Haptic Education: Adding the Tactile Sensation to Digital Learning

Here is the slides from my second presentation from today at UNCCause as well for those that may be looking for it. Both sessions went well… enjoy! 🙂

Using the Power of the Web to Organize your Life and Get things Done

Here is the Powerpoint from my presentation today about organizing your life using technology to get more things done!  There is a bit of weird formatting stuff that happened when I uploaded it to Google, but you can get the info you need from it!  There is a lot of good stuff in there that has helped me!  Enjoy!

Back at it with Conference Proposals

Okay… It has been a couple of months, and it is just killing me. Almost every day I see something that I want to pass along, so I am going to end m Hiatus and write a couple of blog posts now and again.

I have been working on two conference proposals, so hopefully I can write some of what I am proposing here as a sounding board… because, really, what is a blog anyway… 🙂

Here are my two topics I am thinking of proposing:

• “iPhone/iTouch in Education – How Location Aware, Ubiquitous Computing, Multi-Touch and Accelerometer will impact computing and Education.” – This proposal will focus on first on the capabilities of iPhones/iTouch’s and then on some of the applications that are available.
• “Using Web 2.0 to Help Those with Learning Disabilities.” – This proposal is growing out of some workshops I have been doing for our learning disabilities group here on campus. I realized that this is a place where technology can really help students, but not much has been written about it.

What do you think?

Understanding and Engaging the Net Generation at EDUCAUSE2007

This session was given by Susan Gibbons, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester.

• Growing rhetoric about being ‘Student-Centered.’
• So how do we become student centered.
• Lots of resources out there to help us understand these students… lots from EDUCAUSE.
• They did a study where they looked at all the user groups on campus and then make decisions about what they are doing, see the world through their eyes, and then make digital decisions based on that information.
• Applying methodologies and ethnographic information to better understand campus communities.
• To do this they used the following tools:
  • Photo elicitation exercises – give camera and let them take pictures and tell us why they took those pictures.
  • Gave assignments to take pictures of favorite study areas, places they feel lost, what stuff they carry with them, etc. etc.
  • Mapping Diaries – where do they go and when do they go where they go?
  • They are leaving early, not eating a lot, and carry a lot of stuff with them (that’s why they don’t carry the laptops with them).
  • Very structured and VERY busy!
• Design Workshops
  • Had students design their ideal learning space… they wanted flexibility and comfort (not big heavy desks that can’t move!).
  • Easy access to food and drink.
  • Lots of technology and tools – from plasma’s to staplers.
  • Staff Support – Generic all-purpose… they don’t want to have to figure which department to go to for all things!
• Retrospective Interviews
  • What activities occurred in between the time when a paper was assigned and when it was turned in.
  • Every picture had a call to a parent about where to get topic, information, or help edit a paper. (Really? I didn’t expect that… )
  • Laptops
  • He have high level of laptop ownership
  • They aren’t carrying laptops around
  • Not enough Power Outlets
  • Security is an issue … don’t want to pack up laptops when they need food.
  • Too Heavy
  • They are using public computing computers instead.
  • Solution: Local computers and extension chords.

So what can we do with all this data?

• ‘Helicopter’ Parents (the ones that just hover)
  • Solution: Drop Student Orientation and Add Parent Orientation
  • They come because they are dying to learn about where their students are going to be.
  • One Message: Every class has a librarian. Let them know what is going to happen in the coming months when the students get a paper. Use the parents as the channel to get the students to the librarians.
• Renovations – New Student Spaces
  • The designs encourage quiet study, but we are encouraging collaboration…
  • Need 24/7 access
  • Need more power and data
  • Importance of Food!
  • Comfortable Seating!
  • Lots of Big Tables – in front of windows so you don’t feel like you are cut off from the world. Need double the space of a normal study desk to spread out stuff.
  • Whiteboards form the walls of these spaces for lots of writing and drawing! (Great idea!)

Faculty

When you make getting research from professors all about them they respond to it much better. “I just read this article you wrote. It was fascinating. Tell me how you got from the idea to the final product…”

Overall impressions

This information is great information for designing and understanding how students learn today and designing learning spaces that help those students! Let the students tell us what they want and you will be better of EVERY time!

Resources:

Book – “Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester” (Direct PDF)

Email Susan with questions

Interactive Services on Mobile Devices for Higher Education – EDUCAUSE2007

I have always been very interested in mobile computing. I think it stems from my early years of Franklin Covey daytimers… then the old black and white PDA, then the PocketPC and now my blackberry. I use my blackberry for everything… including watching some movies in the airplane on my way out… so… how is this mobile technology changing the way students interact with information? Let’s see… ((Picture Link))

Notes:

• They have what they call “Value in the Hand” Proposition.
• Engaging students more directly… most students have cell phones… text messaging is supported on all devices… This make me think of a post I wrote a couple of months ago about 8 ways to use Camera Phones in Education.
• Data plans are not being used mostly because of the cost, but text messaging is just easier and faster in most cases…

FACT: In 9995 – 13% of US population had cell phones… by 2006 it is 76%

• Looking for ways to develop 2 way communication on mobile devices for educators!
• A company was formed out of this… Mobile Education LLC ((At this point of the presentation Rob goes through a formula for securing approvals for ideas. A lot of what I heard sounded so familiar to me. Lots of ideas, and lots of people saying no. If you are like me it might do you well to download the PowerPoint when it is available and read through those slides. Good stuff. ))
• The concept for this project was collaborative research!

Standard Phone Technologies:

• WAP – Wireless Application Protocol – Little browsers… I have this on my blackberry… but it works pretty good… once you figure it out.

• Easy to use… web based servers can send it out.
• Inexpensive to develop, but expensive for users…

MIDLET – Java Applications

• SUN Java Wireless Toolkit… but you have to try it on all sorts of different phones to make sure it continues to work… lots of compatibility issues…

SMS – This is the really big thing right now… Everyone is doing it…

CSC – Common Short Code – send messages and allow people to reply to them… This costs lots of $$… probably not an option…

Applications at UNCW

• Allows students to subscribe to daily campus events
• Emergency broadcast messages
• Interactive shuttle bus information
• Integration with their CMS (Banner) – Request Grade Information and Notification when Seat becomes Available
• Interactive Movie Schedule

Possible Others?

• Mobile Coupons (when there is a sale)
• Mobile Social Networking (find friends on campus)
• Cafeteria Menu
• SMS in the classroom? Response in classes.

Found this powerpoint with a general search… It looks like it is from an earlier conference, but it is good… Look for the one for this session here.

SharePoint 2007: Wikis, Blogs, and Enhanced Search – EDUCAUSE2007

I heard about SharePoint last year as a way to share content among each other. I know we have a campus agreement with Microsoft right now and as far as I know, all we need to do is enable this option on our servers. I am hoping that if I know more about the abilities of SharePoint I will be better able to persuade the systems guys to enable it for me. 🙂

Roles:

• Collaborative Solutions
• Portal Solutions
• Content Management Solutions
• Search
• Forms Solutions
• Business Intelligence Solutions

This class was more of a workshop so I didn’t have much time to type out stuff as we went through it. Suffice it to say that there are a LOT of options, including easy creation of Blogs and Wiki’s. This product makes it really easy to create and customize all sorts of information with click and drag, or simple select.

Microsoft is going a long way toward creating easy configurable products with many, many customizations for users. I only wish more Educators could afford products like this…

There Has to Be a Better Way: Zotero and Research 2.0 – EDUCAUSE2007

I came across Zotero about 6 months ago and thought it looked very promising. I installed it then, but have rebuilt my computer several times since then and lost it in one of the rebuilds. When I saw this session I decided I had better check it out again. It looks like they have been working hard on it… let’s see…

Notes:

• Scholarship has been radically transformed with the onset of web tools and massive online databases!
• Word processing has changed the way people write and think about writing…
• On yeah… don’t forget… IT’S FREE for everyone, everywhere! I love these type of tools!!
• Many translators that can grab metadata and import it into your Zotero Library

• UNC Libraries, New York Times, Amazon… pretty much anywhere… 🙂

Export into multiple formats

Save Pages locally and organize according to a hierarchy that is easy for you.

Add notes and comments to pa

Plugin for MS-Word and Open-Office that allows you to insert citations… GREAT! Replaces Refworks and Endnote… but it’s FREE and incorporates searching all sorts of online databases and webpages!

So what does the future hold? Zotero 2.0 – Zotero SERVER!

• Beta available the beginning of next semester… new options and features!
• This will be available to sync my collections and share my collections with others!
• Group ability – Set up micro- and macro- groups for disciplines.
• Recommendations
• Bibliographic Feeds (RSS) and ability to make certain things public.
• API’s for building tools to work with all this.

Wow… this really seems like a great tool! (Again.) I need to work on getting this out and known in the University! So as a start… if you don’t have it yet… download it today! (Download link on the right hand side at the top.)

From Information Literacy to Scholarly Identity: Effective Pedagogical Strategies for Social Bookmarking at EDUCAUSE2007

There are some handouts (PowerPoint, Teacher Handout, Student Handout) are available here. You should really check these out, especially if you are charged with teaching others about social bookmarking.

A very interesting title… think about it. How can social bookmarking help students screen and use resources online to helping scholars collaborate about things that they think are important? What are the pedagogical implications of social bookmarking?

The tools that they are using is Blackboard Scholar. It is available as part of Blackboard LMS, or by itself… and all for FREE (Don’t you just love that word?)

• Getting students involved allows students to collaborate and contribute to the content of the course.
• The information they gather can become part of a lifelong learning effort that they can access later on as well.
• Used as a way for students to find resources that can be shared with the entire class.
• Thought: we should create tags for each of our classes. We can then search that tag online and find resources for that course forever (in theory).
• Social networking is a great way for students to find information and share it with the professor and other students.
• You can create a course page by creating an unique tag for the class and tagging any information with that tag.
• If students are not doing it already, they adapt very quickly. (Digital Natives)
• The Blackboard Module allows much more customization as well. (See Powerpoint for great examples). Each class can have certain tags as well for group projects.

How can we use Social Bookmarking:

• Personal Productivity
• Course Content
• Teamwork and Projects
• Professional Development
• Discovery, Tracking and Networking

Thoughts:

• This really is a great way to get the students collaborating and working together.
• In a way, social bookmarking is our way of annotating the web… at least organizing it in a way that is useful for each of us.
• I logged into our blackboard system and tried to find a way to add a social bookmarking module to our class, but I couldn’t find it… hmmm… anyone else know how to enable that on blackboard? Do the admin’s have to do that?

Empowerment by Sharing: Tools for Today’s Classroom at EDUCAUSE2007

Stacey Kizer, EdD Doctoral Student at Pepperdine University.

I chose this session because it is supposed to be about “Best practices in developing, sharing, and using course content online
through wikis, blogs, podcasting, RSS feeds, and social bookmarking.” These are all new Web 2.0 technologies that I already work quite a bit with. I am interested in seeing what others have to say about them…

Notes:

• In an almost ironic beginning to a Web 2.0 presentation, she started out her presentation and had some immediate problems playing video because she was using a presenters laptop. Hee Hee…
• Web 2.0 gives students a voice that they might not normally have. Video blog, regular blog, or just blogging in general will get those high-risk students not only involved, but deeply involved.

Podcast:

• We need to take the knowledge we already have and share it with others.
• All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and iTunes and you are good to go!
• Even getting teachers to stream podcasts is a GREAT start!
  • Nature.com
  • The Great Gatsby – 10th Grade Podcast Assignment to bring them back in time!
  • Education Podcast Network… Great Resource.

Video Blogging:

• Producing Video’s that document your life/classroom teaching/classroom activities.
• TeacherTube.com
• Animoto – The end of slideshows… beginning of student blogs! Project to get still pictures and put it with appropriate music

Social Bookmarking:

• Diigo.com – Not just social bookmark a page, but annotate that site as well!
  • This leads me back to a big point from earlier today… when can I annotate with INK?!! I have a tablet and with the onset of multi-touch technology it is going to become more important. I want something that is like real life, but with the power of digital tagging and searching…

Unfortunately because we had problems at the beginning we ran out of time she didn’t have a chance to get to a lot of what she had planned… so… Email Stacey to get a copy of her handout… it’s a great resource!! Ask for the powerpoint as well!

Social Networking Technologies: A “Poke” for Campus Services at EDUCAUSE2007

Joanne Berg, Lori Berquam, and Kathleen Christoph. I decided to attend this session because students are using this technology. I am a firm believer that any technology that students are using we should at least take a look at. 🙂

• This is a part of students life… the is the number one reason for why we are even considering this technologies.
• How do we social network… how do we socially engage with the students?
• What are those technologies we can endorse? Which ones don’t have anything to do with what we are doing?

Information:

• In the past we didn’t have as much information to filter, but today there are TONS of different sources of information! TONS! We have to find a way to filter that information.
• Students use a LOT of different sources simultaneously to find information.
• They are searching for as much information as possible… trying to find a common theme for all the sources!

So how do we and/or students filter that information?

We did a bunch of interactive learning activities (kudos to the presenters for keeping us awake!). One we divided into groups where we discussed what students want and what administrators can give them.

What Students Want:

• One stop shopping (find all the information we want)
• Text Messaging (when something is available)
• Some people said they want facebook. Admins can create a Facebook app… but then some students don’t want that! I am of the opinion that some would use it and some would not.
• Online Library Resources (ALL of THEM) 24 Hour Online Librarian to help navigate those resources!

• This one really makes me think… Google is going a long way with this with their Google Book Search, but we are lacking one crucial element… the ability to easily mark up that information. We are getting closer with Tablet PC’s, but you still have to download it locally… I want to mark up the web… not just digitally annotate it, but to ink annotate it… who is going to finally fill this hole? Who will step up to the plate to allow me to digitally ink the web (research) and index it for me to find later? (without downloading it locally… I can do that now…)

What can Administrators Offer:

• We can provide Facebook apps for those that want them.
• We can build virtual tours
• We can be open to new ideas and emerging technologies… especially social technologies. Collaboration is a HUGE part of education!

What is it that we need to provide as an IT service on campus and when do we need to just get out of the way? Don’t replicate what they already have!

We didn’t leave this session with too many ideas… at least not concrete ideas. What are you using Social Networking for? I know we have a UNC Libraries Facebook App that some students use, but I have never used it inside of
Facebook. I wonder if any students do use it… Other ideas?