The Khan Academy...wanna weigh in?

The Khan Academy is getting alot of press and our very own friends from smART History is joining the team.

Here is a link to a WIRED article about them.   If you ever wanted to re-think how you taught math, this might be something to read...


http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/

Brainstorming Super cool tool

I just learned about this really great tool that allows you to make post-its on a page.
 http://www.wallwisher.com/

Online Programs, Courses are dissected by the NY Times

I was recently at SUNY's DOODLE meeting. DOODLe standing for Directors of Online LEarning. The buzz was about providing "concierge" service for students taking online programs and courses. Online programs accross the country are being scared into doing much introspection with the crazy competition of the for-profit institutions that will not even be named here.
Read on my friends.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/the-online-college-crapshoot.html

SUNY Ulster Online Selected for SUNY Learning Network

Saugerties Post Star

SUNY Ulster Online Selected for SUNY Learning Network are: Professor Shirley Birmingham, who teaches Introduction to Exceptional Children; Professor Jim Hobbs, General Psychology; Professor William Sheldon, Introduction to Microeconomics; and Professor Sean Nixon, History of 20th Century Design. ...

FERPA and the Classroom using Social Media

The issue of FERPA rears its head over and again and sometimes it seems to be unnecessary. I for one, am glad when it comes to creating an interactive class using this powerful medium we can look beyond the grasp of FERPA.
Read this article, Its great.

Great Website and link to FERPA article

FERPA is one of the most misunderstood regulations in education. It is commonly assumed that FERPA requires all student coursework to be kept private at all times, and thus prevents the use of social media in the classroom, but this is wrong. FERPA does not prevent instructors from assigning students to create public content as part of their course requirements. If it did, then video documentaries produced in a communications class and shown on TV or the Web, or public art shows of student work from an art class, would be illegal. As one higher education lawyer put it:

FERPA cannot be interpreted as building a total and complete wall between the school and the community. We would have really bad schools if that happened and very disengaged students. This is a good example of where the lawyers can’t get in the way of the learning. Podcasting is a fabulous learning tool. Digital storytelling, amazing. I love Voicethread, as do thousands of educators around the country. Sharing is an important part of learning and the ability to share has increased exponentially in the past couple decades. Some students right here in Kentucky are sharing with students in Brazil every day, for instance. FERPA cannot be extended to prohibit all of this sharing.” (Bathon, 2009) Go to article

Curriculum Design ...making a course roadmap helps see the big picture

Design, deliver, achieve results, Course Roadmap Hope Windle Here is a great way to map out your course with a bird's eye view. 

Design, deliver, achieve results, Course Roadmap Hope Windle from windleh

http://www.slideshare.net/windleh/design-deliver-achieve-results-course-roadmap-hope-windle

View more presentations from windleh

Are we augmenting or actually just teaching?

When I searched for images of "Augmenting Education with Technology, who should pop up but the Cable Guy!

I read the new IT Mission Statement for SUNY Ulster and was struck by a phrase in the statement:
SUNY Ulster is a vibrant community of learners distinguished by academic excellence, collaboration, innovation, service, and responsible use of resources.

As a public, comprehensive two-year institution dedicate...d to providing affordable, accessible education, we work within an ever-changing environment to:
* Prepare students for transfer to four-year institutions;
* Prepare students for success in college and in the workforce;
* Provide enrichment and lifelong learning opportunities;
* Augment learning through the integration and application of emerging technologies;
* Prepare students to live and work in a global society;
* Play an active role in economic development; and
* Enhance the quality of life for residents of Ulster County

Augment makes it sound added on. The technology for many courses and content has become the primary tools to deliver the content. The powerpoint, the access to ANGEL the technology is part of everyday learning. To augment seems it is about adding extra umph, what many professors tell me they are finding is that the technology is the conduit or tool to deliver the information, not an after thought to make it better.Please Re- word this section. 

http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/pdfs/captivate_leveraging_multimedia.pdf

its about how the tool is used. We need to think about Affordance...what tool for what task for active learning to take place. Ulster needs to commit to revisit how the learning happens with the opportunity of various approaches(online and face to face) and not take one approach to another medium without researching the learning strengths and opportunities of each approach.