via Design Rich Blended Learning with Learning Battle Cards.

This session at Blackboard Collaborate Connections Summit shared Northern Illinois University’s journey offering live online faculty development workshops using Blackboard Collaborate as well as making online workshop archives available for on-demand viewing either online, in iTunes, or on a mobile device. Emphasis was placed on NIU’s step-by-step workflow for using Publish! in conjunction with Blackboard Collaborate to create MP4 versions of archives suitable for viewing online as well as on mobile devices to deliver archived online faculty development programs in podcast form. The presentation includes considerations for hosting archives outside Blackboard Collaborate as well as the steps necessary to create a podcast RSS feed, submit to the iTunes store, and update the necessary files when a new MP4 archive from Blackboard Collaborate is generated. Podcasting Online Faculty Development Programs Using Blackboard Collaborate MP4 Archives

In response to my recent post sharing reflections of my students concerning Twitter chats in a recent blended course I taught, I was interviewed by Jennifer Funk from the ed tech blog edcetera to share more of my thoughts on the use of Twitter for developing a personal learning network. The resulting article is available here and below I’ve included the full interview transcript. Q: From a pedagogical standpoint, what is the value of integrating Twitter into the curriculum? Twitter broadens the conversation beyond the confines of classroom, allowing for others who also may have insights and resources to share to be included in the conversation. In a social-constructivist approach to teaching that relies upon students actively engaging with the subject matter and sharing their ideas with others, any venue whereby students are able to easily share their ideas, additional resources they may find, as well as converse with one another and their instructor is worth considering. Twitter is indeed a fantastic tool for students to not only share their perspectives on issues, but to also to share links to additional resources as well as to engage in conversations with experts in their field of study. Since one of my goals in my teaching is to help my graduate students (who are all in-service teachers) build their own individual personal learning networks that they can continued to develop long after they finish my course and even their graduate program, I currently see Twitter as a must-use tool for my students in building their personal learning networks. When introducing students to Twitter, they are often hesitant initially to setup a new social network account. However, after becoming familiar with the tool and understanding how "tweets" can be far more than just text status updates, but include links, photos, and even video, I find that my students truly embrace use of Twitter and find it to be a valuable tool in their own professional development. As they follow other educators, they build a network of colleagues and resources that they continue to learn from and learn with the rest of their lives! The fact that Twitter is such a dynamic tool and it is optimized for mobile devices is another compelling reason for incorporating it into the curriculum. With the proliferation of mobile devices and preferences for many students to use their mobile device in place of other traditional desktop and laptop computers, technologies that are designed for mobile use are much more likely to be easily incorporated into the curriculum. No matter what mobile platform a student may have, there is guaranteed to be a mobile app available that makes it easy not only follow, but also contribute to a conversation on Twitter, anytime, anywhere! Twitter is also very flexible and can be utilized in numerous ways, both within the classroom as well as outside to continue a conversation. Faculty who teach large lecture sections could incorporate Twitter as a backchannel for students to ask questions, reflect on their learning, and engage in a dialogue during a lecture. Those who teach smaller sections, labs, or online courses can make use of Twitter to provide news and updates, provide links to additional resources, or even simply seed thoughts for discussion. While Twitter is primarily an asynchronous form of communication, the ability for real-time updates and search of what others are contributing right now make it a fantastic tool for current events and following public conversations in real-time. If one wishes to keep their tweets private and restricted to only a few select followers, that capability is also available. The true value however in Twitter is that conversations are public, allowing for anyone/anywhere to contribute. Q: Realizing that fear (loss of control, loss of time, etc.) is a deterrent for many professors who might be otherwise interested in using social networks with students, what hesitations did you have about using Twitter with yours, and most importantly, what policies/procedures/strategies did you put in place to minimize the risk factors? A cautious approach to using social networking tools with students is certainly advisable. In deciding to try using Twitter in my teaching, there were a number of hesitations that I needed to overcome. First, I was concerned about protecting the privacy of both my students and myself, not wanting to give too much personal information. I didn’t really want to see personal tweets from my students, nor did I want to merge my own personal social networking activities with those for my teaching. I also was unsure as to how I might best encourage my students to participate. I did want them to regularly participate on Twitter, but also needed to maintain the graded discussion activities hosted within the learning management system (LMS). I also wasn’t sure if I would need to, or how I would, manage the volume of posts from students. I was used to years of teaching primarily with the discussion board tool and was conditioned to always reading every post that student would make. I wasn’t sure how much students would make use of Twitter and as a result, how much extra reading would I need to do in order to keep up with the conversations that were taking place. Overall, I needed to come to grips with the realization that I could not "control the experience" in the same way as I had traditionally controlled discussions within the LMS. While I could provide guidelines and expectations for the students, they ultimately could post anything they wanted and there was a risk of the discussion diverging from it’s intended path. While this "risk" always existed within the LMS, the difference was that the environment of the LMS is controlled (with only the students and myself being able to view the conversations), whereas the public nature of Twitter potentially exposes any conversation to be access by anyone. After deciding to try using Twitter in my teaching, there were a number of decisions that I needed to make in terms of how I personally would interact with my students on Twitter. I decided I would keep sharing personal "what I’m doing now" types of information to a minimum, but wouldn’t completely abstain from all personal information. I would occasionally share a photo or a more personal bit of info so students would feel as though there were able to connect with me on a more personal level. I selected a hashtag for the course, beginning with the # sign, that wasn’t already being used prevalently on Twitter that I would post all course-related tweets to and would instruct students to do the same. Hashtags that I have used include: #edt6030 #edt6040 #edt6060 #wd1231 I scheduled regular times each day to check Twitter, generally once in the morning, around lunchtime, and in the evening. I found that I was able to quickly read and respond to the latest tweets from my students and didn’t need to spend as much time reading and responding as I typically spend within the discussion board in the LMS. I drafted detailed expectations and instructions for my participating. I included these expectations in my syllabus and discussed them with students during our first class meeting together. I found numerous examples already online for how other educators where using Twitter in formulating my own approach. I recommend taking a look at available Twitter rubrics, such as the one shared by the University of Wisconsin - Stout here. In my most recent course section taught, I required students to tweet, with details of my expectations and a summary of the feedback that resulted from my students here. However, I’ve also in other courses made Twitter simply an optional mode of communication that students can choose to engage with me in if they wish. I informed students prior to our first class meeting together of the expectation to "tweet" for the course and asked students to sign-up for Twitter accounts prior to class. I encouraged students to bring their mobile devices to our first f2f class session and introduced Twitter to my students during that first class session. We discussed together the options for keeping their accounts private or public, but after we discussed the value of allowing others from outside our class to participate in the discussions, the unanimous decision was made to keep our accounts public. At several different points throughout the course, I specifically asked my students how the experience using Twitter was going and I we were able to work through a few additional questions that they had. The students found Twitter to be very easy to use, once they understood the basics and by the end of the course, students in the course where they were required to tweet each week, had unanimously found Twitter to be of great value to their own personal learning. Q: You write that one of your goals in creating the Twitter assignment was to "expand the discussion beyond the scope of the typical Blackboard discussion space"; what is your reasoning for moving conversations outside of controlled environments and into public social networks? In what way can this kind of activity not necessarily replace what you do on Blackboard, but instead support it? There were several reasons why I wanted to move certain conversations outside of the controlled environment of the LMS and into a public social networks. First of all, using a public social network allows others from outside the class section to contribute. For example, in the instance where more than one section of a course is being taught, students can engage in conversations with students, and other faculty as well, from across the various sections, but even beyond to students from around the world interested in that subject matter! Having a single conversation that students from multiple sections, as well as other faculty or experts who may wish to contribute, poses some fascinating opportunities for conversations and resource sharing! Another reason I chose to make us of a social networking site was that conversations within a social network live on after the course ends, whereas conversations within the course discussion board end when the course does. I didn’t want the resource sharing and collaboration activities to end when the course did, but wanted the experience to have the potential of being more transformative in that students would develop personal learning networks that they could continue developing after the course was over. I did not abandon the secure discussion boards for the course. I still find secured discussion within the LMS to be effective for more in-depth, academic conversations where students are honing their academic writing skills and expressing their ideas in more substantive way. Many LMS’s have integrated assessment tools that aid in the evaluation of contributions to discussion boards, still making them very efficient and effective for in-depth conversations. But, for select discussion activities that are more surface-level, using Twitter can certainly be a viable alternative Q: How long had you been a Twitter user before integrating it into your curriculum? While I had been using Twitter for over a year before I finally began integrating it into my curriculum, that amount of use prior to incorporating into the curriculum isn’t necessary. After just a few weeks of use, one should be comfortable tweeting and be able to begin considering ways to implement. A familiarity and comfort level with the features of Twitter is all that is necessary. Q: For those faculty who have not yet familiarized themselves with the platform, what resources or strategies do you suggest they employ prior to attempting to use it with students? Or, do you believe there is value in learning alongside students? I do believe there is value in learning Twitter alongside students, but a basic familiarity is helpful and will greatly increase the likelihood for a successful integration in the curriculum. For that reason, here are a few resources to review and recommendations from my own experience that I would pass along to any educator getting started with Twitter in their teaching: Become familiar with Twitter yourself first. You don’t need to be a Twitter expert and can learn to an extent alongside your students, but I feel you do need an initial familiarity with the process of posting to Twitter, following others, retweeting (aka: forwarding tweets from others), following hashtag searches, and sending direct messages. A good place to start is to view the "Twitter Basics" and "Extending Twitter" tutorials. For even more resources, see jasonrhode.com/tag/twitter Install the Twitter app on your mobile device and start using Twitter consistently (daily). While you can login to twitter.com to check see the latest tweets in your stream, if you do have a mobile device, you will likely find that accessing Twitter via an app is a quicker and equally effective way to follow the conversations of your students. Follow several other educators on Twitter and see how they are using Twitter. There are many great directories of Twitter users you might consider checking out where you can find other Twitter users to follow, such as wefollow.com, twellow.com, or tweetfind.com. You also can feel free to follow me @jrhode. Read the book, "Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices" by Tanya Joosten. This book is a fantastic primer for anyone looking to incorporate social media, including Twitter, in their teaching. You can grab a copy of the book from Amazon here. Let others know that you are on Twitter. Include your Twitter username in your email signature, in presentations you give at professional conferences, etc. Setup a saved search for your course hashtag that you can then follow. I mentioned earlier the importance of selecting a course hashtag and instructing students to include the course hashtag in any course-related tweets. To easily follow just the course-related tweets from your students (and not necessarily all the tweets from your students), do a search for your course hashtag and save that search either on your mobile Twitter app or at twitter.com. In doing so, you’ll be able to quickly select that saved search and see the latest course tweets. Setup a private list each course section you teach and add students to that course-specific list as well as a separate list of students. Lists within Twitter are wonderful for creating a subset of users that you wish to follow. I recommend creating a list called "students" where you can add all your students as well as separate lists for each of the sections you teach. Add students to whichever list corresponds to their section. As long as you keep your lists private, you will be the only person who can see the collection of tweets sorted by either all your students or just the students for a particular section. If you ever need to see all the tweets from a subset of your students, or from all your students, you’ll then be able to do so by accessing your lists. Don’t feel like you must read every tweet from everyone you follow. Twitter isn’t like email where you have an inbox that fills up with emails you receive from others. Rather, Twitter can be compared to a stream that is continually flowing. The more people you follow on Twitter, the harder it will become to read everything that those you follow post. That’s ok! Twitter let’s you see what individuals are saying right now. It is for this reason again that if you want to engage with students via Twitter, I suggest that you login on a daily basis to keep up with the flow of conversation. Add a Twitter widget to your course. Make it easy for your students to see the latest course-related tweets when they login to your course. One way of doing this is to create a Twitter widget and and embed within your course that will scroll the latest new tweets for a specified hashtag. See the quick video tutorial here for creating a Twitter widget and posting embedding it in Blackboard. The process would be similar for any other LMS. If you blog already, feed your blog posts to your Twitter account. Now this is an advanced recommendation, but if you do already have a blog, consider using Twitter as another means of sharing with others the content that you are blog. You can use a free utility like IFTTT.com, twiterfeed.com, or some other tool that will allow you to automatically share your blog contributions on Twitter. These new tweets that are automatically posted to your Twitter account from our blog will contain a link to the blog article, driving followers back to your blog. Q: Anything else you’d like to add? Let me just encourage you again to give Twitter a try! I’d love to hear more of your experience using Twitter in your teaching. You can "tweet me" @jrhode

So much about the way we teach, learn and communicate is up for grabs. Educators are using new tools and technologies to reach their students … but what does the future hold? How will we get there? Hear from various experts in the fields of business, education and technology who gathered on the campus of Abilene Christian University for ACU’s Connected Summit 2011. Listen as these thought leaders share their perspectives.

In 2011, Katy Independent School District, in partnership with Cisco, launched the final phase of a technology transformation. Learn how Katy ISD realized their vision for education transformation with a BYOD mobile learning strategy.

Mobile learning is seen by many as a disruptive technology. This is because it has been identified as a technology which holds great potential to transform the learning and teaching within a classroom. What follows is a mash up presented at the NSWDEC 5th biennial equity conference in 2011 which explains some of the issues.

Twitter has become a common tool for communicating and collaborating that is part blog, part social networking site, and part mobile phone/IM tool. During this session at the 2012 SLATE Conference, October 12, 2012, Jason Rhode shared his experiences of incorporating online resource sharing chat activities, via Twitter, for mobile learning in an online course, as well as practical recommendations for those considering utilizing Twitter in teaching and learning. Participants were encouraged to bring their Twitter account to participate and use hashtag #twitterinedu Also, this HootCourse was setup and used as an example of creating a restricted Twitter group for a course. Click here to join our backchannel on HootCourse! Session Goals Build a foundation for why educators may wish to incorporate Twitter into their teaching, learning, and professional development Give examples of what a few other educators have done thus far implementing Twitter in their teaching Share the experiences of incorporating online resource sharing chat activities, via Twitter, for mobile learning in an online course Provide practical recommendations for those considering utilizing Twitter in teaching and learning Suggest available tutorials, resources and tools for those interested in getting started Foundation Why should educators consider incorporating Twitter in their teaching? Here are just a few reasons: Extend learning experiences beyond the "walls" of the classroom Bring in current events to the curriculum Engage students within lecture-based instruction Connect students from across multiple sections or institutions Reach out to experts in the field Pull the world into your classroom Introduce students to informal professional development What other reasons come to mind for why educators may want to use Twitter in their teaching? Tweet your ideas using hashtag #twitterinedu Examples Here are a few examples of educators who have already leveraged Twitter in their teaching Gal from UT Rey Junco Jason Rhode - Twitter chats with online, graduate-level in-service teachers ? Are you aware of other examples of educators using Twitter? Tweet links to examples using hashtag #twitterinedu Literature What research has been conducted thus far on the use of Twitter in education? Here are links to a few studies: The Twitter experience: The role of Twitter in the formation and maintenance of personal learning networks In addition, Jason Rhode maintains a collection of articles on Twitter in education bookmarked at … Have another research article you’d recommend be added to this list? Tweet links to articles using hashtag #twitterinedu Experiences Add content from my previous blog posts with my experiences here… What has your experience been using Twitter in your teaching, learning, or professional development? Tweet your experiences using hashtag #twitterinedu Recommendations Here are recommendations for those getting started teaching with Twitter: Setup an account for yourself and follow a few other educators. The first step is for you yourself to initially become comfortable with using Twitter and to learn from your own experience whether or not Twitter is right for you. After you setup a free account at twitter.com, then follow a few others. For starters, you may want to follow the session presenter @jrhode and his NIU colleagues @slrichter and @jeffminor. Other great places to find other Twitter users include directories like WeFollow.com or ?? Use a Twitter app. While you can use Twitter from any web broswer, it is even easier to do so from a tablet or smart phone. If you have a mobile device, find an install a Twitter app and start using it. In the tools section below, links to recommended apps are shared. Try participating in a Twitter chat. As you begin following other educators, you may see mention of participating in a "twitter chat." This is simply a specified time during the week when individuals with similar interests engage in a chat on a specified topic using a chosen hashtag. Create a separate account for your class **optional**. If you’d like to keep course-specific tweets separate from your individual Twitter account, you can setup a separate Twitter account for your class. Examples include @wd1231 & @edt6030. Select a hashtag for your class and include it in your posts regarding the class. Select a unique hashtag and search Twitter to see if it is already in use. If not, then begin using it yourself to establish. Have your students who use Twitter follow you and use the designated hashtag in their course-related tweets. Include in your syllabus or other course information areas your Twitter username (or the Twitter username you’ve setup for your course) and remind students that they can follow you on Twitter. Set clear expectations for students on Twitter use in your course. Decide how you will use Twitter and then clearly communicate to students your expectations for their use of Twitter (if you require or simply make it an option) and let them know how/why you will use it. Post announcements, news, and other information items of interest using your selected hashtag. At a minimum, you can use Twitter to post news items for students. Set clear expectations for students on Twitter use in your course. Decide how you will use Twitter and then clearly communicate to students your expectations for their use of Twitter (if you require or simply make it an option) and let them know how/why you will use it. Create a list for each section and/or all students and add students to the list for easy sorting and viewing without following. If you prefer to not follow your students (personal preference), you can create a list and add all your students to your list. Once doing so, you’ll be able to easily view all tweets for a class section. Save a search of your course hashtag for easy access. Once saving a search, you can easily then return to that search from within your preferred Twitter app on Twitter.com What recommendations do you have for educators looking to get started teaching with Twitter? Tweet your experiences using hashtag #twitterinedu Tutorials and Guides Want to get started with Twitter? Here are some suggested tutorials and printable help guides: 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter 7 Things You Should Know About Backchannel Communication [PDF] Jason Rhode’s 10 Tips for Getting Started Teaching with Twitter Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices Teacher’s Guide to Social Media Know of another Twitter tutorial that you’d recommend for educators? Tweet links to tutorials using hashtag #twitterinedu Resources Here are additional suggested resources offering additional perspectives and best practices for educators on teaching with Twitter: Jason Rhode’s list of educators on Twitter 1,048+ educators on Twitter (list at WeFollow.com) Have another Twitter-related resource for educators that you recommend? Tweet links to tutorials using hashtag #twitterinedu Tools Recommended free and/or low cost tools include: Audioboo - mobile app for iOS, Android & Nokia, easily record audio podcasts from your mobile device and post directly to Twitter (free) Bit.ly - create and track custom short URLs (free) Bufferapp.com - setup free account to "buffer" your tweets to be sent later, also makes it easy to tweet via email (free) Screenr.com - easily record screencasts up to 5 mins. in length with no software to install and share via Twitter (free) Twtpoll - conduct polls easily via Twitter (free) Tweetbot - preferred Twitter app for iOS, syncs multiple iOS devices using iCloud ($??) HootCourse - create secured Twitter channel for your course (free) Twijector - utility for showing stream of Tweets full-screen during class (free) Twitcam - live stream via Twitter; Twitcam posts your video description and link to Twitter for all your followers to see. While broadcasting, chat with your viewers via Twitter right from your broadcast page. Once you’re done going live, video is archived and displayed on the same page. TwitterFeed - utility for automatically posting new items from any RSS feed to Twitter (free) Visible Tweets - utility for showing random tweets for a specified hashtag, transitions between (free) Do you use another Twitter tool that you recommend? Tweet your suggested tools using hashtag #twitterinedu

Edudemic recently compiled a list of some of the best mobile apps available for education. The complete list is available here. From: OnlineUniversities.com

Thanks to social media, individuals and organizations have been empowered to advance social change in areas like education like never before. This infographic describes how companies like Kickstarter, DonorsChoose, and others are helping people raise millions for great causes. Brought to you by: TheBestColleges.org

The Diffusion Simulation Game is a game developed by Indiana University in which players explore strategies that result in the adoption of innovation in a fictitious junior high. The goal is to get stakeholders (the school principal, teachers, and support staff) to adopt peer tutoring. As a player, you can decide whether to gather information, talk to people, visit places, or ask for help as various prompts are presented. Diffusion innovation as a model for change The game’s underlying model is the diffusion innovation theory. "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system" (Rogers, 2003, p.11). According to this theory, each member in the social system follows a certain process in adopting innovation. Knowledge: The member learns of the innovation and its attributes Persuasion: The member adopts either a favorable or unfavorable view of the innovation Decision: The member engages in activities that lead either to adoption or rejection of the innovation Implementation: The member adopts and uses the innovation Confirmation: The member evaluates the results of innovation implementation and integrates it into his/her life Within a given social system, there will be different innovation adopter types: innovators, early adopters, late majority, and laggards. Opinion leaders and gatekeepers will also influence the uptake of innovation by a social group. When a certain number of members of the social group become adopters, innovation begins to spread rapidly. How to influence people Not surprisingly, there’s a certain calculus that informs adoption—primarily a cost-benefit analysis. Do members of the group perceive that the innovation has value? What are the costs of the innovation? How disruptive will it be? Is it compatible with existing values and work flows? How hard is it to use? The likelihood of adoption also is influenced by a group’s tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty and different stakeholders will have different views of costs and benefits. Implications The Diffusion Simulation Game illustrates the practical impact of innovation diffusion. Innovation requires both a change agent (you, in this game) and the willingness of a particular social group (the stakeholders in a high school) to adopt innovation. This willingness can be manifested in all sorts of practical ways—just see how difficult it is to even schedule an interview with the prinicipal in this game! Individual members of this social group will be more or less receptive to the idea of change and can be change agents in their own right. Why should instructional designers care about this? Instructional designers design learning experiences with change in mind (or they should). This typically implicates stakeholders at multiple levels: To obtain initial buy-in for the learning experience To make sure that what’s bought into includes integrating the learning experience into the larger organizational framework so that change is sustainable To perform the analysis required to make sure that the learning experience can be a vehicle for this change To connect to learners in a meaningful way so that change is valued and recognized as a participatory effort Even if you’re not likely to ever try to influence the members of a school to implement change, the game is worth playing for the more far-reaching lessons it offers. Reposted here from Dianne Rees References Diffusion simulation game. (2009). Retrieved from https://www.indiana.edu/~simed/istdemo/guest.html Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th ed.). New York: The Free Press

I came across a great post titled ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology‘ as well as an accompanying infographic by Mark Bates (see below) that highlights the profile of an educators who are effectively using technology in their teaching. The habits mentioned include: They always start with the why. They are malleable and can easily adapt. They embrace change. They share, share, and then share some more. They think win-win-win-win. They are extremely thorough and think two steps ahead. They actively care. What other habits would you add to this list?

If you are looking for an elegant way on your mobile device to follow ET4Online conversations on Twitter, consider creating a custom section on Flipboard for following the saved Twitter searche #et4online. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do so.

During this panel presentation at Sloan Consortium’s 6th Annual International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Learning on Tue, 4/10, 2:30PM (Wilshire A), learn how three faculty from different institutions use podcasts, eBooks, online courses, and Google+ Hangouts to reinvent "faculty development" into a community of learning. Slides are available here.

jrhode posted a photo: title slide of panel presentation by David Wicks, Jason Rhode, and Michele Pacansky-Brock at 2013 Sloan Consortium International Symposium on Emerging Technology for Online Learning, presentation slides at docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xUUV5I-tFoWfGbwc1uOhA_pZH...

For the very first time, Northern Illinois University offered a fully-online teaching effectiveness institute in January 2013 utilizing a combination of Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, and Blackboard Mobile platforms. This cross-platform approach has proven to be very successful and provides a model for faculty to incorporate an integrated approach for implementing all three platforms in their teaching. In this session led by Jason Rhode and Jeff Geronimo at the 2013 Blackboard Never Stop Learning Tour in Chicago we shared NIU’s cross-platform strategy, practices, and lessons learned that can be applied to any online professional development initiative. | slides

This past summer, I was invited to teach a 10-week, accelerated graduate course online for the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment within the College of Education at Northern Illinois University (NIU). This course, ETT 510: Instructional Media & Technology, happens to be a required first-semester course for in-service teachers pursuing a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology with a K-12 tech specialist endorsement. While I had taught this subject matter previously, this happened to be the first opportunity for me to teach this course at NIU and I would be the first instructor to teach this course in the online, accelerated format in Blackboard (previously, this course and program had been taught in another LMS). Embracing this opportunity, I set out to design, develop, and teach this course for this first time in Blackboard following the recommended best practices contained in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric. While I was provided with an existing syllabus with learning objectives, required text, etc. that I needed to stick for the course I was asked to teach, I had the freedom to design and develop the course as I wished. I chose to follow the online quality recommendations outlined in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric in hopes of developing a course that would not only meet the "exemplary" standards for quality established by Blackboard but also to develop a sample course that I can share with other faculty and administrators looking for example, high-quality online courses that can be patterned after. I plan to submit the course for review and I hope I’ll be able to report sometime in Spring 2014 that the course has been deemed "exemplary." I’ve also volunteered to serve as a reviewer in the program, as I’m always eager to gather new ideas and inspiration for my own online teaching. During the online workshop I offered 12/17/13 for NIU faculty, we explored suggested best practices included in the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric for designing engaging online courses. I shared practical tips from my experience for building a course in Blackboard that meets the established quality benchmarks and links to sample award-winning course tours were provided. We also covered the steps and associated deadlines for faculty interested in submitting their course for consideration as a Blackboard Exemplary Course. This workshop was geared toward an audience already familiar with the basic online teaching tools available in Blackboard. The workshop archive may be viewed below, along with the slides. The following resources were mentioned during the workshop: Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric (November 2013) Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Winners Course Tours (2013) Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Winners Gallery Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Reviewer Sign-up For more details on the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program, visit blackboard.com/ecp

Geri E. McArdle, in his book Training Design and Delivery, encourages training professionals to become familiar with 7 principles and them in their delivery of education. These principles certainly also apply to online instruction: Part or Whole Learning Spaced Learning Active Learning Feedback Overlearning Primacy and Recency Transfer of Learning Source: e-Learning Infographics Additional commentary on these 7 principles is available here.

Photo courtesy Todd DaileyWith the interest expressed among my students in my summer course, ETT 511: Instructional Media and Technology, to learn more about designing "good" online courses as well as the frequent requests I receive from faculty on suggested resources for those getting started online teaching, I thought I’d share here a few of my favorite resources for those interested in learning more about the basics of designing and teaching online courses. While there are MANY different models to online course development, from individual "do it yourself" approaches where instructor designs and builds the course to more systematized and standardized production models where instructor works alongside instructional designers and other media development specialists, the following resources should be helpful to anyone interested in learning more about the mechanics of designing and teaching courses online. Quality Standards A good place to begin exploring online course quality is to look at some of the available quality standards that have been developed and adopted by institutions. While there are widely-accepted competencies for instructional designers as well as competencies for online instructors, a number of different online quality standards are available, a few of which include: Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Rubric iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Courses Quality Assurance e-Learning Design Standards - Penn State Rubric for Online Instruction - CSU Chico Quality Online Course Initiative - Illinois Online Network Quality Matters Books Here are a few of my favorite books for beginners desiring "nuts and bolts" assistance getting started designing and teaching online: Vai, M. & Sosulski, K. (2011). Essentials of online course design: A standards-based guide. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 0415873002 Smith, R. M. (2008). Conquering the content: A step-by-step guide to online course design. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 0787994421 Thormann, J. & Zimmerman, I. K. (2012). The complete step-by-step guide to designing and teaching online courses. New York: Teacher’s College Press. ISBN: 0807753092 Elbaum, B., McIntyre, C., & Smith, A. (2002). Essential elements: Prepare, design, and teach your online course. Madison, WI: Atwood. ISBN: 1891859404 Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 978078798825-8 Jossey-Bass has a fantastic book series, "Guides to Online Teaching and Learning" with titles on specific aspects of online teaching, listed at http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-814784.html Tanya Joosten has compiled a resource list of additional books on online teaching here. Online Courses For those serious about embarking in the journey of online teaching, I highly recommend taking an online course where you can not only be exposed to online teaching technology but also pedagogical approaches that work well in the online learning environment. Here are a few of the available online courses and you might consider enrolling in: BlendKit 2014: Becoming a Blended Learning Designer (4/21/14-7/8/14) Foundations of Virtual Instruction (begins 6/30/14) Teaching Online: Reflections and Practice (6/23/14-8/12/14) Workshops My colleagues and I with the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University offer a number of workshops for NIU faculty related to online teaching. These online workshops are archived and shared on YouTube here. A few notable workshop archives related to online teaching that you may find of interest include: Best Practices in Online Teaching Redesigning Course Materials for Online Delivery Designing Exemplary Online Courses in Blackboard Other professional organizations devoted to quality online teaching, such as Illinois Online Network and Sloan Consortium, also offer workshops and short online courses worth checking out. Miscellaneous Here are a few additional resources that I highly recommend checking-out and bookmarking: NEA’s Guide to Teaching Online Courses Tips for Managing the Online Workload - video podcast with 50+ tips, each shared as separate podcast episode; see the video introduction from Larry Ragan I highly recommend following the University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning for fantastic tips and resources, such as their faculty seminars in online teaching, teaching online community, and teaching online pedagogical repository (TOPR). There you have it…a few of my favorite resources for online teaching. What resources do you recommend? Leave a comment with your suggestions!

You can integrate digital skills into everyday life: digital skills are transferable. You have a balanced attitude: you are a teacher not a techie. You are open to using and trying new stuff: find digital tools and explore how they work. You are a digital communicator: you can use email and social media with ease. You know how to do a digital assessment: you’re a sound judge of the quality of information, apps and tools. You understand and respect privacy: you treat personal data with the respect it deserves. You are a digital citizen: you know how to behave online appropriately and you’ll pass it on to your pupils. Source: DailyGenius Do you agree with this list of characteristics for a digitally competent teacher? What additional characteristics would you add to this list? Leave a comment with your ideas!

When learning a new topic our brains act in mysterious ways. To give you an example, answer this question (without Googling the answer):  Why do product warnings results in an increase in product sales ? Take a few seconds to think about that and come up with an answer. You can’t say, "I don’t know." If […]

I’d like to personally thank all of the friends, colleagues, clients, and contractors of Digital Wits for the pleasure of your association throughout the year. Best wishes to all in 2014. The post Happy Holidays from Digital Wits appeared first on Digital Wits.

Short on time? Don’t have the budget to hire an illustrator to do those cool graphic novel images?  You know just enough about Photoshop to be dangerous? Don’t worry. We have a quick-and-dirty way to use Photoshop to create graphic novel images. Now, while these aren’t as slick as those created by a professional cartoon […] The post Create a Graphic Novel Look for Your eLearning Images appeared first on Digital Wits.

In striving to create a new blueprint to the future for E-Learning, the operative word becomes "transformation" and the necessary questions that need to be asked are:" What transformations need to take place to create a needed evolution in E-Learning as we presently understand it?"Credit: www.vignettestraining.blogspot.com"If we know the vision that we aspire to with respect to creating an enriching, sustained learning experience for the learner, what will the map look like?" E-Learning Educators and Trainers Transformation of the E-Learning educator and corporate trainer is an essential part of a new blueprint and is a building block for the development of global learning networks ascribing to the vision of being agents of change in our societies.For the corporate community this is one of the ingredients for helping to develop systemic innovation within the business community. For the E-Learning educators this means breaking with the way that they were trained as educators. Most educators received formal training at faculties of education attached to universities that subscribed to the industrial model of education. They were trained with the idea that their professional purpose in life was to train students to be efficient, obedient workers and to teach them to accept that their mission in life was to get a job that gave them purchasing power so that they would find fulfillment as life long consumers. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a consumer. The problem arises when you are told that this is what gives meaning to life. Every commercial and paper ad that came out bombarded students and educators alike with that blatant message. Educators who even suggested that perhaps students should be thinkers who could effectively bring about change in society were often labelled as radicals bringing back visions of the 1960's and therefore should not be taken seriously.Credit: www.qzabteachers.wikispaces.comSo, what transformations are needed for the present E-Learning educators?The following changes should be considered :1. Educator-Learner Relationship: The past roles followed by the educator and student under the old model of education stated that the educator was the source of all knowledge, skills and wisdom and that the student came to the educator's class as essentially a "tabula rasa". The skills and knowledge of the educator were never to be disregarded or questioned by the student on the penalty of being disciplined. Discipline was designed to enforce conformity and re-focusing. This was in the truest sense "assembly line education" where students moved from educator to educator and much like rats in a maze, the rules of behaviourism  were judiciously applied. Students who didn't comply on a consistent basis were relegated to the "drop out" pile.The new relationship that should be developed between educator and learner could best be described as a "mentor relationship". In this relationship, the educator is not seen as the fountain of all knowledge and skills but instead could be compared to a conductor of a world class orchestra.Credit: www.phys.org   In such a role, the educator recognizes that there is a great diversity of unique gifts and talents in all the students that he or she instructs and that in an online environment, his or her role is to be intimately familiar with all of the resources and avenues that are available to a student to pursue a personal learning path for their lives. His or her role is to help the student bring into alignment all the elements that are available from potential technology uses to networks of disciplines that can be used as a resource. The educator would also seek contacts within the web where students can showcase new knowledge and skill sets before those who are on the leading edge of their respective disciplines. A close analogy to this concept would be the apprentice(learner)-master(mentor) relationship that existed in the guild system of the Middle Ages. Students can and should be creators of new knowledge and skill sets with the guidance of the educators as mentor.2. Educators As Design Thinkers: The quality of the learning experiences in a digital age requires that there be a focus on engaging the student in their learning in a sustained manner. We live in an age of distraction and one of the great myths of this age is that the more you are able to multitask and balance a number of commitments at once, the better all things will turn out. IMHO, the experience of attempting this results in many tasks being competed with a large measure of mediocrity.We can learn much that is of value by watching university students in a lecture hall in the 21st century. What is their level of engagement in what is being presented? How many are using their mobile devices to supplement and enrich what they are being taught during that lesson and how many have already disengaged from the presentation a few minutes after it has started and are using their mobile devices to simply "fly away"."As design thinkers, how can we take what we learn from student cyber distractions and change them into student engagement through our instructional design?"Next---Transformation and Corporate Trainers...