I am a huge fan of SlideShare (www.slideshare.net) and other presentation hosting tools. If for no other reason, these tools allow me — I no longer print out copies of my slides to handout (which by the way I have argued elsewhere is never a good idea because we should instead be thinking about how we can hand out short, ideally, one page handouts). But these tools offer many other benefits:
–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.
Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html “The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) is an international non-profit training, project development, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives. Our focus is on building partnerships with community, educational, and business institutions to develop large-scale initiatives in health, social services, education, historic and cultural preservation, community development, human rights, and environmental justice arenas, using methods and principles adapted from our original Digital Storytelling Workshop.” [Quoted from the CDS Web site]
Story Circles http://storycircles.org/ A Web site where people can upload and share their digital stories.
Examples of Digital Stories in the CDS Tradition “Samsara” by Patrick Lowenthal
“Grand Canyon” by daniel weinshenker
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.
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.
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.
At the University of Colorado Denver, we use two Learning Management Systems (LMS): eCollege and Blackboard. There is a long history why we use two different systems and for better or for worse it doesn’t look like this is going to change any time soon.
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.
Teaching students how to design and develop Web-based learning environments (or what we call “EdWebs” at the Information and Learning Technology program at the University of Colorado Denver) can be challenging. Students typically begin the program with a wide range of previous experience with Web development. Some have been developing Web pages for years while others have no prior experience with Web development.
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.
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.
