Creativity and Innovation– the Theme for UAS Sitka!

Today we (Sitka campus faculty and staff) met to discuss Tony Wagner’s book “Creating Innovators” our first book club meeting. We had a great discussion talking about the different ways that faculty and parents can create experiences that foster creativity and lead to innovation.

Prior to our meeting, Nicole shared an article on Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, by Mark Anderson. In this article he quotes Koehler and Mishra, 2009, stating that “educators should be able to recognize when information technology can assist or impede the achievement of a goal.” Then he provides an interesting chart with the ultimate degree of confidence and competence being– you guessed it– INNOVATION!

We thought this would be a great opportunity to link our book club ideas and our Title III goals– helping faculty become more competent and confident in their knowledge and use of instructional technologies. If you are feeling like you are at the “survival” level, please contact us for help! We can assist one-on-one, or online, or set up something that feels right and works for you. If you have mastered technologies, but don’t feel like you are getting the impact with students or the results that you were hoping for, please call and let’s talk about ways that we can enhance or improve the impact of your strategies in your courses.

Lastly, if you are using technology in interesting, successful and innovative ways– please share with us some of the things that you are doing. We love hearing your success stories!

Guest Post from KPC Faculty

Susan Mircovich, KPC

Susan Mircovich, Chemistry Faculty for KPC, recently attended the Sloan-C 6th Annual International Symposium for Emerging Technologies for Online Learning in Las Vegas. She shares the following resource links with us. Lots of good information here. Thank you Susan!

Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Whitepaper and presentation slides, Veronica Diaz Educause – http://tinyurl.com/worktech

Affordable Learning Solutions California State University – Find free textbooks and course materials; you can type the isbn of a text you are using or a topic to see if there is a related free book! http://als.csuprojects.org/

(Have not tried all of these yet – this is just a list of what other faculty presented, not an endorsement of these tools!)

Polleverywhere – Free polling, audience response system that uses mobile phones (texting), twitter, and the web. Responses are displayed in real-time on charts. Free for up to 40. http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Layar – Augmented reality creation tools. This is for print media. Interact with print media on your mobile device. Pricing to create pages. Free with ads and free if you are an educator and you apply. http://www.layar.com/

Parwinr Gamification Tools – Turn any video into an online game. Not sure about pricing. http://www.parwinr.com/company_pages

Piazza – For student discussion and communication online. (This looks really good – lots of features!) “Piazza is a free platform for instructors to efficiently manage class Q&A. Students can post questions and collaborate to edit responses to these questions. Instructors can also answer questions, endorse student answers, and edit or delete any posted content.”  Free for educators. https://piazza.com/

Photovoice – Assigning students to create a “participatory photo” from daily life relating to the topic. Examples at http://www.photovoice.org/

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Pyramid Infographic – http://faculty.indstate.edu/spenney/bdt.htm

CrazyTalk Animator – Create scenarios. Not sure about education pricing (not free). http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/

Mobisitegalore – Make your own mobile website in minutes. Students can use for assignments with free 30 day trial. http://www.mobisitegalore.com/

Goose Chase – Mobile scavenger hunt games. Says it’s free for small games but I’m not sure what the means – have to sign up to find out! https://www.goosechase.com/

App-ucation – For iPad users this is great. Integrating Apps into Education (Check out Bloom’s taxonomy for iPad apps infographic)

App for iPads

Summer Training Opportunities For Faculty

One of Title III’s most important goals is to contribute to the professional development of our distance faculty in a variety of ways. To support that goal, we have a number of out-of-town training opportunities listed below which you can apply for.

Basically, you qualify for travel on Title III funds if you’ve been involved in Title III activities over the last year or are willing to commit your involvement in one of our current projects (iTeach Sitka, Peer Review, or the Fall ED593 course). For more details on how to apply for travel funds visit our Apply For Travel Funds page.

Take a look at these conferences and see if any of these would be right for your needs!

May 31 – June 2:  The Teaching Professor Conference, New Orleans LA

The 10th annual Teaching Professor Conference provides an opportunity to learn effective pedagogical techniques and interact with colleagues committed to teaching and learning excellence. The plenary and conference sessions will renew and energize you.

July 7-11: BbWorld 2013, Las Vegas NV

Relevant sessions by expert speakers, hands-on training, all centered around the Blackboard CMS.

July 8-9: 10th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop, Milwaukee WI

A conference devoted to the purposeful, strategic and comprehensive approach to blended teaching and learning.

July 29-August 1: Campus Technology, Boston MA

This conference leverages technology to improve performance in education. Aimed at Provost/Directors/Faculty/Instructional designers – there are sessions here for everyone.

August 7-9: 29th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, Madison WI

This conference is for elearning practitioners. You will network with instructors and online innovators.

Image: ©iStockphoto.com/vm

What College Students Really Think About Online Courses

Original post: 4/3/2013. Reposted with permission.By Tanya Roscorla

A group of student leaders has tried online classes, talked with other college students about their experience and traded their insight with educators. And as more colleges expand their online offerings, education administrators and policy-makers could learn something from these students.

Thirty-two percent of higher education students took at least one course online in fall 2011, according to the Sloan Consortium report Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States, released in January. At NorthWest Arkansas Community College, 42 percent of its 8,069 students enrolled in at least one online class, an increase of 17 percent since last spring.

“When we see those numbers increasing or see feedback from the students saying that they want more online options, we take that very seriously, and have responded with resources and more online opportunities for our students,” said Todd L. Kitchen, vice president for learner support services.

Reminder: Google in Education Alaska Summit

This high intensity, two-day event in April (6-7) at the University of Alaska Anchorage focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education and other Google Tools to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. The program features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google education teams. For more information and to register visit the original blog post.

Reminder: SoftChalk Webinar March 6!

Join us for an info-packed, hands-on webinar Wednesday, March 6 from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm!

You must register prior to March 6 to receive the download files and log on information. How do you do that? View our blog post for all that good information!

Image: ©iStockphoto.com/CamiloTorres

Some Things I Learned at ASTE 2013

I just returned from the ASTE 2013 Conference in Anchorage and thought I might share a few things that I took away. First, one of the keynote speakers, Cara Heitz showcased her k12 classroom that was based on using blogs and wikis. She stressed that teachers today need to design their own professional development to fit their needs. I believe that she is right. We have to actively stress to stay relevant and find the tools that help us to be more efficient and effective learners and teachers.

Steven Moss gave us some great lessons learned from research. One thing that he stressed was that there is NO research to support the claim that our “digital native” students, brought up with technology, learn differently from older people. NONE. He says that the brains of this ‘net’ generation have not suddenly developed new neurological pathways, or morphed. They are not innately better at technology or multi-tasking! They may have better attitudes and enjoy change more than older people/students, but don’t believe the hype that their brains are remapping to better use technology. He also gave us these three pearls:

1. Information-understanding-knowledge are not synonymous. We must figure out ways to have our students use the information and turn it into knowledge
2. There is NO proven relationship between increased time on task and learning – in other words, don’t mistake engagement with learning.
3. The Everest Fallacy – don’t just use technology “because it’s there”

While we’re on the subject of technologies that are “there” – I learned about some pretty cool apps and programs that I am not currently using, but may try. Something I’ve learned over the years is that you can’t really incorporate something into your personal learning environment without trying it out, without giving it a trial period before you accept or reject it. And, rarely do I add more than one thing at a time. Well, here are some interesting places that you might enjoy checking out:

The First Google in Education Alaska Summit!

A new exciting opportunity for Alaskan educators! Jim Sill, who presented a two day Google workshop for Sitka faculty and staff last year, is coming to Anchorage for the first Google in Education Alaska Summit. This high intensity, two day event in April (6-7) at the University of Alaska Anchorage focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education and other Google Tools to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education. The program features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google education teams. For more information and to register visit the event’s Registration Page.

For those of you who have engaged in Title III sponsored professional development activities in the past year, you may apply for travel funds for this summit. If you are interested, send Mary Purvis an email prior to March 15, 2013 stating the following:

1. Why you want to attend.
2. What Title III activities have you engaged in in the last year?

If you are a seasoned Google tool user and would like to present at the summit sharing your expertise, please contact us for information on how to present at this conference.

Hands-On SoftChalk Training

Join us for an info-packed webinar on March 6 from 8:30 am – 12:00 pm, brought to you free from your Title III team!

This three and a half hour webinar will cover the basics of SoftChalk. You will learn how to:

• Copy from Word into SoftChalk
• Create navigation in a lesson
• Insert graphics and media into a lesson
• Create simple interactions
• Create and modify an activity, and quiz
• Create a connection to Blackboard
• Publish a lesson to Blackboard

Computer Requirements: 

VoiceThread Recorded Webinar

VoiceThread is a tool that you can add to your online or face-to-face classroom that will allow you to create interactive voice or text conversations. It can be used in so many different ways. If you missed the webinar this week on creating VoiceThread we have the link to the recorded session available to you. We encourage you to listen and give VoiceThread a try.

Remember – if you make your VoiceThread shareable by the link, all of your students will be able to view your VoiceThread and hear you speak. For them to comment, they will need to log into their own VoiceThread account. If you have questions, please contact your Instructional Design Team.

To reinforce how easy it is to embed a VoiceThread into your Blackboard course, view this short tutorial.