TLC Friday Sandbox Returns

Please join the folks at the TLC for a Friday Sandbox session on the new blogging community.  The Friday Sandbox started last year as a time/space where staff could get together and play with new technologies.  All skill levels are welcome and the goal is to experiment, have fun, and learn a thing or two.  The TLC hopes to have Sandbox sessions most Fridays and are looking for suggestions for new topics/themes.

In general, the TLC is always looking to help with idea development and innovation of all kinds.  Feel free to stop by Kade – they love visitors and sometimes  even have treats!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/truckpr/2990541126/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/truckpr/2990541126/

What’s happening in Kade?

There have been many changes on campus this summer and Kade is no exception.  In the beginning of the summer, IT moved the printer, scanner and PC computers out of Kade.  Student printing is available in three locations: Pacific Lab (CF 442), Coleman library and Lab & Media Services (Morse A 101).

Kade hours will be posted at the beginning of the semester.

Kade is the exclusive hub for the Teaching and Learning Collaborative (TLC).  Staff who are a part of the TLC are:

  • Bob Cole
  • Sarah Springer
  • Kristen Byers
  • Lynn McDonald

Activities of the TLC staff:

  • Innovation: Pedagogical & organizational
  • Digital & New Media Development
  • Idea Development

We love visitors to Kade who are interested in exploring, learning and sharing.

Idea Fair

Please join us the afternoon of Thursday, April 16th for a poster session where participants in the latest pizza process will share their ideas with the larger MIIS community.

Ideas include:

  • Coopetition
  • Entrepreneurship Incubator
  • Reconnecting Alumni
  • The Feedback Loop
  • Rebranding of the MPA Program
  • OneMIIS in CS
  • MIIS Bookstore & Information Bar
  • Micro-solutions

Following the event, the community will be able to provide feedback to the groups to help them reshape and improve their ideas.

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Holland Center
Croce’s Pizza Provided!

Unbook Club Update

The unbook club met at Maha’s restaurant on March 9th to discuss our latest concept/book, The Art of Possibility.  This book really struck a chord in the group and the conversations were lively and interesting.

The big idea of the book is to change your outlook to create opportunities.  The Zanders use stories to emphasize their concepts and illustrate that we can be the solution.  Concepts such as giving yourself or others an A, making a contribution, tell the we story, its all invented and living your passion are given life in this book along with ways in which you can incorporate them into your life.  One concept from the book, rule number six, made an impression.  What’s rule number six?  Don’t take yourself so seriously.  What are the other rules?  There are no other rules.

The unbook club group felt like they had only scratched the surface in analyzing this book and decided to keep reading it and discussing it at our next meeting, April 6th.  The group will be meeting in Kade at noon – everyone is welcome!

The Art of Possibility

Innovation Conversations – Every Tuesday at noon in Kade

Starting on March 17th, the pizza process will be hosting innovation conversations every Tuesday at noon in Kade 20 until the Idea Fair on April 16th.  The conversations will be an opportunity for pizza groups and innovators to develop their ideas with the help of some special guest participants.

Tuesday, March 17th – Lessons Learned from Last Year

Tuesday, March 24th – Project Logic/Start-up Tips

Tuesday, March 31st – Budgeting & Funding

Tuesday, April 7th – Branding & Marketing

Join us to learn more about how to shape the Institute and have a bit of fun while we’re doing it.  For more information and to RSVP, visit the Pizza Process Social Network or contact Lynn McDonald

Pizza Party Success!

The Pizza Innovation Process is off to a good start. 47 faculty, staff & students enjoyed some pizza and brainstormed ideas to help shape MIIS. To get involved, join the Pizza Process Social Network.

The party started with a small group icebreaker activity where teams created pizzas with a topping for each member and a name that described the whole pizza.  The pizza process was then introduced followed by great conversations about the definition of innovation, barriers and drivers to innovation, and some tips for success in the process.  The party ended with pizza for all and ideas shared with the group.

If you couldn’t make the party, you’re not out of the process!  Interested innovators can join our social network and form a pizza group.  To “officially” register your group, set up an appointment with Lynn McDonald.  Groups should be diverse, passionate and fun to work towards finding solutions and making a better MIIS.  Ideas will be shared with the entire community on April 16th at the Idea Fair.

Last years pizza process produced the DMC, CNS Second Life and Delcats along with some good ideas that just didn’t stick.  Innovation is a risk, but also an invaluable learning experience with idea sharing and organizational development.  Groups this year will be working on building community, connecting with alumni, understanding and incorporating competition, building a knowledge base and so much more!

For more information, contact Lynn McDonald at lynn.mcdonald@miis.edu or ext. 4633.  Join us for this pizza journey!

Pizza Process 2009

It’s back!  The process that brought us the Digital Media Commons, CNS Second Life and DELCAT has resurfaced.  It’s back with the hope of finding innovative ideas to help shape the institute.  The kickoff event will be an innovation pizza party on March 3rd, 12 – 2 PM in CF 434.  Please RSVP.

People always ask me “can we really keep creating new programs?” to which I reply that innovation does not always mean invention.  We’re looking for new perspectives to solve old problems and keep the institute moving forward.  Nike innovated the running sneaker not because it invented the shoe but because it made us think of sneakers in a whole new way.  Apple’s iphone is innovative because it redefined what a phone could do.

We’re looking to form diverse groups, give them pizza, and see what amazing ideas unfold.  The goals of the kickoff event will be to clarify the process, understand innovation and brainstorm possible ideas.  You don’t have to have an idea to be part of this process!  We hope to inspire groups to tackle known problems at the institute to find collective solutions.

Join us on March 3rd to start this innovation journey.  If you can’t make it on the 3rd, stay tuned for updates and contact Lynn McDonald if you want to get involved or start a group.

More Information

RSVP for March 3rd

The “Un” Book Club

Come join the new MIIS “Un” book club!

In an effort to continue the dialog started in the engaging in change workshop, a new “un” book club has organically formed through the chatter of yammer.  The group has picked Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell as the first book to discuss.

So why is it an “un” book club?

While books are a great way to learn, they are in no way shape or form the only way to grasp a concept.  This book club goes beyond the book and encourages everyone to use their own preferred medium to understand the ideas.  Anything goes – video, podcasts, books, websites – just come ready to have a discussion about the main concepts presented in the book.  Heck, you could even read a different book!

I’m in – how do I join!

We’re trying to schedule our first lunchtime meeting next week.  Fill out your available times on our poll and Lynn McDonald will follow up with a personal email with the time and location.  At this meeting we’ll discuss how we want to continue – figure out a good group name, meeting or not meeting schedule, food norms, and our main objective.  If you can’t make our first meeting, updates will be posted on yammer.

See you next week!

Why Wii?

The unveiling of the Wii in the Digital Media Commons last Friday added a dimension of hilarity, energy, and friendly competition to a successful Institutional Advancement and TLC sponsored event that was designed to blend learning with play and build community among MIIS staff.

It also raised questions for some: why are we buying toys when we need (you fill in the blank)…?

Here are some things to think about:

(1) Generally,  “play” unleashes creativity and enhances learning. To explore this idea, check out Tim Brown’s TED Talk.

(2) Specifically, the Wii controller makes possible a particular kind of activity that invokes our kinesthetic learning ability.  There is a great deal of interest in using this new tool to enhance learning in virtual spaces.  For example:

Lane Kuhlman, a graduate student at Ohio State, is studying gesture based interaction and its role in educational multimedia.  This kind of research could have major implications for the design of simulations for intercultural communication, negotiation, or conflict resolution.

MIT Research Fellow David Stone was featured in a recent Wired article for his work building Wiimote-controlled simulations in Second Life. To the already information-rich experiences available in this virtual world, one can now add the ability to take your hands off the keyboard and speak, gesture, and move naturally through virtual environments ranging from your favorite international city to an exhibition of the latest green building technologies.

The Educause Learning Initiative is encouraging its members to investigate the potential of the Wii. See their white paper, “7 Things You Should Know about Wii.”

Finally, in another TED talk, Johnny Lee demonstrates how he turned $40 Wii controllers into a multitouch display, and into a close approximation of a $2000 interactive whiteboard, increasing access to these technologies for schools and organizations with limited resources.

(3) We would like for MIIS be at the forefront of thinking about how people learn and experimenting with ways to enhance the quality of our education.  Our limited resources have, in the past, caused us to bypass many of the technologies that our peer institutions were adopting at great cost.  Now we are in a position of competitive advantage, in that we can leapfrog some of the less versatile earlier tools for learning, and focus on tools and strategies that match our pedagogical commitment through Monterey Way 2.0 to immersive learning, high performance thinking, and open architecture.

Agree? Disagree?  Join the conversation with your comments!

What’s all the yammering about?

Yammer?  What’s that?  Sounds like nonsense…

Yammer is a new tool that is currently being used by some staff, faculty and students to stay more connected.  It’s a website, just for folks with a miis.edu email account, that asks you to answer the question “What are you working on?”.  This is a simple and quick way to share what you’re doing, send out interesting articles/resources or ask questions of the MIIS community.  It can be compared to twitter or the status update from facebook, but just for the MIIS community.  Yammer started as an experiment initiated by the TLC and has now grown to include 56 members and 297 messages. 

Interesting…how do I sign up?

Simply go to www.yammer.com and put in your miis.edu email address.  You will be sent a confirmation email and redirected to our miis.edu yammer site. 

Then what?

Once on the site, please post messages to the community!  You can tag your messages, follow certain people or tags, and make work groups on specific topics.  You can also download yammer for your desktop so you don’t have to use it only on the web or install a yammer application for your iphone or blackberry.  It is simple to use and they provide a clear guide to help you learn the ropes.

See you on yammer! 

New Media Development Specialist Joins MIIS Staff

Please join us in welcoming Kristen Byers to the MIIS staff. Kristen will be working with TLC/DMC as a new media development specialist.  Her job is to help MIIS faculty, staff and students tell their stories using digital media. In keeping with the philosophy of TLC/DMC, her role is to work with members of the community to define a project and acquire the necessary skills and tools to achieve the desired outcomes.  She’ll be working closely with the admissions staff to help us make better use of community generated digital media in our marketing efforts.

Kristen graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in professional writing, minors in French and journalism, and specializations in editing and publishing, digital design & technical writing.  She has used her exceptional digital media and design skills in a variety of jobs involving web development, communications, marketing, and online learning.

Stop in at Kade, introduce yourself to Kristen, and bring her your project ideas!  After this week, she’ll be in her own office—Morse A105.

Permission to Be Great

This video was produced in collaboration between the Advancement office and the Digital Media Commons and presented Friday, October 24th during a tribute dinner for President Yu’s leadership in helping to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and appreciation.

[youtube 2yeGo_Zeids]

Website for Structural Change

In an effort to increase communication, collaboration and transparency, we have created a website to hold all the resources for the structural change and planning process here at MIIS.  The website includes the videos made by the students, the memos to the community, the strategic planning process (including the student group findings in 2006), Monterey Way 2.0, a schedule for upcoming meetings/events, and an FAQ section.

There is also an area for “items to be considered”, which will continue to grow as working groups identify key areas to focus on in the planning process and these areas will be tracked for progress.

This website is a work in progress and can only continue to grow with your help.  Please coordinate any work groups  with Lynn McDonald (lynn.mcdonald@miis.edu or ext. 4633) so she can continue to best represent this process online and keep the communication lines open.

This is an opportunity for real exciting change – let’s keep communication open and work together on this large task for the upcoming year!

http://sites.google.com/site/montereyinstituteorg/

run DMC

Digital Media Commons logo The Digital Media Commons, or “DMC” in campus-speak, was one of fifteen pizza groups established last Fall during the first innovations campaign last year.  The DMC is now a part of the Teaching & Learning Collaborative with an emphasis on innovation and project development supporting academic excellence on campus.

Our Mission

The mission of the DMC is to connect the Monterey Institute with the world through digital media by creating opportunities for students, faculty and staff to develop, produce and distribute digital media projects in order to document achievements, strengthen professional skills, and raise the Institute’s visibility.

Since April, development of the Digital Media Commons has continued to move forward, and activities here have been greatly bolstered with funding and support from the Academic Excellence initiative.

What the DMC does

DEVELOPMENT: We support your terrific ideas by first having a conversation with you about what you would like to create and about the media project cycle.

PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: We offer scheduled group and individual just-in-time training and we point you to resources to help you through the project cycle.

DISTRIBUTION: We help you think about how to get your message out where you want it to go: streaming live, recorded for podcast, or burned to disc.

Our Location

As a result of collaborative discussions with ITS and Lab & Media Services, the DMC now has a physical presence in the upstairs foyer of the Kade Building (formerly a student work area).

Contact Us

Have an idea you want to develop that includes digital video, audio, or images?  E-MAIL to make an appointment: [dmc at miis.edu].

New Equipment

new iMacsSix 20” iMac computers have been purchased with Kade Foundation grant funds for digital media production.  These computers were installed in the new DMC space in August and will be a base for project development and production.  They each have 500 GBs of storage, 2GB of RAM and support digital video, photo, and audio editing.  They purposely do not run Microsoft Office, First Class e-mail or Outlook.  Additional Academic Excellence funding has also been allocated for equipment and software resources.  We are currently researching the purchase of a couple of digital audio recorders, a digital camera, a large plasma monitor for projection during trainings, a wireless microphone set-up, and a few others.

Awesome New Staff!
Academic Excellence funds have also enabled us to hire a fantastic team of graduate assistants working as  “Digital Media Developers,” and “Instructional Design Assistants.”  Together this team will greatly extend the reach of the DMC and the TLC this year!

Jeremy Robinson, DMC Manager, TFL Spanish ‘09

Digital Media Developers
Pilar Chaves, IEP ‘10
Sai Fernandez, IPS ‘09
Luis Gain, IPS ‘10
Ryan Gonzalez, IPS ‘10
DeVan Hankerson, ITP ‘10

Instructional Design Assistants
Anna Bellerson, TFL German ’10
Edie Furniss, TFL Russian ’10

Stay tuned for more news from the DMC!