Archives for July 2014

#BbWorld14 Trends in Online Learning

Group Photos

Wed, 7/16/14, 9:15-10:00am
Murano 3301

What’s holding you back from growing your online presence? Based on research with hundreds of your peer institutions, this session will explore how the use of collaboration tools, mobility, and more will be changed by shifts in student demands and the fight to attract and retain students. During this session at BbWorld 2014 on July 16, 2014 led by a panel of academic technologists, learn how leading schools are thinking about online learning in the future and what you should be thinking about as part of your long term strategy. (This is based on a webinar held in April of 2014 that was very popular, archive available at http://www.jasonrhode.com/trends-in-online-learning-april-2014)

Accompanying slides are available here.

#BbWorld14 Notes – Opening Keynote by Joi Ito

Presenter: Joi Ito (@Joi), Director of the MIT Media Lab
Date/Time: Tue, July 15, 2014, 3:45 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: Venetian Ballroom

Description: Using his exceptional practical experience and unmatched bird’s eye view of technology, Joi will provide his perspective on what new technologies are just over the horizon and how that they will affect the way education is delivered and received.

Welcoming comments from Jay Bhatt

Jay Bhatt

This is the biggest physical and virtual attendance at any BbWorld (over 2,500 people in person, over 2,000+ teachers and administrators streaming during K-12 live experience)

Over 200 sessions offered during the conference

Notes from Joi Ito

Joi Ito

“Learning is what you do to yourself, education is what others do to you”

“You can learn without a formal system of education”

When you can communicate at nearly no cost, it opens the door for incredibly communication and collaboration

It costs almost 0 to try something new

Creative Learning is About…

  1. Projects
  2. Peers
  3. Passions
  4. Play

The Principles

The Principles Shared by Ito:

  • Resilience over strength
  • Systems over objects
  • Disobedience over compliance
  • Pull over push
  • Compasses over maps
  • Emergence over authority
  • Risk over safety
  • Practice over theory
  • Learning over education

#BbWorld14 2014 Blackboard Exemplary Course Catalyst Award Poster

As a 2014 Blackboard Catalyst Exemplary Course Award Winner, I’ve prepared this poster presentation to share at BbWorld14 on Tuesday, July 17th from 5:00pm-7:00pm in the Exhibit Hall. Stop by then and/or feel free to tweet me any questions you might have.

2014 Exemplary Course PosterTo enlarge, click poster image above

For more details about my award-winning course, see the 6-minute course tour as well as detailed overview I previously shared. I have also made the entire course available to self-enroll and/or download as OER package, available at http://coursesites.com/s/_ett510ecp.

For more details about Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Program, visit blackboard.com/ecp

#BbWorld14 Being Present and Engaging Students Online Using Blackboard Video Anywhere

Engaging Students Online Using Blackboard Video Everywhere

Tue, 7/15/14, 2:45-3:30pm
Murano 3304

During this session at the BbWorld 2014, Learn about one instructor’s use of YouTube’s free and easy-to-use features incorporated in Blackboard for recording, editing, captioning, and embedding video into his online course. An overview of the steps for recording, editing, captioning, video in YouTube will be provided as well as examples shared for various approaches for seamlessly incorporating video into any online course. A summary of feedback survey results from students regarding their experiences with video in the course will be shared as well as lessons learned by the instructor for those wishing to follow the same suggested steps for incorporating video in their own course. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout the session and see first-hand a demo by the instructor of how the video was seamlessly incorporated into Blackboard Learn. Accompanying slides are available here and links included in slides shared below.

Resource Links

#BbWorld14 Notes – Be a Better Online Teacher

Paul presenting to audiencePresenter: Paul Beaudoin, Online Learning Specialist, Fitchburg State University
Date/Time: Tue, July 15, 2014, 1:45 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: Murano 3304

Description: It doesn’t take long to discover that teaching in the blended or online learning environment is not a direct transfer of the traditional face-to-face class. The challenges of online learning often require a different set of skills and there is no single sure-shot way of solving those challenges. In this presentation, Exemplary Course award winner Dr. Paul Beaudoin shares five key class room tested strategies. Whether you are looking to flip your classroom or are ready to launch your MOOC, these five tips will improve your teaching efficacy and enhance the classroom experience for your learners.

5 Key Classroom Tested Strategies

1. Maximize Your Digital Savy

  • Know your LMS – find out what is in your Blackboard platform. Your institution may have other products like Respondus LockDown Browser or TurnItIn
  • Know what your text editor can do – Inserting links, images, tables, etc. into your content you add
  • Going outside the LMS – examples: Timetoast, Voki, Jing, Go2Web20.net

2. Be an Active and Engaged Participant

  • Use learner’s name in your text responses to students
  • Use discussions and group wiki activities to
  • Check learners’ activity in content areas in Blackboard

3. Reinvent Your Wheel

  • Try using Wordle for students to help focus vocabulary building in your class
  • Try role-playing online
  • Try using Toondoo to creating visual story on concepts
  • Try using Twitter

4. Include Your Learners in the Process

  • Have learners make a commitments to themselves and the course. Paul recommends having students post their commitment publicly to a discussion board.
  • Have learners create study material to share with each other. Example: study blue.com
  • Survey students during the course to gain information on how you can improve the course, during the course

5. Reassess Assessment

  • Low stakes activities are great for building learner confidence (example: jigsaw puzzle)
  • Add images and audio to assessment questions
  • Consider mind mapping tools like mind-mup
  • Have learners create info graphics using tools like Glogster
  • Allow learners to create a digital story as an alternative to traditional paper

Remember – it’s ok to fail! Failure is an integral part of success. More resources from Paul available here.