For those who enjoy using Skype, the new beta 4.1 for Windows will include a screen-sharing feature — allowing users to share their desktop screen with any contact.

Skype 4.1 beta screen capture

Although there are other tools that can be used for collaboration and screen sharing, the combination of these features with an already-popular free voice/video chat service might make this a useful tool for small group work or instructor/student feedback.

Say, for example, you have a stack of research papers to grade. Rather than using track change bubbles to write every comment on a student’s paper, and/or following up with pre-recorded audio feedback, you can make abbreviated marks on the document and schedule an appointment to “meet” with the student via Skype. Once you’ve shared the file on your screen with the student, you can explain all your comments and answer any questions.

This might not necessarily shorten the amount of time you would put into grading each assignment, but if you arrange one-on-one chat sessions with each of your students anyway this could kill two birds with one stone.

Skype 4.1

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published this commentary by Margaret Brooks: “The Excellent Inevitability of Online Courses” (2009).

Brooks argues that the integration of technology into society, rather than the economy or convenience, is what drives the development of online courses. She presents eight reasons for colleges to offer online courses, which could be useful arguments to anyone who wants to persuade opponents of online learning into giving the matter more consideration.

It’s a short, to-the-point article, and worth a quick read. The online version will be available to non-subscribers of the Chronicle for the next five days.

The Excellent Inevitability of Online Courses

According to this article by College Corner, eTextbooks are becoming easier to purchase online and for considerably less than the price of purchasing a traditional, paper-based textbook. Websites like CourseSmart allow students to purchase textbooks for an average discount of 50% off the printed price.

Beyond the monetary savings, eTextbooks avoid the need to schlep a stack of heavy books and offer the added benefit of search functions for specific content. Note-taking and highlighting functions help bridge the gap between the digital content and its printed counterpart. Text can also be copied and pasted for easy referencing in essays and papers.

Additionally, a computer-accessible textbook is extremely convenient for online education: content can be copied and pasted into study guides and integrates easily with course management and web 2.0 software. (For anyone who might be thinking that this also allows students to copy and paste uncited text directly into their research papers, I’d respond that they have already been able to do this with online resources for years–and the instructor who assigns regular short writing assignments should be able to tell the difference between a student’s “voice” and the textbook author’s.) Ordering an eTextbook also eliminates the need for an online student to factor a shipping & delivery time into textbook orders.

This is not to suggest that the printed page should become obsolete. That $100 professional manual that’s likely to be replaced next semester with a slightly updated $100 professional manual, however, may rightly go out of style as a venue for education. After all, if students can purchase the necessary information for less–and simultaneously cut down on the demand for printing paper used to publish such quickly disposable books–it doesn’t bode for a comfortable future for the heavy, expensive, unresellable textbook. Who knows, maybe this will mean more paper for future Harry Potter spin-off novels.

For those students who are stuck with expensive textbooks they can’t resell due to immediate obsolescence, maybe a solution is to take a leaf (no pun intended) from Jim Rosenau and re-purpose them as artistic bookshelves.

bookshelf by Jim Rosenau, This into That

CourseSmart

I created another Stripgenerator comic this morning to go along with an update to the Rubrics section of my Intro to Pedagogy workshop:

Stripgenerator comic, Rubrics & the Secret to Grading

Since many instructors are still finishing grades for the end of the semester, it feels timely enough to share. Happy end-of-term to faculty and students, and a great holiday weekend to all!

Incidentally, I hope the satire is evident enough in this strip. In case my meaning is not obvious, please don’t teach like this dude!

Text for those who cannot view Flash-based content:

Rubrics & the Secret to Grading
(Professor speaks through 3 panels)
Rubrics?! I never give my students rubrics! That’s equivalent to cheating! I might as well write their essays for them!
College students should understand that they’re expected to perform certain undisclosed outcomes. The point of learning is to keep them guessing about the criteria, so they’ll work harder in their desperation not to fail. Stress facilitates success.
Besides, if I gave them a rubric, I’d have to admit that I decide their grades with a dart board.

ShowDocument is a free online tool that allows users to share files in a synchronous online environment. I haven’t used this yet, but it looks like it could be useful for instructors who want students to collaborate on a group project in real-time.

The main components are a shared file presentation system with a whiteboard, plus a shared browser and text editor. The advantage of ShowDocument is that instead of simply presenting a file, like a PowerPoint lecture, the other users can collaborate and edit the document in real-time. The following video from their website gives a “tour” demonstration:

I’d like to know if anyone else has had experience with this as a tool for online group projects. If you’ve used this or otherwise have an opinion on its functionality for online education, share your advice in the comments below.

ShowDocument

Can your Google do this?

image from WolframAlpha Blog

WolframAlpha describes its product as a ” computational knowledge engine”. Rather than searching for web results that pertain to the information entered into its search bar, it interprets what is being requested and provides answers…and then some.

The screenshot above (pulled from the WolframAplha Blog) shows the engine computing pi to 100 digits. However, this is far from the most impressive demonstration in the product’s presentation video. Not only can the engine give you information on the daily weather and climatic changes for a specific city over the course of several years, but it can tell you exactly what weather conditions took place on an unspecified date based on other information presented:

screenshot from WolframAlpha presentation, entered search "weather springfield when david ortiz was born"

Apparently the program is versatile enough to present information in a wide variety of areas beyond math and weather, which can best be explored by viewing the presentation for now — the engine itself is still only available to “a few select individuals”. Still, my mind is officially blown.

UPDATE (May 15): WolframAlpha is preparing to launch their engine for the general public this evening, 5 pm Pacific/7pm CST.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

creative commons licensed photo via Flickr by mybloodyself

One of my current projects is revamping my open-source Introduction to Online Pedagogy workshop. Because this workshop needs to be accessible to students from any location, I’m using PBworks to host the lesson content instead of our school’s Moodle product–which had caused problems with userIDs and file storage for students from outside our school.

For the discussion component, however, I’m looking for a better venue. Right now we have a discussion board hosted through phpBB. It’s designed so anyone can participate after they create a login. However, its no-frills package means limited text editing features by 2009 standards and no RSS capability. The wiki course site has room for some comments by a limited number of registered users. I would like to find something that would have more updated discussion capability for an indefinite number of users over an ongoing period of time–as the workshop is designed for participation at any pace, any time.

Some possible solutions I’m considering:

• Blog network – anyone who wants to participate signs up for a blog and collects RSS feeds of other participants who register in this system. They then use their blog to post responses to the discussion questions and reply to others’ posts in the blog comments section.
• Facebook group – most online students and instructors are already in Facebook. The workshop group could be used to post discussion responses and comments. The length of these comments would be limited, but that might facilitate to-the-point answers. Those who wanted to give a lengthier response could do so by linking to a blog.
• Twitter group – while Twitter has gotten a lot of press about its strength for quick Q&A, I’m still dubious of its value for more meaningful discussion–unless everyone links their “tweet” to a longer response.
• LinkedIn group – this might facilitate the connection between faculty development and career networking for new and future instructors.

Given those options, I would welcome any suggestions or ideas for creating meaningful course discussion outside of a formal CMS like Blackboard or Moodle. Has anyone else created something like this? How do you generate discussion for an ongoing community of learners?

The following video is a vision of the future, as predicted by MOCOM 2020–which describes its organization as “an open think tank about mobile media worldwide”.

Ready or not, mobile media and communication look like they’re here to stay. It’s probable that more schools and  instructors in the near future will make more of their content accessible through mobile devices. Certainly, some schools have already made mobile versions of their websites, and some instructors incorporate social media like Twitter and Facebook, which can be used via mobile devices.

It’s been interesting to find more and more resources related to mobile learning. I’ve been compiling some of them on Delicious. If there is enough interest I’d like to put together a tutorial or mini-workshop on the subject.

What do you think of mobile learning? If you aren’t already using it, do you feel more inclined toward it, or is its place in education overrated? If you are using mobile-oriented instruction, what advice would you give to those who aren’t?

MOCOM 2020

creative commons licensed via Flickr by Laura Burlton

Course Management System mega-giant Blackboard has just cut a deal to buy Angel for $95 million (Inside Higher Ed). This isn’t the first time Blackboard has been in the news with its competitors. In 2005 it bought out WebCT and has more recently sued Desire2Learn for copyright violation.

I haven’t used Blackboard in two years since I switched to a school that uses Moodle instead. I haven’t missed it, either. That’s not to imply that Moodle is perfect, but it has some definite advantages over Blackboard.

As open-source systems in general are becoming more popular, I’m curious whether there will be a greater shift in the future away from proprietary CMS giants to more open-source platforms. It’s interesting to see how instructors can teach courses entirely in non-CMS web 2.0 products like wikis, blogs, and other social media. Since I teach students from multiple schools, this method personally works better for me because it means avoiding the headache of arranging login IDs for non-UIUC students.

For the average instructor teaching students within the same school, however, is it worth sticking to a school-sponsored CMS because it’s supported by the school’s tech support office? Or, alternately, will more and more course activities take place in external, free web 2.0 forums?

Blackboard Buys Angel, Inside Higher Ed

I saw this today:

Buy.com is retailing this for $9.99, free shipping. Original price: $49.99. If you have been curious about integrating video lectures or video messaging into your online course but you aren’t sure you want to spend $50 to try it out, this might be a cheap way to experiment.

I don’t know much about this brand to assess its quality as a product, and the site doesn’t have any product reviews. It looks like an old model, if the operating system requirements are anything to go by: Windows® 98SE*, ME, 2000 or XP. Since Microsoft is no longer going to support XP it’s no wonder that this product is going for 80% off.

If you are willing to spend a bit more to have a higher-quality webcam and/or you need something Vista-compliant, I’ve had good luck with Logitech’s line of webcams. If you’re on XP, however, and looking to save a few $$, Labtec might be more your style.

Labtec Webcam plus Web Camera