Faculty Professional Development Fund--Jan. 15th Due Date

Faculty Professional Development Fund Applications are due January 15, 2010 for Events in March, April, May, or June

Online Conference--Call for Papers

Greetings All,

This call for papers and presentations just came out this morning. This conference in now 14 years old and it is a great example of how world communities meet and share online. I'd welcome you to join this opportunity :). The sense of community brings a smile to my face as people share pictures of their offices and spaces right outside their offices from around the world.

This conferences has both synchronous (with recorded sessions) and asynchronous presenations.
The price? $69 if you register before March 31st.

From: Bert Kimura [mailto:bert@hawaii.edu]

RE: TCC 2009 Call for Papers & Presentations

Aloha everyone,TCC 2009 is now accepting proposals for general sessions and papers. To submit a proposal for a general session or a paper, go to: https://skellig.kcc.hawaii.edu/proposals/

For info to prepare proposals for general sessions and papers, see: http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu/2009/tcc/pres-info.html

For TCC Homepage, see http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu

We welcome presentations by graduate students and will waive their fee.

Happy Holidays,

Bert Kimura TCC 2009 Conference Team----------------- TCC 2009 CALL FOR PROPOSALS
------------------[Our apologies to those receiving multiple copies of this
message. -byk]Fourteenth AnnualTCC WORLDWIDE ONLINE CONFERENCEApril 14-16, 2009Pre-conference dates: April 1-2, 2009

The New Internet:Collaborative Learning, Social Networking,Technology Tools, and Best PracticesSubmission deadline: January 12, 2009Homepage: http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu

CALL FOR PROPOSALS TCC 2009 invites faculty, support staff, librarians, counselors, student affairs professionals, students, administrators, and educational consultants to submit proposals for papers and general sessions related to the conference theme.

THEME

The Internet has evolved into a global workspace for
collaboration and sharing while providing forums for different voices,
cultures, new challenges, and creativity. People, technologies,
and perspectives have converged. Now, there is a greater diversity
of technological tools to communicate, collaborate, create, and
compete.Students learn best when they are actively involved. Regardless
of content, students who work in small groups learn more and retain
it longer than with other instructional forms of delivery.
Collaboration also leads to greater satisfaction with classes. (Source:
Barbara Gross Davis, 2002).Within this global arena, how do faculty, staff,
students and the communities they serve communicate, collaborate, innovate
and produce useful learning outcomes? What best practices have emerged
in collaborative learning? Is Internet-based collaboration effective
and worth the effort? How can we efficiently assess student
outcomes? Which tools will work best for us? How do we support our
colleagues? How do we overcome our feelings of being overwhelmed? How do we
keep up?College students participate actively in online social
communities that are increasingly important in their daily and social
lives. What can we learn from our students? How can we build on our
students' expertise in digital media, personal publishing, and
social networking? How will mobile devices be adapted for learning?
What advances have occurred with intercultural understanding,
diversity, and accessibility?Smart institutions learn how to engage the
online behavior of students prior to college life. How do organizations
embrace and take advantage of such technologies as open source and open
educational content? How can organizations manage the blurring of play and
work? What is the promise of virtual worlds such as Second Life?TOPICSTCC
will feature papers and general sessions on the continuing evolution of
distance learning, online communities, collaborative learning, social
networking, and best practices of instructional technology. The
coordinators are interested in a broad range of submissions that highlight
evolving uses and issues in educational technology. These include and are
not limited the following:- Online, hybrid, blended or other modes of technology
enhanced learning- Emerging Internet and Web 2.0 tools for teaching and
learning- Technology applications that facilitate communication
and collaboration- Building and sustaining learning communities-
Instructional models for collaboration in virtual worlds (Second Life,
etc.)- Distance learning including mobile learning- Ubiquitous and life-long
learning- Open content and open source- E-portfolios and other assessment tools-
Student orientation and preparation- Student success and assessment strategies
in online learning- Student services online (tutoring, advising, mentoring,
career planning, technology support, help desk, etc.)- Online learning
resources (library, learning centers, etc.)- Professional development for
faculty and staff- Accessibility for seniors and persons with disabilities-
Gender equity, digital divide, intercultural understanding, and open
access- Managing information technology and change in educational institutions-
Institutional planning and pedagogy catalyzed by technology advances- Global
learning, ubiquitous learning, and intercultural communication- Educational
technology around the world

PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS

This conference accepts proposals in two formats: papers and general sessions.

Submissions will be accepted beginning November 11, 2008.For submission details, see: http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu/2009/tcc/pres-info.html

Papers must be submitted in full and will be subjected to a blind peer review. Accepted papers will be published in a conference proceedings.General sessions may
be conducted in one of several forms including forums, discussion,
roundtable, and pre-conference activity. These proposals will also be
subject to a blind peer review.Acceptances for all submittals will be conveyed
to the primary author or presenter by email.The coordinators are especially
interested in receiving proposals that involve student collaborators. Fees
for student presenters will be waived.The submission deadline is January
12, 2009.

PRESENTER RESPONSIBILITIES

Presenters are expected to:- Conduct a 45-minute informal, interactive online session for your paper or general session.- Upload a photo and brief professional bio to the conference web site.- Respond to questions and comments from conference participants.- Participate in a wrap-up session on the day of your presentation.- Verify descriptions that will be posted to registered participants prior to the conference.- Respond to email, as appropriate, from the conference and presenters mailing lists.

REGISTRATION

All presenters are required to register online and pay the
conference fee ($69 USD; $99 USD after March 31). Group and site
registration rates for faculty and students are available. Group
registration may reduce the conference fee to as low as $10 USD per
participant. Contact Sharon Fowler for details.

VENUE

This conference is held entirely online using a
web browser for access to content and technology services. A computer
system purchased within the past 3-4 years with headphones and microphone
as well as broadband Internet access is highly recommended.SPONSORS &

VENDORS

Organizations or companies interested in becoming a sponsor of
this event may contact John Walber of LearningTimes

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For additional information, see http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu.

For further inquiry, contact Bert Kimura or Curtis
Ho.

Mailing address: TCC Worldwide Online
Conference, Attn: Sharon Fowler, University of Hawai'i, Kapi'olani
Community College, 4303 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816, USA.The
University of Hawai'i, Kapi'olani Community College and University of
Hawai'i at Manoa, Educational Technology Department, College of Education
host this event in partnership with Osaka Gakuin University, Japan and
LearningTimes.org. Additional support is provided by the Pan-Pacific
Distance Learning Association and the New Media Consortium.

In late April, we transitioned over to the SAS Elluminate Live! server. This transition allowed us to access more robust reports on usage of this product. Thought a quick snapshot would be of interest. These sessions are both those conducted within Blackboard and outside of Blackboard and include the sessions used for instructional purposes as well as the sessions used recently by the project teams. It is exciting to see that there is a sizeable increase in the number of sessions from May through November. Thanks for using this great product!

Are you Game? Elluminate Session: "Teaching with Online Games" on Dec. 11

Kristen Georgine brought this opportunity to us from the Coloraod Adult Ed Network (Leecy Wise). I've seen David Gibson present before in Second Life--he is well known for immersive learning and this session is "Teaching with Online Games." You may also want to share this opportunity with students in your courses to see what they think. Thanks, Kristen!

Can a computer game or simulation improve your knowledge and skill as a
teacher?

Find out at the upcoming FREE webinar, "Teaching with Online Games," presented by Dr. David Gibson. Join Elluminate on Thursday, December 11, at 1 PM EST, when Dr. Gibson will explain why digital games and simulation are powerful teaching and learning tools.

A Research Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont and Executive Director of The Global Challenge, Dr. Gibson is the author of "Digital Simulations to Improve Education," in which he explores a variety of perspectives.

To sign up, go to https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/description?instance_id=14125

If you are a first time user, you'll need to open a free account and then sign up.

Darcy Trask's Professional Development Accomplishment

Hi All,

There's a very nice post in eNews about Darcy Trask's recent certification in hospitality education:

http://enews.coloradomtn.edu/index.cfm?method=c.profileDetail&ID=356

Darcy, one of the 2007 - 2008 recipients of faculty professional development funding, had this to say in sharing back about this opportunity:

With the support of CMC’s Faculty Development Program, I was able to attend the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) Workshop. The CHE workshop prepares participants to complete a practical teaching demonstration and to sit for the CHE certification exam.

With the help of the workshop, I was able to successfully pass the exam and practical lecture demonstration and to earn my CHE in September 2008. It is exciting to be able to tie current professional knowledge from the AH&LA’s Educational Institute (EI) to our student’s classroom experience. CMC’s Management program utilizes the AH&LA EI curriculum and students take supervisory-level certification exams at the end of each CMC course. It is a wonderful link with both the student’s experience and the industry to have faculty involved in this executive-level AH&LA professional certification.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the Faculty Professional Development Fund, you will find information to do so attached. The next submission date is January 15th: The%20Faculty%20Prof%20Dev%20Funds%20Info.doc

Holiday Gifts or Breaktime Reading?

Whether it's thinking of holiday gifts or putting together your leisure reading, here's a list for 2008 from Publishers Weekly.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6610357.html

Notes and Resources from AECT

I've been at sessions at the AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology). In addition to participating in sesssions that were presented in a room but audio cast into Second Life where others participated in Second Life, there are many good tips to bring back.

One great session among those was Bill Freese's on SL safety issues--really well presented and helpful: the links to those resources were already available through his social bookmarks on Delicious.com: http://delicious.com/willfree/AECT2008handouts

Chris Haskell at Boise State shared he podcasts his syllabus and first assignment, and let's students know they can email him for a text copy of the syllabus.

If he has students using phones, he has them text him and grabs those addresses into an email list so he can send announcements that way as well.

Since we start our hybrid faculty workshop, Tuesday, I've also been keeping eyes and ears out for sessions and resources. I attended one round table about a hybrid program study and picked up a reference to a video from that presenter, also picked up a book on the prepping for hybrid deliveries.

This morning I was at a session which stressed the incorporation of online interactivities as part of a learning process: http://uwgtech.pbwiki.com/. Many of these resources came from sources on the web. As at a conference, many educators continue to be generous in their sharing of resources through the web.

Onward, there's one more session this morning. In the meantime, I've been wrangling with the hotel IP (cost and access) and Blackboard.

"Social Media and Education..."

http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted5/Viewer/?peid=5eb9cd4798a4488288e0b6d117f5c99c

Sarah Robbins-Bell has become widely known in the world of higher ed and social media. She gave this hour session at Educause this week. You can also flip through her slide show.

It has a challenging title, but what she is really talking about is how social media has changed how we get and share knowledge, and what the learning implications are for institutions of higher ed in preparing our learners for their roles in an information economy.

It's worth the hour--she is smart, part of the higher ed community, and names strategies.

Let us know what you think.

Students Organize a Tour: A Possible Assignment?

Are tours part of your classes? I saw this post on eNews today about a student who saw a flier about a tour to visit a water-treatment plant and invited others along because he saw the relevance to their coursework.

Is this one idea for a class assignment--a student-identified, student-organized class tour? Students who wanted to do this assignment could bring their proposals to class for review-- you might include a rubric so the class could determine which were the choice(s) for the term. The tours could be in virtual worlds too....

http://www.coloradomtn.edu/email/

Fulbright Emphasizes Diversity Among Its Fellows

The esteemed international academic-exchange program is attempting to attract more students from community colleges.
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i09/09a02301.htm?utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en

Survey - Do You Know What These Are? : eLearning Technology

Hi All,

Saw this three item survey on library technology--it would be a fun one to share w/ students.

Survey - Do You Know What These Are? : eLearning Technology

Cheers, Alice

SMART Classroom Training

Now is the time for everyone to start thinking about scheduling an appointment for SMART classroom training for the upcoming Spring session, during the first week when faculty is on contract. Scheduling will be on a first come, first serve basis.

My goal is to break the training down into two different sessions: the basic and advanced use.

The basic training session’s educational objective will focus on the operation and function of the Crestron controller, operation of the Smartboard, the basic tools available with the Smart Classroom software, the operation of the Document camera, and the operation of the DVD/VCR.

The advanced training will focus on how to fully utilize the potential of the Smart Classrooms in creating exciting presentations. The training sessions will last approximately 1½ hours. I will then be available to answer questions and to work individually with anyone who wants to learn more about this technology.

In addition, I have created a Wiki page for Do-It-Yourself training. It is located at http://itwiki.coloradomtn.edu/index.php?title=SMART_Board_Tutorials .

If anyone has any questions, please contact me at jblanc@coloradomtn.edu .

Want to Attend a Conference IN Second Life? Free?

I got this notice from East Carolina University today. They East Carolina University sent this notice about their Second Life Conference IN Second Life on November 10 and 11, 2008.


"We are very excited about the conference and the proposals that were submitted. The conference is focused on the uses of virtual worlds for instructional purposes and we have some wonderful presentations to share with you as well as resources. We will be sending out additional information shortly.

If you have anyone you know that would like to register, please share the following link with them. We are still accepting them at this time.

http://hawk.aos.ecu.edu/secondlife/Pages/SL-Conference1.html

Never been in Second Life but are curious? You'll need to get an avatar (SL character) to attend the conference cand it would be helpful to go through some orientation--one I like to recommend is from New Media Consortium because its resources were created in response to feedback from
higher educators: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/Getting_Started

Fall CMC Faculty Innovators

I have had the opportunity to hear about a wide variety of innovative practices going on during this term.

Joe Reinig says they are providing talks by experts in the field for students in the STEM disciplines: Coming soon--a biologist who did her dissertation on Moose (or Elk?)

Aggie Ramos-Doyle is using conversation bots to engage second language learners.

Cynthia Zyzda and colleagues are offering block style courses in the gt pathway art courses and Western Civ (Hope I got that right). The transfer between like content during the same semester enriches the student engagement in both courses.

Roy Brandt's web-design students are discussing their projects in a lively fashion with their preferred space: Facebook.

Bruce Kime and student Kodiak Drewery produced an outdoor orientation film:
http://www.coloradomtn.edu/programs/outdoor.shtml

Gywn Ebie has incorporated pbwiki into the EDU222: Effective Teaching course.

Without a doubt, there's even more going on out there.
Would you share yours with CMC colleagues? Thanks!

Engaging Baby Boomers

http://www.civicventures.org/

This study (featured in the Chronicle 10/03) features what ten community colleges are doing to serve Baby Boomers.

Among the suggestions:

Provide flexible schedules but include networking opportunities
Provide Boomer mentors for Boomer learners

Virtual Library Video Tutorial

An updated version of a video tutorial for Academic Search Premier, one of the most used Virtual Library databases, is now available.
http://www.coloradomtn.edu/library/videos/asp.html

Adding to CMC's Brain-Based Events

This 35 minute video discusses the impact of brain-based research on future education.



Early this fall, Summit and Timberline co-hosted a session on brain-based teaching practices and the October 19th Faculty Day at Vail will host another key session on this topic.

Using Professional Development Funds

CMC's Professional Development Funds Advances Community College Scholarship

Using CMC’s professional development funding, I connected with a national network of higher education professionals who are addressing current and emerging issues faced by the growing community college movement. I also hoped to contribute to the understanding of the critical role that community colleges play in embracing the diverse perspectives and cultures of our learning communities.

In April 2008, I attended the 50th annual conference for the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), which is an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). CSCC members include university-based researchers and community college practitioners who further scholarship on the community college enterprise. The Council contributes to the development of community college professionals and conducts and disseminates research pertaining to community colleges.

In addition, I presented my research on the lived experiences of community college educators who teach college in prison. My co-presenters were my dissertation advisors from Colorado State University’s School of Education, Community College Leadership Program. My research interest grew from my initial involvement in a college program in which CMC hired adjunct instructors to teach transfer level general education courses to incarcerated learners at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex.

Through this innovative educational partnership with the Colorado Department of Corrections, CMC offered a rewarding and challenging experience that our instructors used to develop professionally. Our full-time and part-time faculty members increasingly deal with issues of race, gender, class, national origin, and sexual orientation and they strive to equalize the educational opportunities for all students. I believe we may gain some insight into a teaching practice based on caring, community, and social justice from exploring what drives educators who teach college in prison.

Furthermore, my research may have implications for understanding the adjunct teaching experience in general. College-wide, we have a large number of part-time instructors whose role is becoming increasingly important. Adjunct faculty members often feel isolated from the college community and we frequently do not reward them for keeping up with best teaching practices. In order to provide appropriate support for our part-time instructors, I believe that we need to understand the adjunct teaching experience, which may be further illuminated by the experiences of those adjunct instructors who teach in prison.

The themes that I discovered of working in borderlands, negotiating hierarchical relationships, and making personal transformations may be generative. Therefore, these themes could be applied to the adjunct experience of teaching in a regular classroom. This deeper understanding might help us find ways to support the professional growth of our part-time instructors who infuse real world perspectives into many of their courses. This approach coincides with the premise in the 1993 book, The Invisible Faculty, which explores the role of adjunct teaching and offers ways to improve our support of our part-time instructors.

I am grateful that CMC funded this opportunity for me to develop professionally. Interfacing with researchers whose work I had studied exhilarated me: Arthur Cohen and Florence Brawer (The American Community College), Marilyn Amy (Breaking Out of the Box: Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Faculty Work), Barbara Townsend and Susan Twombly (Community College: Policy in the Future Context). I was honored when Barbara Townsend attended my session and was interested in my research on teaching college in prison and its implications for community colleges.

Now in this blog, I am please to share my experience presenting at a professional conference and the results of my research. I’ve attached the program from the 2008 Conference of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and the PowerPoint slides that I used in my presentation at the conference. Please contact me if you have questions or what more information at sspaulding@coloradomtn.edu.

Attachments:

2008 CSCC Conference Program: 2008%20CSCC%20Conference%20Program.pdf
Spaulding CSCC PowerPoint Presentation:
Teaching%20College%20Inside%20Prison%20Walls.ppt

Blackboard Website Aimed at Greater Faculty Engagement

ATTENTION FACULTY!

Make collaboration the rule rather than the exception and visit the CMC Faculty Website on Blackboard. There you will find a one-stop website with information about our learning college culture, our people, and campus news. It is a place to find innovative lesson plans and rich resources for faculty to continuously improve their approach to teaching and learning. There is also an interactive discussion board where forums are categorized by campus and discipline.

If you are not enrolled in this site, please call the Help Desk at 888-845-0016 or 970-947-8438 and request to be added

As we begin this school year here are some suggestions for staying informed and demonstrating our commitment to CMC’s learning college culture:

Share and celebrate often! Post successful and innovative class lessons to the CMC Faculty Web site. These examples provide the culture of evidence so important in maintaining CMC’s reputation as a (newly designated) Vanguard College.

Visit the CMC Faculty Web site regularly. Stay current with campus happenings, initiatives and policy decisions. College-wide committees, their members and meeting minutes are available here. Contribute to college-wide forums on the discussion board.

See the CMC Faculty Website for AQIP and Learning College information. This provides the guidelines to engage our students and colleagues and help communicate to our constituents how a learning college really transforms lives.

Now is the time to make CMC the First Choice in education and community partnerships.

Philosphy 101 Site

The Chronicle of Higher Ed made mention of this site for philosphy faculty (especially new faculty). Thanks to Faculty John Immewahr for generously sharing the rights to these resources:

Teach Philosophy 101

Colorado's Plenty with CMC Culinary Institute Kevin Clarke

Not only are some of our campuses reading Plenty this fall, CMC's own Keven Clarke from the the Colorado Mountain College Culinary Institute recently prepared CO foods in a Channel 2 TV segment:

Kevin Clarke prepares a Colorado-Grown Dish:

This video screen also provides the recipe for Colorado Summer Squash and Sweet Corn Saute.

Virtual Library News

The Virtual Library offers a lot of new resources this year. Our multimedia collection now includes training videos for Health Science and Public Safety programs, documentaries, feature and foreign films, fitness and travel videos. The Virtual Library introduces two additional literature databases, a history collection, and a set of new e-books. Please take a look at our Newsletter to learn more.
VLNewsletterFall08.pdf

Assessment is Not "On Hold"

Howdy! As the new Dean of Arts and Sciences, I am excited to be at CMC and see so many wonderful things happening. In fact, this blog is just one great innovation that everyone at CMC can be involved in to get the word out. I decided to talk about a subject that I know often causes moans and groans from faculty and administration across the college. Having only done a preliminary search of files, I discovered CMC began work on assessment several years ago at multiple levels. This was great news to me as I have been asked to provide leadership and direction for assessment in the coming years. Yes, I said years! Why, you are wondering, are we still talking about assessment and we can't be done with it? Because the Higher Learning Commission will not provide accreditation without proof of ongoing improvement at a college. CMC must continue to move forward with assessment activities!

I have talked with some terrific faculty and administrators about their views on assessment and what they were doing a year ago. Because nobody asked for assessment reports this year, it is a common viewpoint that assessment was "on hold." Much work was done on writing course outcomes, developing rubrics, implementing common writing assignments, and even changing common practice to improve instruction. Hey! Hey! way to go faculty! You have always been doing "assessments" within your courses to determine if students were learning the outcomes that you deemed important within the AA, AS, DevEd, and CTE programs. Now we need to move forward to develop a simple but effective reporting procedure followed by improvements.

Assessment basics are not difficult to comprehend when explained in simple terms. Assessment is a cyclic process for educational improvement. An effective assessment program can be used to improve student learning, facilitate institutional improvements, and validate institutional effectiveness (HLC likes this one). CMC's commitment to assessment enables the College to realize its core values of Learning.

Assessment of student learning is a systematic attempt to...

1) Understand what students are/aren't learning
2) Provide feedback to reinforce student learning
3) Improve student learning!

Assessment is NOT...

1) Solely an administrative activity
2) A means of punishment. It is for improvement only!
3) An intrusion into a faculty member's classroom or an infringement on academic freedom.

Many people's immediate reaction to assessment is bewilderment. I plan to use several electronic media to talk about assessment in the coming weeks. I look forward to a healthy dialogue with faculty about how to make the process simple but effective. My goal is to develop a collaborative process and positive working relationship across CMC.

Sunny Schmitt

HowtoStudy.Org

howtostudy.org

Five hundred schools have linked to Chemetka College's resources for students across many disciplines. We'd like to know which you find valuable for learners in your classes, from this site or from other sources.

First Ten Minutes and First Days

What matters most on the first day? Adrian Rippy-Sheehy and other faculty talked about this during Adrian's "Effective Teaching" segment on Friday night at CMC West Garfield. That students know you are interested in them was Adrian's main message. Additionally she provided and invited techniques that allow students to get to know you and others in this early critical time of the term. One faculty share-back was the use of a scavenger hunt that asks people to find another person in the class with a certain characteristic, such as a dimple. Allowing class members to interview each other briefly, then introduce their classmate to the others can reduce self-consciousness.

To add to those ideas, here are several others:
First Day Tips

What do you do to welcome students and get them excited about your class? We'd love to hear it and learn from it!

Can you train a fruit fly?

The answer is yes -- through operant conditioning. See http://www.jove.com/index/Details.stp?ID=731.

PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine's online database, is now indexing videos from The Journal of Visualized Experiments. This video from the Department of Neurobiology, Free University of Berlin, is an example of the many videos available through this blog. These videos show experiments and protocols in the biological and life sciences and offers its video-articles to science bloggers to illustrate their work. The blog can be accessed at http://jove-blog.blogspot.com/2008/08/jove-now-indexed-in-pubmed-medline.html.

Faculty Professional Development Fund--September 15th Due Date

Greetings All,

The Professional Faculty Development Fund provides wonderful opportunity for full-time faculty and for adjunct faculty who have taught at least two (2) terms during the last two (2) years.

This slide show explains the program and is followed by a list of campus representatives.



Interested in Applying?
To begin the process, contact your campus representative for assistance with the application process.

•Alpine – David DeLong
•Aspen – Lorraine Miller
•Summit – Laura Pless
•Timberline – Susanna Spaulding
•VEV – Jan Attoma
•West Garfield – Kimberly Jensen
•Roaring Fork – Tal Hardman
•Adjunct - Susan Herman

Forms:
Application
Rubric

For any additional questions, please feel free to contact Nancy Hays or Alice Bedard-Voorhees at the District Office. We wish you the best as you explore opportunities for your ongoing professional development.

Digital Fluency: 21st Century Tools

Mark Prensky coined the terms "Digital Native" and "Digital Immigrant" as reference points for groups growing up in a wired world and groups coming to it later. This presentation nicely explains the newest tools and how they can be used for "digital fluency," along with how people participate in various ways.

Using Social Media2

view presentation (tags: social media learning performance)

NYC Highschool Students Created This Video about Educational Access

This video was created by high school students who participated in a project on in the Teen side of Second Life--the film was created from scenarios presented in a virtual world, captured inside that world, then made into a movie (called machinima) and uploaded into YouTube. Not only are they are representing a big question -- educational access, they are engaged in that exploration through technology. And they will be entering higher ed.

Beyond Essays: Web 2.1 and the World of the Multimedia Collage"

Stephen Downes provides a summary of a presentation given at the Fusion 2008 conference this week.

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2008/07/beyond-essays-web-21-and-world-of.html

The presentation makes the point of how students are using digital tools whether we bring them into the classroom or not. He moves onto the incorporation of literacies he terms, "Digital, Art, Oral, Written."

He says that the instructor role is still "guide on the side" and "not techno-magician."
He says he goes into the classroom and asks, "Who is using X or Y?" and incorporates that learner knowledge into possible assignments.

I agree. I think the question is to find out who is using what, along w/ the questions, "Will and how will that help your learning in this class?"

Not to be overlooked is the example of multimedia collage created with a beta application called
Glogster. I had hoped to embed it here directly, but the code just won't work:
http://seanfitzgerald.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/glogster-faces-of-edupunk/

The Pulse Digital Pen--Take Notes, Record on Special Paper

Yesterday at Target I came across the Pulse pen by LiveScribe. Had heard something like this was coming and now it is here. The user takes notes on special paper and the pen records the audio as the user writes (I'm not sure if the audio has to be turned on in some way...). The user can listen to the audio at a later time by tapping on the specific text related to the audio segment.

The pen also syncs with a desktop. I've attached the video here.

http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html

The particular item brings to mind the articles these past few years about complaints that students were using computers to surf rather than pay attention in class?

Clips from the Aspen Institute Ideas Fest

The world known Aspen Ideas fest included Web2.0 coverage: Video widget, Twitter, Facebook.

Web: http://aspeninstitute.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/aspeninstitute

And Yet Another Post About Gas and Class Deliveries

Not long ago, I included a link to an article about gas costs, challenges and solutions--today here's another one.

While the title mentions online courses, the real detail in the article is about how more groups might consider hybrid (or blended) deliveries, courses that are a mix of face-to-face and online meetings. Some instructors are already offering hybrid or blended instruction with Blackboard and Elluminate:

"High Gas Prices Fuel Boom in Online Classes"

If you have been thinking about these challenges as well, here are some links to resources that consider the instructional practices:

CMC's Bookmarked Resources for Hybrid Deliveries

Have some thoughts or resources you'd like to share? Please do!

Kansas State U. Students Read Half of Class Material

Provocative video Michael L. Wesch has posted on YouTube about how students learn. He is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. View the YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

See more detail about how this was created by going to the Wired Campus article at http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/?id=2462.

Do you have a learning list?

Came across this quote in a post from Learning Journal Blog:

"'Jim Collins, in an essay in Learning Journeys, wrote, 'A true learning person also has a 'to-learn' list, and the items on that list carry at least as much weight in how one organizes his or her time as the to-do list.' I happened to read that the other day and it has stayed with me."

http://www.diigo.com/annotated/95fccdc98749461d6a210df71fc4b387

Gasoline Solutions: Block Classes, Online, and Car Pooling

George Bagwell brought this Chronicle article to our attention today--what various community colleges are doing to help students continue taking courses at a time when gasoline is so costly:

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i41/41a01701.htm?utm_source=cc&utm_medium

Learning Exchange

Tal Hardman said he was taking a long bike trip to see his cousin after school was out and said he would be blogging it. We talked about sound files from the telephone. I'd used Gabcast and was experimenting with this year's phone tool called Jott.

Jott is a web-service (free account) that let's a person call a phone number and create posts that are turned into text and voice, and can be sent to various other applications or services, like a blog or Twitter (mini blogging).

I knew Jott went to Twitter, but Tal figured out how to call Jott and have it post directly to his blog: http://talbotdale.blogspot.com/

Thanks, Tal. I passed it forward to someone who is blogging Ride the Rockies and
is sending photos from his phone and using Jott to make text and audio posts.

Faculty Professional Development Fund: Johann Aberger Shares Back

Greetings All,

Johann Aberger sent this post to describe how the CMC Faculty Professional Development Fundsupported his learning experience and how it he shared it back with colleagues:




Johann writes:

In May, Outdoor Education instructor Johann Aberger, was given the professional development opportunity to attend an American Mountain Guiding Association (AMGA) Rock Instructor Course in Boulder, Colorado. This ten-day course focused on training participants in the skills and techniques used while instructing and guiding rock climbing experiences in a multi-pitch environment. The course took place in Eldorado Canyon, and addressed the management and movement of multiple clients, technical descents, and high-angle rescue skills. Safety, managing risk and the application of industry standards while considering student rewards and empowerment were emphasized.

Bringing this experience back to CMC, Johann presented his findings to a small group of CMC Outdoor Educators on Independence Pass. They spent a beautiful day climbing and discussing the nuances of guiding while exploring different faces of the granite outcrops that litter the continental divide. The afternoon was dedicated to rescue scenarios, simulating access and extrication of an injured person from a high-angle environment. Of the experience, Aberger comments, “I am so fortunate to receive support for this kind of professional development opportunity from the college—and having ten days off to go climbing isn’t so bad…”

Thanks, Johann! If you have also received CMC Faculty Professional Development Funds, this blog is a great way to share back the learning in a presentation here. Contact Alice Bedard-Voorhees if you would like to do so: mailto:avoorhees@coloradomtn.edu.

More Web2.0 Resources at a CO Wiki

Last week I participated in an adult education/ESL group training with Web 2.0 tools hosted by Colorado Department of Ed. The partipants tried out all sorts of tools in the interest of creating learning content and activities and increasing student participation and engagement.

Here is a wiki that describes what the tools do and how to get them. Almost all are free. Additionally, if you have tips to add, feel free to do so. That is the great capacity of wikis.

http://chiresources.pbwiki.com/

Free Book for Using Web 2.0 Tools

I was reading Liz Davis' blog post on preparing students for the 21st century. She is offering a free download of her book on using Web2.0 Tools --it is filled with screenshots that walk you through getting started with everything from Gmail to Googledocs, to blog, to Twitter, and wiki. You can also buy a print copy for $10.00. Opportunity to download or purchase appear at this link: http://www.lulu.com/content/2526346

Nobel Carl Weiman on Teaching and Learning in the Sciences

It thrilled me that the year Physicist Carl Weiman won the Nobel (at CU at the time), he also won a national teaching award.

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/06/02/out-with-the-lecture/2/

The above article details Weiman's recent presentation about how teaching students to apply the learning resulted in learning that stuck at a much higher rate than students who sat in traditional lecture. While this almost seems like old news, these remarks can't be taken for granted. The article references studies and surveys of students to this end.

Says Weiman: "Professors need to tell their students why the subject is worth learning, how it connects to the real world, and how it is connected to other concepts the students understand."

Web2.0, Oh Why? Session Archive and Resources

If you were not able to attend the Elluminate session on the why of using Web2.0 tools in addition to your Blackboard shell, you still have the opportunity to listen to and view the recorded session at the link below.

If you prefer to look at a PDF of the slides, that too is an option. Last,
are links that Sue Schmidt and others brought forward during the session.

Recorded Session, PDF, and Resources

Faculty Professional Development Fund -- June 15th Deadline

Greetings All,

The Professional Faculty Development Fund provides wonderful opportunity for full-time faculty and for adjunct faculty who have taught at least two (2) terms during the last two (2) years.

This slide show explains the program and provides names of your campus reps.

We're attaching the guidelines, application and rubric here. If you have questions, we encourage you to email your campus rep -- he or she will also provide signatures for your application forms.

•Alpine – David DeLong
•Aspen – Lorraine Miller
•Summit – Laura Pless
•Timberline – Susanna Spaulding
•VEV – Jan Attoma
•West Garfield – Kimberly Jensen
•Roaring Fork – Tal Hardman
•Adjunct - Susan Herman

Guidelines
Application
Rubric

For any additional questions, please feel free to contact Nancy Hays or Alice Bedard-Voorhees at the District Office. We wish you the best as you explore opportunities for your ongoing professional development.

Elluminate Webinar on Web2.0 in Your Courses Wed. 5/21 from Noon - 1:30

Hi All,

Web2.0 is one of those terms of the day--basically, it means users now have more tools at their disposal to easily create content from our desktops. But why would a person want to use these when you have a course-management system? Whether you are on your home internet, or at a campus site, this Elluminiate Session offers a desktop opportunity to learn about why we might.

What: Learning with Web 2.0 Tools, Oh Why?

Sure, there are many Web 2.0 tools available for use in teaching now, but why would you incorporate them into your class? What do these tools give you that Blackboard does not already offer? In summary, this session explores the why of web 2.0 as opposed to the how.

Who: Lisa Cheney-Steen of CCCOnline and Alice Bedard-Voorhees of Colorado Mountain College.

When: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 .... 12:00 - 1:30 PM (Mountain Time)

NOTE: This session is hosted on the CCCOnline site (Link below). You do need a mic if you wish to talk to others in this session. However, if you do not have a mic, you can still participate with text-based chat.

Where: Online via Elluminate! Participants may enter 30 minutes before the session begins. Use the link below to access the session. http://elm.elluminate.com:80/FRONTRANGE/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1204154613757

Three Faculty Demos on Using Virtual Library Sources

Yuliya Lef, CMC Virtual Library Services, introduced a terrific faculty panel at the Faculty In-Service Day on May 8th. Morgan Liddick, History, Tina Roese, Composition and Literature, and Rob Wang, Natural Sciences, provided three great examples for bringing students to 21st century research practices with virtual libary services.

Morgan shared how he brings students to artifacts of given historical periods so they can develop questions about what the artifacts communicate rather than merely reading about them. Included in those inquiries is the examination of portraiture from ART STORE archives at the virtual library site. Thank you, Morgan, for kindly sharing examples of these assignments for this post.

Three%20on-line%20assignmentsMLiddick.doc

Tina shared her practices of having students work with the libary staff to learn the basic tools to effectively use and document sources.

Rob presented the creation of student poster fairs. These projects provided digital templates so students can embed both high level graphics and documented information sources, which are then printed up at local print shops and used for presentations to peers at conference-style events. (BTW, he has offered to share his template, and we hope he does.)

This session was but one of many great peer-provided sessions at faculty day--thanks to each of you for sharing your great practices and enthusiasm.

"Facebook, Meet Blackboard"

[This message was sent to you because Alice Bedard-Voorhees <avoorhees@coloradomtn.edu> thought you might be interested in "Facebook, Meet Blackboard" at insidehighered.com.] I sent this directly from the article space with a special email that then posts it directly to this blog.

Here's a link to the page:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/05/14/sync

I came across this article today announcing that BlackBoard has created an application that can be added to a student Facebook account--of course it caught my attention.

Comments from Alice Bedard-Voorhees <avoorhees@coloradomtn.edu>:

More convergences. We are either the global village or entering the great mind pool. I had to try it and now have it on my Facebook account that I only got because my son was sharing pictures with me.

To add BlackBoard Sync, a person has to be enrolled in BB courses at a given institution. The person can then see any updates to such items as assignments and grades in the course

I do think we need to know if our students think this convergence is convenient.

Voice Thread & Proficiency Exercise D - SPAN 102

Susanna Spaulding and I were exploring various Web2.0 services for putting slideshows on the web. I was aware of slides.com and slideshare.com, but then I heard about voice thread, which allows you to do so much more.

SUNY has a wiki where practioners are sharing how they might or are using this tool and this is a module that I found there.

Look at how it is used for this Spanish Language Exercise and how a person can see and hear the instructor and the capacity for learner interaction. I tried the phone recording feature--I entered my cell and my phone rang, and then I was told how to record.

Ending the Term with Reflection

In addition to turning in the grades, what we might have done differently or will do differently next time, comes to mind. Taking a moment to do a set of "notes to self" can be a great practice.
Later this coming month when the IDEA comments come back to us, we'd have a set of our own remarks to compare to the student remarks as well.

Stephen Brookfield came to mind as I was thinking about this time of the term. He has written much about reflective practice; here's one of his writings on that very subject. He also offers many other resources at this website: http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/facultypapers/StephenBrookfield_Wisdom.cfm

Please feel free to also share reflections here.

Thanks again for all you've done for CMC learners this term.

Jason Vargas Makes Math a Campus Event

Just noticed the "Great Job" award at enews that went to Jason Vargas for the Math Awareness Celebration he created at Spring Valley.

Jeopardy competitions, games and cartoons were all part of activities that extended the learning well beyond any of the designated math classrooms and times.

Jason joins many colleges and universities who have been observing a celebration of the discipline since President Reagan's declaration in 1986. This year's site promotes the examination of statistics relative to this year's elections: http://www.mathaware.org/mam/08/.

For the math historians in the group: a list of themes from past years.

Traditional and Mobile

I've been wanting to share this picture since I got back from the Christmas trip to China. The server works at a tea-house/restaurant that was once the home of an Imperial relative. Clothed in period dress, she's sending our orders back to the kitchen with her handheld device.

Econ Students Invite Speakers to Warren Munick's Class

Warren Munick, an econ faculty, has presented on this student-driven guest speaker series for some CMC groups.

There's a terrific article on e-news today detailing how students identify speakers and research econ issues prior to the guest's visit.

Guest speakers add real-life perspective. In Leadville's case, it is also a terrific opportunity to connect community experts with CMC learners.

Web 2.0 for College Writing

UNC Colleague Dr. Ben Varner shared a wealth of Web 2.0 sources that were a handout for his presentation at the 5C's conference last Friday in Aims. Thank you, Ben!

Dr. Ben Varner University of Northern Colorado

Web 2.0 Applications

Grammar Bytes: http://chompchomp.com/menu.htm
Daily Grammar Website: http://www.dailygrammar.com/
E.L. Easton's English Quizzes: http://eleaston.com/quizzes.html
Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Paragraph Punch: http://www.paragraphpunch.com/
Purdue OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Academic Writing Module: Paragraphs: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/llc/academic-writing/
CSU Writing Guide: http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/
WikiSpaces (create a free wiki): http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K
Wikipedia School and University Projects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects
Teachnology (create a free website): http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/web_site/ Googledocs (Writely): http://tinyurl.com/2zktwe
Wetpaint (Create a wiki in three easy steps):
http://www.wetpaint.com/
Paradigm: Online Writing Assistant: http://www.powa.org/
Essay Punch: http://www.essaypunch.com/
Using English for Academic Purposes: http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm
Protagonize: http://protagonize.com/
Visualize: http://vi.sualize.us/
Footnote: http://www.footnote.com/index.php
Smile (Server Managed Interactive Learning Exercises): http://clear.msu.edu/teaching/online/mimea/smile/v2/index.php
Brain Pop (subscription required): http://www.brainpop.com/english/seeall/
Community Walk: http://www.communitywalk.com/
Tumblr (Tumble Logs): http://www.tumblr.com/
Great Source: http://www.greatsource.com/iwrite/students/s_expos.html
Writing Fun: http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html
BBC Skillswise: http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/writing/
BookGlutton: http://www.bookglutton.com/ReadWithMe
Albion College Digital Portfolio: http://www.albion.edu/digitalportfolio/#Top
Nik Peachy's Blog (Essays based on pictures): http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2008/01/pictures-worth.html
Open your own chatroom: http://www.chatzy.com NEH EDsitement Website: http://edsitement.neh.gov/
Thousands of Full-Text Free Books: http://www.fullbooks.com/
Engrade (Free gradebook): http://www.engrade.com/
Skype (free telephone calls): http://www.skype.com/
Docstoc (Shared documents): http://www.docstoc.com/search/essays/
Jottit (Create a free website instantly): http://jottit.com/
Teacher Tube (Educational videos): http://www.teachertube.com/
Edublogs: http://edublogs.org/wp-signup.php
Read Please: http://www.readplease.com/
Read the Words: http://www.readthewords.com/
Political Cartoons (Visual Rhetoric): http://politicalcartoons.com/
GoogleSites (Collaborative website): http://sites.google.com/
Wikipedia Writing Assignments: http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/2008/03/wikipedia-writing.html
Webquests (How to create a webquest): http://webquest.org/index-create.php
Educational Uses of Second Life: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses
Open Source Content Management System: http://www.joomla.org/

A Session About Placing Directions in Course Shells

At Telecoop last week, Mary Croissant from FRCC provided this session on writing instructions and getting students to read them:

Instructions provide the path.
Let learners take responsibility for reading and following instructions.
Smart Redundancy: She supports placing instructions in more than one place and provides them in multiple ways.

Possible Places in a course shell where you can place directions:

Learning Module
Course Contents
Assignment Drop Boxes
Audio Presentations
Video Presentations
Home Page as Separate Icon
In Announcements (with the email option)
In the Calendar

Can there be overkill w/ redundancy?

Redundancy can mean you provide directions in text and auditory formats.
Robert C from CMC tells students to use the assignments page as a checklist.
Keep a course blog where the directions are posted.

Mary's experiences:
She participated in a peer, writing-across-the-curriculum. She re-wrote directions and said the quality of papers has improved. She checks in student view once a week to double check it is where you think it is. She also sought student advice.

Student advice:
Be funny.
One faculty included a weird phrase in the directions (ex. “green duck”). We are supposed to put the phrase on our papers to indicate we read the directions.
“Say it out loud as well as in print.”

Don’t include dates in the directions if you plan to use material again.

Side Info: She said that the GT course expectation that 25% of a course assessments will call for writing.

Communication is such a complex process. I really appreciated this session. The only thing I'd personally add is an anonymous discussion topic for each week where students can ask questions about the directions...

Learning Feedback During the Term and Team Work

I'm at the Innovation2008 Conference in Breckenridge. This morning I attended Ana Paula Correia's presentation based on her recent article in Innovate Journal Online: http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=495&action=synopsis

By establishing an account, you can read all articles in this online journal.

This was a most enjoyable presentation because it was a real, in-the-trenches account of how the faculty built real-life projects and team projects into the course.

Here are two highlights I'd like to share:

Her remark about giving ongoing dialogue with on how things are going during the term: "There's nothing I can do for those students if I only look at the end-of-term evaluation."

This question from the audience: "How do you make a team and not just a group?"

Ana did have a few readings she gave the class members about team-based projects. She has generously offered to share sources if I email her.

Great Resources for April's National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry month and the American Academy of Poets offers some amazing resources at poets.org with recordings, bios, events,and poem-a-day deliveries into your email.

The Library of Congress, NEA, and other partners have funded another media-rich project called The Favorite Poem project which hosts videos of American reciting their favorite poems: http://www.favoritepoem.org/

Want to participate by recording a poem you've written or read? You can do so through a free service call Gabcast. A channel we've set up for National Poetry Month is called Necessary Angels after a poem by Wallace Stevens. To listen to recordings, go to gabcast.com and search by Necessary Angel or the channel number which is 18857. You can listen to recordings there.

If you want to create a recording for this channel, call 1.800.749.0632. When asked for the channel number, enter 18857# and when asked for the password, enter 42008#.

There is no cost to create a recording (only cost to you is cell minutes if you are on a cell phone).

CMC Aspen Partners with Local and National Sources for a Community Read

Aspen CMC has partnered with several agencies to bring a series of reading events to the Roaring Fork Community with the book Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya.

On April 9th,a panel of professional writers and teachers will talk about effective book group strategies. The event will be held from 6pm-7pm. Call 925-7740 to reserve a seat!(Office hours: M-Th 8am-10pm, F 8am-5pm). The location for this event is Aspen CMC Morgridge Family Academic Center, 255 Sage Way, Room 216. Complimentary Spanish and English versions of the book will be given to attendees.

On April 30th, from 6:00pm-7:00pm, there will also be a book discussion that utlizes the book discussion strategies. This event will also be at the Aspen Colorado Mountain College Morgridge Family Center, Room 216.

These events are presented in partnership with the Aspen Writers’ Foundation and Pitkin County Library,presenters of the Big Read Roaring Fork Valley: http://www.aspenwriters.org.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest: http://neabigread.org/books/blessmeultima

This blogger remarks: What are the benefits of community literary reads? Community, textual literacy and critical thinking, plus the exposure to imaginative writing.

Use of Technology at CMC

Recent Articles on The Wired Campus

How to Find What Clicks in the Classroom, Judith Tabron: At the end of this article, Tabron notes: “It will be a dismal future if the only thing our graduates cannot do online is learn.” In the article, she talks about coming back three years ago from teaching to IT administration and found little had changed in the use of technology. She talks about what colleges need to do to support the use of technology inside and outside the classroom. http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i29/29a03801.htm?top20

Another article, Colleges Bought Classroom Technology, but Are Enough Professors Using It?, found at http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2849&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en, further reflects on this article. The comments posted to this article were very interesting.

What are your thoughts about Blackboard, Elluminate Live! or other technologies CMC has made available to you as faculty?

Attending Conferences from Your Desktop

Registering for a Conference in Second Life at Edunation

With the technologies we have available it is possible to attend both live and asynchronous sessions with colleagues around the world (or is that worlds?)

As posted earlier, Innovation 2008 in Breckenridge on April 14th and 15th will offer an opportunity to hear from a wide range of experts across technology, policy, and practice for a very reasonable $69:

http://www.uliveandlearn.com/dsp_breezelivedetail.cfm?ProgramID=ade2c7f6%2D1903%2D4adb%2D9427%2D5443ec769883

A thirteen year conference, Teaching, Colleges, and Community, hosted by institutions from Hawaii and Japan provides great community, great sessions by faculty practioners on the use of various tools for instruction, and also is available at the rate of $69 if you register before March 31. This online conference is scheduled for April 15th - 17th:

http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu/2008/tcc/registration.html

Why would anyone want to do this? It's a chance to get in on some great peer-shared expertise when the need to travel is competing with priorities, plus the archives are typically there for referral after the conference is over.

And you'll be surprised at how real the peer-networking is...

Innovate 2008 from Your Desktop

Innovation 2008 is a face-to-face conference that will be held in Breckenridge April 14th and 15th. Can't go? Here's another great opportunity to attend online--See the details below.

Innovation 2008 (http://education-2008.org) brings together researchers, educators, and government and business leaders to formulate a vision for the future of education. This conference aims at a realistic appraisal of the present state of education and an assessment of what current realities indicate for the future, coupled with constructive and well-informed speculation about how change can be better managed to serve the need of students, educators, parents, industry, and society as a whole.

If you cannot attend in Breckenridge, CO, you can attend virtually, thereby allowing you to get a true taste of the attendee experience through informal real-time chats with keynote and session presenters, participants, and sponsors. Innovate's partner, ULiveandLearn, will broadcast all sessions of the conference live and will archive the webcasts for later viewing in the event that you are not able to attend the live sessions. For more information, please go to http://tinyurl.com/2nrhxa to register.

Why Twitter?

Last week Warren Munick sent me this link and asked me if he thought CMC faculty would use this "micro-blogging" tool called Twitter:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2785/will-new-messaging-service-catch-on-with-professors

In the Chronicle feature, a faculty used it to exchange quick messages with students who voluntarily opted to use it. You'll see that many faculty responded to the video presentation.

I've come to the conclusion that once we hear about excitement over a new technology, we then get down to asking how it serves the learning.

I would want to know how many students had it and how they saw it helping their learning needs.

I did spend some time with Twitter. I went to Twitter.com and set up an account. I found out I send out quick posts of 140 characters or less (there's a counter at the message window) and share the post via phone, instant messenger, or web.

I decided I would use it with an instant messenger on my desktop, though I can just go to the Twitter website and login to my account there as well. If I am away from the computer, I can turn on my phone, but will get charged text-message rates according to my cell contract.

I might use it for quick messages from learners at critical times with projects, but don't think I'd have it on all the time. As an English faculty, I have long promoted National Poetry Month with public readings. I thought--well, Twitter could be used for poetic exchanges (Many were ahead of me, I soon found out...). So I did a search for other Twitter users with the term poetry, found a bunch and invited a bunch.

http://twitter.com/140poems/with_friends

What I'm learning about the exploding technology services is that some seem to be information oriented, while others are definitely more social-connection oriented.

Twitter is the second.

So welcome to April--National Poetry month. There are many venues for celebrating it--but if you want to share it by writing or quoting up to 140 characters of poetry, join Twitter and "follow" me (140poems).

If you are using Twitter or have ideas about how it might be used, please let us hear about them in the comments!

Rules for the Road: The "Learning Organization"

Dr. Sam Geonetta (sam.geonetta@uc.edu) from the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Science did a "poster" session at the League for Innovation in Community Colleges conference in Denver on March 3rd on what exactly a Learning Organization is. It peaked my curiosity because I started Senge's The Fifth Discipline but couldn't finish it. I was looking for the simplicity on the other side of the abstract complexity on this subject.
So Here is the straightforward outline of the Five Disciplines that form a Learning Organization. I will conclude with some of the web sources that Dr. Sam included in his poster session.

I. Personal Mastery
A. Focus is on professional development
B. Based on clear goals (organizational and personal)
C. Concern is creation of results individuals within an organization desire.
II. Mental Models.
A. Focus is on "internal pictures of the world" derived from reflec tion, clarification, and improvement.
B. Concern is seeing how they shape decisions and actions.
III. Shared Vision.
A. Focus is on group commitment.
B. Based on "conversation" about shared images.
C. Concern is shared principles and practices.
IV. Team Learning.
A. Focus is on synergy through dialogue and functional leadership.
B. Concern is that the sum of the group's work is greater than the individuals' efforts.
V. Systems Thinking.
A. Focus is onthinking and language for describing and understanding forces that shape systems.
B. Concern is with capacity for adaptation and change so actions are in tune with the "world."

Web Resources:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/klarsen/learnorg/
http://www.rtis.com/nat/user/jfullerton/review/learning.htm
http://www.ddrduru.com/knowledge.html
http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/users/bleed/learnin.html
http://commhum.mccneb.edu/PHILOS/senge.htm

VARK for Teachers

I attended a roundtable discussion on the learning styles tool VARK led by Megan Way-Nicholson, Professor, Human Studies and Applied Arts, St. Lawrence College of Applied Arts and Technology, Ontario at the League Conference in Denver March 3, 2008.
VARK stands for the four categories of learners: Visual, Aural, Read/Write or Kinesthetic. Megan prefers VARK because it is less about personality and more about "how learners prefer to use their senses to learn." She provided us with the VARK Questionnaire that she uses for students in her criminal justice classes. She also had participants take the VARK and walked us through how to score the VARK. Megan does not share the VARK scores with other students but in discussion another participant pointed out the advantages in a class she was taking of knowing each other's learning styles in a class. This helps students understand each other as well as helping the teacher know how to work with students based on the number of learning styles in the classroom.
I thought the following was useful from one of the handouts (source: http://vark-learn.com/english/index.asp): "Using VARK Results to Study More Effectively:"

• If you have a visual learning preference, underline or highlight your notes, use symbols, charts, or graphs to displlay your notes, use different arrangements of words ont he page, and redraw your pages from memory.
• If y ou are an aural learner, talk with others to verify the accuracy of your lecture notes. Put your notes on tape and listen or tape class lectures. Read your notes out loud; ask yourself questions and speak your answers.
• If you have a read/write learning preference, write and rewrite your notes, and read your notes silently. Organize diagrams or flow charts into statements, and write imaginary exam questions and speak your answers.
• If you are a kinesthetic learner, you will need to use all your seneses in learning--sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. Supplement your notes with real-world examples; move and gesture while youa re reading or speaking your notes.

Megan pointed out that she waits until week three of a 15 week semester to administer the VARK. It takes about one hour. She has found it to be very effective in achieving her course objectives. She had several anecdotes of students who continue to stay in touch with her and mention the impact of knowing their learning style on other aspects of their lives. It's good stuff.

The Perfect Storm: Forces Changing our Nation's Future

This was an impressive general session at the March League for Innovations conference in Denver (March 2-5, 2008). Irwin Kirsch, Director of the Center for Global Assessment at the Educational Testing Service was the very engaging presenter.
There are three main forces that are changing our nation's future according to data gathered and analyzed by Dr. Kirsch:

• Divergent skill distributions
• the Changing Economy
• Demographic Trends

The first force will certainly have a major impact on community colleges: the wide disparity in literacy and numeracy skills among our school-age and adult populations. We are losing ground. High school graduation rates were at 77% in 1969 and fell back to 70% in 1995 and stayed their in this decade. Among disadvantaged minorities the rate is thought to be closer to 50%. What an extraordinary impact this will have on the future workforce!

The second force is the changing economy which Kirsch describes as "seismic." There has been a radical shift in the balance between capital and labor driven by both technological innovation and globalization. It is clear from Kirsch's analysis that there is a far larger number of jobs that require a college education. It is predicted that college labor market clusters will generate about 46% of all job growth between 2004 and 2014. He notes that higher earnings will go to those who have the degrees and the "higher cognitive skills." These are not only the folks who will have good paying jobs they will also be the folks given the most opportunities for further learning.

The third force involves "sweeping demographic changes." The U.S. population is projected to reach 360 million in 2030 (up from 300 million in 2005). The population will become increasingly older and more diverse. The labor force is projected to grow more slowly in the next 20 years. The U.S. Census Bureau believes that between 2000-2015 net international migration will account for more than half of the nation's population growth. A large percent of that internation population will be Hispanic (around 20% by 2030). The challenge historically with this ethnic group is the low percentage who have a high school diploma.

Kirsch makes clear that separately these forces are powerful, together they are indeed the "perfect storm." He concludes: "While new policies focusing only on education and skills will not solve all the challenges associated with existing inequalities, if our society's overall levels of learning and skills are not increased and the existing gaps are not narrowed, there is little chance that economic opportunities will improve among key segments of our population." We have our work cut out for us at the community colleges across the nation.

Building "Bridges" to Student Success

This League for Innovation in Community Colleges session wowed me with the results from a special program called "Bridges." The Ford Foundation and Lumina Foundation set aside money for approximately 5 states to do research and support at risk students' success in the community college. Washington State, Colorado and Ohio representatives spoke about the program in their states.
Kristin Corash, VP of Stategic Planning at the Colorado Community College System utilized the funds for a systemwide strategic plan. Kristin described the remedial challenge in our state: among adults 67% fall into remedial education; across the nation 80% place into developmental education. The funding supported work on Career Pathways as a framework for progress. Kristin reported the development of 67 plans of study that follow career pathways. These are careers that have been shown to be of importance for the economy of the state. See www.communitycollegecentral.org.
I asked Kristin about the poor funding that Colorado provides to adults in need of basic education. She indicated that the state funded $200,000 to that end this year. The audience was stunned by such a low number. She felt it was at least a token sign that the State needs to do something along these lines. We at CMC recognize how little support is given to higher education and remain continually grateful for our "independent community college" status.
But let me cut to the chase here for it is in Washington State where the results are to be had. The State of Washington has agreed to provide 1.75 FTE per student in ABE or IBES with .25 of that fte going toward support services. The students' developmental work is tied to improving their wages. They follow David Prince's theory of the tipping point (Washington State U): one year of college plus a certificate results in $7,500 to $8,500 more in salary for ESL and ABE students respectively. Washington State has close to an 80% completion rate for students who enter developmental education or ABE. They are seeing student go farther faster. They have cracked that nut which we so often bemoan of the dev-ed student who never goes past the first couple of developmental education classes. They have focused the resources on that front door and emphasized the urgency of this work for the future of our workforce. It was down right encouraging!

"Urgent: 21st Century Skills for Educators (And Others) First"

Will Richardson, a well-known educational blogger, recently attended a conference and observed that many sessions were operating with "pre-internet" tools. His post
invited an explosion of comments about the state of use of 21st century tools by our institutions (which includes all levels of the organization). The large challenge is the use 21st century tools for own learning as well as the facilitation of 21st century learning.

Will's Post

One of the posts used an IBM data tool to analyze the concerns by terms that appeared in the posts as well:

http://bwatwood.edublogs.org/2008/03/12/wills-hot-button/

Your thoughts, questions, practices to share?

Student Runs Study Group on Facebook and Faces Expulsion

This article is about a Canadian student who ran a study group on Facebook and faces expulsion for it. The many responses to the case provide good food for thought and practice. It acknowledges these two issues: Students were to do online problems individually but historically did homework in f2f groups.

The article describes the Facebook group as "swapping tips." Though there seems to be a gap in the information provided, look at the perspectives represented by various perspectives.

Article and Responses

Slideshare.com and Our League Presentation

Colleague LisaMarie Johnson and I presented at the League for Innovations. We decided to put our PPT up in a free service called Slideshare.com. Anyone can get an account or create one for a class so students could upload to the account. The actual Slideshare site also provides a transcript about each slide, which is good accessibility (ADA) practice. I was able to copy code from the site to embed the viewer that you are able to use below.

About the presentation: This presentation presents Web 2.0 tools that students can use to demonstrate their learning. It includes accounts for you to try (The URL and passwords and directions you might need.)

| View | Upload your own

Naturalist John James Audubon Images Digitized

The University of Pittsburgh Library System, which owns one of only 120 sets of the large hand-colored works of John James Audubon's North American birds, has digitized the 435 images he created and mounted them online. It is a magnificent website - http://digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/. Whether you are teaching onithology or just wanting to view this incredible collection, great thanks should be extended to the University of Pittsburgh for sharing these with us.

Resources for CMC from The League for Innovations

Greetings from the League for Innovations Conference where there are between 1500 and (?) community college educators.(The registration desk was waiting for final numbers at last report.)

Today's keynote was a very well laid out presentation by Irwin Kirsch from ETS on three trends that are affecting community colleges: the inadequacy of numeracy and textual literacies in the overall American population, our changing demographics, and the demands that knowledgework and global competition demand.

When this conference is over, all major presentations (at the least) will be available online at League IStream.

CMC is a League member college, so CMC can get free personal accounts to
view both video and publications in digital formats.

To get your account, go to the link in this post, click on Colorado Mountain College as your home institution, then enter you email and password and submit to gain access to these terrific resources.

Best,

Alice

Assignments as Checklists for Student Self-Directedness

Business Faculty Robert Cartelli graciously agreed to share one of his practices that support student self-directedness.

When he posts the assignments for a given week, he advises students to use the document as a checklist so they can track how they've met those assignments.

View a Checkpoint Checklist here

Last but not least, this is a great example of a learning-college principle (the philosophy which informs CMC practices)--that learners take responsibility for their learning.

Color Blindness Quiz

Another educator sent me this quiz.

Try it and see how you score. It reminded me of the importance of color-contrast when you are creating materials for courses or other purposes.

Color-blindess quiz

Trust or Distrust? Using Antiplagarism Software

An interesting article on the different approaches used in colleges and universities to the sticky question of plagarism detection software . . . to use it or not to use it. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i25/25a01201.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Monday sessions at e-Learning 2008

Just a note that I am continuing on annual leave after the conference. I appreciate the comments that have already been made. I'll plan to respond to these and any others that are made next week. Hope your week goes well!

Okay, get ready to overwhelmed. I don't recommend trying this at work because you may end up spending the rest of your day checking out this site. On my first post from the conference I mentioned Web 2.0 tools. Take a look at the possibilities on this site: http://www.go2web20.net/. Keep in mind this is a wide open list so be prepared for anything when you click.



I attended sessions Monday on:

• Predicting and Ensuring Student Success in the Online Classroom


• The Idea of Quality and Intentional Improvement


• Tackling Diversity and Culture in Distance Learning


• Instructional Challenges in the Mobile Education World

Some points made by presenters and subsequent areas for discussion rolling around in my head

... distance learning has a paradox in that the reason students enroll in our courses (my job is too time-consuming for me to attend classes) becomes the very reason they don't complete said course (my job is too time-consuming)

... how warm and welcoming is your first Blackboard announcement?

... how important for student success is the textbook you choose? do you need to look at something different?

... a couple of presenters have challenged faculty to have an anonymous discussion forum addressing what should I (the instructor) keep doing, stop doing, and start doing -- anyone daring enough to invite that feedback?

... from a diversity perspective (though it really applies to all students), we need to increase the student's self-confidence with the technology so success can be achieved and connect students to what they already know and value from their own culture (one attendee described it as helping students "find themselves in the course")

The most moving part of the day was the award of the Distance Learning Student of the Year. This is annually given to a nominated student from the host school for the conference (St. Petersburg College this year). I can't really do justice to this student's story so I'm hoping that they taped it and will put it online. I'll keep an eye out for that and share it with you when available.