Intelligent Video: The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites: from Dan Coleman @ Open Culture

One of my favorite educational media blogs is Open Culture (http://www.openculture.com) by Dan Coleman (Stanford University). He is always highlighting amazing free educational resources to use in and out of the classroom.

Here is a highlight from a posting dated June 5th ('old news' in the tech world!) :)

Intelligent Video: The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites

Looking for great cultural and educational video? Then you’ve come to the right place. Below, we have compiled a list of 46 sites that feature intelligent videos. This list was produced with the help of our faithful readers, and it will grow over time. If you find it useful, please share it as widely as you can. And if we’re missing good sites, please list them in the comments below.

http://tiny.cc/8zRUM

Enjoy!

Give us a call at 454-2282, email : Amanda_Coolidge@bcit.ca or drop by the Learning and Teaching Centre: SE 12 (beneath Tim Horton's, drop by after you grab your coffee!)

5 Alternatives to PowerPoint: A Revolution to become more content-oriented and audience-oriented, #5 on the list

The 5th and final recommendation in the 5 Alternatives to Powerpoint series, is bringing us back to the old-school style of presentation. Simply put, NO POWERPOINT CRUTCH.

#5: Drop the PowerPoint and go ‘old school’ with a conversation

Excerpt from Edward Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence:


When Louis Gerstner became president of IBM, he encountered a big company caught up in ritualistic slideware-style presentations:

One of the first meetings I was asked for was a briefing on the state of the [mainframe computer] business. At that time, the standard format of any important IBM meeting was a presentation using overhead projectors and graphics that IBMers called “foils” [projected transparencies]. Nick was on his second foil when I stepped to the table and, as politely as I could in front of his team, switched off the projector. After a long moment of silence, I simply said “Let’s just talk about your business.”

“Let’s talk about your business” indicates a thoughtful exchange of information, a mutual interplay between the speaker and audience, rather than a pitch made by a power pointer pointing to bullets. Powerpoint is presenter-oriented, not content-oriented, not audience-oriented.


I hope that the suggested alternatives to Powerpoint over the past few days have given you some “food for thought” for your classroom environment.

For those interested, I will be giving a workshop on the use of Prezi as a presentation tool (and if time I will touch on the other alternatives) on Friday July 17th in SE 12 101 Q from 11:00 am-12:00 pm.

****Please register for this event by contacting Amanda Coolidge at Amanda_Coolidge@bcit.ca, or by calling 2282, OR drop by the Learning and Teaching Centre: SE 12 (beneath Tim Horton's, drop by after you grab your coffee!)


All alternatives are archived on the LTC Blog: http://www.bcitltc.com/

Beautiful evidence / Edward R. Tufte.
Tufte, Edward R., 1942-
Cheshire, Conn. : Graphics Press, c2006.
IN LIBRARY - Burnaby - 3rd Floor - P 93.5 T848 2006

5 Alternatives to PowerPoint: A Revolution to become more content-oriented and audience-oriented, #4 on the list

It's Monday and most of you are probably dragging a bit after a wonderful weekend, but let me pump up your Monday morning with.....
#4 on the list of Alternatives to PowerPoint!

#4: Profcast: http://www.profcast.com



ProfCast is a versatile, powerful, yet very simple to use tool for recording lectures (okay you can use PPT for this) and/or Keynote slides for creating enhanced podcasts. ProfCast provides a low cost solution for recording and distributing lectures, special events, and presentations as podcasts.

With Profcast you can RECORD your lectures, class presentations, or perhaps create a specialized podcast on an upcoming topic in your classroom. I bet you didn't know that BCIT has it's own podcasting studio!? Located in the Library, the podcasting studio is available for use and can be used to create high quality podcasts- such a great resource.

Here is a tutorial about podcasting: http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/

Give us a call at 454-2282, email : Amanda_Coolidge@bcit.ca or drop by the Learning and Teaching Centre: SE 12 (beneath Tim Horton's, drop by after you grab your coffee!)

Instructional Technologies Archives from Lotus Announcements

As a Technical Advisor at BCIT, one of my roles, is to inform Faculty and Staff at BCIT of the various new and useful instructional technologies available. Lately, I have been posting most of the resources on our internal Lotus Notes Announcements page and as a result of an overwhelming amount of interest, I have decided to also post on the LTC blog. Below is an archive of what as been sent out internally to date… keep reading daily for updated resources!

June 9, 2009: It's all the rage these days, but how exactly can Twitter be used in the classroom?

Here are some great resources to get you started:

"Where do you Learn: Tweeting to Inform Learning Space Development" http://tinyurl.com/kug8db
Twittering in the Classroom http://tinyurl.com/lxpxlv
Twittering in a Scholarly World http://tinyurl.com/kq58u9

June 11, 2009 Concept Mapping and Google- Tech Tip!

Google has a new way to display its search results - the "wonder wheel".

E.g., http://tinyurl.com/mnqlhp

To use it on a new search,

1. search something in google; press search button
2. underneath the search box that comes up, press the link "Show options..."
3. select Wonder Wheel
4. click on links inside each element of the wonder wheel to go to a related
concept.

June 16, 2009 FREE and REPUTABLE Educational Media/Technology Resources

Interested in learning about open source (free) technology solutions for your classroom? Looking for a range of resources...ones which are educational, media-friendly, and FREE?

Here is just a sample of what a Technical Advisor can show you:

http://www.openculture.com/2007/06/podcast_library.html

http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html

June 24, 2009 OpenContent: The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources

Want to learn a new language this summer? Take a look at "The Master List of FREE Language Learning Resources".

http://bit.ly/KwAhS

5 Alternatives to PowerPoint: A Revolution to become more content-oriented
and audience-oriented

1. PREZI http://www.prezi.com

For a more dynamic and organic design try Prez!!

You can take a look at the showcase material at http://prezi.com/showcase/

If you aren't interested by now, read an excerpt from the "Cognitive Style
of PowerPoint" by Edward Tufte http://bit.ly/dgIy5

2. Animoto: http://animoto.com/

Animoto is a presentation tool that pushes the boundaries of your traditional content presentation tool. Animoto automatically analyzes the music and photos that you choose, and orchestrates a custom video. Leaving you and your students free to focus on the content and narrative of their videos.

To view a sample of an Animoto presentation, created by a High School Biology Teacher in Vancouver, go to: http://tinyurl.com/kuxdy6

3. SlideRocket: http://www.sliderocket.com/

Alright, it's almost the weekend and I know everyone will be on pins and needles until Monday for #4 on the list of alternatives to PowerPoint....

BUT in the meantime here is a great tool to lead us into #3 on the list!

SlideRocket is another exciting and user-friendly presentation tool- with SlideRocket you can actually import your existing PowerPoint presentations and change them based on the features in SlideRocket.

To view a demo, go to SlideRocket's site and click "view demo" http://www.sliderocket.com/

For those interested- if you sign up you have access to the Free version of SlideRocket which allows for 250 mb storage and import of PowerPoints, if needed.

Give us a call at 454-2282, email : Amanda_Coolidge@bcit.ca or drop by the Learning and Teaching Centre: SE 12 (beneath Tim Horton's, drop by after you grab your coffee!)

Second Life Workshop

BCIT's Nola Johnston is offering a series of workshops on how to use Second Life for educational purposes. The workshops are part of a BCIT BC Campus project. The aim is to provide educators with an introduction to the world, the knowledge and skills necessary to use it, and some of the issues relating to its use in education.

For information about the workshops see the Second Life Workshop Blog.

Using Wikis for Teaching

Steve Wheeler and colleagues at the University of Plymouth have made two over their research papers on the use of wikis in education available online.

The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning explores the potential for wiki-type open architecture software to promote and support collaborative learning through the use of student- created content.

Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training discusses writing as a social practice and speculates on how wikis might be used to promote higher quality academic writing and support collaborative learning.

Their conclusion:
"collaboration, rather than competition, should be emphasised as a key aim of any wiki-based activity. Students should also be encouraged to contribute to the wiki outside of classroom contact hours, and to share their thoughts, useful resources and discoveries as they generate them. When in class, wiki content creation should be an activity integrated into the fabric of lessons. Teachers should act as moderators rather than instructors, and may need to restrain themselves from direct action, in order to promote free and democratic development of content according to the principles embodied in the ‘wisdom of the masses’."