2009 UNC TLT Conference

2009 UNC TLT Conference Discussion Board

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Tools Track

The Tools Track investigates developments in software and/or hardware pertaining to TLT, multimedia, emerging technologies, and specific tools and applications such as handhelds and learning management systems.

Check here for discussions on Tools presentations.

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  • Effective Screencasts for Maximum Learning at a Distance [Asynchronous]
    Presenting instruction on how to complete tasks when students do not meet face-to-face regularly is challenging. Screencasting, defined as capturing desktop activity along with audio commentary, is an effective method of providing procedural instruction. We will demonstrate the three development phases (pre-production, production, and post-production) of instructional screencasts. This demonstration will include examination of a variety of screencast production options comparing and contrasting software like Camtasia, Captivate, iShowu, and Jing in terms of cost, installation, functionality (screen size), efficiency (file size), and delivery. In the Collaborative Café, we invite participation by submitting messages that describe the instructional purposes for which people are using screencasts. From those messages we will create a list of instructional uses of screencasts, which we will deliver at the session. We will conclude this demonstration session with a discussion of best practices in screencasting, which we hope will inspire new visions of teaching with technology.
    3 Topics
    9 Posts
    Last post by Ken Luterbach View the latest post
    Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:51 am
  • Creating and Utilizing a Collaborative Multi-Institutional Moodle [Asynchronous]
    A moodle is an online course management system that can be used in a variety of creative ways. The software is open source and therefore of minimal cost to the institution. In March 2008, a multi-institutional moodle was created for administrators, deans, coordinators, directors, and licensure officers to begin, continue, and facilitate the process of redesigning the state teaching standards. This paper will discuss the creation, utilization, issues with the implementation process, participant’s attitudes toward the technology, and suggestions for institutions considering implementing a collaborative moodle.
    1 Topics
    1 Posts
    Last post by RLee View the latest post
    Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:30 am
  • Place-Based Games for Science Education Using the Wherigo Mobile Platform [Asynchronous]
    Place-based educational games supported by handheld technologies employ concepts of augmented reality, and are an emerging type of learning tool that integrate game-design principles with rich media content. This type of teaching model has the potential to support inquiry-based science projects, and to provide students with rich and authentic learning experiences related to local environmental issues that impact their daily lives. This paper describes the Wherigo mobile platform for building place-based learning games for science education, and aims to introduce science teachers to the use and development of place-based games for engaging students in issues related to groundwater and environmental science.
    1 Topics
    1 Posts
    Last post by Paul Wallace View the latest post
    Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:55 pm
  • UNC-CH's VoiceThread Pilot: If Pictures Could Talk [Asynchronous]
    After seeing a demonstration of VoiceThread, UNC-Chapel Hill staff members were convinced that it could be a pedagogically-sound and effective technology for UNC-CH instructors. With VoiceThread, even novice users can easily create narrated slideshows from existing images, video clips, and documents and share them with a group. Members of the group can then annotate the slideshow with text, audio, video or digital ink, creating a collaborative, yet asynchronous, conversation surrounding the uploaded objects. UNC-CH has worked closely with VoiceThread, a small Web 2.0 company, to make its multimedia presentation and collaboration services available to a pilot group of faculty, students, and staff beginning in June 2008. During our session, we will discuss our pilot planning, implementation process, support strategies, assessment methodology, and the results of the pilot to date. Join us to see—and hear—what stakeholders are learning and saying about this new tool. Participants who bring a laptop to the session will be able to access VoiceThread and join the conversation.
    2 Topics
    6 Posts
    Last post by Kathy Kyzer View the latest post
    Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:19 am
  • Automating Podcast Delivery with Wiki's and iTunes U [Asynchronous]
    This demonstration will showcase an automated podcast capture and delivery system. Podcasts created with this system are posted to a course wiki or iTunes U site automatically. Before the introduction of this system, faculty needed to create, encode and upload any content they wanted to distribute either through a wiki, blog or iTunes U course shell. By using this system, faculty can upload pre-recorded content for encoding or do live capture of video, audio or even screen captures during their class, then submit the content to the media server for encoding, branding and posting to a variety of destination based on customizable workflows.
    1 Topics
    3 Posts
    Last post by neiltorda View the latest post
    Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:21 pm
  • Using the Power of Web 2.0 to Organize your Life and Get Things Done [Asynchronous]
    Demand on our time has reached epic levels with ubiquitous access to communication and information. Employees, clients, students and colleagues insist on immediate response and engagement. Finding the time to manage resources to effectively interact is increasingly difficult, but solutions exist! This presentation is designed to give participants solid ideas about how to successfully organize their lives and take back ownership of their limited time with the use of technology tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, ZapReader and other Web 2.0 technologies. We will explore popular time management techniques like David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and Steven Covey’s “First Things First”, but the main focus is to help participants establish their method for organizing tasks and to-do lists, calendar items, email, and other organizational and time saving applications.
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  • Let Them Have Cameras: Using Video Technology to Teach Sociology Subjects [Asynchronous]
    Students enrolled in General Sociology and Marriage and the Family classes utilized digital cameras to produce short videos using Windows Movie Maker. Students were divided into teams composed of a producer, writer/researcher, director of photography, and film editor. Teams selected topics, designed outlines similar to storyboards, researched the topics, and developed PowerPoint presentations that were supplemented with live interviews, stock photos, and music to present their perspectives of various social issues including abortion, domestic violence, crack cocaine, child abuse, and teenage pregnancy, to name a few subjects. The PowerPoint presentations were uploaded into Windows Movie Maker and were edited for a final movie version. The video projects provided an opportunity for students to apply movie making technology and to develop team-building, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
    1 Topics
    1 Posts
    Last post by Yvonne McDonald View the latest post
    Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:12 pm
  • Leave the Textbook at Home! Teaching Economics with youtube and iTunes U [Asynchronous]
    Technology has revolutionized learning--teaching and learning with “technology” conferences have well documented this. Is it possible that textbooks in their current format be obsolete soon? They probably are, already! The popularity of electronic textbooks has been on the rise, though we believe these books are just a short step away from a traditional textbook in that they still have the same bells and whistles such as “boxes” on every page providing an example here and describing a concept there. Given the wealth of multimedia material which is currently available in cyberspace, we postulate economics textbook should contain only the very basic theoretical concepts, and technology would take care of the rest. We demonstrate how publicly available multimedia material-- news pieces, music videos, short lectures, online tutorials, and even commercials may be used to teach economics with only basic support needed from formal sources such as printed or electronic textbooks.
    2 Topics
    3 Posts
    Last post by clarkec View the latest post
    Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:37 am
  • A Flash-based Voice Recording Template for CMS [Asynchronous]
    The presenter has developed an open source voice recording template using Flash technology that can be added to existing modules within a CMS. The template was developed specifically for the Moodle CMS environment but can also be modified for other open source CMS environments. This showcase will demonstrate several modules that make use of the Flash template in order to augment the existing multimedia capabilities of Moodle. The template employs Flash Media Server and is able to deliver applications that record and play back voice within a Moodle module. The template combines both PHP and Flash in order to link rich media clients with student and course data living on the Moodle server. The presenter will illustrate how this voice recording and playback template can be embedded into a Moodle assignment, forum, blog, or journal module.
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  • Support the Students and Parents of the Class of 2012 w/ Social Networking Tools [Tuesday]
    Using web 2.0 tools ECU is now supporting the students and parents of the incoming class of 2012. ECU has created an ECU Parents Network that has 600 members as of 10/1/08. The idea is to use the network to bridge the gap between the parents of ECU students and ECU. The networks focus is parent support, building community and giving the parents an avenue to experience ECU w/ other parents. We are also supporting ECU students using Facebook (1800 members) and the microblog tool Twitter (130 followers). We update each tool w/ university events and information and also answer any questions students might pose.
    1 Topics
    6 Posts
    Last post by Guest View the latest post
    Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:23 pm
  • Update on the Moodle Pilot at NC State University [Tuesday]
    After receiving an affirmation to investigate open source learning management systems (LMSs) from faculty and staff attending two open sessions on the state of campus LMSs in fall 2007, NC State University begin investigating Moodle with a small pilot in spring 2008. Led by the Moodle Pilot Implementation team, comprised of both college and DELTA staff, the Moodle investigation continues as NC State University examines the feasibility of utilizing Moodle as a base for our enterprise-wide LMS. Part of the investigation involves understanding various technical and support issues that underpin any technical change, and an assessment of both faculty and user experiences with the product. Yet another part involves understanding how to better put together a longer term, inclusive steering committee for collaborative input into an enterprise LMS service. In this session, NC State University staff involved in the pilot will discuss the implementation of the pilot, share findings and assessment results to date, and discuss next steps for Moodle @ NC State.
    2 Topics
    2 Posts
    Last post by petherbridge View the latest post
    Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:04 am
  • Seeing Information:Data visualization in Second Life [Tuesday]
    Data visualization can have a profound impact on people. Visually Presenting information about motion, content, cause and effect can lead a data user from squinting at numbers in tables to shouting “Now I see it! Ah ha!” Displaying and interpreting quantitative data is a burgeoning area in diverse disciplines from meteorology to marketing to management. Some educators are beginning to argue that initiatives focused on representing information visually, and teaching how to do so, offer strategic direction for developing competency in collaboration and communication in the Web 3.0 environment. In this roundtable discussion, we will share our experiences developing and teaching data visualization through 3D manipulation in the multi user virtual environment of Second Life. We anticipate active discussion, problem-solving and engagement in this fascinating use of technology in teaching and learning.
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  • Forming and Managing Student Teams and Peer Feedback in Expertiza [Tuesday]
    Collaborative learning necessarily involves student teams. Approaches such as the jigsaw method, and team-based learning, require teams to be formed and to interact in specific ways. Team members must be held accountable for their contributions to the team. Hence, peer review is essential. Our Expertiza application offers the ability to form teams based on several different constraints (compatibility of student schedules, demographics, class standing, etc.), and manages feedback from students on their teammates’ contributions. It can also be used for formative peer review of other teams’ work. All of the data is presented to the instructor in a single summary report, with clickable links to “drill down” to each peer assessment. We will offer attendees with laptops the opportunity to use Expertiza to create teams and give feedback to other team members and other teams. Attendees without laptops may pair with those who do have laptops to follow the presentation.
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  • Using Smartphones in Teaching and Learning [Tuesday]
    Several uses of iPhones and other smart-phones will be considered including geotagging in field exercises, replacement of classroom clickers, assessment, and enhancing communication using free applications for blogging, twitter, and social networking sites. Preliminary results from current research on these uses will be presented.
    1 Topics
    1 Posts
    Last post by kirstein View the latest post
    Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:00 am
  • Student Video Presentations as an Alternative to In-Class Student Presentations [Wednesday]
    Many instructors use class time for student presentations in order to assess a student’s level of mastery of a particular topic. Typically, student presentations are a painful process for the instructor and the students forced to endure boring, repetitive, and uncreative presentations. As an alternative, faculty could use current technology and have students create video presentations that would ultimately allow students to be creative, work as a team, learn the simple tools for creating and editing a video presentation, and engage students through participatory learning. Our presentation will provide a framework for instructors on how to develop student video presentation assignments. Furthermore, we will discuss our experience using simple video technology (i.e., lower end video camcorders and Adobe Premiere) and provide the audience with our successes and failures with student videos. At the end of the presentation, faculty will have the tools necessary for assigning video presentations to their students.
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  • Moving from Physical to Virtual Ownership in a Cloud: The VCL Experience at Several UNC Campuses [Wednesday]
    The Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) has been in production at NC State for 5 years. It provides any-time anywhere internet access to conventional and high-end software applications without requiring students to use traditional computing labs. This architecture can provide UNC system students--whether on campus or in distance education--with remote access to curricular resources too often available only at technologically advanced institutions. An important feature of this architecture is its affordability, and the economic benefits increase with increasing scale. The VCL system is in production and/or pilots at numerous UNC campuses. Speaking in relation to hardware, software and teaching/learning aspects, the participants from some of those campuses will discuss the benefits they anticipated and which led them to plan for use of the VCL, the hurdles that they needed to overcome, and the experiences (positive and negative) they had in planning and/or implementing the use of VCL in teaching and learning.
    2 Topics
    8 Posts
    Last post by Henry Schaffer View the latest post
    Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:32 pm
  • UNCW Text Message Applications [Wednesday]
    In this talk we discuss the development of interactive text message applications at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. We describe how the university’s information technology innovation program led to the formation of a faculty owned company in which the university holds an equity interest. We discuss the collaborative development of short message service (SMS) applications for the university community with faculty, staff, and students all playing a role in the development process. Problems and challenges will be highlighted. Finally, we will describe the interactive SMS applications we have developed thus far, which range from simple data access applications to a novel discovery game designed for the first-year experience.
    2 Topics
    2 Posts
    Last post by vetterr@uncw.edu View the latest post
    Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:10 pm
  • Creating LMS Agnostic Web Content: Strategies and Techniques [Wednesday]
    When we design online instructional content, we constantly face the realization that not all learning management systems work well with all the different possible electronic formats available. When you add the fact that LMS upgrades and migrations often mean that formats that used to work suddenly stop working, what is a teacher to do? Is there a single unifying format that will work everywhere? Should you design using Microsoft Office or convert everything to PDF? Should you even go so far as to convert it all to HTML? How about Flash? This workshop will demonstrate strategies and techniques of building once and deploying anywhere. We will demonstrate how to design industry standard IMS and SCORM packages that work universally across multiple systems. We will show various commercial solutions plus how to create your own IMS packages with open source software.
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  • Are Textbooks Still Important on College Campuses? [Wednesday]
    The emergence of digital publishing options has prompted new questions about the efficacy of the traditional textbook. Many of those questions, driven by rising textbook prices, reflect concerns about the textbook market and prevailing business models in a time of rapid technological change. Other questions have to do with how these competing formats impact student learning. For example, what instructional benefits do alternative formats offer instructors and students that print textbooks can not? Is it just new wine in old bottles? What information media strategies best complement the learning preferences and lifestyles of today’s students? This panel discussion will explore student and faculty perspectives on the instructional value of traditional textbooks and digital alternatives, and how experimentation with textbook alternatives is playing out at several UNC institutions. Data from recent studies on electronic textbook projects will be presented and discussed.
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  • Moodle Mentors Help Kick-start a Successful Pilot! [Wednesday]
    UNC Charlotte made a decision to pilot Moodle starting in Fall 2008, but had to quickly come up with trainings and resources to make it work. Learn how we starting "Cooking with Moodle" and used experienced faculty "Moodle Mentors" to help provide additional peer support, training, and resources to our pilot instructors.
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  • New Tools for New Teachers: Web 2.0 in Teacher Education [Wednesday]
    This session will highlight the initiatives within the East Carolina University College of Education to integrate new and emerging Web 2.0 technologies within the teacher preparation programs. We will investigate the phenomenon known as Web 2.0 and its implications for teacher education within specific programs. The presenters demonstrate how Web 2.0 tools can be integrated into teacher preparation and aligned to NC Professional Teacher Standards and the new National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T). We are currently investigating the impact of Web 2.0 Learning Communities within program areas in an effort to empower, support and engage preservice/lateral entry teachers throughout their studies and practicum.
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  • Assessing Student Performance with Flip Video and VoiceThread [Thursday]
    Video recording has the ability to capture student performance more richly than either audio recording or observational note taking. Until recently, working with video-based assignments was laborious and expensive, and the logistics of providing feedback on video-based work have been prohibitively challenging. UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Romance Languages is using Flip Video cameras and the University’s VoiceThread portal to create a streamlined process for recording and evaluating student language competence in French, Italian and Spanish. The bare-bones design of this low-cost camera, along with VoiceThread’s intuitive feature set, has resulted in very little time spent on technical training and support. This session will provide an overview of how both tools can be used effectively, all in the service of enhancing performance-based evaluation of student learning.
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  • Facebook: A New Twist on Instruction [Thursday]
    With more and more people using Facebook, why not use it to supplement instruction? The focus of this roundtable discussion will be to discuss how Facebook could be integrated into instruction and brainstorm on collaborative ideas to expand its usage. We will give an introduction to some of the aspects of Facebook that are being used at UNC-Chapel Hill for instructional purposes. Anyone who is already using Facebook will also have a chance to share their information or ideas with the rest of the audience.
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  • The Online Real-Time Classroom Outside the Box [Thursday]
    You may already be using live classroom software (Centra, Elluminate, Adobe Connect, etc.) for teaching. But have you considered other, even more creative uses? In this presentation, you will hear from UNC Charlotte professors who collaborate with our Center for Teaching & Learning. They use the live online classroom for language tutoring, remote student teacher observations, problem-solving sessions and bringing in guest speakers.
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  • Course Management with Social Networks [Thursday]
    Social networks are playing an increasing role in academic environments. Already a constant for many students outside of the classroom, social networks are now gaining some acceptance inside of the classroom as well. This presentation will focus on the educational application and development of social networks. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the existing and potential applications of supporting educational environments with social networks. Attendees will also have a behind the scenes tour and investigation of a graduate class taught at Johns Hopkins University and supported by a social network. Features include a private network with customizable pages for each member, members’ blogs, messaging system, video, audio, podcasts, RSS, forum discussions, and more. Attendees will leave this seminar with an understanding and enthusiasm for the potential of applying social networks to education environments.
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  • Succeeding in Second Life [Thursday]
    How can you use your talents and the unique features of Second Life virtual world to succeed in business and education? Opportunities in SL for learning, creating, sales, networking and promotion abound, for faculty, staff and students in the fields of business, design, fashion, art, architecture, computing, marketing, education and even healthcare. A major fashion designer in SL shares her secrets to success, and tells you how you can find your own specialty "niche" that can make SL work for you!
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  • Silver Screen in Second Life: Making Machinima [Thursday]
    “Machinima” is a mash-up of the terms “machine and cinema.” Machinima are videos shot within a 3D environment, most commonly done in multi user games. However, machinima have wonderful creative applications in teaching and learning, and spark interest particularly in the millennial generation. Creating machinima is much simpler and easier for faculty to do as compared to video production. Similarly, this technological tool can be readily adapted for student use and projects. In this session we will showcase machinima we have created in Second life for educational purposes in marketing, information science, team work, and organizational culture. As well, we will demonstrate and discuss the processes used in machinima creation. We will brainstorm with the attendees on potential ways they can use machinima in their own disciplines and teaching.
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  • M-Learning with Cellphones [Thursday]
    The session will be a hands-on workshop designed to showcase and explore the role of cell phones as tools for content development and instructional delivery. The workshop will share lessons learned from a two stage service learning project that used cellphones to teach English to Limited English Proficient students in Durham, North Carolina and Hatay Province, Vietnam. Participants will have hands-on opportunities to sample m-learning applications. The workshop will culminate in a discussion of potential future m-learning collaboration within the UNC-TLT network.
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  • Getting It Together: Using Google Groups for Training and Collaboration [Thursday]
    Google Groups provides a quick and easy way to form password-protected websites for collaboration and information sharing among members. This application is useful for conducting teaching, training and research projects that participants prefer not to post in an open space. This session will present the Elementary Spanish Google Group used for training and working with Graduate Teaching Assistants and new adjunct instructors in Spanish at UNC Charlotte. This group serves as a repository of information and tools, allows for efficient communication between and among the Coordinator and instructors and provides a secure space for collaboration on assignments such as exams. Attendees will learn how to create and manage a Google group. Slides and handouts will provide additional support for the website demonstration.
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  • (Re)Moving the Lecture: Using Screencasting to Make Better Use of Class Time [Thursday]
    In the fall semester of 2008, Dr. Joel Pawlak of the Wood and Paper Science department at North Carolina State University shifted the way he taught his face-to-face Paper Physics course. In the past he had used his course time primarily for lecturing. For a number of reasons, Dr. Pawlak decided to use Camtasia (a popular screencasting software) in combination with a Tablet PC to record lectures for students to watch outside of class. Class time now became time for discussions, activities and time to work on assignments (or “homework”) collaboratively. In this a way he reversed the typical teaching format of lecture in class and assignments at home. A Tablet PC was used to meet the challenges of the mathematical nature of the subject matter. The course is taught in such a way that a slideshow of points would not work on its own; rather lessons encompassed primarily the drawing of diagrams and mathematical equations. Dr. Pawlak and Charlie Morris, a source for instructional technology support in the college, will talk about this experience and engage the audience by starting discussions surrounding methods of making better use of class time through the aid of technology.
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  • The Educational Potential of the iPhone and iTouch Devices [Thursday]
    The iPhone and iTouch devices have taken popular culture by storm. In fall 2008, Apple gave away a free iTouch with any Mac purchase to educational customers. That means they will be coming to our campus' in record numbers. What is it about these devices that are so special. More importantly... how can we use them and what is their potential in education? This presentation will briefly explore the functionality of the iPhone/iTouch devices and then look at the best educational applications for the classroom and for staff, faculty and administrators. Opportunity will be provided for the audience to share their own experiences as well personally try out an some of the best educational applications for the iPhone and iTouch.
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