Registration will be open beginning December 1st. This workshop is for faculty. Please check for workshop description and registration December 1, 2008 online at the CITT Training Schedule.

• Avoiding Faculty Burnout
• Copyright Compliance for Online Educators
• Introduction to Second Life for Educators

For more information and to sign up, visit Sloan Workshop Resources

Would you like to learn more about Second Life and how it is being used here at the University of Florida? Check out the CITT Training schedule for two Second Life workshops being offered in January!

More information on Second Life

CITT Training Schedule

The goal of this initiative is to develop 20 exemplary online courses. From its conception, the Initiative has sought to further improve the quality of learning and the learning experience for students. It also plans to generate efficiencies in the teaching process for faculty and allow increased creativity in their capacity as creators of knowledge transfer. To achieve this, a series of course offerings for undergraduate students were developed using pedagogical best practice and information technology high end services. The courses were selected from faculty submissions to an RFP. The main selection criteria were for the courses to improve the quality of learning, while maintaining or reducing the cost of instruction. Also, these courses serve practical needs at the University of Florida such as: 1) facilitating students’ progress through their programs, 2) helping satisfy the needs in high demand areas, 3) providing relevant and flexible offerings that students can access from a distance, 4) helping to meet state general education requirements where possible, and 5) increasing student count.

We are in the process of planning another round of courses. In the near future you will receive information about the process and requirements to participate in this program. For more information see www.at.ufl.edu/provostinitiative

Open Letter to UF OIT Staff (IT Connections)

The development of this training program was funded by the Florida Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Assessment. The new training program joins the other CLAST administration functions of the AT testing office: publication and distribution of the CLAST statewide and internationally, scoring of all CLAST examinations, and maintenance of the CLAST score history file for the state.

The second was an integration of services. In order to facilitate graduate students with their thesis submission, the Editorial Office has moved to the Hub, Room 224B, next to the Application Support Center. Combining operations with the Application Support Center gives graduate students a “one stop” solution to the vast majority of their Electronic Thesis and Dissertation questions and/or problems.

Finally, to further accommodate our clients’ needs, the Help Desk has expanded their schedule for the Fall Semester. With the exception of home football game weekends, and for the Florida vs. Georgia game, the Help Desk will now be open on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturdays, the Help Desk will now be open from 2pm to 6pm for both phone and walk in service. On Sundays, we have expanded our hours from 2pm to 6pm both for walk in and phone service, and then from 6pm to 10pm we will be available for phone service only.

Please remember that if you have any questions about our procedure changes or any other computing situations, you may contact us by visiting our website at helpdesk.ufl.edu, sending us an email at helpdesk@ufl.edu or by calling us at (352)392-HELP.

The results of this year’s audit indicated that effective controls were in place for all aspects of system and data protection. At the same time, the auditors made some general recommendations for the purpose of improving the service, and users of E-Learning will see those recommendations implemented over the next few months. In particular, LSS is drafting a data retention policy that will define how long completed term data will be retained in E-Learning. Obviously, the longer old data – particularly grades — sits unattended, the more opportunities there may be for problems to develop.

In addition, all users will see information about FERPA and HIPAA posted to the login site with links for additional information and training. If you are unfamiliar with FERPA and HIPAA, now would be a good time to go to privacy.ufl.edu to start learning about these federal laws that govern protection of critical data.

For additional information about E-Learning and the ELS audit, contact e-Learning Support Services: learning-support@ufl.edu, 352.392.4357, option 3.

From Monday-Thursday and Sunday, 5:00pm-11:00pm, we can section off 86 computers in our CSE E211 Computer Labs for your use in testing students online. We provide the computers; you provide the students and proctors. For more information, or to reserve dates, contact Adam Brown.

Bibliographic Management Software RefWorks

RefWorks is bibliographic management software, where you can port citations from library databases into your personal account, and manipulate them into the format you choose.

Library West Digital Media Center Resources

This workshop will introduce the Digital Media Center facilities to instructors, so that they can better craft assignments and activities for students in their classes. More about the Info Commons.

Get a Second Life

Get started in the virtual world, Second Life (SL). Create a free account, create your own avatar, learn to fly, teleport, communicate, and visit educational and entertaining places. Also learn keyboard shortcuts and other tips and tricks in this world.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

Dr. Ray Issa will be facilitating an information workshop for faculty on copyright issues and intellectual property.

The schedule for these and workshops on many other topics can be viewed at www.citt.ufl.edu/training. Please check the workshop schedule for updates and registration information.

SmartBoards in classrooms!

All main campus classrooms are now equipped with SmartBoard type interactive pen tablets. These tablets are on the technology podium in the classroom, and may appear to just be the computer’s monitor, but in fact they are much more! Use the tethered pen to annotate on top of Powerpoint presentations, web pages, or even use the pen to write your presentations on the monitor as you go, just as you would on an overhead or chalkboard! An added bonus – the annotated materials can be saved and sent to or posted for your students! See at.ufl.edu/classrooms for more information.

Technology podiums in classrooms!

New for this Fall semester, all main campus classrooms are now equipped with technology podiums. The slower wall-mounted computers previously found in some classrooms have been eliminated. Existing podiums are also being retrofitted to provide easy-to-reach laptop cables, so you won’t need to bring your own laptop cables (except for power of course) to these classrooms in the future. The retrofits will be completed over the course of this academic year. See at.ufl.edu/classrooms for more information.

Classroom Response Systems (clickers) in classrooms!

TurningPoint is the supported Classroom Response System in main campus classrooms. This “clicker” technology allows you to get all students in your classroom actively involved, even those quiet ones who like to sit in the back row! The technology allows you to ask students in your classroom to answer a question, and can display immediate aggregate data about the students’ answers on the screen for you and your students to discuss. Advanced users can even use E-Learning to associate clickers with individual students and evaluate individual student responses to questions. See at.ufl.edu/classrooms for more information. To try out TurningPoint, you can download the software for free from turningtechnologies.com.

Getting Help in a Classroom

Unfortunately, the permanent help phones in classrooms were too expensive to maintain given their relatively low usage. As a result, the phones have been removed, and we ask that instructors use mobile phones to request immediate assistance from classroom technicians if necessary. Faculty can now contact Classroom Support by calling (352)392-6683.

Come check out the workshops on Researching with the University of Florida Digital Collections as well as an informative look at the Digital Media Center in the InfoCommons @ West. These workshops and more are available and open for registration. Check out what we have to offer and get registered soon, space is limited. We’ll see YOU in class!

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More information on Peer Review

A significant portion of any instructor’s time is dedicated to creating content for their class. As discussed in the previous newsletter, simply transferring face-to-face materials to online delivery mode is not pedagogically sound. Online courses must be developed appropriately to the medium, taking advantage of opportunities to improve the learning experience. The CITT helps instructors explore innovative, cutting-edge teaching practice, and then build and maintain their online courses. We work with faculty to improve students’ educational outcomes while enabling you to utilize your time as a faculty member in the most effective and creative ways.

Creative Commons - There are plenty of repositories containing images, sounds, videos, and even Flash applications that can be used in websites, software, or online classes. Using materials like these can greatly enrich a course and save valuable time and resources. Many files found on websites such as YouTube, Flickr, and blip.tv are licensed under Creative Commons. However, you must ask for permission to use any media that you find anywhere on or off the web, or make sure that it is covered under Fair Use for Teachers policies (for more information see Fair Use for Teachers).To view other popular Creative Commons sites, visit the Resources section at the end of this article or do a Google search for “Creative Commons” for more information.

Social Networks - Social networks such as Facebook and MySpace give your students additional opportunities to become acquainted as well as promote communication and collaboration. Social networks are also increasingly being used for other educational benefits such as connecting with experts in various fields. Links to several social networks are listed below under Resources.

Microblogging - Twitter, Pownce and Plurk are popular social and information networking tools that are also being used in educational settings. Along the same lines as social networks, Twitter can be used to connect faculty at UF or anywhere in the world. It can also be used to help faculty and students stay up to date with events in their respective field. Messages are short, with a maximum of 140 characters, making it easier to keep updated on activities and findings. Since experts all over the world are using Twitter, you will probably learn of current events in your field before the mainstream media has a chance to publish a report.

Peer Review - The Peer Review feature found in the E-learning discussion tool allows students to evaluate each other’s work. Simply assign students to small groups, provide a rubric to use and they can start reviewing each others’ work. You can even have your students grade group projects and written work this way, although this is not natively supported in E-learning. The process of peer review provides students with more experience and a deeper understanding of the material while you will have more time to work on your next online class!

Resources

Creative Commons:

• Creative Commons
• Creative Commons (Wikipedia)

Find CC-licensed content:

• Google Advanced Search:
  On the “Advanced Search” page, click “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more”
• Yahoo Creative Commons Search
• Creative Commons: Search

Social Networks:

• List of Social Networking websites
• Facebook
• MySpace

Microblogging:

• Twitter
• Plurk
• Pownce

Peer Review:

Peer Review, (CITT’s Tech Toolbox)

Register for Listen Up: Audio on the Web and for your Class

Specifically, the toolbox includes information on:

• What the tool or technique is
• Educational uses and benefits
• An example
• How to get started with it
• Where to learn more about it

So what’s new in the toolbox? Recently added entries include:

• Creative Commons: is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing an alternative to a traditional copyright.
• Google Earth: is a virtual globe program that maps the Earth by superimposing images obtained from satellite imagery and aerial photography.
• Ning: is a free online application platform that allows users to build social networks and websites for public or private use.
• Photo Sharing Sites (Flickr): allow a user to upload and digital photos to a website so that they can be classified and shared with others either privately or publicly.
• Twitter: Twitter is a free social software and micro-blogging service that allows users to send text-based messages with a maximum of 140 characters via cell phone, text messaging or e-mail to the Twitter website.

Visit the Tools & Techniques Toolbox

Although research has consistently indicated the importance of pronunciation training in foreign language classes, Spanish pronunciation is rarely taught in introductory or intermediate classes. In reality, faculty have so much content to cover in their classes that they do not have time to go into the intricacies of phonetics or pronunciation.

For this project, Dr. Gillian Lord proposed developing a series of multimedia modules that instruct students in the fundamental principals of Spanish pronunciation. The topics for each module were selected based on what teachers and researchers have identified as typical pronunciation errors.  The project makes use of  the existing Language Learning Lab and repurposes the scheduled lab sessions for SPN 2240 for students to complete the modules.

To accommodate different learning styles and provide students with an auditory example of correct pronunciation, each module section was presented in both text-based and video format. Flash animations were designed to demonstrate what the mouth and vocal tract are doing to produce each specific sound. Recorded samples of native English and Spanish speakers help emphasize the distinction in each pronunciation feature. Throughout the modules, interactive quizzes were programmed to ensure comprehension of basic principles. To enhance usability and Section 508 compliance,  learners can increase the text size to suit their needs and transcripts of the videos are made readily available.

After viewing the explanation and examples, the learner is asked to complete a series of audio exercises that focus on listening and discriminating between English and Spanish pronunciation. A practice section encourages the student to read a text fragment out loud while keeping basic principles in mind. Finally the students is asked to record her/himself reading text samples that emphasize the specific pronunciation feature being worked on in the module. Self-assessments, paired with the recording are sent to the instructor.

To increase audience size and reusability of the materials, these modules have been designed to be publicly available online. Assessment results are emailed to the instructor or TA. However, learners that are going through the content outside the context of a credit course, can complete the modules without having to submit results.

The modules are currently being piloted in the Fall instance of SPN 2240. Students have been asked to complete a survey upon completion of each module to help assess the impact of the materials. Once assessments have been completed and revisions have been made, the materials will be viewable by the general public.  In the meantime, you can view a sample module.

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