Retired professor writes free online textbook — from eCampusNews.com
Some people play golf when they retire. William Reusch learned programming and created 2,000 online problem sets for organic chemistry. (p. 12)
On 05/04/2010,
in faculty/staff, teachers,
by Daniel Christian
During this Teacher Appreciation Week…I wanted to say thanks again to all of the teachers, faculty members, trainers, coaches, mentors, supervisors, and instructors out there! Keep up the hard, but good work! You make a difference. You change lives. Your work makes the world a better place and you help lift people out of poverty.
In my postings, I never mean to be negative on your performance. Rather, I seek to change some things in the way we do things in order to create win-win situations and, on occasion, to raise some alarms so that we don’t get broadsided.
With gratitude for all my current and former teachers, bosses, and coaches,
Daniel Christian
On 04/08/2010,
in faculty/staff, higher education,
by Daniel Christian
Different paths to Full Professor — from InsideHigherEd.com
Not only does Ohio State want to end the all-out dominance of research considerations in reviews for full professor, but the university wants to explore options where some academics might earn promotions based largely on research (and have their subsequent careers reshaped with that focus) while others might earn promotions based largely on teaching (and similarly have career expectations adjusted). Both could earn the title of full professor.
Why the ’system’ won’t change quickly — by Tony Bates and Trent Batson
Batson, T. (2010) Let faculty off the hook Campus Technology, March 17
“I liked this article very much. Trent Batson lays out a whole host of compelling reasons why it is so difficult to get faculty to change and use technology more and better. His main argument is that the whole ecology of higher educational institutions reinforces the status quo.”
From DSC:
Most institutions won’t change…not until the writing is on the wall. As a related example, Blockbuster now gets it and has been scrambling to make the necessary changes to stay in the game — they now offer movies-on-demand and will deliver movies directly to you. However, they were very late to the game and nearly lost their shirt because of it (they still might). They didn’t change until Apple and Netflix came along with some seriously-attractive alternatives to the “traditional way” of renting movies — and were either forced to change or to file for bankruptcy.
When someone gets it right within higher education (see below), such an organization will be copied over and over again (witness what happens every time to Apple and their innovations). Such a trend will issue in a new system that will leave the traditional institutions scrambling to catch up. The faculty members alone won’t be able to make the changes.
To me “getting it right” means:
- We need TEAMS of specialists to create and deliver multimedia-based, rich, interactive content (much like those in healthcare-related fields did long ago — they specialized. The for-profit organizations out there already are doing this and are enjoying very healthy growth rates.)
- Such content will be offered in 2-5 different ways (audio only, audio/video, simulations, games, text/graphics)
- We need administrations that are visionary in their approaches and will get the faculty members and the rest of the specialists the support and resources that they need to make the necessary transitions
- We need to turn the control over to students to pursue their passions
- We need to let students’ passions drive their learning
- We need to guide the students, while letting them create more of the content themselves — i.e. allowing for more active, participatory types of learning
- Such offerings will be extremely affordable — due to the volume of learning that occurs and/or due to developing stronger consortiums and repositories of content (which spread out the costs)
- We need CULTURES that are OPEN/WILLING to make changes.
That’s my 2 cents here.
On 03/18/2010,
in blended learning, colleges, community colleges, computer science, convergence, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, disruption, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, internet, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, liberal arts, mathematics, mobile learning, multimedia, online learning, participation, pedagogy, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, staying relevant, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, telecommunications, telepresence, tools, universities, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Wimba Connect 2010 — check out the applications of these tools
OPENING KEYNOTE
Carol Vallone, CEO, Wimba
Teaching Math & Sciences with Wimba (Panel)Andrew Byrne & Kurt Mederer, Convent of the Sacred Heart; David Tao, Santosh Madhavan & Dan Lim, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences; Michele Barbeau & Kem Rogers, The University of Western Ontario
Using Wimba to Engage and Empower an Academic Community of Learners: The Case of the Global Citizen
Linda Ralston & Rebekah Grow, University of Utah
Faculty Development Wimba Style
Janet Welch & Stacey Mateika, Red Deer College
Using Wimba Voice, Pronto, and Create in Synchronously in Wimba Classroom and Asynchronously in an Online Environment
Brooke Eberwine, Steven Frecka & Jamie Westyn, OHDELA
Small Scale Implementation of Wimba Classroom – The Possibilities Are Endless
Regina Bobak & Julie Wolfe, Bloomsburg University of PA
Language Learning with Wimba (Panel)
Teresa MacKinnon, University of Warwick Language Centre; Ana Garcia Allen, The University of Western Ontario; Barbara Cohen, Berkeley College
Wikis, Wimbas, Whatevers! What Teachers Weave!
Jane Overmoe, Dakota Prairie HS
Taking the Troy Colloquium Online + Wimba: The Solution to Quality Online Learning
Gayle Nelson & Peter Paige, Troy University
Wimba Product Presentation
Annie Chechitelli, Wimba
Presentations Live or On-the-Go with Wimba Classroom MP4 Archives
Jason Rhode, Northern Illinois University & Larry Holland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
NCVPS Cultural Cafe
Thomas Moncrief, North Carolina Virtual Public School
Our Journey: From Face 2 Face 2 Online Masters Degree
Gary Shouppe & Tom McCormack, Columbus State University
So Many Choices, So Little Time: Effective Voice Tools Training
Stacey Powell & Kathy McClelland, Auburn University
Features, Technical Problems and Technical Support in Higher Education Wimba Classrooms
Mary Nell McNeese, Amy Thornton & Jalynn Roberts, University of Southern Mississippi
ALAKAZAM!!! Instantly Transform your Physical Classrooms into Lecture Capture Spaces Using Wimba!
Scott Smith & Brian Reed, Wimba; Mark Burris, Michael Merritt & Linda Stauffer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Using Wimba to Prepare for H1N1 and other Potential Disasters (Panel)
Phil O’Hara & Tim Fedak, Dalhousie University; David Tao & Dan Lim, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences
Diminishing the Distance in Distance Ed – Wimba’s Live Tools: People Reaching People
Crystal Havely Stratton & Patricia Landy, Laramie County Community College
“Keep It Live” – What the Students Say!
Mike Scheuermann, Drexel University
Wimba Pronto 4 All: Pronto Invitations and Universal Integration
Marlen Rattiner & Chris Dixon, Wimba
Online Learning is all about Collaboration!
Mark Gensimore, Jed Friedrichsen & blendedschools.net
Bringing In Local and Global Guest Speakers through Wimba Classroom
Chunyan Song , Ann Steckel & Laura Sederberg, California State University, Chico
Envelop, Develop: Building a Statewide and College-Level Professional Development System with Wimba and your LMS
Terry Pollard & Christian Pruett, Mississippi SBCJC; Rebecca Butler, Northwest Mississippi Community College; Jennifer Nowotny, Wimba
Where Did My Wimba Go and Do Users Know It’s Missing?
Michael Rogers & Jim Wolfgang, University System of Georgia; Sean Hessenthaler, Wimba
The Professor is In: Lessons Learned in Delivery of Online Student Support
Michelle Escudier & Sharon Davis, Central Texas College
Pet Kangaroos and Other Tall Tails – Live and MP4 Examples, Best Practices and Case Studies on Using Wimba Down Under
Steve Watt & Thalia Cosmidis, NetSpot Pty Ltd
Reaching Over Wall: Linking Kindred Spirits via Live Web Conferencing
Phil O’Hara & Corinne Tobin, Dalhousie Unversity; Paul Lowe, University of the Arts London
Collaborating With Students – A Glimpse of the Future With Blackboard
Brian DeKemper, Solutions Engineer, Blackboard
The Blended Language Learning Consortium (presented remotely)
Paul Snookes & Judy Barker, University of Worcester
Bringing Wimba out of the Web and into the Classroom
Bryan Vandiviere, Kansas State University
Wimba Classroom Beyond Classes
Cory Stokes, Univeristy of Utah & Edwin Perez, Wimba
The Power of Wimba 6.0 Archives: Developing and Editing the Archive Library
Jun Yang, University of Maryland
From the Lands Down Under – Wimba Firing Up Staff and Students in Australia and New Zealand
Lisa Ransom & Oriel Kelly, Manukau Institute of Technology; Kerry Trabinger, Canberra Institute of Technology
A Triple Threat to Student Attrition: Three Disciplines, Three Perspectives, and Three Uses of Wimba Classroom to Improve Student Retention
Monica Brooks, Tracy Christofero, Karen Mitchell, & Marty Laubach, Marshall University
High Impact Pedagogy: Bringing Online and Blended Courses to ‘Life’ through Learning Simulation and Wimba
Kristen Betts, Drexel University
Video, Vodcasts, and YouTube – Oh My!
Sarah Bryans Bongey & Chery Takkunen, The College of St. Scholastica
Online Education and the Power of Web 2.0 for Student Retention
Felice Nudelman, The New York Times / Epsilen
The Ways Wimba Classroom Can Revolutionize the Offering of Online Degree Programs
Daniel Powell, University of Alabama School of Law
Using Breakout Rooms to Foster Faculty Development
Ann Morgan, Kelly Kist & Heather Zink, Rasmussen College
Computer Science “eXperience:” Using Wimba Tools to Enhance Computer Science Education
Adel Abunawass, Alexandra Young & Edwin Rudolph, University of West Georgia
The Virtual Student Experience: Addressing Emotional & Multiple Intelligences & Soliciting Student Feedback
Dawn Muhammad, Calumet College of St. Joseph & H. Jean Bryan, Ed.D., DePaul University
CLOSING KEYNOTE BY JEFF NOEL, THE DISNEY INSTITUTE
Jeff Noel, The Disney Institute
Poster Presentations
- Online Office Hours: How I Get Them To Attend
Lyndasu Crowe, Darton College - Enhancing Student/Instructor Interaction in the Online Environment through Podcasting
Heather Zink, Rasmussen College - Mastering the Point: Using Wimba Live Classroom with Effective PowerPoint Presentations to Enhance Online Learning
Sue Burris, National Park Community College - Unleashing Wimba: Letting Students Take Control. A case study in providing webinar technology for students to facilitate group work.
Laurie Grosik, Indiana University of Pennsylvania & Cori Dunagan, Edinboro University - Building Tech Capacity in a Non-Profit Collaborative Using Wimba Classroom
Bruce Roxburgh, Green Communities Canada
On 03/08/2010,
in 21st century, Apple, art, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, blogs / blogging / vlogging, CMS/LMS, colleges, computer science, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, engineering, geography / geology, Google, graphics, higher education, history, hybrid learning, innovation, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, mathematics, multimedia, music, online learning, online media, pedagogy, physics, podcasting, psychology, RSS, science, social learning / networks, sociology, STEAM-related, story, storytelling, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telecommunications, web design and production, writing,
by Daniel Christian
Student-provided sites from The Teaching & Learning Digital Studio at Calvin College
Digital Studio Sites is a blog with a large collection links from the Teaching & Learning Digital Studio Staff at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) that covers a wide range of academic topics and more. The staff scours the Web for the best, most interesting, and useful Web sites for the classroom (and maybe beyond) on the Internet and continually updates the list of links. Professors can quickly find sites related to their field of study by keyword, search, or by subscribing via RSS feed.
On 03/06/2010,
in faculty/staff, higher education,
by Daniel Christian
New study explores life and career attitudes of young professors — from education-portal.com
A recent study conducted by Harvard examines how ‘Gen X’ faculty approach their scholarly careers and work-life balance. The survey found that young professors value work-life balance and interdisciplinary work more than the Baby Boomers, but are happy overall with their careers.
The new study is part of Harvard’s ongoing Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), a consortium of over 130 colleges and universities seeking to improve the academic workplace for early-career faculty. COACHE primarily distributes the Tenure-Track Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey, which aims to provide participating institutions with data that they can translate into policy change in less than a year.
New Challenges, New Priorities: The Experience of Generation X Faculty draws from a combination of extensive survey data and 16 qualitative interviews with administrators and faculty at three institutions: a large public research university, a small private liberal arts college and a private master’s institution. All but one of the interviewees is considered a member of ‘Generation X,’ defined as people born between 1964 and 1980. They came from a variety of disciplines, including business, chemistry, English, law, medicine, theater, education and engineering. The goal of the study is to determine how Gen X faculty approach their jobs, long-term careers and work-life balance. Furthermore, the study’s authors hoped to see if and how the reports of generational clashes in the broader workforce play out in the academic environment.
On 03/03/2010,
in change, changing business models, face-to-face, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, higher education, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
Who needs a prof? –– George Siemens
I’ve talked in the past about trailing ideologies – namely that we design systems to serve an era, but when the era changes, the systems often don’t. Education is a great example. In higher education and corporate training, we labour under many assumptions and ideologies that have been negated by the web, social media, and mobile technologies. Courses, classrooms, and teacher-centric learning can (should) be rethought to capitalize on what technology enables and renders obsolete from the previous model.
So what role is left for the teacher? To be effective, Wieman says, they must be “cognitive coaches” rather than conduits of information. Rankin believes that the change in pedagogy will happen soon. “It’s comparable to the introduction of a light switch,” he adds. “It’s just going to take a while for people to figure out what this looks like and how it works.”
From DSC:
Also from the “Who needs a prof?” article:
Similarly, William Rankin, an associate professor of English at Abilene Christian University, has been a primary mover behind equipping students at the Texas university with iPod Touches and iPhones. The program began in 2008, and now nearly half the student body have the devices. Rankin says teachers, too, are better off for it. The faculty uses the devices to overcome time delays between tests and feedback, get immediate class input, and participate in ongoing online discussions via blogs. “The medieval apprentice model in which people learned in these very personalized ways is exactly the type of learning we can see in this initiative,” says Rankin. “I do think that in the next two or three years you will see a groundswell of these sorts of initiatives.”
From DSC:
I post this here to show my support of the need for change and to sew seeds for change. In order for us to meet this next generation where they are at, we can’t hold on to the status quo. We need to cultivate change now in order to be ready for the K-12ers coming our way.
Online college services company raises $5.5 million in venture backing — from statesman.com by Lori Hawkins
Austin-based MyEdu , an online service for college students, has raised $5.5 million from Bain Capital Ventures to expand its marketing efforts and product development.
Founded in 2008 by software veteran Michael Crosno , MyEdu operates a Web-based service that helps students make decisions about their courses, schedules, professors and majors. The company said more than 2 million students have used MyEdu, which offers academic data from 750 universities.
…
He started MyEdu by acquiring Austin-based Pick-A-Prof (emphasis DSC), which was co-founded in 2000 by Chris Chilek and John Cunningham , William Cunningham’s son.
Pick-A-Prof had built a base of 1.5 million users at 200 universities by providing online information about professors, including grading patterns, average drop rates and student reviews, as well as schedule planners.
…
MyEdu estimates that the average cost of a dropped class is $3,000 and that 70 percent of students transfer schools or change majors, resulting in five to six classes that don’t count toward their degree.
From DSC:
Why do I post this? Because it points out the continuing shift in power that is starting to be enjoyed by the students of our universities and colleges. They are now able to obtain information from other students who have taken course XYZ at U of ABC and can get information about that experience.
I’m not saying that all of this is a good thing, as many students might try to find out who’s giving all A’s and just go with those folks. This may not serve our students — and our society — very well in the long run. As frequently the case with tech-enabled directions like this, there seems to be advantages on one hand, and disadvantages on the other. For example, when the myEdu site says, “Choose the best professors” — the “best professors” for one student might be very different for what constitutes the “best professors” for another.
On 02/01/2010,
in education technology, faculty/staff, pedagogy, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Instructional Intentions and the Realities of Practice: Faculty Perspectives of Learning in the Web 2.0 — from Educause
“Web 2.0 technologies are implemented with intentions of enriching the teaching and learning experience. With their adoption comes a set of implied pedagogical practices that are often imperfectly understood by faculty as well as learners: the realities of practice may differ considerably from intended use. This session presents faculty experiences as vignettes on practice and invites participants to share in the discussion of implied practices as well as realities in using digital media in the classroom. Participants will have an opportunity to address four key questions in small-group dialogues on the intentions and realities associated with Web 2.0 tools.”