On 11/25/2014,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
On 11/10/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society,
by Daniel Christian
They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
On 11/04/2014,
in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, higher education, immersion, innovation, interactivity, learning ecosystem, love of learning, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, online learning, participation, play, psychology, real-world assignments, relationships, religion, social learning / networks, social media, society, sociology, story, storytelling, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, transmedia, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Last week I attended the 20th Annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference. While there, I was inspired by an excellent presentation entitled, “A Disruptive Innovation: MSU’s Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Are You Ready to Survive a New Way of Learning?“ The four team members from Michigan State University included:
- Glenn R. Stutzky | Course Instructor
- Keesa V. Muhammad | Instructional Designer
- Christopher Irvin | Instructional Designer
- Hailey Mooney | Course Librarian
Check out the intro clip on the website about the course:
From the description for the presentation:
This session highlights MSU’s award winning, groundbreaking online course that fuses social theory, filmmaking, social media, and viral marketing while students survive an apocalyptic event. http://zombie.msu.edu/
MSU created and used powerful digital storytelling and multimedia to overlay real, experiential, immersive learning. Important content was relayed, but in a way that drew upon your emotions, your ability to solve problems and navigate in a world where you didn’t have all of the information, your ability to work with others, and more.
“This innovative course integrates current research and science on catastrophes and human behavior together with the idea of a zombie apocalypse. In doing so, we actively engage with students as they think about the nature, scope, and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and the Earth itself.”
“Our innovative approach to teaching and learning features: students as active participants, the instructor becomes the facilitator, storytelling replaces lectures, zombies become the catalyst of teaching, a “zombrarian” (librarian) drives research, and the students emerge as digital storytellers as a way of assessing their own learning.”
Others outside MUS have found out about the course and have requested access to it. As a result of this, they’ve opened it up to non-credit seeking participants and now various people from police forces, Centers for Disease Control, and others are able to take the course. To make this learning experience even more accessible, the cost has been greatly reduced: from $1600+ to just $500. (So this talented team is not only offering powerful pedagogies, but also significant monetary contributions to the university as well.)
For me, the key thing here is that this course represents what I believe is the direction that’s starting to really pull ahead of the pack and, if done well, will likely crush most of the other directions/approaches. And that is the use of teams to create, deliver, teach, and assess content – i.e., team-based learning approaches.
So many of the sessions involved professional development for professors and teachers – and much of this is appropriate. However, in the majority of cases, individual efforts aren’t enough anymore. Few people can bring to the table what a talented, experienced group of specialists are able to bring. Individual efforts aren’t able to compete with team-based content creation and delivery anymore — and this is especially true online, whereby multiple disciplines are immediately invoked once content hits the digital realm.
In this case, the team was composed of:
- The professor
- Two Instructional Designers
- and a librarian
The team:
- Developed websites
- Designed their own logo
- Marketed the course w/ a zombie walking around campus w/ brochures and a walking billboard
- Used a Twitter stream
- Used a tool called Pensu for their students’ individual journals
- Made extensive use of YouTube and digital storytelling
- Coined a new acronym called MOLIE – multimedia online learning immersive experience
- Used game-like features, such as the development of a code that was found which revealed key information (which was optional, but was very helpful to those who figured it out). The team made it so that the course ended differently for each group, depending upon what the teams’ decisions were through the weeks
- Used some 3D apps to make movies more realistic and to create new environments
- Continually presented new clues for students to investigate. Each team had a Team Leader that posted their team’s decisions on YouTube.
They encouraged us to:
THINK BIG! Get as creative as you can, and only pull back if the “suits” make you! Step outside the box! Take risks! “If an idea has life, water it. Others will check it out and get involved.”
In their case, the idea originated with an innovative, risk-taking professor willing to experiment – and who started the presentation with the following soliloquy:
Syllabi are EVIL
Syllabi are EVIL and they must die!
Listen to me closely and I’ll tell you why.
Just want students to know what is known?
See what’s been seen?
Go – where we’ve been going?
Then the Syllabus is your friend,
cuz you know exactly where you’ll end.
But if you want to go somewhere new,
see colors beyond Red, Green, and Blue.
Then take out your Syllabus and tear-it-in-half,
now uncertainty has become your path.
Be not afraid because you’ll find,
the most amazing things from Creative Minds,
who have been set free to FLY,
once untethered from the Syllabi.
Glenn Stutzky
Premiered at the 2014
Online Learning Consortium International Conference
October 29, 2014
“The number of infected in Michigan has reached critical mass.” CSM Quintero #sw290 pic.twitter.com/F6m8ZaoRyG
— MSU Zombie (@MSUZombies) June 19, 2014
They started with something that wasn’t polished, but it’s been an iterative approach over the semesters…and they continue to build on it.
I congratulated the team there — and do so again here. Excellent, wonderful work!
By the way, what would a creative movie-like trailer look like for your course?
On 09/05/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Here are two really interesting pieces of scripture. Seldomly do I read where the LORD Himself is amazed by something. But note His being amazed in these cases — and they both involve the topic of faith (one on the negative side of things and one on the positive side of things; emphasis mine):
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
Other examples from scripture:
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
42 Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” 43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.
On 08/21/2014,
in career development, faith, future, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, society, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
This posting has a spectrum of perspectives/content on it. First some faith-based items:
Description
Is it possible to know the world and still love the world? Of all the questions we ask about our calling, this is the most difficult. From marriages to international relations, the more we know, the harder it is to love. We become cynics or stoics, protecting our hearts from the implications of what we know. But what if the vision of vocation can be recovered—allowing us to step into the wounds of the world and for love’s sake take up our responsibility for the way the world turns out? For decades Steve Garber has come alongside a wide range of people as they seek to make sense of the world and their lives. With him we meet leaders from the Tiananmen Square protest who want a good reason to still care about China. We also meet with many ordinary people in ordinary places who long for their lives to matter:
- Jonathan who learned he would rather build houses than study history
- Todd and Maria who adopted creative schedules so they could parent better and practice medicine
- D.J. who helped Congress move into the Internet Age
- Robin who spends her life on behalf of urban justice
- Hans who makes hamburgers the way they are meant to be made
- Susan who built a home business of hand-printing stationary using a letterpress
- Santiago who works with majority-world nations in need of capital
- George who has given years to teaching students to learn things that matter most
- Claudius and Deirdre whose openhearted home has always been a place for people
- Dan who loves Wyoming, the place, its people and its cows
Vocation is when we come to know the world in all its joy and pain and still love it. Vocation is following our calling to seek the welfare of the world we live in. And in helping the world to flourish, strangely, mysteriously, we find that we flourish too. Garber offers a book for everyone everywhere—for students, for parents, for those in the arts, in the academy, in public service, in the trades and in commerce—for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.
From DSC:
Some quotes from the book:
“It is possible to get all A’s and still flunk life.”
“From mime artists in Paris, to attorneys walking the killing fields of Rwanda, to young, eager human rights activists in Washington, to graduate students at at Yale, how does one learn to see with the eyes of the heart, to see oneself as responsible for the way the world is and isn’t? Not a cheap question, and there are no cheap answers.”
From DSC:
The above book was recommended to me by the Director of CIC NetVUE, Dr. Shirley Roels. For more information about CIC NetVUE, see the items below:
NetVUE is a nationwide network of colleges and universities committed to enriching the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation among undergraduate students.
The purposes of NetVUE are to:
- Deepen the understanding of the intellectual and theological dimensions of vocational exploration;
- Examine the role of vocational exploration in a variety of institutional contexts;
- Share knowledge, best practices, and reflection on experiences across participating campuses;
- Develop a network for sustaining an extended program in the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation; and
- Facilitate the incorporation of additional colleges and universities into this enterprise.
Now, for some items that are not (necessarily) faith-related:
Blackboard Debuts Free College and Career Guidance App — from thejournal.com by Joshua Bolkan
Excerpt:
Blackboard has a released a free mobile app, Job Genie, designed to help students explore career paths and college options.”The app is a result of qualitative research with students that indicated a large amount of apprehension around key academic decisions, such as picking a school, major or career path,” according to a news release. “Designed to be a non-threatening way to explore various education and job options, the app uses casual language and aesthetics to reinforce that these choices are part of a journey and that students should not feel locked into a single recommendation.”
Be Employed When You Gradate –a book by Jonathan Blake Huer (2014)
Excerpt:
College isn’t about getting a job; it’s about earning a degree. So, when do students learn how to find meaningful employment? From choosing a major to negotiating a job offer, author and educator, Jonathan Blake Huer, offers his perspective to finding your way through today’s job market in his first book, Be Employed When You Graduate.
The advice and exercises in each chapter offer an honest and practical guide to setting measurable professional goals in college, and how to transform those experiences into internships, freelance positions and post-graduate jobs.
On 08/06/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society,
by Daniel Christian
“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear* God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
* Respect, hold in awe, obey, revere, seek, love
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”**
** For me, to consistently obey the word of God is not at all easy.
I mess up frequently. So I greatly appreciate that the LORD
extends His grace and forgiveness to me.
On 07/07/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
4 In that day you will say:
“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
On 05/29/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear* him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
* From DSC:
Fear = revere, respect, honor, listen to, obey
On 05/17/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
Romans 11:33-36 (New International Version)
Doxology
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
On 05/16/2014,
in 21st century, collaboration, communications, future, game-changing environment, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC), psychology, relationships, research, society, sociology, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
Where the Internet of Things could take society by 2025 — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla
Excerpt:
The Pew Research Center Internet Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center released the report on Wednesday, May 14, as part of an ongoing future of the Internet series inspired by the Web’s 25th anniversary. Eighty-three percent of these experts, which included education leaders, agreed that the Internet of Things would have “widespread and beneficial effects on the everyday lives of the public by 2025.” The remaining 17 percent said it would not, and both camps elaborated on their answers in paragraph form.
Their explanations fall under six major points:
- The Internet of Things and wearable computing will take major steps forward in the next 11 years.
- Increased data from connected things will cause privacy concerns to come to the forefront and encourage the growth of profiling and targeting people, which will greatly inflame conflicts in various arenas.
- Despite advancement in information interfaces, most people won’t be connecting their brains to the network.
- Complicated, unintended consequences will arise.
- A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network.
- Relationships will change depending on people’s response to the Internet of Things.
From DSC:
As with most technologies, there will be positives and negatives about the Internet of Things. To me, the technologies are tools — neutral, not value-laden — and it’s how we use them that adds moral, political, legal, ethical, or social perspectives/elements to them. With that said, I’m quite sure that the IoT will have unintended consequences (#4 above). Also, item #5 — “A digital divide could deepen and disenfranchise people who don’t choose to connect to the network” — is especially troublesome to me, along with the topic of privacy concerns as mentioned in #2.
On 04/19/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, society,
by Daniel Christian
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[ The Resurrection of Christ ] Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
…
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
Jesus Has Risen
28 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.
On 04/19/2014,
in faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt from a recent email from my Dad:
An eye witness account from New York City, on a cold day in December, some years ago:
A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the
roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.
A lady approached the young boy and said,
‘My, but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!’
‘I was asking God to give me a pair of
shoes,’ was the boy’s reply.
The lady took him by the hand, went into
the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks
for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water
and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.
She took the little fellow to the back
part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed
his little feet, and dried them with the towel.
By this time, the clerk had returned with
the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him
a pair of shoes.
She tied up the remaining pairs of socks
and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, ‘No
doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’
As she turned to go, the astonished kid
caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears
in his eyes, asked her:
‘Are you God’s wife?’
On 03/29/2014,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society,
by Daniel Christian
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
On 03/14/2014,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, graphics, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
