December 2015 archive

improvements in social media tools

New features in social media tools

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-improves-how-photos-are-displayed-social-media-news

Twitter Improves How Photos Are Displayed

Twitter is “making your twitter.com timeline more immersive by uncropping photos, so you can experience and present them as they were meant to be viewed.”

Facebook Provides New Admin Tools for Managing Page Communication: Facebook is “giving admins more control over their Page’s responsiveness badge” and rolling out “new features that make it easier than ever for Page admins to manage both the public and private interactions they receive.”

Facebook Improves News Feed for Slower Network Connections: “You can also now compose comments on posts when you are offline. The comments will appear to your friends when you next get a good internet connection.”

YouTube Unveils New Trending Tab: This new tab in the YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to Android, iOS and desktop devices.

Google Introduces Shared Albums in Google Photos: Google has introduced shared albums in Google Photos

BYOD and education

BYOD (BOYE) in the Classroom: Necessary or Nice?

http://www.middleweb.com/26605/byod-in-the-classroom-necessary-or-nice/

► Does the technology accommodate and differentiate for all learners’ needs?
► Are students provided both voice and choice with technology, thereby increasing ownership and engagement?
► Are there opportunities for students to engage in peer feedback and collaborative work?

Having students bring their own devices to school is not a panacea for all the challenges in the secondary classroom. Yet if it is planned with thoughtfulness and intention, we have seen BYOD increase student engagement and relevance while reducing costs for the school. The best part: Teachers and students can be creative and autonomous in how this looks in classrooms.

More on BYOD in this IMS blog:

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/12/08/millennials-and-mobile-phones/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/11/24/ifttt/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/11/23/educational-technology-and-faculty-development/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/10/28/k-12-technology/

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/09/21/byoe/

drones

What You Should Know Before You Test The Holiday’s ‘Flyest’ Gift

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/12/12/459456519/what-you-should-know-before-you-test-the-holiday-s-flyest-gift

  • You can’t fly within five miles of an airport without special permission.
  • You’re not allowed to fly in heavily populated areas or over sports stadiums.
  • You can only fly at altitudes of 400 feet or less.
  • And you can’t fly in D.C., because someone crashed a drone on the White House lawn.

convocation winter 2016

Short link the information below on the IMS blog: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?p=4441 and even shorter one: http://scsu.mn/1RsQErr

Weds 6th

Session I 10-11:15         Voyageurs North (Atwood)

Title
Engage your students: connect CMS (D2L) to social media to enhance the learning process.

Plamen Miltenoff and Emil Towner

Join us online via Adobe Connect: http://scsuconnect.stcloudstate.edu/ims (please login as a “guest” and use your real name)

Outline

In this rapid succession of examples, one can experience a showcase how to enhance students’ engagement by modernizing D2L experience through connection with social media. Bring your own examples and participate in a discussion, which aims finding the right tools for your class and field of study.

Audience:
beginners to advanced

Prerequisite:
come with your own social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine

Outcomes:

By the end of this session, the participants will have an idea about peculiarity of each of the social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine

By the end of the session, the participants will be familiar with the integration of each of the social media tool into D2L

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to asses to what extent each particular tool fits their field of study

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to compare the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of the social media tools compared to D2L

Useful links to contact us via social media:
IMS blog: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims
IMS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InforMediaServices?ref=hl
IMS Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCSUtechinstruc
IMS Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/scsutechnology/
IMS Instagram: http://instagram.com/scsutechinstruct
IMS YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_UMIE5r6YB8KzTF5nZJFyA
IMS Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115966710162153290760/posts/p/pub
IMS LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scsuinstructionaltechnology

Plan – Plamen Miltenoff:

 Please consider the following survey about your opinion regarding social media in education:

*http://aidemoreto.polldaddy.com/s/social-media-in-education*
please have the short link: http://scsu.mn/1Z8EFFx

most recent contemplations about blogs and social media in general:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/01/01/4507/

  • D2L and Vine
    Vine is a social media services, which provides the ability to share 7 sec videos. Vine is becoming more popular then Instagram (15 sec videos), with the simplicity to create short videos. Students can take sequence of short videos, which amount to 7 sec to reflect the main points of a project. E.g.: chemical reaction, biology dissection, progress of engineering planning, solving a math formula.
    URL to the vine can be posted in the D2L discussion area for further collaborative effort or for peers’ and instructions evaluation
    Vines are a click away from a FB group page or, with the right handle and hashtag, to a Twitter discussion
    The bottom-line to evaluate if fitting your field of study is: can the content be narrated or is it much better if visualized. If the latter, Vine can be your salvation.
    How to Create Social Videos With Your Smartphone https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/01/10/social-videos-with-your-smartphone/
  • D2L and YouTube, EdPuzzle (https://edpuzzle.com/), etc
    YouTube Unveils New Trending Tab
    https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/12/13/improvements-in-social-media-tools/

    Per SCSU IT disclaimer: MediaSpace (Kaltura) is a free, cloud-based video repository solution for campus that allows faculty and staff to upload and distribute video and audio content for academic or administrative purposes. Facilitators will discuss potential uses of MediaSpace for campus, demonst rate how to create Webcam and screen recordings, upload audio/video, and embed or link to MediaSpace content from D2L or a web site.  YouTube is owned by Google and the integration, including statistics and analytics by Google are way beyond MediaSpace. The only selling point of MediaSpace is the FERPA requirement by MnSCU to host privacy data on a MnSCU owned server
  • Google+
    Google+ is indirect competition with any CMS, D2L included, with its GOogle Classroom platform (https://classroom.google.com/ineligible). K12 and higher institutions are outsourcing to GMAIL and with Google Hangouts (Skype also), one can share video, audio and desktops, which makes Adobe Connect + D2L way behind in integration even before Google Drive is mentioned.
    Google Introduces Shared Albums in Google Photos:
    https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/12/13/improvements-in-social-media-tools/
    8 Ways to Use Google+ Hangouts for Your Business https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/09/23/google-hangouts/You can record hangouts directly to your YouTube channel for future use.For private Google+ Hangouts, choose Google+ Video Hangouts, which allow you to have up to 10 participants in a video chat that is accessible only to the people invited.

Plan – Emil Towner:

  1. General stats on integrating social media and things to consider
  1. Integrating LinkedIn Assignments
  1. Integrating Facebook Groups
  • I will show a couple of groups that I have used
  • I can also come up with an “exercise” that participants can do, just let me know: (1) if you want me to and (2) if participants are suppose to have a Facebook account that they can log into during the session

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Session K 2-3:15: 2PM Wed, Jan 8.  Location: CH455

Title
Engage your students: gaming and gamification in the learning process.

Outline

As part of the broader discussion, a short discussion segment to form and agree on definitions and terms regarding games and gamification. Another short segment to seek consensus if this SCSU campus is ready to departure on the path of gamifying education. After several examples, of how games are used in education and gamification techniques, a discussion on how gaming and gamification can be streamlined amidst shrinking budget and increasing workload. More details and information about gaming and gamification at: http://scsu.mn/1F008Re

Audience:
beginners to advanced

Outcomes:

By the end of this session, the participants will have a working definitions on play, games, serious games, game-based learning, digital game-based learning, gaming, gamification and badges. (more at http://scsu.mn/1F008Re)

By the end of the session, the participants will be familiar with the possibilities for integration of games in the educational process and for gamification of the educational process.

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to asses to what extent games and gamification fit their field of study

Plan:

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Friday 8th

Session M 10-11:15: CH 455

Title
Present and be presented: engage your students with modern ways to share information

Outline

Two trends plague education: the swamp of PowerPoint presentations and the lack of visual literacy. In this rapid succession of examples, one can experience a showcase of various cloud-based tools, which brings visual presentations way beyond PowerPoint and align with the Millennials demand for current social interaction. A discussion on how relevant these tools are to various disciplines and details on improving the interaction among instructors and students during the presentation. Ongoing discussion about design as part of visual literacy and the difference between blended learning and technology integration.

Audience:
beginners to advanced

Outcomes:

By the end of this session, the participants will have understand the movement “Death by PowerPoint” and will understand the advantage of cloud-based presentation tools to MS PowerPoint

By the end of the session, the participants will be familiar with several tools, which successfully replace PowerPoint and well beyond.

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to asses to what extent games and gamification fit their field of study

By the end of the session, the participants will be able to discriminate between technology integration and blended learning.

Plan:

 

NCLB is dead

New Education Law Passes, With A Power Shift Back To The States

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/12/09/459067407/the-new-education-law-passes-with-a-power-shift-back-to-the-states

The new version — called the Every Student Succeeds Act — returns much government oversight of schools to the states and curtails or eliminates the federal role in many areas. Critics of NCLB are celebrating its demise.

Critics say there’s no guarantee that states will succeed where the old law failed in two crucial areas: closing the achievement gap and raising the performance of the absolute worst schools.

“The real test is going to be whether there is the political will to take data and turn it into action versus just reporting what they’ve been reporting for the last 15 years,” Wise says.

Austin Ouellette

For heavens sake, there are countries that are getting education right. Why can’t we just look at what they are doing and tailor those methods to suit our needs? Japan, Australia, Norway, Finland, France, Germany are all countries that have some very impressive education systems that WORK!

Americans really need to wake up!

MUSM123

Guide for taking your multimedia quiz online.

Your Listening Exam IV: American Music, and World Music consists of matching questions:
you need to match an audio file, which you will be listening to, with the matching name of the music file. 

After you open your browser, login in D2L.
Find your MUSM123 D2L course and go to Assessment / Quizzes.

Start the Listening Exam IV: American Music, and World Music quiz. 

You might be required to allow the audio clips to play on your computer, If this is the case, following the directions of the pop up window. Choose the option “Allow and remember,” if there is such.

You will know that you have accomplished the task, when you see on your window an audio bar, where you can hit the Play button.

The list, where you can log in your answers, is on the left hand-side of the audio clips. Scroll down to reach it:

MediaSpace

MediaSpace

Competency Based Programs

Learning Unbound: Student Centered and Competency Based Programs

Thursday, December 17, 2 PM ET

Core tenets of student-centered learning – competency-based, anytime-anywhere, personalized, and student ownership – can be used as the basis for creating customized learning plans that match the interests, talents, and passions of students. During this session, attendees will learn how a new model at New Hampshire’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) provides students with an almost limitless number of opportunities, including early college courses, experiential learning, learning through projects, and with a team of peers.

Bring your questions and join us to learn more!

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