January 2005 News

Coming January 31, 2005 From 6:30 to 8 p.m. on C-SPAN, Brian Cantwell Smith, dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, will present "And Is All This Stuff Really Digital After All?" This discussion is part of the series "Digital Future" which examines changes in the way information is organized and classified.

More information is available.

January 20, 2005 The Winter Faculty Institute kicked off with “Designing Courses for Significant Learning,” an exploration of new ways to teach by L. Dee Fink. The discussion included key components of integrated course design and considered aspects of instructional context, learning outcomes, learning activities and feedback and assessment.

Three activities building on Dr. Fink’s keynote address are coming soon:

• WebCT workshops, January 24-28
• PRESENT open house, January 28
• WebCT “Exemplary Applications Contest”

“WebCT: Beyond the Basics” workshops are designed to help implement principles of effective course design and provide opportunities for further application and practice. Register online before classes are filled. Find out more about the Winter Faculty Institute in the UDaily article.

Coming January 28, 2005 The Winter Faculty Institute will conclude on January 28 with two events.

1-2 p.m.: Educational Technologies to Go
Demonstration of portable technology for educators such as tablet computers, Apple iPods, hand-held video devices, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 010 Smith Hall.

2-4 p.m.: PRESENT Solutions
Mix, mingle, munch, and learn in an informal setting with demonstrations of current learning solutions including class communication, course management, simulation and animation, multimedia creation, and digital storytelling. Faculty including George Watson, Diane Ferry, Chandra Reedy, and Larry Purnell will be on hand to answer questions.

Register online for either or both sessions.

Coming Janury 26, 2005 Shuaib Meacham, assistant professor of education, will explore hip-hop’s role in education in a lecture set for 1-2:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 26, in the Class of 1941 Lecture Room of the Morris Library. Using research collected from his visits to public schools, Meacham will discuss how hip-hop can be a valid educational tool that can reach students unmoved by traditional methods. Find out more in the UDaily article.

January 25, 2005 The 2005 Horizon Report identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education. The second edition of the report is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII), an EDUCAUSE program.

The report highlights six areas of emerging technology that research suggests will become increasingly significant to higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. The 2005 Horizon Report is a non-technical piece, designed to provide an overview of the promising technologies featured, and why they are worthy of attention. Links are provided to examples and resources.

The 2005 Horizon Report is available in Adobe PDF format.

January 18, 2005 Macromedia Captivate, formerly RoboDemo, automatically records all onscreen actions and instantly creates an interactive Flash simulation. Point and click to add text captions, narration, and e-learning interactions without any programming knowledge.

You can build interactive tutorials as an effective way to model the use of computer applications. Enhance your simulations by easily adding:

• Captions, audio, and images
• Flash animations and video
• Interactions with branching and scoring
• Highlights, hyperlinks, rollovers, and more.

Examples of Captivate demonstrations can be found in the WebCT Depot course available to all course designers. For a demonstration, contact PRESENT.

January 5, 2005 Over 80 faculty and staff listened, laughed, and worked their way through "Designing Courses for Significant Learning." The three-hour workshop was led by Dr. L. Dee Fink of the University of Oklahoma and author of "Creating Significant Learning Experiences." The participants represented the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Delaware Technical and Community College. Dr. Fink was the keynote presenter for the University of Delaware’s 2005 Winter Faculty Institute.

Dr. Fink greets faculty

The workshop attracted 80 faculty members

Dr. Fink makes a point

January 4, 2005 The software program Inspiration® is now available in PRESENT. Powered by the proven techniques of visual learning, Inspiration can strengthen critical thinking, comprehension and writing across the curriculum when your students need to structure research or other thought processes.

Inspiration's integrated diagramming and outlining environments work together to help students comprehend concepts and information. Possible applications include brainstorming, diagramming, planning, outlining, and concept mapping. Contact PRESENT for a demonstration.

Coming January 12-14, 2005 Join us in Baltimore for the fourth annual EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, January 12–14, 2005. The 2005 theme is "Navigating Together: New Strategies and New Partners for an Uncharted Future."

Sessions leaders from UD include John Hall, Janet de Vry and George Watson. Whether your focus is teaching and learning, information resources, or technology infrastructure, you will find opportunities to learn, share, and connect with others from our area.

At the center of the conference are practical "how to" sessions that offer valuable, region-specific information and ideas to help you manage and teach.

One day registrations are available. »Take a look...

January 9, 2005 Innovate-Live webcasts offer an opportunity to synchronously interact with the authors of the articles in the December 2004/January 2005 issue of Innovate. Produced as a public service by ULiveandLearn, online registration is required. Webcasts will be archived within the features section of the respective article.

Incorporating a Rich Media Presentation Format into a Lecture-Based Course Structure
Nick Moss, author
Wednesday, January 12, 1:00 p.m.

Strategies for Using Information Technology to Improve Institutional Performance
William H. Graves, author
Wednesday, January 12, 3:00 p.m.

New Horizons for Learning
Dee Dickinson, author
Thursday, January 13, 2:00 p.m.

Beyond PowerPoint: Visual Presentation Tools for Online Learning
Bruce Howerton, author
Thursday, January 13, 4:00 p.m.

Coming January, 2005 Register today for sessions on using technology to promote significant student learning. Some of this year's highlights include:

January 10 : Plug and Play Technology for Course Enhancement
Designed to introduce technologies that can engage students.

January 13 : Effective PowerPoint Strategies
Move beyond passive bulleted text to active learning strategies.

January 24-28 : A week of WebCT workshops
Explore using WebCT to create rich learning environments and to ease course management.

Attending is a win/win situation. For each event that you attend, you will receive an entry into a raffle for great prizes. Details of the "WebCT Exemplary Application Contest" will also be announced in January. Entries will be judged on pedagogical principles presented during the Institute.

More information: Registration Printable Flyer UDaily Article