Deadline

• Deadline: Home

  Can't remember when your next paper is due, or when your next meeting is scheduled? This might just be the website/app for you. Alerts can be set up to notify your mobile device.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

EasyBib

Midterm has come and gone for Fall already. But there will certainly be more papers to write and perhaps EasyBib.com can assist you with one piece of the paper puzzle. I often agonized over where all those periods and commas and indents would appear in my References page. This site makes it easy. Chose the reference style preferred by your instructor (APA or MLA), fill in the form and out comes your perfectly formatted reference for inclusion at the end of your next paper. 

Math Tutor Alternative

Personally, I enjoyed just about all of my math courses as a student. I was somewhat good at it, so it fed my ego. I can't claim to remember all those formulas I once did, but I feel lucky that I do not have a fear or dread response when encountering a math problem. I know people who do - and they often give up before even getting started. The traditional institutional response to such students is to place them in a more remedial course or find them a tutor. And while I am sure this can and does help many (who chose to accept it), for others, here is another approach... play a game.

DimensionM.com has several games to chose covering pre-algebra to algebra, individual and multiplayer. They aren't free ($20-$70), but they also do not cost more than a textbook. And if they mean the difference between passing and failing or otherwise just offer a more engaging way to practice your skills than the odd problems in your text, I'd say it's a good investment (of course, if your instructor assigns the odd problems in your text, you should do those too).

Animoto Video

A quick vid created from images already on the web. Animoto has some slick functionality. With the right group of photos this could be educational and fun.

Ubiquity

Are you a Firefox user? Firefox is a web browser like Internet Explorer only better in many ways. One of those ways is the ability to customize the browser with add-ins. This might be the add-in to end all add-ins. It's still very alpha at this point, but it already looks like it has the potential of becoming a killer app.


Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Looking for other reasons to start using Firefox? How about built-in spell-checking!? Compose discussions or emails in CE6 or anywhere on the web and never again worry about embarrassing misspellings.

Update: After installing ubiquity my FastDial add-in no longer seems to function. Darn it. Why can't everyone just get along?!

Second Life at Kirkwood

Virtual worlds are springing up on the Internet and educators have been quick to see some educational applications. Second Life is one such virtual world. Kirkwood has signed up for space with Second Life to explore its learning and teaching potential. Over the Summer, we were working on a little landscaping and building - now the space is open to the general public. I expect it will be changing as projects and plans continue to grow.


You experience the virtual world as an avatar - a digital representation of yourself. Above is Kirkwood Alter (styled to resemble Samuel J. Kirkwood) posing in front of an informational kiosk. With the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can control the movement of your avatar (avatars can fly too!). Movement is fairly simple, but interaction is where the magic happens.

How might you use SL to learn:

• Explore locations with specific learning content (aerospace museum, genome island)
• Join groups focused on special interests (poetry, literature, animation)
• Practice a second language with native speakers
• Collaborate on a project in the virtual environment
  
• Enhance a class project with building and scripting objects in SL
• Find a tutor in SL
• Student groups meeting in SL
• Attend a lecture in SL
• Host a lecture!
  

If you are already signed up in Second Life, here is a SLURL to take you to the Kirkwood Island. Let us know if you have ideas.

Distance Learning eLibrary

Welcome back students and instructors! Always plenty of announcements to share on the first day back to classes, so here is one more:



The Distance Learning eLibrary is now open for business. Resources have been collected and linked to one clean page... all resources are at your fingertips. Some of my favorite additions include the Ask a Librarian live chat and the social bookmarking under Search the Web. The plagiarism information is also extremely helpful. If you ever have a question about how/when to give credit to others in your writing, this page will help you!

Dipity - Timeline Generator

Have you even found it difficult to remember event sequence? Timelines are a great study tool and dipity.com can help you create an amazingly functional and fully sharable timeline. And it doesn't have to be limited to just Historical events like World War II battles (although that might be good too). This might be useful for an English literature course to map out a plot sequence for a story. Or in a science course to better demonstrate the process by which the sun's energy is converted to nutrients in broccoli...

And then the functionality of this site can really pay off, and this is where things get a little geeky, if you have an RSS feed from a blog or twitter or anywhere really. The RSS can automatically generate a timeline for you. Create a blog for a class project and direct the feed to dipity and with little extra effort you will have a multimedia timeline to share of your entire project. That might be a lame example. You can do better!

Social Sites

Chris Brogan posted a list of application sites from blogging to social searching that makes me feel a little older. I know I am not of the social net generation, but at times I like to pretend that I am. I wonder which of the apps on this list students at Kirkwood favor? I only ever see students using Facebook when I pass by the kiosks in Linn Hall, but which of these other sites might be most useful? I'm toying with the idea of setting up a twitter account for Distance Learning. Not sure though what kind of updates I would have on a daily basis. Might be fun to try though.

Trauma Center

I've said it before, and I will say it again, I think there are real applications for what have been traditionally thought of as video games in the world of academics, i.e. learning. Look beyond the fantastic and see the content and repetition that makes these games so amusing and addictive. Bring this content into your classroom and push the real in beside it. Point out any inconsistencies and let students practice their knowledge through play. Well, that's the idea anyway. I haven't really played this one... yet. Anyone in the health science department want to play?

Review at yahoo.com. For more information on gaming in education see Serious Games Initiative. A branch is also available for Games for Health.

Kirkwood News Wordle

I happened across the Wordle site today. It allows you to create a collection of words artistically (computer generated) arranged. You can input your own text or plug in an RSS feed. I took the feed from Kirkwood's News page as of this morning and here is the result with little tweaking. Lots of choices to make it better. The more prominent the word in the image, the more often it appears in the text. Makes me wonder who Gilbertson is - perhaps I ought to know. Now I want to try some Shakespeare or Kafka.



Edit: Okay, I couldn't help myself. Here is Hamlet:

A New Search Engine

I'm rather fond of Google, but it's fun to try new alternatives. Cuil.com (pronounced: 'cool') claims to be the World's biggest, and they do have a slick layout. There are some strange mismatches with images at times, but not in this example when I searched for Kirkwood. We came up right at the top! Now that's cool.

Online Student Orientation Video

New to Summer 2008, we began sending all online students a link to an orientation video. It's a quick five/six minute video highlighting all the "must know" information about taking an online course at Kirkwood. The video is then followed by a quick acknowledgment quiz that help us help students. That's the idea anyway. We will know more about how well it is working once classes are done for the Summer. But one benefit I know it is having already - when we send out emails to students and they bounce back, we are able to fix much-needed contact information in the system. This is so crucial!

If you are taking an online class, be sure to have your correct email and phone number listed in EagleNet. 

IACON 2008

A small group from Distance Learning attended the annual Iowa Conference on Distance Education sponsored by IDLA and IACT. So many acronyms, so little time. It is a smaller conference, but right here in downtown CR! Presentations and key notes spoke on a range of hot topics in distance education (Web 2.0, Second Life, Engaging Learners, Supporting Struggling Students, Tools for Educators, Digital Story Telling, and many more).

I'm not always the most graceful social butterfly, so conferences help me break out of my box a bit. I meet some people, I learn from them. It's a good thing. Here are some items I found interesting.

• "School is where young people go to watch old people work" -- I'm not sure who this quote is attributed to, but the speaker was making a point. Not that this is the way it should be, of course.
• MeBeam.com -- This is a crazy simple video chat site. Just type in an agreeable room name and you are connected to anyone else who typed in that name.
  
• Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson - A cute little tale about change and how we choose to cope with it.
• PSA Videos -- 30 second segments packed full of useful and important information. This idea will likely make its way into my video series for online learners.
  

Blogs explained

As Kirkwood begins to make its way into the world of blogging, I thought it timely to share an explanation. Lee LeFever at commoncraft.com -- a blogger himself -- offers a creative and informative video to explain blogs.

CE6 Combined Login Page

Kirkwood's Learning Management System, Blackboard CE6, received a little attention this weekend. It's the little things that are truly most appreciated. Am I right? In an effort to streamline the login procedure, Blackboard (finally) made it possible to combine the login screen with the landing page.



Previously, the landing page had two buttons, one for Login and one for View Course List. With this set-up we bypass that page. One less click for everyone. Think of the time you will save!

Unfortunately, this page is not further customizable. There is still no way to remove the Forgot your password link or the View Course List button. These do nothing for us at Kirkwood but cause confusion. It's best to just ignore them. That's what I do. If ever you do forget your password, the password web site will be much more useful. And if you cannot remember your user name, take a look at the k number page.

(Be careful not to bookmark this login page - your login might fail if arriving via a bookmark or favorite. Instead, bookmark the eLearning page if you like.)

Online Student Success - Instructor Quotes

I'm working on an online-student orientation video script and we solicited quotes from faculty who are teaching online. I asked faculty to share a thought or two about what accounts for successful students in their online courses. There were multiple requests to share these quotes, so here they are...

1. Students should communicate with their instructors. Send e-mails or call with any questions or issues. We are here to help! And we can't help unless we know that help is needed.
2. Print off the syllabus and read it!
3. Use the Calendar and keep up with deadlines for assessments and assignments.
4. Do not PROCRASTINATE! Procrastination is rewarding but deadly and has sunk many a student. Watch deadlines and pace yourself through the course. Set up a study schedule and get on the computer every day you possible can. Get into a rountine.
5. "Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." -- Lou Holtz, Football Coach
6. My biggest suggestion is to be disciplined, and set aside a regular time each week to work on your class, as if you had the class face to face. Even if that time is 3:00am.
7. Pay attention to due dates on your assignments. Don't fall behind. Don't make excuses. Don't wait until the end of the semester to start. Set aside time each day for your class and stick to it! You'll be amazed how much easier the course will seem.
8. Distance learning is self-directed learning. It requires a high level of personal responsibility, dedication, and self-discipline on the part of the student. In order to succeed, you must log in to the course regularly to check for announcements, participate in discussions, and engage with course content.
9. If the course offers an opportunity to "practice" submitting assignments and responding to comments through the submission link, use this chance to get comfortable with this process prior to submitting.
10. Make it a point to check your course every day. Once you have the habit, then it is easy to stay up on assignments and discussions.
11. Please save your assignments in Rich Text Format .rtf. That way your assignment can be read by me and by your peer reviewer regardless of what word processing program is being used.
12. Take some time at the beginning of the course to navigate through the course material.
13. If you are having problems or have questions, be sure to ask.
14. Staying on track with the course outline and due dates are important in being sucessful.
15. One of the challenges in an online class is remembering when assignments are due. Try posting your syllabus in a visible place in your home. If you make a habit of looking at the syllabus several times during the week, you will be less likely to miss assignments. Also, set reminders for assignment due dates on your email system calendar.
16. Check into Blackboard regularly for announcements and emails. When you submit an assignment, check back in a day or two to be sure it was submitted properly and that your instructor was able to open any attachments.
    
17. Make sure you know how your instructor prefers to be contacted. I want questions about the course to come to me via Blackboard; others prefer that you use their Kirkwood address.
18. If you have problems using the website, utilize the technical support option instead of contacting the instructor.
19. I would say "Communicate with your instructor"! or "Follow instructions for assignment submissions carefully"!
20. Want success in online Comp I? Possess eagerness to accept challenge, computer comfort, self-discipline and willingness to work with teams.

Connecting with Students Online

I'm a little embarrassed that I encouraged people to attend this webinar yesterday. The title was so promising. The presentation was too simplistic. He focused on tech tools (e.g. what's a blog? hmmm, let me think...) and not on methods for using those tools. He spent time classifying types of orientations and never spoke to which works for which groups.

On a more positive note, several of us did sit and chat after the presentation. We talked about this project and several others that are in the works. Should be good times ahead for Kirkwood students. Or maybe just more connected times ahead. And connections are good.