An interesting article from The Journal on the emerging trend in higher education to bring more courses online.

“Experiencing a huge demand for college courses taught over the Web and not wanting to be swept aside by competitors from the commercial sector, universities are often pressuring faculty to teach courses online. Many faculty members have never taught online, and therefore wonder what they are getting themselves into. What are the differences between teaching online and teaching face-to-face? What can faculty members expect from the experience of teaching college courses on the Web?” [continued]

Read the full article

I HEART using post-it sheets in class. Matter of fact, I use Post-it notes too . . . but that’s another blog entry. Especially when I taught the same course to multiple classes, it helped me minimize the amount of writing I did. It also allows you to keep concepts ‘around’ even when you move on to another topic.

The following slideshow is from my days as a middle school math teacher.

I Heart Prezi [www.prezi.com]. Non-linear powerpoint? Are you kidding me?

Well, I love this tool. Heere’s my first public prezi-nation.

h2. Creating a Discussion Board

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From any Content Page, you can click on the Discussion Board link.

h2. Alternatively . . .

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Click on the Tools menu and access the Discussion Board.

h2. Create Forum

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You can create a new Forum (or discussion board) or select an existing one. Notice you are given statistics on the number of participants in each discussion board.

h2. Enter Forum Information

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Be sure to write a meaningful name and description of the discussion board, especially if you will have more than one.

h2. Forum Availability

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Set availablity settings.

h2. Forum Settings

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Allow anonymous posts
Allow students to remove own posts
Allow students to modify own published posts
Allow post tagging (only instructors can tag post, but students can view them)
Allow students to reply with quote (like email)
Allow file attachments
Allow students to create new threads
Subscribe – Allow students to follow each other (like Facebook or Twitter)
Allow members to rate posts
Force moderation of posts (instructor controls posts… until they are OK’d bby instructor, they are not seen by class)
Grade – Grade threads or forums . . . or don’t grade at all.

h2. Create Thread

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You can create multiple threads within a forum. A thread will usually constitute one topic/assignment.

h2. Thread Actions

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Click on the chevron (circled) to access thread options.

h2. Creating a Message

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Each thread must start with a message (call to action). This let’s the students know what to do in the thread. The thread will typically start with a question/scenario or comment then invite others to respond.

h2. Grading Discussion Board

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If you selected the GRADE option, you will also see the Grade Forum (or Grade Thread) button on the screen.

h2. Enter Grades

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You can click on the posts to view all of the entries for each student. Click grade to enter the grade.

h2. Submit Grades

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When you grade, Blackboard will generate statistics in addition to allowing you to see their entries. Click edit grade to enter final grade.

h2. Edit Grade

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If you’ve attached a rubric, you will be able to view it while grading. Otherwise, enter numeric grade and leave feedback. Grading notes are used to enter periodic comments (perhaps weekly) to remind yourself of entries the student made in the discussion board. This is helpful if the discussion board project will last for multiple weeks.

h2. View Discussion Baords Demo

This short clip (turn the volume up) covers discussion boards. The URL to share the link with students is: http://www.screencast.com/t/Yzk0NDllZGY

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I used to get really excited about PDFs. I was an early adopter in using these for any web posts back in the early 2000s. I started to investigate some new formats for using PDFs in more collaborative and interactive ways.

Here’s a service called uniflip: This is an example of uniflip using a scrapbook.

Here is a version using a tool called issuu (pictured — which has an accompanying APP for the iPhone (coming soon) and Android!):

Below is a version using Calameo