May 2, 2008
Upcoming events: Intensive Instructional Technology Faculty Workshop Series, May 12-16, 2008
Service or program spotlight: Duke Digital Initiative Programs Announced for 2008-2009
Teaching resource of the month: Flickr now does video, too
New and cool: VoiceThread on-the-fly online video annotation
Project profile: National Evolutionary Synthesis Center podcasts about "Evolution in the News"
Blackboard tip of the month: Save time by copying your course content from previous semesters
Upcoming events
CIT Intensive Instructional Technology Faculty Workshop Series, May12-16, 2008
http://cit.duke.edu/help/events/may2008.html
The Center for Instructional Technology is pleased to offer a week-long series of instructional technology and pedagogy workshops May 12-16, 2008. Our sessions are designed to give the busy faculty member concrete, ready to implement ideas for using instructional technology and for fostering a dynamic, flexible learning environment in and beyond the classroom. Each day at lunch, we are also offering a "Faculty Lunchbox" discussion focused on tools to help faculty with their research and collaboration.
Workshop topics include:
Digital Narratives: Telling Stories with Technology
Introduction to Google Earth
Enhancing Your Course with Audio & Video
Implementing Student Video Projects
Introduction to Wimba: Fast, Easy and Built-In Audio Recording in Blackboard
The Green Classroom: Saving Paper With Blackboard
Teaching with Webcams
Creating Short Videos of Your Computer Screen
Faculty Lunchbox sessions (lunch provided)
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
- Bookmarking Tools
- Google Docs
- Webfiles
Faculty and full-time instructors who attend one or more workshop or lunchbox session are eligible to receive a stipend payable as a transfer to a Duke research account, up to a maximum of $300 per individual. Stipends are calculated based on the number of "credits" assigned to each session; the basic formula is 1 hour = 1 "credit" = $50.
For questions about the May workshops, please contact us at cit@duke.edu
Other May events:
Teaching Triangles Orientation
Tues, May 13, 2008 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
http://cit.duke.edu/help/events/event.do?eventid=425&occurid=1681
Events on other campuses:
Elon University's Innovation in Instruction Conference, Aug. 21, 2008
http://idd.elon.edu/catl/conference/index.html
Kansas State University cultural anthropologist and "media ecologist" Michael Wesch will keynote this year’s conference, which will explore the role of higher education in the 21st Century. Our students come to us from vastly different peoples, cultures, and perspectives. They leave us to face ever changing challenges and the opportunities of a new global age. As twenty-first century educators, we must not only help our students to read, write and calculate, but set their skills into larger frameworks of teaching and learning. Within the widening horizons of the “real world,” our work must be engaging, interactive, contextual. We must learn to think globally, while we teach locally.
Service or program spotlight
Duke Digital Initiative Programs Announced for 2008-2009http://www.duke.edu/ddi
Collaboration and innovation using digital video tools will be the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) theme for the 2008–2009 academic year. Starting next fall, DDI will offer faculty and students unprecedented access to digital video technology and technical expertise through a wide range of digital and high definition video programs and projects. DDI will also continue transitional support for some programs from past years, including grants to record lessons and instructional content; Web-based audio recording tools that work with Blackboard; the tablet PC faculty loaner program; and the use of iPods for mobile classroom digital content.
General program information is available online at http://www.duke.edu/ddi.
To sign up to receive details in July 2008 about specific opportunities for Fall 2008, visit http://cit.duke.edu/help/ddi/interest.html.
DDI is funded by the Provost's Office and is managed jointly by the Office of Information Technology (www.oit.duke.edu) and the Center for Instructional Technology (cit.duke.edu). For general questions about DDI, please contact the project team at ddi@duke.edu. Faculty with questions about DDI programs or other uses of instructional technology may contact cit@duke.edu.
Teaching resource of the month
Flickr now does videos, too
http://www.flickr.com
Flickr, the popular service for sharing photos, has now added video capabilities to the site. The video uploads aren't intended to replace or duplicate YouTube - the length is limited to 90 seconds - but as a way to augment user image collections with short videos taken with their digital cameras. Videos can also be embedded in web pages or blog posts, similar to YouTube content. The CIT experimented with posting of short Flickr videos shot by attendees during our annual Showcase. You can view the Showcase photos and videos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/dukecitshowcase2008/.
New and cool
VoiceThread on-the-fly online video annotation
http://voicethread.com/
Voicethread encourages collaboration by allowing sharing and commenting on video as well as pictures and documents. Voicethread allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. Watching the samples on the website is a great way to generate ideas for using this tool. You can embed the “voice thread” on your blog or webpage (even your Blackboard course site), making any site a group collaboration site.
Project profile
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center podcasts on "Evolution in the News"
http://www.nescent.org/eog/postcasts.php
Learn the stories behind the news with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. Their podcasts of "Evolution in the News," include great pictures and discussions with scientists including Duke University's Kathleen Smith. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is a collaborative effort of Duke University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Subscribe in iTunes U: iTunesU > Duke > Science > National Evolutionary Synthesis Center - Evolution in the News (or start at Duke iTunes U "Public Material" and navigate from there in iTunes).
Blackboard tip of the month
Save time by copying your course content from previous semesters
If you build your Blackboard course sites from scratch each time you teach a class, let us share a big time saver: copying course materials forward to your new Blackboard course site. You can copy individual items or folders using the Copy button beside individual content items (http://blackboard.duke.edu/help/copymove.html). You can copy sections of your previous course, or the complete course, without bringing in the outdated student roster (http://blackboard.duke.edu/help/reuse.html).
