Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Build Your Own University

Laurie Fendrich muses on the composition of Brainstorm: Fendrich University . If you were to create your own university from the ground up, what would it look like?

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Lunch Panel

Fascinating discussion on the future of HE in our state. These are loose thoughts that will be developed further later.

Can we truly have a one-system network of colleges? Can we tear down the silos? If so, how will we do it? Espeically afater ew've been pitted against each other for over 100 years (or even decades)?

Self-paced and service learning? but what about engagement?

is education a right or a privilege?

Self-paced learning is NOT necessarily equivalent with online learning. IT'S JUST NOT, even with its asynchronous. where does this misinformation come from?

How can we get the message out that YES, YOU are college material? And how to we assist in their learning once they get here?

WE SO NEED K-20 INTEGRATION!

Interlude: Albino Deer

My brother was able to get these pictures of an albino deer near his house in southern Virginia.


Here she comes!

Note the normal colored deer next to her for contrast.

On this one you can see the pink eyes.

Creating the BEST Online Course Ever

From Miami University:

Online courses: how to encourage interactivity with new (often cheap or free ) tools.

The approach they're taking is that they are addressing problems with the technology, not finding a problem for the tech. to address. That's an important distinction.

Hey, here's a concept: poll your online students to see what kind of access they have!! 85% have high speed access in home. We could use SurveyMonkey for this.....I should encourage the online instructors to do this.

Tutorials for Just in Time learning about embedding YouTube, etc. I really need to start using CamTasia ($299) or CamStudio (opensource and free)for that!! this is for screencapture with audio. Wink (also free) can do this, but the sound seems a bit muddy for me. You can add add callouts, have them click next, etc. On a plus, the Flash files are very small. And you can narrate after you record the screen capture.

LectureScribe (free from Clemson...go Tigers!) for caputuring whiteboard lectures with speech from a tablet or a SmartBoard or a Wacom Tablet.

There is a FREE PDF Maker at Sourceforge: missed the URL but I'll go back and get it later to add it in here.

They are also using HotPotatoes for creating quizzes and interactions. That's the tool that I have always meant to work with and never quite got to it. And I mean ever since grad school!

yet more accolades for google Docs. I just love it!!! And it seems mine is the majority opinion.

Low cost video conferencing: perhaps we should investigate this? Flash Meeting it's freee but you need to create a wiki account on their server. Coolness!!!!!

Monday, March 03, 2008

What the Chancelor said

ODCE Keynote:

Education the most important issue in attractiving new businesses: should tell that to the tax-cut folks!

INitiatives:
  • freeze tuition for 2 yrs.
  • + financial aid
  • Choose Ohio first program (sounds ike Promise for STEM in Ohio)
  • emphasis on research scholars (not a bad idea!)
With great opportunities come great responsibility: we need to fulfill the trust that the state has given us. In shorty, we need to deliver.

Wouldn't' it be great if the need for this conference went away? When we are in the place where we recognize the important of technology as a given. I need to think about this a while to determine whether I agree.

We're not just competing with other states: we're competing with the world.

Is it our job to keep/attract talent here? I think that goes with the career office. But, yes, I think that's part of our job.

Role of privates:
  • help with the meeting of the goals
  • Collaborate with publics (what a concept)
  • Partnerships
We MUST have an integrated tech. infra.
Systems thinking for ALL in the state.

Single purchaser for textbooks? Interesting concept.

Lots about STEM, but where's the focus on language? Heaven knows we need that too!!

GREAT QUESTION: there's a lot of sharing with HEd. What about K12?

How do we prepare K12 kids for college success? Especially in places like Cleveland and other sorely underfunded areas? Perhaps a bridge program? Education for K12 on what's necessary.

And, just as importantly, how do we trumpet what we've done??