Countdown to Camp 5: Narrative Schedule and What To Bring

Posted on August 7, 2008 
Filed Under Learning Design, Summer Camp

Hi Everyone.  This is the fifth (and final) Countdown to Camp note.  The Learning Design Summer Camp is next week, so in this final note, I thought I’d give you a narrative version of what this two day event will be like.  I have also put together a list of things that you may want to bring with you so you (the attendees) can interact with the media and services that we’ll be using to support the event.

1. What to Bring. As you will see in the schedule below, there will be a lot of interaction with various online technologies.

2. Narrative Schedule.  In this story, Kim is a fictional attendee from the Hazleton campus.  You can also check out the normal Schedule of Events listed in the wiki.

August 11, afternoon.  Kim arrives in State College and checks into her hotel.  After getting settled in her room, she gets together with the other out-of-town people who have signed up and expressed interest in getting together before the event.

August 12, 9:30 AM.  Kim leaves her hotel room and heads toward Pattee Library.  She has her laptop (with power cord), a voice recorder, and a digital camera with her.  She gets to Foster Auditorium a little early, so she finds a couple of the stickers she submitted and fills out one of the special “name badges”.  Kim’s badge says “Hello, I’m curious about … using a green screen”.

August 12, 9:50 AM.  Foster Auditorium is pretty full now.  Kim has a seat next to some people they know.  They strike up a conversation about the green screens that are used in the Digital Commons studios.  A friend points out Matt and Justin, who travel to the Digital Commons campuses.  Kim plans to meet them during one of the breaks.

August 12, 10:00 AM.  Allan welcomes everyone to the Summer Camp, runs through some housekeeping issues, and talks about the technologies that have been used to shape the event.

August 12, 10:30 AM.  Cole Camplese, Scott McDonald, and one of their students from a course on disruptive technologies talk for about 15 minutes about their course and how they integrated social software.  This discussion is followed by 45 minutes of discussion with the audience.  During this session, Kim uses the Live Question Tool to anonymously submit a question about differences in student willingness to use social software.

August 12, 11:30 AM.  Time for lunch.  As Allan and some voluneers hand out on-campus dining cards and library-friendly mugs, people who have organized lunch sessions introduce themselves and give a brief overview of their topics.  Kim decides to attend Ellysa Cahoy’s session on Digital Literacy, so she meets up with the group that is gathering around Ellysa and they decide to head to the HUB for lunch.  During lunch, Kim uses her voice recorder to record the discussion for her own reference and to share with other people at her campus.  She also takes a few pictures.

August 12, 1:00 PM. Lightning Talks.  Kim and her group return to Foster Auditorium just as the Lightning Talks start.  Allan goes first and does a 10-minute presentation about using wikis and Google Docs for educational purposes.  Allan exceeds his 10-minute time allotment, so the timekeeper rings a bell and kicks Allan off the podium.  The rest of the 10-minute presentations continue and finish around 3:00.

August 12, 3:00 PM.  Break time.  There is a scheduled half hour break, so Kim takes the opportunity to talk to Chris Millet, who is leading the Digital Commons project.  Chris tells Kim about the green screen tutorials that are on the Digital Commons web site.

August 12, 3:30 PM. Matt Jackson from the College of Communications gives a 15-minute presentation about some basic principles of legal use of copyrighted material.  This is followed by a 45-minute discussion using another instance of the Live Question Tool.  Kim doesn’t submit a question this time, but she does vote on a question about Fair Use guidelines.

August 12, 4:30 PM. The Pitch Session.  At this time, anyone who has a topic for Day 2 is given a chance to stand up and “pitch” their topic to the rest of the Summer Camp attendees.  These topics will be discussed on Day 2, either in the morning or over lunch.  Someone pitches the idea of getting a group of people together over lunch to discuss lessons learned from the first year of supporting a Digital Commons studio.

August 12, 6:30 PM.  Since Kim is in town for another night, she signs up for one of the dinner meetings.  She heads to the Golden Wok to have an informal discussion about instructional technologies.

August 13, 7:30 AM.  Kim is staying at the Nittany Lion Inn, so on her way in, she stops at Otto’s Cafe (in Kern) and gets some coffee in the mug that the University Libraries staff handed out yesterday.

August 13, 8:30 AM.  Kim sits with some of the people that she met at Golden Wok last night.  Carla Zembal-Saul gives a 15-minute presentation about using blogs as a way for students to start building a portfolio as soon as they come to Penn State.  The Live Question Tool is used again.

August 13, 9:30 AM.  Small group discussions.  Kim meets up with Allan and Robin Smail to talk about educational podcasting.  They meet with 10 other people in one of the group meeting rooms in the library.

August 13, 10:30 AM. Everyone gathers back in Foster Auditorium.  Ken Udas and David DiBiase give a short presentation about their ideas on using tools like wikis and content management systems to enable a community to easily create and share educational resources.  The discussion is managed through the Live Question Tool.

August 13, 11:30 AM.  Lunch.  Kim goes off to lunch at Otto’s Cafe and discusses one of the topics she heard at yesterday’s pitch session: supporting a Digital Commons studio.

August 13, 1:00 PM. After coming back from lunch, each of the discussion groups is given the opportunity to make a short (5-10 minute) summary of what issues came up and any outcomes.  During this presentation, Kim reports to the group that she met with the educational podcasting group and they decided to create a “Faculty Guide to Educational Podcasting” document that would help faculty and instructional designers understand what they needed to do to get started.

August 13, 3:00 PM. Onward! In the final session of the day, Cole wraps up the Learning Design Summer camp and the community has a discussion moving forward from where we are now.  What are our common issues?  What else does the university need?  How can we help each other?

August 13, 6:30 PM.  Kim decides to stick around town and go to one of the final “Food for Thought” dinners.  She goes to the one at Champs, where the group discusses the conferences they have attended and which ones were the most helpful.  Kim gets some ideas for next year’s professional development plans.

… So that’s how I see this event unfolding in my head.  Your experience is sure to vary.  And believe me, if you need to take a break and have lunch on your own or skip the dinner gatherings, I won’t be offended.  However, I would appreciate it if you made an effort to participate in the discussions.  The more people who take an active role in participating, the richer the experience will be for everyone.

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