I’m changing the domain of this blog from the over-long “flexknowlogy.learningfield.org” to ” jaredstein.org“. Though the change is immediate, flexknowlogy.learningfield.org will persist indefinitely in order to preserve external links.
This was made easy and possible through Donncha O Caoimh’s WordPress MU Domain Mapping plug-in.
I began the following Google Wave yesterday as a means of orienting myself to the functionality and features of Google Wave, but more importantly as a way to move past the more mundane and obvious applications for education. As you will see, I invited a number of colleagues and contacts to join, then made the Wave open to the public … Read more on jaredstein.org
I’ve got to take a minute to plug the software WebCamMax ($50), which lets you alter your (Windows) computer’s webcam input. I used it this week to facilitate quality, DIY streaming and recording of two WCET09 presentations using a laptop (with distinct graphics card), a lavalier mic ($50-$500) and Ustream (free). Here’s how it worked read more
I traveled to Denver this week for WCET 2009, and though I was sunk with a cold on the second day, so far I’ve enjoyed participating in the conference, and, as always, have found the Twitter backchannel (#wcet09) a great way to connect with more ideas, and more people read more
Those of you who know me personally probably know I’m into skateboarding. The following 4 minute video highlights some efforts to bring skateboarding into K-12 physical education, and even using skating as a gateway to learning about physics and construction. Au-then-tic!
Earlier this week my boss asked “what I had” on capping class size in online courses. I had nothing, but it’s an interesting question. In Distance Education at UVU we have seen online class sizes vary from just one student to hundreds of students–the decision is made by the academic department chair in consultation with the instructor. This question is therefore pertinent for our academic department chairs, especially as UVU moves to reduce class size-based instructional compensation. Administrative pressure to free up class space and meet students’ demand enlarges this issue. However, a view of recent and available articles reinforced what I already suspected: there is no single optimum size for an online class; instead, class size should be informed by learning objectives, curriculum, instructor load, and teaching philosophy read more
Not unexpectedly, Jon Mott’s blog post, “Outsourcing Our Memory to Google” set my mind thinking in productively curious directions–even if I’ve ended up with no conclusions, and, indeed, more questions than I began with.
I’ve finally gotten around to reading through Ong’s “Orality and Literacy” read more
For our pilot run of WordPress MU for Utah Valley University we have installed and configured the WPMU LDAP plug-in to control user registration–basically syncing student/faculty/staff accounts with our Banner student information system. That’s a small tale in itself, but the short of it is Paul Nuffer and I had it working successfully after just a couple of hours. Or so we thought read more
As I begin the pilot of our WordPress MU installation for Utah Valley University, questions naturally arise as to expected usage of the system. This led to the idea of running a short survey for students, faculty, and staff that asks if and how they would use such a community publishing platform. I then wondered if students or faculty who already had a blog would use the institutional system as a blog, whether in addition to or as a replacement for their own (even if only to meet a course requirement). This, of course, led me back to the idea of “creepy treehouses” read more
Boone Gorges asked a great question about openness that has been itching at my mind ever since I drove out of Vancouver from Open Ed 2009: Is there a tension between individual vs communal voice (i.e. creation)? read more