Thursday, November 20, 2008

New Online Management Program

New Online Program - Management
Launches in Spring of 2009
B.S. in Management: Online Degree Completion 42 Credits


Lesley is excited to announce the launch of its new online degree completion program in Management beginning in January 2009. This program is designed to prepare students to successfully lead private, public, and not-for-profit organizations by learning skills critical to managing effectively and efficiently, while also developing the ability to provide ethical and creative leadership in any organization, whatever its size or purpose. The program addresses the challenges managers face in today's dynamic and multicultural workplace. Participants learn how to work and adapt to individual needs, while also promoting collaboration to achieve organizational goals.

Students will find interactive assignments and content taken from today's business pages, linking theory to practice. Competencies stressed include communication, innovative problem-solving, and the use of technology, as well as an understanding of the social and psychological factors that influence professional development and organizational success. As a wholly online program, classes are asynchronous, so time zones and personal schedules should not interfere with class participation. Participants become part of a community of learners sharing their experiences and expertise.

To earn a B.S. in Management degree students must earn a total of 120 credits - 42 of which are in the core management area. Students must be able to transfer a minimum of 30 college credits up to a maximum of 88 credits. The program will also offer students the opportunity to earn up to 48 college credits for life experience through a Prior Learning Assessment class and portfolio.

To learn more, view the program of study, or to apply to the program, please visit our website at http://www.lesley.edu/online_learning/mgmt_index.html.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Understanding Mashups: Part II

In Part I, we looked at the origin of the mashup and the diversity of mashups. So how do you make your own mashup, especially if you do not have the time or expertise in media and programming?

If you want to get started with music, the original mashup form, Splice Music is the place to start. Splice not only provides you with many music mashups to use, but also a free online sound mixer that allows you to bring in your sound files or use some pre-recorded tracks to work with.

If you are interested in a webpage or perhaps interactive game, probably the easiest and most straightforward approach is using Microsoft's new, (and for now free) online tool Popfly. Popfly promotes itself as the web's "only free online game and mashup creator." Like many new Web 2.0 tools, Popfly walks you through step-by-step on creating your product. Also, abundant documentation exists and Popfly is a much blogged about tools at the moment.

Making a mashup may not be for you or your students. The mashup is just another example of the evolution of content on the web. Our daily travels online involve interacting with many mashups that we are not even aware of. Understanding what we are using and interacting with online is just as important as building meaningful content for the online experience.

Happy Web Travels!
Rebecca

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Understanding Mashups: Part I

We've received a few inquires this fall about what mashups are and how they might be used in a course. The origin of the mashup is rooted in the music industry where people bring together instrumentation and vocal tracks from different songs to create a new song. Listen to an example of the classic Petula Clark song Downtown merged with the current Russian band t.A.T.u's Not Gonna Get Us to form the new song Not Gonna Get Us Downtown.

The technical definition of a mashup refers to a website that brings together features, functions, and content of different websites into one tool or page. So essentially, a mashup is something that has been created from many other existing things to form a new thing, usually a piece of media or website.

Still scratching your head? That's okay, so was I when I first started reading more about mashups. The terminology and definition can seem more cumbersome than actually experiencing a mashup. Once you see one, you begin to realize that mashups are all around us. Here are some examples:

Flicker Sudoku - http://flickrsudoku.com/
The perfect site for sudoku fans and Flicker users alike, this site allows you to play sudoku with other members of the Flicker site, while pulling in content and sudoku boards from other sites. You experience the site as a normal, single webpage. In actuality it's a site made of many sites and features.

Weather Bonk -http://www.weatherbonk.com/
Weather bonk is an interactive map pulling data from the National Weather Service, Google Maps, and other media sources. The site provides an interactive map of your region which gives you real-time weather, traffic, and sometime visual/image data. At same time, the site is very graphically busy and can be an example of the downside of the mashup.

Video Mashups
Video mashups are abundant. YouTube features many of them, and they are popular creations on comedy shows like the Daily Show. In an election year the variety and numbers of video mashups are vast. Below is a clip produced by an individual that was posted on YouTube. Notice the variety of images and clips ranging from Hillary Clinton speaking, a Nike ad runner, infused with George Orwells 1984:







Part II: How do I create a Mashup?
Basic mashups do not require expensive computer equipment or software. The most important resource in mashup creation is creativity and to keep in mind to start simple and build from there. In next week's blog we will talk more about how to build a Mashup using basic tools like PowerPoint.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

What is a Wiki?

You’ve heard the term tossed around a lot lately, but what exactly is a Wiki??

The most basic way to think of a Wiki is as a website. Most websites you visit have been created by Web Authors, and those individuals push information out to you. A Wiki is a website where the readers can actually create their own content. Therefore the web pages become collaborative. Anyone can edit a Wiki, and once they edit it, that information becomes part of the website that everyone else sees.

So in other words, Wikis provide spaces for individuals and groups to quickly collaborate online. It provides a venue for easy web-publishing that does not require specialized training or experience in HTML or web design.

How Are Wikis Being Used at Lesley?
  • In the Science Online as well as Creative Arts, students use Wikis to create and share lesson plans
  • In the Adult Learning PhD, students collaborate on research projects in Wikis
  • In Elementary Ed, students create biographical sketches of psychologists in a “Theorists Salon”
Here’s a visual description of Wikis “In Plain English”


To learn more about wikis, sign up for our Wiki Workshop!

Introduction to Wikis
October 29, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, Library 401
At the end of the workshop you will have: gained an understanding of Wikis including what they are and how they can be used, learnt about the potential of Wikis to support teaching, learning and research activities, discussed the prospect of Wikification and created a basic Wiki. Please RSVP to bchervin@lesley.edu or call 617-349-8771.

Additional Wiki Resources:

Create Your Own Wiki
http://www.lesley.edu/academic_centers/cat/docs/wiki.pdf

A List of Public Educational Wikis (good examples of use)
http://www.publicpbwikis.com/Educational/teacher_wikis/

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Thoughts on Hybrid Course Discussion Boards, by Marianne Reiff

As a newcomer to the hybrid teaching format, I was frankly surprised to find that the use of an online discussion board was an effective tool for teaching. When I was asked to write an entry for the new eLearning and Instructional Support blog, I considered what might have helped me as a new instructor and reflected on just why I found the discussion board tool so useful. If integrated within the course design, an effective discussion board (DB) can mitigate the “learning evaporation effect” that plagues any learning environment. In addition, a well structured DB supports re-alignment of the course power grid underlying participation in knowledge creation, accountability, and responsibility.

It has long frustrated me to notice that learning evaporation starts the moment students leave the classroom and re-focus on whatever comes into the foreground of their attention. A discussion board can extend the classroom learning by creating visual documentation of how students transfer learning into their own experience. Not only does it crystallize and document learning; it can also extend it. I have seen new ideas spark and ignite and grow into new learning right before my very eyes. The tactile process of having to write out a concise post or response demands attention to what is being said. My role in all this is to create the initial guiding question or scenario.

I use the term “power grid” to conceptualize who has the deliberative voice about what happens when in a class, what the power relationships are between teacher and students. I have experienced the agony of giving up a bit of professorial power as I “sit on my lips” and choose not to respond in discussion boards designed as dialogue between peers. Through experience, I have learned that what I may have to say is less valuable than what students can construct for themselves. Truth be told, a few times students climbed mountains I didn’t even know were there – and they took me with them. A strong DB supports learner self-evaluation, shifting the assessment power base from teacher to student. The technology of a DB provides students the ability to collect selected threads that capture an overview of their work. Students are able to assess and provide examples to support an evaluation of their own work. In my opinion, when this is used as part of collaborative evaluation, the power grid shifts ever so slightly toward evaluation as learning rather than as judgment.

Development of an effective discussion board is an art, and I don’t have it all figured out. I have, however, learned some things from experience that I will carry forward into new hybrid courses:
  • Don’t ask a question I already know the answer to: I needed to learn and read and study about how to ask open-ended questions worthy of a discussion board. This is where much of my work happens.
  • Set clear expectations. This is more efficiently done in a face-to-face environment where misconceptions can be clarified and jargon defined.
  • Make sure everyone has the tools to do the job: Participation in a DB can be a bummer if you don’t know how to get in, navigate, fix goof ups, or get your message in the right thread.
  • Be highly structured: Definite parameters about when and how much to post and respond actually clears away space for creativity.
  • Posting and Responding is not conversation: Set guidelines for posting and responding using a guide or rubric. I even role play during face-to-face in order to start with clear expectations that posting and responding is serious professional dialogue, not a new form of IM.
  • Attend to sequence and timing: Set the deadline for posting a few days prior to deadline for responding.
  • Less is more: Asking students to limit responses to a certain number of words demands synthesis and taps into a critical level of thinking.
  • Integrate the DB: As an instructor I need to be clear about why the DB is a good idea, and how it supports the course. If it is truly part of my course design, then I can use the rich ideas, resources, controversy, and input as fuel for the rest of the course.
  • Just because I think it, I don’t have to inject it into the DB. Yes, this is a version of sitting on my lips and letting learners create the dialogue. It also is a reminder that I will always have a voice in the course. If I feel something is important, there will be a place for me to include it.
I know I will continue to learn, and make mistakes, and learn things over again as I continue to teach hybrid courses. It is challenging and a bit uncomfortable to learn a new way of approaching learning. I have found that my core philosophical values about teaching are still in place – I’m exploring them in a new environment. The discussion board is a tool I’ll keep in my toolbox for sure. Within myself, I was debating writing this blog as I left work late one night. Classes had ended and trash cans were stuffed full with flip chart paper from the night’s work. I was stopped dead in my tracks by a sense of loss. I wanted to pull it all out and post it up and start a discussion board and keep the learning going. I wanted to mitigate the evaporation effect. Instead, I decided to write this piece.

--- Marianne Reiff is an Assistant Professor teaching in the School of Education at Lesley University

Monday, September 15, 2008

5 New and Cool Things for the Fall

We are kicking off the fall 2008 semester with some quick ideas and cool tools to explore this semester. If you are interested in learning more about these, or have some you'd like to contribute, please contact eLIS at elis@lesley.edu or leave us a comment below. We will get in touch with you.

myLesley/Blackboard
Whoa, does that heading say myLesley? This is supposed to be the "what's new and cool list." While the myLesley portal is a staple in the teaching and learning diet, this summer it received an upgrade that featured a new gradebook function called the "Grade Center." There are many welcome changes including a spreadsheet look and feel, being able to weight grades as well as receiving and tracking student assignments easily. eLIS staff is offering a series of workshops focused on the Grade Center for the fall. Please review the new Grade Center guide to get started.

Atomic Learning
New, just-in-time training services are available through Atomic Learning. Lesley faculty, students, and staff have access to this great service via the myLesley portal. Atomic Learning provides hundreds of tutorials and help guides on a variety of applications and tools ranging from MS Office, Apple and Windows operating systems, Adobe products, even popular web sites like Flicker and Blogger. To access Atomic Learning login to myLesley and click on the myServices tab. From there, click on the Atomic Learning link in the Info Bulletin box and you will be in!

New Training Calendar
eLIS is pleased to offer a full calendar of workshops on a wide range of topics. Choose from Excel and PowerPoint Fundamentals, myLesley, as well as Wikis and Hybrid and Online learning brown-bag lunches.  If you can't attend one of our events, please contact us to arrange a consultation or one-on-one session. 

Curriki
Curriki is a web site where you can search and share lesson plans, learning objects and classroom resources. Curriki derives its name from the words curriculum and wiki, thus creating "curriki."  Not only can you find resources to use, you can also find other people to collaborate with on a project. Read more about Curriki and its features here. 


The Jing Project
Developed by Tech Smith, a software company that provides tools to develop animated tutorials, the  Project is a free web-based resource that allows you to share screen shots and images from your computer for free with other people.  Develop your own tutorials or guides, include voice and sound. The Jing Project makes it a snap to share and develop content.