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Thoughts about how we can use Active Personal Technologies (APT) to interact with our audience and enhance learning opportunities.
When you were young, what distracted you in class? Was it looking out a window? Doodling? Glancing around the room? Testing the tensile strength of a #2 pencil? Today, participants have so many more distractions in the form of active personal technology (APT) (i.e. cellphones, tablets, and computers, along with installed apps that are “actively” connected to a network). The “instant response and notification characteristics” of new technologies we carry with us Read More
Thoughts On First Steps To Online Course Development
When developing an online course for the first time you should focus your intentions on making the course experience positive. This generally translates to taking your time developing the right course materials and considering a variety of delivery options for presentations, lectures, or assignments. Begin by outlining your course needs followed by you desires. Try to keep things clear, concise, and comprehensive. Remember to stay organized and make sure you Read More
Thoughts about leveraging today’s web-based learning solutions…
Faculty who use Learning Management Systems (LMS) to assist with the delivery of courses in online, hybrid or even ground-based courses have a variety of tools from which they can strategically devise interactions with students to promote learning. Originally, these LMS were designed to facilitate transition from ground-based to online teaching without having to learn complicated or archaic programming or coding languages. And today, despite many advances, these tools and Read More
Thoughts on Lecture/Presentation Development for Online Courses
One of the pitfalls of teaching online that instructors often experience is that they replace face-2-face teaching lectures with large quantities of online text. Screen after screen of text will only “lock” the student into a linear sequence of learning. While this will provide data to support their participation in your course, it is not providing interactivity, a vital component of a quality online course, and, can make it difficult Read More
Thoughts on Online Course Beginnings
When special efforts are made, online education actually can enhance learning experiences, expand horizons and facilitate group collaboration. Remember when you were a college student and attended your first course? Did the method by which the course and the instructor were introduced affect how your felt about the course? Did the instructor read the syllabus to you and then dismiss class? Perhaps the professor began with an “ice-breaking” activity? As Read More
Thoughts on Faculty Professional Development
“Faculty who regularly reflect on their teaching are better prepared to create and sustain faculty-student interactions in which both teacher and learner flourish.” Prologue Welcome to the twenty-first century. We live in dynamic times when technology advances profoundly affect education at all levels and require us to react more and reflect on our actions more than at any time in our past. The demand for online or enhanced (blended) educational Read More
Thoughts on Student Retention…
The ideas and strategies offered by Flegle (2009) and Herbert (2006) have proven to be effective strategies for student retention over the past few years parallel to the development of Learning Management Systems. What we have learned more recently is that there appears to be a relation between student retention and class length that might put more students at risk. Students who take short courses (5 weeks or less) are Read More
But What If I Told You It’s Free…
I am frequently told by educators that one reason they do not integrate more technology into their classroom is because they cannot afford it; “there is no money.” And just as frequently I respond with, “but what if you could do that for free?” Many of the tools used by educators to enhance teaching and provide interactive experiences over the years have been purchased software products. Class productivity tools such Read More
iPad in Education
With the recent announcement by Apple of the iPad, I cannot help but think of the many ways this device could become a powerful tool in education. These are preliminary thoughts as the device is not yet available, but I think most might agree that the following are potential uses for the iPad. First, lets consider what this device is. The form is similar in appearance to the iTouch and Read More
iPad in IT
One of the restrictions that often keeps technologies from finding their way to the classroom is whether or not they can (or will) be supported by district IT services. Well the good news is that the iPad is going to be a device that can be integrated into most school network infrastructures. Issues concerning security, stability and compatibility appear to have been addressed by Apple (as they were for the Read More