True to my New Year’s goals I have been doing more tech research. Thanks to a discussion with my boss about iPads, I spent a lot of time looking at the up and coming tablets. I will post the rest when I get back to work

Tablets in Higher Ed

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/walt-mossberg-says-colleges-will-deal-with-a-deluge-of-tablets/28889

Predictions by Gartner

By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.
The Apple iPad is the first of what promises to be a huge wave of media tablets focused largely on content consumption, and to some extent communications, rather than content creation, with fewer features and less processing power than traditional PCs and notebooks or pen-centric tablet PCs. Support requirements for media tablets will vary across and within enterprises depending on usage scenario. At minimum, in cases where employees are bringing their own devices for convenience, enterprises will have to offer appliance-level support with a limited level of network connectivity (which will likely include access to enterprise mail and calendaring) and help desk support for connectivity issues.

Fijitsu unveiled their Windows 7 iPad competitor at CES 2011 – no known release date

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/tablet/fujitsu-stylistic-q550-tablet.xhtml

Windows 7 tablet OS not well-designed; probably have to wait till 2012 with Windows 8 for something competitive with Android

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/paul-thurrotts-wininfo/For-Microsoft-2011-to-be-Year-of-the-Tablet-Again.aspx

http://www.thevarguy.com/2011/01/07/ces-2011-microsoft-windows-7-and-the-tablet-challenge/

Android 3.3 Honeycomb OS (release date 2/2/11) comes loaded on the Motorola Xoom

http://www.youtube.com/android

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/motorola-xoom-ad-targets-apple-1984_n_816823.html

http://developer.motorola.com/products/xoom/

http://www.khabrein.info/news/Google_Android_Honeycomb_or_Android_3_3_release_date__merely_2_days_left_1296563902/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/218376/5_ways_googles_honeycomb_tablet_os_could_beat_apples_mighty_ipad.html

Dell Inspiron Duo (comes loaded with Windows 7)

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd

Samsung Galaxy Tab

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbsmHMAhrQ

We Tab (not yet released in the US)

http://wetab.mobi/en/

This semester I am teaching an undergraduate course for the Business Division at Mayville State. The course is about multimedia tools. I’m having students choose 4 free multimedia tools to evaluate. At the beginning of the class we talked about the ADDIE process and SWOT analyses ( I had to bring in something business-y). I had them read and write about ADDIE and SWOT and had them compose a few questions derived from ADDIE that they thought might help with the evaluation. I compiled all of their questions and came up with a list, organized by categories. I wrote a rubric and a detailed set of instructions. They are now on their 2nd mTool (as I call them) and they are starting to get the hang of it.

The Final Project

In addition to the four evaluations, students have to choose a tool to create a product that they will be able to use in their field of study. They are not re-doing the evaluations, they are actually using the tool.

Scaffolding

Since these are undergraduates who presumably have issues with writing, I decided to scaffold the process as much as possible. I required a draft for each evaluation and I divided the final project into small steps. The project is taking most of the semester. I’m SO glad I did that because it’s giving them a chance to really dig into the design process. First we wrote Goals, objectives and outlines in draft form, which I returned with feedback, and then they submitted them in final form. Next they are writing their storyboards and doing mock ups. This is a completely new concept to most of them and I am loving it!!! Once they see how valuable it is to design this much up front, I’m hoping that they will carry that into their careers. The next steps will be the actual development of the project.

Collaboration

I cannot believe how much they hate working together! I wanted to avoid the major issues of group assignments so I made them choose partners. Each evaluation has a peer review component due after the final draft is turned in. I created a peer review form based on the rubric. I thought this would help them really get to know what was expected for their own work as well.

I have stumbled a bit when partners do not come through as they should. How do I handle that?? So far I’ve contacted the offenders myself and that seems to motivate them to work with their partner. I have not docked the grades of those who were late due to late partners. A dilemma did arise when someone dropped the course and we had an odd number of people. Then someone else stopped doing anything in the course so we ended up being OK. I will need to consider what to do about that if I teach this again.

Reflective Writing

So, for some people, reflection means time to focus on the negative or time to summarize. Nevertheless, it has been interesting reading for me and I do appreciate the feedback that I get. One student gave me kudos for being will to make scheduling adjustments.

Discussion

The first 8 weeks I’ve had internet based reading and discussion which has gone very well. Since they will be writing both their evals and their final projects every week, I decided to ease off on the reading and discussion questions. I found that I was not responding to them as much as I thought I would. And frankly, they didn’t respond to me much when I did contribute. I think it’s good that I demonstrate a presence in the forums so I would do the same again.

Formative assessment and student feedback

I thought I would do a lot more of this than I ended up doing. Every time I started thinking about writing a poll for feedback I thought – if they want me to change something and I can’t do it, then what??  – so I finally did it last week and changed the due date from Saturday nights to Sunday nights.

Grading

We recently had a timely manner policy published on campus which requires that instructors post an approximate time frame for when students can expect to get their work graded. I’ve been working very hard – especially with 10 papers or more per week – to keep up with the 2 week turnaround time. Sadly, I have not been able to keep up with that in regard to grading discussion forums. I think it’s more important to spend my time helping them each individually to accidentally brush one off.

Rubrics

If it wasn’t for my rubrics none of my grading would make sense. I work late at night a lot and my mind is just not as sharp. I know if i did not rely on my rubrics i would be grading based on my own mood. What a great tool.

Podcasts

Guest Speakers

Contact Jo for more info (jhenning@gesd40.org)

1. Post in professional blog once a week

2. Graduate

3. Submit leave sheets at least every 2 months

4. Improve the tracking systems for the department

5. Spend at least 10 hours a week on ID work

6. Read for professional development at least 2 hours a week

7. Set goals that address the “bigger picture” for the department

• blended instruction
• mobile learning

8. Use organization system in place more effectively

• Set goals for each day
• Follow the goals set out for the day as closely as possible.

9. Research technologies once a week.

I am happy to say that we have found a really great FREE program that is working well for us. Dropbox.com provides a free service with the option to earn more space by referring others to use the program. It’s a small client that you download and you can choose which folders to share or not share. This is the part I love – those folders or files that are shared you simply open and save to and from your Dropbox folder!! So very simple yet so very convenient. No more version issues, no more who has it checked out and is it returned issues. Thanks Dropbox!

I need to do a bit more research, but i think the key is to work with the audio file itself as though it were an animation. After you insert the file, open the Animation Pane. Click on the audio object and then right click the item in the Animation Pane. This allows you to go into the Effect Options. Here you will find many useful settings that will help you make the file do what you want it to do. Let me walk through the project I just spend 2.5 hours figuring out.

Project: Create an automated video with music playing in the background for all slides and my voice on each slide.

Step 1: Create the presentation with no bells and whistles

Step 2: Write and record the script

I wrote the script in the Notes section of PPT and then used a two column table in Word to put in one place so i could use it for recording. I used one column in the table to identify the slide and the other to insert the correlating script. If I do this again in the future, I might elaborate here and make it more of a storyboard.

Then I went into Audacity and recorded the script. I used Audacity because of its editing features which are superior to PPT’s editing. I saved a file for each slide and exported them to mp3 files. I know that some people prefer to record one audio file when doing voice overs but for me this is just easier. I would not want to have to play with a voice over in PPT to get the timing right to play over all slides.

Step 3: Choose your music

I went to http://www.incompetech.com/ to find royalty free music for my background. I settled on a piece that is a mixture of African vocal chants and Caribbean-styled percussion and bass guitar called, “At the Shore.” I discovered that there is a couple of seconds of silence at the end of this piece which made the loop sound horrible, so I opened the file in Audacity and deleted the silence. I exported to an mp3 file and saved over the original. This worked perfectly.

Step 4: Insert the music file

I went to the first slide and did Insert > Audio file. The speaker icon and its companion slider bar showed up. I clicked on it and then went the Playback section of the Audio Tools tab. I chose the following settings:

Fade Duration: 0

I was tempted to play with this but the music was too short to cover the whole presentation and I didn’t feel like creating an audio file that would play long enough (You can do this in Audacity by copying and pasting the same track over and over after itself for as long of a duration as you need). Since I had to loop the music I chose not to use the Fade.

Volume: Low

Since I knew I was going to do a voice over for this I left the volume low.

Start: On Click

I played and played with this setting but ended up deciding to start the presentation with a click rather than automatically. Learner control and all that

Hide During Show: check

This keeps the ugly speaker icon hidden while the slide show is playing. In this case I decided to hide it but if you want to go for learner control, especially if you have content heavy slides, you could keep it unchecked.

Loop until Stopped: check

Like I said earlier, I did this because my audio file was too short for my presentation. Be careful with this, sometimes it can sound stupid. And when you’re teaching something with PowerPoint, it may be better to limit the music to the beginning and/or end of the presentation so as not to contribute to cognitive overload.

Rewind after Playing: uncheck

Once these settings were in place, I went to Animations > Animation Pane. In the Animation Pane you will see a list of the animations for that slide. Right click on the music file. At the top of the drop down you see three choices for how to begin the animation:

Start On Click means the animation will begin when the user clicks the mouse on the slide

Start With Previous means the animation will begin at the same time as the one scheduled to before it.

Start After Previous means the animation will begin after the one scheduled to run before it.

The bottom section of the drop down is where a lot of the power lies for making a self-running presentation:

Effect Options has three tabs: Effect, Timing and Audio Settings. I’m not going to go into what each and every setting does. Here are the settings that I chose for this project:

Effect Tab

Start Playing: From Beginning

Stop Playing: After: 8 slides (this is the duration of the presentation to make sure the file played the entire time)

Enhancements: I left the default

Timing Tab

Start: On Click (this is the same setting that is used in the Playback Tab)

Delay: 0 seconds (I chose zero so that the music would start as soon as I clicked)

Duration: left blank

Repeat: default is “Until the End of Slide” which is how I left it

Under the Triggers section (which I had to open) I chose Animate as part of c lick sequence. Originally this was not chosen but when I clicked it it worked. I’m not sure why. I just know it worked

Under the Audio Settings tab I changed nothing.

Step 5: Insert the voice over file

On the first slide I inserted the mp3 voice file with the following settings:

Volume: High

Hide During Show: Checked

I left everything else as default

to be continued….

Therefore, I have set a goal to write a strategy for blended instruction at MSU by the end of this semester (F ’11) and to implement that strategy during the oncoming semesters. The strategy will include a plan for training, a set of recommended delivery models and suggestions for how to market these courses. I am reading up on Dr. Larry Ragan’s competencies for being prepare to deliver blended instruction(described by UCD Media Services) and have asked our faculty mentors to rank the competencies that they find most important. I have also recruited the mentors to help me the process of writing a definition of “blended” that is contextual to our institution. Meanwhile, I am reading up on Brian Beatty’s HyFlex model of delivery.  I’m hoping that this will continue to develop into a well-planned endeavor. More on this topic in the future.

Scott Smith Director of Sales and Engineering at Wimba
The classroom of the future will……
answer it yourself. My answer: be completely virtual
flexible, global, inquiry-based, lack physical limits, be fluid, accessible, focus on constructing meaning, be student-centered.
How can we maximize the various technology available?
with Wimba classroom we can incorporate many of them. cameras, doc cams, projectors, phones, computers.

How can we hybridize?
support physically present and virtual audience to work and live together at any time.

Students who can’t be present for every class are becoming more common.

With Wimba we have full control of the video display
Composite Video

• the camera thru the video feature – the cameras already in the classroom
• document cameras thru the video feature also
• DVD player thru the video feature.. can also change the audio input so you can hear the DVD in the Options menu
• any type of video input can be pulled into Wimba classroom

A lot of instructional value in being able to pull audio and video courses from different sources.

Rule of Thumb – if your computer is compatible and working with the device, Wimba will understand it as well

Record presentation of SmartBoard lecture.