Everyone is tweeting on twitter!

Imagine having instant access to new ideas, important campus updates, meeting results - all by just answering your phone! Imagine being able to communicate to all your students instantly by simply texting on your phone! When I first learned about twitter, I admit...I was a skeptic. It struck me as rather narcissistic.

But for every negative I could come up with, there was a positive screaming out "but wait!" Here are the top 10 reasons to twitter in the educational setting:

1. Immediate - Connect to students/people in an instant.
2. Concise - Every professional email in theory written in just characters.
3. Handy - Twitter from your phone.
4. Network - effectively communicate without leaving your chair.
5. Goldmine - A wealth of information waiting out in cyberspace.
6. Collaborate - Together we're better - a virtual staffroom.
7. Self awareness/reflection - Reading about other educators’ experiences makes you question/confirm your own practices
8. Idea generator - great medium for sharing ideas and getting feedback.
9. Get smarter: Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of espresso
10. Don't be left behind! EVEN THE PRESIDENT IS DOING IT!



How to twitter:

Customizing your D2L Homepage

Did you know you can customize the look of your D2L homepage? If you are bothered by the "role switch" widget, or want to make a custom widget featuring youtube, a blog or other information - watch our video and learn how to create your own look.

Click here to view video

Articulate

Energize your courses with Articulate Engage—a quick and easy tool that lets you create lean-forward experiences that learners love. The ability to produce dazzling interactions that turn passive viewers into active learners.

Easy-to-use templates let you create rich-media interactivity in minutes. Choose from a wide range of interaction types, including process, timeline, pyramid diagram, labeled graphic, interactive FAQ, and more. The familiar Flash format allows interactions to integrate seamlessly into virtually any e-learning course, or even stand alone on any Web site. Once you see how quickly and easily you can create great looking interactive content, you'll never want to produce passive e-learning again.

Here's a quick sample we made using videos shot with nursing faculty Nancy Hust and Amy Sands. You can upload images, or videos along with customized text to create a quick, professional engaging activity:

click here for sample

This software is available for staff use in GL132.

Quandary

Remember the old "choose your own adventure" books where you get to decide what the character does, but have to suffer the consequences if the choice was wrong? Now you can create your own adventure for your students with Quandary, from Half-Baked software. A quandary reads like a story, but contains a large number of Decision Points where the reader will have to make a choice between several courses of action. Clicking on the link carries the story further, but a different decision point will arise with an entirely new set of choices.

You can create your own scenario for ethics, law, sociology, etc. with this simple tool. All you need is a PC and a little imagination!

This shareware program only works on pc at the moment (sorry Mac users.) For more information,click here.

Want to try a couple of Quandary mazes out for fun? Click here.

Livescribe

Impressive. Amazing. Easy. All words to describe Livescribe's breakthrough technology that lives in a pen. This amazing tool visually records what you write, while simultaneously recording the audio you speak. Files are immediately uploadable to your D2L site, or embeddable in a blog as below. New adjunct math instructor Chris Person-Rennell has become a quick expert and uploaded several lessons for students to view. He shares a sample below. Livescribe is available to use in GL 122.

Click here to view Chris's lesson.

Barcode Scanning Makes Registration Smoothe Sailing

You never know where you'll find technology inspired greatness! We only had to look out our back door this week to see the Student Success Day volunteers scanning registrant's IDs as they entered the building. A number of "success days" back, after painstakingly taking down student names by hand, Deb Ellsworth got a brilliant idea. She approached Teddy Wieczorek and Wail Kailani from the library and inquired about the potential of the library barcode scanner. With their help, she arranged for a loan of the scanner and they connected it to a laptop where data can be directly imported into an excel spreadsheet. Deb was exhuberant about the amount of time it saved - for both volunteers and students waiting to register. Subsequently, media services has ordered scanners that are now available for checkout for staff who could use this technology.

What is all the hubbub about MP3s, and why should I use them in my class? MP3s use the third audio layer of the MPEG (moving pictures expert group) compression standard, thus the name. This compression removes much of the extra audio information and frequencies that your ear can't hear and delivers a file that is 1/12 the size of equivalent audio. What this means for you and your students is fast upload and download of audio files to your D2L site for Distance Ed. classes, as well as "Web Enhanced" classes.

RCTC's Educational Technology Department has purchased SonyMP3 recorders for check-out. MP3 file creation is a snap, as you record your lecture or review, connect the recorder to your computer, and upload the audio files to your D2L class. It's just another way the Educational Technology Department can help you reach your learners. To learn more, stop down to the Educational Technology Department, or visit us during one of our Technology Showcases.

Virtual You - Make an Animated Movie

For this week's blog, press the play button on the movie!



To build your own virtual you,
http://www.xtranormal.com

PREZI! (or powerpoint is so yesterday!)

This summer one of the most refreshing things found everywhere at the D2L conference was another free Web 2.0 tool called Prezi!

Prezi takes your tired Powerpoint presentations and WAKES THEM UP! It does away with linear slide organization. Working from one giant canvas, Prezi allows you to feature, zoom and create relational patterns connecting thoughts - allowing you to say what you want to say concisely and beautifully.

While we may not be experts yet, take a look at our mini-sample: (Picture it full size!)

Click on the arrow located at the middle-bottom of box to control. Keep clicking thorugh.



Now!...try it yourself at

http://www.prezi.com

Interested in an inservice? Be sure to leave a comment below:

LP Conversion is Here

Have old instructional records that are out of print? With the help of the Educational Technology department we can convert those old LPs to CD with our new USB record player. This Sony LP player includes a transducer which digitizes the audio for input to the computer. When used with the included audio software, the file can be saved in any number of file formats including .aiff, .wav, and mp3. The LP is recorded in real time, so there is no quick duplication. This should help preserve the much needed LP audio tracks that you need in your class.

To take a closer look at this Sony player, stop down during one of our Technology Showcases in the Technology Support Center, Room GL120.

Turning Point Clicker Kits

This week we feature Holly Bigelow for her use of the TurningPoint 2008 Clicker Kits to enhance student participation.

Holly Bigelow, Director of Admissions and Records, wanted to encourage involvement in a recent presentation. Using the TurningPoint 2008 audience response system, she converted her PowerPoint slides into an interactive presentation that included audience feedback. The Clicker Kits are available to checkout from Educational Technology. Stop by for a demonstration. Congratulations to Holly Bigelow for using technology to enhance participation!

Featured Staff: Nancy Hust and Amy Sands

This week we feature Nancy Hust and Amy Sands for their innovative ideas to help students retain vital information to pass their tests and nursing boards.

The RCTC Nursing instructors decided that the current procedural materials used in their courses could be better explained through video to aid students. Using an instructional design approach, Hust and Sands broke down several procedures into a detailed step-by-step process. With the aid of the RCTC Educational Technology Department, the nurses used their acting talents and nursing professionalism to recreate these situations for videotape. The edited procedures were then captured and streamed through the RCTC server and the links were posted in their D2L class sites. To view these exciting procedures, click on the link below. Congratulations to Nancy Hust and Amy Sands for using technology to enhance student learning!

CLICK HERE

Doodle!

Tired of the time it takes to plan a date and time for a meeting between several people? You can either do it the old fashioned way and send out an Outlook invite - and receive several “Decline to attend” responses - or you can set up a poll in Doodle to see what time works best for everyone, and then lock it in place. In short, Doodle makes it easy by using a web poll-based scheduling system. (It’s not a calendar. )

Doodle takes the pain out of scheduling events by replacing the human coordinator with a simple web application. No registration is required for organizers or attendees and it's free! It has a clean, simple, intuitive interface. Schedule meeting options in 3 easy steps then email the link to attendees to gather their input. That’s it. When the organizer views the results, a tally appears at the bottom of each suggested date.

For more information and to sign up, click here: http://www.doodle.com/

Educational Gaming

For those that may have missed the gaming seminar at last week's staff development day, Educational Technology would like to share links to some great games you may find useful in your classes.

Purpose Games

These first two examples come from purpose games (www.purposegames.com)

How well do you know your Minnesota geography? Take this quiz to find out!

CLICK HERE

Think you know Hollywood? Match the P name with the leading actor or actress.

CLICK HERE


Study Mate

Studymate provides games that can be used by learners such as Flash Cards, Crossword Puzzles, Matching, and Pick a Letter. RCTC has paid for Studymate licenses, and you can download the application to your home PC, or ask the friendly TSC Staff to install it on your imaged workstation. Your completed quiz can easily be uploaded into your D2L class site. Contact Educational Technology if you would like assistance. (Sorry Mac users, this is currently a PC only download.)

How to access: Log into your D2L account. Under "Course Offerings," enter the Resource Room. Click on the Studymate Link (about 1/3 of the way down the page.) Download by clicking on the Studymate 2.0 link. When the installer has completed its job, launch the application. Copy and Paste the RCTC institution name, Support Contact (Missy Hagen,) and serial number into the required field when prompted.

Do you know your Springsteen from Springfield? Ann Gillian from Gilligan? Take this Pop Culture quiz to test your knowledge.

Click Here

Game Show Presenter

Want to turn your class into a game show? This fun (and sometimes obnoxious) game can be purchased for $149. per license. If you want to try it out, you can download a copy to evaluate with the link below.

CLICK HERE

Quia

Quia allows users to play classic games like Husker Du and Battleship while learning course materials. This game is sort of a hybrid between Purpose Games and Studymate, with many different type of games available for creation. Licenses cost at most $49. per instructor annually, and are actually cheaper if more licenses are purchased. For more information...

Click Here

The Last Lecture

If you enjoyed the Last Lecture and want to learn basic computer programming, try Alice. This free program allows you to animate 3D characters using fun, easy to follow tutorials. Kids enjoy it too!

Click Here

Have you built a game using one of these tools? Using a game not featured here? Tell us about it!

Online Learning Club

This week the Distance Education Committee unveiled their new Online Learning Club. The first presenter was adjunct faculty business instructor Todd Johnson. These sessions are presented virtually using Adobe Connect and recorded for later viewing to those who can't attend the meeting live. The topic for their first meeting was "Rapid Fire Feedback" in which Johnson gives audio and visual feedback to students while scrolling through their paper. Check it out:

click here to view Todd's presentation



Todd Johnson
Rapid Fire Feedback

Featured staff: Randy Renken using Voicethread

Randy came to Ed Tech early this semester looking for a way to create visuals to teach his students names and parts of the human skeleton. Typically Voicethread is a great tool for class interaction - however, it also is a tool which allows you to stop video action. This, combined with voice recording and the ability to annotate on top of the movie, proved to be not only a great collaborative tool, but also a great tool for creating presentations. Guy Hamernik took Randy's collection of bones, placed them on a turntable covered with black velvet and videoed each bone. Randy took it from there and narrated an entire collection of videos. Here's a sample:

http://voicethread.com/share/