Jamie Nelson

reposted from citesccme.wordpress.com

I recently attended the 2013 Faculty Summer Institute held at the i-Hotel here in Urbana-Champaign. The buzzword for the year? Well, there were many–wikis, blogs, and apps ranked high–but I would say that 2013 is the year of the badge.

What is a badge, you might ask?

You’d be right to think of the Boy Scouts. Both the concept of a small, graphic representation of a particular earned skill, and the badge’s circular shape, in part originate from the Boy Scout’s famous credentialing practice. Gaming, which rewards players with tokens for completing a level or beating a boss, is another clear influence. In a time when more and more people are interested in representing skills learned outside of the classroom, and educators, employers, and students alike want to make the transition from classroom to workplace as smooth as possible, it’s no wonder badges are quickly becoming a popular technology.

These badges are a bit different from their predecessors: instead of being physical patches, they’re pieces of data tied to an image file,  and to get one, you don’t have to save any princesses (thought there’s probably a badge for that). They can be issued for anything, from baking a cake to writing a book. And perhaps the best news yet: thanks to Mozilla’s Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI), absolutely anyone can make, issue, and display them. Check out the Open Badge Project for more information.

There are two ways to issue a badge: hand-baking and using the Issuer API. I’ve done both, and recently, using the Issuer API has gotten A TON easier because of the fine folks behind badges.illinois.edu. (Check out CCME’s badge issuing site!)  At my presentation on Tuesday, May 14th, I spoke a bit about the badges I made and distributed to our student employees using the hand-baking method. I noticed at this presentation, and at the badges workshop I attended on Wednesday, that some people either didn’t know that hand-making badges was an option, or if they did know, the process seemed too confusing to give it a try.

But 1) hand-baking does exist, and 2) it is quite easy.  Here’s how I did it.

What you need:

• Text editor
• .png file (you can make one in Prezi by inserting an image into the circle/basic template and then taking a screen shot of it, or you can use an open-access image creator like openbadges.me to create and save your .png files)
• Access to Box or Dropbox
• An account in Mozilla’s backpack

After you have these items, do the following:

1. Upload the .png file to a public folder in either Box or Dropbox

2. Because I am working with University students, I used my staff account in Box to host my .png files. To make a file public, do the following:

• Click on the uploaded file
• Find “Sharing” in the top right of the screen:
• Click “Link”
• This will pull up a little square menu with a variety of options; in the top right of this menu are viewing options. The default is set to “Collaborators Only Access”.

  Viewing Options in Box–Change “Collaborators Only” to “Public”

  Click on “Collaborators Only Access” and from the drop-down menu, select “Open”

• The file is now public. To get a direct link to the image, click “Direct Link”

  Direct Link

3. Open a text editor of your choice (I use Notepad++ in Windows and TextWrangler in Mac) and copy and paste the following key-value pairs–be sure to change the values to reflect your own information:

{
“recipient”: “badge_earner@whatever.com”,
“evidence”: “url to your evidence”
“issued_on”: “2013-05-17″,
“badge”: {
“version”: “1.0.0″,
“name”: “Explorer”,
“image”: “direct link to your .png file”,
“description”: “Has demonstrated ability to make badges.”,
“criteria”: “url to your criteria”,
“issuer”: {
“origin”: “url of the issuing organization”,
“name”: “CITES CCME”,
“org”: “Test”,
“contact”: “youraddress@whatever.com” } }
}

4. Save the file as .json (json = JavaScript Object Notation…just a way to easily move data around)

5. Upload the .json file to your Box account and make it public, as well

6. Copy the direct link of your .json file and paste it at the end of this URL in a new window or tab:  http://backpack.openbadges.org/baker?assertion=https://

7. Click enter; when you do so, the baking service will interpret the .json file and attach it to the .png file

8. You now have  a new, baked .png download! You can upload this to your Mozilla backpack (if you’re listed as the recipient), or you can attach it and email it to a student employee to upload into his or her backpack

To upload a badge:

• Log into your backpack
• Select “Upload”

  Upload a Badge to Your Backpack

• Locate the .png and upload it to the backpack
• Now when you click on the badge, you will get the data from the .json file:

  .json Metadata for a Hand-Baked Badge

• To make the badge publicly viewable, select “Collections” from the badge homepage, drag and drop the badges you want into a collection on the left side of the screen, and check “public”

  My Public Collection

And that’s it! Now the hand-baked badge can be displayed anywhere that displays your other badges.

Want an easy way to display your badges? Sign up for a blog at publish.illinois.edu, and get up and displaying faster with their already-installed plug-in WPBadger!

Are you interested in integrating AV and IT?

Do you have a commitment to sustainable technology?

Do you think analytics are the coolest thing since David Tennant’s Doctor?

If you answered “YES!” to any of the above, then the Smarter Building Technology Symposium is for you! On April 24th, from 8:30-4:30, at the University of Illinois Conference Center, CITES CCME is hosting an all-day event dedicated to exploring these buildings of the future. Morning and afternoon refreshments, as well as lunch, will be provided. To get a sense of how much food is needed, RSVP is required.

TO REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE

What Is A Smart Building?

Smart buildings are known by many names—“smart”, “intelligent”, and “integrated”, primarily. Regardless of what we call them, smart buildings are defined as “living” structures that predict and respond to the habits of their users in ways that benefit both the economy and the environment. Utilizing an assortment of sensors, cable pathways, solar panels, shading, video surveillance, and access controls, these newest additions to the built environment also offer a holistic view of the building through dashboards that render complex data into accessible information at a glance. Formed at the exciting intersection of green technology, IT network convergence, and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), smart buildings combine advances in hardware and software to create comfortable, sustainable, data-rich work spaces.

This symposium is intended to bring together the Illinois design, construction, and IT communities to begin to explore these concepts, and to understand how to start implementing best practices in future projects.

Among other items, the agenda will explore the following:

• Great example projects from around the U.S.
• Best Practices
• Moving from “design intent” to more detailed specifications
• Cross-pollinating specifications to assure required outcomes from multiple contractors

 
Please come take part in exploring the process and outcomes of smart collaboration as a diverse group of speakers from within and outside of the University share their experiences with these innovative technologies!

Questions? Contact us!

If you don’t know what TED Talks are go immediately over to http://www.ted.com/ and take a look at one of the 1400 videos. Seeing is believing.

In short, TED Talks are relatively short videos (around 18 minutes) from some of the most engaging speakers around the world. Some famous TED speakers include Bono, J. J. Abrams, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking. These videos cover an endless range of topics, initially about Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED), but now incorporating any number of subjects. Plus, they are free to distribute and share non-commercially under a Creative Commons license.

Wouldn’t it be great to watch these great videos with others and have a great discussion about the subject matter here on campus? Yes it would! We are in the midst of resurrecting TED Talks @ Illinois, a monthly series of TED Talk video watching and discussion. If you’re interested in getting involved, let us know in the comments.

You may also be interested in TEDxUIUC, which is an officially sanctioned TEDx  event put together by an enterprising group of students here on campus. Visit their site for more information.

So why are Ted Talks so great? I’ll let the following infographic tell the story. Enjoy!

In the age of massive open online courses (MOOCs), it might be tempting to think innovation in higher education means transcending physical space. In their coverage of Roy Pea’s recent keynote address at the Educause Learning Initiative, for example, EdSurge uses the phrase “brick-and-mortar” as short-hand for pedagogical relic.

Online courses largely copy the brick-and-mortar style of lecture and quizzing even as research-grounded notions of student-centric learning have been circulating for some time.

Of course, we all know what they mean: there is something seemingly constraining about brick and mortar, concrete and wood. For instance, the amount of information circulated among learners is necessarily limited by the amount of bodies a room can contain without violating fire codes. And in virtual space, paint never peels, lights never flicker, and no one cares that you attend class in fuzzy Eeyore pajamas.

But physical space matters a great deal to teaching and learning. As the folks at EducationSuperHighway point out, digital learning is supported by physical infrastructure, namely, by the big pipes that deliver enough broadband to a space that anywhere can become a classroom. While EducationSuperHighway works primarily with K-12 classrooms, the proponents of Active Learning Classrooms (ALC) stress the importance of space to higher education.

Two ALCs in particular—one at the University of California, Berkeley and one at the University of Minnesota—have set a precedent for understanding higher education not as a kind of damsel in distress, held hostage by a cruel built environment, but as a venture supported equally by physical space, technology, and pedagogical flexibility. Educational Technology Services at Berkeley defines ALCs as

teaching and learning spaces that allow faculty to move their course design beyond the lecture. The room design, flexible furniture, writing surfaces, and technology, support professors in engaging with their students through the integrated use of media and collaborative learning activities. Active learning classrooms facilitate diverse sizes and groupings of students, creating a flexible and supportive environment for a class to transition seamlessly between a professor’s lecture and facilitated student group work. These rooms enable options for supporting the myriad of ways in which professors teach and students learn.

ALCs combine design, furniture choices, and technology to create a comfortable workspace that encourages collaboration among students and faculty, while deemphasizing traditional delivery forms like the lecture.

ALCs do not follow a common blueprint, as they take their shape from individual campus spaces and community needs and resources. But certain characteristics do distinguish them. Here are a few:

• Maximum on student enrollment, with the cap reaching anywhere between 30-150
• General emphasis on natural light
• Movable furniture that can be combined with other pieces to form collaboration spaces
• Space for individual laptops on combined desks/tables
• Multiple display devices viewable by everyone
• Improved student performance and reported satisfaction with course content

Of course, if you build it, that does not mean they will come. ALCs only work if the people within them are willing to work with the space, its technology, and one another to make a great class experience. Because the principle of seamless collaboration underpins ALCs, you can bring the spirit of the Active Learning Classroom into your classroom, even if the space in which you are working is not officially an ALC. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the technology in your space so that you can work with it with confidence. Schedule an ITS training session with one of CITES CCME’s knowledgeable staff members today!

The use of a remote desktop is not new in the IT community, but with the increased ease of use with simple apps and the iPad, the use of a remote desktop in the classroom is easier than ever.

For those who don’t know what a remote desktop is, it is a means to use one computer (in this case an iPad) to remotely control the functions of another computer. The iPad displays and controls the remote computer. This typically requires a remote desktop app on the iPad and a companion program running on the remote computer. Passwords can be set up to prevent unauthorized users from remoting in to your computer. The typical classroom set-up would involve plugging the instructor’s laptop into the projection system and using the iPad to control it.

So, how might this be useful in a classroom setting?

Here are a few potential benefits:

• Freedom to Roam – The instructor is no longer restricted to the podium. He/she may enter the domain of the students, increasing attention, being more in touch with students, and allowing students who normally sit in the back to more actively participate in the discussion.
• Mini Whiteboard – Many of the remote desktop apps have a built-in annotation component that allows the instructor to not only annotate over content, but to also draw diagrams, solve equations, and otherwise enhance the lecture as one would do with a traditional interactive whiteboard.
• Increase Student Engagement – Share the iPad with the class. The instructor can share the iPad to have a student (or group of students) finish an equation, add their notes to the discussion, share their group project, etc.
• Full Computing Power – Since you are remoting into a laptop computer you have the ability to play Adobe Flash content that the iPad can’t, as well as access all your the other files on your laptop.

There are a number of things to think about when deciding to use a remote desktop in class.

Here are some considerations:

• Network Connectivity – Typically both the iPad and the remote computer need to be on the same network in order to connect, which shouldn’t be an issue on this this campus.
• Learning Curve – As with all new tools, there is a time commitment required in order to practice utilizing the remote desktop fluidly.
• Limited Real Estate - Since the screen on the iPad is smaller than that on the remote computer, you will either need to reduce the resolution on the computer to match the iPad resulting in larger, easier to use icons and text, but less screen space for display and possible reliance on scroll bars. Alternatively, you can retain the higher resolution of the computer and see the whole screen on the iPad, but have small, hard to read text and icons.
• Bring More to Class - In order to get this to work in typical classroom on campus, the instructor will need to bring in both the remote laptop (which is hooked up to the projection system) and the iPad to class requiring extra time for set-up as well.

Here are a few of the more popular remote desktop apps for iPad:

• Doceri - $30 for the desktop client, app free, annotation with annotation and audio recording
• LogMeIn - free and paid versions, basic remote desktop application
• Splashtop - free desktop client, $20 for the app, Splashtop Whiteboard version has annotation and audio recording
• TeamViewer - free for private use, basic remote desktop application

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us. We would be happy to show you a demo and help you get you started.

Microlecture is an unavoidable buzzword in instructional media as of late, but a justifiable buzz for many reasons. Microlecturing fits with the new classroom strategies of "flipping" and blended learning. From a technical perspective microlecturing is a sustainable and scalable method to create videos that can be modularly used as you build course content over time.

The Flip

Taking the repeating face-to-face / homework sequence and inverting it is becoming more prevalent in university classrooms. John Overmeyer at the University of Northern Colorado provides a great summary of what flipping is:

It is called the flipped class because the whole classroom/homework paradigm is "flipped". What used to be classwork (the "lecture") is done at home via teacher-created videos and what used to be homework (assigned problems) is now done in class.
(via John Overmeyer, Educational Vodcasting – Flipping the Classroom)

Further information is found in The Flipped Class Manifest.

It’s difficult for many educators to imagine stepping off the lecture stage and giving things over to the students. I would contend that there is still some information that is best, or at least more efficiently, delivered with a lecture, a story, or a performative demonstration. The new perspective that Overmeyer explains is that the lecture portion of a class can deliver important, however unidirectional, content in a video or "vodcast" rather standing in front of a live class. The face-to-face time is then recovered for more engaged, student centered activity that can be guided by the instructor.

There are some benefits for both the students and instructor:

• Lectures can be viewed at any time and multiple times as needed.
• Recording the lecture allows the instructor to incorporate content that may be difficult to use in the classroom such as videos shot at locations that you would not be able to take the students to.
• Recorded lectures can be significant aids for students with a wide variety of cognitive and physical disabilities.
• The instructor can reuse lectures from semester to semester. If a lecture can be reused then more time and effort can be spent on prepping new and more timely content. One course on our campus has a "refresh" cycle in which the core lectures get redone every three years. Each year the instructor only rewrites and rerecords five of the fifteen video lectures. This means the content stays fresh and a reasonable number of video lecture updates are tackled each year.

Why Are Microlectures the Key to Flipping?

Many instructors lecture for fifty minutes because the schedule in the timetable says fifty minutes. Is the decision on duration based on good pedagogy or on the logistics of moving students through our buildings in an efficient manner? What is considered a "lesson" may only require five minutes of explanation or demonstration. What often happens is that the instructor will throw multiple five to ten minute lessons into a fifty minute class – up until now there hasn’t really been any other option to deliver the lessons. With microlecturing those lessons can be discretely packaged and offered to the students via the network.

For the instructor, the creation of a 5-10 minute lecture is a lot less effort than sitting down for a full hour.

Learning Nuggets

Microlectures can capture these five to ten minute learning nuggets and then publish the recordings within the learning management system (Compass 2g), YouTube, a campus media service, iTunesU, or all of these places. These nuggets allow quick and direct access to a particular topic without having to review full length class recordings. These shorter lectures will download or be delivered more quickly to the student. Less waiting means more viewing!

The microlecture offers flexibility in the mixing and matching of flipped lecture content. The instructor can repackage the videos by putting the microlecture nuggets together with some sort of "glue" that provides additional context. The "glue" can be instructional module creation tools within the learning management system, a blog with descriptive text between clips, even quick webcam interjections between the microlecture content.

On-the-Fly Microlectures Before and After Class

By utilizing desktop, laptop and tablet based recording tools the creation of these short "glue" videos can be a quick task and often done on a moments notice. With a one-time setup of a workflow the instructor can create and distribute microlectures nearly as quickly as sending an email.

The quick recording may also be distributed before a face-to-face meeting to prepare the students for what to expect, what to have ready, augment existing online microlectures, or explain any changes in the syllabus. Video created and published after face-to-face meetings can be used to answer hanging questions, clarify a fuzzy topic or provide feedback on the work in the previous class meeting.

Think Small and Create Big Opportunity

Creating microlectures should be thought of as an additive process; small pieces making contributing to the larger whole of the course. Certainly some content will need to be replaced over time, but many topics will have a multi-year shelf life. By not recreating microlectures every time they are used today’s efforts can be spent on new and more engaging content. The ultimate goal is to create a large media resource pool that can benefit your flipped, blended or traditional classroon.

I love this time of the semester. The first crazy weeks have passed, and we’re hitting a good rhythm in all our classes. It’s time to relax a bit and see what else is happening in the world outside our classrooms.

The Spring 2013 Teaching with Technology Brown Bag series, hosted by CITES Academic Technology Services, begins this week with a terrific line up of interesting presenters from across the disciplines sharing their ideas and experiences about teaching with technology. All Brown Bag sessions begin at Noon, and are held at 23 Illini Hall. Refreshments are served. Bring your lunch, and a friend to these fun and interesting sessions. You’ll be glad you did!

First up is Christopher Burns (College of Medicine) on February 6 presenting Team-Based Learning: More Learning, and Less Labor. Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an active learning method that teaches students to prepare outside the classroom ahead of time in order to participate in higher-order, and collaborative learning activities during class time. Chris will lead us through a hands-on TBL exercise while discussing the practical benefits and pitfalls of implementing TBL in the classroom. This twelve minute video offers some helpful information about the method.

On February 20, Bill Cope (College of Education) will give us an inside tour of Scholar in his presentation on Collaboration in the Scholar Learning Environment. Scholar is a web-based writing and learning environment which brings together formative and summative assessment. The Scholar team has been working with instructors in a variety of settings to field-test the product, build new features, and develop a greater understanding of social media and computer-supported learning environments.  Visit the beautiful Scholar website for more information about this exciting new product.

In March we have only one Brown Bag—Using McGraw-Hill Connect with Compass to Enhance Teaching and Learning on March 6 featuring a panel of presenters: Melanie Waters (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), Aaron Ebata, and Sarah Curtiss (Human &Community Development). This session will focus on McGraw-Hill products used in conjunction with Compass 2g. Aaron Ebata and Sarah Curtiss will describe how they integrate Connect with their teaching strategies in different courses, and what students have told them about using Connect over the past few years. Melanie Waters will demonstrate the wide variety of question types that Connect offers for foreign language instruction, and how she uses Connect in her multi-section hybrid course.

On April 3, Milind Basole and Yury Borukhovich (CITES Academic Technology Services) present eText: The Future of the Textbook. Recently brought into the CITES family of services, eText@Illinois offers faculty an ideal platform for building multimedia-rich online course content (original authored content, course packs, or published textbooks) that can be viewed from any device with a web browser. Unlike other online textbooks, eText@Illinois is fully accessible to students with visual, auditory, and motor impairments making it a frontrunner in the national electronic textbook movement. Come see what all the excitement is about as Milind and Yury showcase the power and beauty of eText@Illinois.

Saving the best for last, on April 17, Bonnie Mak and Julia Pollack (Library & Information Science) present The iPad in the History of Communication a fascinating investigation of millennia-old questions about the communication of information. Through an amazing display of visuals, this presentation explores the use of the iPad to study the history of reading and writing technologies. Comparing the iPad with the wax tablet of antiquity and the illuminated manuscript of the Middle Ages, Bonnie and Julia expose surprising similarities across diverse technologies, and show how the iPad itself has become the focus of critical inquiry in its emergent role in the shaping of knowledge in the 21^st century.

Do you have a great idea for a brown bag presentation? Contact Ava Wolf at arwolf@illinois.edu. See you soon!

Are you new to Illinois Compass 2g and curious about how your colleagues on campus have been using it? CITES Academic Technology Services has been working hard on creating a Demonstration Site to illustrate some of the commonly used features and tools.

From embedding media in online tests to using groups to create Smart Views of the Grade Center, our Demonstration Site covers many of the tools that instructors already use or might be curious about using. Here are some highlights we’ve deployed to demonstrate some of the most popular features and tools of the Illinois Compass 2g service:

Homepage Examples

There are several different options available to instructors for the type of home page (or landing page) they wish to use, these options include:

• Blank Page
• Module Page
• Content Area

New Methods for Communicating and Delivering Content

Illinois Compass 2g offers more flexibility for delivering content and communicating with students. We’ve built out the site to include examples of:

• The difference between Learning Modules and Folders
• Organizing Menu Items and creating Course Links
• Utilizing Announcements and Email
• Setting up Discussion Boards, Blogs, and Wikis

Delivering Multimedia Content

Illinois Compass 2g also offers many options for embedding content from other sources, we’ve included in our Demonstration Site examples of embedded content such as:

• UOFI.Box.com service
• Google Maps
• Prezi
• Slideshare
• Flickr
• RSS

We’re Here to Help You Transition

As campus transitions to the new service we look forward to the opportunity to work with instructors to explore and deliver new online activities that weren’t available in the Illinois Compass service (powered by Blackboard Vista). If you are interested in moving activities into online formats or are curious about some of the new features available in Illinois Compass 2g please contact us for a consultation where we can demonstrate the new features.

I had a great shock today when I logged into Compass 2g. Everything was fine in the upper half of my Course List, but all my Illinois Compass courses previously listed at the bottom of the page were gone.

Turns out the Illinois Compass operations folks have been working overtime to improve the functionality of the Compass 2g landing page. Removing the long list of  Compass courses speeds up the page loading time, and allows for a more streamlined look. You can still connect to your Illinois Compass courses under Campus Bookmarks in a link called, Read-Only Courses on Illinois Compass (powered by Blackboard Vista).

I really needed to check something I did a couple of years ago in an old Compass course. Then when I was done, I simply logged out of Illinois Compass and clicked on the big blue Compass 2g button to get back to where I was. Easy! Now if I could only find my car keys?

Need help with Compass 2g? CITES Academic Technology Services offers classroom training, customized workshops, on-site visits, and one-on-one consultations to help faculty and staff use Compass 2g and other teaching and learning technologies.

There are many changes in how grades can be calculated in the Full Grade Center in Illinois Compass 2g (powered by Blackboard Learn) compared to what was once called the Grade Book in Illinois Compass (powered by Blackboard Vista). Below is a list of some commonly used features and how they function in Illinois Compass 2g.

Calculated and Weighted Grading

Replacing the formula editor in Illinois Compass 2g are calculated columns. Calculated columns can be used to weigh final grades, calculate total grades, and drop the lowest grade or grades for a group of assignments. Dropping the lowest grade for a group of grades is done through the use of Categories. Once an instructor has set up categories they can then set up the final calculations by clicking the downward facing arrow next to the Weighted Total or Total Column in the Full Grade Center and selecting Edit Column information.  Below is an example of a Weighted Column:

You can create a calculated column through the Create Calculated Column button in the Full Grade Center, and you can manage Categories through the Manage button. To change a column’s category select Edit Column Information through the downward facing arrow next to the column title, and you can change Categories in bulk through Manage > Column Organization.

Grading Schema

The Grading Schema in the Full Grade Center can be edited through Manage > Grading Schema, then hover your mouse over the word ‘Letter’ and click on the downward facing arrow, then click Edit.

From here you can see and edit the Schema Map in your grade center.

Changing a Calculated Grade Column

Unlike Illinois Compass (powered by Blackboard Vista) instructors cannot edit a calculated grade by clicking on it. The new workflow is creating a regular column, setting the points possible to zero, and including that newly created column in the final total calculations. An instructor can then increase a student’s score by adding points to that column, there is also the option to hide that column from students.

Other Changes and Additional Resources

There are many changes with how grading is done in Illinois Compass 2g, fortunately there are many services available to familiarize yourself with them:

• Training - Sign up for our Grade Center focused workshop, Illinois Compass 2g Essentials, or Key Features for TAs, Graders, and Staff. These three workshops all cover at least some aspects of grading in the Full Grade Center. See our training schedule and sign up here: http://go.illinois.edu/citesatscalendar
• Lynda.com - CITES provides an extensive library of training tutorials for a variety of software including Blackboard Learn (which powers Illinois Compass 2g) through Lynda.com – access the tutorials by clicking the link below and searching for Blackboard. If you are looking for Grade Center specific tutorials, then you can find those near the bottom of the page: http://go.illinois.edu/lynda
• 1-on-1 Consultations and the CITES Help Desk – We’re here to help you set up the Grade Center for your course or courses. Contact us today and we’ll provide you with convenient and personalized training to suit your needs. Please visit the CITES Help Desk webpage for hours of operation and to find out the different ways to get in touch with us.