Thinking about my organization strategies

We are at the start of an academic year, a person down, and in the process of hiring a User Support Specialist.  I say these things not as an excuse but to acknowledge to myself that these are not normal circumstances.  What it does mean is that I need to pick and choose how I spend my time now more than at other times in the past year.

In an effort to keep some of the day to day requests for help from boiling over into fires, I have chosen to do a great deal of desktop support to allow the rest of the team to focus on registering students on the network, plan for computer replacement, and attend to the technology classrooms.  This has meant that somethings have needed to take a back burner.  Planning and thinking seem to be the things I placed on the back burner and I don’t know that that is wise for long periods of times or even short periods of time for that manner.

One of the biggest hits has been my blogging time which needs to change (and this post is my attempt to reverse gears).  Blogging is at the core of my planning strategy as it allows me to write, which allows me to think, about anything that is occupying my time or on the horizion which I need to focus my thoughts/perspectives on.  I realized today as I composed responses to emails on the plane that having the opportunity to write and think on a topic and then review what my response allows me to communicate my message more clearly than when I sit down and just fire off responses.  The chance to jott down ideas, ponder, and revise helps keep me focused on the end goals – User Centered Desktop Support.  By having worked through details, hunches, implications of issues prior to responding to them allows me to adjust to the nuances of the day to day in a process driven way.

Another thing that I have dropped from my daily routine is the tweet of what I am doing next.  This may seem trivial but I started doing it following an NPR story that include a piece of research about how vocalizing the next step of a process creates efficiencies in performing the process.  Something about the level of commitment it takes to say something as opposed to thinking it.  And to tell you the truth It worked for me.  When I tweeted “I am gong to respond to emails” that is what I did for the next 30 minutes.  This worked to a large degree even for the tasks that I would normally procrastinate.  The times that I got distracted or interrupted I would tweet that too to acknowledge that I was not successful.   That often is all it took to get back on track with the next thing on the todo list.

I intend to reinstitute both of these strategies pretty much starting now.  We will see how I do.

Facebook | Allegheny College Student Technology Group

For many years now folks from computing have supported a student organization called the Student Technology Group (STG) as a sounding board and cultivator of new initiatives related to student technology needs and use.  Over the years interest and participation in the group ebbed and followed over the years but lately it had been a struggle to get students interested enough to attend.  At the last meeting there were only the 3 student leaders and the group advisors. That being said I am racking up the meeting as a success as this came from it.
Facebook | Allegheny College Student Technology Group

There are 20 members in the group and one post that has some good info that we can work with.  It will be interesting to see if this produces the interactions that we have valued in the past.

Lots of Ideas, Not So Many Answers

Jim Groom from BavaTuedays graces my blog with wisdom and humor from time to time. Director James that strikes my funny bone. In addition to the chuckle his comment inspired, it helped to crystalize a few ideas that are floating my my head.

Thoughts and Experiments » Need to Get Back to Blogging or A Forced Post to Return to a Good Habit
How would you harness some existing software and sites to fashion a knowledge base and make it vibrant and, dare I say, enjoyable. Great use for a wiki faq/tutorials/blog, etc. I donâ??t know, but I would love to be a part of you thinking it through, as always.

I have been thinking of ways to harness the expertise of the users across campus to help them become more self-reliant in using the technology necessary to complete their day to day responsibilities. Some how using social technologies was too close to help them engage in supporting themselves and each other didn’t come into focus until reading Jim’s comment. I am beginning to realize that much of what I was working toward with instructional technology, connection between people and resources, tapping the wisdom of the masses, open communication, solid needs assessment, meeting users on their turf, etc.. is directly transferable to my new gig as director of user services.

Today as I drove….

Today as I drove to work I got to thinking about sample assignments that include technology for the First Seminar Classes. I think that a combination of the three days of workshops I attended last week and a conversation I had with the director of writing at the college family picnic last night about incorporating some technology into the FS 101 training.

So this morning I went to the Learning Commons page for the FS program.

It seems that many of the technologies of Web 2.0 would work well in support of FS courses as…

Globally the FS Program encourages

• careful listening and reading
• thoughtful speaking and writing
• reflective academic planning and self exploration

As podcasts and blogs are not reviewed by a formal editorial process, using both as resources to present the content of FS courses would encourage critical reading and listening skills while connecting students to first hand artifacts from ‘experts’ in the field.

As blogging is a connected and reflective writing platform I think it plays well to the thoughtful speaking and writing as well as the reflective academic planning and self exploration. What if instead of thinking of blogging as a personal journal, we start to present blogging as a portfolio of personal academic/professional growth?

As I worked my way down through the goals of individual FS courses (101, 102, 201) many of my morning commute ideas gathered momentum. I think I will need to sit down with Ann, Vesta, Ben and the other instructional technologists to see if there is interest.

But at this point here are the raw ideas:

• Identify a number of podcasts for students to subscribe to that relate to the course’s theme. Build writing, discussion, speaking, and research assignments from that content.
• Identify a number of blogs for students to follow that relate to the course’s theme. Build writing, discussion, speaking, and research assignments from that content.
• Have each student maintain a blog for the course to publish reflections on readings, draw attention to current events/resources related to course, draft/workshop ideas for presentations and writings, publish finished projects, and generally develop the language of the topic. Encourage revisiting of ideas and use of the feedback tools (comments and trackbacks) as part of the expectations for the blogging.
• As an alternative to one persuasive writing or speaking assignment incorporate a 5 image story assignment that promotes an argument or conveys a message (see gender miscommunication)
• Incorporate a digital video through a digital storytelling assignment
• Have students create podcasts that set the stage for in class presentations (see cbluhm blog) or as an alternative to a speaking assignment (see Adventures in Storytelling).
• Incorporate a collaborative writing tool, such as a wiki, for communal note-taking, annotated bibliography, muddiest point page for reading or class presentation.
• Take advantage of social bookmarking for research and sharing of resources.
• Identify wikipedia articles relating to content of the course. Assign students to critique, add, subtract, substantiate, etc.. content and generally engage in the communal creation of content as a way of developing the student’s communication patterns in the subject area.

Earlier I had more ideas but they escape me at this point. I wonder if others at liberal arts colleges have suggestions as to ways technology can be added to first seminar style courses to promote speaking, writing, and research skills.

If you have ideas consider this an open invitation to comment, trackback, or tag ‘techandlibarts’(delicious technorati) your examples.

Coverage of the Emerging Technology Workshop

Currently, folks are introducing themselves giving a general sense of what people hope to learn. 

One thing I am am hoping to learn is about the mobile computing topic that Bryan will focus on a good bit this morning. 

Bryan – references his slides on slideshare.

What is emerging is not necessarily new.  Often the emergence is a new use of a proven technology – example of a bank that incorporated wiki into daily work in 1998.  (Delta Principle) Thus emerging technology is determined by people when they apply the technology to a problem.

Intro to Web 2.0 (Wiki Notes)

Bryan is using Slideshare as his presentation tool.  It is quite obvious that he has many presentations.  Slideshare seems to allow him to have multiple presentations available at his finger tips.  – Could be an interesting option for presenting workshops/conference presentations or even multi section courses?

Agreeable points of Web 2.0

• There was a web before last year
• Focus on micro content both in terms of size and usage
• multiply authored rather that omnicient webmasters. 
• sense of openness (Openness + Multiple authors = network constructivism)
• Data mashups (the retooling of data from multiple sources into new media/tool)
• always in a state of continual development now release cycle. 

Currently, we are talking about the openness of web 2.0.  I think I use reusability to define what we are talking about.  Also the “languages” of web 2.0 – images and text – are pretty universal these days. 

Back from break and working on tags and folksonomies…both relate to how users organize their stuff on web 2.0 … Museums are redesigning exhibits at museums based on tagging.  Visit Steve project…

Sounds like we are moving to Rich Media and Web 2.0 – Nope we jumped to Pedagogies…

• web 1.0 – Hypertext, web audience, discussion forum, collaborative document authoring,
• web 2.0 – journaling, media literacy, lms are moving toward this, distributive conversation (loosely joined conversation), collaborative writing, object oriented class discussions. 
• These are taking off with web 2.0 because of ease of entry and personalization… 

jumping from pedagogy to storytelling…

from storytelling to net.gen

from net.gen to Gaming…

• cultural presence – average age is over 30years old, both genders play games,
• interface design is being influenced by gaming
• machinima – video from 3d gaming software…
• research on gaming and literacy from James Paul Gee…

What can we do with this?  We should build games as educators…

• this is costly.  so as liberal arts colleges should take advantage of current games or games produced by larger institutions…
• another possible option is mod gaming (modifying games for their personal goals) MIT built a game to teach the american revolution …
• another level is information literacy… take a look at food force World Food Programme from the UN in 2003. 
• how does one assess this game (media literacy) viewing games through a critical lense of society, politics, etc…

Were back for the afternoon after a good lunch and great conversation (thanks Sahifq, Jackie, Tom)

A little about mobile computing -

All that is true about web 2.0 is truer when done in a mobile network environment.

Interesting point on US vs World – We don’t view our phones as computers – this must be related to the quality of our LAN and availability of computers.

Pedagogies of mobility – lessons from Europe and Japan

• Spatial Mapping
• Swarming
• mobile devises for research

interesting site to check out – flickrvision.com

Moving on to Podcasting -

How do we find podcasts?  (the search tools just aren’t there yet)

Historical background?  – took off 3 years ago because of ease of production and timeshifting nature. 

Del.icio.us – for: tag…

This week’s assignment for Learning Web 2.0 by Diving – Describe a feature of del.icio.us not covered in the tasks.

One particular feature of del.icio.us that I use quite a bit is the for: tag.   The for: tag allows users to send a particular resource to another user’s attention.  All you need to know is a person’s username and you can share web pages more efficiently than emailing link’s in my opinion.

Links that are shared with you are organized on a page where you can choose whether to save or delete the suggested bookmark.  This page is available through the links for you link which is at the top of the page when you are signed on to your account.  When you choose to save a resource you can add your own tags, add a description, and even choose to keep the bookmark private.

I like this option as when working on a project with another person I can send (and receive)  of resources as they are discovered and they are organized in one space.  As opposed to email which spreads the links across emails, even if you include a day’s worth of links in one email and puts extra steps between you and the resources.

My del.icio.us username is jfadden feel free to add me to your network.

Old Post New Value

So today as I was reviewing where in the process of learning Web 2.0 I should be at, I  realized that we will be turning our attention next to RSS.  As I agree with Jeff VanDrimmelen that RSS is as cool as sliced bread, I have posted on RSS previously in preparations for a workshop I went through some old posts on RSS and found that some will have value for the Learning 2.0 project.   One such post is my explanation of RSS post. Not that the post is any more insightful or better written than the one included on the plcmclearing2.0 blog.   But it is my thoughts wrapped around quotes from other posts with links to articles that produced much thought at the time of the post.

The two things that are powerful to me because of this post are:

1.  The ease of reusing ‘old’ content to capture new thoughts or share with colleagues by adding/reassigning a category to a post.

2. The value of reviewing your thoughts and amending/appending them as topics regain my attention. This is of particular import when blogging as you capture your thoughts as snap shots in time in a very public setting.  By reflecting on and responding to old posts one is able to communicate new and hopefully deeper understanding over time as a tapestry of expertise instead of unrelated strands of thought.

Linklog Love -

I wanted to take a few minutes and bring your attention to a really nice feature from del.icio.us.

I had gotten into the bad habit of tagging resources in del.icio.us and not taking the time to look at the resource beyond what was necessary to deem the resource worthy of tagging.  I think the habit started when I was trying to do too many things at once and I thought I would go back and read the resources later.  But I never did.

Then I found out about:

Linklog – Save bookmarks to interesting websites and add a bit of commentary to create a lightweight linklog. Then, use linkrolls or the daily blog posting feature to include your del.icio.us bookmarks on your blog or website. (learn more about other del.icio.us tools at del.icio.us/about)

Well more specifically the daily blog post.  This allows del.icio.us to talk to my blog and create posts that include my bookmarks from the previous day.  I have found that this not only provides me the chance to look at the resources I bookmarked yesterday but it posts them within the thoughts I was having at the time I tagged the resource.

I liked it so much that I incorporated it into my department’s web site to share links on educational technology.

Preparing for a Podcast

Today, I meet with a professor and a student who incorporated podcasting into a class to see how the addition of student voice to the learning materials is viewed by the class.

I plan on podcasting this conversation through the Allegheny Workshop Podcast so keep an eye out if you are interested.

As part of the investigation of the effects of the experiment, (and I use that term loosely), the investigators asked the students the following questions:

1. What do you think are the strengths and drawbacks of using podcasts in the classroom?
2. How would you compare the use of podcasts to the use of some more traditional presentation approaches such as PowerPoint and regular presentations?
3. What types of things are you doing when you listen to the podcasts? Is this a positive or a negative feature of the experience?
4. What is it like to hear the digitalized voice of your classmates?
5. How would you describe your mood when listening to the podcasts?
6. What have been other people’s reaction to hearing that you were doing podcasts for the class?
7. What is it like for you to have current technology, that is, technology that is contemporary for college-aged students like and iPod introduced into the classroom? Are there any drawbacks to its introduction? Does using the technology in the classroom alter the meaning of your iPod or computer in any way?
8. If you have already produced your podcast(if not, just skip this one) what have been the best and the worst aspects of making the actual podcast?
9. How much exposure to podcasts, i.e. listening to them on the web, in general did you have before you took the class?
10. Has making the podcast together as a group process been similar or different to making a powerpoint or another type of classroom presentation? How so specifically?
11. How do you think the use of podcasting had affected the classroom dynamic?
12. How has the use of podcasting effected your in-class participation?
13. Have you listened to all the podcasts?

In the podcast, I plan to ask the investigators to share an overview of the project, what generated the idea, and their interpretation of the student responses to the above questions.

I have not found much research/assessment – informal or formal – on using student produced audio content in the form of podcasts so hopefully this is exciting to others out there. (I just completed capturing the podcast and Carla and Nathan said I can share the survey responses with interested people. Email me if you are interested.)

If not could someone please provide some pointers on where to such things?

Furthering Blogging without Blogging (bad title)

It has been harder to blog as of late, new son, 3year old daughter, recovering wife, neglected dog, beginning of the semester, getting others started with blogs to support course work…

While more fun to talk about the antics of son, daughter, dog, or wife, I need to put down a few ideas that developed from the last few days…

Request from Economics Professor that wants to redesign courses to take advantage of podcasting and blogging to develop community of learners, diversify perspectives…

• After a little talking – one idea for this project is a blog where he can link to mp3 files and provide commentary to help guide the student’s listening experience. The comment functions might help provide interactions that set up in class discussions.
• Another idea is the use of delicious and tags to connect what the students are reading as a means allow students the chance to bring the resources they find on topic into the collective resources of the class.
• I wonder how much of Pedablogy’s experiment and first year seminar can provide a frame of reference for my work with Steve…
• I will be posting more about this when we start working to redesign his course…

Request from Philosophy Professor to incorporate technology that would facilitate student creation and reflection on content.

• Looked at a few options but it seems the first five weeks will focus on blogging. I introduced the main features of a blog in 30 minutes of class time (about 1/3) the time of teaching enough about web design to meerly make students dangerous with dreamweaver.
• Developed a list of tips on blogging to help students be effective bloggers included that in the Blogging Tips and Tutorials booklet.

Request from a Psych Professor to incorporate podcasting into psychology course to replace/supplement a class presentation.

• not much detail here we seem to be playing phone tag…

How cool is this?

It is nice to see the energy I spent investigating, experimenting, developing, and publicizing these tools pay off with a chance to try them out on real classes with professors.