Thursday, October 14, 2010

Educause Day Thee, Part Two

My last day. Wow. I'm pooped! Ok, here's what I saw this afternoon.

The Top of the Stack: Fuchs on Funding
Ira Fuchs

What the program said:
In more than 10 years as vice president and program officer for research in information technology at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ira Fuchs oversaw the grants program that funded projects including Sakai, uPortal, Kuali, the Open Knowledge Initiative, Fedora, DSpace, and the Open Library Environment. Having been both a pioneer in the development of transformative technology projects and a leader in the higher education community, Fuchs will discuss the grant makers perspective on higher education, including insights to those seeking grants from philanthropic organizations.

My take: Ira Fuchs went over his pointers for grant writers, they they were pretty common sense. You know, like...if your potential finder doesn't fund Heath care, do ask for money for health care. Well, duh! But you know, it was god to hear it because it kind of demystified it for me.

Community Discussion: Next Generation learning Challenges
Ira Fuchs
The program said:
EDUCAUSE invites your participation and expertise in Next Generation Learning Challenges, a new effort to identify and scale technology-enabled approaches that dramatically improve college readiness and completion. Join initiative staff to learn more about the program, including future grant opportunities, and brainstorm with your colleagues on future directions.

My take: This was an opportunity for Ira to collect ideas from those gathered about what we saw as the best ideas for the biggest ideas facing college students.

You 3.0: Evaluating Software, Hardware, and Wetware
Rochelle Rodrigo

The program says:
This presentation by the EDUCAUSE Evolving Technologies Committee will describe the characteristics required for enterprise success with evolving technologies. We will discuss IT leadership and the decision-making process in the context of several evolving technologies including mobility, virtualization, and e-readers. Attendees are invited to submit proposal ideas for five-minute Ignite-style presentations to kick off discussion at http://bit.ly/cW3bDG.

My take: Rochelle and her co presenters got 5 minutes and 20 slides to present about their ideas. What a clever idea! They had some very original thinking, and I look forward to exploring their themes more completely in the future.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Educause, Day Three, Part One

The workshop sessions continued to be excellent. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at this point, but pushing forward!

An Immersive Learning Experience via the Alternative Reality Model


David Lee Fulton,Web Developer, User Services Mississippi State University 
Ronald Jason Tiffin,Sr. Web Developer, Team Leader Mississippi State University 
Amy H. Berryhill, Mississippi State University

What the program said:
Engaging incoming freshmen in activities has a positive impact on the overall freshman experience. The Freshmen Common Book Committee at Mississippi State University decided to try a different approach. Using alternate reality gaming as a model, the committee designed an "Immersive Learning Experience" and viral marketing to engage students with clues, mystery, and rewards.

My take: this was a fascinating presentation. These folks basically constructed a theme based scavenger hunt. The prizes they had were "real" and "valuable," and not everyone got them. The second year they changed that and the game was no longer successful.

Distance vs. Distributed Education: Bringing the Campus to the Student
Dr Neil Gershenfield

What the program said:
Advances in integrating the worlds of bits and atoms are challenging assumptions of scarcity that are implicit in the organization of advanced technical education and investigation. MIT's Neil Gershenfeld will discuss the ideas behind this revolution and their implications for improving educational opportunities. Realizing this promise will require revisiting many current practices, including accrediting networks rather than locations, organizing individuals instead of institutions, formalizing informal learning, and creating corresponding career paths.

My take: I think I only understood a quarter to a half of what this man talked about...materials that are computers, that change as they compute... Wha????? But he did talk about an incredible network of open labs all over the world that I think NTID has to be a part of. I will be take g this back to work with me.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Educause Conference, Day Two, Part Two

The afternoon offered a lot choices. However sometimes the written descriptions don't really describe what the session turned out to be. That was the case with both of afternoon sessions.

Sherpa: Increasing Student Success with a Recommendation Engine
Robert Bramucci,Vice Chancellor, Technology & Learning Services 
South Orange County Community College District 
Jim Gaston, Associate Director, IT, Academic Systems & Special Projects 
South Orange County Community College District 

Here's what the program said:
"Students flock to online services that offer intelligent recommendations: Amazon, Pandora, Facebook, iTunes, and Netflix present personalized choices, yet when students reach college they find static menus leading to a bewildering array of choices. At this session we will present Sherpa, a revolutionary personal guide to courses, information, and services."

My take:
In this case the session wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but it was great. Bob and Jim have developed a system that "knows" there

Enforcing Copyright on Campus Networks: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Kenneth E. Pflueger, Chief Information Officer Pomona College 
Kent Wada,Director, Strategic IT and Privacy Policy UCLA 
Steven Worona,Director of Policy & Networking Programs 

Here's what the program said:
Since July 1, campus networks have been subject to enforcement of the P2P provisions of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Coincidentally, a variety of government offices have initiated separate reviews of how the Internet is impacting copyright, soliciting input from higher education along the way. In this session we'll review the experience of some HEOA "role model" campuses and discuss how lessons learned will inform and influence ongoing compliance activities on peer campuses as well as federal and offshore initiatives.


 


              

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Educause Day Two, Part One

The University as an Agile Organization

Patrick Masson (University of Massachusetts Central Office)
David J. Staley (The Ohio State University)
Ken Udas (University of Massachusetts Central Office)

Here's what the program said:
"Web 2.0 is more than a set of tools; it is a 'platform' for organization, characterized by decentralized and emergent versus command-and-control leadership models. Can our institutions leverage the new realities of social media for better decision making and outcomes? This session will highlight the theory and practice of an 'agile university.'"

My take:
This was a terrific presentation! I realized that much of what I am trying to do with the team is simpatico with Agile, and that is where I need to put my effort in process improvement. When Patrick and Ken described the team at UMassOnline, my mouth was watering! They must be incredible managers to pull this off in a higher ed environment.

They suggested a couple of books:
Agile Project Management by Jim Highsmith
The New Invisible College by Caroline Wagner
The Spidar and the Starfish

I will be devoting several blog postings on this presentation.

Audio and Video Accessibility: Strategies and Workflows
Alice Anderson (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
James Glapa grossklag (College of the Canyons)
Sean Keegan (Stanford University)
Terrill Thomson(University of Washington)


Here's what the program said:
"Higher education institutions have legal and ethical obligations to provide audio and video resources that are accessible to all audience members, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. This panel session will explore several institutions' his off in a approaches for addressing their media accessibility challenges."

My take:
Unfortunately, these people didn't have anything new to present on making video accessible. I keep looking for a magic solution that will provide instant perfect captions for free. It doesn't exist, at least not yet.

Sherpa: Increasing Student Success with a Recommendation Engine
Robert Bramucci,Vice Chancellor, Technology & Learning Services 
South Orange County Community College District 
Jim Gaston, Associate Director, IT, Academic Systems & Special Projects 
South Orange County Community College District 

Here's what the program said:
Students flock to online services that offer intelligent recommendations: Amazon, Pandora, Facebook, iTunes, and Netflix present personalized choices, yet when students reach college they find static menus leading to a bewildering array of choices. At this session we will present Sherpa, a revolutionary personal guide to courses, information, and services.

This blog post seems to be too long for Blogger. So check for the second half, following this post.


 


              

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Educause Conference, Day One

Today was my first day at Educause, in Anaheim, CA. Wow, this is one big conference.today was the pre conference day, and I already feel a little overwhelmed!

My first session today was "Pedagogical Consideration in Implementing Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and More"
"This session will focus on social media and how these tools can be used both inside and outside the classroom. Many of us are already avid users of social media because the marvelous technology allows us to do so many different things. This session will share perspectives from both the pedagogical side and online community-building sides, as well as encourage participants to become part of the conversation and share their experiences. Participants will be able to evaluate social media tools relative to their personal and institutional goals to determine which tool might be beneficial to achieve those goals. Attendees will also develop support networks through leveraging social media tools and sites to facilitate best practices and collaboration during and after the conference."

The session was presented by Tanya Joosten Interim Associate Director, Learning Technology Center,University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Shannon Ritter, Coordinator of Auditions, Interviews, and Admissions, School of Theatre, The Pennsylvania State University. They did a great job. There are some new tools I learned about.   

http://www.pearltrees.com/

A way to organize what you love on the web. Looks cool in concept, but can check it out because it uses Flash. And my iPod doesn't.

http://foursquare.com/android/

This phone app gives you an opportunity to learn about your community. I love yelp, so I'm looking forward to using this app.

http://www.twazzup.com

This site is my new favorite. It combines tweets to a hash tagged source, your links and documents. You really need to check this out.