Integrating ICT into higher education SIAST Workshop August 4, 2005 Presented by Alec Couros.

Integrating ICTinto higher education

SIAST Workshop

August 4, 2005

Presented by Alec Couros

• "[This device] appealed at once to the eye and to the ear, thus naturally forming the habit of attention, which is so difficult to form by the study of books .... Whenever a pupil does not fully understand, [it] will have the opportunity ... of enlarging and making intelligible."

• "[These instruments are] not uncommon, but are but little resorted to by the teacher.”

• "The teacher knows almost as little how to use it as his pupils.”

Quotes from the 1840’s and 1850’s regarding the use of the chalkboard, from UPAEP.

• "...the existing system is utterly inefficient. The teacher...may pour it in the ear, or extract it from the printed page,...but unless he teaches through the eye...no satisfactory instruction can be conveyed."

Sir David Brewer (1856) regarding the magic lantern and stereoscope.

• "[It] is going to make school so attractive that a big army with swords and guns couldn't keep boys and girls out of it."

Thomas Edison (1911) regarding motion pictures/film.

• Edison continued …“Mix moving pictures with education and you'll have something that makes kids want to go to school. You'll have to lick 'em to keep 'em away." (1911)

Overview of Session

• Knowledge Management• Learning 2 Search/Searching 2 Learn• Another Look at Old Tools• Using Digital Photography• Blogging & Wikis• Free & Open Content• Free & Open Software• Podcasting & Beyond

Knowledge Management

• Whether you are participating in a workshop, or a course, there are many tools that individuals can make use of that can assist in knowledge management activities.

• On the web, social bookmark managers are useful as they can facilitate online storage and searching of important websites, and in addition, can help to reflect important resources as seen by the greater community.

• Services such as spurl, furl, del.icio.us and jots are easy, but extremely useful, places to begin.

• We will return to knowledge management when we discuss blogs.

Learning 2 Search, Searching 2 Learn

• Google– Popular search engine, but most users just scratch the

surface of its capabilities (e.g., math, conversions, images, local, maps, define, translation)

• Soople– Easy access to many Google searches.

• Yahoo!– Another popular search engine with excellent features

(maps, video, creative commons search).

• Cant decide? Try Yagoohoogle.• Others: MSN Search, AlltheWeb, Ask Jeeves,

Yahooligans, DogPile, MusicPlasma, Kartoo, Answers.

Another Look at Old Tools

• Using the Commenting Feature in MS WordExcellent tool for commenting directly on student written assignments.

• Using the Tracking Feature in MS WordAn excellent way of tracking changes to a document.

• Alternative Uses of Presentation SoftwareFrom eBooks, to Gameshows, presentation software can be used in many OTHER ways than just ‘presentations’.

Using Digital Photography

• FlickrFlickr is an interesting photo-sharing community. Becoming a member allows you to do upload, share and manage photos.

• PicasaAn excellent photo management software package from Google.

• “50 Ideas to Use With Digital Cameras”Excellent ideas for using digital cameras in the classroom.

Educational Blogging

• A weblog, or blog, is a web application that which contains periodic time-stamped posts on a common webpage. There are personal diaries, educational blogs, political blogs, techie blogs, etc.

• Popular and easy-to-use blogging applications include Blogger, MSN Spaces and Livejournal.

• As there are so many blogs to read, you can keep track of educational blogs through a feed aggregator such as Bloglines.

• An excellent blog which focuses on blogging in education is Weblogg-ed.

Overview of Blogging (cont.)

• Blogging has evolved from its early origin as a medium for the publication of simple, online personal diaries, to the latest disruptive technology, the ‘killer app’ that has the capacity to engage people in collaborative activity, knowledge sharing, reflection and debate (Hiler, 2003).

• The nature of blogging engines allows for the creation of a legitimate warehousing of captured knowledge, and archiving for later retrieval (Bausch, Haughley & Hourihan, 2002).

Anatomy of a Web Log – Moveable Type 3

Post Title

Link of Interest

Static Address

Feedback/ Conversation

Notification Post Date

Calendar

Archives

Blogging Software/Services

• There are various tools that allow one to publish a blog. These are often split between software and web-based services.

• Web-based services

• Software

Blogger- Web-based, owned by Google- Very simple to setup (takes a few minutes)- Easy to setup group blogs, but users must beBlogger.com members- Limited customization (just styles)- Possible to serve Blogger blogs on externalFTP servers

Moveable Type- Software – created and supported by Six Apart- Must install on server, but easy to setup- User interface simple- Easy to create group blogs- Large user community- Used to be free to use, but version 3+ must belicensed (outside of personal use).- Much easier to customize to specific use

WordPress- Open Source – free to use and modify- Must install on server, but easy to setup- User interface simple- Easy to create group blogs- Large user community, and many plug-ins available- Easy to customize style

Types of Blogs

Social ActionDiaries

BusinessPolitics

ScholarlyCourse Enhancement

ConferenceCollaborative Learning Space

Knowledge Management~

Photo/MoblogsPodCasts

Types of Blogs

Social ActionDiaries

BusinessPolitics

ScholarlyCourse Enhancement

ConferenceCollaborative Learning Space

Knowledge Management~

Photo/MoblogsPodCasts

Social Action

Diaries

Diaries

Diaries

Business

Business

Business

Politics

Scholarly

Scholarly

Scholarly

Course Enhancement

Course Enhancement

Conference

Conference

Knowledge Management (K-Logs)

Knowledge Management (K-Logs)

AudioBlogs

PhotoBlogs

moBlogs

Podcasts

Podcasts

Podcasts

Video Blogging

GOVideo Blogging

For teachers, blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web Sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching.

Knowledge Management (cont.)

• Blogs, and now many other websites, use a technology called RSS, a format used to syndicate news and other content from news-like websites.

• To keep up with the wealth of information available in blogs, news sites, search engines, etc., one can use an RSS aggregator like Bloglines to “pull” desired information.

• An excellent Bloglines tutorial can be found here.

Wikis

• A wiki is a web-based application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content.

• The name is derived from the Hawaiian term wiki wiki which means “quick” or “super-fast”.

• Probably the most popular wiki is Wikipedia, but other wikis include Wikitravel, Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikinews, Wikispecies and Wikicommons.

Wikipedia

Course Management Systems

• A course management system is a computer program that facilitates computerized learning or e-learning, especially by helping teachers and learners with course administration. Course management systems can also be used effectively in F2F courses.

• Instructors may also opt to use one of various course management systems supported by their institution.

• Two common examples are WebCT and Blackboard. Other lesser known examples include Moodle and Sakai.

Free & Open Content

• There is an abundance of free & open content that is available in the public domain. This is not to be confused with illegally downloaded (seemingly free) content. Tapping into free & open content can provide educators with an abundance of excellent, reusable and adaptable resources.

• Some excellent free & open content resources include: Creative Commons, Project Gutenberg, Wikipedia, CAREO, Flickr, FreeFoto, Pics4Learning, FreeNaturePictures, MorgueFile.

Free & Open Software

There are also many popular titles of software that are available for free, or are open source. Open source software (OSS) packages allow individuals to use software, but additionally, users have the ability to adapt software for specific uses. One of the most popular types of open source software is Linux, and others are listed below.

• Open OfficeAn excellent and free, fully functional office suite.

• The GIMPA free image manipulation program similar to Adobe Photoshop.

• Tux TypingExcellent open source typing program.

• Tux PaintAn innovative and unique open source painting program.

• The Open CDA package of many useful Windows compatible OS applications.

Podcasting & Beyond

Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them (Wikipedia).

• Some Podcasts include: Quirks & Quarks, /Nerd, NASA, Mathew Bischoff, Podcast Directory.

• And it seems that video blogging is right around the corner. As bandwidth increases, technology becomes more sophisticated and youth become more savvy, what is the future of technology in the classroom?

Keeping Up On New Technologies

• Network of Innovative Schools• SlashDot (news for nerds, stuff that matters)• Weblogg-ed• SchoolForge• NewScientist.com

• My own Blog and resource site:http://www.educationaltechnology.ca/courosYou can download today’s presentation from here as well.

Copyright Issues

Thank you for listening.

Contact:alec.couros@uregina.ca

www.educationaltechnology.ca/couros