Design and development projects from the College of Lake County web team

About the Conference

The College of Lake County hosted a conference, “Integrating New Technologies in the Classroom: A Conference for Faculty.” Dr. Rich Haney, Vice President Educational Affairs, introduced the keynote speaker as an “awesome guy.” Sure enough, he was awesome. Why was he awesome?

1) He incorporated clips from “The Office” and “The Hangover”
2) His pacing was excellent.. He used an iPad as a timer, went off every 15 minutes
3) He kept it casual, open discussions and Q&A throughout the presentation
4) He shared actual examples of how educators integrate technologies in their classroom…

Affinity spaces: Where informal learning takes place

Jeff Kissinger, Chief Learning Solutions Architect
“In the age of beta: change is the constant.”

Here is how educators use…

Twitter

• Share interesting articles
• Post questions of the day
• Communicate with current and prospective students
• Set up the feed to update Blackboard (for class discussion)…
• …And to update the blog (for future students).

Second Life

A 3D virtual world for socializing, connecting and creating

• Practice Foreign Languages
  Have conversations with students from other countries.
• Go Beyond the Book
  Read the book, write the paper… build the environment.
• Teach Social Skills
  Create a place for people with autism to practice social skills.
• Get Involved
  Attend virtual conferences and book discussions.

Facebook

• Create a private group to communicate with a class and provide resources
• Create a fan page to promote a program and spark ideas
• Understand the privacy policy

Tools for Faculty

• Create Courses Collaboratively
  SIRIUS: A consortium of colleges and universities who develop highly creative, interactive, low-cost courses and instructional materials delivered in all modes (classroom, hybrid and online).
• Electronic Textbooks
  Go paperless, mobile, affordable and eco-friendly.
  MyScribe: Digital Textbook Solutions
  E-Book Readers: Sony, Kindle, iPad
• Open Source Course Management System
  Moodle: A free web application that educators can use to create online or hybrid courses.
  Mobile Moodle: Mobile learning scenarios with Moodle as a backend.

Technology Trends in Higher Education

Suzanne Kissel, SunGard Consultant

Video: “A Vision of Students Today“
This video was created by Dr. Michael Wesch and 200 KSU students.

Interesting stats:

• 18% of my teachers know my name.
• I will read 8 books this year.. 2300 web pages.. and 1281 facebook profiles.
• I will write 42 pages for class this semester.. And over 500 pages of email.

iTunes U and Mobile Learning for Higher Ed

Jason Beckham, Apple in Education

Interesting Stats

How many college students use a smartphone?

• 2007 – 12.1%
• 2009 – 51.2%

If the college had a mobile site or app, what would they want to do with it?

• Email (63%)
• Grades/Registration (47%)
• Courses/Learning Management (46%)

Colleges Going Mobile

• ACU Connected: Mobile Learning Initiative
  ACU distributed Apple iPhones and iPod touches to the incoming freshman class, allowing to explore a new vision for mobile learning.
• OSU: Mobile Learning Activities
  Instructors integrate effective mobile learning activities into their teaching.
• UI Mobile: Tools for Students on the Go
  Laundry Widget – Students can check if there are open machines in the Residence Hall.
• Texas A&M Mobile
  On a computer? See what the actual mobile version looks like.

Apps for Mobile Learning

• Flash Cards for Learning Anatomy
• Earn Continuing Medical Education (CME) Credits
• Organize Assignments, Courses and Teachers
• Interactive Polling Questions/Responses
• Practice Tests and Video Solutions for Algebra
• Read Books, Magazines or Newspapers
• Shoot, Edit and Publish Video

iTunes U: An Innovative Way to
Distribute Educational Content

iTunes U includes everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audiobooks to tours. Over 600 universities have iTunes U sites. Here are a couple examples:

• Duke
• MIT

iTunes U: Top Ten
1. Intensive English
2. The art of asking the right question, not the science of giving the right answer
3. Intro to Mac OS X, Cocoa Touch, Objective-C and Tools
View all ten

What am I Missing?

I was able to attend THREE presentations. There were SIX MORE!

Presentations I missed:

• Effective Practices for Hybrid/Blended Courses,
  Ms Deepa Godambe, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Harper College
• Using Communities to Enhance Instruction,
  Jeff Varblow, CLC Accounting Instructor
• Delicious Research: Social Bookmarking and how it can Work for You,
  Jim LeFager, CLC Faculty Librarian
• Creating Course Content with Jing,
  Scott Rial, Director/Active Learning Technologies
• Lecture Capture: Taking Classroom Lectures Anywhere,
  Russ Pearson, Coordinator of Course Management Systems and Training
• The Power of YouTube,
  Ken Kikuchi, Psychology Instructor
  Page Wolf, Coordinator of Faculty Development

Did you go to to the conference? If so, what gold nuggets did I miss? Please share…