September 14, 2009

Good Morning Developers,

Today I would like to introduce you to a website titled Teacher Training Videos.com

This site contains many video tutorials on how to use various pieces of technology. Some of the videos include:

• Twitter in Depth
• Wikis with PB Works
• Easy Podcasting
• How to User Blogger
• Text to Speech Tools
• Any Many More!!

Please go to this site and check out all of the fantastic tools and resources available. You may find that you lose track of time searching around all of the videos on this web site. Enjoy!

August 10, 2009

Hello Developers,

Today is the 100% completion date for all Fall Quarter, 2009 developments.


Today the peer advisors will be going into the courses and completing a feedback sheet. This feedback sheet will give you the information you need to complete your development. Once you have worked in the necessary feedback I will copy your 12 week master course into a 10 week master course and you can complete your development by converting your course to the 10 unit lay out (some of you have done the 10 week conversion already, and if this is the case then please work feedback into both master shells).

Thank you for all of your hard work this quarter, the courses are of high quality and I look forward to getting the feedback from the peer advisers!

I wanted to leave you with a wonderful website on educational blogging. The Support Blogging wiki has been set up to provide an opportunity for students, teachers, administrators, parents, and others to help promote an understanding of the benefits of educational blogging.

There is a list of hundreds of educational blogs, a list of great web resources on educational blogging, and a community of people to contact with any questions you have about blogging.

Even if you don’t want to start your own blog, there is a wealth of information on this site for how to encourage blogging in your classrooms or even just hundreds of blogs that give you information and resources on education as a trade.

Have fun playing with this wiki!

July 23, 2009

Hello Developers!

I am going to do an extra post this week for fun :-)

In the past I have spent quite a bit of time talking about wiki's here and here.

One resource that was not mentioned in those posts was a YouTube Video that is quite good. This YouTube link offers a strong video demonstration of what Wikis are and how Wikis can be used effectively for a group project.

Wiki's are a great tool to have students use for a group project. Each of the groups can create a Wiki to work together through. They can use the communication tools under the team project link in Blackboard to get the Wiki started and to work on the project as a whole as well. Below are links to three different Wiki locations for you to create your group Wiki.

It would be good to introduce this type of project in Unit 1 and then by the end of Unit 2, have them communicate with their group members and have one group member form the group Wiki. You will want to have them include the instructor in the group Wiki and e-mail the instructor with the group Wiki location and information.

PBwiki.com
Wetpaint.com
Wikispaces.com

Have fun with the new technology available to online education!

Amy

April 27, 2009

Good morning developers,

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable weekend! As you are working toward 100% completion of your developments, please don't forget that part of this cycle's development process also includes converting your 12-unit course to a 10-unit course as the summer quarter this year will be 10-week's in length. Once you have your 12-unit course complete, please let me know and I will copy your completed course to a new master shell for you to work in for this conversion. Please remember both of these masters are due by Monday, May 11.

I also wanted to share with you the benefits of implementing a Wiki into your course development. Research consistently reports the benefits of group work in understanding course concepts as well as preparing students for work in their professions. However, in the online classroom, the logistical idea of a group project can be daunting at times, but it doesn't need to be. A Wiki is an excellent way to implement group work and have groups work with one another virtually. "Wikis drive engagement and collaboration" (PBWiki.com).

A Wiki I particularly like is PBWiki as it is very secure, it can embed videos and audio to embrace the technical side of students if they would like, it can create tags and RSS feeds, it offers access controls, and what I like most is it offers student accountability as it indicates who participated in the Wiki when, where, and how. Click on this link to check it out and see if it is something you could implement into your course: http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns as you are working on your courses.

Thanks!
Heather

June 16, 2008

Good Morning!



I do believe it has finally turned into summer here in Minnesota! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful sunny weather :-) I apologize for not posting a blog last week as the to-do list was quite long and the week slipped away from me. Hopefully this week, you will find that the information is "doubly good" and makes up for the missing blog last week!



The majority of you are coming up to your 50% deadline next Monday (6/23/08). If you have any concerns about meeting this cut off point please let me know ASAP. There are others of you that are just starting your development now and have a quick development cycle. If you have questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to e-mail me at aode@msbcollege.edu or post to this blog for other developers to help you out.


I would like to spend some time talking about Wikis in Instruction. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on Wikis in Instruction (Ironic huh?): http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/Wikis_in_Instruction

This page contains a lot of great information on the definition of a wiki, services that host wikis for instruction purposes, when to use a wiki, and examples of wikis in instruction. I think that if you are at all confused about wikis, the purpose of them, and/or how they can be used in instruction, you will find this link incredibly useful.

I can't stress enough to HAVE FUN with your developments and to stretch yourself to work in new and exciting features. Wikis are just one example of a way to stretch your development muscles and incorporate new and exciting technologies into your developments.

Have a great week!