EDAD660 (2010)

I just wanted to say a big “thank you” to all of you!  I really am amazed at all the wonderful work you guys do, and I’m looking forward to seeing how you continue to incorporate educational technology into your teaching and administration practices. Please don’t be a stranger and keep in touch! I’m going to try and keep this blog going until next summer when I begin teaching this class again in Mallorca, so check back often (or subscribe to the RSS feed!)

On day 6 we covered a wide range of topics.  Here are the highlights:

1. We began class with a discussion on video games can be used for educational and developmental purposes.  The slides from this talk can be found under the Lectures page.
2. Next we explored Scratch and experimented with creating our own simple interactive modules.
3. After our first break we began a discussion about Virtual Worlds with a specific emphasis on how they are being used by colleges and universities.  After that we logged into Second Life and explored TCNJ Island.
4. In the afternoon we talked about Podcasting and how the technique is currently being used in classroom settings.  The slides from this talk are available under the Lectures page.  Afterwards we explored how to use Audacity to record and edit our own audio files as well as create our own podcasts using our blogs.

Thanks for a great class tonight!  Here’s a summary of what we covered:

1. We started off by talking about a few course management systems besides SOCS, including Social Syllabus and ClassChatter.  For more info check out this post.
2. Next I demo’d my newest augmented reality project, the Whisper Deck.  I even put on the goggles.  How geeky
3. I mentioned merlot.org, which is an enormous website that serves as a repository for a wide range of discipline-specific learning objects.  You can search the site by subject, and most items in their collection are peer reviewed by other instructors.
4. We then moved on to talk about Digital Imaging and file formats.  The lecture is available via the Lectures page above.
5. Next we talked about Digital Cameras.  The lecture I gave is available on the Lectures page, and the overview of camera specifications can be found on this post.
6. Next up was Flickr – we talked a bit more about what the site could do, including how it can easily be used to host private photos, build geo-tagged maps, and be used by kids to create visual annotations of images.  Here’s an example of an annotation of Jane Goodall’s camp.
7. We then moved into design fundamentals – the slides that I used for this topic is available via the Lectures page as well.  The resources on color theory and fonts can be found here.
8. During the second half of class we worked through a series of digital imaging tutorials using Gimp.  These tutorials can be found here.

Last night we discussed a number of topics, including:

1. We reviewed a number of the social media sites that John Kuiphoff discussed during his guest lecture on Day 3.  These sites included Twitter, Delicious, Digg and Slideshare.  Documentation on each of these sites can be found in separate posts on the blog.
2. Next we discussed Course Management Systems and how they can be used to help your faculty members take advantage of instructional technology by providing a standard framework that incorporates a number of the tools we’ve been talking about.  I gave a demo of some of what the SOCS course management system can do, including its ability to collect student work, manage grading, send e-mail, handle internal blogs & wikis and assess student progress using various tools, including customized rubrics.
3. After the break we discussed spreadsheets, and we focused on creating a small gradebook management sheet in Excel.  Here’s the tutorial I went over in class.
4. Next we discussed Google Earth and how it can be used to search for information and have it displayed contextually on the surface of the globe.  We also talked about how you could use Google Earth to create your own “layers” of information that you can use for presentation purposes with your students.  More information about the exercise I went over in class can be found here.

I was very impressed with everyone’s Web 2.0 presentations last night!  You guys did a fantastic job!  Here’s a quick overview of what we covered on Day 3:

1. We began class by reviewing a variety of topics from Day 2 as well as discussing how to effectively use “categories” and “tags” in your blogs.  Please check out this blog post for more information.
2. Next up were class presentations of the Web 2.0 exploration assignment.  Documentation regarding everyone’s applications can be found on your individual student blogs – check out the links on the right side of this page to see everyone’s work.
3. John Kuiphoff, a new media professor at TCNJ and developer of Social Syllabus, spoke to us about social media and education.  John covered a range of sites that may be of interest to you.  I will write up a new blog post that describes each of these sites in detail.
4. After John’s talk we discussed how to create custom google search engines as well as plagiarism prevention tools.  Full instructions on how to use the turnitin plagiarism prevention plugin for SOCS can be found here.
5. iSmack@TCNJ was a website that I referenced during our discussion on how to keep kids safe on the Internet.  iSmack is a community blogging framework that focuses on helping kids learn about digital privacy, ethics and how to stay safe in our rapidly changing world.  If you’re interested in learning more, here’s a reference to an article that I co-authored on the site for the Summer 2009 edition of the Journal of Information Systems Education.
6. In his lecture, John described how Facebook has a carbon footprint 1/2 the size of New York City’s.  In response I referenced an article on iSmack called the ‘Digital Wasteland‘ on that discusses what happens when we throw away our old electronic equipment.