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 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 (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 (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 (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” (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)? (more…)
In my Web Essentials online course I facilitate a discussion on the future of internet technologies. One student focused on how education is, and, as you’ll see here, should be affected:
The internet is a rebel and a bully, threatening to destroy the established system of education that dictates how we learn. Shocked? Well, this is a good thing any way you look at it (more…)
It was a gorgeously sweet-smelling rainy day, but I managed to bring
myself into the confines of a BYU classroom to attend David
Wiley's IPT 692R: Intro to Open Education. Today we're looking
at how an institution, BYU in particular, might approach institutional
policy and practice supportive of open licensing of teaching materials
and research publications (more…)
In David Wiley’s IPT 692r – Intro to Open Ed course students have fragmented into two small groups, each of which has chosen to research and catalog appropriate open resources that may be used to fulfill learning objectives for one of the secondary education core curricula for the state of Utah. As I have begun searching for, tagging, and sharing resources, I’ve begun to consider the long-enduring web question: link or copy? (more…)