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New York Times Enters Distance Learning Market

On Thursday, the Times announced a new initiative that will pair Times content with faculty course material for both credit and noncredit continuing education courses. This represents a significant expansion of its "New York Times Knowledge Network". Aside from enhancing course offerings for college students and lifelong learners, the Knowledge Network will provide global networking opportunities and professional resources for faculty and students . Users will be able to share work with colleagues, create their own academic or professional ePortfolios (digital repositories of a person's work), invite peer review and establish professional contact with people around the globe based on common academic pursuits and research.

The New York Times Introduces an Online Complement to College and University Courses, Providing Enhanced Classroom and Distance Learning

Using online study tools

As millions of college freshman head to campus, a new study reveals that students are stocking their book bag, or rather their computer bag, with online study tools to stay ahead in class. The survey of 896 currently enrolled college students underwritten by Houghton Mifflin Company found that more than half (59 percent) of college students surveyed said they use online study tools to keep up with course work and prepare for exams.

Read the full article:

Internet Emerges as Study Aid, not Detractor, for College Students - Houghton Mifflin, ITSA Survey

Welcome back

and a special welcome to new faculty. The Instructional Resource Center team is looking forward to a productive year. Throughout the summer, we have been working on developing resources and faculty development opportunities. We will continue to offer training in new technology and provide HCC faculty with the technology, tools and support needed to enhance teaching and learning. Please check our calendar http://www.harford.edu/webevent/scripts/webevent.plx?cmd=listyear&userid=guest&show_favorites=0&calID=2139 for training opportunities and other IRC events.

New this Fall: The IRC subscribed to the STARLINK faculty development series delivered via streaming video, DVD, satellite or audio conferencing. The first presentation, Health and Well-Being will be available on your computer (home or office) between September 14 and 21; a password will be provided approximately one week prior to the presentation. Other topics throughout the year will include “Integrating Active Learning Techniques into your Lecture’, “Student Motivation”, “Plagiarism Pitfalls” etc…Dates and access TBA. The subscription also gives you access to previously recorded material available in the Starlink Library.

I-Clickers: More and more instructors are using various types of clicker technology to engage students in their classes. Some of you may have seen Gene Popiolek i-clicker presentation during tech and talk day last May. The IRC purchased a set of 30 for instructor use. A demo and training will take place early October.

Throughout the year, the IRC team will continue to post to the blog; check it out.

Have a great year
The IRC team

Hamlet.doc? Literature in a Digital Age

“If Shakespeare had had a hard drive, if the plays had been written with a word processor on a computer that had somehow survived, we still might not know anything definitive about Shakespeare’s original or final intentions — these are human, not technological, questions — but we might be able to know some rather different things. We might be able to know, for example, the precise date on which he began composing Hamlet indeed the precise minute and hour, time-stamped to the second. We would be able to know how long he had spent working on it, or at least how long the file containing the play had remained open on his desktop. We would very likely have access to multiple versions and states of the file, and if Shakespeare had “track changes” turned on while he wrote, we would be able to follow the composition of a soliloquy keystroke by keystroke, each revision also date- and time-stamped to the second”

http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i50/50b00801.htm

"Genealogy of Influence" JAVA applet

This new applet by programmer Mike Love, was recently covered on several blogs. It is described by the author as a "project to document and visualize the creative influences of great thinkers and artists" and allows the user to click through various figures in history, sciences and the arts and instantly see both who they influenced and who they were influenced by.


Genealogy of Influence Project Homepage

Leo Laporte's Keynote Address from Podcast Expo

Leo Laporte's Keynote Address from the 2006 Podcast Expo is available for viewing from http://download.movedigital.com/twit. As Greg Priebe and I mentioned in an earlier post, Leo does a great job of laying out future problems podcasters face.

2006 HCC Tech Fair

The IRC team has just posted a podcast from the 2006 HCC Tech Fair that was held on October 6, 2006. Please take a listen at http://www.harford.edu/irc/podcast/ or you can subscribe in a podcast player such as iTunes. A link to our podcast in iTunes is available at by linking here. Please note that clicking that link will open iTunes.

Podcast Expo Part 4 - Podcast Production and Post-production

While attending the conference sessions, I have been following many of the ones covering the practical production and editing process of podcast creation.

The opinions of the presenters were mixed. Stacy Bond of Audioluxe (formerly of NPR) advocated a very planned and scripted approach combined with creative editing later, while David Lawrence of Online Tonight advocated a more spontaneous production. Tee Morris, one of the co-authors of Podcasting for Dummies, hit somewhere in the middle, and stressed that no matter what your approach, proper preparation and rehersal were essential.

All of the presenters were very informative, but alot of their advice is dependant on what style of audio presentation you are trying to do.

Podcast Expo Part 3

Greg and myself posted a podcast live from the 2006 Podcast Expo. Please check it out at http://www.harford.edu/irc/podcast/.

Podcast Expo Part 2

Ron Moore's presentation was very interesting. He differs from Leo Laporte (the other presenter) in that he is not a computer tech kind of person. He is a Hollywood TV producer. But he recognized that technology, by way of podcasts, could reach a new audience. Or reach his core audience in an expanded way.

He has a lots in common with college faculty. They may not desire to be a tech expert in podcasting. But they likely want their core audience (i.e their class) to be reached in a more expanded way. Podcasting is one tool that can reach out to the students.

Hopefully more reports to follow.....

Podcast Expo

Greg Priebe and myself are currently attending the Podcast Expo in Ontario, CA. In fact we are currently sitting in the Keynote Address of Leo Laporte. Leo is very well known in the technology industry as a former TV host on the late TechTV network. Leo is also a very fluent podcaster with his twit.tv podcast network.

In his presentation, Leo is laying out the problems that Podcasters face in the future. The first and most interesting may be in the name. Apple is laying groundwork to take the podcast name back. Now, it is doubtful that they can do this, but it is a worry for the future.

Next, Ron Moore, the Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, will present. He uses a podcast to directly connect to his viewers after each episode of the show. it will be interesting to see his views on this "new" technology.

More reports to follow.

An Assessment Minute

September 2006
As faculty we strive to improve student learning in our classes, whether we know it or not. We savor our successes and reflect on our miscalculations. Assessment activities of any kind attempt to improve student learning. Assessment, in its truest form, is an act of educational inquiry, reflection, and adaptation. It’s where the best ideas come from, and where the truly unique innovations in instruction and curriculum are born. It’s driven by our desire to “get through” to our students, to develop and refine our techniques to better meet our objectives. At the turn of the 21st century, a pedagogical shift transformed our traditional instructor-centered learning environments. The fundamental question was asked: What are our students really learning and how do we know? The answer to this question began to find its way into collegiate mission statements across the country, and I believe the following captures the spirit of this new learner-centered environment:

The Six Guiding Principles of the “Learning College”
1) The Learning College creates substantive change in individual learners.
2) The Learning College engages learners in the learning process as full partners who must assume primary responsibility for their own choices.
3) The Learning College creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.
4) The Learning College assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.
5) The Learning College defines the roles of learning facilitators in response to the needs of the learners.
6) The Learning College and its learning facilitators succeed only when improved and expanded learning can be documented for learners (5).

Source: O’Banion, T. Launching a Learning-Centered College. League for Innovation in the Community College. Mission Viejo, CA, 1999.

The Class of 2010

Hello: Next week you will be welcoming your students. Who are these young students? Each year, Beloit College in Wisconsin creates its
Mindset List which looks at entering freshman.
Enjoy!!

Welcome Back!

The Instrutional Resource Center team is looking forward to a productive year. Throughout the summer, we have been working on developing resources and faculty development opportunities. This Fall, we will launch a new faculty presentation/discussion series " Teaching & Learning". Once a month, on two consecutive days, faculty members will present on a variety of pedagogical topics, success stories and challenges in the classroom. (Check the calendar for dates and topics). We will continue to offer training in new technology and provide HCC faculty with the technology, tools and support needed to enhance teaching and learning.
Check this blog for updates, new links to articles, new postings, archived workshops etc...
Distance learning: This Fall, we are migrating to WebCT 6.0, a greatly enhanced version of our Learning Management System. We will be training faculty throughout the fall. Course migration will begin mid october.

Online Cheating Lockdown Browser

Online instructors are always worried about cheating when putting tests online. Respondus has come up with a lockdown browser that prevents students from accessing the Internet and personal files while taking the test; it also prohibits printing. It is compatible with WebCT 6.0 which we will be migrating to in the near future.
Deterring Online Cheating with the Respondus Lockdown Browser Powerlink

Interesting article

Several faculty members brought up the issue of the way students use e-mail. Some resented being addressed by their first name, others deplored the language used and spelling/grammatical errors. Apparently you are not alone. I came across the article Be Polite - E-Polite where instructors in Oregon have added very specific guidelines in their syllabus to address "Netiquette". The article generated many comments which were even more interesting than the article.

April Brown Bag Lunch

April 17/18, we had the last brown bag lunch for the semester. We talked about ways to improve the sessions and attracting more participants. Someone proposed to have panel discussions on certain topics.
Suggested topics:

• Web-enhanced classes


• Classroom Management


• Working with large classes

So in the Fall, we will be looking for faculty members who have experience in these and other areas and are willing to participate.

We also talked about bringing in vendors to demonstrate software packages such as SoftChalk and Portfolio creation software.

IRC Software

By popular request, a list of special software available in the IRC is now available on the IRC website. Click here to view the list.

March Brownbag Lunch

This month's brown bag lunch discussion adressed using podcasting in the classroom. While some students listen to lectures on their ipods, most still access podcasts from their computers. Greg Priebe uses a podcast in his Survey of English Lit. Listen to a sample from his course .
Wisc-Online has created a great collection of learning objects, many of them simulations. It is now possible to purchase the source code or a CD copy of some of the learning objects, but you can still link to them for free in your courses. They are especially strong in the sciences and business. Take a look ; you will need to register, but there is no charge. Another site is Merlot . Merlot posts links to online learning materials along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. The collection is extensive and covers all disciplines.
Hope to see you at the April brown bag lunch...Ideas for discussion topics are welcome.

Creating podcasts with Audacity

Newsforge has a very good article on using the freeware program Audacity to create podcasts. It covers the basics as well as some advanced techniques for maximizing audio quality and file size.

Article Link

Addressing the Needs of Adult Learners

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities recently published the article, "Addressing the Needs of the Adult Learner in the February 2006 Policy Matters section of the journal. According to the article, one-third of the current student population is 25 years or older. The author examines the "distinct set of goals, views and needs" of the adult learner in post-secondary education and provides valuable resources for adult learners and educators.

iPods on Campus

You probably already noticed how many of your students are using iPods; is it time to incorporate them in your classes?? I came across an interesting article in Campus Technology about the use of iPods in academic institutions. Is it iTime Yet? . Also interesting is Rural Georgia college pushes for iPod ingenuity.
Maybe this could be a discussion topic for brown bag lunches.

Blackboard and WebCT Complete Merger

http://www.blackboard.com/webct

According to the Press Release:

• Company will remain under the Blackboard brand.
• Both Blackboard and WebCT product lines will remain intact and supported.
• Over time, Blackboard will incorporate the best features and usability characteristics from the two product lines into a new standards-based product set.

National Archives on Google Video

Condensed from a February 24 press release on the NARA website:

"...announced the launch of a pilot program to make holdings of the National Archives available for free online. This non-exclusive agreement will enable researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives via Google Video as well as the National Archives website.

The pilot program undertaken by the National Archives and Google features 101 films from the audiovisual collections preserved at the Archives. Highlights of the pilot project include:

• The earliest film preserved in the National Archives holdings by Thomas Armat, "Carmencita - Spanish Dance," featuring the famous Spanish Gypsy dancer,1894

• A representative selection of U.S. government newsreels, documenting World War II, 1941-45

• A sampling of documentaries produced by NASA on the history of the spaceflight program

• Motion picture films, primarily from the 1930s, that document the history and establishment of a nationwide system of national and state parks. Included is early footage of modern Native American activities, Boulder Dam, documentation of water and wind erosion, Civilian Conservation Corps workers, and the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. A 1970 film documents the expansion of recreational programs for inner city youth across the nation.

The National Archives and Google are exploring the possibilities of expanding the on-line film collection and making the Archives extensive textual holdings available via the Internet."

Creating A Faculty Website

This morning I presented the "Creating A Faculty Website" workshop - thank you to all who took the time to attend. If you were unable to be there and would like to view the PowerPoint presentation, visit the IRC Archived Presentations site and download either the PDF or Flash version.

For the .swf file to run, you must have Macromedia FlashPlayer v6.0 or later installed on your computer (Macromedia FlashPlayer can be downloaded free here). For the .pdf file to run, you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer (Adobe Reader can be downloaded free here).

Subscription Feeds

You may have noticed those links on the right listed as "Subscription Feeds".

So what are these and how can you use them?

All Blogs and Podcasts, as well as many other web content pages, have an associated feed that "sends out" its content to users who subscribe to it. It's similiar to a listserv or mailing list, except that it is entirely web based, not email based.

The IRC Blog has a feed of http://ircathcc.blogspot.com/atom.xml. Please note that this link is an XML/RSS file (The technical specs of a web feed) and is not readable by ordinary web browsers. But you can use this link to subscribe using numerous available services. I am going to talk about three of these below, but there are certainly others.

Yahoo allows you to add feeds to your http://my.yahoo.com page which is available free with a Yahoo account. This is an excellent place to read all of your blogs and news in one location. We
have a direct link to use this service on the right.

Google has 2 free services that allow you to manage and read your feeds. They are Google Homepage and Google Reader and we also have a direct link to their services on the right. They are both very good, with Google Homepage being a personal favorite of mine.

Last on our list, but probably the most impressive service so far, is Bloglines. This free service from ask.com, is in my opinion, the easiest and cleanest method for reading and navigating
your desired web content. If you attended the February 21st Brown Bag Lunch, I presented a small demonstration of how it works. I have been using it for only a couple of weeks, but I am already wondering how I ever "read" the web before this was around.

I hope this helps you understand Feeds, or RSS Feeds as you may see them called. They are becoming a more important and integral part of the web community. In a future posting, I will talk about Podcasts, which is another feed based system of content delivery.

Online Journal Articles

This post is an addendum to Christel's Brown Bag Lunch posting.

In her posting, there is a link to an online journal article that is accessed through one of our Library's Online Database providers. If you are viewing this off of the HCC Campus, you will need a library card number. These are available at the Library's Circulation Desk.

The Online Databases are great resources that can be found here. If you want to link to any of these for use in your classes please contact IRC personnel and we can help you with the proper linking.

Brown Bag Lunch

Monday Feb. 20th and Tuesday Feb. 21, we began our "brown bag lunch" series. We covered some interesting topics, did some venting, even discussed the pros and cons of yoga and kickboxing for stress relief. It was interesting that both days faculty addressed classroom discipline issues, attendance policies and students' attitude and expectations. Apparently this issue is not unique to HCC. Sharon Stowers mentioned an article in the New York Times yesterday : To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me
Sharon also shared the "Have coffee with your instructor" idea: she has a weekly office hour in the student center for general discussions. Apparently it is very successful and quite a few students come. Maybe it's for the cookies she brings or the extra credit points.

Other topics covered:

• Blogging: how to use blogs in the classroom and how to create them. Rick Smith demonstrated "Bloglines" a "FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content".
  
• Making effective use in online conferences, specifically involving students to answer their peers' questions.
• Using midterm surveys to get a feel for how the class is going: what activities did the students like/dislike.
• Gerry Yeager reported on the ITC conference she attended in Savannah

Greg Priebe found an interesting web site that collects people's grocery lists. So far, there is a collection of 1000 lists. This could be an interesting topic for sociology classes. Take a look at The Grocery List Collection

The next brown bag lunches are scheduled for:

• Monday, March 27: 2:15pm-3:15pm
• Tuesday, March 28: 12:45pm - 1:45pm

Suggestions for topics are welcome.

Upcoming events in the IRC: See IRC calendar

• Feb. 23: Grant Writing clinic
• Feb. 24: Creating a faculty web page (please sign up at http://www.harford.edu/Department/HumanRes/training/training-new.asp?OID=61)

In March, we will also begin a 5 week online workshop in WebCT for instructors planning to develop an online or hybrid course

If you are planning to use WebCT in your Face-to-face classes, come to a "WebCT lite" session.

Hope to see many of you at the next brown bag lunch.

You may comment on any entries in this blog. Just click on "comments" and enter your thoughts.

PBS Podcasts

From PBS: NOVA, P.O.V. and NerdTV podcasts, along with more listed on their site. There's a little description of Podcasts on the right, along with a link to their RSS feeds. Find it all at http://www.pbs.org/podcasts.

Tech and Talk day

On January 9th, the IRC conducted its first "Tech and Talk" day. Over 50 faculty members attended and provided excellent feedback. A lot of presentations, both technical and pedagogical were on the agenda. Faculty learned about blogs, podcasts, how to use Smartboards, and software packages available in the IRC: Captivate, FlashPaper, and StudyMate/Respondus; We discussed assessment strategies, hybrid courses and developing effective asignments; student services talked about Ferpa and updated faculty on Solar. Suggestions for future dates included:

• Interchange between faculty about their experiences with technology
• Dealing with Learning Disabilities and other accomodations
• Incorporating video into powerpoint presentations

The request for faculty interchange prompted a monthly "brown bag series" series