TLT Community Hubs

The call for proposals for the 2010 Symposium has closed. We received a large volume of high quality submissions again this year and we will do our best to accommodate everyone. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out prior to the end of the semester. Thank you to everyone who submitted. Your proposals really showcase some of the great work that is happening in teaching, learning, and research across the university. This year's symposium will feature a morning keynote address by Dr. Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, a faculty lunch panel discussion, "Using Social Media to Engage Students," and a poster session at the end of the day. During the day we will also feature over 20 faculty-led breakout sessions showcasing innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching learning and research, a hands-on demonstration room, a Digital Media Commons showcase room, and a Educational Gaming Commons showcase room. If you have not done so already, please register to attend.

Members of the faculty who are using technology to enrich teaching, learning, or research are encouraged to submit a presentation proposal using the online form at http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu/conference/proposals. Topics could include faculty and students collaborating on a project or an assignment showcasing any number of collaborative tools and new learning spaces involved with teaching and research. Some examples include the use of electronic portfolios and blogs, the incorporation of digital media, the use of games, virtual worlds, and simulations, and any best practices that foster scholarship in the digital age. Sessions can be in a variety of formats, including group presentations, panel discussions, poster presentations, demonstrations, small-group discussions, and other activities. Each session should include some discussion of practical aspects such as the tools used, sources of support, best practices, and how the application of technology can be transferred to other disciplines. The extended deadline to submit proposals is November 13, 2009.

I'm at a demonstration of Blackboard that is being delivered by a combination of Blackboard and former ANGEL staff.  The demo covers their current version, BB9, not what they plan to develop as part of their Next Generation strategy.Blackboard's Mission:"To increase the impact of education, by transforming the experience of education"Three main product lines:

• Blackboard learn - typical content management features
• Blackboard transact - secure access to campus buildings, student meal cards, etc...
• Blackboard connect - notification and alerting platform through a variety of forms (text, email, etc...)

Their "Project NG" will focus on integrating product lines and make it have more of a Web 2.0 drag-and-drop feel - which will eventually be released as Blackboard.  Blackboard has committed to work on ANGEL 8, which will include some new features as well as some features that will eventually help transition to Blackboard.Core Features of Blackboard (most of this isn't too surprising):

• Content delivery with custom paths
• Communication tools
• Assessment tools for feedback and analysis
• Portfolio capabilities
• Participation in common cartridge/IMS development

Advantages over ANGEL:

• Very scalable platform
• Building Blocks program - frameworks for building custom tools with hooks into Blackboard API's

Moving to an actual demo now.  Version 9 focused largely on an interface change that brings together the best parts of Blackboard and WebCT.  After logging in, users are presented with a dashboard/portal that's much like ANGEL's home page that lists courses, announcements, headlines from external sources, and other panels that can be added by the user and may be customized based on the user's attributes (e.g. student in the college of engineering).

As of today, blog posts made on the Blogs at Penn State platform and tagged with tltsym should appear on the TLT Symposium account on Twitter.  That's assuming everything works out.  To do this, I am using a site called TwitterFeed that should repost anything in an RSS feed to a Twitter account.

Faculty members are invited to share innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. This free event will be held Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park. A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. This year's theme is "Digital Scholarship and the Culture of Teaching and Learning."

The keynote speaker is Dr. Michael Wesch (http://ksuanth.weebly.com/wesch.html), assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. Dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology, and he was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He has also won several teaching awards, including the 2008CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.

Thank you for joining us at the 2009 TLT Symposium
Once again, we had a record number of participants at the 2009 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. Nearly 400 faculty, staff, and students came out to spend a Saturday discussing the ways that technology can be used to enrich teaching, learning, and research.
If you missed the keynote presentation, we have it available now along with other videos about the Symposium:

David Wiley

danah boyd

In addition, you can also see pictures and videos as well as read blog posts and tweets related to the Symposium through the magic of the PSU Voices search.
read more

The Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology will be held Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park. This free event is an opportunity for faculty to share innovative uses of technology to enhance teaching, learning, and research with their colleagues. This year's theme is "Digital Scholarship and the Culture of Teaching and Learning."

Our keynote speaker is Dr. Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. Dubbed "the explainer" by Wired magazine, Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. His videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide. Wesch has won several major awards for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology. He was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He has also won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities. See examples of his work on the Keynotes page.

There is no registration fee and a continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Click here to register: The 2010 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology

You may have noticed that over the past couple of weeks we've been posting audio from the 2009 Symposium. In case you haven't, all of the audio can be accessed from the Agenda Tab. Start listening by clicking any link marked "audio". Thanks again to all those who attended the 2009 Symposium, you helped us make it a great success!

David Wiley delivered the keynote address at the 2009 Symposium. In his address titled, "The Impact of Openness on the Future of Higher Education," Wiley challenges the academy to focus on where it adds value in order to stay relevant in the 21st Century.
Click here to watch the video

read more