Today’s Apps: Maps and Navigation

I think about apps as belonging to one of two categories: 1) apps that have pre-packaged content that you can read or play with, and 2) apps that are designed to let you create, manipulate, capture or collect your own content. The world of maps and navigation apps contains both.

For simple consumption (look at a map of the world, take a map quiz, etc.) the number of map, geography and navigation apps is daunting. Here are a few examples:

HistoryMaps (Free) A collection of maps of historical sites and events.
National Geographic World Atlas ($1.99) As beautiful as you would expect it to be.
WorldMap (Free) A decent  map of the world but annoying in it’s determination to make you buy the pay version.
TapQuizMap (Free) A geography game: it tells you the state or country, you tap the map where it belongs.
There are plenty more kids/games types here:
http://bestappsforkids.com/2012/02/readers-choice-best-geography-apps-for-kids/

Of even greater interest to me, and to anyone who wants to create and work with place-based information, or locative data, are the apps that let you create new information. Place-based projects offer students some interesting approaches and dimensions to a variety of topics. For example, PLACE (Place-based Landscape Analysis and Community Education) Program provides local residents with a forum for exploring and understanding the natural and cultural history of their town landscape. You can build a place-based journey complete with informational markers as this class did for the novel Candide. Other examples of how mixing locative data and other online data to create compelling educational experiences can be found at the ARIS site.

Here are some apps that will help you get started:

  • MyMaps  ($1.99)  The closest thing to real Google Earth. You can add markers, lines, or shapes to any map using a variety of icons. In addition to the geolocation information the markers can be titled and include a description. In the description box you can use your iPad’s camera to take a photo. You can also add links to external web sites. The standard views are satellite and generic map but you can turn on a special Google overlay (provides 45 degreee angle view, and multiple Google layers like Businesses, Wikipedia, Roads, 32 Buildings, etc.  You can also pull in any KML/KMZ site from its URL to open in MyMaps. Save your map, then login to Google Earth or maps.google.com with the same google account and pull your map into Google Earth or Google Maps. You can also export your MyMap as a KML file. And as these are synced with maps.google you can get a URL to link them to your blog, websiet, or Blackboard or other LMS courses.
  • Google Earth  (Free): the “lite” version of the robust full-featured laptop program. This iPad version gives you access to a gallery of Earth tours but, more importantly, allows you to connect to your collection of public maps that you have created at maps.google.com.
  • KMLMapHD ($3.99)(see all kinds of data details about your KMZ/KML maps – haven’t plumbed the depths on this one quite yet)-$3.99
  • KMZ Loader (Free) It seems to open the KML file so you can see all the encoded data but I can’t get it to actually display the map.
  • iMaps+  ($1.99) This app is similar to the Map app that comes with your iPad but it adds a few features like bike routes, traffic lights, and bus route numbers.
    is
  • GPS Toolbox ($2.99) A basic GPS program, the tool box lets you measure in metric as well.  You can create location lists, map them out, and load them in to Google Earth or other GPS devices, find a location relative to another location, find what is located at a given GPS location, directly transfer your data from one device to another, etc.
  • Galileo (Free) Record, save, share your GPS track as you walk or drive it. It will draw your route as you go. It is possible to save the file as a KML file, which can be imported into Google Earth.
  • Field Notes – For use in the field, FieldNotes records your location (latitude/longitude) and let’s you add a name, note, and photos. The $10 upgrade adds the ability to record and attach audio and video files. One nice feature is the ability to refine your location manually. Tap and drag the location pin to exactly where it should be. You can export your notes as a proprietary file, KMZ, text and zip, or as a 1, 2, or 4 photos per page PDF file. They can be uploaded to email, iTunes, DropBox or FTP. (This app does not need wifi/data service to collect and save your notes but you will need it to upload them.)

A related app:

  • GPS Everywhere – A cute app designed for use when driving (well, for use by your passenger if you are driving). It will display speed, compass, average speed, long/lat/alt, time, map, temperature, weather conditions, humidity,and wind. (It doesn’t really belong in this category of “creating” apps but it’s a fun.)
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Today’s App: Swivl

I hesitate to post this one as a “Today’s App” because I have not actually gotten or used it yet. However, it looks like it might be a good solution to a recurring difficulty.

One of the challenges in implementing a Flipped Classroom is video capturing a lecture or demonstration. Yes, you can set your camera on a stand, tripod or table and record your lecture yourself, but that limits you to one small area. If you like to move around, or if you are trying to write on several boards or demo a process, you may end up walking out of the frame. Of course, you could find a cameraperson to film your every move but that turns a process that should be simple, and that can be done at a time convenient to you, into a scheduling nightmare.

swivl.comNow there’s a app for that. Rather, it is a device: Swivl. http://www.swivl.com

Pop your iPhone into the holder, put the lanyard on, and the device swivels the camera to follow the lanyard (it’s infrared). I imagine audio will be a challenge. One solution would be to add the narration later using simple screencasting software. Available for $179. iPhone/iPod Touch now, iPad version coming this fall.

As I said, haven’t tried it yet, but if the funds become available I think this might be a keeper. If anyone else tries it first I’d love to hear your reaction.

Posted in FHM: Flipped, Hybrid, MOOC, iPad/Mobile Learning | Leave a comment

Tech Dim Sum, March 2013

 

icon-uvmwordpress

WordPress Blogs

What? You’re looking at it now! If you have a UVM account you can have a blog. In fact, you can have multiple blogs.
Why? You might want to use blogs for your courses, for posting resources, for posting your own to-do lists or projects. All Blackboard courses can have internal blogs which are private to the course and only available as long as the course space is open. UVM’s WordPress blog is not tied to a specific course and can remain open after the course is over.
Considerations: Students can create their own blogs or sub-blogs, or you can create a sub-blog and add students as authors.

 

icon-bigbluebutton

BigBlueButton

What? Create or participate in online meetings and presentations.
Why? To have multiple people on one space communicate and share presentations.
Where? http://bigbluebutton.uvm.edu

 

Omeka icon

Omeka at UVM

What? UVM-based digital collection and exhibit site.
Why? To pull together digital materials (with metadata) and build an exhibit with narrative.
Where? http://badger.uvm.edu/omeka or you can create individual exhibits at: http://www.omeka.net
Chronicle article: Jeffrey W. McClurken “Teaching with Omeka.
Talk to CTL for more details.

 

icon-dspace

dSpace at UVM

What? A UVM-based digital collection site.
Why? To build an online public/private searchable database of digital objects, usually images.
Where? http://badger.uvm.edu/dspace
Talk to CTL for details.

 

icon-film

UVM MediaManager

What? A utility for UVM affiliates to upload and store videos in their “zoo” accounts, then generate a link or an embed code that can be used to link that video to a website or their Blackboard space.
Why? Video files tend to be large. Uploading a video to Blackboard or other web sites can sometimes be problematic. In addition, Blackboard courses are removed on a fixed schedule. Storing your video resources in your own space ensures that they will be available for reuse at a later date.
How? Login to the site with your UVM NetID. Upload your files, then click the file name to find the link or embed code. Full directions on the site.

 

icon-camtasia

Screencasting

What? Capture whatever occurs on your computer screen and turn it into a video.
Why? To show demos, steps, processes, for example, how to solve a math problem, or add an image to a web page, or use a particular software program. Add a voiceover, even captioning (with Camtasia) or add pauses in the video to add a Quiz (Camtasia for Windows). Do you typically write, draw, or diagram things on the classroom board? Do it on a tablet instead and capture that as a video. For more ideas see: “Screencasts and Education” by Paul McGovern.
Where? Camtasia ($$), Jing (free), Screenr (free), or Screencast-o-matic (free). (Can also use the built-in screen recording feature in Quicktime/Mac.)

 

icon-picmonkey

 PicMonkey

What? A free online image editor that can also make collages and banners.
Why? Because PhotoShop is expensive and more than you often need.
How? Go to the web site, upload your picture(s) and follow the easy prompts and icons. Where can you get copyright-legal images and learn some search tips? Check out the CTL’s “Images, Videos and Audio Resources” page.

 

icon-google-mymaps

Google MyPlaces (was MyMaps)

Why? To pin notes and images to a Google map, then share it.
How? Instructions at Google or at this document from Carleton.
Education Examples:
Literature: mapping a character’s route (sample assignment: Candide Maps)
GEOL197 places mentioned in lecture
CCT335 Technology and the City, assignment:  (additional note: they have put the class materials in Wikispaces, a free wiki tool)

 

icon-pbworks

PBWorks wikis

What? A non-UVM public/private wiki site.
Why? For individual or collaborative web projects that combine text, audio, video.
Another popular wiki hosting site is Wikispaces. Both PBWorks and Wikispaces have a free and a pay version. Check the sites for which features are covered in each.

 

Ning

What? One of many non-UVM web site and social networking sites. Included because several people have asked about it.
Why? If you want a site that is not addressed as “uvm.edu” and that offers social networking plugins and easy design.
Where? http://www.ning.com (small fee for a small site: $2.95/month)

 

icon-xtranormal

xtranormal

What? An application that animates dialog. Write a script, choose your avatars and voices, make a movie. Tell a story, argue two sides of a question, explain a challenging topic succinctly
Why? To make written information auditory and animated. xtranormal gives you and your students a different way to present information. Use for digital storytelling, explaining concepts or policies, explaining processes, expressing contrary opinions, or building an argument.
How? Onscreen prompts help as you create the movie. There are also several tutorials in YouTube.
One idea: Jason B. Jones article “Using Xtranormal Against Straw Men.”

 

 

icon-deliciousicon-diigo

Delicious

or

DIIGO

What? Two completely different sites that do similar things: keep your web bookmarks in a central place that is accessible anywhere, searchable, and shareable.
Why? So you never lose a bookmark again.
How? They both have plug-ins for a variety of browsers that make them “click and go” easy to use.

 

 icon ngram

Google nGram

What? A site where you can compare the frequency of occurrence of words or phrases that appear in the entire Google books corpus.
Why? To follow (and enjoy!) changes in language and the popularity of topics.
How? Type in the words or phrases separated by commas. Narrow the search parameters to see details.

 

zotero icon

  Zotero and Zotero Groups

What? Zotero is a bibliographic management program. Zotero Groups is a space to share bibliographies with others.
Why? To collect, manage, and use (in Word or other word processor) citations and create bibliographies.
Where? http://www.zotero.org, http://www.zotero.org/groups

 

icon-sigil

eBooks

What? Create materials to be read on smartphones, iPads, or even big laptops. There are several apps for this (ex. Sigil).

 

 icon-mindmeister

 MindMeister

What? Concept or mind mapping software for brainstorming ideas and diagramming how they connect.
Why? To provide a graphic visualization of ideas. Can also be used for visualizing project management.
How? Sign up for a free account (limited number of maps) and sync across other mobile devices.

 

 Shared, or Requested, By You!

C-mobile: Officially licensed Craigslist app for iPad/iPhone.

UrbanSpoon: Restaurant reviews. Here’s the Vermont page: http://www.urbanspoon.com/c/315/Vermont-restaurants.html

Switchboard: Online phone book also has reverse lookup and zip codes.

Aroundme: Uses your GPS location to let you know what services are nearby, like hospitals, banks, coffee shops, gas stations, etc.. For iPad or iPhone/Android/Windows phones.

StadiumVIP: Order food at the game, have it delivered to your seat. iPhone/Android/Blackberry. (I haven’t tried it but what a neat idea.)

Sliding Ruler + Tape Measure: Slide the app alongside the item to be measured. Measures in inches or centimeters.

 

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Today’s App: MyScript Calculator

Take an old-fashioned slate tablet (yes, I do mean old-fashioned–a slab of rock glued to a board–you know, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ style), do a little arithmetic problem on it, then cross it with an iPad and what happens? MyScript Calculator.

Somehow the idea of doing handwritten text recognition doesn’t seem that magical anymore. But handwriting a math problem and having it generate the answer? Ok, that just seems much harder.

But click and feast your eyes on this:

IMG_0025

Does basic operations, shares to the usual places. ‘nuf said.

 

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DRAFT: POD Conference Report

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education’s 37th Annual Conference, “Pencils and Pixels: 21st Century Practices in Higher Education” was held October 24-28, 2012, in Seattle, Washington. This conference featured over 130 interactive, roundtable and research sessions, several plenaries, and poster sessions. So, a large conference. Highlights included:

Plenary: Michael Wesch: “The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever”
As one might expect, given his viral videos on student engagement and the impact of the web on education, his presentation was a fluidly choreographed,  inspirational delight of talk and video with such toss offed lines as “In the TV age we talk about critical thinking; in the information age we talk about information literacy.” His emphasis returned again and again to the importance of learning through real-world experience—learning physics instead of learning the game of physics tests, for example. (As did Schneiderman with his “relate/create/donate” ideas of several years ago.) He suggested that the process, the research, and the act of creation was more important than ‘covering’ content, that focusing on groups of students and supporting them in actual practice, in a ‘quest’ as it were, was more effective than focusing on specifying a particular design for an end product.

Emory University iPad Experiments
Emory has several iPad projects whereby they loan iPads with pre-loaded apps to classes. These loans tend to be for six-week periods but not full semester. They work with faculty beforehand to determine what the specific uses will be, what kinds of assignments the students will be doing, how will they design assessments (not complex: essentially will they be taking notes, writing, communicating?). They have one class session dedicated to how to use the iPad, and encourage students to use Evernote and DropBox as a way to keep their data after the project. The session tended to focus on the logistics of how they do this (they have multi-unit carts with a Mac to do the syncing, using Absolute Manager to manage the images which they take from one iPad via iTunes), with insufficient time to discuss specific projects and assessment.

A Roundtable session for Instructional Designers, Faculty Developers and IT Supporters
This ended up being an odd session. It started off with the familiar “post-its on the wall” technique for group work, but it became increasingly clear during the discussions that
a) definitions for the three categories (ID, FD, IT) are hardening, but as is typical of such things
b) those definitions are clearly not identical across institutions and disciplines.
So, some people were adamant that the definitions they were working with were absolute and well-defined in the literature and that other uses were simply a result of sloppy speaking based on ignorance. However, these assertions while they caused some confusion and rolled eyes, were not challenged. Instead the talk devolved into pockets of tangential conversations, discussion of what universities had good job offerings, and a sum-up session that seemed more focused on which table’s representative could speak the longest.

Plenary: Alex Soojun-Kim Pang on “Contemplative Computing and Our Future of Education”
Pang’s long, wandering, but quite engaging talk focused on “distraction addiction” and its impact on education. Playing on the well-known quote that “pain is inevitable but suffering is a choice” he ended the session with “[internet/telecommunications] connection is inevitable but distraction is a choice.” In between was a session that recalled, fondly, those late-night scintillating dorm-room discussions on life, the universe, and everything. The questions that followed ranged from interesting to convoluted thesaurus-busting attempts to out-convolute the speaker. But seriously, it was a fun talk.

Helen Sword on Writing  (who I didn’t realize until after I got to the session that she is the woman responsible for the book/website ‘The Writer’s Diet’) has just published “Stylish Academic Writing.’ The talk was based on the hundreds of interviews she did as the research that went into the book. Many great ideas, charismatic speaker, check the web sites for more information. Think I’ll buy the book.

And my session: Digital Humanities and CTLs: A Logical Partnership
Most surprising were the number of people (about 25) who came to what was, in this conference, a relatively esoteric topic. However, according to attendees, they are actually hearing from more and more faculty with questions about how to integrate digital projects into their classes and are trying to determine the best way to support this. I had framed the talk in terms of “things we have tried that failed” which turned out to mirror the experiences some had already begun to have. Others had begun to consider some of those same approaches and appreciated learning of potential pitfalls and consequences ahead of time. As a nice bonus, Paul Martin was there and willingly added good comments about his CTL experiences at UVM! Here’s the PPT copy of the Keynote file: http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/presentations/2012pod/2012-POD.ppt
The slide show was brief and inserted in the middle was a discussion about DH themes and potential projects. Next I had them log in to my omeka.net space and start to build a collection. This included downloading/uploading some images and adding metadata. (And it actually worked!) We wrapped up with a discussion of how these ideas reflected or might aid their experience at their own institutions.

Of course, this conference was also quite memorable for occurring at the same time that tropical storm Sandy descended on the east coast, rendering the stay in Seattle three days longer than expected due to flight delays–an utterly small inconvenience compared to the disaster that Sandy left in its wake.

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Today’s App: SnapSeed

You may take a perfect picture every time. I sure don’t. I’m happy to have found SnapSeed, a dead simple photo editor. You can do all the things you expect: crop, adjust colors and brightness, sharpen, straighten–and do that all selectively. You can add a frame and various filters (even a vintage filter for you Instagram fans). Cartoon-like overlays show you what to do in each case.

You can Screen Shot 2013-02-11 at 4.02.05 PMthen compare your current view with the previous view before you decide to apply your change.

Once done you can send your image to Google+, Email, Twitter, Facebook, or Open it in any app you have that can use images (including DropBox), or you can save it.

Best of all? The app used to cost $4-5 but is now free!

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MOOCs draft

MOOCs are courses that are:

  • Massive: designed for large-scale participation by dozens or even thousands of
    people.
  • Open: freely available with free access to all course materials.
  • Online: available through any web browser on any mobile device or computer.

As the MOOC model has gained acceptance it continues to be redefined and changed to suit the needs of learners, teachers and institutions.

Currently, MOOCs combine the practice of online education with the ideals of open education and open courseware initiatives. They have gathered increasing attention in the past year[1] as the model has been adopted by such well-known universities as MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley [2]. They have even been blamed for the recent controversy surrounding the departure and subsequent return of the President of the University of Virginia. [3]

Where did MOOCs Come From?

The advent of the web provided new opportunities for proponents of distance education. In addition to the ability to provide course materials and communication opportunities online, the web has allowed for experimentation with new pedagogical approaches. In 1999 the University of Tübingen in Germany made videos of its lectures freely available online. MIT followed suit in 2002 with its publication of course materials through its OpenCourseware initiative [4]. Alongside these initiatives, discussions about Personal Learning Environments, or the more colorfully named Edupunk, combined a reaction against the commercialization of learning with a focus on individually crafting one’s own learning and curriculum. [5]

Giving away course materials for self-learners was one thing. Giving away access to actual taught courses was another, yet that is exactly what David Wiley of Utah State University did in 2007 when he opened his graduate course on, appropriately enough, open education, to anyone who wished to participate. The term MOOC itself, however, came as a result of a course taught by longtime open education advocates George Siemens [6], of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University and Stephen Downes [7], Senior Researcher at The National Research Council (Canada). The course was titled “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” and was offered both to the students at the University of Manitoba who took it for credit and to the over 2,000 students who participated for free. The course content and discussion were made available through a variety of tools such as blogs, threaded discussions using Moodle, virtual encounters in Second Life and synchronous online meetings. As a result of that course, and with a nod to an older interactive and collaborative technology, the MOO, Dave Cormier, Manager of Web Communication and Innovations at the University of Prince Edward Island, coined the term MOOC in 2008 and created the video that defined it.[8]

Cormier, Downes, and Siemans have continued their experiments with MOOCs, offering a number of courses. In 2011 they brought together over 30 facilitators to offer a 35 week MOOC focused on innovations and directions in online education. [9] As of the writing of this post they are offering a MOOC titled Current/Future State of Higher Education (#CFHE12) to explore the impact of the MOOC model. [10]

Who is teaching them? Where are they taught?

There are multiple online courses calling themselves MOOCs. These are currently taking one of two forms, recently labelled by Downes as cMOOCs and xMOOCs.[11] The original MOOC concept envisioned that an instructor would provide information and encourage participants to share their knowledge and experience, connecting with each other in groups and sub-groups based on their particular interests and expertise. They would take the opportunity to peer instruct and even expand upon areas where the instructor may not have extensive knowledge. In other words, much if not most of the learning experience is derived through meaningful interaction with others in the course. This connectivist approach, or cMOOC, makes use of many of the social networking tools now available: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, discussion boards, etc.

xMOOCs, or those served by new start-ups such as EdX, Coursera, Udacity and Udemy [12] are aneffort to formalize the MOOC model. Their service provides the managerial functions necessary for institutions offering MOOCs: account administration, server infrastructure, marketing, etc.

What are the potential benefits of the MOOC model?

MOOCs:

  • can encourage communication among participants who bring a variety of viewpoints, knowledge and skills to the course. This serves to create communities of interest along with broadening the scope of the MOOC.
  • could inspire people to “try on” subjects that they wouldn’t otherwise pursue or even try on education itself.
  • can provide multiple ways to engage with course material, encouraging multimodal learning that can address the needs of learners with a variety of learning styles (i.e. Universal Design for Learning or UDL).
  • by developing for multimodal learners, could inspire better teaching and use of technologies in general for face to face courses.

Yet MOOCs are viewed with trepidation and skepticism by some who see them as reinforcing the worst aspects of teaching. Those that are designed to simply provide droning lectures followed by auto-graded multiple choice tests are, in the words of Said Vaidhyanathan “taking the worst aspects of college learning as the favored methods of college learning.”[13]

And then there are the financial questions. While MOOCs have been and might continue to be used for marketing purposes or to claim cultural capital for those institutions that are the early adopters, there is no doubt they can be expensive to run. They are not yet direct revenue generators. Among many educators that lack of commercial viability is seen as a positive trait, especially for public institutions that, ideally, promote the extension of knowledge as a core value. Those who see commercialism as corrupter are understandably leery of institutions that view MOOCs solely in terms of revenue generation through commercial transactions with students.

Administering several large MOOCs simultaneously has infrastructure implications. Alternatively, outsourcing MOOC administration to any of the several MOOC providers that have sprung up must take into account FERPA policies and the privacy of students.

Among the many questions revolving around the formalization of MOOCs are how faculty will be compensated for teaching them and how universities will credential students taking them.  Currently, xMOOCs generally make a point of offering some form of assessment but we are a long way for any kind of standardization that would allow for MOOC credit to travel easily from institution to institution. Then again, “long” is a relative term. When speaking of the evolution of MOOCs that day may come much sooner than expected. [15]

How can you learn more about them?

A quick look through the notes below, or a search through The Chronicle of Higher Education, Wikipedia, or even generally via Google or YouTube will net you more than a little information on MOOCs. A more experiential way to learn about MOOCs is to take one. Visit the xMOOC providers or follow Siemans’ or Downes’ offerings.

Notes

1. The Chronicle of Higher Education has compiled a timeline of their articles related to MOOCs at “What You Need to Know About MOOCs.”

2. In the May 2012 article “Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses” the New York Times reported that several other universities had jumped on the MOOC bandwagon.

3. While the ouster of President Sullivan was more complex than a simple argument over the adoption of MOOCs, it is interesting to note that almost immediately upon her return to that Office the university signed a deal with Coursera to begin developing MOOCs.

4. Since that time the MIT OpenCourseWare site has continued to be enlarged, reporting 100 million visits by 2010.

5. Educators also see a role for EduPunk and Open Education practices as a counter to the more restrictive and, some would argue, limiting environment of Learning Management Systems like Blackboard, Moodle, etc.

6. This video continues to be the definition of MOOCs as originally conceived, though the term itself is applied to two diverging definitions. In an all too common instance of web irony, and as an example of how quickly the MOOC concept is evolving, this video has been accused of being “inaccurate” by a commenter who apparently did not know Cormier’s role in creating the term.

7. While more formal talks by both George Siemens and David Cormier have been recorded, for a more casual discussion about MOOCs by these founders, see the interview with Martin Weller of the UK’s Open University at http://youtu.be/l1G4SUblnbo.

8. Stephen Downes has been writing and speaking about issues in education for many years. For example, in this 2009 video he describes Open Education. You can also see his brief introduction to the 2011 “Change 2011 MOOC” which provides his take on how that MOOC will work.

9. The “Change 2011 MOOC” is available at http://change.mooc.ca/index.html.10. As of today, it is not too late to join CFHE12 at http://edfuture.mooc.ca/index.html.

11. In an interview with Downes for her July 2012 article (“Massively Open Online Courses Are ‘Here to Stay’“), Tanya Roscorla picked up on his use of the terms xMOOC and cMOOC, so they have now entered the MOOC lexicon. See also the report by Sir John Daniels “Making Sense of MOOCs.”

12. EdX is a joint venture created by MIT and Harvard. Coursera was founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng of Stanford. Three roboticists, Sebastian Thrun, Mike Sokolsky and David Stavens founded Udacity. Udemy was founded by Gagan Biyani, Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar.

13. Quoted from the webinar “Beyond MOOC Hyperbole: Why We Should Support MOOC Experimentation … Critically and Carefully,” Oct. 12, 2012.

14. For a recent recap of the issues surrounding MOOCs, see Katherine Mangan’s “MOOC Mania” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 1, 2012. In addition, feel free to visit my growing collection of MOOC references at http://delicious.com/hopegreenberg/mooc+MOOC?link_view=expanded

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Today’s App: Margins (for book notes)

 

Writing in the margins of books, though it may be a bibliophiles nightmare, is a time-honored way to to keep notes on your reading. But they are not easily searchable. Adding notes and annotations to ebooks is easy and they are certainly searchable, but not all of your books are in electronic form. Certainly you can take notes about any book you are reading using a text editor or word processor on your laptop. You could even take notes on your iPad or iPhone using any note-taking app.

Enter Margins, a book notes app. In true app form, it takes a task that could be handled in other ways and builds it into a simple program that makes it portable as well as organized. You add your book by manually entering author, title, publisher, etc. or by entering the ISBN. Once your book is added you simply add your notes. You can input the page number, a quote from the page, and your own notes. These all become searchable fields. Simple.

Now for the downsides: the app is showing its age; it is for iPhone, so you can run it on an iPad but in small form (though the 2x view is crisp and frankly easier to type in). You can send your notes out by email but there is no cloud-based saving. It is built by Architechies, better known for their converter apps, but has not been updated since 2011. Nevertheless, it does what it says it does,

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Tech Dim Sum: The List

Tech Dim Sum: “Bite size” introductions to a variety of applications that you might find useful for teaching. You might use them to provide information for your students or for assignments you create for them.

If using for assignments, consider:

  • What are your goals for the assignment?
  • How will you tell whether a student has met those goals?
  • Does the use of this tool add to the possibilities of the assignment?
  • Are there copyright, FERPA or administrative considerations related to using this tool?
  • Will you need help supporting your students as they use this tool?

For our first Tech Dim Sum session we’ll be taking a look at the following:

icon-bigbluebuttonBigBlueButton:
What? create or participate in online meetings and presentations.
Why? To have multiple people on one space communicate and share presentations.
Where? http://bigbluebutton.uvm.edu

 

icon-camtasiaCamtasia or Jing: capture what you do on your computer, add a voiceover, even cationing (with Camtasia). Do you typically write, draw, or diagram things on the classroom board? Do it on a tablet instead and capture that as a video.
Screencasts and Education by Paul McGovern’s article “Screencasts and Education.”

 

icon-dspacedSpace at UVM:
What? A UVM-based digital collection site.
Why? To build an online public/private searchable database of digital objects, usually images.
Where? http://badger.uvm.edu/dspace
Talk to CTL for details.

 

eBooks: icon-sigilCreate materials to be read on smartphones, iPads, or even big laptops. There are several apps for this (ex. Sigil).

 

icon-google-mymapsGoogle MyPlaces (was MyMaps):
How? Instructions at Google or at this document from Carleton.
Examples:
Literature: mapping a character’s route (sample assignment: Candide Maps)
GEOL197 places mentioned in lecture
CCT335 Technology and the City, assignment:  (additional note: they have put the class materials in Wikispaces, a free wiki tool)

 

  Ning
What? One of many non-UVM web site and social networking sites. Included because several people have asked about it.
Why? If you want a site that is not addressed as “uvm.edu” and that offers social networking plugins and easy design.
Where? http://www.ning.com (small fee for a small site: $2.95/month)
Omeka at UVM:
What? UVM-based digital collection and exhibit site.
Why? To pull together digital materials (with metadata) and build an exhibit with narrative.
Where? http://badger.uvm.edu/omeka or you or your students can create individual exhibits at: http://www.omeka.net
Chronicle article: Jeffrey W. McClurken “Teaching with Omeka
Our most recent Omeka project is HST095. The report is here.
Talk to CTL for more details.

 

icon-pbworksPBWorks wikis:
What? A non-UVM public/private wiki site.
Why? For individual or collaborative web projects that combine text, audio, video.
Pros and cons of Blackboard wikis vs. PBWorks:
Bb: all students are already in course; PBWiki; must manually add/invite students
Bb: once semester is done, wiki is gone; PBWiki: stays until you close it, can reuse or augment. If the wiki is created by a student, they can keep it after the semester is over and control who can see it.
Bb: very rudimentary interface; PBWiki: works as expected, easy, robust
Bb: definitely FERPA compliant; PBWiki: can be open or hidden, your choice
Ideas: http://www.uvm.edu/ctl/?Page=resources-teaching/online/wiki-uses.php

 

Twitter: who are the “must follow” tweeters in your discipline? Follow your favorites or post your own tweets. Search for hashtags to find tweets on specific subjects.

 

icon-uvmwordpressWordPress Blogs: you’re looking at one now. If you have a UVM account you can have a blog. In fact, you can have multiple blogs, any number of which can be used for your class to create posts. Unlike the blog tool that you have access to in Blackboard, this blog can be made public. It can also stay active once a course is over so you can continue contributing to it from one semester to the next.
Considerations: Students can create their own blogs or sub-blogs, or you can create a sub-blog and add students as authors.

 

icon-xtranormalxtranormal: Write a script, choose your avatars and voices, make a movie. Tell a story, argue two sides of a question, explain a challenging topic succinctly: xtranormal gives you and your students a different way to present information.
What? An application that animates dialog.
Why? To make written information auditory.
How? Onscreen prompts as you create the movie. Also several on YouTube.
One idea: Jason B. Jones article “Using Xtranormal Against Straw Men.”
…or use for:
digital storytelling
concepts or policies
explaining processes
expressing contrary opinions/building an argument

 

  Zotero and Zotero Groups
What? Zotero is a bibliographic management progem. Zotero Groups is a space to share bibliographies with others.
Why? To collect, manage, and use (in Word or other word processor) citations and create bibliographies.
Where? http://www.zotero.org, http://www.zotero.org/groups

 

Posted in iPad/Mobile Learning | Leave a comment

iPads, Second Adopters and Apple’s upcoming event (iPublishing?)

iPads are continuing on pace in terms of the adoption curve. Though technology adoption is not as simple as first adopters/second adopters/third and so on, there are some definite patterns that seem to recur with depressing regularity.

Glossing over complexities, it seems that first adopters try a new technology because it’s new and by doing so gain experience in the possibilities. Second adopters try it because they think they should, but are disappointed when it doesn’t do things in exactly the same way that they are used to or doesn’t exactly replace a tool that they use regularly. (One might argue that that lack of exact duplication is the point of a new technology.) That group either drops it, decries it, or decides to wait and see where it will go.

In the next phase, the technology picks up a few new adopters who combine with the first adopters to create new uses, or even new paradigms of use, that end up controlling the direction of a particular technology.  Third adopters take whatever the outcome is and run with it. The second adopters, who could have had lots of interesting ideas, often kick themselves for not having any input.

Shades of some of this are evident in two posts from today’s Higher Education Chronicle, one by Robert Talbert describing some of the currently perceived limitations of using iPads in education (“My three weeks with an iPad“). The second is by Nick DeSantis on the LectureTools app, originally developed by Perry Samson (“Professor’s Classroom iPad App Debuts at Consumer Electronics Show“). Favorite sentence in the latter article? “The goal, Mr. Samson said, is to occupy the devices students typically use to drift away from the learning environment.” Precisely!

Meanwhile, the rumor mills are buzzing about Apple’s January 19 event on publishing and eBooks, apparently targeting the publishing industry. Speculation includes an iPublishing app or channel, a TextBook app, undercutting Amazon and Barnes & Noble with some new iBook format that synchronizes across devices, an iBook lending library, updates to Pages for even easier eBook publishing, or something more specific like a deal to supply iPads and eTextbooks to a particular university or NYC school district? We’ll find out soon enough. Watch your Apple news outlet or post your favorite Apple event feed to “Ripe for Destruction” so we can all tune in.

Posted in iPad/Mobile Learning | Leave a comment