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Custom Workshops and Training
The Instructional Technologists are available to present custom workshops that demonstrate technology strategies to enrich your classroom teaching. These presentations are designed to enhance faculty’s delivery of instruction and meet the diverse learning needs of your students. Please contact your Instructional Technologist to set up a workshop for you and others in your department.
| Creating and Enhancing Instruction |
Instructional Design
This course covers developing a firm foundation for planning and organizing your instruction by identifying learning styles, concept mapping and WebCT pages and tools available to enhance student learning outcomes.
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Photoshop Elements
Developing a firm foundation for working effectively with Adobe Photoshop.
Navigating the interface, understanding the different types of tools, basic
photo correction techniques, and working with layers.
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WebCT
WebCT is the Course Management System used at CofC. WebCT allows you to post course materials, use communication tools, assignment tools, an online gradekeeper, quizzes and more. This course will give you extensive hands-on training in using the many tools available in WebCT.
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Using Adobe Acrobat for PDFs
Learn why and when to use PDFs. Understand the limitations of PDFs. Be
comfortable turning existing MS Word documents into PDF files. Be
comfortable making small editing changes to a PDF document. Understand how
to use Acrobat's advanced features to annotate large documents.
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Introduction to Powerpoint
PowerPoint provides an easy way to develop and edit presentations and class
materials, create hand-outs, and more. This session will guide you through
the basic steps for creating presentations. You will also learn how to
incorporate Autoshapes, WordArt, Clip Art, Images, video, sound and
animation.
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| Effective Powerpoint
PowerPoint can be a valuable classroom tool when used correctly. The
strength of this program is neither the point of the presentation, nor the
power, but can be used effectively to reinforce the information you want to
share. The goal is to focus the attention of the students on the course
material. This session will provide tips on the best use of color, text,
multimedia, and other PowerPoint elements to enhance traditional
instructional techniques.
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Video Editing
Using Apple's iMovie or Adobe Premiere Elements, we will conduct a hands-on
session where the user will learn to capture, edit and export video for use
in the classroom.
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Web Page and Blog Creation
Blogs, short for “web logs,” grew from personal online journals, but a blog is really only a specific type of web page. A blog is a useful format for any kind of interchange that is regularly updated with posts of new content, automatically archiving that content for posterity, and they allow commentary and even “subscription” via RSS feeds.
Blogging is increasingly finding a home in education (both in school and university), as not only does the software remove the technical barriers to writing and publishing online - but the 'journal' format encourages students to keep a record of their thinking over time. Blogs also of course facilitate critical feedback, by letting readers add comments - which could be from teachers, peers or a wider audience.
- Read/WriteWeb
Increasingly, blog software is being used not just for web logs, but to create whole sites:
Weblogs originated as a form of online diary.
Many people use them to record their thoughts and feelings, and many are also used to keep their readers up-to-date with specific topics. The standard use for Weblogs is for short, link-heavy content. But with the tools that are available now, it's easy to create Web sites using the Weblog software as a content management tool, not just for writing "blogs".
- About.com
Learn how to use a blog to create your oldschool "static" pages as well, to post office hours, contact information, course descriptions or whatever you need - either alongside your blog or without one!
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Podcasts
Podcasting is the method of sending multimedia files, such as
audio or video, over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on
mobile devices and personal computers. It allows for anytime, anywhere
viewing/listening of the material. Podcasting is a great tool for both
faculty and students to create or use.
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iTunes
iTunes is Apple's digital media player application. The program has gained and maintained a reputation for being easy to use, while
still providing many features for obtaining, organizing,and playing media. The program is freely downloadable for both Macs and PCs. iTunes features built-in support for podcasting, including video podcasts, which can contain downloadable video files. iTunes can also
synchronize video podcasts to a video-capable iPod.
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Gaming
Games support:
- Active learning
- Experiential learning
- Problem-based learning
- Immediate feedback
- Learner-centered learning
Computer and video games show a great deal of potential as teaching and learning tools. They provide a context for learning, opportunities for inquiry and critical thinking, and frameworks for cooperative learning. They are also deeply motivating and engaging. There is little doubt that a good deal of incidental learning is taking place when students play these games, so why not harness this powerful new media for intentional learning in formal education?
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Wikis
A Wiki is an online resource (usually a web site) that can be edited collaboratively by a number of users. Wikipedia.org is a famous example. The term wiki allegedly comes from the Hawaiian term “wiki wiki”, which means “rapidly”.
Any group project could conceivably be enhanced with a wiki; some possibilities include collaborative development of a textbook or manual, or the editorial commentary of students critiquing one another’s writing.
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| Finding & Sharing Media |
The Internet Archive (www.archive.org)
The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded to build an "Internet library," with the purpose of offering
permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in
1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others.
In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts,
audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.
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Merlot
Merlot (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a searchable, open source repository of peer-reviewed teaching materials. The modules include text, simulations, animations, essays and a great deal more. All materials are freely available for use in the classroom, and you can even add your own.
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Syndication Feeds
Sydnication through RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication”, and Atom feeds is a technology that allows people to subscribe to any website that has an RSS feed. Your aggregator will alert you when that site has been updated, and will automatically download new files, such as podcast audio files, to your computer. Using RSS means you can stay up to date on all the sites you visit regularly, without having to visit each site one by one. Having your students subscribe to course-related sites via RSS means they don’t have (an excuse) to miss updates.
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Creative Commons
Copyright and intellectual property issues are complex and often ambiguously defined. And unfortunately, it does not appear that copyright law in the United States is going to change substantially in the early 21st century. There can be legal implications associated with student multimedia projects. Issues can also exist with sharing projects over the Internet via the school website, a blog, or a podcast. Teachers, as well as students, need to learn about Creative Commons.
Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) “is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works.” Creative Commons licenses and website search tools provide clear guidance about acceptable and legal uses of digital content. It provides the guidelines to create and share “derivative works” when creating such products as a digital story, an enhanced podcast, a PowerPoint presentation, or a narrated online slideshow. Digital resources can include such media as images, music audio files, movies, etc.
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Flickr
Flickr is an increasingly popular photo-sharing website that allows people to upload their pictures and tag them with descriptions. These descriptions are then used by others searching for photos of given topics. You can comment on photos, form Groups to share photos with similar themes, or create a list of Favorites from other people’s collections. Read/Write.com: “Flickr... provides a valuable resource for students and educators looking for images for use in presentations, learning materials or coursework. Many of the images uploaded to Flickr carry a Creative Commons license, making them particular suitable for educational use - and the tagging of images makes it much easier to find relevant content. Students can also use Flickr to publish their digital photography to a wider audience. And like blogging, the commenting function on Flickr allows for critical feedback. A lesser-known feature of Flickr - the ability to add hot-spot annotations to an image - also has much potential as a learning tool.”
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YouTube: Video Sharing in Education
Rather than have students prepare a traditional presentation, consider giving students the opportunity to produce a short video on a chosen subject. Videos can then be published onto YouTube, where they can be viewed and critiqued by classmates and the wider YouTube community. Some of our own faculty have been experimenting with the use of this video-sharing site with their media studies students.
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| Collaborative Tools |
Word Collaboration
Learn to take advantage of Microsoft Word for tracking changes in a document. This feature is useful when collaborating with others on the writing of a document, when commenting on a student's written work, or when you want to keep track of changes throughout the writing process. Word's change tracking feature allows instructors to offer comments and suggestions to improve the style of a student's writing while maintaining a record of the suggestions and allowing for comparison with the original document once editing changes have been made.
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Google Tools
Almost everyone has used Google to search for something on the internet (journals, books, maps). However, did you know you can set-up mailing lists and discussion groups? Translate text from one language to another? See what the world is searching for? Create and share spreadsheets? Personalize your google toolbar? Personalize your own Google home page? Sketch 3D models? All this is free for you to explore and share with your students, as you meet your classroom objectives.
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| Classroom Technology |
Smart Classrooom Orientation
Learn how to use the equipment that is in your technology-enhanced classrooms! Together we will explore how to incorporate the technology into your curriculum. Training will consist of small group demonstrations, hands-on practice, and plenty of opportunities for questions and answers.
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Classroom Technology: Clickers, SyncronEyes & SmartBoards
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Clickers (Audience Reponses Systems): Classrooms clickers allow your students to participate during class, by submitting responses to interactive questions through a remote control keypad. The questions appear projected on the classroom screen and embedded in your power point presentations. You can use clickers for formative assessment, to increase student feedback on sensitive topics, to increase student interaction, to promote active learning, and/or to enhance student retention.
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Smart Board and/or Interactive Panels: Smart Board/Interactive Panel products enable you to effortlessly control any presentation and bring it to life – all you have to do is connect your interactive device to a computer and projector. You can write over slides in digital ink, save your notes, and access any website or multimedia file. Projecting your work onto a large screen will give your audience a truly interactive experience.
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SynchronEyes: SynchronEyes classroom management software gives you the power to guide learning and helps you manage your classroom. Designed with easy-to-use and impressive features, SynchronEyes software enables you to monitor student screens, control any student computer, and administer and mark quizzes automatically. Keep students on task and on time with this software application from SMART – the leader in classroom collaboration products!
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