Why Moodle?

What is Moodle?

Moodle is an open source Learning Management System. It provides a web based interface for posting course materials, fostering collaboration, and encouraging critical reflection.

What is open source?
Open source means that the source code is available within the public domain.

Moodle and Open Source
Once configured for our institution the copyright for its content will be reserved for the Spelman account holders.

iPad --Magical piece of technology

Bravo! Apple iPad is a large multi touch screen that lets you navigate and view web pages one page at a time. Navigation appears to be a simple enough- use your finger to scroll through the page viewing one page at a time either in landscape or portrait mode.

It is definitely an item on my wish list. I am particularly impressed with the built in iPod and iTunes application. It would be nice to have my music within reach when vacating somewhere in the tropics or attending a conference or even catching up on the latest episodes of 'Fringe'. I am sure this device will make its way into the classroom at some point.
What possibilities does this revolutionary device bring that would be useful in your classroom?

It has the power to transform the classroom environment. I am thinking Mobile Lab!

Delicious

delicious is a social bookmarking service that offers

• an online medium to save your favorite bookmarks
• accessible and sharable bookmarks with friends, colleagues and others
• the ability to view what other people are bookmarking

Benefits of using an online bookmarking software:

• You will never have to lose any interesting websites you have find again
• You can access your favorite websites from any location via the web
• You can tag your bookmarks with keywords that allow easy access as your collection grows

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)

MERLOT is resource site for peer reviewed learning materials. Over the years, I have used MERLOT.org as a resource for courses I teach as well recommend the site to colleagues and faculty.

Use the site to:

1. Search for peer reviewed learning materials
2. Find subject matter experts in your discipline
3. Find assignments and interactive exercises you can use with your students
4. Find subject matter experts you can use as guest speakers (Virtual Speakers Bureau)

Membership is free. As a member you can:

1. Contribute to collection of learning materials
2. Create your personal collections of teaching and learning materials
3. Create a personal profile
4. Share your knowledge
5. Receive recognition from peers in your discipline

Overview of MERLOT
Video: An overview of MERLOT.org. It's purpose and how it got started.

Reference: Merlot.org

SlideShare

Are you interested in sharing your presentations online? Have you heard of SlideShare?


Educators are using SlideShare to upload and share PowerPoint Presentations and Word documents. Presentations and documents can be made available publicly or privately. Take a tour of SlideShare. http://www.slideshare.net/tour.

View examples
Your Digital Footprint from Shareski.
Overview of Digital Footprint.

Transformational Leadership from M. Rex Miller.
Examination of the book The Millennium Matrix.

The 411 on Jing!

Jing is a free-ware by TechSmith. It is a simple screen and audio capturing software that requires no scripting and editing. You might have to do a few retakes on the screen and audio capture but overall it meant to perfect your output.

The video format is SWF (free version only) and mpeg-4 (pro version). The benefit of using the SWF format is high quality of the video recording.

When you begin using Jing you will realize that you have a 5 minute time limit. Why? 5 minute videos keep you on task, anything over 5 minutes become a tutorial.
Here is an example of short screen and audio capture produced in less than 5 minutes. Click to view Example.

Useful Resources
Jing Website: http://www.jingproject.com/

Click to Watch Video about how Jing works.

Communicating with Skype

About Skype
Skype is a software that allows you to communicate and collaborate over the Internet. With Skype, you can make telephone calls over the Internet to other Skype users, to land phone lines, and mobile phones. Services include, instant messaging, file transfers, and video conferencing. Calls to other Skype users are free, but other services are fee-based.

With Skype, you can :

• teach class remotely (from home, a museum or a conference)
• communicate with other colleges, colleagues, or people throughout the world
• conduct teleconferences for participants in separate locations
• conduct online interviews with speakers and lecturers
• capture conferences for future playback
• deliver live learning support for students
• allow parents to watch students as they present in class

Fact
The first version of Skype was released in 2002 and was purchased by EBay in 2005 for $2.6 million. The number of Skype accounts is estimated to be more than 250 million.

Resources

See me, hear me: Skype in the classroom, Julie Clark, School Library Journal 30 July 2008
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=talkbackCommentsFull&talk_back_header_id=6497594&articleid=CA6515247

7 things you should know about Skype, Educause
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7032.pdf

25 Tips to improve your Skype experience, VoIP News, 6 February 2007
http://www.voip-news.com/feature/hacking-skype-020607/

Skype's extras: desktop sharing with Uyte, Mark O'Neill, Read/Write Web, 20 August 2007
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/unyte_skype_desktop_sharing.php

How to record Skype calls: a mini-guide, Robin Good, 24 June 2007
http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_collaboration/skype-recording/how-to-record-Skype-calls-tools-guide-20070624.htm

Skypecasting For Beginners - How To Do It, Livia Iacolare, MasterNewMedia, 23 May 2007
http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_collaboration/free-conference-calling-with-Skypecasts/Skypecasting-how-to-do-it-step-by-step-tutorial-20070523.htm

Skypecasts Academic potential, Jeff Van Drimmelen, Educause Connect, 13 November 2006
http://connect.educause.edu/blog/jeffvand/skypecastsacademicpotenti/11367

Skypecast FAQ, Skype
http://support.skype.com/?_a=knowledgebase&_j=subcat&_i=42

Flickr - Connecting, Sharing, and Applying the Concept of Digital Property Rights

What is it?

Flickr is an online photo-management tool, that contains 100 million photographs. Flickr provides image sharing capabilities to a community of users.

How does this service allow you to manage your photographs and videos?

• You can Upload images from many locations (i.e, email, iPhoto, Flickr webpage, etc.)


• You can Edit your images by cropping, adding text, etc.


• You can Organize your images by creating collections or sets of similar photographs,and add timestamps to them.


• You can Share your images with others and add privacy attributes such as a Creative Commons license agreement.


• You can attach geographically Map your photos to the locations.


• You can Create digital stories,photo books, image cards, ImageKind prints.

Flickr was one of the emerging technologies used to tell the stories of Election day events (click here).

Twitter - Why is everyone talking about Twitter?

What is it?

Twitter is a micro-blog, or as some call it moblog. It is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices. Believe it or not, people all around the world are using Twitter to access information and news as it happens.

So who is using it?
Newspapers:
The New York Times, NY @nytimes (stats) and
USA Today @ondeadline (stats)

TV and Radio
BBC @BBC (stats),
CNN @cnn (stats), @CNNNewsroom (stats), and
NPR News @nprnewsblog (stats), @nprnews (stats)

Government Organizations
The White House: Communications Office, and
The White House: Office of National Drug Control Policy

Twitter in Academia

Possible uses for Twitter:

User Friendly - Twitter is quick and easy to learn. It is used by people all around the world, and the best thing about Twitter is the 140 character limit that ensures messages are short and to the point.

Communication Tool – It is a great way to promote class chatter and build a classroom community, simply post a reflective question and have students respond.

Promote Content – You have the opportunity to post relevant questions and points of view about various topics, and watch the twitter community respond.

New Audience – It is a great venue to interact with colleagues around the world, gather insight on specific topics of interest from people with diverse backgrounds.

Reflection Tool & Resource Repository – You have the ability to search and gather news stories that relate to topics that you teach in class.

Track a conference – Before going to a conference, follow the buzz about the conference from attendees and participating vendors . For example, if you plan to attend the Midwest Education Technology Conference in St. Louis in 2009, click here to see the buzz. .

For more ideas, read:
Ways to use Twitter in Academia

Google Docs for Educators

Google Docs is a web based word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet program. It allow users to create web based documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that can be assessed by a defined group from any computer with Internet access. Instructors are using the Google Docs program to collaborate with colleagues on projects and research.

Here is how it works:

• Login to your Gmail account, however, you do not need Google accounts to view docs or send forms, only to edit.
• From any Google page, click on the Docs link

Tip: When choosing collaborators for your documents, be sure to limit who you invite because anyone invited as a collaborator can change your document

Teaching with Google Docs - a few possibilities

• Students can work together on documents
• Forms data can be quickly collected
• Class presentations can easily be accessed by students at home or anywhere
• Using Google Sites, you can expand class projects to include content based websites or even a mini intranet for your students to share information.
  

  
  YouTube Video: Google Docs in Plain English
  

http://docs.google.com/ - Create and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It's free.