From Innovation to Application

Welcome!

2006-10-31T12:49:00.000-05:00

From Innovation to Application -- A full-day workshop for faculty and instructional technologist and designers, showcasing innovative uses of technology and innovative approaches to pedagogy, with discussion focused on identifying principles of good practice. This session will be highly interactive. Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of a variety of new and emerging technologies and their application to the online learning environment.

Presenters: Lawrence C. Ragan, The Pennsylvania State University; Larry Cooperman, University of California-Irvine; Ray Schroeder, University of Illinois-Springfield

Preliminary Agenda

9:00 Introductions (Larry Ragan)

Presenters, Participants and Program Goals

9:30 Technology Overview

Roughly 3-4 minute overview of the technology:

1) Ray - Ajax, Blogging, Wikis, RSS aggregation, Google Pack/Google Page Creater

2) Larry Ragan - Skype, Writely, Wetpaint, Lionshare, Profcast, Gliffy, Flickr,

3) Larry Cooperman - Podcasting, Mobile Technology, Captivate, Breeze/Elluminate

10:25 Team Assignments - Ask participants to categorize themselves around technology options (technology classifications, or specific name)

10:30 Break

10:45 Team Assignment Checkpoint - Team Assignment 1

Eight teams of five will select a single item or a category to explore. Teams will review their assigned technology and post to the Writely site completing the form provided.

11:15 Team Report Outs

Each team gets 3-4 minutes to share their findings with the others.

12:00 LUNCH

1:00 Team Assignment 2

Teams will be challenged to create an instructional solution using the technology they selected for Assignment 1. Teams will be awarded "best in class" awards for most creative and instructionally sound application.

2:00 Team Demos
3:00 Blogging the Conference
3:15 Wrap up

Ajax Programming

2006-09-07T17:45:00.000-04:00

Rather than a specific program, Ajax is a combination of Web 2.0 effects. The Wikipedia entry identifies it as:

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

The Ajax technique uses a combination of:
XHTML (or HTML) and CSS, for marking up and styling information.
The DOM accessed with a client-side scripting language, especially ECMAScript implementations such as JavaScript and JScript, to dynamically display and interact with the information presented.
The XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously with the web server. In some Ajax frameworks and in certain situations, an IFrame object is used instead of the XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data with the web server.
XML is sometimes used as the format for transferring data between the server and client, although any format will work, including preformatted HTML, plain text, JSON and even EBML. These files may be created dynamically by some form of server-side scripting.
Like DHTML, LAMP and SPA, Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together.

Sample applications:

A Mandarin Chinese language learning site: http://www.china-8.com/
A great list of Ajax applications - growing each week: http://www.ajaxprojects.com/ajax/viewcategory.php?categoryid=8

Blogging

2006-09-07T17:44:00.000-04:00

Web Logs or "blogs" are web pages that are generated with software that commonly puts postings in reverse chronological order. One common software program to create blogs is http://blogger.com - owned by Google.

Sample application:

Journal blog - to collect and present student journal entries

Filter blog - to post a collection of items such as news stories, or as in this case, technologies

Online Learning Update

Google Search for Online Learning

Blog Search at Google

Sample Aggregation into Web Pages

Wikis

2006-09-07T17:43:00.000-04:00

Wiki (meaning "quick" in Hawaiian) is a collaborative document creation web site.

Sample application:

Student projects can be drafted collaboratively online
Faculty can share wiki space to draft co-authored articles

News-Is-Free

2006-09-07T17:42:00.000-04:00

News Is Free: NewsIsFree is an online news reader, RSS Directory and news search engine.
Sample applications:

In classes with current events applications, students may gather relevant news reports and post comments, etc.
Faculty members may track new and emerging developments in their discipline.

RSS - AKA Really Simple Syndication; Rich Site Summary; RDF Site Summary

Google Page Creator

2006-09-07T17:41:00.000-04:00

Google Page Creator: An web-based WYSIWYG web page editor. Google Page Creator allows users with little or no technical knowledge to create a web site.

Sample applications:

Students without web development skills can create effective web pages for class projects.
Faculty members can quickly and easily create web sites for classes and projects.

Google Pack

2006-09-07T17:40:00.000-04:00

Google Pack. This is really a pack of multiple applications from Google. Included are: Google Earth, Google desktop, Picasa, Google toolbar, Google screensaver, Firefox, Ad-Aware, Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe Reader 7, and other optional downloads.

Sample applications:

Having students download Google Pack is one way to assure that they all have the latest updates of these common software tools.

Skype

2006-09-07T17:30:00.000-04:00

Skype. This one of several Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software programs that enables high quality audio computer-to-computer over the Internet.

For Free Skype Services
•Calling landlines and mobiles within the US and Canada
Until the end of 2006 Free
•Calling other people on Skype
•Video calls on Skype
•One-to-one and group chats
•Conference calls with up to 5 people
•Forwarding calls to other Skype names

Paid features
•International calls to landlines and mobiles from $ 0.021 per minute •Receive calls from phones with SkypeIn
•Send and receive voicemails
•Forward calls to phones at Skype
•Send SMS messages from Skype

Sample applications:

Students may conference using Skype. One interesting feature is Skype-out that enables long distance calls to traditional phone numbers in many countries at a rate of less than three cents a minute.
Using utilities such as powergramo http://www.powergramo.com/ , one may record conversations such as interviews over Skype for playback in classes.

Writely

2006-09-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

Writely: A Web site where a group can simultaneously or asynchronously edit a document using an interface similar to Microsoft Word. Writely supports text and images but not video. This is a sort of "super-wiki" in which WYSIWYG editing is supported. Owned by Google.

Writely serves as the document sharing site but it is recommended that you save the Writely files to your desktop as well.

Sample applications:

Students can work on group reports together - either synchronously or asynchronously.
Faculty members can collaborate with others to author research articles.

LionShare

2006-09-07T17:26:00.001-04:00

LionShare is a secure P2P file sharing application for higher education, enabling legal file sharing for Penn State university and beyond. Find and share legal academic content in a secure P2P environment. LionShare 1.1 is available for download now.

WetPaint

2006-09-07T17:26:00.000-04:00

WetPaint. Much like Writely (below) WetPaint is a WYSIWYG wiki site. Wetpaint sites are "click-and-type" websites that are easy to start and even easier to expand, because you can invite anyone you like to add text, photos, links, and other content to your Wetpaint site. To add or edit content, all you need to do is click the EasyEdit button to activate an editing toolbar similar to what you'd see in programs like Microsoft Word.

Sample Applications:

A large number of non-profit sites have begun using WetPaint to create their Web pages, such as WikiFido and WikiCancer. Other such sites might be created for university units.
Students might use WetPaint to create group project Web sites.

ProfCast

2006-09-07T17:25:00.001-04:00

ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures including PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast provides a low cost solution for recording and distributing lectures, special events, and presentations as podcasts. ProfCast offers an integrated workflow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy. It's as simple as Launch, Load, and Lecture!

Sample applications:
Faculty/instructor may use voice annotaed Powerpoints to deliver content. This tool has a low-entry barrier that makes it work well for faculty sitting at their computer.

Gliffy

2006-09-07T17:25:00.000-04:00

Gliffy: An online Flash application where a group can collaboratively develop flow charts, interface designs, office layouts, network diagrams, and other symbolic diagrams.

Sample application:

Students working together on group projects can develop flow charts of the process.
Faculty members may develop charts describing connections among concepts in coursework.

Flicker

2006-09-07T17:24:00.000-04:00

Flicker. This is an online program that enables you to store, search, sort and display photos online. Very powerful image database adn tagging system. For free (limited accoount) and "pro" accounts for fee.

Sample applications:

Students may put up photos that are relevant to the class and display them for their peers.
Faculty members may create virtual slide shows and invite students to see the slides that may be relevant to the class.

Podcasting

2006-09-07T16:40:00.000-04:00

A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term, as originally coined by Ben Hammersley in an article in the Guardian February 12, 2004 [1], was meant as a portmanteau of "broadcasting" and "iPod".[2] Like 'radio', it can mean both the content and the method of delivery; the latter may also be termed podcasting.

M-learning

2006-09-07T16:35:00.001-04:00

With the advent of true 24x7 anwhere, anytime learning, albeit in a small package, mobile learning has the capacity to create new modalities in distance learning.

What is m-learning? It is the use of smartphone/PDA technologies as a client platform for distance learning.

As a platform, m-learning can bring the voice back to distance learning, just as podcasting has facilitated one-way lecture presentations. Its promise is not only in the portability of internet access, but in its integration of voice and future possibilities of voice-activated course management systems.

Captivate

2006-09-07T16:28:00.000-04:00

Captivate: A tool that records computer screens and mouse clicks to quickly create flash-based demonstration movies and tutorials.

Sample application:

Demonstration of on-computer tasks, from programming to simple use of desktop tools.
Capturing the audio and video of conferences for playback at a later date

Breeze

2006-09-07T16:12:00.000-04:00

Breeze/eLive: A synchronous desktop Web-based video conferencing tool that enables online presentation, chat, video, polling, application sharing, and storage for on-demand viewing.

Sample application:

Live or recorded introduction to a class by the instructor
Live or recorded student individual or group presentation

Elluminate

2006-09-07T16:11:00.000-04:00

Elluminate Live!® Academic Edition™is a real-time virtual classroom environment designed for distance education and collaboration in academic institutions. Use Academic Edition to extend the physical boundaries of your traditional classroom or to add live discussion and dynamic interaction beyond asynchronous distance learning.

Second Life

2006-09-07T16:03:00.000-04:00

Second Life: A free online 3D world where users create customized avatars and interact with collaboratively constructed objects and environments.

Sample applications:

Faculty members can create simulations for classes.
Students can create social environments in which to interact with other students.