Assessment Strategies of WebCT Exemplary Course
a. Need to add stuff from the Online book – see index
5. Collect Assignments Electronically
a. Why Insert Comments
i. How to Insert Comments
1. Insert Comments in Word
2. Insert Comments in Excel
3. Insert Some Creativity Into Excel Comments
ii. How to Insert Hyperlink Comments
1. Insert a Hyperlink in Excel
2. Insert a Hyperlink in Word
3. Insert a Hyperlink in PowerPoint & Package for CD
6. Thoughtful Feedback
a. Assessment Theories – Authentic Tasks
b. Assessment Theories – Five Step Maturity Model
c. Assessment Theories – Retention Impact
d. Assessment Strategies – for Online Courses
e. A Toolbox of Virtual Tools Needed for Feedback
i. WebAssign
ii. Wiki
iii. Annotating Text
iv. An Example
v. Microsoft Word, Lotus Notes & Adobe
1. Add Research Services to Word
vi. Prompt Feedback - Out of Office
7. Shared Workspace
a. More than Sharing a Document
b. Browser Discussion Tools
8. Learning Centered Theory
a. How do they learn what?
b. Pedagogy First, Technology Second
9. Building Feedback That Enhances Learning
a. Critical Engagement Rubric
b. Critical Thinking Project
10. Assessing Your Course
a. Assessment Tools
i. Free
ii. Design Your Own
iii. Purchase Assessment System
11. Your Course – It’s In The Details

Emphasizes time on task
1. Use standardized syllabus template (see hyperlink)
a. Syllabus Heading Components
b. Required Optional Resources
c. Course Resources
d. Student Learning Outcomes
i. Scenario 1 – Goal Alignment
ii. Scenario 2 – Ability-Based Learning Outcomes
iii. Guidelines Should Address Learning Outcomes
e. Assignments
i. Assignment Schema – How to articulate the connection
ii. Using WebCT to connect assignments & outcomes
iii. Policies for Late Homework
f. Timeline
i. Assignment Calendar & Lessons – How to set up a calendar
ii. Using the Calendar in WebCT
iii. Using the calendar with Lessons in Vista
g. Evaluation
i. Using a Calculated Column in WebCT
h. Policies & Additional Elements
2. Online Journey Learning
a. Creating Links As Content Pages
3. Time Saving Techniques
a. Indexing
b. Respondes
c. ExamView Test Generator
d. HTML Editor built within WebCT
4. Content Help Tools
a. Learning Resource iNterchange
b. Web-based Distributed Authoring & Versioning (WebDav)
i. How to set up a Network place
c. E-Packs
d. Connect WebCT to your Palm
5. Bookmark Online
a. Powermarks
b. Spurl.net
c. Other Bookmark Managers
i. Backflip.com
ii. Bookmark Commando
iii. Bookmark Tracker
iv. BlinkPro
v. BookMarx
6. Course Templates
a. Local templates
b. Microsoft & Dreamweaver Course Templates
i. Drag & Drop
ii. WebDAV
c. Creating Your Own Templates
i. Creating a Template in Word
ii. Other Template Ideas
iii. Assignment Templates
1. Scenario 1 – Business Law
2. Scenario 2 - Marketing
iv. Downloadable assignment sheets or CD
d. Class notes, PowerPoint available for download
e. Make it easier to submit assignments – design cover
7. Publish Course Materials to CD or DVD
a. How to publish a web site using FrontPage 2003
i. Format a rewritable Disc
ii. Publish FrontPage 2003 Web Directly (Backup Only)
iii. Publish FrontPage 2003 Web to Hard Drive and Then use Record Feature
8. Deadlines and Time Spent in the Course
a. Download/Upload Survey or Quiz
9. Solutions and Instructional Resources
a. Go Electronic
b. Give Examples without the Answers
i. Scenario 1- Well-written introduction
10. Treasures
a. Distance Learning Calculator
b. Landmarks Citation Machine
c. Library Resources
d. Trends for the Future
e. Tutorials available to all majors through a major link

Communicates high expectations
1. Syllabus should outline
a. Online etiquette
b. Assignment etiquette (cover sheet format)
c. Expectations of level of work
d. Connect to rubrics
2. If research papers, always provide tutorial on credibility of resources
a. Inspire – an Indiana network
b. Online Journals – submit
c. Track tips
d. But others are available
e. Librarians will conduct seminars for you
f. Tracerlock again
g. Learning Resource Centers
3. Samples of work available from previous “outstanding” students
4. E-Pak
5. Sloan article in folder for disc grading
6. see similar questions – pdf
7. test forming questions – Hyperlink to essay test and M/C tests
8. Teaching outside the box (textbook)
a. Multimedia expectation – projects
9. Rubrics that are public (posted on door, website)
a. Slide Show Criteria
10. Accountability
a. Materials readily available and online
11. Indicate assignments that would fit portfolio requirements
12. Encourage certification, submission to journals, poster shows
a. List of online journals
13. Advising (I can’t find a place to stick this)
14. Invite students to attend conferences with you
a. Online conferences
i. Webcast: Example: What you need to know about the revised CPA exam – presented by AICPA
ii. Webcast: Arresting Financial Fraud: The Inside Story From the FBI

Respects diverse talents and ways of learning
1. Assignments that give students a choice
2. Learning styles Vs Teaching Styles
a. Use of WebCT Exemplary Course Projects
b. World Lecture Hall
3. Provide non-linear learning
a. Pop-ups
b. Help buttons
c. FAQ
i. Publish a study guide to the ExamView Website (see folder)
d. Tutorials
4. Learning Disabilities
a. Read Out Loud exams (create them using Microsoft Text-to-Speech Package an add-in to Word 2002)
b. Bobby
5. Flexible assessment
a. Timed, but allowance for technology problems
b. Selection of questions changes
i. Export a question bank for use in WebCT
ii. Export a question bank for use in Lan testing
iii. Internet test-hosting service
iv. Exam-view
1. Publishers
2. Local
c. More than one chance
d. Pre-tests
e. Final project instead of final exam
6. Diagnostic testing

Chapter 8 – where other things don’t necessarily fit.
Resources that Save Time

1.Google DeskBar
2. Export/Import Bookmark file
3. Links in I.E. for most frequently used
4. Tip from Sarah about Copy & Paste. Clipomatic – doesn’t do the format, but works well – used it with the syllabus.

Chapter 9 – Learning Styles (only do if I have time)

In preface, show cases as team assignments, talk about discussion questions and exercises can be done individually.

2004-07-06T12:07:00.000-05:00

I just attempted posting to this - I had a huge post and it just didn't work. Now, I'm faced with retyping it. Therefore, this will be more brief than I want.

The delay in posting is due to taking a vacation in mid-June to a location that charged 25 cents per minute for Internet use at a cafe! I'm too cheap, but I sure missed it; perhaps, the experience was good for me. Anyway, we got back and the first thing, my mother-in-law had to have surgery. She is like a Mom to me, so this was no easy thing. We are still trying to make sure she is ok.

Anyway, started attending a conference called e/merge 2004 - Blended Collaborative Learing in Southern Africa at from June 28 - July 10. Good conference, with participants and presenters from all over the world. Will post more about this Wednesday.

Attended a Jungle Tour with Robin Good (a Roman, that is a leader in reporting on new technology). Interesting that he is a presenter - I've been reading his blogs for months! Anyway, he showcased Voxfire and iVocalize today. Both technologies are VoIP and work pretty well with low bandwidth. Tomorrow, the high bandwidth Jungle Tour.

Talk to you soon.

2004-07-06T11:46:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting in such a long time. We left for vacation in mid-June and came back to surgery for my mother-in-law! Anyway, I've been working on several chapters at once on the book. Since June 28th, I've been attending an online conference (htt on Blended Collaborative Learning in Southern Africa. I've learned a ton in just a few days. Gilly Salmon was promoting information from her new book on eModerators - I just finished the old book about 3 months ago and had no idea she was working on a new book. Her presentation was a little over the top for me - things like using a metaphor of four different planets to represent the future of collaborative learning. The planets are Contenteous, Instantia, Namadic, and Cafe'lattia. As I said - just a little over the top, but still quite interesting.

Over the weekend, I watched several of the presentations that were created in Breeze - so you hear their voice with each slide. It was a good idea to do this, since I feel like we should read the presentations through before the actual even. Robin Good (from Rome) had a presentation on the Tour of Synchronous and Synchronous Collaboration Environments. This was good, but what a coincidence - I've been reading his blog for months. He gave a Jungle Tour today of technologies for low-bandwidth - mainly VoIP with text and browswer sharing. The first was Voxfire, the second was iVocalize - he even tucked in some stuff from his Flash Comm Server. Both of these technologies will be shared in the book - so it was nice to actually work in a group to see how it works.

There is another Jungle Tour Wednesday at 9 a.m. my time (4:00 p.m.) their time. In Indiana, we are at -5:00 GMT and this was at +2.00 GMT. I'm finally getting the hang of it. The only problem is that the conference participants aren't often online when I'm online unless I go to a live event. At this one this morning, some where talking about their time of 1:00 A.M!!! I am so impressed with this conference because of the price and quality. It was R320 which is about $50 in US. If any accounting students are reading this, go check out a currency calculator!

I'll try to keep this going a little better again. While we were on vacation, I had no Internet, none, nada, zip! I had Internet withdrawal, but I also lost the habit of updating this blog. I need to get some fancier blogging going, and I will, but right now - I'm keeping my nose to the grindstone. My new deadline is June 19th (which happens to be a meeting with the CFA at SMWC). OK, enough for now.

2004-06-09T14:18:00.000-05:00

Hey, some good stuff going on today. Worked on the welcome page and getting permission to use SMWC logo in it now. Visit it at http://woodsonline.smwc.edu:8900/public/BU428/index.html and see if you like the format for a welcome page.

Started into another chapter - working with Emphasize Time on Task (chapter 5). The book will now be seven chapters instead of eight. I'm going to fold the chapter 8 stuff into an appendix or possibly into 5 and 6.

Spent a restless night without a/c again. Can't wait to get it fixed.

Lost a good friend at The Woods - Mary Margaret Bowles passed away yesterday. She didn't even find out she was sick until after the January WED return. Cancer took her so quickly, that I didn't even get to say good bye really. She was in Virginia with her family though, so that helps.

Found some great references today and put the links on My WebCT, now to see if all the students see them!

Leo is on a new radio station - I'm going to see if I can hear it since he is no longer on Call for Help at the TechTV/Comcast ruined station.

2004-06-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm somewhat frustrated with the chapter on Prompt Feedback. You ever been really close to understanding something, something that you've worked on for a few hours and then everyone wants your time? Well, that's the way I felt today. I then was labeled grouchy - so be it.

Sorry family, but sometimes....

Anyway, things are quiet and I have made some real progress on this chapter but still need to write about Respondes & Flashlight. Just wanted to vent - now I'll get back to work - no one is bothering me now - (since I'm so grouchy....)

2004-05-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the assessment section of the Prompt Feedback chapter this week. After reading 100s (and I literally mean that) of articles, I've come to the conclusion that faculty do NOT agree on the term "authentic assessment." I had not heard of WIDS Performance Assessment Task Library before and when I visited their website, I was NOT impressed - BUT, I judged too quickly. The website might be bad, but the product, well, I get it now. In effect it has over 50 model assessment tasks that can be customized to meed the needs of a varied disciplines and outcomes. The examples that I saw (after some researching) were related to the medical industry. So what they do is take standards from disciplines, chunk them into tasks and set activities to them with accompanying assessment. AT least that's my perception. Again, I worked with a mapping concept map software from Mindjet. I've decided, I don't learn that way well. I get systems with document symbols, but this is stretch for me. I'll probably try the 21 day trial. One think, the founder of the Mindjet fought a battle with leukemia and won. The software came from that experience. I digress...

Just an added bonus - a story of hiss...
We have an above ground pool (tall). I turned off the pump so that I could clean the basket. I took the lid off and I hesitated because of all the cicadas floating and something that looked like a yellow and brown striped hose. Well the hose reared up and looked at me - you guessed it - it was a snake! Looking at me looking at him! After some screaming, my son and husband took the net and flipped him out of the pool. Now I really don't want to weed eat behind the pool!

2004-05-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

Attended a graduation party for T.J. Coburn this afternoon. But time to update the blog for anyone that's reading on the progress of my book. I've been working with SharePoint. SharePoint is an add-in component to Microsoft Windows 2003 Server at no additional cost. It allows wonderful collaboration for teams, including supporting document version control. The templates would get any team off the ground running as my Dad used to say. I set up a trial version (30 days) of SharePoint service hosted at APPTIX and have showed some great screen shots of team functionality in my book.

I also worked Friday and Saturday on the concept of attaching discussions to Word documents that were saved as html. Now I'm sharing some of the annotating text online features, or at least examples of them. I love the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, and the Annotation Engine. I think other faculty will love them too.

I've worked on three different chapters in the last week. It just seems to work when I find something really relevant, to just go ahead and write about it at the time I find the good info. I have no idea where the time went (since really March) - I know I had trouble writing at first and now I wish I'd pushed myself a little more. I still want to have the book done by July 1. That way it can be bound and ready for faculty.

2004-05-17T11:12:00.000-05:00

I just had to put up another post. I just got off the phone with Caroll Garriott, a January WED graduate from The Woods. She had sent me an email wanting a recommendation to Baker for her masters (SMWC doesn't have a masters in accounting). In our conversation, she mentioned her horrible experience with Phoenix Online. She started in a communication's class on a Thursday, and her instructor was not available until a week later because he had to attend an upexpected wedding. In her words, Who goes to an UNEXPECTED wedding? The syllabus showed that the coursework was to be done in teams. She was grouped with five other people - One from Russia, one from Mexico and three U.S. They had trouble getting together to even start their group project and when they did, one guy who had not read the assignment spent his time correcting grammar. Caroll finally had to take charge of the group (just like a Woodsie). What she discovered made her "livid." Two of the students were in the masters program because they were told that they could sit for the CPA exam. Get this - THEY HAD NO UNDERGRADUATE ACCOUNTING. Of course, after Carol provided them with the website that showed the requirements to even sit for the exam, they dropped out. Caroll could see the handwriting on the wall, and she dropped out too. One week with no instructor, and Phoenix still wanted to charge her $700. A normal class is about $2000. She was not impressed - in her words, "I'm not going to piggyback a team to get my good grade. I want a place like St. Mary's..." Even though the man from Russia called her at 11:30 p.m. her time and BEGGED her to stay in the group!

She of course then shared all the wonderful things about SMWC, and I couldn't agree more. It makes me so proud to work at SMWC and that just really gets me fired up to do a great job on a book that will support the faculty.

Well, I hear my fax grinding, so that means Caroll sent me the form I need. See you soon.

2004-05-16T09:08:00.000-05:00

I wanted to write a short rambling on the book this morning. I did research almost all day on Thursday. I didn't realize how many folks are cynics. After research and highlighting about any article or criterion or testimony on assessment that has been published in the last year, I started writing on Friday. Much of Friday included some of the testimony of Dr. Carol Twigg and then I launched into creating questions and quizzes in WebCT. By Friday evening, I had 15 pages. On Saturday, I continued the assessment, prompt feedback, and even tied in a new term called FeedFORWARD.

The book is flowing faster than I can type it at this point. In some cases, I'm just typing in the headings in areas planning to come back to it because I'm hot on the trail of another section. I can't believe that way back in January, I wanted to organize the book around Chickering & Gamson's 7 principles of good teaching, because I see reference to those same concepts in almost every article I read.

Interesting points about online resources (specifically libraries). The science discipline is all amuck with the open access movement. But, I don't see how libraries can support $20,000 subscriptions to one journal either. Doesn't it seem that the movement toward electronic journals would make things cheaper? Well, apparently not. I still have a few more things to read on the Lure of Linking. Librarians seem to know exactly what this means, but I'm not sure - I think it is a management system of electronic holdings so that libraries can share, but I'm not sure and I won't put it into the book until I know exactly what I'm talking about.

I found it interesting that Thomson is doing a study on how often authors are cited by other authors. I know when I did some work in 1997, I was thrilled to run across a citation of my work in a recent article. I think I could really get into this writing thing if I didn't love teaching so much...!

Well, off to church. BTW, the time posted on the publishing of these blogs is off. I'll try to get that set later today. Don't forget to look at the archives to see what else I've talked about, although it is mostly book related....

2004-05-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was not a day to work on the book. Instead, I did something for a friend of mine that took about 8 hours to get done. Have you head of Visual Communicator from Serious Magic? Well, it is a studio quality broadcast software that allows you to record and publish to a DVD or SVCD. I have written some about this software under the Active Learning chapter, but this was a labor of love.

Mary's daughter is married to a young man in Iraq. About six months ago, she brought tons of photos over of their wedding, their life in Germany, his re-enlistment into the military, etc. We scanned photos several different days, I converted them from tiff to jpg and then placed them in this software. Visual Communicator can create a web version, a hard drive version (that you can burn to DVD or SVCD), or an email version by different renderings. I had close to 200 pictures and the songs I had purchased from Napster would not work (I can't even listen to them now, I've got it so screwed up!). Anyway, I ended up creating a nice show and Mary will be over this weekend to revise - I probably got some of the pictures out of order. I'm kind of proud of the final product though and feel like it is my contribution to someone in the war, regardless of the media coverage of the prisoners.

I will get back to the book today. I just wanted to share this experience.

2004-05-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

Nice Mother's day -
But back at it today. Finished an entire chapter since April 25th (April 25 to May 10), so not bad - even includes rough draft of cases, discussion questions and exercises. Lots of technology in this chapter too. Some great JavaScript. One was on random link + text description and the other one was on creating online quizzes that are more like self-tests. Listed some icebreakers in this chapter, but could have done a lot more of them. You know, you have to stop at some point and move on. Links to Javascript #1
The second Javascript was at Cool Web Effects

On a Sad Note...I can't believe that all of TechTV staff was fired on May 6. When new folks come in, it is like fire all, reshuffle and relocate. Not sure where it will end up

2004-05-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

Moving along on the book - it seems to consume me - I wake up thinking about it, and I'm jotting down notes here and there - well, just everywhere! I really LIKE the format now - at first, I fought it with pages here and there always talking about putting it into the format. Why I did that, I don't know - it is almost like starting that section over. I should have just stuck to the format to begin with. I found some cool things this week. One is s rubric generator and lots of other good support tools at http://teach-nology.com/web_tools/ In the book this last week, I show how to set up "Team Space" in WebCT, connect to lots of sites that support creating content, including the W3C initiative - BTW, there is a 2.0 out now folks... I found a great resource - a complete book online called, "Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Deseign for Learning" at http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Also used Bobby to test my website and 10 schools in Indiana. NONE of them passed! What is that about! Although, I had 2 violations, they were minor - I'm going to fix them this summer (when I get this book done...)

Lots more done, but too much to share. Talk to you soon.

2004-04-27T12:24:00.000-05:00

I'm glad to report lots of progress on the book. I must admit, I'm getting more out of this book than you might expect - I'm learning new things every day! I'm adding discussion questions and exercises and cases now. The cases are for teams or groups to complete. I have a ton of editing to do and major revisions on some of the chapters, but it is coming together! I'd like to include one cartoon with each chapter and that may get changed - I've spent 3 hours on the second cartoon and I'm still not satisfied. I can't seem to get the message into one pane - if I move to a 3 pane cartoon - it might work, but not too sure if it is what I want to do.

I've checked out some of my competitors of this book and we really don't cover the same topics and my organization and emphasis is different. This book is organized around the seven undergraduate principles for good teaching by Chickering and Gamson. There are seven chapters, one for each principle and one chapter called "Timesavers" where I'm dumping things don't really fit into the other seven chapters in this one. I may go back and move them around to keep to seven chapters. By far, the active learning chapter is huge - could be a book itself. Maybe, it should be split.

Still working with McGraw-Hill, but my main concern is to get the book done for my institution and then the revisions, etc. will be for McGraw-Hill.

Worked on the server yesterday and today - with a new router and DSL, the server became so slow.... Mapping the drive solved the problem. I didn't think of it, of course - Daniel did. After reading MS forums for hours, too....!

More later...

2004-04-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

I've worked quite a bit today with Voice technology. Thiings like voice e-mail, voice discussion boards, virtual office hours. Attended one seminar on e-packs until I saw that I knew what she was talking about (besides the phone was ringing...) I set up a chat client on my http://accounting.smwc.edu and have already used it 3 times with a student. I sent a voice email to Eric, Mike, DJ and Kim. Kim LOVED it. She said it made her day. I must say I'm pretty impressed with it myself.

I just keep plugging along on this book. I need to get back to McGraw-Hill, but I seem obsessed about finishing at this point. Perhaps it's the rain?

I did a little reading today - we have several American History mags and Traces (an Indiana Historical magazine). I had no idea that the Tibet connection was more from Shelton (a medical missionary) than the DL''s brother in Bloomington. Gee, what you don't know in your own backyard...
Then I started reading about the NCR giant. Pretty interesting stuff. He was a lister and liked the number 5. Some strage habits (like 4 baths/day and green felt underwear) - but a giant in sales reform among other things.

Well back to the grind...

2004-04-21T11:54:00.000-05:00

I'm thrilled that Leo Laportte is back on "Call for Help" on TechTV. I just hope that the new folks (Comcast) decide to keep him and expand his services on "The Screen Savers" too!

Anyway, on to the book. Today, I ordered Camtasia because I really think that all the features are worth it. I've been using CamStudio (free), but Camtasia will allow you to work with flash, including flash hot spots.

After meeting with my WED student on Sunday, I decided that the best Learning Object that I could create to show as an example in my book, would be one on Statement of Cash Flows. Students have trouble with this, and I think I have a great way of explaining it (the old auditing days really paid off for SCFs!).

I've been exploring Wimba this week. Wimba is the brainchild of a company that just joined forces with HorizonLive. Wimba has expertise in any technology that works with your voice (voice email, voice boards, voice conferencing, etc). They have a partnership with WebCT, so that is a plus, at least for my institution (Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College).

I'm still working through all the nuggets of knowledge that I gained at the Purdue University T&L Conference. Can you believe it? I won something - a WebCT seat in a distance course of my choice. So even more fun on the way! I'd like to go the Annual Conference for WebCT, but I don't know if I can work it in and get this book done. At some point, you have to get the mighty pen to the paper - or in my case, clicking the keys.

All for now!

2004-04-17T10:18:00.000-05:00

Well, a few days have passed since my last posting, but I've used those days wisely. I attended a T&L Conference at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana and learned tons that can enhance this book. I can't understand why Purdue faculty didn't just flock to this conference, but I was thrilled that I went. I attended the "Creating Videos for the Web with Camtasia Studio," "Creating Interactive Instructional Materials with Lectora," "Tablet PCs in a Traditional Journalism Course," "Using Tegrity WebLearner to Capture Real Time Lectures," "Created Narrated PowerPoint Presentations with Impatica," Semiotics, Technology, and the Research Paper," and "WebCT Exemplary Course Project." I list them all so that I can remember this later (as much for me as anyone). Not only did I truly enjoy this conference, I even won a door prize.

I have already used a section from what I've learned in the book. I reviewed several of the exemplary courses and used them as examples in the book. Why I had not done that, I don't know - sometimes the simple solutions evade me, I guess...

Now, all I want to do is write - but here in Indiana, the weather is beautiful and I'm thinking alot about putting out a few flowers. Oh well, I'll work today and plant Monday. Sunday, I'm helping a WED student with Intermediate Accounting. I'm looking forward to meeting with her - believe it or not, I miss interacting with my students!

Well that's all for now.

2004-04-12T13:21:00.000-05:00

Although somewhat busy with Easter services, I've been diligently working on the book. I'm still struggling with the RSS concept. I've learned a lot, but still not enough to really relate it well in the book. I still think blogging is a needed section in the book, but if I can't relate the RSS concept well, I may only touch on this and move on.

I found evidence that blogging is part of the college curriculum at several campuses, and a real way of conducting the profession (see Jon Udell's various blogs, etc). I'm off to look for Leo's blog (Leo Laporte is my hero at the ScreenSavers, with Patrick and Kevin fighting for second!).

Off to the book - more news will be posted soon!

2004-04-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

Today, I backed up the technology book to CD including the bookmark.htm file, instead of backing up to the raid server. Why? Well yesterday, our business DSL was active. No more satellite glitches (when we have wind or rain, we often lose our internet connection). We have some more moving around to do, so not sure how much I can work on the book today, but I'm starting on it now and trying to shut my eyes to the stacks of things around me. Should be interesting!

Another thing about blogging. I kind of fumbled around to figure out the URL for updating the blog (posting). I finally realized that you need to go back to http://www.blogger.com, sign in and then you can post. In hindsight, I wished I'd chosen a different name for the blog. The Ramblings? Where did I get that idea?

Well, back to the book - we will see how much I get done today...!

2004-04-07T17:15:00.000-05:00

Today, I found several good links that will help in the book. One particularly was right in my own backyard at http://thevid.org which is a partnership of ISU and Vincennes and some other instititutions. VID stands for Virtual Instructional Designer and it is full of tidbits, articles, and resources. What a nice find!

Also, I found "Sketches - Innovations in Education" journal from ISU that gave some insight to what they are doing in distance education. I will do this same approach with several other instititions in Indiana.

I added blogging to the first chapter right after the discussion web stuff.

Wrote about 2 hours, researched about two and still at it.