Steve Garwood's SC&I Instructional Tech Blog

Simple Do Activities and Puzzle Maker Sites

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EDT

"Do" activities allow for interaction with knowledge that is presented in "Absorb" types of activities (Lecture, Readings) so that students can begin to transform the information presented into knowledge and skills. "Do" activities can also come before "Absorb" activities to indicate gaps that will be filled in by the "Absorb" part of the class (i.e. pretest). "Do" activities range from simple games to role playing to case study analysis, in this video I'll focus on using simple word games to help student better internalize and organize the vocabulary of a particular topic, class, theory, etc. If this is a topic you'd like to talk about further, please let me know there are lots of good services out there that we can use.

Rating systems to increase student input and engagement

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:08:00 EDT

When I was teaching I always wanted to have a system that would allow me to have students submit a resource (article suggestion, general class or exam question, video or audio resource, book to read, etc.) which would then allow other students to vote on their favorite or the most important. The idea to me was a site like Digg but for class content. Well, I did other things in my classes when teaching, but this is something I've always come back to. Now I've discovered that this is something that some of you are interested in as well...SO...I started digging around and here are two ideas/services that can create this type of interaction.

Learning Objectives

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:53:00 EDT

An integral part of course creation, Learning Objectives set the stage for a course, class, or lesson, provide students with solid ideas of what they will be able to do (or how they will be able to express their new/developed knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, skills, etc.), and create strong evaluation criteria by which to review the effectiveness of the course, class, or lesson.

Some thoughts on student engagement

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:03:00 EDT

Ok, yes, this video comes in at about 10 minutes. Given it's on the topic of engagement it felt well worth it to go above 5 minutes. This installment in the 5min video series is on the topic of student engagement Description: Many of the conversations that I've had in offices, hallways, meeting rooms, etc. have come down to the idea of engaging students. While I will make no claims to my expertise on this subject, it is something that I've consciously paid attention to over my 10years of teaching and training. This video explores some of the concepts of teaching and offers methods and direct tips for increasing engagement in any type of teaching or training environment. In all of this I don't talk about any particular technology as technology is really just a means to an end...figure out what you want your end to look like and then determine what (if any) technology you need.

Simple Tools for Class Websites

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:06:00 EDT

Do you have students present information via a website or use a website for a project? Especially if your class is less about coding/programming and more about techniques for delivery and design, these tools could be very helpful.

Creating a Class Project using Collaborative Bookmarking

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:38:00 EDT

In this video we'll take a look at one way of creating a collaborative bookmarking project in a course. Collaborative bookmarking projects are a great way to rapidly develop web resources on a topic, get a class thinking of a topic in common terms, and develop teamwork. For this fake project I used the topic of webconferencing and highlighted a few items I think you'll find interesting.

Panopto &Prezi

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:45:00 EDT

For this installment, I used a software/service called Panopto to create the recording and you'll be seeing the video in the Panopto viewer. Panopto will enable a recording to be created that captures webcam (or camcorder video), voice, ppt, and screen actions (if you'd like to know more please let me know). For the content, I focused on Prezi. If you haven't tried this tool for presentations/lectures, it's worth a look. I could explain it, but I think the video will make it a little easier to understand.

A Brief Overview of VoiceThread

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:38:00 EDT

VoiceThread is a great tool for adding text, voice, or web-cam comments on image files, video files, pdfs, PowerPoint files, and more. You or your students can create an account, upload media, and then invite others to make comments. This has many possibilities from group comments on an image or video, to instructor comments on student created media, to asynchronous reviews of materials created for group projects, etc. etc.

Creating a Video on YouTube and Adding it to your Course Shell

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:45:00 EDT

This installment in the <5min Video "series" is on: Creating a Video on YouTube and Adding it to your Course Shell. Overview: The YouTube "Record from Webcam" tool is a very simple way to get webcam video up and available quickly. This tool can be easily used to record introductory videos, videos describing the how or why of a project, videos to review themes, content areas or other topics, or even to have students record introductory videos. YouTube gives you the ability to set a video as "Unlisted" which makes it available only to those who have the URL OR to anyone from locations where you can repurpose the link or embed the video (Sakai and eCollege).

5 Fairly Simple things you can do with Jing and Screencast.com

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:12:00 EDT

There are many many things that you can do with this type of software/service, these are just a few ideas to get you started. In this video I discuss/show the following in eCollege and Sakai: * Video Introduction to Course * Answering a question in the CMS Discussion Area o Or, post to Announcements to ensure everyone sees it * Assignment Introduction * Review of Comments on Assignment * Answering a question via a messaging service (Skype, Meebo, AOL IM, etc.)

What are Jing and Screencast.com?

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:14:00 EDT

Review of Jing and Screencast.com to record short screen-based video for your course.

Multi-file (Batch) Uploads to your Course Shell

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:31:00 EDT

Multi-file (Batch) Uploads to your Course Shell (Sakai or eCollege/Windows or Mac)

Hiding Content in your Course Shell

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:22:00 EDT

Hiding Content in your Course Shell (Sakai or eCollege)

Displaying a Web Page in your Course Shell

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:19:00 EDT

Displaying a Web Page in your Course Shell (Sakai or eCollege)