Flexknowlogy - Jared Stein » presentations

Notes on McDonald’s TTIX10 Pres, “Resisting Technological Gravity”

Jared Stein — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:45:38 +0000

I’ve read Jason’s paper on the topic of technological gravity, and I’ve heard him guest lecture in Stephen Yanchar’s learning theories course at BYU, so I thought I knew what to expect from Jason’s TTIX 2010 session. Jason’s pres was both pleasantly divergent and more expansive, and both his slides and his presentation style–which paced his own personal experiences between anecdotes and examples–complemented the content. Here are some rough notes from his session:

Jason McDonald’s “Resisting Tech. Gravity” begins with Pixar anecdote: redefining one’s self with a singular committment to quality. #ttix10

Film (story) needs real risk. Woodie’s dilemma in Toy Story 2 is complicated and made real by introduction of Jessie.

Resisting Technological Gravity

“I became an ID because I wanted to find the depth, robustness, and will … necessary to create educational magic.”

Jason tells how his early experiences as an ID reflect educational activities as ends in themselves rather than a means to an end. Posting notes online, uploading powerpoints, fitting content into a template, etc.

How do we get beneath the surface? How do we innovate? How do we resist pressures that lead to mediocrity? “You still can change the world!”

The ideal ID isn’t one who follows the rules, but who breaks them.

Wishing all my staff were in this session…

1. What instruction is.

Instruction as story telling. (JMS: For greater authenticity, with learners as actors.)

Instruction as conversation. If you were asked to explain something to a friend, what would you do? Would you establish objectives? Would you employ a standardized tool? How would you asses? Would you play to their strengths? How much do you care about that person learning? (JMS: Implies power of 1-1, which, as Bloom lamented, is untenable in Education.

2. How instruction is made.

(JMS: Can I do this vs I can do this)

Instruction as chess; “everything depends on the situation and the skill available” embrace innovation and risk more than step-by-step decisions.

Engage the “Creative Spirit of Design”

Do we fall victim to instructinal design processes & formulae (JMS: rather than maintain our proper role of master of our tools)?

(JMS: Great looking slides–simple, visual, avg 1 word per slide as I like it, solid pacing with narratives. This is no paper pres [which I sort of expected, and would have been enough]!)

3. What instruction is for.
Jason’s principles:
How can I help people discover joy and wonder in the world?
How can I help people express passion re. discoveries?

Don’t see ourselves as technologists just as doctors don’t. Tools, tools, tools.

Lecture is most maligned form of instruction, and yet Randy Posh has reached more than 70 million viewers re YouTube with 76 minute lecture. This “instructional experience” was a life-changing experience; “instructor” gave “students” a new way of seeing the world in 76 minutes.

(JMS: How long until Steve Jobs is recognized as the new Bill Gates? To me he’s all too similar in the end.) Jobs to Pepsi guy: “Do you want to sell sugar water? Or do you want to change the world?”

Video: Moodle 1.9.5 Overview for UEN

Jared Stein — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:22:43 +0000

I conducted a 1hr demonstration of the open source learning management system Moodle 1.9.5 for higher ed folks in Utah and the Utah Education Network. The demo went well enough, and I hope some of my colleagues from around the State got a little taste of Moodle, especially as it compares to Blackboard/WebCT Vista. UEN facilitated this presentation to State participants via Wimba; I simultaneously streamed the session via Ustream using WebCamMax and recorded it for anyone who is interested: Moodle 1.9.5 Overview on Ustream.

As I reviewed the video I noticed I had made a handful of mis-statements that I should correct here:

Martin Dougiamas is from Australia, not New Zealand.
The book I reference at the beginning as inspiring me to rethink Moodle was Jason Cole’s “Using Moodle”
Our Banner system talks to Moodle via a Luminus Message Broker plug-in, not LDAP (we use LDAP for WordPress MU)
When I talk about adaptive quizzing, I meant to refer to educational research on web-based/hypermedia learning from the last decade or so.
Though the Workshop tool has been dropped from Moodle 2.0, its functionality will not be replaced in the Assignment tool–instead a new Workshop tool is in development for 2.0

Select Pres Decks Uploaded to SlideShare

Jared Stein — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:36:53 +0000

This week I’ve decided to give SlideShare.net a go, and have now posted a half-dozen slide decks from different presentations over the past few years, all CC-licensed.

I must admit: now that I’ve shared, I have to worry if every image was properly credited, and the occasional borrowed slide attributed to the original lender. May the open web forgive us our sins of omission!

Stream Conference Pres with WebCamMax and Ustream

Jared Stein — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:37:31 +0000

I’ve got to take a minute to plug the software WebCamMax ($50), which lets you alter your (Windows) computer’s webcam input. I used it this week to facilitate quality, DIY streaming and recording of two WCET09 presentations using a laptop (with distinct graphics card), a lavalier mic ($50-$500) and Ustream (free). Here’s how it worked:

Prior to the session, run WebCamMax on the presenter’s laptop and under Source > Main Source choose “Screen” as the primary source.
If you want to have a picture-in-picture (for example, of the laptop’s integrated webcam), you can choose a secondary input under Source > PinP Source 1.
Minimize WebCamMax.
For a mic set up, I used a production-quality wireless lavalier mic from Sony (thanks to Adam and Scott), but really any mic will do. Instead of an XLR output from the receiver I used a simple male-male stereo mini cord, plugging the other end into the laptop’s mic port.
Then, I simply login to Ustream and initialize the broadcast.
I make sure that Ustream is using WebCamMax for the video source, and the external mic as the audio source. Don’t forget to test the audio levels!
Hit Begin Stream and Begin Recording, minimize the ustream window, and you’re off to the races.

The ustream broadcast will capture whatever activity happens on your computer, whether that’s a PowerPoint presentation, computer application, or web browsing–similar to Jing or Camtasia. Loaner mic aside, this was a very inexpensive, portable solution that turned out better results for computer-based presentations than most ustreams from a tripod-mounted camera, which only capture the projector screen.

Slides, Video from WCET09

Jared Stein — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:44:24 +0000

I traveled to Denver this week for WCET 2009, and though I was sunk with a cold on the second day, so far I’ve enjoyed participating in the conference, and, as always, have found the Twitter backchannel (#wcet09) a great way to connect with more ideas, and more people.

On Thursday I shared an hour with Terri Rowenhorst of NROC introducing folks at WCET 2009 to open education and some of the ideas and directions orbiting around it. Mine was just a half-hour pres, and didn’t get into some of the meatier bits that interest me; nonetheless the slides and video may be of interest:

You may have already heard some of the Twitter buzz about Chris Lott’s presentation, “Closing the Gutenberg Parenthesis”, so here are links to his slides, video, and wiki:

Chris let me moderate this session, and it was exciting to monitor the backchannels on Twitter and ustream for questions, ideas, or challenges that I could interrupt him with. As always, Chris did a fabulous job presenting a continual stream of rich ideas on technology and learning. I must admit I may have underestimated both Chris and the WCET audience prior to the session; both seemed quite comfortable with complex and provocative notions embedded in our connected culture and interplaying with Ong’s concept of a “secondary orality”.

Plug: Ignite Salt Lake 2

Jared Stein — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:45:23 +0000

Ignite Salt Lake 2, “a community event celebrating the passion and creativity of geek culture” that sounds quite a bit like pecha kucha, is happening March 26th, 2009 at Brewvies Cinema Pub in Salt Lake City, Utah (677 South 200 West).

I didn’t go to Ignite 1, but a 2-hour series of 5-minute presentations (20 slides or less) sounds like the best-ever format for a geek get-together.

Question: will Brewvies’ grill be open for business?

DT&L08: The Cheatability Factor

Jared Stein — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:56:46 +0000

On Friday, August 8 2008 I presented at Distance Teaching and Learning 2008 with Marc Hugentobler and John Krutsch. I’ve posted the the slides and the rubric from that session as the page, “The Cheatability Factor”.

Presentation Slides

cheatability_factor.ppt

For this session I added several slides that illustrate my gut reaction to a number of the new technologically-based approaches to inhibit cheating in assessments which I hope you will find amusing.

We had a lively and interactive discussion of the problem of cheating in online courses, and possible approaches to inhibit it. We took one participant through our cheatbility rubric explaining criteria and concepts along the way.

For the first time John administered Buzzword Bingo live in-session with bingo cards printed with key terms from our presentation. We did this not (only) as a self-deprecating joke, but as a means of focusing participant attention on the presenters and the dialog. I believe at least 6 participants scored a prize during this session while playing Buzzword Bingo, though John and Marc had to coax more than one participant to simply shout out BINGO instead of raising their hands!

MoodleMoot Presentation: OER, OCW, & the Open Mod

Jared Stein — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:14:35 +0000

Today I am presenting at the SFo MoodleMoot on how Moodle can be used to deliver Open Educational Resources, especially through our modification of Moodle, the Open Meta Mod.

Presentation slides are now available and you are welcome to participate in the backchannel through the chat window provided below.

Presentation Slides

openmod.ppt

Web Sites Referenced

P.S. After my presentation was over, I came back to my hotel to find this bus in the parking lot. It’s nothing less than a sign for a questioning open education convert.

Presenting OER Mod at MoodleMoot San Francisco

Jared Stein — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:06:34 +0000

It looks like I’ll be presenting at the 2008 MoodleMoot San Francisco, June 9 – 11, 2008 South San Francisco Conference Center on our Open Mod for sharing open educational resources. I’ll be dragging Kenneth Woodward along to explain the technical facets of the mod, and to delve into the community of Moodle developers.

Of course, prior to the conference Ken and I will have to work pretty aggressively with Clark Nielsen and John Krutsch to ensure that the mod’s features and functionalities are stable and presentable.

Coming This Summer to a Conference Near You: The Cheatability Factor

Jared Stein — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:21:51 +0000

Marc Hugentobler, John Krutsch, and I will be presenting our online cheating sessions a couple times this summer, and would like to welcome everyone to attend:

The Cheatability Factor at Distance Teaching and Learning 2008, Madison, Wisconsin
How to Cheat Online & The Cheatability Factor at Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2008, Orem, Utah

Here are some details, reproduced from the proposals:

Promotional Summary

What is your online course’s “cheatability factor”? 75% of students have admitted to cheating during their college career, and according to some studies online assessment makes cheating easier. This session considers technical, philosophical, and environmental factors that may increase or decrease the cheatability of online courses from design to delivery, and presents a rubric used to assess those factors.

Objectives and Description

Presentation objectives:

Participants will..

Discover the extent to which cheating-related problems exist in online education and online-based assessments
Consider factors that may contribute technologically, philosophically, or environmentally to online cheating
Examine a rubric used to measure the “cheatability” of online course
Discuss practices and strategies to avoid or minimize the impact of cheating

Presentation description:

Nobody wants students cheating in their online class, yet an estimated 75% of students have admitted to cheating during their college career, and according to some studies online assessment makes cheating easier. The problem is not only one of practical importance for educators, it is one of growing importance to instructional technologists, administrators, and anyone else with a vested interest in the validity and reputation of distance education and technology-enhanced teaching.

This session will first present information and collected research data that summarizes the state of cheating in higher education in general, and in distance education specifically. While a general awareness of the pervasiveness of cheating may be in and of itself an eye-opener to many educators and administrators, the motivations behind cheating and the responsibility teachers have to recognize their own influence on cheating can provide an alternative perspective on what is normally considered a quite simple choice. McClusky’s theory of Power-Load-Margin, for instance, informs teachers of the impact they may have on students’ lives, and the impact students’ lives have on their studies, both of which can lead students to choose to cheat. A number of environmental factors are particularly salient in online courses, such as ambiguity of definitions of cheating, actual or perceptual “distance”, level of instructor-student interaction, individual relevance or meaningfulness of activities and assessments, etc. Additionally, there are a number of more technical and technological factors that can increase or decrease both a student’s propensity to cheat, and his/her ability to cheat.

By considering these technical, methodological, and environmental factors, Distance Education at Utah Valley University has developed a rubric to assess online courses and report on potential factors that may increase or decrease the cheatability of online courses from design to delivery. This rubric is (1) provided to teachers engaging in distance education course development or instruction, (2) made available to administrators and department chairs as an example of our mutual interest in preserving the integrity of online education, and (3) implemented internally as a tool in our course design process to better evaluate and recommend online assessments before, during, and after an online course is delivered.

Because cheating itself is a complex and sensitive issue informed by experience and diverse perspectives, this session seeks to engage participants in a dialogue on cheating, online assessments, and technology. We predict there will be naturally flowing discussion and debate between participants who may favor one approach over another, e.g. a “direct assault” approach which seeks to thwart any and all attempts at cheating using technology or applied strategies, vs. “hearts and minds” pedagogical approaches that focus on course environment, assessment design, and student engagement.