February 23, 2009

Good Morning Developers!

This week I am going to dedicate the blog to Twitter. Some of you may use Twitter often, some may be somewhat familiar with it, and some of you may have never heard of it before.

First off, what is Twitter? Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Here is the link to Wikipedia to learn even more about Twitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Secondly, how can we use Twitter in higher education. Here is a link to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that explains a little bit about how Twitter is currently being used in Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i25/25a01501.htm

In my mind, Twitter is another social networking site that is becoming very popular in the mainstream and if something is becoming popular in the mainstream we should not ignore it in the world of education. Our students are the future of their professions and it is our responsibility to stay on top of what they will be required to know about when they go out into the "real world". At this time I am not convinced that it is the best thing to come along since sliced bread, but I am seeing that it does have a place and a time and if used correctly it could add some value to a course (whether it be online or residentially). To see ways that other educators are using Twitter please see the following web site:

• http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/

Additionally, if Twitter is very new to you and you haven't even been on the web site here is a link that has a video out how to get started using Twitter:

• http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2008/01/getting-started-with-twitter-screencast.html

Beginning last week I started my very first Twitter page! You can view my Twitters under the name amyode or you can simply click on the "follow me on Twitter" link on the right side of my blog. I am hoping to connect with other Higher Education professionals through this new form of social networking in order to learn about new technologies and interesting articles as well as share my knowledge with others in the Higher Education community.

Have fun playing around with this new technology and I hope to see you on Twitter!

Please feel free to post comments regarding this blog post after you have read it. I am always open to your thoughts and ideas regarding anything that I post on my blog!

Have a great week!

Amy

February 17, 2009

Good Morning Developers!

All of you that are developing a course during this round of development have done online development before so rather than focusing on the basics of development for the upcoming blog posts, I will be discussing more advanced topics and will do my best to give you ideas to spark your development creativity.

To start off with a few announcements:

• If you haven't returned your contracts yet, please return those to me this week.
• The 25% completion deadline is on March 9th
• I will be going on maternity leave during this round of development. When I go on leave you will begin to receive updates and announcements as well as blog entries from Heather Thomton-Stockman
• We will need to create both 12 week and 10 week masters for every course

I also wanted to bring an article to your attention regarding the use of laptops in lecture based classrooms. Although you are designing courses primarily for online use, most of your shells will be used by residential instructors as well. The article titled "Can I have your half-attention, please?" discusses whether or not laptops are creating a culture of 'constant partial distraction'. As we work more and more in a technology centered educational environment, this is an important topic to know about: http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/02/06/can-i-have-your-half-attention-please/

In your design of your course think about whether or not it would be beneficial for instructors to have students access your course during a lecture or if it would be best used as a supplemental tool for residential instructors. Is there a way you can add items to your course shell to make it useful during a lecture situation?

Have a great week!

Amy

February 2, 2009

Hello Developers,

This will be the last blog for developments due to be complete for the Spring 2009 quarter.

I want to extend a big Thank You for all of the work you have done on your courses and I am excited to receive the feedback from the peer advisers this week - I am sure the feedback will be great!

If you have not yet completed your course (some of you have to still add course calendars, etc.) I have already e-mailed you individually this morning.

Once we have completed working in the feedback from the peer advisers the last step is to make a copy of the fully completed course and then you will convert it to the 10 week schedule. If you have concerns about this process please let me know ASAP!

I enjoyed working with all of you this quarter and look forward to working with each of you again in the future! We will be in communication over the next few weeks as we finish up the development, so as always, please be sure to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Amy