Screencasts with Screenr

Screenr is VERY easy to use! Click record and off you go creating a screencast up to 5 minutes in length. There is nothing to download and it is free.

Here is an example created by Amanda Coolidge, Communication Chair for the BC Educational Technology Users Group, to highlight upcoming activities. Through the Screenr site Amanda published a link to her screencast directly to Twitter.

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, and during the 2009 Online Community Enthusiast event in Vancouver, British Columbia we decided to organize these field trips as a way to provide opportunities for a 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 third field trip is scheduled for February 22, 2010 at 20:00 GMT. This excursion, outlined in the CPSquare Wiki, will be to the Wikisourcing Sustainable Enterprises (WSE) community. Host Jenny Ambrozek will show us the WSE community as it is today using this informal community comparison framework adapted from the C4P model for our quarterly field trips:

• Content: What explicit knowledge objects such as documents or video clips are created or shared in this community?
• Connections: What interpersonal contacts between community members (e.g., that facilitate relationship-building between community members) can you observe?
• Conversation: What face-to-face or online conversations are going on?
• Context: What context gives meaning to the content, connections and conversations in this community?
• Purpose: What is the reason for which the members come together in this community?

When: Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:00 PST,  20:00 GMT (your time zone)  
Where: SCoPE Community Enthusiasts Elluminate Room

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

MicroSCoPE: February 2010 Issue

This newsletter is cross-posted in the SCoPE online community.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
February, 2010
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In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Starts Today! Pimp Your Post
2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises
3. SCoPE Seminar: Collaborating Online
4. Online Courses and Workshops
5. Mark Your Calendars
6. Activity Recap
7. PeriSCoPE
8. About SCoPE
9. About MicroSCoPE

1. Starts Today! Pimp Your Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 12 - 19, 2010
Web conference February 12 at 19:30 GMT
Facilitators: Tracy Roberts and Gina Bennett
During this combined 1-hour web conference and 8-day 'sandboxing' discussion we will explore (easy, fun, and free) ways to go beyond plain text to jazz up introductory posts in online courses. This event is organized by the British Columbia Educational Technology Users Group.

2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 22, 2010 12:00 PST, 20:00 GMT
It's time for our next Quarterly Field Trip! This excursion will be to the Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises community with host Jenny Ambrozek. Field Trips - visits to living communities - are organized in collaboration with CPSquare, the community of practice on communities of practice.

3. SCoPE Seminar: Collaborating Online
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 1 - 19, 2010
Facilitator: Emma Duke-Williams
Collaboration is a term that is used quite loosely. What do we mean when we say we are collaborating? What are the key characteristics that differentiate collaboration from cooperation and working independently? What tools support the collaborative process online? During this 3-week seminar we will use Google Wave to explore its potential for supporting online collaboration while addressing these and other questions.

4. Online Courses and Workshops
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* Instructional Skills Workshop Online
May 3 - 28, 2010
Royal Roads University
This course is designed to help new and experienced instructors achieve success in facilitating learning in an online environment.

At SCoPE we will be featuring free and fee-based online courses and workshops offered by British Columbia post-secondary institutions.

5. Mark Your Calendars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Best Practices in Upgrading Online -- online conference March 24-26, 2010
* Culturally Diverse Learners: April 12 - 30, 2010. This seminar will showcase a video series produced by Thompson Rivers University.
Check upcoming seminars for updates to the seminar schedule. The Learn Together Collaboratory has a list of events of interest to educators. Please contribute to the list!

6. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Guiding the E-Researcher, facilitated by Janet Salmons, explored key e-research steps needed to use synchronous tools for scholarly interviews. The seminar was part of our Professional Reading Group Series, and built on Janet's new book: Online Interviews in Real Time.

* We kicked off the 2010 Professional Learning Series in January with an interactive session on authentic assessment. In February our Course Showcase featured 'Communicating Effectively' from Lakeland College and Royal Roads Univesity's online 'Instructional Skill Workshop Online' (ISWO). Recordings are available for all of these events organized by collaboratively by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North.

* We had a lively gathering for the December 21st World is Open Q&A session with Curtis Bonk. The recording and text chat transcript are available.

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

7. PeriSCoPE
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* Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning is a free monthly discussion, hosted by AACE and facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier.

* Moodle for Teachers is a free online workshop facilitated by Gladys Gahona and Nellie Deutsch, March 2-31, 2010

* The next CIDER Session is Moving Online: taking teaching and learning beyond four walls, March 3, 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.

* The call for proposals is open until Feburary 22 for the upcoming online conference hosted by Knowplace: 21st Century Learning & Sharing: Engaging for Success April 22-24, 2010.

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 facilitated by volunteers in the community 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

* 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 page 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
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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!

Teach-In for Climate Justice

The annual goBEYOND Teach-In for Climate Justice is March 1-12, 2010. By signing up for the teach in, educators from all disciplines across the globe can have an enormous impact in raising awareness and creating change.

From the Teach-In information package:

The Teach-In is a dialogue that is grounded in ideas, but directed toward action. We’re asking faculty to donate class time or assignments to engage their classes in ideas about climate justice, and the actions our colleges and universities can take to focus their incredible resources on generating equitable climate solutions.   

Faculty need not be experts on climate change, as the exercise is about a two-way discussion that encourages us to explore how each of our disciplines – from social sciences, engineering, and visual art, to economics, forestry, education, and everything in between – can contribute to solving this global issue.  And not to worry - we provide the discussion questions! 

The Teach-In is a powerful tool because it unifies so many different schools and disciplines, and builds momentum toward a common vision.  This year, the Teach-In is going beyond British Columbia’s borders – the Sierra Youth Coalition is helping to bring it across Canada, and the Inter-Varsity Environmental Network will bring it to campuses across Africa.  GoBEYOND has previously held two successful Teach-Ins, with participation from nearly 400 professors and 15 post-secondary institutions, reaching a total of approximately 20,000 students! This year marks the first ever international goBEYOND Teach-In. 

Check the goBEYOND Teach-In toolkit and sign up!

BCcampus Online Communities supports the Campus Climate Network community.

Pimp Your Post

Why use text when you can talk from a coffee cup!! :-D Research and experience shows that a strong start toward building community can do wonders for learning and engagement in your online course. For most online courses, this begins with the introductory post or icebreaker activity. Join us for Pimp Your Post -- Jazzing up Introductory Posts in Online Courses, a 1 week extravaganza of exploring easy, fun, and free ways to go beyond the plain text forum post. We'll kick off with a 1-hour web conference on February 12, and carry on a week of "sandboxing" at SCoPE.

What:
* Combination of synchronous and asynchronous discussions
* Participate in all or any portion of this event

Facilitators:
Gina Bennett and Tracy Roberts

Where:
http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=6301

When:
* Web conference: February 12, 2010 at 11:30 PST, 19:30 GMT (check your time zone)
* Asynchronous discussion February 12 - 19, 2010

How:
* No registration required
* Create an account on the SCoPE site to contribute to discussions and to customize your visits

This web conference and seminar is brought to you by the British Columbia Educational Users Group.

FREE online educational games, learning activities

Sheppard Software says, "We make learning fun."

FREE online educational games, learning games, and activities for kids of all ages. Articles, quizzes, and more, all quickly accessed online. There's even some good Canadian content there; for example, Canadian geography tutorials and games.

ALSO from Sheppard Software: Free software for teachers & Schools. "We design educational software and online games with these goals: 

1. To add sound and visual effects to make learning fun and more memorable. 
2. To design games with many difficulty levels so that players will continue to be challenged no matter how far they progress.
3. To provide games that will exercise players' brains."

...........

Kate's little side note: So, this guy calls me on the phone, raves about my site, PinkFlamingo's Resources Lists, then asks me to provide a link to Sheppard Software on the site. In the 10+ years I've had the site, I've had many link-exchange contacts, but never before by phone. But it was really the compliments that worked on me; whether or not they were just a marketing ploy, they worked. Good thing to keep in mind as an approach to take when trying to get anybody on board about anything -- the compliments go a long way, don't they?