Merlot ‘08
This weekend, my colleagues from two different projects and I participate in a panel discussion at MERLOT
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.
My co presenters are Becky Hines from The Screen in Flat and Ann York, my co-producer of the podcast series Dispatches from the Graduate Classroom.
This is the Eighth International Conference
MERLOT: Still Blazing the Trail and Meeting New Challenges in the Digital Age
Our discussion description from the program.
The Screen is Flat - Reinventing Libraries for Information Literacy
Track: Track 5 – Reinventing Libraries in the Digital Age
The Screen is Flat panel discussion will converge the viewpoints of a librarian, a graduate school professor, and a multimedia information designer to create a team strategy for transforming physical and virtual library environments to the computer screen. The panelists will engage participants in visualizing libraries in the Web 2.0 world and beyond, outline three critical skill sets for information literacy, and illustrate how personal learning environments will be shaped by collaborations in and out of the classroom. Attendees will leave with tactics, references on best practices, and a network of colleagues to continue dialogue as they implement change.
Seven things to know about Flickr
During the November 12:10 lunch and learn, one of the topics we discussed was Flickr, an example of a photo sharing resource on the Web. Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) has a additional resource for you to review to get a better understanding of Flickr and it’s potential for you in the classroom and in your research and personal lives.
Quoting:
Although Flickr is ostensibly for photos, the site might more aptly be described as a venue for sharing experiences and building relationships. The site provides the tools, but the value derives from the contributions of the user community — photos, comments, ratings, and organization — and the connections that the site facilitates between individuals.
12:10 Conspiracy Learning Partner Update: 12:10 DMU education_technology educator learning_environments learning_partners learning_trust
by Fritz
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Information R/evolution Video link
From the last 12:10 Conspiracy lunch and learn, here is the Michael Wesch video Information R/evolution. In the producer’s words:
This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.
Learning Partner Update: 12:10 DMU education_technology learning_partners
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On Posters, Flickr, and Learning Technology
Learning partners,
I hope by now you have subscribed to the Learning Partner Update (this email) by RSS feed; it keeps your inbox lighter and lets you review the content on your terms and schedule.
This month, I’ve added posts about RSS and some left over notes from the presentation on finding images for presentations and using Flickr™.
In the hopes of encouraging interest and engagement in both our 12:10 tools and the upcoming College of Health Sciences Research Day, I want to share a feature within Fickr™ that can turn a static image into a great working discussion tool . Flickr™ has built it tools that lets viewers draw a box around part of an image, and the type a comment. Keep in mind, as we shared in the presentation Flickr images can be public to the world, or controlled access to limited people.
So, build your poster for presentation, take a photo, post it to Flickr™ (or if you build it within a software tool like PhotoShop®, Illustrator®, or PowerPoint®, you can output it as an image to upload to Flickr, and colleagues can review and add comments. This Fickr™ image is one example of how this is done.
Nervous, want to try it before you use it? You can follow the link to a sample poster I upoaded from PowerPoint® (thanks Carla) by saving it as a .jpg file and then posting it to my Flickr™ account. You can see both the poster and comments. While you are there, make a note or comment (they are two different things).
This week’s drawing will be from all the folks who
put comments or notes on the image.
As a final note, I found this entry in a blog by
Even deeper is the issue of whether technology aids or harms learning. People will take their sides quickly on this issue. Should we allow computers in the classroom? Should we make all the professors learn powerpoint? Should all classrooms be wired for the web? One thing to keep in mind is that technology has ordering power. A majority of fundamental questions now revolve around whether technology is useful or not, it orders a majority question and decision we make as educators in the Western world.
One thing we discovered in this discussion about pedagogy and technology was: Technology often times controls the pedagogy, rather than the pedagogy controlling the way technology is used. (emphasis his)
12:10 Conspiracy Learning Partner Update: 12:10 DMU education_technology
by Fritz
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When bad titles meet (good) presentations
In reviewing submission guidelines for some conferences, I am struck by some obvious advice: the title needs to be catchy. And who among us hasn’t at times written a poor title for what was probably a good presentation?
But even good advice is sometimes overlooked, or goes unheeded. That became clear to me after the last 12:10 Lunch and Learn about new ways to access and use images in presentations, the title didn’t live up to the topic. Several of those who chose not to attend, later told me said “we know how to put an image in powerpoint”. Opps. Bad title.
The October 12:10 conspiracy was to help discover and explore item 11 on the 12/10 list: exploring Flickr. And along with that we explored that the old difficult way of finding images to use in presentations has some free and better alternatives.
So as a brief recap, here are some of the key points.
The old way — of buying stock image disks, looking through pages of stock photo albums and directories, and considering whether the use of an image constituted a violation of copyright law have evolved.
The new way includes the use of tools like flickr™ (www.flickr.com) or Picassa™ and searching for images on nearly any topic or theme.
These resources make use the images shared by millions of people and the idea of tagging - a friendly folksy way of labeling content. This blog makes use of tagging and the resulting tag cloud on the right of this page. Tag clouds are intuitive for many people.
Flickr also makes it possible to only search photos licensed under Creative Commons, a new way to look at the sharing and restriction of use of intellectual property. Now, authors, publishers, researchers, scholars have a way to allow some use of their work without involving detailed licensing agreements, or disputes over ownership.
November’s 12:10 will be a very brief introduction to using audio online and in presentations. I still have half a month to come up with a good title.
