Winter 2010 Volume 1, Issue 1 TECH FAIR & COMMUNITY GROUPS This year’s Tech Fair was a great success. Not only were there 120 attendees, but DEIT’s participation brought in two represen- tatives from Apple Computers. Tom, a higher education sales rep, and Dave, a senior systems engineer, presented a session called “Is Mac really that cool?” The Apple reps also hosted a display answering questions about iPhones and Macs in education. Due in part to a new faculty and staff users group called Muggles, Apple will now be involved with DEIT to pilot iTunes University. Instructional Technologist Cheryl Leuthe created Muggles, a new community group in ANGEL, it is DSU’s first Mac Users Group. Muggles meets monthly. There were also sessions on social networking, getting organized online, promising technologies for education, advanced Word 2007, and an APA and MLA 2009 update. One of the highlights of the day was a DEIT-sponsored iPod Nano giveaway. Sharon Jezick won the iPod. If you were unable to attend the Tech Fair on January 12th or if you just want to relive the day, the Tech Fair community group in ANGEL is a great way to access and interact with content pre- sented that day. Two new community groups you do not want to miss out on are Muggles and TechFair. To find them in ANGEL, go to your ANGEL home page and search in the Groups and Non-Credit Courses nugget. Or you can send an email to [email protected]Word of Mouse Published by the Distance Education & Instructional Technology Department Our goal is to encourage authentic, engaging active student learning with technologies that facilitate collaboration, creative problem solving, and the development of higher-order thinking skills. INSIDE THIS ISSUE Faculty Workshops……..… 2 Student Workshops.…...… 3 Tech Survey Results….…… 4 Special Interest Groups..... 5 Design for Accessibility.…. 5 Community Chest.............. 6 iBoard…………………………… 7 What’s New…………………… 8
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Winter 2010
Volume 1, Issue 1
TECH FAIR & COMMUNITY GROUPS
This year’s Tech Fair was a great success. Not only were there
120 attendees, but DEIT’s participation brought in two represen-
tatives from Apple Computers. Tom, a higher education sales rep,
and Dave, a senior systems engineer, presented a session called
“Is Mac really that cool?” The Apple reps also hosted a display
answering questions about iPhones and Macs in education.
Due in part to a new faculty and staff users group called Muggles,
Apple will now be involved with DEIT to pilot iTunes University.
Instructional Technologist Cheryl Leuthe created Muggles, a new
community group in ANGEL, it is DSU’s first Mac Users Group.
Muggles meets monthly.
There were also sessions on social networking, getting organized
online, promising technologies for education, advanced Word
2007, and an APA and MLA 2009 update. One of the highlights of
the day was a DEIT-sponsored iPod Nano giveaway. Sharon
Jezick won the iPod.
If you were unable to attend the Tech Fair on January 12th or if
you just want to relive the day, the Tech Fair community group in
ANGEL is a great way to access and interact with content pre-
sented that day.
Two new community groups you do not want to miss out on are
Muggles and TechFair. To find them in ANGEL, go to your ANGEL
home page and search in the Groups and Non-Credit Courses
During the Fall 2009, DEIT surveyed faculty and students about their current technology experiences and
future needs. DEIT relies on this survey data to influence its technology acquisition, professional develop-
ment offerings, and improve its services. Each Fall a student and faculty drawing is conducted to show
everyone our appreciation for his or her feedback.
This year, Ms. Julie Brugger, freshman year Medical Studies major won the Red Robin gift card. Ms Brug-
ger participated in the student technology survey. Dr. Gregory Kerr, Department of Philosophy and Theol-
ogy, won the instructional technology grant for his participation in the faculty technology survey.
Of the 444 student participants, 345 students (or 77.7%) completed the entire survey. Students repre-
sented all the various DSU majors and programs with the majority of respondents identifying themselves
as full-time students (51%) and 24.8% as graduate students. Most students (89.9%) reported taking a
class using ANGEL. The majority (56%) described their ANGEL experience as positive or very positive
and 33.5% as neutral while 10.4% as either negative or very negative.
Student comments about DSU Technology:
“Instructors try hard to add web based instruction to the class, which I think is a nega-tive. Web based education is available on the web from a million sources. My reason for attending DeSales is to receive a quality education from quality instructors in the man-ner of Catholic humanism.”
“Angel was a bit of a challenge for me when it was first introduced, however that's not the case anymore I am quite comfortable with the program now.”
“Having access to online databases through the Trexler Library has been very helpful.”
“I think once everyone gets used to Angel it will go very well....we are all still learning the system.”
Of the 65 faculty participants, 57 faculty (or 87.7%) completed the entire survey. Faculty representa-
tion spanned a wide range of departments and disciplines — Nursing, Performing Arts, Sports, Criminal
Justice, Theology, Math and Computer Science, MBA, Nursing, and ACCESS. When instructed to choose all
that applied regarding their professional development preferences, the majority (65.6%) preferred face-
to-face workshops, followed by (52.5%) individual consultations and (44.3%) online. Hybrid (32.8%) and
small group consultations (37.7%) were least popular.
Faculty comments about Professional Development:
“Give me the information in smaller doses, let me use it for awhile, then come back for more. “
“It's very difficult to carve out time to attend face to face workshops - if I could attend these for everything I'd like to know I could spend all of my time attending workshops! hoping that more online options will be offered.”
“I haven't taken advantage of many of the PD at DSU. I do need to start doing more of that. I did get great help at the beginning of this semester when I stated using Angel.”
We appreciate the time and care everyone took to fill out the survey. The results indicate the opportuni-
ties we have to work with in the future.
5
Technology News
In a recent article of Distance Educa-
tion Report, Jennifer Lorenzetti em-
phasizes the need for faculty to understand their
online students’ requirements for accessible con-
tent. Like their counterparts in traditional classes,
students in online programs also have special
needs, and meeting certain standards for accessi-
bility is required by law. In her article, Lorenzetti
recounts guidelines that Patrick Ryan, assistant
director of distance learning and alternative pro-
grams for Erie Community College, has assembled
as a quick tips list of common sense, good design,
and best practices for accessibility.
Students with sight deficiencies may use a screen
reader to convert written words into spoken
words. Ryan cautions when using MS Word to
create documents for class. Visual elements such
as text boxes are not picked up by these electronic
devices. Color may add visual interest to your
course, but avoid using it to emphasize content or
convey message. This can be information lost to a
person with low vision.
BENEFICIAL DESIGN FOR ACCESSIBILITY
Also, when using MS Word, use styles not font
formatting to format text. Embedded style sheets
are unproblematic for the electronic reader. For
example, the title of this article, BENEFICIAL DE-
SIGN FOR ACCESSIBILITY, will be announced as
“Heading 1” (if using styles) instead of “Times
New Roman, 12 pt, bold, paragraph, space…”
PDFs that are created by SCANNING are digitized
images and are also invisible to the screen reader.
Using MS Word to create PDFs are acceptable.
Students with hearing disabilities will need ac-
cess to transcripts of audio presentations.
These considerations will benefit visual and audi-
tory learning styles as well.
___________________
Lorenzetti, J. P. (2010, Feb. 15) . Quick Tips for Improving Accessibility. Distance Education Report, v14(4),1-2. Magna Publications, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletters/index.html
One of twenty special interest groups of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE),
SIGML is an advocate for mobile learning worldwide. SIGML is dedicated to issues related to the support for
integration of mobile devices in learning environments. This support covers issues such as equity, the digi-
tal divide, acceptable use, safety, Special Needs students, and English-as-a-Second-Language. Sigml mem-
bers also recommend and create effective research tools and methodologies, and promote best practices.
SIGML is conducting an online book study of Mohammed Ally’s Mobile learning: Transforming the Delivery.
Join the discussion at http://sigmlbookstudy2010.ning.com/ . Ally’s book can be downloaded free from