Audio: LeMasney on How to use Powerpoint at Rider University Media Server

Audio: LeMasney on How to use Powerpoint at Rider University Media Server
I gave a presentation on How To Use Powerpoint today to a semi-packed room in the new Faculty Staff Training center in FA 113. Powerpoint was discussed in some detail, but of course, we talked about alternatives to Powerpoint, ways to avoid death by Powerpoint, Google Docs newest addition, Presently, and related topics. Take a look at Rider technology training site (log in as a guest if you wish) at http://www.rider.edu/training and click on the How to Use Powerpoint course to follow along with the audio if you want the whole effect. - John.

Resonance Partnership Blog: Social Media: Something Different IS Happening…

I just found this really cool blog with a lot of web 20 meta stuff, and already found an article interesting enough to add to Ghost. I’m in complete agreement that there is new refreshed movement in the blogosphere where academics are concerned. Teachers here at Rider have crossed the threshold, after several semesters of pushing, and now I’m getting a regular stream of calls about web 2.0 content issues, rss functionality, on the spot media, collaborative and social services and more. I’m loving what’s going on right now.

Resonance Partnership Blog: Social Media: Something Different IS Happening…
So, Downes also had a link to this post at Web-log ed which mentioned a comment by Downes: “The big news in this story isn’t blogs. It’s that there are a billion teachers out there. Today we use blogs to communicate with them. But how might this evolve in the future? How do we make it easier, more immediate?” Will Richardson added,” It really isn’t about blogs as much any more, is it? It’s not about the tool. It’s about the ability to connect.” Yes, the ability to connect has now become limitless and education and the transmission and acquisition of knowledge has become limitless.

Upcoming CII Session: Group Learning and Blackboard Discussions

February 19th 11:30am,
1pm 2007 —
CII Session: Group Learning and Blackboard Discussions.— at
Rider University: Fine Arts 113

In this session, we’ll focus on the issues surrounding the instructional strategies and effective use of Blackboard discussion boards as assessment and communication tools. Presented by John LeMasney and Kathleen Pierce.

This
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Create Visual Metaphors with Open Source Software

Visual metaphors are becoming a popular teaching tool in the classroom. What exactly is a visual metaphor? A visual metaphor is substituting an idea or object with another and is used to help explain a concept or an idea. It is done using visual imagery or symbols. We see visual metaphors everyday, especially in advertisements. Since educators have access to different types of media (like web 2.0 tools), why not introduce visual metaphors as teaching tool? Our ability to learn via images dates back to the time where information was passed down by oral history. Some experts claim its wired into our brains to learn through visual metaphor. So you’re interested in using this teaching tool in your classroom, but your budget is tight. Well why not use some free open source programs that could help you create visual metaphors that would complement the literary metaphors you use in the classroom. Here is a list of open source programs that can get you on that track.

The GIMP- The GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. If you are familiar with Photoshop, than the GIMP is the open source alternative to it. You can load photographs and edit them in the GIMP. Change colors, edit and crop, write text, the possibilities are endless!

Inkscape- Inkscape is a vector art program. You can create images, graphs, charts, etc. and you are able to resize them without losing the quality (sharpness) of the drawn objects (since they are vector). Create simple or complex diagrams to help explain a process or problem.

Blender- Ever want to demonstrate something in 3D? Well you can create and animate simple or complex models in Blender. It’s recommended that you have some experience in 3D software, but it is not required. The user interface can be tricky at first, but it becomes easier with experience.

The GIMP, Inkscape, and Blender have many user forums and a big user community, so there are a lot of free tutorials and documents to help get you started in your open source journey. Use these tools to help create your visual metaphors that will help your students connect with concepts in the classroom. Happy exploring!

~Angel Brady

Students Rebel Against Database Designed to Thwart Plagiarists - washingtonpost.com

Rider uses Turnitin.com and it is a favorite tool of many faculty here to combat plagiarism. The real problem that I see is that plagiarism is really a result of bad assessment design. If faculty were to take the time to design projects and essays that could not be answered with papers they find online or fraternity files, or whatever, Turnitin.com would be unnecessary. At any rate, it turns out that people don’t like putting their written work into a massive online database that someone else is getting rich from, and I don’t blame them. Let’s make our assessments better and put turnitin.com out of business. Need help? Call the Rider University Center for Innovative Instruction at 609 896 5000 x7489.

Students Rebel Against Database Designed to Thwart Plagiarists - washingtonpost.com
But some McLean High students are rebelling. Members of the new Committee for Students’ Rights said they do not cheat or condone cheating. But they object to Turnitin’s automatically adding their essays to the massive database, calling it an infringement of intellectual property rights. And they contend that the school’s action will tar students at one of Fairfax County’s academic powerhouses.

John Suler is a Flickrin’ Star.

Rider’s own most visited web author, John Suler, has recently become just as watched on Flickr, the online photo sharing service as he is on Rider’s Web Site. If you’ve never seen any of his online work, you should go visit now:

http://www.rider.edu/~suler/tcp.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsuler/

He always graces the top of the report of most hits at Rider: http://www.rider.edu/usage

Category:Creativity Techniques - Mycoted

Found this very interesting. John Baer gave us some help in the CII a few years ago by leading small workshops on Creativity as a pedagogic tool. I always thought that creativity has a little bit of a bad rap in general society, because it implies thinking differently, change, new ideas, and sometimes, restarting from scratch. Depending on the project at hand, creativity can be a real wrench in the works for some. For others, however, it’s a great way to fix what’s broken, and to make a project do what it should. Anyway, here’s a great resource I found on del.icio.us regarding creativity methods:

Category:Creativity Techniques - Mycoted
This is a general category of Creativity and Innovation Techniques, simply listed in alphabetical order. Like most tools these creativity techniques all have their good and bad points. I like to think of these creativity techniques as tools in a toolbox in much the same way as my toolbox at home for DIY. It has a saw, spanner, hammer, knife and all sorts of other things in it, they are all very useful, but you have to pick the right tool (creativity technique) for each job. We will try and provide a little guidance along with each tool to let you know whether it’s best used for cutting paper or putting in nails.

For the future, the aim is to also have sub-categories which will identify Techniques for;

* Problem Definition - including problem analysis, redifinition, and all aspects associated with defining the problem clearly.
* Idea Generation - The divergent process of coming up with ideas.
* Idea Selection - The convergent process of reducing all the many ideas into realistic solutions
* Idea Implementation - Turning the refined ideas in reality.
* Processes - Schemes and techniques which look at the overall process from start to finish (or at least 3 of the above 4 areas)..

Special thanks to the Open University for their kind permission to use material from their publication B822.

Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theory

This is a good article that looks at learning theory as it relatyes to blogging, but any good teacher could see how it could relate to other presentation methods.

learning_theory++

Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theory
This is not a comprehensive look at the state of learning theory today, but it does include almost everything we think about in creating our books. And although it’s geared toward blogs/writing virtually everything in here applies regardless of how you deliver the learning–you can easily adapt it to prentations, user documentation, or classroom learning. And remember, this is a BLOG, so don’t expect academic rigor ; ) but I do have references, so leave a comment if there’s something in particular you want.

Productive Strategies: List of Academic Lecture Podcasts

I would love to intigate smething like this at Rider. It would be a relatively simple task for the Instructors, no student voices would likely ever be heard, ceasing privacy/inclusion issues, and the workflow would ensure a auick turnaround and availability - additional benefits would be that the students would have a way to review the lectures. Oh, and there is still value added by coming to class, going to University, etc. because a lot of the value of in class education is the visual aspects, the human interaction, and the ability to dig deeper into the topic with an expert in front of you, none of which can be gotten with these mp3s. Together with the BBC’s annotatable audio tool this could be a fantastic teaching and learning tool.

Productive Strategies: List of Academic Lecture Podcasts

Several universities are making lectures available as Podcasts. Not every class is work well on an iPod, but the content is much more directed toward people who want to learn and not just be entertained. Of course the flip side of this is that some of the professors are boring in person, to say nothing of listening to their recordings on an iPod. You may need to look around to find someone who is interesting to listen to, but once you find the right feed, you have a tremendous amount of content regularly published for entire semester.

Introduction to platonic geometry and fractals

This is a mighty cool website focusing on the beauty of visual mathematics. Having never been very good at maths myself, but very interested in the visual arts and design, this is one way I can very deeply appreciate math.

Introduction to platonic geometry and fractals

The Koch Snowflake: example (below) is similar, except rather than subtracting the middle of the line in each step or iteration - we add a triangular bulge to each line, and then to each resulting line … and so forth until the border goes from a triangle to a star, to a wrinkled snowflake.

This also illustrates a fundamental property of fractals .. infinite boundaries.