Friday, December 18, 2009

The World is Open


This book comes highly recommended: World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education by Curtis Bonk (aka TravelinEdMan). As a special holiday bonus event at SCoPE Curtis will be joining us for a Q&A.

When: Monday, December 21, 2009, 22:00 GMT

Where: Elluminate

If you don't have the book, visit the World is Open site to access the book prequel and postscript, links to the original articles, many book excerpts, and Web resources. Or if you don't have time to read, come anyway!

We're gathering YOUR questions ahead of time in this SCoPE forum.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The World Is Open


I've been reading the World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education by Curtis Bonk (aka TravelinEdMan) in preparation for our upcoming event at SCoPE. Well, I would have read it in any case because I've been a Bonk fan for awhile. If you have ever listened to Curt speak, or read some of his work, you'll know that he has a knack for organizing complex ideas into a simple framework, often using lists like this 2009 article: The World is Open for Reason: Make that 30 Reasons! Or the WE-ALL-LEARN model outlined in the book:

Web Searching in the World of e-Books
E-Learning and Blended Learning
Availability of Open Source and Free Software
Leveraged Resources and OpenCourseWare
Learning Object Repositories and Portals
Learner Participation in Open Information Communities
Electronic Collaboration
Alternate Reality Learning
Real-Time Mobility and Portability
Networks of Personalized Learning

So, in a true Bonk style, I'll give the you 10 reasons why I admire Curt's work.
  1. He weaves interesting stories throughout his work. It's like sitting on the front porch swing and listening to a story teller.
  2. He doesn't work alone. He is always communicating, always networking, always seeking out more people to connect to.
  3. He doesn't take credit for all of the ideas he writes about. Case in point: 5 pages of acknowledgments in The World is Open, including the Twelve Girls Band from China "for their mesmerizing CD, Eastern Energy, which I listened to over 250 times while writing this book."
  4. He's so organized! I mean he counted the number of times he listened to that CD! 
  5. He asks a lot of questions, and because he really wants to know the answers.
  6. He's so entertaining. Expect him to show up in costume, or carrying a box of props to a talk. This YouTube video just cracks me up.
  7. He writes about interesting topics, and uses real-life examples.
  8. He's a practitioner. He can write about teaching because that's what he does.
  9. He is always paying attention to your interests, and introducing you to other people with similar interests. When you meet him expect to hear "Oh! you really need to talk to so and so...here's her email address"(which he'll happen to have at his fingertips. I mentioned he's organized.)
  10. He spreads the word about people doing good work. I learned all about Lucifer Chu and the Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System (OOPS) project through Curt, and was then introduced to him (by Curt, of course...see #9!) at the 2005 eLearn conference in Vancouver. And, of course, I'm flattered that he includes my work and SCoPE on his list. He even sent me an autographed copy of his book. :-) 


So plan to attend the SCoPE event for The World is Open Q&A where you'll get to meet Curt, and ask him questions about his book or anything else you want to know about the impact of technology on learning. Guaranteed he'll have answers!
  • Where: Elluminate
  • When: December 21, 2009 at 2:00 PST (your time zone)
  • How to prepare: If you don't have the book, visit the World is Open blog to access the book prequel and postscript, links to the original articles, many book excerpts, and Web resources. Or if you don't have time to read, come anyway! 
  • Dress: Informal


Friday, December 11, 2009

MicroSCoPE December 2009 Issue

This newsletter was sent out to members of the SCoPE community. I'm posting it here to make sure it reaches as many people as possible!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
December, 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Today! Digital Tattoo Project
2. World is Open Q&A
3. Authentic Assessment
4. Instructional Skills Workshop
5. Mark Your Calendars
6. Activity Recap
7. PeriSCoPE
8. About SCoPE
9. About MicroSCoPE

1. Today! Digital Tattoo Project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 11, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. PST | your time zone
Facilitators: Trish Rosseel and Cindy Underhill
Moderator: Bonnie Johnston
Join us for a tour and discussion of University of British Columbia's Digital Tattoo project today in Elluminate. The project’s goal is to help students become aware of their rights and responsibilities as creators and consumers of digital information in their personal, academic and professional lives. This web conference is part of the 3-week seminar on Digital Identity which runs until December 18, 2009. Latecomers welcome and expected!

2. World is Open Q&A
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 21, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. PST | your time zone
Have you dipped into The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education, by Curtis Bonk? Here's you chance to ask the author YOUR questions! Drop into the forum in the days leading up to the World is Open Q&A.

3. Authentic Assessment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 5, 2010
Facilitators: Doug Hamilton and Sandra Rogers
We will kick of the 2010 Professional Learning Series with an interactive session on authentic assessment, including a look at a special project under development at Royal Roads University. BCcampus, eCampus Alberta, and Alberta-North are teaming together to organize this series focusing on emerging topics in elearning.

4. Instructional Skills Workshop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 25 - February 19, 2010
Facilitator: Doug Kerr
Royal Roads University
This course is designed to help new and experienced instructors achieve success in facilitating learning in an online environment. Watch SCoPE for more online courses and workshops offered by British Columbia post-secondary institutions.

5. Mark Your Calendars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Guiding the E-Researcher, facilitated by Janet Salmons, January 18 - 29, 2010. This seminar will explore ways that educators can guide learners through a few key e-research steps needed to use synchronous tools for scholarly interviews. The seminar is part of our Professional Reading Group Series, and will draw on Janet's new book: Online Interviews in Real Time.
* Culturally Diverse Learners: February 1-19, 2010
Check upcoming seminars for an updates to the seminar schedule. The Learn Together Collaboratory has a list of events of interest to educators. Feel free to contribute to the list!

6. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Course Design Principles for Engagement
December 8, 2009
Sheila Whitmore, Quality Manager for eCampusAlbertaDuring invited course developers to take us on a tour of six great courses! The recording has been posted and the forum remains open for participants to pose questions and give feedback.

* Re-Thinking E-Learning Research
November 9 - 27, 2009,
This book discussion was facilitated by Norm Friesen, Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practices. Visit the seminar wiki for links to book chapters and related resources.

* Virtual Field Trip: Cloudworks
November 16, 2009
During this Field Trip, organized in partnership with CPSquare, Grainne Conole took us to Cloudworks, an evolving, dynamic community for learning design developed and hosted by the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University. Naturally, we created a Field Trip Cloud!

* The Art of Teaching
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 19 - November 6, 2009
This seminar, faciliated by Neil Smith, Nancy Randall and Andrew Marchand, was organized around Vancouver Island University's Art of Teaching video series. The 8-part series is now available on YouTube.

Past SCoPE seminar discussions are always available for reading and afterthoughts.

7. PeriSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The nominations are up and voting is now open in the 2009 Edublog Awards.
* Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning is a free monthly discussion, hosted by AACE and facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier.
* The next Learning4Content online workshop is December 14-18, 2009
* The next CIDER Session is Blended Online Learning Design: Shaken not Stirred, January 5, 2010. CIDER sessions are targeted at distance education researchers, graduate students, and practitioners. Each session features an active researcher talking about their project, methodologies used, and their results.

8. About SCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE brings together individuals who share an interest in education research and practice, and offers opportunities for dialogue across disciplines, geographical borders, professions, levels of expertise, and education sectors. Our activities are faciliated by volunteers in the communitiy and membership is free and open to everyone.

SCoPE forms collaborating partnerships with many organizations to implement and promote community activities and products. This is a mutual exchange of support and services.

Self-register at http://scope.bccampus.ca

* Follow SCoPE on Twitter and Facebook
* Join the SCoPE group at Linkedin to connect with others who are interested in employment in education or in connecting professionally on projects, follow SCoPE on Twitter and check out the SCoPE Facebook group and member networking as a way to keep in the loop.
* Do you blog? Add it to our SCoPE member blogs database.
* Leave a message on the SCoPE Voicethread

9. About MicroSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE members receive MicroSCoPE issues automatically. If you prefer to read MicroSCoPE on the website or via RSS, login to SCoPE and manage your subscription here:
http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?f=5

MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie, Community Steward (scurrie@bccampus.ca).

Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Digital Identity Seminar


A seminar is starting up at SCoPE today. As with all SCoPE activities, the Digital Identity seminar is facilitated by volunteers in the community, and participation is free and open to the public. Here is the description. Hope to see you there!

Digital Identity: December 1-18, 2009
Facilitators: Trish RosseelTrish Rosseel & Cindy UnderhillCindy Underhill

From Wikipedia: Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things.

How do you manage and make informed choices about your digital identity? What does all of this mean in an educational context? What are the questions YOU need to ask of your learners to educate them about their digital identities? Join two of the developers behind University of British Columbia's Digital Tattoo project for a discussion about digital identities and what we all need to know.

Using the resources on the Digital Identity Wiki as fodder for discussion, we'll focus on a different themes for each of the three weeks:
  1. Us
  2. Our Learners
  3. Our Institutions
Each week, we'll highlight a few of the questions we think are important and (hopefully) draw out some of the themes that are important to you. On Friday, December 11th at 11:00 a.m. we'll host a synchronous session in Elluminate - focusing on the Digital Tattoo project that we're involved with.

We look forward to the discussion in the coming weeks!

Digital Identity Seminar


A seminar is starting up at SCoPE today. As with all SCoPE activities, the Digital Identity seminar is facilitated by volunteers in the community, and participation is free and open to the public. Here is the description. Hope to see you there!

Digital Identity: December 1-18, 2009
Facilitators: Trish RosseelTrish Rosseel & Cindy UnderhillCindy Underhill

From Wikipedia: Digital identity refers to the aspect of digital technology that is concerned with the mediation of people's experience of their own identity and the identity of other people and things.

How do you manage and make informed choices about your digital identity? What does all of this mean in an educational context? What are the questions YOU need to ask of your learners to educate them about their digital identities? Join two of the developers behind University of British Columbia's Digital Tattoo project for a discussion about digital identities and what we all need to know.

Using the resources on the Digital Identity Wiki as fodder for discussion, we'll focus on a different themes for each of the three weeks:
  1. Us
  2. Our Learners
  3. Our Institutions
Each week, we'll highlight a few of the questions we think are important and (hopefully) draw out some of the themes that are important to you. On Friday, December 11th at 11:00 a.m. we'll host a synchronous session in Elluminate - focusing on the Digital Tattoo project that we're involved with.

We look forward to the discussion in the coming weeks!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Doodle for easy meeting coordination


As the organizer of many meetings with busy colleagues, life can be akin to “herding cats” when chasing down people and dates.

But Doodle, a polling tool I’ve been using of late, has made this task so much simpler. All you do is setup a Doodle poll with your dates and send participants the link. As creator of the poll, you are able to monitor responses and get the full tally on which date works best for most people. The meeting practically organizes itself. Then you have way more time to work on important matters like the agenda! I love this tool. Thanks to colleague Sylvia Currie for passing on the tip.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Wordpress Multi-User

Ever dream of running hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress? WordPress MU, or multi-user, is designed to do exactly that.
Several post-secondary institutions in British Columbia are using WordPress MU -- UBC, UNBC, Langara, Camosun... (I've missed some, I'm sure.) What's interesting is to see WordPress MU being used for for variety of purposes. We think of it as blogging software, but in fact it is a very flexible content management system (CMS) and is being used at these institutions for developing professional e-portfolios (see UBC's Faculty of Education e-portfolios for teacher candidates), maintaining department websites (see Langara's iweb), and managing course content and discussions. In fact Clint Lalonde from Camusun has begun to document the process of piloting WordPress MU at Camosun College, and he offers this advice about referring to WordPress MU as a blogging tool:
I’ve avoided using the word blog when I refer to these sites. I’ve found that the term blog carries with it preconceived notions, both good and bad. So, in order to avoid the whole “I don’t want a blog, I want a website” circular logic wheel that I have witnessed when people talk about WP as a CMS, I have been using the term website when talking about our pilot sites.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The CUBE at BCIT uses 3D simulation technology and takes teaching and learning to new levels

From BCIT's Update Newsletter: http://www.bcit.ca/update/node/635

It’s not what it is, it’s what it does. The CUBE transforms the way instructors teach and the way students learn at BCIT. It will bring the workplace into the classroom and enrich curriculum – virtually.

Unique to BCIT, the CUBE initiative places 3D simulations of expensive, rare, and leading edge equipment into the hands of BCIT students, anytime, anywhere allowing learners to explore complex components and systems in a 3D virtual world before they touch the real thing.

Students will manipulate virtual objects from jet engines to knee joints and even disassemble, assemble, and cross-section them using computers.

With a US $1million grant from Lockheed Martin and $380,000 in software contributions from NGRAIN (Canada) Corporation, the CUBE transforms learning through the development of interactive 3D simulations which enhance the learner's experience. Watch the video to see the CUBE in action, and check out the BCIT news release for more info.




Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stopwatch



Stopwatch: Would you like to know how long it takes to load a webpage? This program will measure the time for you. Enter the URL to be measured and watch the top of the window.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Screencasting

Screencasting is a great way to demonstrate how to use various technologies or enhance a presentation. If you have tried screencasting in the past you know that although time consuming these a screencast can be an effective way to grab audience attention.

The site, Lifehacker, has put together a list of the five best screencasting tools. There are a couple of free tools highlighted that are definitely worth a try!
http://bit.ly/5Wj6GH

BCIT has recently developed a series of video tutorials, using Adobe Captivate, for Desire2Learn. The video tutorials were created for Instructors across the Institute and focus on how to use D2L. Check them out at: http://learn.bcit.ca under Instructor Resources.

Clickers


Active student engagement in large classes is a pedagogical topic that is a constant buzz at many meetings, workshops, and conferences. One solution to engaging students in a large class is to use Clickers. Both the Vancouver Community College and University of Victoria are introducing clickers to their institutions and Vancouver's Georgia Strait recently featured a Professor from the University of British Columbia on his use of Clickers in the class- check it out "Clickers give students incentive to go to class".

For more information about Clickers read Educause's article on "7 things you should know about clickers".

Friday, November 20, 2009

Gliffy

Gliffy is a fantastic tool for everything from planning how to organize the furniture in your classroom to collaboratively brainstorming and organizing ideas. Thanks to Grant Potter for introducing us to this tool during a working group meeting to rethink and redesign the Educational Technology Users Group community. Here's our spidergram (taken from this spidergram activity).
At Gliffy, we believe that communicating with visuals gets people to the same space a lot faster because a picture takes the thoughts in your head and makes them tangible.

With a tool that makes it easy to create, share, and collaborate on a wide range of diagrams, Gliffy users can communicate more clearly, boost innovation, improve decisions, and work more effectively.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Virtual Field Trip

CPsquare, the community of practice on communities of practice, and SCoPE are working together to organize virtual Quarterly Field Trips. The practice of visiting communities has a long history in and around CPsquare. We decided that the opportunity to visit communities with the help of a tour guide, and using a specific framework as a lens on the community, would be an excellent mutual exchange among community leaders and enthusiasts. Tourists (enthusiasts) can get ideas and insights from seeing other communities, and the tour guides (leaders) can benefit from the expertise of the enthusiasts.

Our next field trip is scheduled for November 16, 2009 20:00 GMT. This excursion will be to Cloudworks, an evolving, dynamic community for learning design developed and hosted by the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University. Grainne Conole, Professor of e-learning at OU, will be our tour guide. We are organizing the background information and details of the trip on the CPsquare wiki.

I will be co-moderating this session with John Smith. It's open to everyone so please spread the word!

When: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:00 PDT 20:00 GMT (your time zone)  
Where: SCoPE Community Enthusiasts Elluminate Room

Photo uploaded on October 1, 2009
by djdroga

The Complete Guide to Google Wave


The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave: "The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a comprehensive user manual by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that's notoriously difficult to understand. This guide will help. Here you'll learn how to use Google Wave to get things done with your group. Because Wave is such a new product that's evolving quickly, this guidebook is a work in progress that will update in concert with Wave as it grows and changes. Read more about The Complete Guide to Google Wave, and follow us on Twitter for updates and Wave tips."

Thursday, November 5, 2009

How do YOU connect online?

ETUG member D'Arcy Norman is asking this question for his non-traditional assignment in a graduate level course he is taking on Technology & Society:
How do YOU connect online?
More information about the project and how to submit your contribution is available on the Connect Project site.

Cloudworks

I've been following the work of Gráinne Conole from UK's Open University for some time. I believe the first time I corresponded with her was during the Shaping Our Future conference in May, 2008 at SCoPE where we invited her to provide an international perspective on e-learning research, policy, and practice. Then later that year I participated in her remote presentation on Cloudworks at the 2008 Tech It Up conference at Thomposon Rivers University in Kamloops.

That Coudworks presentation really sparked my interest. At that time the website was still in the very early phases of development, but the potential was obvious. It reminded me of some of our early 90s work done in the Virtual-U project lab at Simon Fraser University when we were busy mocking up designs that would provide a way for instructors to share their online course activities in a way that provided implementation and iterative design context.
Cloudworks is a site for finding, sharing and discussing learning and teaching ideas, experiences and issues. The aims are to:
  • enable people to find, share and discuss learning and teaching ideas
  • connect people with similar educational interests through social networking
  • provide inspiration on designing learning activities and developing resources
  • showcase the work of individuals and communities who want to reach existing but also new audiences
  • provide a place for different communities to discuss, collaborate and aggregate relevant materials, ideas and designs
  • encourage sharing, especially among people who have not shared learning and teaching ideas and experiences before.
The appeal of Cloudworks is that the focus shifts away from sharing course resources (repositories) to representing teaching designs, practices, and resources in a way that is context rich and reusable by others. Moreover, members' contributions are open and available for others to build on in a number of interesting ways.
Unlike many existing educational repositories, the emphasis is on building a dynamic collection of ideas and experiences; via a variety of educational content (learning designs, case studies, resources and tools) plus active discussions about the use and effectiveness of this content in different contexts. The voice of users of the site, their experience, reviews and reflections on the content of the site is a central feature.
Last month I had the pleasure of spending some time with Gráinne at the ETUG Fall 2009 workshop in Vancouver, on an unexpected road trip to Kamloops because our flight was cancelled, then briefly at the TechItUp conference where we live-blogged John Seely Brown's keynote together. I was able to get immersed in Cloudworks and also experience Gráinne's enthusiasm. It was a great combination.

First... the ETUG Fall workshop. Gráinne Conole treated participants to a full-day workshop and plenary talk on learning design. She was also an extremely active participant in the 2-day event overall, first by helping the planning committee by creating a workshop 'cloudscape' at Cloudworks ahead of time, then by continuing to populate the various clouds with links, live blogs of sessions, comments, and keeping workshop the #etugdesign twitter stream active.

Aside from helping us to build a fantastic online resource for our 2-day event that we can continue to revisit and build over time, Gráinne really modelled for our community how we can (and should!) collectively create artefacts of our activities, and find ways to involve members who are unable to travel to f2f events. And it was very interesting to see Cloudworks in action!

Second...the unexpected road trip. We had a very early flight out of Vancouver I was returning home after the ETUG Workshop and Gráinne was going on the the TechItUp conference. We caught a 5:30 a.m. cab to the airport only to find that the flight had been cancelled due to fog. We're actually still trying to figure out why the flight was so early! We thought it was because Gráinne needed to be at the TechItUp conference. Anyway, we retrieved our luggage then headed off to the car rental area. No cars left! We tried one company after another. Then in the last line-up we started chatting with Jarrod Bell from School District #60 in Fort St. John. It turned out he was also heading to the TechItUp conference AND we found out there was a car available. So we all drove up together. What a terrific experience! We felt like we were playing hooky -- stopping at coffee shops, checking out the views, fitting in a little fine dining, and having a fantastic conversation.

Third...John Seely Brown's keynote at the TechItUp conference. Thanks to Tara Murray from School District #73 (Kamloops/Thompson), one of the conference organizers, I was able to pop in on Saturday morning just for the keynote. By this time I was very familiar with Cloudworks, so was able to quickly find the cloud Gráinne had created and start live blogging within seconds of opening my laptop.

I think this last point is what will really contribute to the increase in Cloudworks membership and the growth in valuable resources and opportunities for dialogue. It is so easy to use, and there are many ways to contribute. The idea is to:
  • Ensure a low barrier to entry for new contributions. We believe that one of the main barriers to contribution to other repositories is the level of detail and metadata required, cumbersome quality control processes and issues around ownership.
  • Give the site a people-orientated focus. It is conversation and shared experiences that will draw people to contribute to the site and make it sustainable. Finding the right person to talk to is often as important as finding the right resource.
When I returned home after my few days with Gráinne I began to think about how Cloudworks could be used for other projects I'm involved in. One that came to mind was an Improving Conferences (and other events) project I've been hoping to get off the ground with colleagues in BC as we gather ideas and feedback from the events we organize. We have so much material, but it needs to be brought together somehow. And obviously this won't be a static resource; we need to continue to build on it. Cloudworks! I fired up an Improving Conferences Cloudscape and a few clouds to get going. The next day I noticed that Martin Weller had started a cloud called Changing nature of conferences so I snapped that into my Cloudscape. I'll continue to look for other clouds related to this theme. I'll also continue to get the word out that the cloudscape exists. I haven't even mentioned it to my colleagues, and they might not be as keen to jump in. But that's okay. Even if we end up with A MANUAL , it can still be included in the cloudscape. And hopefully I'll bump into new people in the clouds who interested in this topic. In any case, I'll just pick away at this project, adding #improveconf to relevant tweets, links to interesting resources, questions and new clouds as they come to mind. Suddenly creating a good resource on improving conferences feels very manageable. :-)

Interested in learning about Cloudworks in a community of practice context? Mark your calendars for a Virtual Field Trip organized by SCoPE and CPSquare, November 16
November 16, 2009 12:00 PDT 20:00 GMT (your time zone). More details will be posted soon!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

International Symposium on Wikis - conference report

This is a source of current academic research from the International Symposium on Wikis. The paper titled "Herding the Cats: The Influence of Groups in Coordinating Peer Production?" (pdf) by Aniket Kittur, Bryan Pendleton, and Robert E. Kraut caught the eye of several people on the Wikieducator mailing list. Looks like some good reading.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Selective Twitter Status on Facebook

There has been a lot of discussion recently about how to separate (and combine) participation in Twitter and Facebook. Many people use Twitter for work and Facebook for personal communication. For others this distinction is less clear. In any case, having all twitter updates appear in your Facebook status is redundant, and often annoying to your "friends". Here's a solution that might help.
Selective Twitter Status on Facebook: "Selective Twitter Status lets you update your Facebook status from Twitter - BUT you can choose which tweets you want - just end a tweet with #fb when you want to post it as your Facebook status - simple!"

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Cloudworks in action

At the ETUG Fall 2009 workshop in Vancouver this month, Grainne Conole from UK's Open University treated participants to a full-day workshop and plenary talk on learning design. She was also an extremely active participant in the 2-day event overall, first by helping the planning committee by creating a workshop 'cloudscape' at Cloudworks ahead of time, then by continuing to populate the various clouds with links, live blogs of sessions, comments, and keeping workshop the #etugdesign twitter stream active.

Aside from helping us to build a fantastic online resource for our 2-day event that we can continue to revisit and build over time, Grainne really modelled for our community how we can (and should!) collectively create artefacts of our activities, and find ways to involve members who are unable to travel to f2f events. And it was very interesting to see Cloudworks in action! Check it out.
Cloudworks is a site for finding, sharing and discussing learning and teaching ideas, experiences and issues. The aims are to:
  • enable people to find, share and discuss learning and teaching ideas
  • connect people with similar educational interests through social networking
  • provide inspiration on designing learning activities and developing resources
  • showcase the work of individuals and communities who want to reach existing but also new audiences
  • provide a place for different communities to discuss, collaborate and aggregate relevant materials, ideas and designs
  • encourage sharing, especially among people who have not shared learning and teaching ideas and experiences before.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Art of Teaching

This is a professional development opportunity at SCoPE for EVERYONE interested in teaching. It is free and open to the public. This event is organized as part of the Professional Learning Series, a collaborative partnership with eCampus Alberta, Alberta-North, and BCcampus. Invite your colleagues!

What: A 3-week asynchronous discussion combined with weekly Elluminate sessions on the art of teaching.

When:
October 19 - November 6, 2009

Elluminate Sessions
Week 1: Intro, Bridging, Outcomes
Monday, October 19, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 2: Pre-assessment, Participation
Monday, October 26, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 3: Post-assessment, Summary
Monday, November 2, 10 - 11:00 PST (your time zone)

Facilitators:
Neil Smith, Professor, Faculty of Education, Vancouver Island University
Nancy Randall, Past Head of the Vancouver Island University Teaching and Learning Centre
Andrew Marchand, Educational Technologist, Vancouver Island University

How to participate:
Each week of this 3-week seminar will be launched with an Art of Teaching video and live discussion in Elluminate. To participate in the seminar discussion you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site. This is a quick process.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Free book on mobile learning in higher education

Free book on mobile learning in higher education « Tony Bates:
"Jan Herrington, Anthony Herrington, Jessica Mantei, Ian Olney and Brian Ferry (editors), (2009) New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education, Wollongong, Australia: Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, 138p

This book is fully downloadable from here.

The purpose of this e-book is to explore the use of mobile devices in learning in higher education, and to provide examples of good pedagogy."
Thanks to Tony Bates for bringing this book to our attention, who in turn thanks Richard Elliot. :-)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Art of Teaching

This is a professional development opportunity at SCoPE for EVERYONE interested in teaching. It is free and open to the public. This event is organized as part of the Professional Learning Series, a collaborative partnership with eCampus Alberta, Alberta-North, and BCcampus. Invite your colleagues!

What: A 3-week asynchronous discussion combined with weekly Elluminate sessions on the art of teaching.

When:
October 19 - November 6, 2009

Elluminate Sessions
Week 1: Intro, Bridging, Outcomes
Monday, October 19, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 2: Pre-assessment, Participation
Monday, October 26, 10 - 11:00 PDT (your time zone)

Week 3: Post-assessment, Summary
Monday, November 2, 10 - 11:00 PST (your time zone)

Facilitators:
Neil Smith, Professor, Faculty of Education, Vancouver Island University
Nancy Randall, Past Head of the Vancouver Island University Teaching and Learning Centre
Andrew Marchand, Educational Technologist, Vancouver Island University

How to participate:
Each week of this 3-week seminar will be launched with an Art of Teaching video and live discussion in Elluminate. To participate in the seminar discussion you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site. This is a quick process.

Friday, October 9, 2009

TERMIUM is now free!

"Until now, TERMIUM Plus®, one of the largest terminology and linguistic data banks in the world, was available only to employees of the Government of Canada and to subscribers. Those days are over! All Canadians-and all Web surfers, wherever they are-can now consult the Translation Bureau's flagship product free of charge."

Monday, October 5, 2009

Copyright: Aftermath of the Canadian Copyright Consultation

eCampusAlberta, Alberta-North and BCcampus invite you to attend the second web conference in a new 2009 - 2010 Online Professional Learning Series.

When: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 13:30 - 15:00 (PDT) check your time zone

Presenters: Maureen Baron, President, Canadian Network for Innovation in Education

Agenda:
1. Context for copyright – users and developers
2. Issues for copyright in online learning
3. Canadian Copyright Consultation and Legislation
4. Course showcase
5. Upcoming events

To join the Elluminate live session on Tuesday, click the link below up to 30 minutes before the start of the session:
http://tinyurl.com/yb33utj
To log in, just type your first name, and the initials of the institution where you work (for example Bart UNBC).

You'll need an audio set up with a microphone, for example a headset with a mic, and Internet access.

If you have not previously attended an Elluminate Live web conference, please take 5 minutes well before the session and visit www.elluminate.com/support and follow the steps for first time users. A small Java applet will request access to your PC the first time you use Elluminate, but only the first time.

Randy LaBonte, Consultant and PD Coordinator for Alberta-North, will be moderating this series of practical and fascinating sessions this fall.

Copyright: Aftermath of the Canadian Copyright Consultation

eCampusAlberta, Alberta-North and BCcampus invite you to attend the second web conference in a new 2009 - 2010 Online Professional Learning Series.

When: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 13:30 - 15:00 (PDT) check your time zone

Presenters: Maureen Baron, President, Canadian Network for Innovation in Education

Agenda:
1. Context for copyright – users and developers
2. Issues for copyright in online learning
3. Canadian Copyright Consultation and Legislation
4. Course showcase
5. Upcoming events

To join the Elluminate live session on Tuesday, click the link below up to 30 minutes before the start of the session:
http://tinyurl.com/yb33utj
To log in, just type your first name, and the initials of the institution where you work (for example Bart UNBC).

You'll need an audio set up with a microphone, for example a headset with a mic, and Internet access.

If you have not previously attended an Elluminate Live web conference, please take 5 minutes well before the session and visit www.elluminate.com/support and follow the steps for first time users. A small Java applet will request access to your PC the first time you use Elluminate, but only the first time.

Randy LaBonte, Consultant and PD Coordinator for Alberta-North, will be moderating this series of practical and fascinating sessions this fall.

Open Access Week

Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.
Plan to participate in Open Access Week, October 19-23, 2009. Activities are planned for that week by organizations all over the world. Of particular interest is a series of noon hour webcasts organized by Athabasca University.
The objective of AU’s Open Access Week is to promote understanding, adoption, use and production of open access resources for formal and informal teaching and learning.

Athabasca University will present a series of five noon-hour webcasts exploring major issues and opportunities presented by open access. Each session will feature an internationally known promoter and developer of open access resources, research or ideas.

Each session will be offered via Elluminate web conference from noon to 1 p.m. Mountain Time (11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pacific)

Monday, October 19 - The Open Access Scholar

The review, publication and interaction associated with open access dissemination of research is the focus of this presentation, featuring Dr. Terry Anderson, editor of the open access journal The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
http://tinyurl.com/obwmka

Tuesday, October 20 - Open Access Research Opportunities and Strategies

Much remains to be discovered in relation to the technology, economy, politics and psychology of effectively producing and using open access content. Patrick McAndrew and Candice Thiele are co-directing OLnet, an international research network designed to assist with and co-ordinate research into the most effective use of these opportunities and to gain both basic and applied knowledge relating to open access content. In this session, they will highlight research opportunities, methodologies and results of current projects.
http://tinyurl.com/npuhh7

Wednesday, October 21 - Open Access Publication

Publication models for scholarly monographs, featuring the pioneering work of Athabasca University Press, Canada’s first open access press. Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of Athabasca University, will discuss the vision and the challenges of editing, producing and distributing paper books, while licensing the free download of the full text.
http://tinyurl.com/qne9b4

Thursday, October 22 - Open Access Archives and Repositories

Governments and research funding organizations are increasingly reluctant to fund research that is not widely distributed and affordable, creating the need for repositories through which scholars can legally distribute their research results and data. Steve Schafer, director of Athabasca University Library, will discuss how open access relates to and enhances library services. Tony Tin, founder of Athabasca University's repository, AU Space, will talk about and demonstrate AU’s growing collection and discuss the challenges and opportunities of self-archiving.
http://tinyurl.com/ogwgcj

Friday, October 23 - Open Educational Resources

The production, licensing, use and re-use of learning objects accessible through open access distribution will be the focus of this presentation. Noted author and scholar Dr. Rory McGreal will share his knowledge of the increasing opportunities and challenges associated with the open access publication of learning materials.
http://tinyurl.com/kv87un

Friday, October 2, 2009

16 Apps That Make Sharing Large Files A Snap

This blog post got my attention because it was tweeted by @clintlalonde and bookmarked by Scott Leslie. It comes up quite often that we need to exchange large files with others. This list will help to zone in on the service that suits your purpose.
16 Apps That Make Sharing Large Files A Snap: "In this post, I compare 16 file-sharing services. I took three main issues under consideration when creating the comprehensive app list below: Free, Fast, and Useful . . .

Most of the services suggested require no registration. None of them will ask you to download anything to your computer, and all of them are easy to use, and worth using."

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing


Used Etherpad http://bit.ly/xOXdr today in class with 50+ students for classwide brainstorming - worked brilliantly


ETUG member, Grant Potter, tweets some success with EtherPad today. It looks like a very useful and robust tool for the classroom or any type of group collaboration.
EtherPad is the only web-based word processor that allows people to work together in really real-time.

When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone's screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more.

New Google Form Features


Google Forms now supports branching http://bit.ly/ayCRW



I saw this tweet from ETUG member, Clint Lalonde, this morning and jumped on it! I've always loved the ease of Google Forms, but it has always been a bare bones solution. The Official Google Docs Blog reports two new features.
Have you ever wanted to create a form that changes which questions to show next based on an answer received earlier in the form? The two features we launched today make that easy. First, we've added one of the most requested features for forms: page breaks. Now it is easy to create a form with multiple pages by going to 'Add item' and selecting 'Page break.'

We've also added another highly requested feature, logic branching. Once you've created a form with multiple pages, you can select 'Go to page based on answer' to control the flow of your form based on the user's answers. For example, you can create a form asking the person to select their language and then direct them to a form in the correct language.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Adobe kulers

Adobe's "kuler" site is a place to get ideas for colour themes (sets of five colours) and/or explore the world of colour by creating your own combinations.

You need to set up an account in order to get the colour information to use in a web or other documents. Once you sign-in, you can also create and save your own themes. The themes can be downloaded as swatches for use in Adobe products.

http://kuler.adobe.com

Sir Ken Robinson on creativity in schools

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It has many great videos ... well worth a browse.

Sir Ken Robinson's talk "nurture creativity, don't kill it." at the 2006 TED Conference is the first I heard, and is still worth a listen.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The CU Online Handbook

The CU Online Handbook is a free publication that is available for download (PDF). The book is edited by Patrick R. Lowenthal, David Thomas, Anna Thai, and Brian Yuhnke. Here is a preview of the Table of Contents:
Trends and Issues with Online Learning
1. From Reluctant and Reticent to Engaged and Enthusiastic: The Passage to Online Teaching
Susan Giullian

2. Preparing Special Education Teachers Through Online Instruction
Donna Sobel

3. Using eCollege to Facilitate Learning, Provide for Program Coherence, Manage Accountability Innovations, and Ensure the Evolution of a Principal Licensure
Program
Connie Fulmer

4. Make, Share, Find: Web 2.0 and Informal Learning
Phil Antonelli

Technology in Action
5. The Advantages of a Ning Social Network Within a Higher Education Program
Laura Summers

6. Fresh and Forward-thinking: Using Blogs for Educational Purposes
Joanna C. Dunlap & Ellen Stevens

7. Hanging on by a Thread
Dorothy F. Garrison-Wade

8. Instructional Uses of Twitter
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal

9. Using Audio for Giving Feedback to Project Teams: A Useful Complement to Track Changes
Brent G. Wilson

10. Wordle… Just for Phluff?
Joanna C. Dunlap

11. A Teaching Video Project Brought to Closure
Farah A. Ibrahim

12. Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations
Patrick R. Lowenthal

Friday, September 4, 2009

Online Engagement - From Principles to Practice

eCampusAlberta, AB North and BCcampus invite you to attend a professional development web conference via Elluminate Live, September 8, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. PDT.

This session is designed to profile online engagement - from principles to practice. Join several practitioners and see how they manage synchronous and asynchronous technologies to not only support learning online, but also apply principles of engagement through everyday online technologies. Be forewarned - active learning and engagement is required!

Please join us as we bring together participants from three consortia and two provinces to kick off the academic year of professional development. To join the session, you'll need an audio set up with a microphone, for example a headset with a mic, and Internet access. Click on the link provided shortly before 1:30 on Sept 8. To log in, just type your first name, and the initials of the institution where you work (for example Bart UNBC).

If you have not previously attended an Elluminate Live web conference, please take 5 minutes well before the session and visit www.elluminate.com/support and follow the steps for first time users. A small Java applet will request access to your PC the first time you use Elluminate, but only the first time.

To join the live session on Tuesday, click the link below up to 30 minutes before the start of the session:
http://tinyurl.com/l3f7rz

Randy LaBonte, Consultant and PD Coordinator for Alberta-North, will be moderating a series of practical and fascinating sessions this fall. Randy has a wealth of professional development experience, so please join us Sept 8 and get acquainted.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

ETUG » Fall 2009 Workshop

ETUG » Fall 2009 Workshop: "Fall 2009 Workshop
THEME: LEARNING DESIGN
Oct. 20 (Tuesday) & Oct. 21 (Wednesday), 2009
Segal School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

This year we are very pleased to present an expanded 2 day program for the ETUG Fall workshop.

* Day 1 : Grainne Conole from the Open University, UK, will help participants explore Compendium LD and Cloudworks – tools developed by the Open University Learning Design Initiative to help educators with the design process and sharing of design methods and approaches.

* Day 2: Grainne will give the opening plenary which will be followed by an exciting lineup of speakers on the following topics: learning space design, designing for engagement, large scale learning design, and collaborative learning models.

Also at the workshop:

* Institutional updates from ETUG members around BC
* Pub Social Tuesday night: (no host event) at the St. Regis Bar & Grill Regis Room. We hope to see you at there as we connect with ETUG colleagues old and new!

Registration: early September - so watch for an announcement coming soon.

Cost: 2-day event is $50 + GST and includes continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments for both days.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

FLNW - thinking about change

Peter Grimmett, one of my top 10 most memorable professors, said to a group of graduate students in 1996:
YOU can make a difference, just maybe not in your life time.
The course was Developing Educational Programs and Practices for Diverse Educational Settings and we were talking about educational reform. After spending some time sharing stories about our own experiences in school, we were feeling that change was quite urgent. I remember scanning my grade 1 report card and watching the looks of horror when everyone saw the talks too much comment made by my teacher. They were also amused that the need for improvement was consistently checked for most of the school year. Unfortunately, I finally did "improve" by the 4th quarter. The report card didn't seem quite as alarming as I went on to share stories about Anthony, the unhappy, large, black boy who only occasionally showed up for school, getting hit over the head with a yard stick for not answering the teacher's question about what he ate for breakfast. I had my wrists tapped with that same yardstick for not singing the national anthem. I didn't know the words to the U.S. national anthem. My family moved to Kentucky from Quebec. Why would I know the national anthem?

Peter Grimmitt's statement was both motivating and depressing. My first questions for this group of mostly practicing teachers were about the opportunities for educators to talk about their experiences, their curriculum, their questions and dilemmas. It seemed that most "professional development" days were filled with workshops and other events that could be described as “contrived collegiality” (Hargreaves, 1994). Creating more opportunities for educators to connect online was an obvious solution. I can trace my interest in online communities to those conversations facilitated by Peter. As a final project for the course I developed an action research proposal called Supporting Communities of Teachers: Networked Technology as a Catalyst for Change. It was a start!

I thought about Peter's statement a lot during the past week as I travelled with a group of people on the Future of Learning in a Networked World pacific northwest tour. You see, these people don't seem very interested in waiting for somebody else's lifetime. The conversations were occasionally about current educational dilemmas, but more often we were leaping ahead, imagining a very different world -- earning a PhD without an institutional affiliation, doing away with copyright altogether, a day when schools no longer exist. It's useful and refreshing to think about extremes and design new possibilities without grinding through the issues we have with the current system.

I imagine the FLNW group -- Nancy White, Leigh Blackall, Derek Chirnside, Sunshine Connelly, and Michael Coghlan -- will get a chuckle out of this grade 1 report card. Sylvia talks too much?? Mostly on this trip I did some good listening, and the experience left me with a lot to think about. I'm now wondering how to engage others in these conversations about the future of education. We need more events like University of Manitoba's Future of Education online conference, but involve more practicing educators from a variety of disciplines. We need more opportunities for educators to find out for themselves that there are better ways.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Digital Habitats

I just ordered my copy of the long awaited book Digital Habitats. I have various draft versions of chapters on my hard drive which were made available for participants in the CPSquare Connected Futures workshop. It was exciting to be involved in conversations back in April, 2008 about the content and ideas in this book, and trying them out first hand during the workshop. Just another fabulous CPSquare experience! I was also fortunate to have a preview of the book and the opportunity to snap this photo this past week while traveling with Nancy White on the FLNW tour.

I know I'll be pulling Digital Habitats off my shelf often, and I won't be able to part with it long enough to lend it out. So get your own copy! :-) It's available from the Technology for Communities blog now, and will be in bookstores soon.

Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John D. Smith, Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities (Portland, OR: CPsquare, 2009). ISBN: 9780982503607.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day: Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 - August Update

Jane Hart's Top 10 Tools August 2009 list is now available. Here is the snapshot. This website is not only an excellent way to quickly find tools that meet the needs of your task at hand, but the process for compiling and ranking the top tools is also interesting. What are your Top 10 tools for 2009? We'll be watching for your name on the list of learning professionals who have shared their lists. :-)

Monday, August 3, 2009

Remembering Helen

Helen's Knowplace avatar
Last week my friend and colleague, Frances Long, delivered the sad news that our dear 'knowmate', Helen Kershaw, had lost her battle with cancer. I've spent a good part of my days since then trying to process this news.

I have many amazing memories of Helen, from the first time I met her at the BC Computer Curriculum Consortium in Kelowna almost ten years ago, to the many encounters online over the years through various online communities and social networking sites. I have a Helen History on my hard drive -- inspiring, sensible, witty, intelligent, warm, logical, and innovative, correspondence that I plan to keep forever.

In fact, reading back I realize that she had the answers to many burning questions, but work life was so fast and furious I didn't let it all sink in during the moment. I came across this post in SCoPE. We were trying to decide the best tags to use for posting resources to delicious during SCoPE seminars:

may I suggest that you use an underscore with the specific title 'scope_' followed by the particular discussion or topic 'informal'

if each type of tag begins with scope, then all tags no matter the discussion will be presented

thus scope_informal and scope_community would bring different results but scope itself would bring both

We've revisited this tagging question numerous times in SCoPE. Today, reading back on Helen's posts I discover that she had the solution back in 2006. I just didn't let it sink in at the moment. Now those moments are altogether gone.

In 2002 Helen, Frances, and I did a presentation called "Tools to Support Community", again at a BC Computer Curriculum Consortium conference. I wasn't able to attend in person, so we decided to beam me in using my webcam. During the test run just minutes before conference delegates started to arrive at the session, we had such a giggling fit that I had to go get a wet washcloth to get my face back to normal before displaying it on a big screen. I have no idea what set us off; it was just another very special experience with Helen.

Helen's twitter bio captures her passion about work:
I am a life-long learner who enjoys helping others discover how technology can enhance their lives.
I keep reading this simple sentence, thinking how her life-long learning was cut so short, how her entire life was devoted to thinking about others, and how her concern was for how technology can enhance lives when it couldn't even assist in allowing her to live.

Helen the Knowplace Tools Potluck person. Helen the life-long learner. Helen the incredible mom and grandma. We'll miss her so much.

From the Quesnel Cariboo Observer:
Kershaw, Helen Marie
Friday, 24 Jul 2009
Helen Marie Kershaw passed away on July 24, 2009 after a lengthy illness.
Helen was born on April 27, 1948 in Rossland, B.C.
She is survived by her husband of 40 years, Alan, children Alana (Bob) Kuehn, Lori (Ken) Wawryk, Steven (Michelle) Kershaw, sister, Kim and brothers Allan, Rick and Doug, grandsons, Trevor, Matthew, Leon and Zachary and granddaughters Katie and Sarah.
Helen was predeceased by her parents Joe and Effie Rausch.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Terry Fox Foundation (www.terryfoxrun.org) or CIBC Run for the Cure (www.cibcrunforthecure.com) in Helen’s memory.
Special thank you to the doctors and nurses of Royal Columbian Hospital.
Helen was a dedicated instructor at Continuing and Adult Education at the Helen Dixon Center. The true joy of her life was spending time with her grandchildren. She will be forever loved and missed by her family.
There is no funeral at her request. A memorial tea will be held at the Senior’s Center on Wednesday, August 5, 3 pm to 5 pm.

Monday, July 27, 2009

DiscoverEd

We all appreciate the many open educational resources available these days. However, finding these resources can sometimes be a time-consuming process. This new tool looks like it could be very useful!
DiscoverEd is an experimental project from ccLearn which attempts to provide scalable search and discovery for educational resources on the web.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Readability

Readability is a tool that instantly transforms any web page into something that is EASY to read. Is the text too small? Are there distracting graphics on the side? Click the readability button and all of that changes. This tweet from Clint Lalonde says it all:
I love Readability, esp for longer texts. Anything that strips away distraction is good for helping me tame my monkey mind.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Amazing Stories of Openness

Let's hear from you! In preparation for the Open Education conference in Vancouver, August 2009, Alan Levine (aka CogDog) is seeking amazing stories from YOU. They don't have to be huge multimedia projects -- just say a few words about something from your own experiences. Alan will even work with your to figure out the best way to share your story. Do it!

Check this wiki for all the details.


Wednesday, July 8, 2009

AACE Global U - Social Media Seminar Series

The first of the free, monthly AACE Global U - Social Media Seminar Series, facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier, was held yesterday and attracted over 300 people. The recording is available here.

The full schedule and details are available on the AACE website. Here's the description:

Social media and emerging technologies are gaining increased attention for use in education. The list of tools grows daily.

Examples: blogs, wikis, Ning, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, cloud computing, surface computing, mobile learning, and so on.

"Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning" will explore the impact of new technologies, research, and related projects.

What does it all mean? Do long term trends and change cycles exist in the constant change? What patterns are emerging?

And, perhaps most importantly, should academics and education leaders respond?

"Social Media" will explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory.

Finding coherence in the midst of rapid changes is increasingly difficult. This monthly session will create a forum for educators to gather, present, and discuss the future impact of today's trends.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Exploring Networks of Communities

The July seminar discussion at SCoPE is one of my favourite topics, and facilitated by some of my favourite people! Exploring Networks of Communities runs July 6 - 24 with each week focusing on specific questions and issues and illustrated through case studies. The seminar is facilitated by Diego Leal, Project Manager for the Colombia National Program for ICT Use on Education in Higher Education, and John Smith, leader of CPsquare, the community of practice on communities of practice.

We're trying something a little different with this seminar -- it will be in both English and Spanish! (I predict Babelfish and other translation services will be getting a few hits over the next 3 weeks!)

These are the cases presentations we have lined up so far, scheduled for Monday of each week via Elluminate. The first case is scheduled for Monday, July 6 at 10:00 a.m. PDT (your time zone). Check the SCoPE forum description for up-to-date times and locations of all live sessions.
Here is the description from the forum:
When does it make sense to have a network of communities? How do you go about supporting a network of communities? These are questions many of us are grappling with and we are finding there are many issues and challenges to consider! This 3-week seminar will be combined with weekly live "case study" sessions where we will hear from community leaders in higher education. Together we will explore the aspects and issues that can lead to a need for a network of communities based on these study cases and the practices of the participants. This is an initial exploration around this topic and we will identify new tasks, opportunities, and actions that emerge from the seminar.
All SCoPE events are facilitated by volunteers in the community and are free and open to the public. Registration is not required and you are welcome to participate according to your own your time and interest. Latecomers, newcomers, and passersby are always welcomed. All discussions and presentations are archived for future reference.

Please spread the word!

Effective Practices in a Digital Age

Effective Practices in a Digital Age was published this week by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK. This guide is intended for those in higher education seeking to understand how to better integrate technology into their teaching. The 60-page document is available for download at no cost. There is also an option to order a print version and accompanying videos and podcasts. It contains several useful case studies as well as practical learning design guidelines.

Thanks to Tony Bates for bringing this resource to our attention.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Learn Together: Tagging Your Tiddlers

Lynda Williams from University of Northern British Columbia has treated us to 2 excellent Learn Together sessions on TiddlyWiki:
1. TiddlyWiki for Beginners (archive)
2. Building a Faculty Manual in TiddlyWiki (archive)

Now we can learn how to tag those tiddlers! Curious? Join us Wednesday, June 24, at 10:00 PDT (see your time zone) This session will be informative even if you were unable to attend previous TiddlyWiki sessions. Bonnie Johnston from British Columbia Institute of Technology will be our moderator.

Learn Together sessions are regular get-togethers facilitated by BC post-secondary educational practitioners and focused on specific topics related to teaching and learning. There is no cost to attend and everyone is welcome!