Nice New Tool

Recently I’ve been investigating tools that will allow anyone to create screencasts.  I found a gem in Screenr [www.screenr.com].  I’ll be writing a review of this soon, but came across a really nice screencast on creating above-average Powerpoint slides by simply using Powerpoint.  Enjoy.

Ingredients

- Computer with access to the Internet

- Instructor access to a Blackboard course (the screencast features BB Enterprise 8 )

- The website at http://feed2js.org

- A website with an active RSS feed to be used in Blackboard

Directions

1. Navigate to the website that has an RSS feed.
2. Look for an icon on the page that looks like this:
3. If you don’t see that icon, look for some text that mentions “subscribe to feed” or “RSS“. Linked text that reads “Entries (RSS)” is a common way the feed for a WordPress blog is encountered, usually near the bottom of the screen.
4. You can right-click on the icon or text link and choose either Copy Link Location (Firefox), or Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
5. Alternatively, you can click on the icon or the text and it should lead you to a page with a few options to subscribe to the RSS feed. What’s important is that the feed URL is now in the web browser’s address bar. Copy the URL so that you can paste it into the appropriate field in the Feed2JS website.
6. Navigate to the Feed2JS website.
7. Click on the tab labeled “Build” and paste the RSS feed URL into the box labeled URL.
8. Optionally, you can change the options for how the feed is displayed.
9. Click on the button labeled “Generate Javascript”
10. This will display code in the field labeled “Get Your Code Here”
11. Copy the entire contents of this field. This is the code we’ll place in Blackboard.
12. Navigate to the area in your Blackboard course where you would like to place the RSS information.
13. Click on the Add (+) Item button to create a new content item.
14. Provide a name for the content item (required)
15. In the Text editor click on the “Toggle HTML Source Mode” button
16. Paste the code generated from the Feed2JS website into the text field (overwrite any existing text that’s in that field to start)
17. Click on the Submit button

Information derived from the Digital Media Cookbook Website

LectureTools started as a framework to investigate new methods for adding to class discourse by engaging students in text-based, image-based and simulation based responder questions. It was tested in a few classes last semester according to the university and it will soon be made available to their faculty at large. Developed by a professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences named Arthur F. Thurnau for use in a large lecture class, the tool is designed to create greater student engagement with lecture materials and discourse.

In a statement put out by Samson on behalf of the university at large, “Students learn better by being actively engaged in the lecture, offering their own feedback and discussing with their peers, as LectureTools allows them to do. We’re utilizing all the students’ propensities and abilities to multitask.”

In your experience, can you speak to either the validity of this statement or its unsoundness?

We’ve been getting lots of activity from our posts on mobile Web.

Mobile Learning:  A Springboard Discussion |  Fear of Mobile Learning |  ML Podcast (iTunes)

It’s something that higher education is already behind in.  The best Web sites have created mobile versions for a group of users growing at an over 100% rate each year.  Look at the big guns:  ESPN, CNN, Yahoo and Google.  Even social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.  There are very few higher education sites with mobile versions.  Try it.  Search for m.harvard.edu.  m.um.edu.  m.berkley.edu.  The best site I can find today is Duke.  Check it out:  m.duke.edu

Traditional Web sites are not going to be cutting the mustard any longer.  The business world moved from HTML to XHTML/CSS, to CMS, and now mobile with custom applications.  Higher education is probably at the XHTML/CSS and/or CMS stage.  Conclusion?  Higher education is behind the curve on this trend.  Unfortunately, the rate that technology grows, we don’t have much time to catch up.

The Experts

Cameron Moll wrote a great book titled, “Mobile Web Design“ that addresses some of the basics.  Brian Fling has also been evangelizing the mobile Web for over five years back when the Motorola Razr was cool.  There are tons of resources from his presentations as well as links from fellow mobile evangelists.  In looking at those sites, the conclusion will be that these developers are not involved in higher education.  True.  They are building for business.  True.  Should I read what they have to say because I work in higher ed?  Yes.  Why?  Because what they are talking about in the business world in real time is happening quicker in higher education than we give credit to.  Case in point:  Do a focus group of ten students on campus.  See what kind of devices they use.  Find out if they have data plans attached to their devices.  You may be surprised at what you find.

The Web is moving at a fantastically quick pace.  We need to keep up.

Migration

Our university has a Jenzabar portal.  We switched from IBM a few years ago.  The portal is fully integrated with our database and systems.  The university has been going through a business process redesign for a number of years to integrate and streamline all services to the portal.  It’s been mildly successful.  Our network and software teams have been working hard to create custom portlets and Web services to serve a number of sub-groups in the institution.  However, one gap in service is the concept of moving the site to mobile devices.

There are a few developers who are building plug-ins and testing for ways to make Jenzabar portals mobile.  But nobody has one working yet that I am aware of.  Wordpress has some developers who have created mobile plugins (Carrington Mobile) and others.  Many sites write a custom CSS file for mobile and print versions.  Higher ed is still catching up with what cutting edge Web developers have known for a few years.  We have to build sites that are standards-compliant with clean validated code.  If higher ed is building these huge monolithic sites, shouldn’t they be accessible to any device?  Not just IE, Firefox, and Safari?  Not just 1024 or 800?

Next Step

I’m going to write next week on higher education’s pattern of innovation (or lack thereof) and how it relates to leadership.  Our PLC had a great discussion on this (which we should have recorded).  I’ll bring some hightlights and ask for your feedback.  But for now, where are your sites?  Do you have mobile versions?  Is there a plan?  Who’s asking the questions?  Post feedback.  Get into the discussion.

Random Resources

• Megan Fisher :: Designing Web Interfaces from Future of Web Design, May 2009  |  Presentation
• Brian Fling :: Mobile Design Blog |  Visit
• W3C ::  Mobile Web Design  |  Download PDF
• Jakob Neilsen :: Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998  |  Visit
• Cameron Moll:  Mobile Web Design  |  Visit

We’re excited to welcome another guest contributor to the community. David Goodrich is an Instructional Designer from Spring Arbor University. He’s a musician, writer, blogger, and all-around cool guy.  You’d like him.  He’s also working on his Master’s in Instructional Design from Capella University.  Find out more in the Contributors page.  Welcome, David.

To approach instructional design in a systematic fashion like that of an assembly line where each key principal is viewed in isolation to the other and in the end a final product is made that is deemed good or bad is becoming a faulty framework for imagining the essence of the instructional design process. Irlbeck proposes that “a modern interpretive dance would be a better representation, as all the elements needing to be considered are interwoven and impact other parts of the system, yet are bounded by an outside framework or set of parameters” (2006).  There is a need to see instructional design as an evolving, complex, three-dimensional, organic, and dynamic system that has key principals which “interact spontaneously, even randomly, and are shaped by social processes of a natural alignment of the concepts for learning and dynamic group behavior” (2006).

For instance, if the needs assessment is neglected during the process then imagine how this would effect the other key elements of the design. How would it help to know all about the learners, instructors, learning environments, curriculum, resources, and greater organization goals if there was a lack in pointing out the clear needs of the instructional design and if they can even be met by an instructional intervention? The ramifications of neglecting one or multiple key principals of the instructional design process would dramatically impact the effectiveness of the instructional intervention and would suffer the consequences of poor design.

–

Irlbeck, S., Kays, E., Jones, D., & Sims, R. (2006) The phoenix rising: Emergent models of instructional design. Distance Education, 27(2), 171–185.

Theme

The site has a Wordpress 2.7 back end with a great theme called Carrington, created by Alex King.  The theme really helps carry a focus on categories and tags to help make Wordpress into a lite version of a CMS.  Findability and usability take precedence with this theme.  Features are a three-column layout to keep multiple resources in front of readers.  Comments and RSS are easy to use and implement.  One key addition are the addition of feeds for multiple podcasts in iTunes U.  The theme is simple, clean, and helps keep the content the story.

Navigation

Navigation has changed a bit on the redesign.  Kept are the main nav items “Contact”, “Contributors”, and “Why”.  Archives are now in the sidebar as a pull-down.  Added to the main nav is “Feeds”.  Initial roll-out features the title and description of the podcasts we are feeding via iTunes U.  Subscriptions available there.  More substantial are the pearing down of categories into seven main areas of focus for the site.  We took the other categories and had Wordpress turn them into tags for the posts.  Now you can search based on the main categories or filter through to the tags.  Tag cloud available in the sidebar as well.

Sidebar

We decided to choose a three-column layout for the redesign because of the addition of feeds, podcasts, and some expansion of content that is coming soon in the form of video tutorials and reviews.  This will help provide users a high-level update of what content is being generated.

Plug-Ins

• Google Analyatics
  Joost de Valk created a great WP plugin to keep Google analytics connected, regardless of what theme we choose to use.  Gone are the days of pasting the Google code in the header or footer.
• KQF
  John Ha created an amazing plugin to display and pull in any feed to display using the CSS from Carrington and link out to the original content.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t link to iTunes or iTunes U.  Flickr?  Yes.  Any site with RSS content?  Yes.  Beautifully.  iTunes?  Nope.

Podcasts

We’ve created a great start of academic tecnology content for our faculty and desire to share it with everyone.  We started out trying to double-brand the content.  Two versions.  One for everyone.  One for our faculty.  Obviously this became cumbersome.  Thus, we’ve given up.  We’re simply going to feed all of our content straight to you.  We’d also love to get more feeds from your school/organization or your favorites and pull them all in here.

Users/Participation

You can obviously subscribe to the site via RSS, but can also sign up to be a registered user.  We will be putting together opportunities later this spring to connect more intentionally.  you can also email us directly and let us know how we can either be creating content for you, participating with your institution, or having you become a guest contributor.  We’d also love to hear as many comments and feedback as we can get.

Conclusion

With a new theme, mobile version, and updated content and navigation, TTF is poised to gain momentum this spring to really become a resource for educational technology in 2009-2010.  Contact us anytime and let us know how we can help you take your teaching further.

Baird & Fisher make a compelling argument that social networking and social media can support neomillennial learning styles in both online and face to face models of education. Rooted deeply in adult and social learning theories, the concept of social networking and social media to enhance student learning has become not an emerging trend, but a necessity.

The basic theories to support these new design strategies are largely based on Knowels and Mager. They assert five learning assumptions about adult learning, which include self concept, experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning, and a motivation to learn (p. 6). From this theory, Baird and Fisher tie pedagogy, and andragogy and learning outcomes to applications in educational technology.

Baird & Fisher use research by Gagne as a baseline to tie theory and pedagogy to educational technology. He Gagne developed “9 Types of Instructional Events” (p. 7) that is which are the lens through which learning is viewed. They note, “This is a unique way of understanding the way that external instructional events, such as social media, can lead to internal learning processes and forseeing ways that new technologies can empower improved modes for learning.” (p. 7).

Commentary

Although they get a bit too far into the weeds with when expounding on HTML code and more back-end technical specifications, they do make some great discoveries regarding the possible applications of some social media including podcasting, wikis, tagging, and blogs. One of the article’s greatest strengths is it’s its bibliography which was filled more with HTML links rather than academic journals. This is a sign that research is rare on these topics and more writing and publishing is required. A consideration that is still debated however is the concept that neomillenials are “wired” to use these tools while more adult learners are not. The jury is still out whether this is something that should be debated. Further research is definitely needed in this area to determine if age gives learners an edge when using social media.

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Baird, D. E., & Fisher, M. (2006). Neomillennial user experience design strategies: utilizing social networking media to support “always on” learning styles. Journal of educational technology systems. 34(1), 5.

Download PDF

We had a meeting yesterday where our boss asked how we were doing.  I said, “I think we’re at the point where we head to Sprint PCS’s fair and flexible where we start nights and weekends at 7pm.”  It’s going to start with five weeks to go.

I guess I’m posting this simply for the sake of posting to apologize and document that I haven’t taken time to post and I need to.  I’ll try to recap the past few weeks tomorrow and early next week to make sure this journey is worth it.