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…almost everything you need to know to be part of the MIIS employee community.

Archive for category Teaching and Learning Collaborative

It Takes a Village…

Jun 25

Posted by Amy McGill in Teaching and Learning Collaborative, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

… or, in this case, a campus, to build a web site.

You have seen (and hopefully commented on) some great initial designs, and now, while White Whale digests our feedback and prepares round two, the even more critical task of building content is underway.

We have a tight timeline, with initial content due by JULY 8.

The folks listed below are part of a campus-wide web strategy team charged with organizing content development, but we need all of you to BE THE SOLUTION by telling your piece of the MIIS story. The team members will come to you… or you can go to them!… to engage in the process.

STRATEGY TEAM

Kristen Byers
Lynn McDonald
Jason Warburg
Amy McGill
Leah Gowron
Alicia Brent
Patricia Szasz
Rob Horgan
Gail Lu
Ann Flower
Angie Quesenberry
Nina Dutra
Regina Garner
Linae Ishii-Devine
Bob Cole
Anne-Marie Steiger
Jen Hambleton

You don’t know how to write for the web? Don’t worry… WEB WRITERS Kristen Byers, Rebecca Walters, Chesa Lichauco will shape your content into a concise and compelling narrative.

Alumni Relations Launches New Alumni Website

Jun 4

Posted by Amy McGill in Alumni Relations, Events, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | No Comments

Campus Invited to Open House

Alumni Relations is pleased to announce the launch of the new MIIS alumni website!
Check out the new site (some areas are still under construction) at http://alumni.miis.edu and please remember to pass the site address along to any alumni you may connect with over the summer.

To introduce the site to the campus community, please join us at the Kade Center’s TLC main area (2nd floor) on Wednesday, June 10th, from 3:30-5:00 p.m., for light refreshments and an overview of the site. It’s because of the hard work and effort of many staff that the site is complete, and we want to take a moment to thank these individuals for their support!

Faculty Research in the Spotlight

Mar 14

Posted by Bob Cole in Teaching and Learning Collaborative | 1 Comment

Spotlight 1

There’s a grassroots effort taking shape to highlight faculty voices through conversations about current professional interests and research.  The vision of the “Faculty Research Spotlight,” is create a venue for faculty to speak candidly about their field work and research beyond the classroom.  More conversation than lecture, the series, which will be recorded for podcast and hosted on the Institute’s new iTunes U site, offers faculty a unique opportunity to share their expertise with a larger audience.

The spotlight conversations will experiment with a format that will include an Opening Big Idea Pecha Kucha Talk, followed by a moderated question and answer session.  Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-cha-kcha in Japanese) is a presentation format that has gained a following recently because it places a constraint on the presenter, limiting them to twenty PowerPoint slides and only twenty seconds per slide.  The total time comes to 6 minutes and 40 seconds.  While we could just record a regular lecture, we feel that this special format would allow presenters to be creative in how they choose to frame and introduce us to their topics.

A handful of faculty have stepped up to the plate to kick the series off:

Fernando de Paolis and Bob McCleery: Development and Connectivity
March 12, 12:15 – 1:45
McCone Boardroom

Jason Scorse:  Multinationals and anti-sweatshop activism- evidence from Indonesia in the 1990s
March 17, 12:15 – 1:45
Morse room A101

Lyuba Zarsky:  Climate Resilient Development: Models for Government and Business
March 19, 12:15 – 1:45
Morse room A101

The Spotlight series is being recorded for podcast on iTunes U with assistance from the Digital Media Commons staff and participants in the Digital Media for Change workshop.

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Pizza Party Success!

Mar 5

Posted by Lynn McDonald in Achievements, Events, Innovation, News, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | No Comments

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!

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MONTEREY INSTITUTE & NPS HOST AWARD-WINNING CYBER-ACTIVIST

Feb 23

Posted by Amy McGill in Events, News, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | 1 Comment

–Founder of MideastYouth.com Harnesses Internet to Promote Human Rights–

The Monterey Institute of International Studies will host award-winning activist and writer Esra’a al Shafei beginning at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Institute’s Irvine Auditorium in the McCone Building at 499 Pierce St., Monterey.  The event is being co-sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School.

During her “Activism 3.0” presentation, Shafei will discuss her experiences as founder and executive director of Mideast Youth, and how cyber-activism can help to combat human rights abuses and foster peace.  Her accolades include the Harvard University’s 2008 Berkman Award, and her live podcasts and blogs from Gaza during the recent conflict there were featured on CNN.

This event is free and open to the public.  NOTE: Photography and videotaping will not be permitted at this event.  Audio recording is permitted.

The Podcast Army is in Training

Feb 18

Posted by Bob Cole in Achievements, Students, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | No Comments

The Teaching & Learning Collaborative in coordination with the Digital Media Commons at the Monterey Institute is training an army of podcasters.  The one unit, fifteen hour workshop titled Digital Media for Change meets Friday afternoons from 2-4pm.  Participants are exploring new communication skills with digital media with a particular focus on affecting change.  We’re reading and discussing the workshop text by Garr Reynolds, PresentationZen, and we have gathered online on a homegrown social network hosted by Ning: http://dm4change.ning.com.  Participants will be helping the Institute build our capacity to capture campus events, speakers, and other stories that distinguish our community and reflect our mission.  We’re building an army of graduate students, staff, and faculty to help us!  And yes, we like cupcakes.

As the workshop coordinator I am using this as an opportunity to experiment with alternative course management tools and blogging.  We welcome any and all who might be interested in what we are up to, so please feel free to join us on our Ning, or grab the RSS feed for the DM4change blog that is being piped into the main page for workshop updates and thoughts from yours truly.

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MIIS Staff Members to Attend WeAreMedia Workshop

Feb 3

Posted by in Admissions, Information Technology, News, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | No Comments

Next week, Kristen Byers and Rob Horgan will be attending a two-day intensive workshop on social media and non-profits sponsored by the Non-profit Technology Network in San Francisco. TLC and Recruiting have generously provided the funding for this. The conference requires that two people from an organization attend: one broader marketing staff member and one person in charge of technical implementation.

They will be keeping a blog to record their participation and implementation of a media project.

The goal of the conference is to provide participating teams with an understanding of how to craft a social media strategy and to experiment with tactical approaches. Thanks to some advice and input from Caroline Mansi, Lynn McDonald, and Bob Cole, Rob and Kristen have decided to explore the merits of using Twitter for promotion, recruitment, marketing and information sharing at MIIS. Kristen has extensive experience in new media projects and is a regular user of Twitter. Rob recently created a Twitter account for the Recruiting Department: http://www.twitter.com/miis

The workshop aims to help participants plan and effectively integrate their media project (in this case, Twitter) into their organization’s overall web communications. They hope to return to campus with some ideas for implementation.

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Webinar on Using Google Apps in Higher Education

Jan 19

Posted by Amy McGill in Information Technology, Innovation, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | 2 Comments

Several members of the staff are planning to participate in a Webinar on Google Applications on January 21 at 11 a.m. in Kade 10.  All are invited!

Moodle Gets A Makeover

Jan 13

Posted by in Achievements, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | 1 Comment

Moodle, the Institute’s eLearning site, recently received its first official makeover. Visual and functional improvements were made in order to enhance the Moodle experience. In addition, since some content currently contained within FirstClass may eventually be moved to Moodle, we hope that these improvements will encourage faculty, staff, and students to use Moodle on a regular basis.

The new features include the following:

  • Color scheme
  • Dropdown navigation menus
    As you roll over the main navigation menu, you will notice that additional links appear in the form of a dropdown menu. These links will help Moodle visitors locate other important resources.
  • Social media icons

    Moodle now serves as a portal to the MIIS website, iTunes U, Flickr, YouTube, and FirstClass. By including these links we hope to strengthen the connection between the Institute’s numerous web presences.
  • Improvements to the Course Request Form
    The revised Course Request Form now guides users through the process of requesting a new Moodle space by providing specific examples. These changes will streamline the course request process and cut down on the time it takes to create new Moodle courses.

If you have any suggestions for future Moodle renovations, please comment and let us know!

The "Un" Book Club

Jan 6

Posted by Lynn McDonald in Events, Innovation, Teaching and Learning Collaborative | 1 Comment

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!