EDUCATION BLOG

I never get tired of attending Society for Photographic Education conferences. I get to see and catch up with so many old friends and colleagues, in addition to listening to some great speakers in the field of photography and photo-education. This year’s conference is especially special to me because I have my daughter Andei with me. She’s soaking up the information and enjoying the various workshops, seminars, vendors and just being out of school for a few days. I like having her with me as well – I’m going to blink and she will be off to college.

A. D Coleman Speaking About His Experiences Teaching For Vasa Project

I just finished co-presenting a session with Roberto Muffoletto and A.D. Coleman on the Vasa Project. We shared what was going on with Vasa, the unique challenges to teaching art and photography in the online environment and some of our insights and experiences about migrating our art and photography courses to online delivery.

The tools and applications for delivering (teaching) our course content have become so incredibly sophisticated and powerful that there is almost no subject that can’t be taught online or at least as a hybrid course.

I’ve been checking in to my courses from the coffee shop in the lobby. I hate paying for internet access BUT you do what you have to do when you conduct 80% of your business on the internet.

The Vasa Project is beginning to take off and hopefully the connections we are making here at SPE will help us continue to grow as an alternative teaching / learning / international online workshop. It’s already starting to take on a life of its own in less than one year.

The Three of Us After the Presentation - A Bit Blurry

Click Here to Download my entire presentation from the conference. (Scroll Down)

Vasa SPE-presentation

It seems that the location awareness app Foursquare, which makes a game out of visiting venues, has been gaining a widening user base as of late. Users gain points and badges for visiting places and exploring the world around them. But this year has seen location awareness moving from a realm of fun novelty into one of practical convenience. It’s only natural to explore how to use this for higher ed.

Earlier this year Harvard teamed up with Foursquare, creating a campus-specific version of the game. Harvard adopted the same concept of checking in to locations, but focused only on the school, its immediate surroundings, and information relating directly to those places.

So what?

Initially, this concept is being used to stimulate more interaction—students would be able to communicate with one another and with professors based on specific buildings or classrooms. A system in place that encourages students to go and explore parts of their school via their smartphones? Brilliant. Harvard students can now spread information and share to-do lists and tips amongst one another getting—over your collegiate sea legs may become a thing of the past.

The best stores and buildings will become more popular, and Harvard will have a built-in real-time evolving directory of things that they should look into improving. Crowd-sourcing this type of information is good for everyone. And the fact that Foursquare links up to Twitter and Facebook make the app that much more appealing to those who are hesitant to jump on yet another social media fad.

I can be the mayor?

Yes you can. Foursquare users who check-in at a particular location more than anyone else get the special classification of becoming that venue’s mayor. The title is mostly for bragging rights, but the prospect of using these virtual mayorships for promotional good is very high. Nearby businesses or on-campus events could reward frequent visitors with any number of goodies, just flash that mayor crown on your phone and the prize is yours. Savvy marketers will see how this aspect of the game has huge potential to promote more interaction between an academic institution and its patrons. (And yes, I realize that that is a picture of a king, but Foursquare uses a crown to graphically denote mayorships, so allow me to extend the metaphor).

Not just Ivy

Harvard’s not the only school rushing into the Foursquare foray. UNC  Charlotte has also recently experimented with location-awareness technology. As a matter of fact, that school became the first to offer promotions via Foursquare back in December.

Harvard and that other school

The add-on advantage

Foursquare is making their API available to developers, meaning that third party apps are being created to extend the kinds of data that is being collected, creating new ways that we can analyze our habits. With this kind of data, things as simple as determining the most popular locations quickly and accurately can be achieved. But think about the possible extensions of this idea: connecting people and information based on where you go and what you like, essentially creating a crowd-sourced database highlighting relevant aspects of a particular geographic location. And since this data is linked to the location itself and can be accessed via the location function of a mobile phone, all of this information is coming to the user without the aid of a search box—only the relevant information would be shown to the user based on their particular location. Tourists, travelers, or even newbies to an unfamiliar part of tiwn can all benefit from this kind of rich information transfer.

The ITaP Distance Education Incentive Awards Program awards $30,000 in funds to qualified distance education courses. This year, ten Purdue faculty members received an award of $3000 each for developing or enhancing their distance education courses.

To be eligible for this award, each of the following faculty members attended a two day workshop, consulted with ITaP staff and developed a distance education course.  ITaP’s instructional technology staff reviewed and ranked submitted courses based on the course design, interaction/collaboration, assessment, and learner support:

•    Douglas Baumann and Tilman Achberger, STAT 598E — Introduction to Experimental Design
•    William Crum, CS 159 — Programming Applications for Engineers
•    Luciana C. de Oliveira, EDCI 591 — English Language Development
•    Nadine Dolby, EDCI 591 — Global Perspective in the Classroom
•    Teresa Doughty, EDPS 665 — Collaboration and Transition Practices in Special Education
•    Julia Kalish, IT 342 — Introduction to Statistical Quality
•    Eric Kukula, IT 332 — Purchasing, Inventory and Warehouse Management
•    Timothy Newby, EDCI 270 — Introduction to Educational Technology and Computing
•    Silvia Oliveira, SPAN 235 — Great Latin American Books
•    Jennifer Richardson, EDCI 566 — Educational Applications of Hypermedia

Due to budget restraints, ITaP has suspended the Distance Education Incentive Awards program for the next school year. ITaP will still offer faculty-technology workshops over spring break.  Scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, March 16 and 17, the training is open to all Purdue University faculty members and staff who have developed, interested in developing  a distance-education course, or are interested in creating blended online activities for a traditional course.

Cooperating School Districts‘ distance learning program, New Links to New Learning, offers many videoconference opportunities to K-12 schools. One program is with the St. Louis County Library- Trial By Wire- and it was recently featured in the St. Louis Suburban Journals. The videoconferences, in which several Rockwood high schools participated in, took place at the end of February this year. To read the article, click here.

Survey in edit mode

One of the many non-teaching activities that I participate in at the College is a group that is exploring how to help developmental English students be more successful.  We are looking at whether or not integrating their English teaching with their technical classes would be of benefit.  The success rate for dev ed students is terribly low.  Even those who pass their classes very often do not continue on to college level English. 

As a member of the I-Trans group, as we’re calling it, we realized it would be helpful to have a picture of what is actually going on already at the college in terms of integration.  So I put my hand up and volunteered to create a SurveyMonkey survey to shoot out.  I need the exposure and practice before getting into this Whatcha Need project next quarter. 

It was really easy creating the survey.  I sent it out to the group for comments and revisions – which I got, and have edited it.  I’ll follow up with how I liked the response and results.

New Delhi, March 4th 2010: K.Balaji & Sabina Khan are the winners of the Vidyadeep, a national level case study competition conducted by Sikkim Manipal University – Distance Education (SMU-DE) at “EDGE”, the national forum focusing on “Emerging Directions in Global Education” today. They received a prize of Rs. 75,000 from the guest of honour Sri Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation. Today’s contest was a culmination of more than six weeks of activity and enthusiastic participation from MBA students of SMU-DE, one of the largest providers of Distance Education in India. At this prestigious forum, the six zonal winner teams presented their solutions of a pre-distributed case, to distinguished academicians and marketing specialists from across industries. The first runner up team – Ajay Maheshwari & Nishchint Gogia took home Rs. 50,000 & the second runner up team – Tasaduq Bhat & Pallavi Singh won Rs. 25,000. The other teams took home a consolation prize of Rs. 10,000. As part of the Vidyadeep scholarship programme, the Vidyadeep annual case study contest “a pioneering initiative” was launched specifically for MBA students of SMU-DE, thus providing them a platform to showcase their superior problem solving skills and decision making abilities in a business environment. Over 250 teams from across the country participated. SMU-DE in December 2009, in an effort to recognise and reward meritorious and deserving students and help them in their quest for quality higher education, launched Vidyadeep a Nationwide Scholarship programme for 1500 meritorious and deserving students of SMU-DE programs across India. Out of these 1500 scholarships, 500 scholarships are earmarked for students from the North East alone. This scholarship is a ‘first-of-its-kind pioneering initiative’ in the field of distance education in the country! About SMU & SMU-DE Sikkim Manipal University is a unique public-private initiative between the Govt. of Sikkim and Manipal Education. SMU, a state University, is recognized by the UGC, Ministry of HRD and is a member of the Associations of Indian Universities. The Distance Education Council has granted recognition to all Distance Education programs offered under the aegis of SMU (Sikkim Manipal University). The SMU Directorate of Distance Education is ISO 9001:2000 certified. Sikkim Manipal University – Directorate of Distance Education (SMU-DE) is amongst the largest distance education providers in India and offers Post Graduate, Degree and Diploma programs across 10 disciplines. The SMU DDE was established in 2001 by the Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences as part of its efforts to bring education to the masses to fulfill the growing demand for professionals and individuals who do not have the luxury of time to join regular, full-time courses. The programs offered by SMU are recognized by the Distance Education Council of the Government of India. As a part of its continuous efforts to improve pedagogy and instructional system in distance learning, Manipal has recently introduced EduNXT, the next-generation interactive learning system. Affordable and easy to use, EduNXT enables a collaborative and interactive environment for learning thus shifting the Education paradigm from being ‘faculty-centric’ to a ‘learner-centric’, thus making quality education available to all, at the convenience of their own time and location. For more details please log on to www.smude.edu.in

Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are characterized by poor attention and distractibility and/or hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. This definitely sounds like what business people suffer from when we attempt to accomplish our daily missions. It seems anything and everything occurs and comes to mind when we settle down and begin our day. At that very moment the world is filled with crisis and we must consider what should be done. Our attention is drawn away form our goals and agendas and we run to the farthest extent  of our minds.

Business people don’t necessarily have this condition but many times we feel as if we do. There are times when we become distracted so easily we feel there must be something wrong with us. We assume “normal” entrepreneurs always get things accomplished because of the results and success they have. This makes us feel like failures and we must be inferior or we would also be prosperous. We want to change but no answer we find gives the relief we desire often leaving us hopeless and helpless.

This disorder is treatable and can be greatly reduced by an exercise called FOCUS. Everyone experiences these times and it is can be a constant enemy until we learn how to combat it. There have been many statements and suggestions made about overcoming this problem and many are helpful. The only way to know what works for you is attempting them to see if they are advantageous. Some I have tried and achieved success with may seem simple but if it works, it works.

One example is working in one (1) hour intervals with a break between each. Purchase a timer that counts down to zero instead of up from zero. Place fifty (50) minutes on it and start it when you begin a task. Don’t stop your task until the timer goes off, no matter how important things are that come to mind DON’T STOP. At the end of the time take a ten (10) minute break; get some fresh air, a drink of water and a walk or some exercise. When you return, whether to finish the first task or start another, your mind will be clear and refreshed, reset you timer and begin again. It gives a new start to things and permits the creativity to flow freely.

Another thing that is helpful is to clear your desk or work area. If you don’t readily see things to distract you they are less likely to cross your mind, anything can cause your “TO DO LIST” to divert your attention.  Everything in our lives need accomplished but some are more important and can’t wait. Prioritizing is an important part of planning the usage of your time.

Ignoring the problem of distractions may cause you to lose everything. By not dealing with the things that cause us failure to achieve, we won’t achieve. There is no magic formula or means to stop attention disorders except to deal with them directly and swiftly. When anything distracts you from doing what needs done, note it and remove it. Then the next time be sure it isn’t a factor before you begin. Everyone’s items of distraction are different and must be acted upon for you.

Business ADD/ADHD is not a disease but a part of living, which we must deal with in a concentrated manner. It won’t just go away, it has to be monitored and corrected with diligence to prevent its destructiveness from destroying us. Take the suggestions you receive and apply them to your situation. Focus will grow but it must be cultivated.

High school students in a rural Texas district have started using videoconferencing to learn and teach as they reach out to the rest of the country using technology-based resources they’ve created themselves. Stamford High School, located in rural Stamford, TX, may be small in size (averaging 50 students per grade), but it’s big on technology. Using tools like videoconferencing, the students are able to experience the United States far beyond the confines of the cotton-growing region in which they reside. But the experience isn’t merely one way; at Stamford HS, the students also find themselves in the role of teacher as they bring their own part of the world and their own unique knowledge to others. Link