Presentation for NIU Council of Deans by Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, July 14, 2010

1. Teaching with Technology Updates Presentation for Council of Deans Faculty Development and Instructional Design CenterJuly 14, 2010

2. Presentation Goals Share information on supported instructional technologies Highlight new features now available in Blackboard and Wimba Classroom Explore emerging “cloud” technologies that are becoming increasingly popular in higher education today Discuss implications for use of “cloud” technologies in teaching

3. Supported Technologies

4. Blackboard Learning management system available campus-wide for teaching since 2002 Used for posting electronic materials, grades, communications, etc. 94% of NIU students and 73% of faculty use Blackboard More details: www.niu.edu/blackboard

5. Use of Blackboard by (individual) Students 21,447 Usage % for spring ‘10 with 22,705 enrolled is 94.46% of total number of students

6. Use of Blackboard by (individual) Faculty/Staff/TAs to Teach 1,205 Usage % for spring ‘10 with 1,661* faculty/instructors/TA/teaching staff is 72.45%*1,661 includes only those providing direct instruction

7. Number of Course Sections in Blackboard 2,269 Usage % for spring ‘10 with 5,378* sections is 42.2%*No. of course sections including thesis, dissertation, and independent studies is 5,378

8. Number of Enrollments in Blackboard 77,580 Students enrolled in several courses in a semester that use Blackboard

9. Blackboard Portfolio Tool Bundled with current Blackboard Content System that NIU has licensed (no additional cost) Limited customization At the recommendation of NIU Computing Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC), faculty input is being sought for implementation Faculty pilot this summer and fall

10. Blackboard Portfolio Tool

11. Portfolio Features Store portfolio artifacts in the Blackboard Content Collection Create portfolio for either personal (student, faculty, staff) accomplishments or course requirements Link to coursework artifacts in Blackboard Use pre-configured portfolio templates

12. Portfolio Features (cont.) Share portfolio with faculty for comments Share portfolio with other classmates as well as non-NIU users Control access to who can view portfolio and for what duration of time Export portfolio for offline access outside Blackboard or archive to CD

13. Upgrade to Blackboard 9.1 Major upgrade planned for May 2011 Redesigned interface Many new requested features added Testing beginning this summer, support materials and training to be developed this fall Faculty pilot of Blackboard 9.1 during Spring 2011 More details coming this fall

14. Wimba Classroom Live collaboration with students Fully-integrated with Blackboard but also available for access without Blackboard login Archives available for online or on-demand offline or mobile viewing

15. CPS (e-Instruction Clickers) Student response system allowing faculty to receive feedback from students wirelessly Can be used in conjunction with Blackboard with results from class assessments automatically uploaded to Blackboard Grade Center

16. New Blackboard Features Now Available

17. Blackboard Mobile Learn More details: www.niu.edu/blackboard/mobile

18. Mobile Learn (iPad) Demo

19. Blackboard Mobile Learn Through a partnership with Sprint, Blackboard currently only offers the free Mobile Learn app on Android and BlackBerry devices on the Sprint network in addition to iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch over Wi-Fi Additional apps and access on other networks available for licensing More details: www.niu.edu/blackboard/mobile

20. New Wimba Classroom Features Now Available

21. Increased Video Device Support While Wimba previously only recognized specific USB web cameras, existing video hardware and infrastructure can now be leveraged. If your computer supports the video camera, so does Wimba Classroom! Data cameras and video equipment used for other specialized lab procedures, such as those used in the physical and health sciences, can now be used with Wimba Classroom.

22. Higher Quality Video Default window size and video window encoding size have been doubled The default video encoding bit rate has also been doubled

23. Archive Reminder Presenter is reminded to start archive at beginning of session

24. Hand Raised Chime Chime is now played when a hand is raised to alert presenters when students raise their hand

25. Shortened Guest Access Link Shortened link for easier distribution to guests via email

26. MP3 and MP4 Download Links Easier for students to now download either the audio (.mp3) or video (.mp4) archives directly from the list of archives for the room

27. Teaching in the “Cloud”

28. Educause.edu/cloudcomputing

29. What is Cloud Computing? IT Perspective: delivery of scalable IT resources of the Internet, as opposed to hosting and operating resources locally on a college or university network User Perspective: accessing, creating, and consuming content using web-based software services available from any Internet-connected computer; content and even software is hosted completely online

30. Teaching with Technology Institute

31. Teaching with Technology Institute Collaborating in the Cloud (Google Wave) Creating Tutorials in the Cloud (Screenr, Screencast-o-Matic) Writing in the Cloud (Wikis, Blogs) Presenting in the Cloud (Prezi, Slideshare)

32. Technology Showcase Featured hands-on opportunity with new technologies, including: Tablet PC, Kindle, iPad, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, clickers, netbook

33. Google Wave Web-based application representing a rethinking of electronic communication Rather than sending separate copies of multiple messages to different people, content resides in a single space Part conversation, part document creation, combining features of both synchronous and asynchronous communications wave.google.com

34. Google Wave Demo

35. Screencast Digital recording of computer screen output, often containing audio narration Why use a screencast? Demonstrate and teach software features Demonstrate technology steps or processes Providing “virtual tour” of Blackboard course

36. Screencasting Demo

37. Blog Online chronological collection of personal commentary and links Easy to create and use from anywhere with an Internet connection, including mobile devices Educational Applications Journal development of ideas Interact outside the “walls” of Blackboard

38. Sample Blog bit.ly/twti2010blog

39. Wiki Web page that can be viewed and modified by anyone with access to the Internet Collaborative documentconstruction Educational Applications Class or topic web site Group project presentation alternative Collaborative data collection / analysis Peer editing and review

40. Sample Wiki bit.ly/twti2010wiki

41. Presentation Tools slideshare.net prezi.com

42. Implications for Use of “Cloud” Technologies in Teaching

43. Realities Instructional technologies continue to advance rapidly Technology use varies Students are using these technologies and expecting to use them in learning Faculty are experimenting with new technologies that may not be officially supported by the institution New faculty may bring different technology expectations

44. Questions for Consideration How does the institution support emerging technologies? Are “free” tools available from Google and others truly free? How are openness and opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration managed? How is student data protected? When “walls” are removed, what must be considered?

45. Summary Faculty Development’s focus: Promote technology for enhancing teaching and learning, and not just for the sake of using new technology Recommend technology that can be learned quickly and easily, and is free or affordable Emerging Trends in Learning Technologies Increase in the use of mobile and “cloud” technologies Increase in more platform-independent learning tools Blurring lines between the use of institutional and non-institutional technology (e.g. email)