EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing

Used Etherpad http://bit.ly/xOXdr today in class with 50+ students for classwide brainstorming - worked brilliantly


ETUG member, Grant Potter, tweets some success with EtherPad today. It looks like a very useful and robust tool for the classroom or any type of group collaboration.

EtherPad is the only web-based word processor that allows people to work together in really real-time.

When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone's screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more.

New Google Form Features

Google Forms now supports branching http://bit.ly/ayCRW



I saw this tweet from ETUG member, Clint Lalonde, this morning and jumped on it! I've always loved the ease of Google Forms, but it has always been a bare bones solution. The Official Google Docs Blog reports two new features.

Have you ever wanted to create a form that changes which questions to show next based on an answer received earlier in the form? The two features we launched today make that easy. First, we've added one of the most requested features for forms: page breaks. Now it is easy to create a form with multiple pages by going to 'Add item' and selecting 'Page break.'

We've also added another highly requested feature, logic branching. Once you've created a form with multiple pages, you can select 'Go to page based on answer' to control the flow of your form based on the user's answers. For example, you can create a form asking the person to select their language and then direct them to a form in the correct language.

Adobe kulers

Adobe's "kuler" site is a place to get ideas for colour themes (sets of five colours) and/or explore the world of colour by creating your own combinations.

You need to set up an account in order to get the colour information to use in a web or other documents. Once you sign-in, you can also create and save your own themes. The themes can be downloaded as swatches for use in Adobe products.

http://kuler.adobe.com

Sir Ken Robinson on creativity in schools

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It has many great videos ... well worth a browse.

Sir Ken Robinson's talk "nurture creativity, don't kill it." at the 2006 TED Conference is the first I heard, and is still worth a listen.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

The CU Online Handbook

The CU Online Handbook is a free publication that is available for download (PDF). The book is edited by Patrick R. Lowenthal, David Thomas, Anna Thai, and Brian Yuhnke. Here is a preview of the Table of Contents:

Trends and Issues with Online Learning
1. From Reluctant and Reticent to Engaged and Enthusiastic: The Passage to Online Teaching
Susan Giullian

2. Preparing Special Education Teachers Through Online Instruction
Donna Sobel

3. Using eCollege to Facilitate Learning, Provide for Program Coherence, Manage Accountability Innovations, and Ensure the Evolution of a Principal Licensure
Program
Connie Fulmer

4. Make, Share, Find: Web 2.0 and Informal Learning
Phil Antonelli

Technology in Action
5. The Advantages of a Ning Social Network Within a Higher Education Program
Laura Summers

6. Fresh and Forward-thinking: Using Blogs for Educational Purposes
Joanna C. Dunlap & Ellen Stevens

7. Hanging on by a Thread
Dorothy F. Garrison-Wade

8. Instructional Uses of Twitter
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal

9. Using Audio for Giving Feedback to Project Teams: A Useful Complement to Track Changes
Brent G. Wilson

10. Wordle… Just for Phluff?
Joanna C. Dunlap

11. A Teaching Video Project Brought to Closure
Farah A. Ibrahim

12. Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations
Patrick R. Lowenthal

Online Engagement - From Principles to Practice

eCampusAlberta, AB North and BCcampus invite you to attend a professional development web conference via Elluminate Live, September 8, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. PDT.

This session is designed to profile online engagement - from principles to practice. Join several practitioners and see how they manage synchronous and asynchronous technologies to not only support learning online, but also apply principles of engagement through everyday online technologies. Be forewarned - active learning and engagement is required!

Please join us as we bring together participants from three consortia and two provinces to kick off the academic year of professional development. To join the session, you'll need an audio set up with a microphone, for example a headset with a mic, and Internet access. Click on the link provided shortly before 1:30 on Sept 8. To log in, just type your first name, and the initials of the institution where you work (for example Bart UNBC).

If you have not previously attended an Elluminate Live web conference, please take 5 minutes well before the session and visit www.elluminate.com/support and follow the steps for first time users. A small Java applet will request access to your PC the first time you use Elluminate, but only the first time.

To join the live session on Tuesday, click the link below up to 30 minutes before the start of the session:
http://tinyurl.com/l3f7rz

Randy LaBonte, Consultant and PD Coordinator for Alberta-North, will be moderating a series of practical and fascinating sessions this fall. Randy has a wealth of professional development experience, so please join us Sept 8 and get acquainted.

ETUG » Fall 2009 Workshop

ETUG » Fall 2009 Workshop: "Fall 2009 Workshop
THEME: LEARNING DESIGN
Oct. 20 (Tuesday) & Oct. 21 (Wednesday), 2009
Segal School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

This year we are very pleased to present an expanded 2 day program for the ETUG Fall workshop.

* Day 1 : Grainne Conole from the Open University, UK, will help participants explore Compendium LD and Cloudworks – tools developed by the Open University Learning Design Initiative to help educators with the design process and sharing of design methods and approaches.

* Day 2: Grainne will give the opening plenary which will be followed by an exciting lineup of speakers on the following topics: learning space design, designing for engagement, large scale learning design, and collaborative learning models.

Also at the workshop:

* Institutional updates from ETUG members around BC
* Pub Social Tuesday night: (no host event) at the St. Regis Bar & Grill Regis Room. We hope to see you at there as we connect with ETUG colleagues old and new!

Registration: early September - so watch for an announcement coming soon.

Cost: 2-day event is $50 + GST and includes continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments for both days.

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day: Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 - August Update

Jane Hart's Top 10 Tools August 2009 list is now available. Here is the snapshot. This website is not only an excellent way to quickly find tools that meet the needs of your task at hand, but the process for compiling and ranking the top tools is also interesting. What are your Top 10 tools for 2009? We'll be watching for your name on the list of learning professionals who have shared their lists. :-)

DiscoverEd

We all appreciate the many open educational resources available these days. However, finding these resources can sometimes be a time-consuming process. This new tool looks like it could be very useful!

DiscoverEd is an experimental project from ccLearn which attempts to provide scalable search and discovery for educational resources on the web.

Readability

Readability is a tool that instantly transforms any web page into something that is EASY to read. Is the text too small? Are there distracting graphics on the side? Click the readability button and all of that changes. This tweet from Clint Lalonde says it all:

I love Readability, esp for longer texts. Anything that strips away distraction is good for helping me tame my monkey mind.

Amazing Stories of Openness

Let's hear from you! In preparation for the Open Education conference in Vancouver, August 2009, Alan Levine (aka CogDog) is seeking amazing stories from YOU. They don't have to be huge multimedia projects -- just say a few words about something from your own experiences. Alan will even work with your to figure out the best way to share your story. Do it!

Check this wiki for all the details.

AACE Global U - Social Media Seminar Series

The first of the free, monthly AACE Global U - Social Media Seminar Series, facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier, was held yesterday and attracted over 300 people. The recording is available here.

The full schedule and details are available on the AACE website. Here's the description:

Social media and emerging technologies are gaining increased attention for use in education. The list of tools grows daily.

Examples: blogs, wikis, Ning, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, cloud computing, surface computing, mobile learning, and so on.

"Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning" will explore the impact of new technologies, research, and related projects.

What does it all mean? Do long term trends and change cycles exist in the constant change? What patterns are emerging?

And, perhaps most importantly, should academics and education leaders respond?

"Social Media" will explore emerging technological and related research trends from a perspective of social and networked learning theory.

Finding coherence in the midst of rapid changes is increasingly difficult. This monthly session will create a forum for educators to gather, present, and discuss the future impact of today's trends.

Effective Practices in a Digital Age

Effective Practices in a Digital Age was published this week by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK. This guide is intended for those in higher education seeking to understand how to better integrate technology into their teaching. The 60-page document is available for download at no cost. There is also an option to order a print version and accompanying videos and podcasts. It contains several useful case studies as well as practical learning design guidelines.

Thanks to Tony Bates for bringing this resource to our attention.

Learn Together: Tagging Your Tiddlers

Lynda Williams from University of Northern British Columbia has treated us to 2 excellent Learn Together sessions on TiddlyWiki:
1. TiddlyWiki for Beginners (archive)
2. Building a Faculty Manual in TiddlyWiki (archive)

Now we can learn how to tag those tiddlers! Curious? Join us Wednesday, June 24, at 10:00 PDT (see your time zone) This session will be informative even if you were unable to attend previous TiddlyWiki sessions. Bonnie Johnston from British Columbia Institute of Technology will be our moderator.

Learn Together sessions are regular get-togethers facilitated by BC post-secondary educational practitioners and focused on specific topics related to teaching and learning. There is no cost to attend and everyone is welcome!

Second Life for Educators: Orientation Workshops

You're invited to participate in an upcoming series of free Second Life for Educators orientation workshops.

Have you heard of the virtual world of Second Life, perhaps even that it is being used for educational purposes, but been unsure of whether it’s worth exploring or not had time to do so? Have you gotten an account and entered the world and then dismissed it because you didn’t want to deal with the learning curve or couldn’t find anything worthwhile?

If you are an educator and answered yes to any of these questions, this series of workshops may be for you. Part of a BCIT - BCcampus [funded] project designed to mitigate some of the barriers to entering Second Life (SL), the workshops will provide educators with an introduction to the world, the knowledge and skills necessary to use it, and some of the issues relating to its use educationally.

Check the SLBC blog for full details about workshop dates, what you will learn, and how to register.

OpenEd 2009: Crossing the Chasm

If you happen to live near Vancouver, British Columbia or think you might like to visit in August (who wouldn't?) this is a conference that shouldn't be missed! Open Education Conference — OpenEd 2009: Crossing the Chasm: will be held at UBC’s Robson Square Campus. Registration is now open, the keynote speakers will be fantastic, and the program is taking great shape.

The Open Educator as DJ - Towards a Practice of Remix

Scott Leslie's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

The Urgency of Open Education

Brian Lamb's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site

4 Free Audio Players to Add Audio to Your Site by ClintLalonde.net:

Adding audio to your website, blog or online course is pretty easy to do these days. Long gone are the days when we would force students to download and install proprietary players like Real Player or Quicktime. With the ubiquity of Flash and JavaScript, and mp3 we now have more options for delivering audio on the web than ever before.

Course Design Institute at UBC

The Centre for Teaching and Academic growth at UBC is extending an invitation to register for the TAG - Course Design Institute. This Institute is open to participants from all BC post-secondary institutions. There is a $50.00 registration deposit required, which will be returned to individuals who complete the entire three days of the Institute, but there are no other fees for this first offering.

Will you be teaching a course in the next academic year? When are you planning to design it? Plan your course NOW, by participating in the first TAG and Partners Course Design Institute!

The first TAG and Partners Course Design Institute will be held from June 24th - 26th, 2009, at UBC, and will help you to design or re-design a course!

What: An intensive 3 days in a supportive atmosphere, working both individually and collaboratively, to design or re-design a course that you teach or are planning to teach. You must register and attend for the entire Institute - three days of morning and afternoon participatory seminars on course design topics. To participate, you must have a course that you would like to design or re-design, regardless of the mode (face-to-face, online, or mixed-mode). You will be asked to bring any existing course documents and materials with you to the Institute.