Doodling for meetings instead of at them

You know the drill--send email to Mary, Cindy, Frank, Darcy, and Bob to schedule a meeting, go back and forth a few times, then settle for a time when everyone can be there. The frustration of trying to get a bunch of people together for a meeting or phone conference can make even the sanest person crazy.

Doodle can help. This online application lets you create a calendar with meeting dates that can be accessed by anyone you wish. Everyone can indicate free days and times making the work of the meeting coordinator more efficient.

Click here to participate in a test of Doodle for meeting scheduling.

Mobile Learning 2.0

The EDUCAUSE organization is hosting a 2 day webinar, "Mobile Learning: The Next Phase of Innovation in Mobility, on March 3-4, 2010, from noon-5pm. If there's enough interest, we'll play host. To be part of this interactive learning experience, please send email to oirt@rutgers.edu.

More Snow Days???

The weather people are talking about more snow. Several people (including my students) have asked me what I’m going to do about my class if the campus cancels classes again (highly unlikely, but . . .). Missing two weeks in a row --how will I ever catch up?

Here's one of the things I plan to do if classes are canceled. And it’s also good when using a hybrid approach.

I’ve broken the process into 3ish steps.

1. Add audio to a Powerpoint presentation and upload into Sakai Resources (or the equivalent in Blackboard and Rutgers Online). It’s actually really easy to do. Open your Powerpoint slides. In Powerpoint for Windows or Powerpoint for Mac, there’s a “Record narration” function under “Slide Show.” After clicking it, simply begin speaking into an attached microphone or the microphone built into your computer. (You might want to figure out how to do this in advance—check the website for your specific computer for help.)

2. If you want to create a single lecture, continue until you’re done. Then, hit the “Esc” key and click the button that asks if you want to save the narration timings. If you want to create short lecture segments, do the same thing but separate the presentation into multiple files.

Save your Powerpoint as a movie by clicking Save as Movie in the File menu. Then, upload the file or files into Sakai Resources. If you don’t know how to upload, click here for step by step instructions.

3a. If you want to have a synchronous discussion, use Sakai’s “Chat” tool. Ask your students to review each segment one at a time, and then facilitate a discussion about the material. (Hint: If you type in all caps, your students will be able to quickly differentiate what you’ve added from what other students have added.)

3b. To have an asynchronous discussion, set up multiple Chat rooms, and facilitate discussion during the week for each section of your lecture. My experience is that if you ask your students to post at least one original idea and respond to two of their colleagues’ ideas, they have some understanding of how much you expect them to participate.

If you’re teaching material that’s ripe for a quiz, use Sakai’s “Tests and Quizzes” tool to have your students demonstrate their knowledge of the course material. You could also create an Assignment using the “Assignments” tool.

So that’s it. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. And feel free to call the Sakai Help Desk (732.445.8721) during operating hours for additional assistance.

It's February, and it's cold

So I decided to curl up with my laptop in front of the fire and catch up on my RSS feeds. And then I realized that I had this amazing resource at my fingertips and that a lot of the people I know don't know what an RSS feed is or does. So I thought I'd share.

Here goes. I like to stay current with ideas in a lot of areas. And, like most people, I don't have time to weed through vast amounts of information trying to figure out what's going on. So I rely on RSS feeds. Let me give you some examples: I subscribe to the New York Times Technology feed. Every time I go to the feed I can see titles and links to NYT articles about technology. I also subscribe to a few blogs in which experts in instructional technology summarize the latest and greatest new tools and techniques. I don't have to look for this information, it gets sent to me every day.

Don't get me wrong--I don't look at my RSS feeds every day. If I did, I'd never get anything else done. But today, before I started writing this, I learned that the Internet is being nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize; that instead of merely recycling office paper, I can buy a machine that will turn it into toilet paper; and that a new Coventry University study has found that text messaging actually helped children develop "phonological awareness," important in helping children learn how to spell.

If you want to learn more about RSS feeds, how to find them, how to subscribe to them, and how to use them for yourself or for a course, please send email to OIRT and we'll get you started.