Monday, June 04, 2007

DoIT's June Events

Event 1: Engaging Students (sponsored by Innovate: Journal of Online Education

Join seminar leaders Stephen Soreff and Stan Freeda from New Hampshire Department of Education as they discuss why teaching means engaging students in the classroom and online. Small group work, stimulating problems, and humor are important engagement tools. Online engagement is particularly challenging. Ice-breakers, captivating websites, videos, audio links, pictures, clever power points, and forums help instructors gain and keep online student involvement. All participants are invited to share their experiences and tips of how they engage students to enhance learning.

Event 2: To Ensure Student Success in Online Courses: Orient Students to Integrate Learning and Study Strategies (sponsored by Innovate: Journal of Online Education)

Join seminar leaders Frank Christ, Professor Emeritus, California State University at Long Beach and Ray Ganey, Professor, Western International University as they lead a discussion on designing online courses and setting up campus, district, or state-wide help sites. Ganey will focus on orienting prospective and new students to online learning. Christ will focus on learning and study strategies for online courses.

Event 3: Making ESL Accessible Online (sponsored by the Instructional Technology Council)

  • Date: June 19, 2007
  • Time: 1:00-2:00PM
  • Location: Your computer and telephone
  • Cost: $25.00
  • Registration: contact Sarah Stark, DoIT, at 847.925.6805 before the event for registration and support for event cost)

Just as native-speaking students are demanding more accessibility to education via online courses, so are ESL students. These students want/need to take English courses, but their personal and/or professional lives do not always allow them that opportunity. ESL students can access courses and instructors via Blackboard and e-NOVA Centra and interact with other students asynchronously and synchronously. The synchronous interactions allow students to develop their oral/aural communication skills. Online learning not only improves the students’ measurable skills such as writing and reading comprehension, but also helps their student behaviours, such as discipline and confidence. The presenters will provide information on teaching intermediate writing and reading and advanced writing and reading to non-native speakers. They will discuss teacher and student achievements and struggles with ESL online learning, and future plans for course improvements.

Event 4: Learning Online 2.0: 20 Engaging, Interacting and Syndicating Applications (sponsored by SLOAN-C)

  • Date: June 20-June 29, 2007
  • Time: Virtual
  • Location: Your computer
  • Cost: $145.00 (contact Sarah Stark, DoIT , at 847.925.6805 before the event for a membership registration code to get this price)
  • Full time faculty: Consider applying for a Technology Grant to pay for the registration cost
  • Registration: http://www.sloan-c.org/workshop/learningonline_june07.asp

Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionizing the way in which we engage and interact with students online. Through RSS syndication, we are automating the delivery of learning objects to the students. Through Web 2.0 applications a whole host of new ways to engage and interact with students has emerged. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, interactive whiteboards, VoIP, tagging, image sharing, discussion rooms, and many more learning tools are freely available to educators. This workshop introduces and explores 20 of the most engaging and promising Web 2.0 technologies that are freely available for use in online learning. Workshop facilitators will discuss and demonstrate both the technologies and the pedagogies associated with best applying those technologies. Participants will be assisted in developing mini-projects using their choice of the applications. An emphasis will be placed on practical application and implementing working models that can be expanded by participants for immediate use in their own online learning classes. The workshop facilitators will also look to the near horizon for ways in which these and soon-to-be-released technologies will be implemented in mobile learning applications, virtual environments, and the next generation of online learning.

Event 5: Online Instructor Competencies (sponsored by the Illinois Online Network)

As we pass from the early adopter phase into acceptance by many, the number of instructors taking part in online education grows. Although very qualified in their field, many instructors do not have any additional training or experience specifically in the field of distance or online education. Find out what such training should consist of and how someone can become a proficient online educator.

posted by Sarah Stark @ 4:14 PM