VideointerAktiv Blog

While it is certain that there is a technology presence on all campuses, further investigation suggests that faculty use of teaching with technology is far from a universal phenomenon. Anecdotal reports from staff tell of low turnouts among faculty who claim that they have no time to invest in learning the necessary skills despite expensive infrastructure and outreach efforts on the part of support staff. In assessing the factors that have contributed to the gap between educational technology resources and their implementation, Sharon Kopyc argues that institutions will need to adopt a diverse, flexible range of strategies to foster more widespread faculty use of technology in their work. In addition to faculty workshops and technology committees, Kopyc illustrates further strategies that institutions should consider: faculty-led teaching forums, technology fellowships that provide release time as well as structured support, and just-in-time training options that accomodate the time constraints, individual needs, and personal preferences of faculty members throughout the institution. By avoiding a “one size fits all” approach to faculty development, Kopyc argues, institutions will have significantly greater success in realizing the educational potential of their technological infrastructure

Via Innovate Online, link.

Describing the results of an e-portfolio contest and attendant research conducted at the University of Washington (UW), Cara Lane discusses student attitudes toward e-portfolios and argues for the usefulness of e-portfolios as a means for students to develop professional and academic presentation skills as well as basic technology skills. Lane suggests that when students are oriented to the differences between social and professional online spaces, given creative control of their e-portfolios, and provided the technical tools with which to work, they can find the most effective way to utilize multimedia development strategies for their own distinctive career goals. After addressing these points, Lane advocates the integration of e-portfolios in the higher education curriculum, illustrates the ways in which this integration has taken place at UW, and outlines some fundamental principles that should inform e-portfolio pedagogy for academic institutions seeking to take this step in their own programs.

Via Innovate Online, link.

In this article, Judith V. Boettcher provides ten core learning principles that can guide technology-enhanced teaching as well as more traditional forms of instruction. Drawn from both traditional pedagogical theory as well as current research about how people learn, the ten principles integrate these findings in a helpful set of guidelines that give emphasis to issues of instructional design. Boettcher first presents a fourfold framework that delineates the respective roles of the learner, the faculty-mentor, the knowledge and content of instruction, and the environment in which learning occurs. Subsequent principles then provide more focused treatment of these four elements while highlighting further pedagogical concepts that should inform course design, teaching practice, and assessment measures. In discussing these principles, Boettcher suggests ways in which online technology can help educators create learning environments that respect the individual needs of students, foster collaboration, and promote deeper, sustained levels of engagement with the course content.

Via Innovate Online, link.

Editor-in-Chief James L. Morrison interviews Scott Howell, the co-editor of a three-volume book series entitled Online Assessment and Measurement that was published in 2006 by IDEA Group. In discussing his own research, Howell first highlights the value of test blueprints as a valuable tool for ensuring an effective alignment of assessment methodology with instructional content and course design. In turn, Howell addresses how the changes associated with new technologies in the 21st-century classroom have further deepened the gap between teaching practice and testing practice. To address this problem, Howell argues that assessment strategies should draw upon the same multimedia technologies that already inform innovative teaching methods while maintaining that such technology-enhanced assessment should remain structured and focused on clearly defined learning outcomes. As Howell explains why educators should align their means of assessment with the presentation of instructional content, he also identifies some of the challenges, obstacles, and institutional constraints that must be overcome in order to ensure the best fit between the way we teach and the way we test.

Via Innovate Online, link.

Institutions of higher education are constantly examining new ways of using technology to teach students. Just as importantly, those institutions are also finding new ways to use technology and the Internet to keep and develop connections with alumni and parents. What new opportunities does this technology offer, how can it be used effectively, and what implications does it have for the future of alumni relations work in the broader context of education? Holly Peterson touches on these points as she details the process World Learning undertook to find and implement an online alumni community in 2004.

Via Innovate Online, link.

As the Net Generation places increasingly greater demands on educators, students and teachers must jointly consider innovative ways of teaching and learning. In this, educators are supported by the fact that the Net Generation wants to learn. However, these same educators should not fail to realize that this generation learns differently from previous generations. Kassandra Barnes, Raymond Marateo, and S. Pixy Ferris offer some defining characteristics of Net Geners’ learning style and then evaluate ways in which educators are adapting teaching in order to guarantee effective learning by a generation of digital natives. The article’s evaluation and advice carries particular resonance as it is written from an insiders’ perspective—by two members of the Net Generation and one educator who enjoys teaching them.

Via Innovate Online, link.

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Hi Folks

I’ve recently been playing around with the latest Windows Vista Beta release candidate and have been pretty much apalled by the painful user experienece. It looks nice and shiny, if you’ve a computer up to its high demands, but that’s as much as I could positively say about it. In fact there’s lots of negative things I could say about it but I’ll try to keep on topic and not list them here (okay, I said I’ll try, but here’s a prime example - try deleting a shortcut in Windows Vista that take seven steps!!)

Anyway, how does this all relate to video? Well, we’ve all grown accustomed to using Movie Maker which ships with windows to make video when all we want is something minimalist on the feature set but quick and easy to use its great. Well, I installed Vista on one of my laptops that I use for our workshops - the laptops are pretty average (1G of Ram, decent cpu, intel onboard graphics) which is fine for Movie Maker on XP, but apparently not for Vista. As soon as I started Movie Maker on Vista, I got an error message saying that the minimum spec hadn’t been met and the application, rather unhelpfully, quit!

The moral of the story - don’t fix it if it ain’t broke! If your windows PC runs XP just fine and does everything you want then Vista might be an upgrade too far. Trial it on a spare machine and see how things go… I bet you’ll be regretting leaving XP behind…

Ross

You can find an easy tool for editing and sharing your videos at http://www.onetruemedia.com/

It seems a powerful tool for our teachers and students. Why don’t you try to create a video presentation?

I have created the following VideoAktiv presentation just in five minutes! Click on the image to see it!

VideoAktiv-project

Xabier

Just back from the eStream conference in Patras. eStream is another Minerva project, running in parallel with VideoAktiv. I gave the opening keynote under the VideoAktiv banner and took part in a panel session the following day. The presentation was a version of the Top 10 I’d developed with Helle Meldgaard for Online Educa last year which proposes that with video/audio the more student involvement the better the learning experience. This is roughly based on Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience, though I warned that the often-quoted figures were somewhat dubious. Thus the top three of the ten are students designing and shooting their own video, using video for feedback on presentation or performance skills, followed by videoing ‘real events’ in situ. Interestingly the same themes came up several times in the various presentations the following day. The idea that video should be seen as  an educational process as much as a product found an interesting parallel in the panel discussion that the provision of archive resources seemed to be moving from  supply-driven to a demand-driven model. Some of the papers and discussion were streamed (from the main site), but alas doesn’t seem to be working as I write this. However overall a very enjoyable conference, good for networking and generating new ideas (and maybe even new projects!).

Comment posted by
at 6/23/2006 9:46:42 AM

This sounds really interesting… hope you’re coming to DIVERSE 2006