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For those of you reading this who moderate online discussions as part of your course work, this is worth a look...
Rose Colored Glasses � Blog Archive � Thoughts on Managing Online Discussion Forums…
Online discussions can be added to your course using WebCT.
As the Horizon Report and the 2006 Netday Speakup Survey forecast the arrival of academic gaming in the near future for many college campuses, I have added the Academic Gamers | Gameology blog to the OET Blogroll.
If this sparks your interest please check out the Emerging Technology workshop from NITLE that OET will host this May.
The LMS group, the group charged with investigation of online course tools to replace WebCT, needs student input to help guide the process of selecting a new learning management system.
Your responses will provide the LMS group a more complete understanding of the online tools central to learning and the general landscape of online course tool use at the College. This survey is not just for WebCT users but for all students, whether or not you are currently enrolled in courses using the web or web-based tools.
ELI , an Educause sub organization focused on new pedagogies publishes fact sheets on new technologies making their way into Higher Education. This series of fact sheets, called 7 Things You Should Know About..., focus on providing novices the 'facts' regarding things such as e-books, digital storytelling, virtual worlds, YouTube, and Google Earth. Each fact sheet contains an overview of what the technology is, who is using it, how it works, the significance, downsides, potential uses, and implications for teaching and learning. If you are looking for a quick overview of new instructional technologies the 7 Things You Should Know About Series... is a good place to start.
As of roughly 4:30 on Friday, Technical and Networking Services brought the WebCT server back online. The license and hardware issues have been corrected. If you experience oddities using WebCT in the next few days please contact the Help Desk.
The WebCT server was back up an running for a short time before noon but continued to have issues recognizing the new license sent by the company. Over the lunch hour members of Technical and Networking services attempted a new set of fixes suggested by Blackboard's technical support staff. Currently, the server is down being worked on to correct the issues found yesterday and this morning.
The WebCT server is currently being worked on and thus inaccessible for the time being. The work being done is to correct the out of date license message users experienced yesterday.
Technical and Networking Services has identified the causes of yesterday's out of date license message users experienced when trying to access a course. They are currently fixing the hardware and software problems they determined were the cause to the problems experienced yesterday. It is expected that WebCT will be operational sometime this morning.
This morning it was reported that faculty and students entering a WebCT course are greeted with this out of date license message.
We have not seen that this warning is causing difficulties using any of the tools within a WebCT course. At this point, we are recommending that you click ok and continue as you would normally. If you notice that WebCT is not responding as expected please do not hesitate to contact the Help Desk with a description of the problem you are experiencing.
We are currently waiting for Blackboard/WebCT to send us license key that will correct this problem.
I want to draw your attention to an interesting collaborative project between students at UNC Chapel Hill and University of the Andes.
The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog: Students Track the Inspiration for 'Robinson Crusoe'
The Wired Campus blog post includes links to the Chasing Crusoe site and a critique of the site by David Rothman of TeleRead.
Last Friday, OET sponsored a faculty lunch discussion on personal response devices, more commonly referred to as clickers. Susan Fenton organized this event which featured a discussion based on the experience with faculty clickers.
The discussion covered a lot of ground including a quick demonstration of clickers, advantages of use, student satisfaction, and potential for growth at Allegheny. It is clear that the participants believe in the pedagogical advantages of this technology as it opens the avenues for peer learning and discussions of common misconceptions.
The conversation was captured and is the most recent episode of the Allegheny Workshop Podcast. Or you can listen online if you are interested in learning more about clickers as they are being used on campus.
