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.