Learning Technology Development Council Blog
ICS is hosting free one-hour demos to introduce you to the features and uses of Elluminate Live!. You can participate from your desktop using Elluminate with just your Internet connection and Internet audio — no phone conference is necessary. Registration is required and seats are limited, so register early to secure your place.
Please go to http://www.uwex.edu/ics/elluminate/demo/index.cfm to register for an upcoming demo.
Here is what is happening at the UW Colleges:
Six UW Colleges academic departments are participating in the ePortfolio Pilot. Faculty who are on the tenure track will be building their dossier in D2L using Desire2Learn’s ePortfolio. To get this project started, we are providing a demo site in D2L where I am building my promotion portfolio as an example. Next we will be creating a Captivate or Camtasia video with narration, for the faculty to watch before beginning their work. Each department has an ePortfolio site in D2L where the faculty will build their ePortfolio. They have until November (for folks in their 3rd year) or January, 2010, (all others) depending on where they are on the track. We have decided to not allow them to create tags, we are going to be building a tag library, so it is consistent. The department chairs are providing the terminology to use for the tags. In the fall we will be training the review committee members, from both the campuses and departments, campus Deans, and the Provost, and his PA, on how to access, export (if necessary), and review the ePortfolios. The faculty themselves will be responsible for making sure the campus and departmental committee members have the necessary access to their ePortfolio by the due date. Finally, there will be online evaluations for the faculty, the review committees and the Provost and Deans to complete once the pilot is near its end. Support for this project will be provide through our Service Center. Note that all training will be provided on a website, instead of using WisLine Web to save money and to make the training for this project as convenient as possible. We are hoping it is successful and that we can add merit, promotion, and post-tenure review to the ePortfolio system in the future AND have all departments and campuses involved.
During this past year we piloted clickers on 5 campuses, and based on the success of the pilot and interest from other campuses, we were able to use year-end money to purchase a clicker kit for the other 13 campuses to begin to build interest among their faculty. Training will be provided using Camtasia, Captivate or iMovie videos.
Of course we have several other projects going on, but these two are new and exciting!
Submitted by Pat Fellows
UW-Colleges
As of May 1, the UWGB Nursing Complex Island is now available for the public. Until now, it was a private “invite-only” region as we worked on the initial development and construction. While the various projects and buildings are not yet complete, progress has been tremendous. Some of our Nursing staff have become very savvy with Second Life as they have been actively exploring other regions, experimenting with audio conferencing in Second Life, decorating offices and other spaces, and getting used to the settings and controls of the interface.
The Nursing Complex region includes a replica of Mary Ann Cofrin (MAC) Hall, complete with classrooms, offices, furniture, and textures that were created from still images of the real MAC hall. Our region also has representations of other notable features from the GB campus like the arboretum and Lambeau cottage as well as some structures that take advantage of the creative freedom afforded by a virtual environment e.g., a custom-built amphitheater with a large display screen.
Two of our Learning Technology Center Students, Kyle MacDonald and Julie Harvey have been involved in the development of a poverty simulation with one of our Social Work/Nursing instructors, Christine Vandenhouten. The simulation involves very innovative use of Second Life scripting language in order to assign avatars to different families and keep track of their finances and health. The poverty simulation includes many buildings including a police station, grocery store, and others.
The initiative is supported with a WI-TECNE grant and the involvement of the UWGB Nursing department in conjunction with the Learning Technology Center. We have learned much about virtual island management, group settings, hardware settings, 3D design, and even a new scripting language. There are plans to use our Second Life region for course activities in Fall 2009 (and perhaps sooner) by our Nursing Department. Eventually, we will have a virtual nursing lab and other health-related items, and other GB faculty and staff have expressed some interest in future possibilities. We look forward to seeing instructional activity in our Second Life region. Feel free to stop by the island and look around. SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWGB%20Nursing%20Complex/93/107/35 I’ll give you a tour if I’m in world.
Submitted by:
Leif Nelson (SL name: Alf Alter)
Learning Technology Center
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
nelsonl@uwgb.edu
E-portfolio has been a topic of discussion and pilot projects in various segments of the UW campuses for a number of years. Different products fit different needs of target audience. A current development is a product offered by D2L. While this is a new product in the market, it has some potential to fit general audience needs, especially it can be integrated with our current course management system which is widely used on UW campuses.
Through the summer, UWSP has taken a lead in negotiating a pilot agreement with D2L and UWS. We are at the stage where Letters of Intent can be signed soon. Interested campuses should contact Lorna Wong for more details.
A webcast demo on the product features is scheduled for Friday, Oct 24, 10am – noon. It is open to all interested faculty and instructional design support personnel. Please contact your LTC representative for details on participation of this demo and express your interest in the pilot program.
Lorna