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OLG Meeting Notes Mar 5, 2004 ...

Ocotillo Online Learning Group
Meeting Mar 5, 2004

South Mountain Community College
1:30 - 3:30 PM Room TC225 (Second Floor of Computer Commons
campus map for South Mountain

Technology Mix GeoWall, Digital Video, and hands-on access to the Chandler-Gilbert ePortfolio tool, now available on an MCLI server.

Welcome and Introductions

Sandra Wells (Phoenix College)

What's New in Online Learning at Our Campus

all participants
A round up of who's doing what (briefly!) per site represented.

• South Mountain - currently working on the Blackboard 6.0 pilot rollout. Jennifer Mansfield, an intern from ASU, has assisted them. They are exploring different third party add-ons and are looking at different hybrid models to use existing faculty.
• Estrella Mountain - is launching their first completely online course in fall of 2004. ESL classes are having students record their voices then upload through Blackboard for feedback from the instructor. They had received feedback that their hybrid courses were not detailed enough or personalized. They now have online presentations with instructors speaking.
• Chandler-Gilbert - - working with 8-9 different tools including Task Stream and Noodle Tools. They are also involved in the Blackboard Enterprise pilot. They are looking at Blackboard Building Blocks. Chris Sheppard from Blackboard will be on campus March 23, from 2-4 pm.
• Phoenix College - is offering online tutorials for adjunct faculty to learn WebCT. These were created using RoboDemo to capture screens.
• Rio Salado - is creating a new learning platform with Microsoft. Expecting a pilot version by summer with a full roll out in the Fall. Working on synchronous communication that can be filed so students can access it at a later date. Exploring tablets online that can be viewed and heard where students can ask questions.

The GeoWall

Sian Proctor (South Mountain)
Sian Proctor, geology faculty from South Mountain, gave a demonstration using the GeoWall. GeoWall is a stereo projection system that utilizes easily obtained equipment. The package costs between seven and eight thousand dollars and includes two projectors, a PC with a high-end video card, and software. The software allows you to take in images and animate them, example of rotating and image in three-dimensional space. Polarizing filters create three-dimensional images that are projected on to a screen. You can also view 3-d images on an ordinary monitor or print anaglyphs from a regular printer. It requires stereo pairs for the images it uses. They are already available on video games like Xbox and Playstation 2, which can be plugged into the GeoWall to allow users to play in 3-D. Sian believes that computers have revolutionized what we are able to do.

GeoWall emphasizes visualization in geology. Sian showed images from the Mars rover which were downloaded from the NASA website to demonstrate the capabilities of the system. Images were projected onto a screen to be viewed. Extensive work in research has been done using this technology including work on chromosomes, anatomy, and earthquakes.

South Mountain Community College is one of the first community colleges to purchase a GeoWall. The hope is that the bulk of the research being done currently will be catalogued and made available for teaching and learning.

Also for interest in Mars and 3D simulations, see Maestro, "a scaled-down version of the program that NASA scientists use to operate Spirit and Opportunity. Updates are also available for Maestro that contain real data from Mars that you can add to your copy of Maestro."

Stimulating Library Research with Digital Video

Alisa Cooper (South Mountain)
Alisa Cooper, English faculty from South Mountain, shared her use of digital video from her ENG 102 class.
http://homepage.mac.com/professorcooper/ENG102/iMovieTheater30.html

Using free or inexpensive software, including HyperCam, a program that costs $30, Alisa developed instructional videos for her hybrid course. Alisa used money from a summer grant to develop the videos, which walked students through the process of researching information in the library. The videos were burned to CD and range from four to seven minutes in length. The CDs are distributed to students in AlisaÕs ENG 102 course. The videos teach students how to use the library. They begin in class at the library homepage.

Alisa uses HyperCam to capture screen images. HyperCam follows change display resolution and the screen area can be defined. The image can then be resized. The videos play back as QuickTime files. Students find the visual cues very helpful. Alisa can refer students to the videos if they need clarification in class. Alisa had originally used Microsoft Producer and a PC to create the videos but found it to be too complicated and switched to a Mac and iMovie. She can save in multiple formats, high quality, streaming quality, and CD quality.

Break!

all
Enjoy some snacks while networking.

Hands on: Chandler-Gilbert ePortfolio @ MCLI

Alan Levine (mcli)
Alan Levine gave a demonstration of the new ePortfolio system designed by Audree Thurman from Chandler-Gilbert Community College (see the original myEport at Chandler-Gilbert). The system has been loaded onto a server at the MCLI and is now available for faculty to begin using.

Accounts were created for participants of today's meting. The group started with the home page where they put in a brief description of themselves. Participants do not have to use HTML, although it is supported. To upload formated documents, users can create a Word document with the picture embedded in it and save as an HTML.

Although they should not take the place of BlackBoard, ePortfolios can be linked to it. Alan shared the example of "Biff Cantrell" and his ePortfolio. Examples of faculty and student ePortfolios from Chandler-Gilbert were shown as well.

Two more examples can be seen at:

• Alan's ePortfolio
• Audree's ePortfolio

Participants were asked to follow the link to Configure their ePortfolio and enter in one of the text fields under Group names, "OLG" or indicating that everyone today is part of the OLG eportfolio group. Then, Alan demosntrated how this can be used on the fron of the site to see a list of all ePortfolios in a group. This could be groups by project, department, class, etc. By default, each person is entered into a group according to the college they select from the drop down menu in the Configure screen, so any college name can be entere in the group search field to see all ePortfolios from that college.

A question was asked if comments on the blog pages are public. If the author chooses to make them public, they can be. Electronic Portfolios can be used by faculty and students. Faculty should become familiar with the use of the tool before making it available to their students.

As part of the new structure for Ocotillo next year, there will be an ongoing active working group that will focus on the uses of electronic portfolios, so you can expect more opportunities to experiment with this and perhaps other systems.

To get started, see the guide in this new MLX Package:

Maricppa ePortfolio
A description of the tool as well as a 3 page guide to creating, accessing accounts and creating basic portfolio pages.

Or visit the new site at:
http://eport.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/

Problem-Solving Corner

all
No problems were discussed in the problem solving corner.

Door Prizes

all
Stick around to see if you win one of the prizes (you must register on the sign in sheet and be present to win).

The prizes for this meeting include:

• Michelle Traveler won a copy of "Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace" by Rena Paloff and Keith Pratt (speakers for the October 23 and 24, 2003 Dialogue Day on "Teaching Hybrid Courses"
• David Fraedrich won Things That Make Us Smart - Definding Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine by Donald A. Norman
• Tom Foster won a copy of the book Macromedia Studio MX 2004 Step-by-Step "projects for Macromedia Flash MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, and Freehand MX"
• Amy MacPherson, representing the CTL at South Mountain Community College won the Olympus C2040 Digital Camera (2.1 Megapixel, USB connection to computer) - a fine digital camera used for 3 years at MCLI.

We will again make use of the prize patrol tool! The newest version now will not repeat chosen numbers.

OLG Prize Patrol
by Alan Levine
Get the .swf file to use for yourself or the original Flash MX file to see how it is done.

Next Meeting...

April 2, 2004 at Glendale.