Last week I led a hands-on workshop for the Faculty Summer Institute at the University of Illinois on how to create a presentation in Prezi. If you have never heard of Prezi, think of it as an alternative to PowerPoint that is not only free, but offers a lot of viewing and display options that PowerPoint doesn’t.
One comment, now that I have worked with Prezi’s embed feature: the publicly viewable step-by-step version of the presentation (what you see here) doesn’t allow for zooming in on certain text in the same way as in the live presentation mode. When I was presenting from my online account I could zoom in on smaller text that wasn’t already included in the “path” (the order in which information is shown in the slides”). That meant I could include the photo credits in a tiny font under the photos and zoom in on them when necessary. In the embedded version, you can see these citations very briefly in passing from one slide to another, but you can’t select that text like it’s possible to do in the presentation mode.
While this would be a disadvantage to Prezi, the application has been evolving in the past year since it was first released. There are still a few bugs. However, it’s come a long way since I last worked with it in December 2009. There are enough clever features to it that I am optimistic that it will continue to get better and better in the next year.
CC-licensed photo, IMG_2883 by Richard Mansfield via Flickr
Each month, I post a list of @wisepedagogy Twitter posts from the previous month. If you missed them the first time, you can find them here.
Unfortunately, this will be the last archive for @wisepedagogy. We have reached the end of our grant funding for this project, and most WISE Pedagogy initiatives are being discontinued after April 30. Anyone who wishes to read more tweets for eLearning and online pedagogy can follow my personal feed, @amckinn.
The following video by Kevin Roberts offers inspiration for making online education engaging: if students can get information online, what can instructors do to teach beyond the limits of imparting information?
The focus is on active assignments, asking students to discuss ideas and use cloud-based networks (like Prezi) to analyze the information they are learning. As far as inspiring presentations for educators go, this one stretches on longer than most at almost ten minutes. However, the content is worth the watch if you have time.
On a related note, the video serves as a good example of how to present information and ideas in Prezi. Even without the addition of image files or embedded videos, the presentation moves from point to point in a way that holds readers’ attention with pure text. For anyone who is learning how to adapt presentations to Prezi, the style of delivery in this video may be reason enough to watch it.
Since the iPad was released to the general public, there have been a lot of reports and articles about its relative advantages and disadvantages. The following is my addition to this dialog: in terms of educational technology, how much can we estimate its future worth as a learning tool?
How the iPad compares in size to an iPhone and a laptop. CC-licensed photo, 10-iPadUnboxing-7951, by Kadath via Flickr.
Much of educational technology focuses on making use of the technologies students are already using. At least, that seems to be the main theory behind mobile learning pedagogy…as well as several online networks. Isn’t that why instructors started setting up Facebook and Second Life accounts in the first place — to go where the students were? If that were true, it should only follow that educators should be prepared to embrace iPads as much as their students.
So: to what extent can we expect students to embrace iPads? Let’s consider its practical value for general use as an e-reader or online browsing machine. Sure, it’s shiny and new, but will it be more practical than a smartphone or netbook?
The photo above shows how much larger the iPad is than the iPhone. It’s not going to be as portable as an iPhone, and without a protective sleeve it’s going to be more easily damaged (and have fewer applications) than a laptop. Factor in the limited capabilities for this early model, and it might have enough drawbacks to make it less useful to students than either a smartphone or a larger laptop or netbook. This also ignores the price consideration — if students already have a laptop and a smartphone (or an iPod touch, for that matter), a budget-conscious student must wonder what he/she could accomplish with an iPad that couldn’t already be done with one or the other gadgets, and if that would be enough to justify buying another device.
There are other drawbacks that could be listed here: the iPad’s inability to read e-books in .pdf files, its awkward size/weight for holding it like a book for extended reading, even the way a fingerprint-smudged iPad loses its “shiny and new” luster as soon as it’s out of the box.
However, Apple’s marketing campaign has done a fantastic job of hyping the new gadget in glitzy ads and media exposure. Surely, if Apple could change the world with iPods and iPhones, the iPad couldn’t fall much farther from the tree, could it?
CC-licensed photo, Apple iPad faux pas, by Swamibu via Flickr
While it may have some practical drawbacks for students, the iPad may be a useful device for people who are less tech-savvy, have needs that are more recreational than learning-centered, and want something like a smartphone but with a larger screen. (I might still suggest a netbook instead — at least, for my older family members who want something lightweight they can carry to the library and check their email for free. For people in this category, a netbook is still more affordable and might be easier to type with. If your less tech-savvy relatives want to look more cutting-edge while they do this, by all means recommend them to the iPad.)
Before this post delves too deeply into snark, however, it’s still worth investigating possible uses for iPads as learning technology. The following video by The Masie Center gives Eliot Masie’s iPad First Look for Learning:
Also, a Blackboard app for the iPad:
Advice for the time being: Unless you are a devoted Apple fan who would use a new Apple device anyway, or you teach at a school that is giving each student his or her own iPad, you might want to wait a few months before you buy one solely for pedagogical purposes. Time may tell whether this new device will have enough advantages to surpass the others that are already available.
Even if you and some of your students already do have iPads, it may be a while before we can expect to design lesson plans that incorporate them into course activities.
Finally, for a pun on blended learning, the following video demonstrates what happens when an iPad is put in a blender.
cc-licensed photo, Chicks, by nickgraywfu via Flickr
Each month, I post a list of @wisepedagogy Twitter posts from the previous month. If you missed them the first time, you can find them here.
Not included in this list are posts related to the Spring 2010 ELI Focus Session on Mobile Learning. You can find those in this post: Mobile Learning: Educause ELI Focus Session Recap
cc-licensed photo, Sprinkles, M&Ms and Chocolate Crunch, via Flickr by Sister72
I am in the process of archiving the wisepedagogy Twitter announcements from past months. Links have been expanded to show the entire URL rather than bit.ly shorthand.
September 2009 Twitter Posts by wisepedagogy:
The comic is about photography, but says something about web 2.0 vs. the individual. Food for thought? http://catandgirl.com/?p=2148
I have left out a few tweets that related to dated events, such as webinars and calls for participation. I’m guessing that the people who would read this archive would be most interested in resources that still have a chance of being available.
cc-licensed photo, P1060127, via Flickr by jessicareeder
I am in the process of archiving the wisepedagogy Twitter announcements from past months. Links have been expanded to show the entire URL rather than bit.ly shorthand.
cc-licensed photo, DSC00948, via Flickr by godutchbaby
I am in the process of archiving the wisepedagogy Twitter announcements from past months. Links have been expanded to show the entire URL rather than bit.ly shorthand.
cc-licensed photo, Lunch Time! via Flickr by AR Nature Gal
I am in the process of archiving the wisepedagogy Twitter announcements from past months. Links have been expanded to show the entire URL rather than bit.ly shorthand.
Anyone try synchronous mobile learning w/video stream? Say how well it goes. Broadcast LIVE w/USTREAM Mobile -iPhone app http://www.ustream.tv/mobile/recorder
cc-licensed photo, Freezer Meals, via Flickr by armigeress
Thanks to Twitter I’ve been able to share a plethora of announcements about new e-learning technologies and pedagogical research studies, all in a very quick, easy manner. No thanks to Twitter, however, I’ve been announcing fewer of these announcements on this blog.
I’m hoping to reverse this trend by posting summaries of my Twitter updates at least on a monthly basis, if not more frequently. In the meantime, I’ll archive what I can in a few posts, beginning with January. Links have been expanded to show the entire URL rather than bit.ly shorthand.
Online University Cracks Down On Rowdy Online Fraternity | The Onion – 
Grading Triage 
