E-Learning & Online Teaching

Google Documents (Fully Facilitated 5 Day Online Class)

Login as guest:  Moodle Classroom

How much time will this take?

Plan for at least 5 hours of instruction (about an hour a day). It will be easy to put in more time than that. We hope you’ll find the information so interesting that the time will fly by.

Do I have to login at a specific time each day?

The course is completely time shifted. It’s designed so that participants can enter the online classroom 24/7 and still interact. This let’s you fit the class to your schedule. We’ll go Monday – Friday, with the following Saturday to wrap things up.

What will I learn how to do?

• Create a Google account
• Upload documents to Google docs
• Share a Google document with a colleague
• View the revision history of a shared document (a wiki like function of Gdocs)
• Publish a shared document as a web page that automatically updates when the source document is edited.
• We also have an optional independent study module on how to use Google Docs offline.

How is this course taught?

Instruction includes the use of illustrated webpages and video. Additionally Dennis O’Connor will be facilitating this class. (Dennis is a highly trained online teacher.) There are discussion forums where participants can share ideas. The instructor will also be monitoring the class for questions and be available for trouble shooting help.

What about teaching resources?

You will find many resources with ideas for teachers and librarians interested in using Google Docs in the classroom.

How long will I have access to this course?

The course remains open to you for at least three months so you can continue study and have access to the resources.

How do I register?

• First establish an account on http://21cif.mrooms.net. Note the graphic on the course home page. (Each person taking the class should create their own account.)
• Next login using your established username and password.
• Click into the Gdocs online classroom.(Found in the Information Fluency Category.)
• When you first enter you’ll be presented with a PayPal registration page.
• Click through to pay for the class by credit card.
• You do not need a Pay Pal account to use this secure system. (We do not store your credit card information.)
• Once you have paid you’ll be returned to the Gdocs class.
• The full course will open on December 1, 2008.

We hope to see you online!

http://web2virtualclassroom.wikispaces.com/

I’d like to share a wiki I created as part of a presentation I gave for D2L at NECC in San Antonio last week.  Bottom line: The Virtual Classroom is a Web 2.0 Tool.

•  National Archives: Educators and Students
  Find a treasure trove of reproducible primary sources, lesson plans correlated to national standards, and cross-curricular connections.
  (tags: research)
• National Archives Offers Training to Use Primary Sources | 21st Century Connections
  For the cost of the call, groups of up to 30 students in grades 5-12 can schedule a one-hour session. Current offerings include a course on the Constitution and an introduction to the National Archives
  (tags: research)

• Quick and Dirty Tips

  Great how to’s for the 21st century. Classic areas of information and a few new fields of interest as well: Grammar Girl, Legal Lad, Traveling Avatar, Tips Podcasts Grammar Girl Money Girl Traveling Avatar Legal Lad Mr. Manners Get-It-Done Guy

  (tags: tips 2ndLife legal)

• Game Based Learning Discussion

  Long standing slow conversation hosted my Susan Manning. This is a learningtimes.org discussion (free membership required). Good ideas on game based learning!

  (tags: games e-learning)

Here’s an example from MagMyPic, it’s a fun little application that let’s you upload a picture that will then appear on any number of magazine covers. You choose the final product, copy the code, and publish on your blog or social network. Fun!

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com
Subscribe to PC Gamer Magazine at a 84% discount!

Gimme CSS references!

• For Webdesigners – 465 helpful links for webdesigners

  good nerd tools

  (tags: webdesign webtools design)

• CSS Cheat Sheet

  on one page

  (tags: css webdesign)

TheVirtual Schools Symposium produced many fine references. If you’re interested in online learning, visit this archive of webinars and podcasts that capture the best thinking of this cutting edge conference.

Here are just a few of the webinars to consider:

• What Does the Future of Learning Look Like? Welcome & Introduction (Susan Patrick)
• Why Online Learning is Important to States (Gene Wilhoit)
• Online Education’s Role in the Schools of Tomorrow (Liz Pape)
• Tools of the Trade: Free Online Tools to Enhance Interactivity in Your Online Course (Allison Powell)
• Blending Virtual Learning with Face-to-Face Teaching (Lisa Watkins)
• Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Policy and Practice Review (John Watson)
• Plenary Panel – Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills

• Bio – Dr. Sharon Sutton – Ready2NetCreating a Thinking Curriculum Institute, developing information literacy and the integration of technology into the curriculum, the institute is designed to develop the foundation skills necessary for successful project-based/inquiry -based learning.

  (tags: information-fluency critical thinking)

• Critial ThinkingLearning how to access and manage information, think critically, solve complex problems, and use technology effectively are essential skills for living and working productively in the 21st century.

  (tags: information-fluency critical thinking elementary)

Librarians Rock

I’m at the Wisconsin Educational Media Association conference. It is inspiring to be with folks who have the vision. The energy born of optimism is sometimes a rare thing to see at an educators conference. The hard working library media folks from all over Wisconsin clearly understand what’s going on. The trainers I’ve met from CESA are true believers too. During a standing room only presentation by John Pederson on lesser known Google tools, John asked how many Library Media specialists there were in the room. All those hands went up. It made the need for what we do real for me. (Remember, as wiredinstructor, I spend a lot of time up in the little room researching and writing. I don’t get out enough… that’s clear.

Power Searcher &…?

I’m here to present the Power Searcher Workshop with my IMSA partner Carl Heine. We’ll then follow up with a hybrid presentation of a new course for the CESA trainers from around the state.

The new online class is presented in Moodle and weaves the skills of Information Fluency in a Web 2.0 environment into a 6 week facilitated fully online course. I’m pleased with the beta design. I’ve woven in many of Carl’s games as interactive hands-on practice of the concepts. The learning games and the collaborative tools available in Moodle make for a dynamic experience. This is a chance for me to work live with a very sharp group that will be teaching the course in Wisconsin. I’m looking forward to just watching how folks interact with the content. It’s rare opportunity for an online guy to see interactions with a new class.

Carl and I are toying with a name for the course: Power Searching says it, but we’d like something that catches the critical thinking aspect. Digital Investigator, WSI-Google (WebSite Investigator-Google), Internet Forensics? For now it’s just called the Survey Course… ah well, we’ll find something.

Dennis@Madison

• Conversing with an Object

  excellent lesson plan to strengthen ideas and dialog conventions

  (tags: writing writing-process lesson_plans)

• Google Guide: Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators)

  (tags: search operators)

• Google Help : Cheat Sheet

  Basic operators cheat sheet

  (tags: search operators)

• Gmail: Help Center – How do I use Advanced Search?

  how to use…

  (tags: Search operators)

• Advanced Search Engine Operators for Research on Yahoo, Google, Gigablast and MSN

  comparison chart search operators of major search engines

  (tags: Search operators)

• Quick Reference Search Operator Chart

  (tags: Search operators)

• Web Search Engines Comparison Chart

  (tags: Search operators)

• For Yahoo! Searchers

  Main page for yahoo search explanations

  (tags: Search operators yahoo)

I’ve set up a blog reading assignment for my latestest edition of  E-Learning for Educators. I’m asking the folks in the class to create a feed reader (I suggested bloglines.com or Google Reader). Next I ask that folks post one interesting blog article a week. 

The group is turning up some sweet connections.  In earlier classes I’d asked folks to create their own blogs and use them for posting reflections. I found it was asking too much too soon.  The risk of using new tech (it was very new for most) and publishing personal reflections just made people too uncomfortable during the start up phase of the class.

This approach is lower risk.  Down the line, once folks are comfortable reading blogs and can see the importance of the information stream I’ll suggest they consider setting one up voluntarily.   This lays the ground work for the third course in our series: EDUC 744 959F Assessment in the Online Classroom. Datta Kaur Khalsa will ask folks to do the blog/reflection exercise.  I think it will go more smoothly at that point.

Here are the links I bounced into thanks to just one nights posting from a very knowledgeable and interesting group:

• Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs: Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom

  (tags: blog blogging writing writing-process UW-Stout)

• IDEAS: Instructional Design for Elearning ApproacheS: Learning Objects

  (tags: blog e-learning UW-Stout)

• Welcome to Squeakland

  Squeak is a “media authoring tool”– software that you can download to your computer and then use to create your own media or share and play with others. It is free and downloadable here.

  (tags: games multimedia)

• Scholar

  Blackboard’s Web2.0 attempt at social bookmarking. Worth a look.

  (tags: bookmarks bookmarking web2.0)

• Sakai vs. Moodle | Zacker.org

  Good stats and a long comment thread comparing two open source learning management systems: Moodle and Sakai. The data point heavily towards Moodle ‘kicking butt’ as more than one blogger in this dialog declares. I haven’t had a chance to get my hands on

  (delicious tags: moodle open_source opensource sakai cms lms)

Hi folks, I’m pulling out the stops and using my Moodle mailer to contact as many of my online colleagues as possible. (I’m also sending this to UW-Stout Email accounts, my apologies if you get this twice.)

I’d like to fill you in on the new  E-Learning and Online Teaching program I am coordinating for the University of Wisconsin Stout.

We’ve got 3 of our E-Learning Courses starting on January 29, 2007, with the 4th, starting in April 2, 2007!    Please help me spread the word about our new program by passing this information along to your network?

January 29, 2007

EDUC 744 947F E-Learning for Educators
EDUC 744 955F Creating Collaborative Communities
EDUC 744 959F Assessment in the Online Classroom

April 2, 2007

EDUC 744 960F Instructional Design for Online Learning

Please consider registering for a class or pass this info on to a friend!

Hope to see you online.

Dennis

oconnord@uwstout.edu

 (AKA: Wiredinstructor)

I’m starting the 6-Traits Resources blog for my UW-Stout 6 Traits class. I’m always finding new online goodies and I hope this blog helps me network with the hundreds of former students I’ve had in this class.

• 6-Traits Resources

   

  (del.icio.us tags: writing writing-process 6-traits 6traits)