MIIS@work

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

Posts Tagged dmc

New and returning faculty – iLearn Course Management Reminders

Jan 23

Posted by Bob Cole in iLearn, work | Comments off

As we power up the Spring 2012 academic term, your friends in the ITS Help Desk and the Digital Learning Commons have some useful reminders and updates about iLearn course management services and support.

Logging In

The campus supported course management system, iLearn, is available at: http://ilearn.miis.edu.

  • iLearn user accounts are activated by logging in. Use your current Middlebury email account username (everything before @miis.edu) and password to log in.

Course Archives Policy

  • All iLearn Moodle course sites are backed up and archived for two years beyond the semester of instruction.
  • Fall 2012 courses will continue to be archived on ilearn.miis.edu.  Summer and Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 courses will be officially and archived some time in May or June 2012
  • Spring 2011 courses are archived at ay1011.ilearn.miis.edu, where “ay” stands for academic year.
  • Pre-Spring 2011 Courses continue to be archived on our old server eLearning.miis.edu

Course Rollover Requests

  • Faculty who wish to import an archived course from an archive of a previous academic term should complete the Course Rollover Request Form.  Look for the yellow call out bubble on the main iLearn page.  Requests will be processed by the ITS Help Desk.  Please allow at least 3 working days for processing.
  • Please allow at least 3 working days for processing.

Accessing Your Spring 2012 iLearn Course Shell(s)

To gain editing privileges to an iLearn course shell:

  • New faculty – be sure to Login to iLearn at http://ilearn.miis.edu to activate your profile.
  • New and Returning faculty – Email the Help Desk helpdesk@miis.edu with the course name and names of any other instructors who need access.

iLearn Help & How To

  • Schedule an iLearn Orietnation or Refresher Session: If you are new to campus or are feeling a little rusty with iLearn, contact Bob Cole [bob dot cole at miis.edu] at the Digital Learning Commons to schedule a one-on-one or small group training session.
  • Knowledge Base: Common Moodle questions and answers can be found in the Knowledge Base “KB”: http://sites.middlebury.edu/kb/tag/moodle/
  • Help Forum: Have a quick question? Post it in the iLearn User-to-User Forum on iLearn.  Your questions make the community smarter!
  • Just in Time Video Training: We have access to a great new resource called Lynda.com which includes video-based tutorials for software ranging from iMovie to Excel to Moodle.  Login with your Middlebury webmail credentials here to explore further: http://go.miis.edu/lynda

 

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Reminder: Mobile Learning Work Group Meets Tues 10/18

Oct 17

Posted by Bob Cole in Events, Mobile, work | Comments off

Bring your mobile device!  We’re meeting upstairs in Kade from 4-5pm, Tuesday, October 18.

Special Guests this month:

Mitch Winick, President of the Monterey College of Law and Elizabeth Xyr, Monterey College of Law Program Director for the iPad program will talk about the College’s all iPad program.  Learn more about the pilot program at the Monterey College of Law.

The Mobile Learning Work Group is an informal gathering of MIIS community members interested in exploring how mobile tech is changing the way that we work, teach, and learn through regular open sessions and idea sharing among MIIS faculty, staff, and students and our colleagues and peers in similar professional contexts. The Work Group plans to use the Digital Learning Commons as meeting space for an on-going conversation about mobile tools and document happenings through the DLC blog.

Mark your calendar! The group meets the third Tuesday of every month – next meeting is November 15, 2011.

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Notes from September 20th Mobile Learning Work Group

Sep 21

Posted by Bob Cole in Emerging Trends, Mobile, work | Comments off

Our third open meeting (third Tuesday of every month at 4pm) was another great conversation about how mobile technologies are influencing (or not) the way we work, teach, and learn.

Mark your calendar as our next meeting is Tuesday, October 18, at 4:00 pm.  For that meeting we have invited special guest Mitch Winnick, President and Dean of the Monterey College of Law, which recently went all iPad. Read up on their pilot program here.

In attendance this month were: Navindra Gunawardena (IPS/NPTS), Sarah Springer (DLC/CALL), Mike Garnett (ESL), Adrienne Stacy (ESL), Jennifer Grode (ESL), Gus Leonard (Special Guest from CSUMB), Christopher Hurtado (NPTS), Bob Cole (DLC), Patricia Szasz (ESL), Katie Dutcher (ESL).

Gus Leonard talks about AirSketch

We invited special guest, Gus Leonard the Language Lab Coordinator from CSUMB, to come and share with us his experience with mobile tools in language learning.  He had some interesting insights about the administration of multiple iPads and their respective “apps,” specifically mentioning issues involved in buying multiple copies of apps.  Apple does have a program to buy apps and give codes out, a system for managing licenses for apps for multiple iPads and this may be a solution for ESL at MIIS.  Gus suggested that we follow up with Apple’s regional sales representative, Dane Riley, to learn more.   Gus also suggested that administrators managing larger number of iPads (20 or more) be aware that there is special education pricing available for bulk purchase of app licenses. Not all developers are aware of this, so it’s always good to ask about discount pricing.

Gus mentioned that one of his favorite apps is AirSketch, a screen sharing app that allows the user to wirelessly project a document via IP address to another computer.  The app conveniently works with Dropbox to open files. It runs for $9.99.

When asked about the use of mobile tech for teaching at CSUMB, Gus mentioned that there are about twenty-five iPads in circulation for faculty to experiment with and for student to rent through CSUMB’s TechRent store.  Clickers and classroom texting have become popular in the sciences for on the fly surveys and polls.

He also noted that the Japanese program at CSUMB has been using a predecessor of the smartphone and tablet called the iPaq PDA.  These have been popular for learning characters, for dialogues (listening and recording). If funding can be secured the language labs will likely move to iPads, though they would hold off for the 3rd generation models which may be coming out later this year.

App Sharing in Context

The group can’t help but mix in references to apps that have really made a difference in daily work habits. Thanks to Katie we have also assembled a public spreadsheet listing apps that we have talked about.  You can review that spreadsheet and contribute to it as well.  In addition here’s a rough list of some of the ones that were mentioned:

Always popular are Apps that allow users to read and annotate PDF files including:

Our friends from the Intensive ESL program also reported experimenting with a number of different apps as part of their new student orientation activities.  These included:

  • iCard Sort as a interactive approach to breaking the ice
  • EverNote to collaborate with groups on docs…possibility of adding photos

And as conversations go this led to some ssharing of apps for brainstorming and collaborating in the cloud such as:

  • StickyBoard (a possible alternative to iCard Sort)
  • iThoughts for mind-mapping (recommended by Navindra $9.99)
  • Christopher uses MindMeister and it works on the web, too and for sharing, but others can’t edit

Lastly, there was some discussion of mobile access to websites.  Gus mentioned that CSUMB has a mobile friendly version of its website viewable at m.csumb.edu, and Middlebury recently announced its new mobile gateway available here portal.middlebury.edu.  MIIS will also has a mobile friendly version of its site  in the works!

And finally a few random notes…

  • iPad2 works better than iPad 1 with projections, but still some complications…some apps do not work
  • Patricia shared how iPads are changing music class.  She’s a member of a local choir that has also gone mobile, providing rehearsal agendas and schedules with an app called Music Stand (Free) which allows her to annotate her part and follow along with the music director electronically.  Pretty cool!
  • Mike took the prize for fun app to share with MadPad ($0.99) which allows you to record sound and video snippets to create an interactive beatbox remixer.  Check this demo video out and you’ll see why we thought this was a fun app:

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Web based video trainings from lynda.com

Sep 19

Posted by Natalie Sherman in Resources, Tools, Tutorial, work | Comments off

The Digital Learning Commons would like to share an amazing online resource named “Lynda“!   This online library of resources is an excellent site that can guide you through audio, design, video, image software.  If you are looking for extra online help working with your software lynda.com is an excellent resource.

With your MIIS email account and password, go to http://go.middlebury.edu/lynda, log-in with your MIIS webmail username and password.  Once you have edited your personal information you will have acces to a wealth of online video trainings from talented authors.

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Digital Learning Commons hosting 2 Community Engagement & Storytelling Workshops with Special Guest Barbara Ganley

Sep 14

Posted by Bob Cole in Events, work, Workshops | Comments off

The Digital Learning Commons is extremely excited to be hosting Barbara Ganley on Monday, September 26th for two unique workshops with a focus on techniques, strategies and tools (from the analog to the digital) for strengthening and developing community through storytelling.

Keep reading for more background on Barbara, workshop descriptions, and registration information.  Seating will be limited, so sign-up soon.

Barbara is Founder and Director of Community Expressions, LLC and is a former member of the writing faculty of Middlebury College, where she pioneered the integration of social media and digital storytelling in the liberal arts and service learning. In 2008, she left the College to found her consultancy dedicated to helping small communities bring traditional and new forms of storytelling to civic engagement efforts. Her expertise in using social media and storytelling to engage citizens and to foster belonging has brought her to work with small towns in the Northeast and the Rocky Mountain West as well as foundations, schools and nonprofits on local, national and international levels. Her research and artistic interests include the multimedia essay, slow-blogging and community-based storytelling. She gives talks and workshops around the world, and writes widely about storytelling, social media and lifelong learning.

Workshop #1 An Overview of Storytelling Techniques
10:00-11:30am Monday, September 26, 2011
Digital Learning Commons (2nd Floor of Kade)

Participants:  Anyone interested in using storytelling for community engagement

Description
In this short interactive introduction to storytelling techniques and tools for community engagement, we will cover storytelling approaches and their effective implementation in a range of community-building efforts, from classroom communities to inter-departmental communication.  We will explore and experience a range of storytelling approaches from the simplest, non media-needed story circle to the story interview to dispersed digital stories told through platforms such as WallWisher, Geostory and Storify.

Pre-Workshop Assignment:

  1. Send Barbara a brief email [bgblogging @ gmail dot com] stating what you hope to get out of this workshop and prior experience with community-building storytelling.
  2. Watch Community Expressions’ Storytelling for Community Planning Video (for Orton Family Foundation) http://vimeo.com/23910697

Register for this event at the bottom of this post.

Workshop #2 Strategies for Creating a Vibrant Online Community
4:00 – 5:30pm Monday, September 26, 2011
Digital Learning Commons (2nd Floor of Kade) 

Participants:  Anyone interested in the opportunities and challenges of community development

Description
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll discuss effective techniques for building online communities within the academic context: online classes, networks, and communities of practice.  We will look at the relationship of f2f interaction to online participation and play with some tools and exercises that lead to active participation, bonding and bridging within the online community and make possible a range of participation levels.

Equipment Needed: Bring your laptop if you can

Pre-Workshop Assignment: 

  1. Send Barbara a brief email [bgblogging @ gmail dot com] stating what you hope to get out of this workshop and your prior experience with online communities, including links to your own online work.

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The iPads are coming! Mobile Learning Work Group Forming this Fall

Aug 2

Posted by Bob Cole in Mobile, work | Comments off

iPad Workgroup Meeting Notes 8/2/2011 10:00 – 11:00 am, Kade 2nd Floor

Present
Bob Cole, Digital Learning Commons
Katie Dutcher, Intensive English Programs
Ann Flower, MIIS Library
Patricia Szasz, Intensive English Programs

Mission statement
The Mobile Learning Work Group will explore how mobile tech is changing the way that we work, teach, and learn through regular open sessions and idea sharing among MIIS faculty, staff, and students and our colleagues and peers in similar professional contexts.  The Work Group plans to use the Digital Learning Commons as meeting space for an on-going conversation about mobile tools and document happenings through the DLC blog.
Why?

  • Fits with the Digital Learning Commons goals of promoting professional development, innovation, and collaboration
  • Need to document use of intensive English Program’s iPads – focus on language pedagogy and innovation
  • Interest in sharing how to use new tools, learn about best apps, and discuss emerging practices
  • Shared desire to explore differing uses of iPads and mobile devices: pedagogy, research, productivity

ESL (Patricia Szasz and Katie Dutcher)

  • Need to figure out strategic ways to use for language instruction and learning
  • Logistics of use- start off with a plan- how to manage?
  • Select pilot people, figure it out for fall ES session.
  • Mike do radio show next session? Possible iPad pilot project?
  • Productivity uses for program administration

Library (Ann Flower)

  • Getting 10 in use right away as replacements for laptops used for teaching purposes
  • Web access, instructional use, e-resources, search catalog
  • Not focused on apps., more on mobility and access to Library resources

Initial Goals/Plan

  • Monthly meetings third Tuesday of each month
  • Next meeting Tuesday, Aug 16, 4pm
  • Planning in the fall
  • Bring in speakers in the fall/ spring (Oct. Internet library conference)
  • End of semester possibly do something with DLC Open House (week of Nov 28)

Agenda for Next meeting (in 2 weeks)

  • Invite Tony from ESL and other MIIS iPad and mobile afficionados
  • Re-visit Key questions and goals
  • Review ESL iPad hardware and software management issues including:
  1. Generic app account linked with P-card?
  2. Pay 10 times for app licenses?
  3. Dropbox account- all use same or each own?, use Google docs for cloud based file storage?
  4. Ask other institutions how they manage, e.g. Monterey College of Law, listservs such as NITLE and NMC
  5. Re-syncing each session
  • Share a few favorite apps
  • Set next meeting’s agenda

Things to look ahead to

  • Moodle iLearn the campus course management system is expected to be available in mobile web format this Fall
  • MIIS and Middlebury websites are expected to be available in mobile format this Fall
  • Blogging community may be hosted at Middlebury by spring 2012
  • Campus Info Fair orientation week, Wednesday, August 19, 2011 from 12-1pm in Samson courtyard
  • Sarah Springer’s tech session in TESOL/TFL orientation
  • 2012 TESOL CALL Electronic village – 6 week pre-conference

Free Mobile Apps Mentioned

  • Genius Scan– iphone scanner that uses the phone camera to photograph documents and convert to PDF
  • GoTasks– syncs your task list on your iPad or iPhone to your Google to-do list
  • Dragon Dictation– Speech to text recorder has potential use for language pronunciation practice
  • Evernote – productivity tool for creating and storing notes and web clippings

Other resources mentioned

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Fall Introductory Workshop Series Announced

Aug 24

Posted by Amy McGill in Events, schedule, work, Workshops | Comments off

The Digital Media Commons “DMC” Workshop Series for the first half of the semester has been posted and needless to say, we are quite excited. In addition to a handful of new workshops, our old classics have been updated to include currently emerging applications that will give you that savvy edge in developing your presentations, films, podcasts and papers.

For those of you unfamiliar with the DMC, we are located in the Kade Building on the second floor. We work with students, staff, and faculty offering an open learning environment with cross-platform iMacs, one-on-one and small group consultations, class visits, workshops and general assistance on academic projects and learning tools.

Stop by during our Fall semester office hours Mon-Fri 10am-6pm or Contact us for a consultation.

To kick off the Fall series, we are conducting three Bootcamp sessions for new students to introduce BannerWeb, Moodle, Zocalo, Blogs@MIIS, Exchange Mail and Google Groups. Are you overwhelmed and confused about what exactly you are supposed to do with all of those usernames and passwords? Fear not, for we are here to guide you through the digital mire.

The first half of the semester will focus on basic organizational, production and collaborative software such as iMovie, GarageBand, CMap, PiratePad, GIMP, Excel, PowerPoint, KeyNote and many more.

The Second half of the semester will focus on intermediate to advanced programs as well as a few “reruns” of first semester favorites. We hope to announce the final dates for these sessions by the end of September.

Additionally, we have a unique Friday series in the works that we are VERY excited about and hope to announce shortly.  Stay tuned!

Fall Series at a Glance

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