On January 9th, 2008 I will be giving a keynote talk I am titling, Building a Platform for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. I was an invited featured speaker at Maricopa's Teaching and Learning with Technology conference this past year and have been invited back to open one of their events this year. I am really looking forward to it! Below is the description for my talk.
During this talk we will discuss strategies for realistically achieving innovation in teaching and learning by understanding your environment, leveraging existing infrastructure, and tapping the power of your community. We’ll explore how Penn State University has worked to utilize existing tools to create new opportunities and achieve an IT culture based on agility and with an eye towards innovation. One of the other things we will look at is the ETS Engagement Process and our Hot Teams approach. I've included a PDF of the Engagement Process here as well.
Download PDF of the Slides
Presentation
1/8/2008: Breakout Session: Maricopa Gateway Community College
On January 8th, 2008 I will be talking to a group of faculty from Maricopa about RSS and its overall use. I have decided to do a presentation I am calling, Personal Content Management & Modern RSS: Reuse, Reduce Recycle. Description is below.
When we first became enamored with Really Simple Syndication we thought of it as a time saver for acquiring new and fresh content. When it was introduced to us we were often told something like, “with RSS you can read 100 websites in 15 minutes.†Now that our understanding and use of RSS has matured the ability to create content in simple environments and reuse it across the static web. RSS is no longer simply about consuming other people’s content quickly – it is now about finding innovative ways to embed content from multiple sources into your work. We will discuss how by using a personal content management tool – a blog – you can discover ways to syndicate news into your course website, a department page, or create new ways to engage students through fresh news sources.
In our sessions we will discuss the basics of RSS for content consumption, but will also look at several new ways to reuse existing material, reduce redundant content creation, and recycle things you create for new uses.
12/19/2007: Presentation: Student Affairs
I was asked to come and talk to a group from PSU's Student Affairs about how a publishing platform — like the Blogs at PSU — could form the basis for personal portfolios. I am a part of the ePortfolio team here at the University and have been making the pitch for some time that a blogging environment is ideal for a personal portfolio. We had a great discussion and I think we'll be working together more as we flesh out our move to integrate blogs into the existing ePortfolio space.
PDF of my slides are available here.
12/18/2007: Presentation: Campus ID Meeting
I was asked to spend an hour discussing some of the things we have been working on that impact teaching and learning with technology. I spent the time sharing information on several of our larger initiatives that are designed to let faculty do interesting things in and around their classrooms. I have attached my slides as a PDF … it is 4 MB. Download the file here.
11/29/07: Presentation: SMEAL College of Business
I had the pleasure of presenting to a group of faculty from the SMEAL College of Business yesterday. We spent the better part of an hour and a half talking about the many opportunities we provide here at the University to integrate technology into teaching and learning. The time was well spent with lots of great questions and ideas being thrown around. I reshuffled my PSU Platforms for Digital Expression presentation and added some ideas on how to use ANGEL as the hub to all of the new things we've been doing.
Download the presentation as a PDF.
11/13/2007: Presentation: Broadband Advisory Committee
Next Tuesday I will be giving a talk at the Broadband Advisory Committee in Lewisburg, PA talking about Web 2.0 and the need to be prepared to deal with the shifts in web usage. I'll share some insights into general trends in technology as it relates to the behaviors of young adults and the web. Should be an interesting change of pace for me.
10/15/2007: Presentation: Faculty Advisory Committee on Academic Computing
I provided the FACAC with a status review and update on the Digital Commons, Blogs at Penn State, and Community Hub projects. There was great interest and discussion related to Digital Commons on several levels. Some people were interested in infrastructure, while others discussed why digital media is important and how it may be used to support teaching and learning. Interesting conversation.
Download the presentation and a PDF.
Web 2.0 and Community Engagement
I blogged about the talk Allan Gyorke and I did at last week’s TechForum and had posted the slides, but wanted to include a little more insight with them. The basic theme of the presentation is related to how we’ve been using Web 2.0 philosophies to support our work within the teaching and learning community.
I sat down day before yesterday with my slides and a simple USB headset and tried out the narration recording capabilities of Keynote ’08 … long story short is that it worked. The resulting presentation is about 50 MB, but it is in iPod format and actually looks really good on my iPhone as well. I am a little surprised it was kicked out to iTunes from Keynote as an M4V … I was actually expecting an MOV, but I didn’t spend any time messing with it. If you are interested, download the file and watch. It is about 22 minutes, which is almost to the minute how long it took Allan and I to work our way through the slides … I will also say that Allan’s perspectives and thoughts are clearly missing from my solo performance here. Please provide feedback if you make it through the presentation. I am also planning to post a Flash Video version later today if the conversion works as expected.