Digital Dialogues http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech Conversations about all things educational, instructional, and technological in today's culture and society and higher education. Wed, 20 May 2009 14:32:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en Kesmit-ing: The Twitter Experiment - Bringing Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/20/kesmit-ing-the-twitter-experiment-bringing-twitter-to-the-classroom-at-ut-dallas/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/20/kesmit-ing-the-twitter-experiment-bringing-twitter-to-the-classroom-at-ut-dallas/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 13:41:08 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/20/kesmit-ing-the-twitter-experiment-bringing-twitter-to-the-classroom-at-ut-dallas/ Kesmit-ing: The Twitter Experiment - Bringing Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas.

Take a look at this very creative way to get students in a fairly large class (90 students) actively involved in the course. The instructor makes use of Twitter as a primary instructional strategy in the course.

In her own words, “I set up a course schedule that followed a standard formula most weeks. On Mondays and Wednesdays I delivered traditional lectures covering important terms and concepts. Fridays were reserved for the “twitter experiment.” The idea was to set up all of the students on twitter while they were in class and have them post discussion ideas/questions and respond to each other using twitter. Students were required to complete a reading assignment prior to class every Friday. The readings included historical essays and primary documents that related to the lectures I had given on Monday and Wednesday. I provided a list of reading suggestions and questions on my website to help students read effectively and take helpful notes on the readings. At the beginning of class on Fridays, I gave an open-note quiz based on the assigned readings and the web questions. After the quiz, our twitter discussions began.”

This is definitely worth checking out.


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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/20/kesmit-ing-the-twitter-experiment-bringing-twitter-to-the-classroom-at-ut-dallas/feed/ Blended Learning Web Resource from Simmons College http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/18/blended-learning-web-resource-from-simmons-college/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/18/blended-learning-web-resource-from-simmons-college/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 21:38:58 +0000 mbolser http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=180 With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Simmons College has launched the website Blended Learning at Simmons College:

In addition to serving as a resource for Simmons faculty and students, the site is designed to help schools around the country make a successful transition to blended learning. The site includes information and resources for use in planning, implementing, and assessing the effectiveness of blended programs. In particular, we encourage you to check out five case studies that include video interviews with Simmons faculty, course simulations, and blended course planning exercises. In coming months, additional online case studies and resources will be added to the site.

In addition to the resources they’ve created and provided, which are very good (explore the site to see), I’ve included their external resources list below, as there is some great content on these sites definitely also worth exploring:

Teaching and Learning Centers
Course Quality Checklists
  • Quality Matters
    An inter-institutional quality assurance process for online and blended courses.

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/18/blended-learning-web-resource-from-simmons-college/feed/ Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt » How POUR is Your Blog http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/14/do-it-myself-blog-glenda-watson-hyatt-%c2%bb-how-pour-is-your-blog/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/14/do-it-myself-blog-glenda-watson-hyatt-%c2%bb-how-pour-is-your-blog/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 20:29:54 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/14/do-it-myself-blog-glenda-watson-hyatt-%c2%bb-how-pour-is-your-blog/ Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt » How POUR is Your Blog.

If you want to learn some tips about making blogs accessible, and be inspired at the same time, please check out this link. I doubt you will be disappointed.

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/14/do-it-myself-blog-glenda-watson-hyatt-%c2%bb-how-pour-is-your-blog/feed/ Uploading a Flip video to Blackboard - Duke Digital Initiative http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/04/uploading-a-flip-video-to-blackboard-duke-digital-initiative/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/04/uploading-a-flip-video-to-blackboard-duke-digital-initiative/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 18:11:59 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=169 At our SBS Undergraduate Online Teaching Best Practices workshop this past Friday, May 1, we experimented with new Flip video cameras, but had difficulty getting them the videos to show in Blackboard.

Well, Woo Hoo!

Not only did I find an existing online resource to guide us through uploading a Flip video into BlackBoard, IT WORKS! If you open this YouTube video from the Duke University Digital Initiative on one half of your screen, and then have your Flip video software open on the other half of your screen, I’ll think you’ll find it easy enough to work through the process of uploading a file, step at a time.

Uploading a Flip video to Blackboard - Duke Digital Initiative.

Give me a holler if you need some help.
~Elaine

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/04/uploading-a-flip-video-to-blackboard-duke-digital-initiative/feed/ Using Copyrighted Materials in Education: Fair Use Guidelines for Educators http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/03/using-copyrighted-materials-in-education-fair-use-guidelines-for-educators/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/03/using-copyrighted-materials-in-education-fair-use-guidelines-for-educators/#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 14:14:51 +0000 mbolser http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=146 I’ve written about Fair Use before, but thought I’d bring up the topic again since the summer online courses are about to get under way.  Often, faculty wonder whether their use of copyrighted materials in the classroom constitutes Fair Use or not. Making a Fair Use argument is not always easy, especially when so many draconian interpretations of copyright law exist.  But Fair Use is part of copyright law, even though it is little understood (and poorly spelled out).  I hate to see faculty forgo valuable lesson plans for fear of using copyrighted material that’s essential to the curriculum.  But often they do, or they are “quiet” about the uses they make (particularly audio and video) for fear that they may be doing something wrong, when quite often they are not.

Three and a half years ago, the Association for Independent Film Makers got together and defined their own industry guidelines for Fair Use.  In the absence of case law regarding Fair Use, judges often look to common industry practices to determine whether a use of copyrighted work falls under the Fair Use doctrine or not (and such information is not always available or easy to find).  Having a written set of documented principles and guidelines is useful for both practitioners and courts in determining whether a use is fair or not.  

Finally, this past November, after a year of study and collaboration, educators released their own “Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education“. (Download the Code of Best Practices here.)

Below is a clip they’ve put together on the topic:

 
Here’s a short video on The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy from a talk given at American University’s Center for Social Media:

 

Following are the Five Principles in the code above, with Descriptions and Limitations:

ONE: EMPLOYING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN MEDIA LITERACY LESSONS

DESCRIPTION: Educators use television news, advertising, movies, still images, newspaper and magazine articles, Web sites, video games, and other copyrighted material to build critical-thinking and communication skills. Common instructional activities include comparison-contrast analysis, deconstruction (close analysis) of the form and content of a message, illustration of key points, and examination of the historical, economic, political, or social contexts in which a particular message was produced and is received.

PRINCIPLE: Under fair use, educators using the concepts and techniques of media literacy can choose illustrative material from the full range of copyrighted sources and make them available to learners, in class, in workshops, in informal mentoring and teaching settings, and on school-related Web sites.

LIMITATIONS: Educators should choose material that is germane to the project or topic, using only what is necessary for the educational goal or purpose for which it is being made. In some cases, this will mean using a clip or excerpt; in other cases, the whole work is needed. Whenever possible, educators should provide proper attribution and model citation practices that are appropriate to the form and context of use. Where illustrative material is made available in digital formats, educators should provide reasonable protection against third-party access and downloads.

TWO: EMPLOYING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN PREPARING CURRICULUM MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION: Teachers use copyrighted materials in the creation of lesson plans, materials, tool kits, and curricula in order to apply the principles of media literacy education and use digital technologies effectively in an educational context. These materials often include clips, copies or examples of copyrighted work along with a description of instructional practices, assignments, and assessment criteria. These materials may include samples of contemporary mass media and popular culture as well as older media texts that provide historical or cultural context.

PRINCIPLE: Under fair use, educators using the concepts and techniques of media literacy can integrate copyrighted material into curriculum materials, including books, workbooks, podcasts, DVD compilations, videos, Web sites, and other materials designed for learning.

LIMITATIONS: Wherever possible, educators should provide attribution for quoted material, and of course they should use only what is necessary for the educational goal or purpose. The materials should meet professional standards for curriculum development, with clearly stated educational objectives, a description of instructional practices, assignments, and assessment criteria.

THREE: SHARING MEDIA LITERACY CURRICULUM MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION: Media literacy curriculum materials always include copyrighted content from mass media and popular culture. Informal sharing of these materials occurs at educational conferences and through professional development programs, as well by electronic means. Media literacy curriculum materials are also developed commercially in collaboration with publishers or nonprofit organizations.

PRINCIPLE: Educators using concepts and techniques of media literacy should be able to share effective examples of teaching about media and meaning with one another, including lessons and resource materials. If curriculum developers are making sound decisions on fair use when they create their materials, then their work should be able to be seen, used, and even purchased by anyone—since fair use applies to commercial materials as well as those produced outside the marketplace model.

LIMITATIONS: In materials they wish to share, curriculum developers should be especially careful to choose illustrations from copyrighted media that are necessary to meet the educational objectives of the lesson, using only what furthers the educational goal or purpose for which it is being made. Often this may mean using a small portion, clip or excerpt, rather than an entire work, although sometimes it may be permissible to use more—or even all. Curriculum developers should not rely on fair use when using copyrighted third-party images or texts to promote their materials. For promotional purposes, the permissions process is appropriate. In addition, if a teacher or a school has specifically agreed to a license, then (of course) its terms are likely to be binding—even if they impinge on what would otherwise be considered fair use. And, of course, illustrative material should be properly attributed wherever possible.

FOUR:STUDENT USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS IN THEIR OWN ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE WORK

DESCRIPTION: Students strengthen media literacy skills by creating messages and using such symbolic forms as language, images, sound, music, and digital media to express and share meaning. In learning to use video editing software and in creating remix videos, students learn how juxtaposition reshapes meaning. Students include excerpts from copyrighted material in their own creative work for many purposes, including for comment and criticism, for illustration, to stimulate public discussion, or in incidental or accidental ways (for example, when they make a video capturing a scene from everyday life where copyrighted music is playing).

PRINCIPLE: Because media literacy education cannot thrive unless learners themselves have the opportunity to learn about how media functions at the most practical level, educators using concepts and techniques of media literacy should be free to enable learners to incorporate, modify, and re-present existing media objects in their own classroom work. Media production can foster and deepen awareness of the constructed nature of all media, one of the key concepts of media literacy. The basis for fair use here is embedded in good pedagogy.

LIMITATIONS: Students’ use of copyrighted material should not be a substitute for creative effort. Students should be able to understand and demonstrate, in a manner appropriate to their developmental level, how their use of a copyrighted work repurposes or transforms the original. For example, students may use copyrighted music for a variety of purposes, but cannot rely on fair use when their goal is simply to establish a mood or convey an emotional tone, or when they employ popular songs simply to exploit their appeal and popularity. Again, material that is incorporated under fair use should be properly attributed wherever possible. Students should be encouraged to make their own careful assessments of fair use and should be reminded that attribution, in itself, does not convert an infringing use into a fair one.

FIVE: DEVELOPING AUDIENCES FOR STUDENT WORK

DESCRIPTION: Students who are expected to behave responsibly as media creators and who are encouraged to reach other people outside the classroom with their work learn most deeply. Although some student media productions are simply learning exercises designed to develop knowledge and skills, media literacy educators often design assignments so that students have the opportunity to distribute their work.

PRINCIPLE: Educators should work with learners to make a reasoned decision about distribution that reflects sound pedagogy and ethical values. In some cases, widespread distribution of students’ work (via the Internet, for example) is appropriate. If student work that incorporates, modifies, and re-presents existing media content meets the transformativeness standard, it can be distributed to wide audiences under the doctrine of fair use.

LIMITATIONS: Educators and learners in media literacy often make uses of copyrighted works outside the marketplace, for instance in the classroom, a conference, or within a school-wide or district-wide festival. When sharing is confined to a delimited network, such uses are more likely to receive special consideration under the fair use doctrine.

Especially in situations where students wish to share their work more broadly (by distributing it to the public, for example, or including it as part of a personal portfolio), educators should take the opportunity to model the real-world permissions process, with explicit emphasis not only on how that process works, but also on how it affects media making. In particular, educators should explore with students the distinction between material that should be licensed, material that is in the public domain or otherwise openly available, and copyrighted material that is subject to fair use. The ethical obligation to provide proper attribution also should be examined. And students should be encouraged to understand how their distribution of a work raises other ethical and social issues, including the privacy of the subjects involved in the media production.

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/05/03/using-copyrighted-materials-in-education-fair-use-guidelines-for-educators/feed/ Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors’ blog: How Distracting are Social Media Tools? http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/15/technology-review-blogs-tr-editors-blog-how-distracting-are-social-media-tools/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/15/technology-review-blogs-tr-editors-blog-how-distracting-are-social-media-tools/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:08:19 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=138

 

PARC

PARC

Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors’ blog: How Distracting are Social Media Tools?.

“…during one presentation at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Boston, Raluca Budiu, a user-experience specialist for the Nielsen Norman Group, asked the audience whether typing in tags for articles would help them remember key concepts. The answer, according to her research, is no. Users remembered less after typing in tags than after simply reading an article online.”

I have never thought much how I use tags; someimte I do and sometimes I just want to be bothered. And since I have never reflecyed about it, I never paid much attention to how useful the act of tagging is.

I was quite surprised to read the outcomes of once researcher’s work in which she discovered that becuase the act of adding tagsreduces the amount of time that the user is paying attention to the actual content of the article itself.

More of Raluca Busiu’s work centers on discovering ways in which to minimize the human cost of participating in social media. She talked about a tagging system that “lets users click words in an article to create tags, rather than typing them in at the end.”

This simple change in workflow supposedly improved a user’s recall ability.

This makes me wonder about the degree of signifigance in the improvement; what exactly was the user able to recall after using this new system called SparTug.us than before.

This has me intrigued enoughto check out the new tagging system. But what is your experience been with respect to tages?

  • Do you use them?
  • If so, why?
  • What are the ways in which you make use of them?

PS - You will notice that I have used tagged this entry with both a Category and a tag…….

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/15/technology-review-blogs-tr-editors-blog-how-distracting-are-social-media-tools/feed/ Distance Education student services http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/06/distance-education-student-services/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/06/distance-education-student-services/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:59:47 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=136 There is an article in this morning’s Inside Higer Ed entitled “Rise In Distance Enrollments” that talks about this trend in community colleges.  Part of the article includes the results of a national survey taken by these institutions that describes the current status of student services for distance education at community colleges.

While we are a private, four-year university, it still seems that many of the results paralleled our situation here in Boston.  For example the most pressing pressing challenge is how to assess student learning, certainly an ongoing quest.  A surprising finding to me was that only 18% of faculty reported using the packages of course materials that are provided by publishers; 80% of colleges reported using their own materials.

While I have no quantitative data to cite, I imagine that our rate of using publisher-provided materials is higher, and if so, I wonder if it is because tenure track professors must show evidence of publishing, service, and teaching. One’s time in a four-year institution may be spread among more expectations and responsibilities.

i welcome comments on this, as I am just speculating.

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/06/distance-education-student-services/feed/ Quality Online Video Sites for Education http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/05/quality-online-video-sites-for-education/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/05/quality-online-video-sites-for-education/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:43:53 +0000 mbolser http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=59

In light of YouTube’s recently launch of “YouTube Edu“, I figured I’d compile a list of the best sites for educational use. (I’ve seriously thought about aggregating our own on wpmu with a premium Wordpress template like On Demand, which looks like a Hulu or Wordpress tv. and can aggregate content from many user-based video services). At any rate, I’d love to grow the list with some feedback as to what else is out there. So far, the list is short, though the content in all is vast:

YouTube Edu
YouTube’s videos and channels from college and university partners

Fora.tv
Videos on the people, issues, and ideas changing the planet

Big Think
Interviews and insight from the world’s leading experts in business, entertainment, education, religion, and politics

Academic Earth
Thousands of lectures from the world’s top scholars

iTunes U
Free lectures, language lessons , audiobooks, and more

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/05/quality-online-video-sites-for-education/feed/ 11 Software Applications for Podcasting http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/03/11-software-applications-for-podcasting/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/03/11-software-applications-for-podcasting/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:09:29 +0000 mbolser http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=128 A list of software resources for audio and video capture, creation, and production.  Of course, you still need to host your podcast somewhere, but we’ll explain more about that later…

Windows

picture-56.pngAudacity
Record, edit and produce audio podcasts
Price: Free

picturecam.pngCamtasia Studio
Screencasting - Record anything on your screen as a movie
Price: $299 (retail)

picture-63.pngSnapkast
Record and podcast your Powerpoint presentations
Price: $79

icon_mpeg4.gifQuickTime Pro
Record, import, edit and compress audio and video
Price: $29


.

Mac

index_icon_garageband20070807.pngGarageband
Record, edit, and produce audio and enhanced podcasts
Price: Free

snapz-icon-big-1.pngSnapzProX
Screencasting: Record anything on your screen as a movie
Price: $69

index_icon_keynote20070807.pngKeynote
Create and narrate slide presentations and export
Price: $79 (part of iWork)

features_profcastmanager_sm.pngProfcast
Record and publish your live presentation slides
Price: $29 (educational pricing)

index_icon_imovie20070807.pngiMovie
Record, import, edit and publish movies
Price: Free

picture-21.pngScreenflow
Screencasting: Record and later edit anything on your screen.
Price: $85 (education)

icon_mpeg4.gifQuickTime Pro
Record, import, edit and compress audio and video
Price: $29

.

Server Solutions

picture-54.pngPodcast Producer
End-to-end solution for encoding, publishing,
and distributing high-quality podcasts

index_server20080108.pngLeopard Server
Includes Podcast Producer and other tools

picture-61.pngEpisode Podcast
Plug-in extend Podcast Producer for
more formats: WMV, Real, Flash, etc.

.
index_performance20080108.png Xserve
Hardware for server solutions

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]]> http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/03/11-software-applications-for-podcasting/feed/ portable storyboards http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/02/portable-storyboards/ http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/2009/04/02/portable-storyboards/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:41:22 +0000 egarofoli http://blogs.cas.suffolk.edu/tech/?p=54 OK, this has got to stop! But I can’t help but find out sort of information that I think could be of use to people, and like my mother, I cannot help but pass it on. I got this from reading Cliff Atkinson’s blog. Atkinson is the author of the book Beyond Bullet Points who now has added a blog and website to his holdings.

So here is a funky little tool called  pocketmod.com which allows you to make and print a very small notebook from a single sheet of A4 (letter-size) paper. You get 8 sections to put different designs on (grid, lines, schedule etc.) and one of the designs is a storyboard layout (within the “Writing Guides” folder).

It’s wild. I tried it, went to the YouTube video to watch (a couple of times), how to put the thing together. Now of course, the question is whether or not I would ever use such a tool. It’s not the fact that it’s so retro, but I have a tendency to loose things, and carrying around a small piece of paper like this is probably not going to work. What do you think?

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