Illusion of Transparency

Possible activity for first-time online students inspired by PsyBlog's post on the Illusion of Transparency.

First have student try to tap our a rhythmic melody to a commonly known tune as he suggests. Let's see how many figure it out. Then have them craft a sentence or two asking an instructor a clarifying question of some kind. What's missing from the communication? Are there any areas to be improved? Any areas that might give rise to concern?

Nutty Research

How Academics Face the World: A Study of 5829 Homepage Pictures
http://wwffm.org/2012/07/21/how-academics-face-the-world-a-study-of-5829-homepage-pictures/

I like seeing off the wall research topics like this one. Makes me feel good about any idea I might ever have. I couldn't bring myself to read the entire paper, but the gist is that photos of academics on their faculty websites show either the left or right cheek and this correlates to their discipline. The authors explain that the left cheek forward shows more emotion so science faculty are not as inclined to display that side. The idea here is that science faculty are lacking emotive qualities and humanities faculty are more sensitive. This alone is comical stereotyping, but stereotypes exist for a reason I suppose.

What I am still wondering about though are all the other confounding factors. What about handed-ness? Were all the subjects right handed? And what about the photographer who took these pictures? Perhaps it is his/her tendency that is being observed here. Or maybe the web designer chose these images from a group and it is her bias we see. Maybe it matters which side of the page the image is on.

Or maybe they are right after all. My image on my faculty page shows an old avatar from Second Life. I guess I should update that - I think I will take my image with left cheek forward, but then flip it horizontally in Photoshop.

BbWorld Reflection - conversation at Mobile Learn booth #bbw12

After the keynote from Michael and Ray, I wanted to talk to the Mobile crew about the updates and how/when these might make their way into the Angel mobile interface. So, here is how that went down.

Me: So, I'm excited to see the Push and Testing features coming to the mobile learn app. Can you tell me if these updates will be available in the Angel version?

Mobile Guy: Oh, well, I'm actually in marketing so I don't know really. I know they are working on the Angel mobile piece.

Me: Um, okay...

Mobile Guy: I can give you a t-shirt though.

Me: That'll work.

Mobile Guy: Here you go. Thanks for stopping by.

BbWorld Reflection - Teacher Training #bbw12

I attended several sessions on teacher training. One of which was a free for all type sharing of success stories. Plenty to be shared, but little data to back up the ideas (or maybe stories are just easier to share than data). This lack of data compelled me to attend the session titled Teacher Training-Worth the Effort Practices. There was data here, but not entirely transferable to Kirkwood. Still, all sessions were interesting and generated ideas.



WE NEED MORE DATA! Institutions are largely doing the same kinds of workshops and no one seem to know which efforts are really paying off. As an example, one participant suggested that we need to rebrand teacher training since professors do not respond to this word "training." Training is what kids do at McDonalds, she explained. She could be right, but I'd like to see the data that shows increased attendance and/or improved results from sessions renamed "workshops" or "PD."



PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL! Professional development efforts are a strange beast, not just at Kirkwood, but I think this is a part of the larger culture. The approach assumes teachers are inherently good learners. And some are, perhaps most are (Anyone know the average GPA of their faculty?), but usually even the good learners' skills are very focused in particular areas. And these areas naturally drive their interest in PD - informing and misinforming their PD decisions. I am no different. I want to learn more about what I am interested in and not so much about what I need to do my job better. Most of the time we are not aware of our needs, but are acutely aware of interests.



DELIVERED ON THEIR TERMS - delivery often happens in a way that produces dependency, rather than inquiry. Is attending PD sessions just part of the job? I don't see this job mentality too much, but it's there, and it's especially present when LMS training is apart from what is interesting/useful. Many schools shared success stories of embedding their training into department visits which, I'm guessing, would allow for some of this focus (of course, it would also limit the amount of cross-pollination of ideas that I personally believe in - without data of course.)

Bb World - Big Announcements #bbw12

The big announcements from Bb World 2012:


xpLor - a free external repository for standard compliant content, tagged and shared between ALL LMS products. Angel has it's LOR, but this is akin to a global LOR. Very interesting--a great way to promote sharing and more open educational resources. Other "xp" products to come (forums, calendar).

Mobile Learn license structure - cost to be passed to the student. Institutions can choose to partner/subsidize the app cost. A huge improvement from the tight bonds of a Sprint agreement.

Mobile improvements - (not necessarily for Angel version yet) Push notifications & Assessments! The assessment part I find funny, because I can't tell you how many Bb sales guys balked at my amazement tests were not in the app. They would explain it away in a condescending, mocking tone saying, "there are always a few fringe people who want to do everything on mobile, but most don't want testing." So, to all those sales guys, I hate to say it, but I told you so.

Publisher agreements - this is an interesting space, but as Angel users we don't seem to have it as easy. And that's really on the publishers to figure out or ignore. McGraw Hill have made some attempts - still not functioning at our college, but the thought counts.

I'll be processing some of the session information and post on that in the days to follow. Check my twitter feed (@fredandcharlie) to see some of the session notes I shared. BbWorld 2012 might be closed, but our minds are still open.

A Somber Party #bbw12

The Angel team presented in their slightly apologetic tone on the present state of the platform and Bb's well articulated position. It's not unlike visiting a hospital and hearing your options from the physicians. There is a palpable sadness. Choices must be made. Not right away, but eventually... And In the meantime, here is what we can do to treat your symptoms.




And later in the afternoon, we gathered once more to toast the platform that brought us together. A platform many had a voice in shaping. To toast the people that will inevitably continue to shape the land of eLearning--still an incredibly vibrant place to be.

Overwhelmed - #bbw12

New Orleans is itself overwhelming. I only managed to arrive in time to checkin and run to the welcome reception and tour the show floor. From the food to the beverages to the size of the displays to the theater productions. I'm overwhelmed. I admit it doesn't take much, but this is really a big production.




A couple of thoughts on the way in... I was impressed by the shuttle driver's welcome speech. He was going through his standard speech, but it was spoken with such confidence, such conviction. And he ended it with a question like, "Sound good to everyone?" And when no one responded, he repeated the question so as to connect with the passengers. Connections, need to make connections.

Selecting Sessions - #bbw12

I struggle with the selection of conference sessions. It shouldn't be so difficult, but the sessions and inspiration or knowledge drawn from these morsels of research and experience make or break a conference. The problem I encounter, as I flip through the myriad of potential themes, is that I am inevitably drawn to sessions on topics I am interested in. Which means I know something about them. I have and share some experiences (likely) with the presenters. Which means, there is a higher probability that the session will be a reinforcement of ideas I already have. And there is a potential, albeit a slim one, that I have more experience and research on the topic than the presenter. So these sessions are a gamble.
On the complete other side of the spectrum are sessions on topics I know nothing about -- there is a whole theme dedicated to Bb Analytics engine -- and while we are proud Angel users, the concept of mining the LMS for data and early intervention intrigues me. But then this is a product we do not have at Kirkwood, so it might also be a gamble.
And then there are sessions that are geared toward IT professionals, which I am not (surprise!), and others geared toward administrators just beginning their journey into online programs and courses. I can skip these I think (sorry presenters).
The sessions I have chosen seem to fall into a couple of categories: support, training, engagement, mobile, and feedback. If you are presenting in one of these topics, I'm looking forward to it. Need to head to the airport in about 30 minutes. Safe travels!

Technology Whiners

I spend a fair amount of time looking at software, thinking about applications, clicking on buttons, stumbling through menus, guessing what the designers had in mind, making errors, learning from those mistakes, and otherwise using technology. Maybe a little more than some, but certainly less than others. I'm no uber-geek, but I probably qualify as a regular geek. I like (and know the difference between) Star Wars and Star Trek, but I would not likely wear a costume or buy a phaser.

I also spend a good amount of time helping others cope with technology, and so I am privileged to assist those in need. On the other hand, I also enjoy the company of inaccurate blamers ("I know I loaded an .exe file last year and it worked fine."), superstitious shoulder-shruggers ("You have the magic touch." or "This software just does not like me.") and general technology whiners ("It just doesn't work for me."). And I really do enjoy them (most of the time) -- people are fascinating bundles of experiences and interpretations of these experiences.

Another time-intensive endeavor for me is jumping around the Internet, opening new tabs when articles catch my interest. Eventually, I become overwhelmed at the number of open tabs and feel the need to review and close some. In the process of closing a few this morning, these two wound up next to each other:

Whine, Whine, Whine: Four Simple Steps for Dealing with Complainers. Psychology Today. June 3, 2012.
32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow. The New York Times Magazine. June 1, 2012.

Some random thoughts follow:

• Naturally, there will be no shortage of tech to complain about in the future
• Complainers do not necessarily want solutions
• Time-limited compassion is not necessarily an oxymoron
• #30/32 Would give rise to complaints from my tomatoes and peppers

Language and Psychology Meet

One more reason to study a second language. You might make better decisions, or at least be less susceptible to decision bias. Although this might also give one more reason to not learn that second language too well - as I would expect the biases might return with more proficiency and experiences. Just a hunch.

The Foreign-Language EffectThinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/04/18/0956797611432178

Google Forms Doodle

I attended a conference earlier this month and was recently flipping through some of the handouts. I attended one session that covered useful tools for educators that included Google forms and other applications. I was a little bored and started doodling.

Form Element Guys
(click for a larger image)

I was having fun making these little characters out of the various web form elements. I could imagine a whole animated series with these guys. Need to explore more characters. Submit Button Nose? And some personality traits could correspond to their physical natures. TextArea Cyclops would always have a lot to say. And Radio Eyes might be extremely stubborn - only accepting one answer or point of view. I can't wait for the first episode in which Checkbox Eyes and Dropdown Mouth collaborate on what ingredients to add to a large pot of soup. 

New Grading Scheme (for me)

I'm teaching a blended adult accelerated (5 week) course. Just started last monday - which was the last time we meet as a class face-to-face. The rest of the course will be completed online. Angel is our LMS of choice at the College and so that's our launch pad and organizing utility. That much was obvious. What was not obvious was how to re-organize and re-structure my activities for the online portion of the course. Which is a little funny since it's kind of my job to help other instructors re-discover their own materials in the light of an online delivery format.

I typically stress the importance of thinking in terms of activities - final projects and working backwards to include the building blocks that will help students achieve these goals (I know the word is scaffolding, but I'm weary of this term as it applies to education). So I did that. No problems there really... I'm sure I could probably provide more blocks for some... but they can ask for them.

Where I then struggled was a point system. I had all these activities leading to various goals and no point scheme. And then a late policy needed to be crafted that would encourage completion of these activities. I thought about dividing the 15 or so assignments into 100 points so that the more difficult assignments were 10-20 points while the easier assignments were less. And then the usual late policy of 10% deduction per day - up to 3 days or something like that. Boring. I've done that before. Late work is still all too normal and I want to encourage early work - especially on discussions.

As this only just started, I have no idea how it may play out and I have no control group, so this won't be a true study. But here is what I came up with. I'm starting everyone out at 100%. For each assignment, there are chances to gain bonus points as well as incur losses. Points are lost if directions are not followed or performance does not meet expectations of the assignment. Points are gained for early submissions (particularly on discussion forums) and for going beyond the expectations of the assignment. As for late policy, a -2 point deduction occurs on any late submissions and submissions can be up to 24 hours late. Beyond that, the assignment is not accepted and a -10 point deduction is recorded. That might seem harsh, but there are plenty of opportunities to gain bonus points for other assignments.

So far, and it's still early, I do not see much early posting going on in the discussions. Perhaps my bonus is not high enough. Perhaps these students (who all have other jobs), have other higher priorities than this class. But the submissions received have been great. And over half of the students chose to answer a bonus question on a reflection writing assignment. It's interesting at this point.

The gradebook is a bit of a challenge. I created an assignment and gave everyone 100 points/percent. Then I created individual extra credit assignments to hold the point loss/gain for each assignment. Angel seems to support negative points just fine, so this is working quite well. When I look at the gradebook, I can only see net performance on individual assignments, so I am thinking I will need to keep track of losses and gains in another spreadsheet. I sound like an accountant. Yikes. I could have split it out and done a column for loss and gain per assignment, but that seemed ugly. I do wish there was a way to show labels to students instead of points, so I could show something other than zero when they break even or meet the expectations.

So there is the new scheme. I'll post again mid-way through on any thoughts and then again at the end with some stats on early vs late vs non-submissions as well as how many bonuses were achieved through additional time and energy with the material and experiences.

Why I want to be a VIP BbWorld Blogger

Sharing - that's my platform. As bloggers, we share our thoughts and reflections and sometimes opinions with the world as it flies past on its high-speed Internet connection. As an Iowan, I know what it means to be flown over. Visits are rare, so when they happen, take advantage! Share experiences and knowledge and make connections with people.

At BbWorld, users, developers, administrators, vendors and executives gather to share an experience and make these connections. I want to capture these intersections of passion + excitement + ingenuity + intelligence and share them with a larger audience.

I like to blog in ways that entertain and inform. I'm an aspiring visual note taker and often post these doodles on this blog. Doodles like this one:

Doodle from Distance Learning Conference. Madison, WI
(Click the image for a larger view)

As an Angel administrator and trainer for Kirkwood Community College, I publish the KirkwoodLMS blog. As an instructional designer for Distance Learning, I join Emily McWorthy in creating our video blog: Technology for Learners and Teachers. And as a teacher, I speak with Nicole Forsythe in a new audio podcast/blog on EducationIS.us. I'm a blogger.

See you in New Orleans!

zefrank on tech and humanity

ZeFrank is publishing new episodes of A Show! Makes the world a better place. In this episode, he shows how technology assists in making him and his videos more humanistic. I just shared this with my Culture and Technology course.

SquadMail

This could be a promising little app for committee work, support staff, ... https://www.squadmail.com?u=3a625e6.

Stanford's Education Experiment - Wired Article

I am a big Wired fan. So I was excited to see this article covering Stanford's open course offering: The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever. Plenty of concepts to think about - but mostly I am now even more inspired to open my own courses, starting with Chinese.

I was also really taken with the quote attributed to Mark Twain in the article. While I am not a fan of quotes in email signatures, this would make a good one: "Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty."

checkthis.com

An intriguing little web app that allows you to create a single webpage. Simple, clear and useful. Nice concept if you have a quick invite or product to sell. Could be a useful tool for a student project.

checkthis.com

iPad Screen Recorder

I really want these kinds of apps to flourish and improve. Haven't tried this one yet, but it stands apart with the addition of image importing.

http://edudemic.com/2011/12/educreations/

It's free. Good price. I wish they would let me load the video to YouTube. Maybe there is a way.

You-R-Here

Another whimsically named web tool - this time in the form of a Google Chrome add-on. If you spend any amount of time reading blogs or articles online, or half-reading blogs and articles, this will prove interesting.

http://yourhere.gandtblog.com/

Simply double click the text to highlight and mark where you are in the material. Return at a later time and find your spot. A web-based textual marker. I could see this expanding with more features... a library perhaps that would list all I am reading.

Remind 101

I'm not a big texter anymore, and maybe I never was - there was a period, while dating my now wife, when I gained some thumb typing skills, but now it's a fairly rare occurrence. That said, I still find it to be one of the best reminder type notifications - especially for those who use their phone a bunch. I've heard of enterprising instructors collecting cell-phone numbers of students who want to be texted about class activities and events. I've also heard of instructors weary of sharing their private phone numbers with students -- and I often sing the praised of Google Voice to those who will listen. With Remind 101, a slick alternative is available. Simply sign up on Remind101.com, share your class code with your students and they can opt in to receive reminders from you. Scheduled texts are also a feature. Looks promising.



Remind101 from remind101 on Vimeo.

Workflowy

I do enjoy a good productivity app with a silly name. This seems to meet both criteria.

http://workflowy.com/

No native mobile app, but they say it works on mobile browsers just fine.

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Some excellent pointers for all the copy/pasters out there.

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Dreaming

I was reminded recently how long it has been since last posting on this blog. Let's see if I can't turn this around a bit.

In my NyQuil induced coma last night, I had a dream or maybe it was a vision. I was sitting at a table or desk or perhaps it was a podium, but I was alone and reading a magazine. So chances are it was not a podium. A computer was present and in the magazine was lots of text. I would touch the text in the magazine and the computer would instantly take me to that page. That was cool. It seemed rather matter of fact in the dream. I would turn the page and the supporting content on the screen in front of me would shift to more relevant materials.

In the morning, I came across Crossfy.com which is kind of this idea except that we still need the mobile device to make the connection happen.


Crossfy - www.crossfy.com from Crossfy on Vimeo.