Kindle vs. iPad - One User's View

From TechEdge for the California Community Colleges.

New Survey - K12 Students Use Technology to Cheat, and Don't Find It a Big Deal

An article in eSchool News suggests that parents may not know what's going on. Should we collect all cellphones before any exam in a f2f classroom?

Education by phone

Just noticed that Stanford has an iPhone app (iStanford) and that MIT has a Web site formatted for mobile devices. Students can search for classes, add and drop, and more. Smartphones double as reading devices and some can even access Blackboard.

While I suspect the iPhone won't replace the traditional classroom, it's worth thinking about as an "access extender." but is even that kind of thinking too narrow?

(BTW, this post was Sent from an iPhone.)

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Chris and Dave Blogging from Blackboard World

Our intrepid Blackboard Certified Trainers, Chris Palmarini and Dave Stephens, are attending in the Blackboard World conference in Las Vegas. They're gathering the latest news about our Learning Management System (Blackboard Campus Edition) as well as the best tips and techniques.

They've set up a Blackboard@Butte blog. Here's the link.

http://www.butte-tmi.net/blackboard/

Read and subscribe!

Early Bird Special *Ends* April 15 for Online Teaching Conference June 5-6. Register Now!

Yes, work and play do mix...even on a budget! The June 5th & 6th Online Teaching Conference in Oceanside is only $100, if you register by April 15. Plus fantastic hotel options are available for you and your family.

Join us June 5th and 6th at MiraCosta College in beautiful Oceanside, California where you'll be motivated and inspired by our outstanding keynote speakers and educational sessions. www.cccone.org/08Conference/

Hear Dr. Linda Thor, President of Rio Salado College, share possibilities and innovative solutions for the digital age. Plus hear Jim Gaston with “Announcing My Academic Plan” and the return of Pat James Hanz and Dan Barnett with “DE Tales from the Ancient Geeks.”

Whether you're a newbie or an old pro, staff, faculty, or administrator:

• Learn new tricks of the trade
• Improve your overall approach to online education
• Catch up on new technologies
• Learn and collaborate with leaders in online education at all levels (K-20)

Sessions Include:

• Basic Skills
• Accessibility
• Showcase Sessions
• Online Teaching Effective Practices
• Student and Faculty Support Services
• Hot Topics

Participate your way with prices to meet your budget:

• Educators: $100, if you register by midnight April 15. $150 after.
• Commercial attendees: $250.
• Online attendance is free, however, only 25% of the conference can be made available online.
• Group discounts are available.

The Conference is sponsored by the educational technology projects of the California Community College's Chancellor's Office. Get more information, register today and enjoy Oceanside in June! www.cccone.org/08Conference/

Check Your Password Strength

The following link, from Microsoft, provides a free, quick and easy way to check your passwords for strength:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Do You Hold Your Breath While Writing Email?

Recently Huffington Post blogger Linda Stone wrote about what she calls "email apnea" (click on the link for the post) defined as holding one's breath while reading and responding to email.

She writes:

As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I'll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I've stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I'm holding my breath.

And here's the deal. You're probably holding your breath, too.

Are you?

Get an Impartial Critique of Your Online Course! (Deadline Feb. 15)

If you teach online, the Blackboard Greenhouse Exemplary Course awards program invites you to submit your course for consideration. Whether you win or not, you'll receive a comprehensive evaluation by one or two anonymous judges from other colleges. Many instructors find the feedback to be invaluable in improving their courses.

All you have to do is fill out the self-evaluation form and submit it. Details are available here. You can also view previous winners here. Last year's exemplary courses include an online public speaking course and an allied health course.

The deadline for applications has been extended to Feb. 15, 2008.

Here's more about the program from director Adrian Alleyne:

When visiting user groups and talking with other groups in the Blackboard community, I meet a lot of faculty members. As we talk, often our conversation revolves around their online courses.

I'll ask, "How do you know if your online course is working?"

Often, if they don't say "Well, 'cause I can log in," they mention that, as faculty members, they receive little to no feedback on what's working and what needs improvement in their online courses.

That's one of the reasons we created the Blackboard Greenhouse Exemplary Course Program -- to provide faculty members with examples of exemplary courses and, more importantly, to give them detailed peer feedback on their courses.

We want more faculty members to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to receive detailed, expert reviews of their courses and the chance to have their courses showcased for thousands of peers.

To help facilitate increased participation in the program, we’ve extended the deadline for the Blackboard Greenhouse Exemplary Course Program to February 15, 2008.

A bit more about the program itself:

• The Blackboard Greenhouse Exemplary Course program is designed to help faculty members use e-Learning technology more effectively, by sharing best practices in effective online course design.
• Each course submitted to the program receives detailed peer review and feedback.
• The creators of courses deemed exemplary will be awarded a free trip to BbWorld '08 in Las Vegas (see official rules for details), so they can share their courses and best practices with the community and accept their ECP Award.

Punctuation & Grammar Tip Sheets Online!

The Butte College Center for Academic Success (CAS) has put almost a hundred one-page tip sheets online. The simple guides, filled with examples, deal with punctuation, the parts of speech, topic sentences, and much more.

If you teach online or use Blackboard to enhance a face-to-face course, you can point students to these helpful pages or give out the URL in class.

Since page contains frames, individual tip sheets don't have their own address. But they are numbered, and you might send students the URL and the particular numbered tip sheets you're assigning.

Click here for the tip sheets!

Lunch 'n Learn Desktop Seminars - Sign Up Now!

Make your lunch hour productive with Lunch 'n Learn Desktop Seminars. Not only will you be able to make better use of technology, but you can polish up your resume with new skills. These seminars are just one hour long, starting at 12 noon, Pacific time and are delivered via a web browser and phone line (tell me more).

Registration for each seminar closes the day before, so choose as many topics as you wish, register, and mark your calendar. These seminars are a service of @ONE, funded by the Chancellor's Office.

You'll find seminars on MySpace, blogging (given by Dan Barnett), Adobe PDF, Excel, online tutoring, PowerPoint, Photoshop, and more.

Click here for the link to register!

Important note! @ONE also offers 4-week online courses, which cost $50, but they are NOT part of our campus Blackboard training program (which pays a stipend to faculty participants). To sign up for our own Blackboard training, click here!