Tag Archives: Instructional Technology

Instructional Technology, Reading Materials

Reading Materials: Teaching With Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart

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Trying something new here… I haven’t found the perfect way to post articles on my blog. I’ve tried holding them until I make a post of my own on the topic (which doesn’t always happen in a timely fashion), and I’ve tried adding them to my blogroll (which people won’t see if they subscribe, and won’t come up in a search, and isn’t part of my tags/categories).

In any case, I read an interesting article about using Twitter for teaching, the pros and cons to giving students an open (and anonymous) forum during class. A very interesting read, and another look at using a social tool for educational purposes.

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Teaching With Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart

Enjoy!

Events, Instructional Technology

EVENT: Teaching and Learning Uses for Social Networking Technologies

A little while ago, I tuned in for 3 of the speakers in this event, and found them all to be very different even though they share a theme (educational uses for social networking technologies). I’ll include my notes from each speaker below, so you can get an idea about the type of projects discussed. You can find the description of each session on the event website.

Some interesting points that I found in all three presentations:

  • You have to integrate the technology into the teaching and learning. It can’t just be added on top of an old learning structure, and expect the students to engage with it. Things have to be properly planned out and executed to the best of your ability!
  • With these ‘social’ technologies, the students are a part of the process, not just a casual observer. You may not want to give them the power to veto your use of certain features, but it can be useful for them to feel included – especially when the technology doesn’t work the way you were expecting. Their input and feedback is as important as yours (maybe MORE because they are supposed to be getting an education out of it!).
  • Choose solutions that utilize interfaces most users are already familiar with. Getting “past” the technology is often one of the hurdles to having an engaged group.

(My notes on each speaker below)

Continue reading EVENT: Teaching and Learning Uses for Social Networking Technologies →

Events, Instructional Technology, mLearning, Personal Technology

EVENT: Adobe MAX

I didn’t catch all of the keynote today, but there was one big announcement that I wanted to repost here.

Flash01Flash CS5 will include the ability to develop iPhone Applications using Action Script 3.

This is one of those announcements that is both positive and yet a little disappointing. Let’s start with the good stuff — Flash can be a great tool for developing interactive applications delivered online. We’ve all seen examples of Flash at work, with things ranging from online games to animations to video sites like Youtube. People with a creative mind can take Flash really far! Now Flash developers can create iPhone Applications that can be delivered via the Apple iTunes Store (or iPhone developers can use Flash to develop… either way). Sounds great!

Apple and Adobe have not been playing well together when it comes to Flash on iPhones. I’m not pointing any fingers, but I know that I want to pull my hair out every time I have trouble accessing a site on an iPhone because it uses Flash. The hair-pulling will continue, unfortunately, because they have not agreed to permit in-browser Flash support for the iPhone.

Regardless, it is a good first step — now I hope they can take it all the way home!

Some Links:

Now to find out about Connect Pro on the iPhone…. saw a tweet about this (#adobemax #adobemaxgs on Twitter) and didn’t catch it in the keynote. This would be a really great addition!

I hope I have some time to tune in to the sessions tomorrow… it’s always good to keep up on this stuff!