Beginning the budget process…

It’s that time of year again… budget time! Prioritizing needs to allocate resources accordingly, and in this market it’s not going to be much fun. This is a rather complicated process when it comes to the academic piece of budgeting in the University. In the past, this seems to have happened in a more isolated way than what I would like to see this year and in the future. Trying to determine what software all faculty members want and need is, in and of itself, a difficult process. Then, trying to match those needs with software that will benefit the entire community adds another layer of difficulty. One thing we’re trying to cut down on is paying for multiple software programs that all perform similar functions. For example, rather than paying for 4 statistical software packages that are rarely used, it would be nice to whittle this down to one that we can all agree to learn and utilize frequently as needed.

One change I’ve made this year is to send the Educational Technology request form through the Deans. So, you should be receiving this document from your Dean, if you haven’t already. This is for faculty only – not staff. Please fill it out and send back to your Dean by Dec. 5. This will help us know what software we currently have that you want to keep, software that we can get rid of, software needed that we don’t have, and hardware (such as Clickers) for departments.

Our goal is to get the software needed for effective teaching and learning. Having to tighten our budget-belt may mean we need to make some strategic decisions about software use, but I don’t anticipate any major issues or a loss of any existing software packages. As a whole, Friends is very blessed to have the resources we already have and I think it will be pretty easy to continue full steam ahead.

If you ever have a curricular objective or goal for your class but you’re not sure what technology to use or how to meet those goals, please give me a shout. I’m here to help you and given a little time can probably come up with a fun and effective solution for you.

Key to successful online classes…

So many institutions, like Friends, are currently trying to figure out how to make online classes a successful part of the university. For the last 9 years I’ve worked with higher education institutions to develop online programs, train faculty and students, and setup effective systems for administration and delivery. In all that time I’ve seen great online courses and poor online courses (just like we see daily in the F2F classroom). So, what’s the key to a successful online class? What’s the one thing that makes the difference?

It’s the instructor. It’s how “present” the instructor is with the online students. It’s how the online instructor gives of him or herself in that environment. It’s the instructor’s nurturing presence online that moves an online course from good to great.

I know several instructors who work diligently to record and place all their lectures online, only to find that the students didn’t really like that online course. The assumption made by the instructor is that the material is available, so all the student has to do is listen and work their way through the activities. This model always fails in higher ed. In the corporate world it works fine. It simply doesn’t in the university.

How does all this compare with your experience in teaching or taking online courses?

NCATE visit…

The NCATE team is on campus for an accreditation visit. A poster session was held Saturday night in the atrium of the Casado Campus Center. It was a fun evening of talking with the NCATE team, most of whom are faculty members at institutions across the U.S. We were also able to see the posters of other areas of the University, and there were a couple of areas I had no idea about. I was impressed – and I’m here everyday!

One thing I like about the accreditation process is that it helps institutions see the forest beyond the tree they’ve been focused on for years. So many of us have our heads down, working so hard to complete that which is in front of us that we forget to look up and see what others are doing, what all is out there, what new options are now available for use in higher education… This is a fun conversation to me, and this is where educational technology – as an academic field – can be very helpful to the conversation.

One person I spoke with Saturday night started talking about Second Life in higher ed.  I’m all for it, I think Second Life could be extremely useful for many purposes. Check out this article on tech use among young people.  The point being that young people use technology not only to access information, but to create new information.  Higher Ed institutions have yet to harness this reality into their mission.  Think about this… many of IBM’s upper-level management meetings are now held on Second Life. Check out this article. Think about the possible scenarios an Education department could test in a virtual world like Second Life. It could be a powerful laboratory that would help prepare ed students for real-life teaching.

Are any of you on Second Life? Do you have an avatar? How else do you see this virtual world being useful in higher education?

Bb NG…

Blackboard is working through designing it’s next interface.  Check it out here.

Copyright…

I’m finding fewer and fewer educators seem to understand, or even seek to understand, copyright laws. Almost on a daily basis I observe or run into potential copyright issues because educators seem to rarely take time to understand current practice and law. Maybe this has gone on for a long time, but now that everyone wants digital copies of content and the technology is so readily available to convert content to a digital format, people automatically assume they can just convert current pieces of content to another format. Not necessarily so… Educators can’t hide behind “fair use” in the digital age as they once were able to, if they want to use content owned by somebody else.

I’ve gone to several copyright seminars and am getting ready to go to another one at the end of the month. I’m interested to see what changes are in place.

What about you? If you teach, have you been formally trained on copyright law? Do you ignore it, or diligently try to adhere to it?

Back in the saddle… or trying…

Well, I actually haven’t been fishing. I’ve been running to and fro lately and the blog has gotten little attention. Due mainly to the fact that my wife gave birth to our 3rd child on Sept. 26th. So, I was out last week and had lots of prep the weeks leading up to the birth. I plan to begin posting more often again… Here’s a picture of our new addition, Presley, with her bigger sister McKenna.

Issues with Secure Exam…

If you use Secure Exam to give tests via Blackboard in the Wichita computer labs, you will note the tests are requesting a password from students.  Of course, if you use the password generator this should not be the case.  I am working with the Secure Exam folks trying to get this resolved soon.  There seems to be an issue with our new version of Secure Exam 6.0 and Blackboard 8.0.  I will give updates as they are available.  For now, Secure Exam is not functioning.

The Good Teacher…

“In some non-descript, intuitive, immeasurable, non- quantitative, inexplicable way I have begun to sense who the good teacher is and who is the journeyman that merely shows up and makes a presentation. The difference is not so much what each knows, what information each has stored in his or her brains, or what knowledge each has available at his or her finger tips, or how each presents the information. It is what each brings or does not bring to the student as a human being. Being human is not an arrangement of flesh and bone. It is a way of thinking, acting, and doing.”
- Louis Schmier
retrieved September 10, 2008 from http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/rt/94nov07.html

The kicker is… this is also true for online teaching!

Browser wars…

What browser do you favor? Why? Most of us have a favorite, but rarely do we stop to think about it until we’re confronted with the need to change. Is it IE, FireFox, Safari, Opera? I’ve been using a browser called Flock for almost a year now and I really enjoy it.

Before we upgraded to Blackboard 8.0 at Friends, I used to encourage everyone to use FireFox. No longer. In fact, I’ve had several faculty members contact me about problems they’re having loading files to Blackboard or accessing reports, and guess what browser they use… yep, FireFox!

Now, Google’s throwing their hat in the browser ring. I’m getting ready to download it right now and start testing it out. I’m hoping it will be good, but I’m curious how Google is going to sell me on it. What am I now missing with Flock that Chrome will give me? Let’s see!

What’s your favorite browser and why?

The Crazy Ones…

It’s still rather common to be labeled “the crazy one” if you implement technology in your teaching to be more effective and to transform the education experience your students have… and to transform your student’s lives.  Here’s to you Crazy Ones: