TLP Blog

“While there are still some educators who dispute the importance of technology in the classroom, there is no dispute over the fact that technology is here to stay in schools. Whether you are one of those tech-savvy teachers who can’t get enough of technology news and ideas or you are a teacher just learning to embrace technology in the classroom, these blogs offer a wealth of information straight from teachers and other professionals in the education field themselves.”

This blog lists some excellent resources ranging from Technology in Education to Special Education and Assistive Technology. This resource can be found at: Online Courses.org

In an August 31st article by Marc Parry in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the author writes about faculty opinions and beliefs about online education as captured by the Sloan National Commission on Online Learning. “The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences With Online Learning,” is part of a two-volume national study recently released by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Parry uses this study as the basis for his article.

If you would like to read more about this national study and its results, please go to:
The article by Marc Parry:
http://chronicle.com/article/Professors-Embrace-Online/48235

and the study:
http://www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=282

Here is a copy of the presentation Cris Guenter and I will be using for the MERLOT conference. This presentation will be given in San Jose, CA and in Second Life at 1:30pm. SLT.

Recently I read an article that stated the number one complaint of students taking online classes is the lack of instructor feedback. Of all student complaints, I have to say this one is worth special attention. Feedback is something we need in order to become better. Whether it is on a personal level when you ask someone how your cooking tastes, or on a professional level when you read your annual review, feedback helps to shape our processes and actions.

In the article, Overcoming the #1 Complaint of Online Students: Poor Instructor Feedback by Errol Sull in Distance Learning, Online Education, the author describes surveying 300 students who overwhelmingly state that poor feedback from their instructors is a major concern. I have listed his ideas below and with each, give my take on it and where in Vista instructors can address this concern.
(more…)

If you need a break from your first life, consider Second Life!

an excerpt of a blog post by Cris Guenter, CSU Chico faculty and MERLOT member

Second Life (SL), a 3D virtual world that is created by its millions of residents from around the world, is providing ever-engaging opportunities and situations for educators and their students. There will be two 3-hour preconference hands-on sessions at MIC ‘09 (Thursday, August 13) to provide attendees with skill development and educational use in SL. Ann Steckel and I, representing California State University, Chico, will conduct these sessions inworld as our avatars, Olivia Hotshot and Friday Karu respectively, and as our face-to-face, good-natured selves in real life.

To Read More of Cris Guenter’s blog post …

http://merlotconf.wordpress.com/

View the presentation in full with speaker comments

Watch this slide show to see the relationship between higher ed and new forms of social media.

• 10 people can edit a Presentation at the same time.
• 50 people can edit a Spreadsheet simultaneously.
• 10 people can edit a Document at the same time.
• There is a limit of 200 combined viewers/ collaborators for all of the different Doc types.

The next SL Education Roundtable  (SLER), will take place
on Tuesday, May 12, at 2:30pm SLT *at the CHSSSouth Amphitheater, on
Montclair State CHSSSouth.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSSSouth/129/158/22
and will focus on students in SL.

Margaret Michalski has coordinated with a few students to join the group to talk
about their experience in SL.

If you are on Facebook, please join the SLER group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44078263753&ref=share

Be sure to check SLER on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sler/

Transcripts of meeting from 11/25/08 to present:
http://homepage.mac.com/jessid/slroundtable/090414.html

Transcripts of meetings priort to 11/25/08:
http://sler-transcripts.wikispaces.com/

*UPCOMING SCHEDULE* (subject to change) with all meeting starting at 2:30 SLT

- May 19th – Administering your Second Life
- May 26th – Future Guest and Meeting Planning
- *June 2nd – SPECIAL INTERVIEW. “Our Engaged is Not Their Engaged: The
Myth of Undivided Attention” with special guest Harry Pence (SL: John2
Kepler) Emeritus Distinguished Teaching Professor of Chemisty at SUNY
Oneonta*
- June 9th – Increasing our Ranks
- June 16th – Virtual Worlds other than Second Life
- June 23rd – Are we our Avatars?
- June 30th – International Perspectives
- July 7th – SPECIAL. TBA
- July 14th – Dealing with Non-Virtual Worlds Issues.

Recently I stumbled upon Chartle, another creative app worthy of mention in the blog. This simple and free (two adjectives I love!) allows users to create anything from a interactive map to a 3D pie chart using personalized data. Once created, the images and interactive charts are available to use in all sorts of manners. You may use them in your blog, business reports, print them in brochures and embed them into web pages.  No registration is required, and users can save images directly to the desktop.

I highly  recommend that you take a look or create a chart of your own.

http://www.chartle.net/