The Final - Sort Of!

I am posting the PowerPoint presentation that I have been working on about using Ning as a Social Network. I will remind you that it is not complete - I have not narrated it and I do want to add some more slides.

As hard as it is to admit, I didn't have the time to finish this last project! I hate not having everything done!

This course has given me the opportunity to try so many new technologies that I didn't know existed! I have learned a lot, and will share much with my faculty.

I'm looking forward to my next UWG course!

Create Your Own Social Network!

Social Networking

I wanted to look at something new for our final assignment. I found a discussion on ZDNet about Ning. Ning lets you create your own Social Network. The part I like best is that you create the network, invite the members and have the ability to keep it a closed network.

I am planning on using Ning for my Web Development course in the Fall. I have set up my network - I've called it Dixon SpaceBook! since students already know MySpace and Facebook. Each student will add their own page or pages to the network. I'm posting discussion forums on my page and will have them use discussions to work on a collaborative project. I will also have each student add a blog to their page and have them use it as a journal of their reflections of the class, assignments, difficulties, etc...

I'm really excited about using this tool! You can seaarch through open networks - there are lots of education networks already in place! I'm looking at joining a few that are education/technology/web2.0 networks.

Here's the website: Ning

Here's my badge of membership

Another Raptivity exploration

I wanted to see what kind of interaction I could I make to be useful in my Computer Literacy course. I have them study a lot of terms, so I decided to try the Analogous Pairs. It was quite easy to set up and I like the way you can customize everything!

So, now I'm hooked - Raptivity is a great tool! I can't wait to see what other useful interactions I can make for my course!

Even though we only had to post one interaction for the Advanced Technologies course - I'm posting 2!

Test you knowledge of some basic computer terms...
http://south.ecc.edu/dixon/CS101terms.swf

Raptivity Puzzle

I just made my first Jigsaw Puzzle with Raptivity!
It was really easy but I did have to make some adjustments...

1. the picture you use can't be any bigger than 360X360 pixels or it doesn't publish the whole picture.
2. when making pictures smaller for the puzzle they became a little pixellated (is that a word?)
3. to make it a little easier, I changed the column number to 3 - I could see how you could make it really hard to see the picture if you use the maximum of 8 rows and columns.

All in all, I think I will use this as a tool for my class. (At least until my trial runs out and then I'll have to go see if I can find some $$ to buy it!)

Last - there is a setting to make these 508 compliant, that's great, I couldn't do it - I think you have to have the full version not the trial to be able to do that....

Here's my puzzle: http://south.ecc.edu/dixon/HulaPuzzle.swf

Camtasia Video

Click the photo to see the video.

This is the first time I've used Camtasia to create a video. I've created a How-To video showing the steps to create a Photo Album by using Microsoft PowerPoint. This is a fun exercise that I usually do with my Computer Literacy students.

I plan on making a few more adjustments to it before I put it in my class, but I was pleasantly surprised on how easy Camtasia was to use.

SnagIt assignment

I grew up in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York State. This area is known for many wineries. Several of the wineries combine to make a wine trail. They run special events that include wine tasting, food pairings, recipes using wine, and more wine tasting.

This clip is a SnagIt from the Keuka Lake Wine Trail website. You can see a little bit of the beautiful lake.

If you'd like to see the rest of the site, Click here.

Enjoy!

Impaticized PowerPoint

I took a short PowerPoint that I use in the first day of my Computer Literacy course, narrated it and then Impaticized it. I really don't like to narrate this way, I sound flat and bored. I know I'm much more animated in my class!

The process is easy enough and Impatica was easy to use, but I had to do it twice to get it in the right place to be able to access it from the web.

Here's the link to the Imapticized file: Welcome to CS101

Survey Problems

Well, the survey results are coming in - however; I have a glitch in one of the questions. I set one up as a Rating Scale and it should have been a Matrix of Choices. Because of this mistake they could only rate one item with each of the ratings scale choices.(So only one could be Extremely Satisfied, one Satisfied, one Dissatisified, etc...). Although the results have been positive so far, this problem may have skewed the results a little.

Survey Monkey is an easy program to use. I think I will be using it again for other surveys.

Survey Posted

Background: I was fortunate enough to have grant money to take 20 of my Online Faculty to the Conference on Instructional Technology sponsored by SUNY (the State University of New York system). We had to travel to Plattsburgh, NY which is 8 hours away from where we are located. There is no easy way to get from here to there except by car - to make things easy we chartered a small bus. We all stayed in the dorms at SUNY Plattsburgh and ate in the dining hall. I also gave each participant a "goodie-bag" with a polo shirt, thumb drive and assorted other college logo items.

Having never organized a trip like this, I was worried that something wouldn't get done in time or that we'd forget something important. So I created a short survey to poll the faculty that attended and see how they felt the planning went. I am also interested in what they thought about the conference itself to decide whether to try to do this again in the future.

Time to get back to it!

Whew!
It has been a whirlwind of a month here! I have just returned from back-to-back conferences. I'm feeling exhausted but energized at the same time! So many things that I want to get started on our campus...now I have to find the right people to work with!

I have to say Thank you to all the instructors/guides for our Advanced Technologies class. At the last conference, I sat in the back of a workshop on Podcasting - the presenter had some great Tips but when he said "all you need to create podcasts is a Mac computer..." I watched the faces of the faculty I brought fall to the floor - we are mostly a PC school. After the session, I stopped them and told them that we can do podcasts without a Mac. On our 8 hour bus ride home I started to develop the workshop I will do with them based on what we've learned in this course. So, thanks for showing us how!

Now that I'm back and almost caught up with the piles of things on my desk, I need to get caught up with this class. I hate to be behind in my work so I'll probably have to pull some all-nighters to do it! (We stayed in the dorms at SUNY Plattsburgh for the last conference - I had forgotten how much fun dorm-life was! Now I sort of feel like an undergrad again - except with more aches and pains!)

My Gabcast

Here's my first shot at using Gabcast. I'm a little confused, the instructions for having it go directly to my Blog were not really clear.

I hope this works!

Gabcast! Advanced Technologies Course #1

To Speak or Be Silent?

I feel that there is a real need for audio in online courses. Students with visual difficulties or auditory learners could benefit from the audio as well as the visual content.

I think that more faculty would add audio if they realized how easy it can be accomplished. Even though using Odeo Studio is really easy, it proved a to be frustrating task for us at ECC. Our firewall blocks the stream from their servers, we spent a lot of time with our tech people and it just can't be done!

So, I grabbed my MAC laptop and tried it at home - low and behold it is easy!

Here's my thoughts on why more people don't use audio in their online courses:
http://media.odeo.com//files/1/8/3/4045183.mp3

I'm still looking for another FREE product like Odeo that our firewall will allow through - if anyone has any suggestions, please tell me!
Martie

A good one from Google!

OK, this may not be related to our course but I just had to share this!

1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type " New York " in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type " London " in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions"
7. scroll down to step #23

I hope it makes you laugh a little! I did me!

Post Vacation Frustration!

This picture was taken Saturday morning - just before the Nor'easter got to the Outer Banks of NC where we were staying. We thought we were lucky, leaving before the storm arrived.

Little did I know that I was coming home to messy weather! Maybe Spring will arrive next week?


The weather is not the only thing messy around here either!

• My college email system is not working properly and I have 158 unread email messages to do something about!
• Our firewall blocks Odeo Studio so I can't use it for our assignment for class.
• Gabcast is making us sound like one of the Munchkins from the Land of OZ.

As much as I love learning about these great tools, it's frustrating that we can't get them to work here on campus! I'm trying now to find some alternatives to show to my online faculty.

The only problem with taking a vacation is that the work piles up and somehow it seems to take twice as long to get back on track!

It's not bad enough to stop me from taking this time with my family though!

100 Things about me! (Well - the first 50 anyway!)

1. I am older than I look.
2. I have 3 children - 22, 19 and 5 - yes, the last one was NOT planned!
3. I have been married for 25 years!
4. I have lived in NY my whole life.
5. I have lived in 6 different counties from Northern NY, to Central NY to Western NY, but never in Eastern NY, where everyone assumes we all live because NY City is there!
6. I will always be a teacher at heart.
7. I love my job, even though I am now considered an Administrator!
8. I have a miniature Dachshund.
9. I am a certified Secondary Mathematics teacher.
10. I am a certified Microsoft instructor.
11. I am a certified Palm™ education instructor.
12. I am a NASCAR junkie!
13. I am an avid reader.
14. I am a techno-geek!
15. My whole family spends Easter week together in the Outer Banks of NC.
16. I would love to live in the Carolinas!
17. I always use my vacation days, but never use my sick time!
18. I have a tendency to get so wrapped up in my work that I forget to eat.
19. For my daughter’s 21st birthday I published a book of her pictures from the summer she spent in Ireland – printed one copy just for her!
20. The only foreign country I have ever been to is Canada, becuase it's only an hour away!
21. My sister owns a Curves for Women and I need to exercise more!
22. I would love to own my business!
23. My husband’s plant is closing and I am anxious and excited about where we will be in the near future.
24. I love the outdoors.
25. I love to swim.
26. I love to spend time in my gardens.
27. I love the smell after a spring rain.
28. I am beginning to hate snow.
29. My current favorite author is Gregory Maguire. His children’s stories are wonderful and the more mature versions of some children’s classics make my imagination work overtime!
30. I do not drink soda (or pop as they say here in Western NY).
31. I do like beer.
32. I am a red wine snob.
33. My favorite foods are seafood, steak and pizza!
34. My favorite color is blue.
35. I have green eyes.
36. Everyone else in my family has blue eyes.
37. My home is a little messy, but always clean!
38. I love to cook.
39. My stress relief is baking!
40. My mother is my hero!
41. I am so proud of my oldest daughter – she is graduating in May with her degree in Elementary, Special Education and will be going to grad school for Deaf Education Studies in the Fall.
42. I am also very proud of my son, he is great working with his hands and has a wonderful work ethic. (Admittedly, I was disappointed that he didn’t want to go to college!)
43. I am both happy and sad that my son has moved out to his own place.
44. I will have a child in school for another 12 years!
45. I think I need to start coloring my hair, the gray ones are starting to multiply!
46. I would love to be able decorate my home in the Arts and Crafts style that fits the period in which it was built.
47. My husband and I take vacations together and apart every year.
48. I love to create things, sewing, crafts, plant boxes, jewelry, etc. and give them away to my friends and family.
49. I never have enough time in a day.
50. I sleep about 6 hours each night.

What's the next great teaching tool?

I have been in education for more than 25 years. In that time I have seen many trends in teaching come and go. Each time there was some new technique to use to reach more kids, I willingly tried to learn as much about it as I could.

This lead me to using technology in the classroom. As a computer science teacher it seemed like a natural progression to me to add technology elements to my math classes as well. I found myself working with my fellow faculty members in my spare time, showing them what I was doing to get the kids involved and interested.

When a change in my husband's career had us move to Western New York, I found a position training teachers to use the technology they already had in their classrooms as a part of their curriculum. The more tools that came about the more exciting this process became! From simple computer uses, to virtual field trips, to handheld computers, and now online learning and more still to come.

I recently changed my focus to work with Community College faculty. As the world of post-secondary education moves quickly into the virtual world, I find myself asking - What's next? What will be the next tool that we use to reach out to more students than ever before? And how can we make sure that learning is really taking place?