Tuesday, March 31, 2009

YouTube Edu Launches

I noticed that Cool Cat Teacher discussed the launch of YouTube Edu and was intrigued. This is what I found. YouTube launched a new section of its site March 29. The site organizes the video channels of more than 100 colleges and universities--no mention of K-12 though.



According to Andrew Leville, "YouTube Edu lets viewers sort clips by school or number of views, and the schools offer content ranging from complete courses to campus events to information for prospective students. Currently, University of Minnesota commands the top spots, with videos on the science of “Watchmen” and HIV/AIDS advancements, but there’s also “Advanced Finite Elements Analysis,” a lecture from the Indian Institutes of Technology, and a mass performance of University of Kansas’s alma mater among the most-viewed."



According to the YouTube blog, "Using YouTube as a vehicle to democratize learning is one of the coolest, unintended outcomes of its existence. YouTube EDU is a volunteer project sparked by a group of employees who wanted to find a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities."

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Tech in the Classroom

I am currently co-teaching a professional development course at FTCC called Technology in the Classroom. Roseann and I have arranged the course into modules which categorize the tools. The categories are: Communication, Collaboration, Organization/Management, Content Development, Assessment. We have found that many of the Web 2.0 tools can go under several categories.

Communication Tools


* Virtual Conferencing


o Elluminate


o Chats


o Skype


* Asynchronous Communication


o E-mail


o Blackboard Discussion Boards


* Social Networking



Collaboration Tools


* Google Groups


* Blogs


* Wikis


* Second Life



Organization/Management Tools


* Course Management Systems


o Blackboard


* RSS Feeds


o iGoogle


o Bloglines


* de.licio.us


* Flickr


* Slideshare



Content Development


* Microsoft Office


o Word


o PowerPoint


v o Excel


* Google Apps


* Learning Object Repositories


* YouTube/TeacherTube


* i3D


o Assets/Learning Objects


o Simulations


* Podcasts


* WebQuests



Assessment Tools


* Respondus


* Rubrics


* Project-Based Learning


* Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)


* Blackboard Test Manager



Our approach, in some ways, is modeled on the Learning 2.0 Program designed by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. Since its inception, over 200 libraries worldwide have launched similar programs. We have provided our teacher/learners with resources and Discovery Exercise "Assignments." Our goal is to not only introduce the technology tool but to also have instructors discuss and devise ways to incorporate/integrate the tools into their teaching methodologies.