Back in December twenty-four hardy souls braved the snow and ice to attend Ed Tech’s Instructor Gathering, one of our best turnouts yet. The broad theme of the event was tech tools and practices that benefit learning and each session proved a valuable mix of knowledge sharing and practical tips.
Author: Ari Crossby
Extending the Shelf-Life of Your Instructional Videos: Six Common Pitfalls to Avoid
“When instructional video is produced thoughtfully and used to promote active engagement, it can improve student motivation, learning, and performance, make content more memorable, and bring highly visual material to life.” However, a number of small mistakes can shorten the shelf-life of your video, limit its reusability, and force you to re-record sooner than you’d like. Here’s an article with practical tips for extending the shelf-life of your course videos.
Read more: Extending the Shelf-Life of Your Instructional Videos: Six Common Pitfalls to Avoid
WordPress in Higher Education virtual conference
For anyone interested in WordPress in Higher Education there is an free virtual conference on Monday, January 23, 2017. Please note that the times are listed in Central Standard time. https://online.wpcampus.org/schedule/
You can attend the sessions on your own, or join EdTech in C308 for the following sessions:
11:00-11:45 PST – WordPress as an LMS
12:00-12:45 PST – The Magic of Teaching Using WordPress: 10+ Ways to Easily Transform Classes & Excite Students
2:00–2:45 PST – Higher Ed WordPress Showcase
Using Pressbooks to create open course materials
Pressbooks is free online publishing software derived from Wordpress that you can use to create open educational content. While primarily a tool for creating open textbooks Pressbooks can be used for other purposes such as authoring support documentation, course guides or supplementary course materials in D2L/Brightspace or iWeb.
One of the advantages of Pressbooks is that it is very easy to use and it can output accessible content in a wide range of file formats. These include ePub (iBooks, Nook, Kobo etc.), PDF (for print/digital distribution), Mobi (Kindle) and the Open Document format. This means that students can easily read content on their mobile devices and there is an option for a web version of every book for reading in a browser.
The process of creating the book is straightforward and Pressbooks includes a number of templates to give your finished content a professional look. You can import from Microsoft Word or WordPress and the wizard-like interface includes colour-coded placeholders for things like learning objectives, exercises and key take-aways. As well as text you can easily add images, audio and embed video from sites like YouTube.
Pressbooks makes it easy to collaboratively author your content with colleagues, although only one person can work on a book at any one time. You can release the book under different licenses ranging from all rights reserved to public domain. BCcampus recommend using a CC BY (attribution) license if you would like to support open and accessible content and enable others to adapt your book.
To get started using Pressbooks Langara Faculty can sign up for an account using their Langara email address (note: must be in the format @langara.bc.ca). BCcampus will be hosting a training webinar on using Pressbooks on Tuesday January 24, 10 am. For more information on using Pressbooks talk to Julian Prior (Ed Tech) or Lindsay Tripp (Copyright Librarian).
12 Apps of Christmas from BC campus
On December 1st, ETUG will launch the first B.C. 12 Apps of Christmas for teaching and learning. Similar to the successful U.K. event, participants will explore a new app a day for 12 days. Each day will introduce you to an app, where to get it, how to use it, and provide some ideas of how it might be used for teaching and learning. A challenge activity will be highlighted and participants are encouraged to share their results and reflect on any additional ideas of how to use it in the future through their blogs and on social media, using the #12appsBC hashtag.
More Professional Development Opportunities
BCcampus Professional Learning has 2 more amazing opportunities coming up in February 2017. Please note that EARLY BIRD pricing ends Nov.15.
VizEd 2017 Going Visual in Post-Secondary Education
Registration is open – space is limited!
Have you ever noticed that moment when people are talking about something, then they whip out a pen and start sketching? Or when a conversation breaks open because someone goes to the whiteboard and draws something?
Join us for a hands-on, full-on day of exploring the opportunities and practices of bringing hand made visuals into our teaching and learning. (P.S. “handmade” can mean electronic too!)
Date: Feb. 21st, 2017
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver, B.C.
Liberating Structures
Liberating Structures are a collection of powerful facilitation strategies that can be used in our classrooms, everyday meetings, strategic planning sessions, workshops, presentations, etc. They are seriously fun methods to engage and work together.
Date; Feb. 22-23, 2017 (Wed & Thu)
Location: SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver, B.C.
Learn more about the Liberating Structures and VizEd workshops here:
Professional Development Opportunity: Team-based Learning Institute at VIU
On December 7th and 9th, Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning is hosting a team=based learning institute for their faculty and making some spaces available for non-VIU faculty guests. The institute’s program takes you through the complete design process for transforming a course using the Michaelsen Team-Based Learning Model. This offering is primarily for faculty members who will implement a team-based course beginning in January 2017.
A master list of 800 free classic eBooks
Read A Master List of 800 Free Classic eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices from open culture
You can see their full list of 800 offerings here. They may lack the sensory pleasure of print, but the ability to carry an entire library of classic literature in your pocket has its advantages, to say the least. And if your travels include long drives, you’ll also want to check out our master list of Free Audio Books.
Socrative: A Free Alternative to iClicker and Top Hat
The following is a guest post from Fulton Tom and Bryan Breguet, Economics Department:
Many instructors are now using audience response systems such as iClicker or Top Hat to engage students in their classrooms. These user-friendly systems allow instructors to administer interactive activities such as quizzes and receive immediate student feedback. The caveat, however, is that they are far from being free. Both iClicker and Top Hat charge students a subscription fee. While the fee is not a big expense, it adds to the already rising cost of post-secondary education. Should we really expect students to pay tuition fees and buy textbooks and then to pay a subscription fee so that they can take the quizzes? We believe that more instructors should be aware of Socrative.
Classroom Technology Selection
Are you interested in helping to investigate and recommend new classroom technology? IT has asked EdTech to work with instructors to determine needs, compile use cases and recommend technologies for our classrooms.
To start, we will look at document cameras (currently Elmo) and device mirroring. Mirroring allows you—and your students—to wirelessly project the screen on a mobile device (i.e. a phone, tablet or laptop) for the entire class to view.
If you would like to join our working group, please let me know: sbowers@langara.ca
Sarah