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Today on Blogs for Learning, I found a post with advice on commenting on Blogs.
Blogs for Learning | Articles - Comments of Gold: Advice on Giving and Receiving Comments.
This year Time Magazine Named You person of the year. (TIME.com Read/Print Article)
You were named Person of the Year as You have collectively changed how the internet is used. The Internet has gone from a place of commerce to a conduit for communication and community. This change, dubbed Web 2.0, is still evolving and is characterized by sites and services that allow one share, create and connect.
There are a growing number of faculty integrating the tools of Web 2.0 into their course work. If you are using Web 2.0 in your courses, OET would like to learn from your experience. Feel free to comment on this post or contact your instructional technologist with details.
Last year, OET signed a multi-year agreement with WebCT that allows faculty to continue to use WebCT through the end of Fall 2008.
In preparation for the end of the service agreement, a group has been formed to investigate software systems, commonly known as Learning Management Systems.
The group, Linda Bills, Helen McCullough, and Susan Fenton with James Fadden serving as the facilitator, is in the very early stages of the process. In the coming months, the group will work with faculty and students to learn needs, investigate options and select a LMS to pilot.
The process is being documented online at http://oet.allegheny.edu/lms. The group invites comments and feedback either through the site or by contacting any member of the group.
As the semester draws to a close the Office of Educational Technology wishes to remind faculty members using WebCT to backup their courses.
By creating a backup of a completed course faculty have an archive of the course and the ability to course creation time the next time the course is taught. It is also advised to compile and download calendar entries, compile and download discussions, download quiz questions, and zip and download the My-Files folder.
Faculty considering using WebCT as part of a Spring 2007 course are encouraged to request course space before the end of the semester.
Today a group of faculty and technologists met to discuss technology as it relates to teaching and learning spaces across campus. The discussion was developed as an opportunity to better understand how the spaces are being used the limitations faculty are facing and start to consider future need.
Please feel free to continue the conversation in the comment section of this post. What follows is my interpretation of what transpired.
Jodi opened the discussion by trying establish the history of developing technology classrooms at Allegheny and the current challenges we face regarding technology and teaching spaces.
Ann raised the question of are we going to continue the develop clever classrooms? Particularly ones that can accommodate the larger classes. This point was seconded by others both vocally and with head bobs. The point was made that technology classrooms are not booked completely, but are available at less popular teaching times like 8:00am.
Ann continued that we as an institution need to truly consider wireless as a flexible teaching option. Rick raised the question of what would the priorities for wireless in the academic builds be? Labs, classrooms, common spaces? Others thought that teaching and common spaces would be the priority.
Ann brought up admissions and financial aid needs to be included in communicating the need for how the incoming students will be learning with technology to make sure the incoming students understand what is required and what to expect. Ann voiced frustration with spending the time developing technology methods of teaching but not having the confidence that the technology will be there. She continues to believe that technology the campus has is not able to support the kind of teaching that she wishes to do.
Rick laid out the variables that he is struggling developing the priorities for the resources he is responsible for within IT which included cost of installation, support and maintenance, and man hours.
Michael would encourage the continued development of the technology classrooms. It is not uncommon to have more demand for technology classrooms than can be met. Others present seemed to be in agreement with this statement.
Steve and others would appreciate on demand help when they are teaching and if they have run into problems. This generated a lot of discussion about what resources are needed to sustain the teaching with technology. Another resource would be more information. More information would be necessary for better planning. A question asked what were other resources. Jodi shared her knowledge of what others were doing.
It became very evident that it is time to revisit Allegheny's knowledge of how others are dealing with these issues.
A large discussion of chalk dust and the problems that these cost. Issues raised here were the quality of the blackboards and the use of softer chalk the idea to change to high quality whiteboards met mixed response.
Aimee brought up the need for smaller clever classrooms as the technology is needed in seminars as well but that the technology is needed but can not over power the room. There seems to continue to be a desire for seminar spaces. It is split on the need for technology in such spaces.
The ambient sound level in Quigley 220 is a problem. It continues to be too loud to hold discussions with a whole class. Don jumped in asking about acoustics. The combination of the ventilation system, computers and general classroom noise makes it almost unusable for discussions. His concern is that students can not hear each other as they discuss as a large group. (Jodi needs to contact Andy about this)
Ben Haytock made the group aware of the classroom committee that is currently evaluating the all classrooms for technology and other updates. Jodi shared that she and a few others of the group are roaming the campus this afternoon looking at the classrooms. People with ideas on classroom needs and updates should funnel the ideas to the group through the department chairs.
Ann continues to raise the issue that learning technology is a campus wide issue not just an issue of the faculty and information technology. Karen raised the issue not only of the hardware but also how to deliver the software to students using their personal computers.
Both psychology and economics are having difficulties negotiating the limit of 20 computers in the smart classrooms. This limit makes teaching in them difficult as they need to have class sizes larger that the room will hold.
Jodi ended by asking if there was interest in reassembling in the future. Folks are interested in meeting again when there was more to discuss.
In attendance were Don Goldstein, Milt Ostrofsky, Ben Haytock, Michael Barry, Amy Wiseman, Stephen Onyeiwu, Ann Kleinschmidt, Susan Fenton, Bart Wineland, Rick Holmgren, Alla Meleshevich, James Fadden, Aimee Knupsky, and Karen Stone. Jodi Millin facilitated the discussion.
