2012 Southeast Regional Conference Wrap-Up

The 2012 Southeast Regional Conference held at UW-Whitewater on January 11, 2012 was a success. A total of 86 attended, which included 16 speakers from UW Colleges, UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Whitewater.

A myriad of active learning best practices were shared in the use of interactive activities and games, student-created video, ePortfolio, social media, and mobile technology for teaching and learning. The keynote and sessions on mobile learning and planning for the future of education was given by Dr. Curtis Bonk, an expert on active learning. Many of the comments included that there was “tons of good information” and ideas that were “very valuable and thought provoking.”

Thank you to all of you who were able to attend the 2012 UW-System Southeast Regional Conference. We hope you found inspiration and information to help promote active learning.

A special thanks to the wonderful presenters, the conference committee, sponsors, and many others who worked behind the scenes to make this conference a success.

A list of presenters along with the schedule, session recordings, and session presentations are available at: http://geturl.uww.edu/18s

If you attended and still haven’t taken the survey, please provide feedback at: http://geturl.uww.edu/182

Conference Committee:
• Karen Skibba, Conference Planning Chair, UW-Whitewater
• Pat Eaton, UW-Parkside
• Karla Farrell, UW-Colleges
• Amy Mangrich, UW-Milwaukee
• Renee Pfeifer-Luckett, UW-Whitewater

Conference Sponsors:
• UW System Learning and Technology Development Council (LTDC)
• UW-Whitewater Learning Technology Center
• UW-Milwaukee Learning Technology Center
• UW-Parkside Learning Technology Center
• UW-Colleges Central IT
• UW-Whitewater College of Letters and Sciences

If you have any questions about the conference, please contact Karen Skibba at skibbak@uww.edu.

Invited to Attend Two UW-Whitewater Second Life Sessions

UW-System faculty and instructional staff are invited to participate in two free Second Life “in-world” workshops featuring speakers who are experts at using Second Life for education. See details on sessions and registration.

The sessions are funded by the UW- System Learning Technology Development Council Curricular Redesign Grant awarded to UW-Whitewater. The grant supports exploration by faculty into the educational advantages offered in the virtual world of Second Life for teaching and learning. UW-Whitewater faculty and staff members working on the grant project are using a learning community model to explore and experience how the virtual world can enhance teaching and learning. To learn more about the learning community, please join us and attend our UW-System Presidential Summit session on Friday, April 15 at 8:30 a.m. Seven of the learning community members will be there to discuss and show how: “Second Life Faculty Learning Community Spurs Imagination.”

You may participate in one or both of the following sessions. To register, sign up at: http://geturl.uww.edu/0ud

A Second Life account and an avatar are required to participate. SLURL location and other participation information will be e-mailed to those who register.

Date: April 19, 2011
Time: 8 a.m. to 9:15 (CST)
Title: Virtual Worlds: What are the best uses? Where do we go from here?
Speaker: AJ Kelton, Director, Emerging Instructional Technology, College of Humanities & Social Science at Montclair State University; founder and current leader of the EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Constituent Group; and Founder and Chief Moderator of the Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable.

Description: Join distinguished Second Life expert AJ Kelton (also known as AJ Brooks in Second Life) for an informal discussion on virtual worlds, including what to expect, how to make use of the medium, and how to move forward working in a virtual environment. AJ will share what he has discovered from his own teaching experiences and the instructors he works with at Montclair State University. He will share best practice examples and then open the discussion for questions.

Date: May 3, 2011
Time: 8 a.m. to 9:15 (CST)
Title: Tools to create engaging and experiential learning in Second Life
Speaker: Cheryl Davis, Technology Consultant, Hazelwood MO School District and Instructor, Fontbonne University
Cheryl is an advocate for using Second Life in both higher education and middle/high school levels. She teaches several graduate-level courses at Fontbonne University in St. Louis, MO about digital and social technologies in the Master of Science in Computer Education Program. These include several courses on how to utilize Second Life for teaching and learning. She is also a Curriculum/Technology Consultant for the Hazelwood School District in Florissant, MO.

Description: Cheryl will discuss and show how she uses Second Life in her classes to create engaging and experiential learning. She will also provide a tour and demonstration of at least 10 practical educational tools available in Second Life. Most are free and will be offered to session attendees. Cheryl will also discuss the use of a few free simple scripts that can be modified to create simple games and activities in Second Life.

Explore Second Life with the Roadside Philosopher Pamala Clift

UW-System faculty and instructional staff are invited to participate in free Second Life “in-world” workshops with the Roadside Philosopher Pamala Clift (aka Patricia Murphy, Rockcliffe University Consortium, in real-life). Pamala, a researcher and autodidactic observer of psychology and anthropological interactions, will lead three virtual sessions dedicated to the Second Life learning experience. With thousands of hours invested in virtual worlds, along with the input of her international group known as “The Roadside Philosophers,” she has examined the impact of the virtual world on learning and perception.

The sessions are funded by the UW- System Learning Technology Development Council Curricular Redesign Grant awarded to UW-Whitewater to explore the educational advantages offered in the virtual world of Second Life for teaching and learning. UW-Whitewater faculty and staff members working on the  grant project are using  a learning community model to explore and experience how the virtual world can enhance teaching and learning.

You may participate in one, two or all three of the following sessions. To register, sign up at: http://geturl.uww.edu/0s5

A Second Life account and an avatar are required to participate. SLURL location and other participation information will be e-mailed to those who register.

Monday, Oct. 18, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Engagement Level of the Virtual Environment

Pamala Clift will present the need for understanding current educational point-in-time and target market’s perceptions. She will elaborate on the traditional mindset conversion over to digital with all of its difficulties and enhancements. A focus will be on methods for dealing with different learning styles in order to encourage interactions that aid in true memory retention. She’ll lead a group discussion on differences in perception and how that may influence acceptance of Second Life as a learning tool.

Monday, Nov. 8, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Conducting Group Facilitation

In this nuts and bolts session, Pamala Clift will share what she has learned about methods for circumventing the lack of non-verbal cues to get understanding and participation. Topics include how to conduct a class, what to expect and how to maintain a measure of control when in reality you do not have face-to-face contact with the students. This is a “what to do and not to do” class with as many of the practicalities and tips and tools for best practices.

Monday, Nov. 22, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
State of Being Psychology and Relationships within a Virtual World

This presentation will focus on team building, personal relationships and perspectives. The goal is to prepare instructors for proper social media conduct within the Second Life environment. Topics will include: (1) What to be aware of and how to handle the glitches that might cause harmful reactions, and (2) Turning the social media component into a motivation factor for engagement in virtual world education.

FREE Elluminate Demos

ICS is hosting free one-hour demos to introduce you to the features and uses of Elluminate Live!. You can participate from your desktop using Elluminate with just your Internet connection and Internet audio — no phone conference is necessary. Registration is required and seats are limited, so register early to secure your place.

Please go to http://www.uwex.edu/ics/elluminate/demo/index.cfm to register for an upcoming demo.

ePortfolios and Clickers Prove Promising at UW-Colleges

Here is what is happening at the UW Colleges:

Six UW Colleges academic departments are participating in the ePortfolio Pilot.  Faculty who are on the tenure track will be building their dossier in D2L using Desire2Learn’s ePortfolio.  To get this project started, we are providing a demo site in D2L where I am building my promotion portfolio as an example.  Next we will be creating a Captivate or Camtasia video with narration, for the faculty to watch before beginning their work. Each department has an ePortfolio site in D2L where the faculty will build their ePortfolio.  They have until November (for folks in their 3rd year) or January, 2010, (all others) depending on where they are on the track. We have decided to not allow them to create tags, we are going to be building a tag library, so it is consistent. The department chairs are providing the terminology to use for the tags.  In the fall we will be training the review committee members, from both the campuses and departments, campus Deans, and the Provost, and his PA,  on how to access, export (if necessary), and review the ePortfolios.  The faculty themselves will be responsible for making sure the campus and departmental committee members have the necessary access to their ePortfolio by the due date.  Finally, there will be online evaluations for the faculty, the review committees and the Provost and Deans to complete once the pilot is near its end. Support for this project will be provide through our Service Center. Note that all training will be provided on a website, instead of using WisLine Web to save money and to make the training for this project as convenient as possible.  We are hoping it is successful and that we can add merit, promotion, and post-tenure review to the ePortfolio system in the future AND have all departments and campuses involved.

During this past year we piloted clickers on 5 campuses, and based on the success of the pilot and interest from other campuses, we were able to use year-end money to purchase a clicker kit for the other 13 campuses to begin to build interest among their faculty. Training will be provided using Camtasia, Captivate or iMovie videos.

Of course we have several other projects going on, but these two are new and exciting!

Submitted by Pat Fellows
UW-Colleges

UW-Green Bay Second Life Nursing Complex

As of May 1, the UWGB Nursing Complex Island is now available for the public. Until now, it was a private “invite-only” region as we worked on the initial development and construction.  While the various projects and buildings are not yet complete, progress has been tremendous.  Some of our Nursing staff have become very savvy with Second Life as they have been actively exploring other regions, experimenting with audio conferencing in Second Life, decorating offices and other spaces, and getting used to the settings and controls of the interface. 

The Nursing Complex region includes a replica of Mary Ann Cofrin (MAC) Hall, complete with classrooms, offices, furniture, and textures that were created from still images of the real MAC hall. Our region also has representations of other notable features from the GB campus like the arboretum and Lambeau cottage as well as some structures that take advantage of the creative freedom afforded by a virtual environment e.g., a custom-built amphitheater with a large display screen.

Two of our Learning Technology Center Students, Kyle MacDonald and Julie Harvey have been involved in the development of a poverty simulation with one of our Social Work/Nursing instructors, Christine Vandenhouten.  The simulation involves very innovative use of Second Life scripting language in order to assign avatars to different families and keep track of their finances and health.  The poverty simulation includes many buildings including a police station, grocery store, and others.

The initiative is supported with a WI-TECNE grant and the involvement of the UWGB Nursing department in conjunction with the Learning Technology Center. We have learned much about virtual island management, group settings, hardware settings, 3D design, and even a new scripting language. There are plans to use our Second Life region for course activities in Fall 2009 (and perhaps sooner) by our Nursing Department.  Eventually, we will have a virtual nursing lab and other health-related items, and other GB faculty and staff have expressed some interest in future possibilities.  We look forward to seeing instructional activity in our Second Life region.  Feel free to stop by the island and look around. SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/UWGB%20Nursing%20Complex/93/107/35  I’ll give you a tour if I’m in world.

 

Submitted by:

Leif Nelson (SL name: Alf Alter)
Learning Technology Center
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
nelsonl@uwgb.edu

 

EPortfolio Initiative Moving Forward

E-portfolio has been a topic of discussion and pilot projects in various segments of the UW campuses for a number of years. Different products fit different needs of target audience. A current development is a product offered by D2L. While this is a new product in the market, it has some potential to fit general audience needs, especially it can be integrated with our current course management system which is widely used on UW campuses.

Through the summer, UWSP has taken a lead in negotiating a pilot agreement with D2L and UWS. We are at the stage where Letters of Intent can be signed soon. Interested campuses should contact Lorna Wong for more details.

A webcast demo on the product features is scheduled for Friday, Oct 24, 10am – noon. It is open to all interested faculty and instructional design support personnel. Please contact your LTC representative for details on participation of this demo and express your interest in the pilot program.

Lorna