Reporting in on what I've been doing lately: Last week: I helped with a discussion about open textbooks for the TLT-Group. The participants had a lot to say and there are going to be more discussions on open textbooks for the TLT-Group. Also, Sunday: I got my 15 minutes to rush through a "what's Second Life" PowerPoint for an educational technology course. Dr. Zucker had over 50 students gathered in Elluminate and she had gotten even the new users to do a voice check and raise their hand and write on the white board and take a poll. One thing I miss about retirement: Getting to talk to groups! (Oops - does that sound like I like to lecture? Aren't we supposed to eschew lectures for more active learning? Sorry about the backsliding!)

DS 106 - Digital Storytelling course: I found some other blog posts where people expressed that they unable to keep up and had relaxed into picking and choosing what to accomplish. That cheered me up. I'm assembling some material for what I think was one assignment: To use some Web 2.0 tool to create a story. I might get there. The other thing I'm doing is the Daily Shoot (http://dailyshoot.com) - and I'm going to try to keep that up even though my photos aren't works of art. I like the assignments. They get you thinking about your visual environment, so I'm looking for "harsh light and deep shadows" or "repetition" or "modes of communication."

ECI 521 - I attended the first hour of Cris Crissman's session in Second Life for her students. She brought in a little bit of everything: voice presentation with slides with plenty of opportunity for the students to provide their thoughts about their experiences as teachers, about educational theories they'd been reading, etc. She used think/pair/share and had students text chat to the whole group for their reflections. Example: Students talked about their own "road not taken" after a reading of the Frost poem. A few students used voice. After a break they were going to do some more reporting on ideas for their action learning projects - and go on a field trip to Ramapo Island. Cris discussed Prensky's "digital native" idea and suggested that we move on to David White's "resident/visitor" idea instead. Personally I'm in favor of "resident/visitor." We've all had that experience working with students who seem to be the right age to have those supposed re-wired brains brought on by a thorough immersion in late 20th/early 21st century technology who are surprisingly inept - and as an old(er) adult I can not be a "digital native" - there wasn't any "digital" to be a native of when I was growing up - which makes me feel like an outsider, but I do feel I might qualify as a "resident."

We're supposed to play with our blog

One of the DS106 assignments is "play with your blog." (It's supposed to be Wordpress, but I'm still not ready to go there...) I'm thinking about trying to set up Amazon Affiliate links! Someone else mentioned making one's blog mobile-friendly. Oh dear! Good point! I found this link... http://blog.wapreview.com/8861/... and voila! Using the Blogger in Draft dashboard lets you enable a mobile template. It removes add-on Blogger gadgets, etc. - but the posts are there. Apparently it doesn't work with every browser, but it's a quick fix.

DS 106 Digital Storytelling Week 2

I still haven't thought of a 30 second story. Did you all see that "My Name is Earl" episode(3.5) where Earl is in prison in a creative writing class and can't think of a story to write while all of his friends can? Talk about writer's block! (Annoying commercials - but the episode is here: http://www.tbs.com/video/index.jsp?oid=207121) This week's assignment is fool around with one's blog and add some things - and listen to Gardner Campbell talk at http://testing.andyrush.net/gardner-campbell/. He reminisces about getting started with personal computers and finally gets the power of the Internet and interconnectedness when he starts blogging in 2004. I remember going to the computer lab on campus and using Bitnet and whatever and getting involved in discussions - and people you didn't even know would answer you! (It also means that your digital footprint is out there...) Related: Last night I went to an online session that the UMUC MDE (Masters in Distance Education and E-Learning) program did on e-relationships developed among women involved in the program - and some of us commented that Facebook helped us stay in touch with each other. I'm also following some of the MDErs on Twitter. The tools help!

Behind already in DS 106

Remember the good intentions to keep up with Jim Groom's DS 106 course? Well, I'm behind already. On the other hand...picking and choosing... maybe I'm not that far behind. One of the first "to-do's" seems to be setting up one's own domain and webhost setup and I'm not going to tackle that. Some faculty may want to 'take control of their digital space' but to me it's a lot like asking me to build my own schoolhouse. I don't really feel the need for THAT much control. ;) I'm going over to do the Gardner Campbell readings (and listenings) http://ds106.us/2011/01/12/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure/ - and think about writing out a 30 second story.

Gardner's presentation (link above) - I'm put off by what comes off to me as sneering at teachers who ask "how long does this take" to learn to use something like cPanel and "what's in it for me?" and may even want to know "what's it in for the students?" It's self-evident to the pioneers, but not all are pioneers. What's a respectful way to encourage reluctant faculty to take up new challenges?

(On a positive note for the past week: I did get all the material up for the grad course I'm teaching this term. Yippee!)