–Makes one’s work available to a larger audience
–Gives one easy place to direct people to (e.g., go to www.slideshare.net/plowenthal to see my presentations…)
–Allows one the ability to track how many times their presentations have been viewed, added as a favorite, tweeted
–Allows one the ability to embed presentations across multiple web sites and learning management systems
–The ability to find others with similar interests
–Share one’s work with other educators
–Find open education resources for one’s class

And the list goes on. But I just noticed that you can also create playlists. So here is an example of a SlideShare playlist.

| Get your SlideShare Playlist

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Articles on Digital Storytelling and Education
Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). Digital storytelling—An emerging institutional technology? In J. Hartley & K. McWilliam (Eds.), Story circle: Digital storytelling around the world (pp. 252-259). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
http://www.patricklowenthal.com/publications/DigitalStorytelling_%20preprint.pdf

Abstract
Storytelling, a timeless instructional strategy, is taking on a new life in the form of digital storytelling. During the past 12 years, Digital Storytelling, pioneered by the Center for the Digital Storytelling, has grown from an idea to a movement. The Digital Storytelling Festival has been growing in popularity since 1995 and there is now even a formal Digital Storytelling Association. However, despite the popularity of digital storytelling as a tool for expression, only recently have educators begun experimenting with this emerging instructional technology. This paper investigates trends, issues, and opportunities of using digital storytelling to improve teaching and learning.

Lowenthal, P. R., & Dunlap, J. (2010). From pixel on a screen to real person in your students’ lives: Establishing social presence using digital storytelling. The Internet and Higher Education. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.10.004
http://patricklowenthal.com/publications/EstablishingSocialPresenceUsingDigitalStorytelling.pdf

Abstract
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework is a comprehensive guide to the research and practice of online learning. One of the most challenging aspects of establishing a CoI in online courses is finding the best way to attend to each element of the CoI framework in a primarily text-based environment. In our online courses, we have examined the use of digital storytelling as a way to break down the barriers that can get in the way of achieving a healthy and productive CoI. In this paper, we describe how we use digital storytelling to establish our social presence as instructors.

Center for Digital Storytelling  Cookbook
http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.html
The Cookbook is a “How to” manual on how to create a digital story


Job Aids on How to create a digital story
PhotoStory: http://www.patricklowenthal.com/digitalstory/tie/jobaids/digital_story_photo_story.pdf
Moviemaker: http://www.patricklowenthal.com/digitalstory/tie/jobaids/Digital_Story_Moviemaker.pdf
PowerPoint: http://www.patricklowenthal.com/digitalstory/tie/jobaids/ppt+digitalstory.pdf

Podcast on Digital Storytelling
Yuhnke, B., Thai, A., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2008). TechHEds Podcast on Digital Storytelling.

References About Digital Storytelling
http://www.patricklowenthal.com/digitalstory/tie/references.pdf


Workshops
http://www.storycenter.org/workshops.html
The Center for Digital Storytelling holds workshops on digital storytelling throughout the year.


Academic Certificate
http://www.storycenter.org/certificate.html
The Center for Digital Storytelling in partnership with the University of Colorado Denver offer an Academic Certificate in Digital Storytelling.

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Therefore, we have begun thinking about when we will upgrade from version 8 of Blackboard to version 9. Version 9 has a ton of new features that people seem to love.  But we have realized over the years at CU Online that stability in many ways is a better characteristic of a LMS than any specific feature.

We only have 1-2 times each year to upgrade Blackboard. And a great deal of thought and planning needs to be done well in advance before upgrading our LMS. Thus, we wanted to get an idea of what others — specifically those who upgraded from version 8 to version 9 — think of version 9.

I created a basic Google Docs survey that I sent out to Blackboard Admin listserv. The survey included the following questions:

1a. If you are using Blackboard 9.0, are you happy with it compared to Blackboard 8.0?

1b. If you would like (though it isn’t needed), please explain why you like or dislike it in comparison to Blackboard 8.0

2a. Assuming you are currently using Blackboard 9.0, based on your experience, which of the following would you recommend (keeping in mind that you aren’t aware of our circumstances)?

2b. If you would like (though it isn’t needed), please explain  your previous answer.

3. Is there anything else you would like to add?

The results can be found here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Ak6yjEoIPaTIdGRmY1FuTlZVUmJIekFUZklPdkNINlE&gid=0

So what did we find out? Well the majority of people were happy with Blackboard 9 and recommended upgrading but

Here are two graphs to illustrate the basic responses.

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Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2009). Horton hears a tweet. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 32(4).

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Especially those new to Web development struggle with meeting their own expectations to develop beautiful award winning style Web sites. The reality though (in my experience) is that while it is important to design aesthetically pleasing Web-based learning environments, a good and asthetically pleasing EdWeb does not need to be that complicated.

The following are some examples of different types of EdWebs to help give people and idea of the genre of Web-based learning environments or at least the “typical” self-paced Web-based learning environment. If you click on the image, you will either see a screen shot of the EdWeb (which is essentially all you need to get an idea of the overall look and feel) or in some cases you will go directly to the EdWeb.

Americans with Disabilities Act Course Developed by CITT
Navigation & the Healthcare System Course Developed by CITT
HIPAA Regulations Course Developed by CITT
Publish, Not Perrish Course Developed by CITT
Successful Supervision in the Classified System Course Developed by CITT
Procurement Card Cardholder Training Developed by CITT
Using Gantt Charts Developed by William Horton Consulting
Welcome to Designing Electronic Courses Developed by William Horton Consulting
The Hyrdologic Cycle (Articulate Course) Developed by William Horton Consulting
How to Define a System DSN Developed by William Horton Consulting
Text Components Developed by William Horton Consulting
How to Build a Course Website Developed by William Horton Consulting

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Abstract of the article:
AECT has recently (yet again!) redefined our field, reverting back to the use of the term educational technology. We believe this recent change is problematic for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the weak rationale offered for the change. This change affects how external audiences view our profession and is likely to confuse practitioners in corporate and higher education settings in particular. We offer a review of job postings, program titles, and listserv discussions to support our case. The labels we use to define ourselves are critically important – and we hope to see a stronger case made for changes for our foundational definitions in the future.

I have a history of focusing on how language effects the things we do–from my Master’s thesis in religion that focused on how the language of the time shaped China’s reception of Buddhism to papers presented at AERA 2009 and AECT 2009 that focused on how online discourse  communities are shaped by the language we use. While a totally different focus, John W. White and I published a paper on the language used in educational reform.  This article can be accessed at the eJournal of Educational Policy. We have another article under review which focuses on academic literacy.

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As a side note, in addition, whenever possible I also attend ISTE’s – http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/2010/ — Sloan-C’s – http://www.sloanconsortium.org/aln — and EDUCAUSE’s –http://net.educause.edu/ConferencesSeminarsandInstitutes/31 — conferences to name a few.

So when I plan to attend a conference, I strive whenever possible to also present at the conference.  Often, I will even try to present more than once.

Well this last fall I went a little overboard and during basically a three week stretch I presented  11 times at three different conferences (two of the presentations though involved two parts so it was actually only 9 different sessions).  To be fair, when I originally completed the conference proposals, I never expected to have them all accepted. But through this process I learned a few things that I will take with me moving forward:

1. Never present more than 3 times — ideally strive for only 2 presentations — at a conference.
I enjoy attending sessions as much as I do presenting at sessions but I found that when I attend a conference where I present more than 2-3 times, I rarely attend that many sessions because I am spending most of my time preparing for my own sessions. Also, be prepared that they might accept any and all proposals you submit so think twice before sending in a bunch of different proposals.  If you want to present 2-3 times, only send in 3-4 proposals (assuming at least one will not be approved).

2. Always bring business cards to each session.

3. Find the room you are planned to present in.
Checkout the room you plan to present in before your session to get an idea of the location, room size, layout, Internet access… to name a few. During EDUCAUSE 09 I spent over 30 minutes trying to locate the room where the poster sessions were being held.  I barely found it in time to put up my poster before the session began.

4. Show Up Early.
Be sure to show up at the room earlier enough right before your session to ensure that such things as an LCD projector are  there.   At AECT, the hotel would remove the LCD projectors at the end of the day which meant that the first sessions each day often began with a rush to locate an LCD projector.

5. Create Handouts.
See Tufte’s work about this — or check out  Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations or a Review of the Cognitive Style of PowerPoint — but avoid giving copies of your slides as handouts.  If you want to give a handout (and I recommend it), then create a handout–ideally no longer than one page (front and back).

6. Determine the how many handouts you need.
Ask people who have presented in the past and/or the conference staff how many people typically attend each session so that you can have the right number of handouts. Most presentations, in my experience, tend to have 10-15 attendees. Therefore, you are often safe with 20-25 handouts.  However, during my last three week conference stretch, I had one session with over 75 people in it and another with about 35.

6. Post the slides online.
While I am not a fan of handing out my PowerPoint slides as handouts, I do try to post my slides online so others (both who attend the conference and those who didn’t) can access my slides.  But rather than giving out some long URL (e.g., http://www.slideshare.net/plowenthal/educause-2009-tweeting-the-night-away-using-twitter-to-enhance-social-presence) or even using a tinyurl (e.g., http://tinyurl.com/ybjepyr)  which might confuse people, simply point them to a Webpage with all of your presentations (e.g., http://www.slideshare.net/plowenthal).

7. Avoid traveling on a day you present.
This might be silly but try to avoid this if possible. At AECT this past fall I had to present on Halloween but I really wanted to get home in time to trick or treat with my kids.  I carefully picked my flight to help make this all happen but guess what…  my flight was delayed.

I am sure I am forgetting a few things but this list is a start.

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Basically, a few listserv members wanted to unsubscribe from the listserv but rather than follow the correct steps to unsubscribe (or what others perceived as not even trying to look up the correct steps to unsubscribe) they simply kept sending messages to the entire list (which has over 2,000 members) that they wanted to be subscribed.  This angered some members of the list and insults were exchanged and the flaming began.

While a number of people talked about ways to improve the listserv, I kept thinking about Will Richardson’s idea–where do we teach Wikipedia? Now when he mentioned this in a keynote I saw online, he  wasn’t focusing necessarily only on Wikipedia as much as he was about how do we or when do we (if ever) teach students how to participate and contribute in this new Web 2.0 world we find ourselves in.

For me the bigger and more foundational question is when and how do we teach students (or anyone for that matter) how to effectively communicate in computer-mediated environments (e.g., listserv’s).  Susan Herring has argued that CMD is different than F2F oral communication and yet also different than written communication and somehow a blend of the two.  But this type of literacy like all literacy is situated, contextual, and specific.

I have written in the past (with different colleagues) about different conceptions of literacy and the importance to acknowledge and sometimes explicitly teach these different types of literacy as well as how important it is to pay attention to the language and labels we use (Lowenthal & Wilson, 2009; White & Lowenthal, 2008).  For instance, John White and I have argued,

The New Literacy Studies (NLS) have shown that literacy is far more complex than the simplistic definition of being able to read and write (Colombi & Schleppegrell, 2002; Street, 1995). NLS posits that literacy is more usefully understood when examined as a tool for (and function of) relationships between people, within groups, or in communities rather than as a set of individual skills (Barton, 1994; Barton & Hamilton, 2000).    Specific environments and situations require specific kinds of literacy; relationships of power within these contexts affect literacy uses and the meaning resulting from them (Bizzell, 1982; Corson, 2001; Gilligan, 1993; Heath, 1983, 1991; Hymes, 1971; Medvedev & Bakhtin, 1978; Nystrand, 1982; Pratt, 1998). NLS highlights the fact that what counts as literacy is not the same in all contexts; different domains of life require specific kinds of literacies.

Given this, CMD appears to be a not necessarily new but increasingly used literacy that is permeating every aspect of our life. Now I am thinking this is more than just digital literacy or information literacy; or at least something different that overlaps these two ideas in ways. But we aren’t spending time teaching people how to effectively employ CMD.  Rather, we assume that people can learn this on their own and that they can figure out the differences between emailing, postings comments on a blog, taking part in a listserv or even tweeting.  And while everything we need to learn in life doesn’t have to be formally taught and  in fact many would argue that the most important things in life aren’t taught in a formal learning environment, as CMD increases, we need to start seeing courses or opportunities out side of courses on how to read, write, communicate and exist in mediated environments.

Back to the beginning of this, I wasn’t that surprised with those who were willing to send multiple emails to be “unsubscribed” to over 2,000 people (which includes possible future employers I bet)  but I was surprised when arguably literate CMD users were willing to get nasty (in front of over 2,000 people) with these new and arguably illiterate (at least when it comes to listserving) people.  We need to think about what it means to be literate when it comes to CMD and how we can explicitly teach it or at least model it for others.

After writing this post in the middle of a conference, I later created a Pecha Kucha on the same topic. The following is a rough recording of the Pecha Kucha.

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The CU Online Handbook

Edited by
Patrick R. Lowenthal
David Thomas
Anna Thai
Brian Yuhnke

Download the eBook
Download the entire eBook (pdf)

Download Individual Chapters

Introduction
Patrick R. Lowenthal

Trends and Issues with Online Learning
1. From Reluctant and Reticent to Engaged and Enthusiastic: The Passage to Online Teaching
Susan Giullian

2. Preparing Special Education Teachers Through Online Instruction
Donna Sobel

3. Using eCollege to Facilitate Learning, Provide for Program Coherence, Manage Accountability Innovations, and Ensure the Evolution of a Principal Licensure Program
Connie Fulmer

4. Make, Share, Find: Web 2.0 and Informal Learning
Phil Antonelli

Technology in Action
5. The Advantages of a Ning Social Network Within a Higher Education Program
Laura Summers

6. Fresh and Forward-thinking: Using Blogs for Educational Purposes
Joanna C. Dunlap & Ellen Stevens

7. Hanging on by a Thread
Dorothy F. Garrison-Wade

8. Instructional Uses of Twitter
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal

9. Using Audio for Giving Feedback to Project Teams: A Useful Complement to Track Changes
Brent G. Wilson

10. Wordle… Just for Phluff?
Joanna C. Dunlap

11. A Teaching Video Project Brought to Closure
Farah A. Ibrahim

12. Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations
Patrick R. Lowenthal

Emerging Tools and Applications

Resources
Down-and-dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses
Joanna C. Dunlap

Protocols for Online Discussions
Joanna C. Dunlap

Improving the Odds of Effective Collaborative Work in Online Courses
Joanna C. Dunlap

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To our surprise, the Daily Camera mentioned our presentation in an article about the conference.

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